The conditions we had to deal with today! Today marked the first official start of the 2,000km detour we are required to take back to Bangkok to ship the car on to India. Having decided to bite the bullet and try get to Thailand as quick as possible we were up early and greeted by balmy sub zero winds and a solid foot of snow on the Hummer. For a day we had already anticipated would be a shocker it wasn’t the nicest of starts. The snow had been particularly heavy the previous night and all the roads were thoroughly snowed under and without chains on the wheels this meant a slow start.
After a breakfast in what has become our local hangout in Shangri-La (Noah’s Cafe) and some necessary phone calls on Dave’s behalf to the shipping company in Bangkok, we hit the road on what would be a 7 hour drive in terrible conditions. As the drive progressed the weather deteriorated further, and in near blizzard conditions we experienced our first real scare in the car, the Hummer hitting a large icy patch on the road and spinning 180 degrees out of control, saved only by the thick walls of snow surrounding the road side from what would have been a steep fall into a ditch. With the near disaster successfully avoided Dave, Finto and Chuck went to work digging the car from the snowy embankment while Rhys, still feeling below average, slept through the whole ordeal, ignorant to the incident which could have meant the end of the entire journey. Needless to say the guys got the car free and continued on. Relief came as the snow eased up with our descent towards sea level.
Despite the improvement in weather and temperature (albeit only slightly) there was definitely no improvement in the quality of roads nor the quality of the drivers on the roads out of Shangri la. Our opinion of Chinese roads being the worst any of us have ever experienced was only further reinforced by a long day at speeds significantly lower than would otherwise be acceptable. The 350 km drive was dragged out to almost 8 hours thanks to the conditions and we arrived late in Dali. We again returned to Cafe De Jack, the place where we had stopped for lunch on the way through and were warmly greeted by the staff who remembered us from but a few days earlier. Recounting our new dilemma and having a late night dinner we enjoyed the light hearted conversation with the friendly locals of a town we all agree is a gem relative to others in this part of the world.
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