Aksu to Bayingol

Day 42 389 km ( 12771 km total)

Another long haul on the expressway.

- - -

I must say I am not really enjoying China, so far.

Sure there are good moments, like the dramatic views across vast landscapes, or the friendly old lady I met in a local shop last night whilst buying some water, she spoke no English but was happily chatting away to me for 15 minutes as if I was a long lost friend. The overriding feeling from this part of my journey however, is of a daily grind, with no real purpose other than covering distance & getting closer to South East Asia.

At this point, if you were to ask me to reccomend a route from Europe to Thailand, I would say 'avoid China you are wasting time and money'.

That is a hell of a negative statement to put out there and makes me feel very guilty, so let me qualify it somewhat.

It has nothing to do with the country, which is full of geographical contrasts and superlatives. Nor is it to do with its pepole, who are as varied and interesting as any other nation. My negativity stems from the manner of crossing, of which, unfortunately, I have little option.

Chinese regulations demand that foreigners travelling in their own vehicles are escorted by an approved guide along a pre- approved route, and such approvals are limited to selected areas. There are one or two reports, amongst traveler circles, of ways of doing it independently, but this is vary rare, complex & requires an open ended schedule. So the vast majority need to engage a tour company to arrange their crossing & pay accordingly, which is what we all did.

Those of you who know me well will appreciate that I like a degree of control over what's going in in any situation, especially at the strategic & tactical levels. This is very difficult when working with a tour company.

I did some months ago convince the UK agent to plan a different route, taking in Tibet, but a couple of weeks ago the government cancelled the permits due to landslides & severe weather on that route.

So the upshot is I am travelling along a route I didnt want to go on at a pace that leaves little time to explore anywhere, staying in characterless 3* 'business' hotels and with enough restrictions in place to ensure that we see little of the 'real' china.

Such a stark contrast to the rest of my journey.

Anyway moan over, I hope to have my view changed as we traverse this huge country - so what of todays trip?

Not a lot so say really, back onto the expressway with mountains on the left,

and desert on the right.

And the occasional sign to remind you not to fall asleep

- see even the planners knew this would be a boring road!

A slight diversion was provided at a fuel stop at a services area .... Bit more real life here...

Russ decided to try and fix his troublesome starter - and immediately attracted a gaggle of willing helpers.

If you get close enough you can just here him muttering under his breath 'just leave me alone, will you!'

Then it was back to ......

.... Mountains on the left & desert on the right for a few more hours.

A final bike shot to show that the landscape is actually quite attractive, it just goes on a bit!