Douglas Choong a legend in SE Asian overland motoring, is the secretary of the Royal Perak Motor Club and arranges many such expeditions through the Club
(A personal perspective)
"Are you nuts?" my brother larnented, over the cell phone.
'I guess you would have to be, to do this kind of thing," said l, over the din and noise at the Singapore Bus Express Station to lpoh.
"So when will you be back?" he asked.
"Should be back in about three weeks ... Hey, can't talk now. the bus is moving off," I yelled back.
And so I began my trip to Deqing (180 km from the, Tibetan border) by road, My good friend, the affable Douglas Choong who is the secretary of the Royal Perak Motor Club had invited me to join him on an overland expedition to North West China, the drive beginning from lpoh. The entire route from Ipoh to Deqing and back was about 9,300km and would take approximately a month, but due to work commitments, I could only afford three weeks vacation time and so sadly, l had to break journey leave my friends at Dali and return on my own.
The adventure began on a cool Ipoh morning when Douglas picked me up at 5.30am, "Sorry for not letting you sleep more, but everyone has to be at Bukit Kaytt Hitani at 10.30am". Douglas apologised.
True to his word, the assembly of 4x4 wheelers were all there, on the dot. My main duty on this tour was a D.A.D. (Driver Awakening Device). All I had to do was feed my driver with candy, chewing gum, polo mints, water, etc. The first stop was at Surat Thani, Thailand.... 690kms from lpoh. We rolled after immigration and custom clearance and the drive upcountry was exhilarating, to say the least, The publicity slogan - Amazing Thailand" was correct. It was amazing. Thailand impressed me with her wonderful, clean and very well maintained highways. What made the drive all the more pleasurable was the presence of police escorts, who really made things so much easier. Their friendliness and skill in maneuvering fifteen 4x4s in town traffic must be seen to he believed.
Day two began with the longest drive segment of the trlp. We had to cover 730km from Surat Thani to Ayutthaya in a day, with lunch and stops thrown in. There was not a single grumble from anyone, what with good roads, camaraderie, great weather, fantastic food, jokes over the walkie talkies. Our last night in Thailand was spent at Nong Khai, a scenic border town. The following morning saw us crossing the Friendship Bridge to Vientiane, Laos. The immigration, customs and other formalties were taken care of, by our Laotian guides and escorts, without a hitch. lt was truly smooth sailing. We drove through Vientiane and made Luang Prabang by nightfall. Laos is a country in transition. Despite the evident poverty, there is so much hope and strength in her people. A beautiful country indeed. Lunch was had at a rustic hide-away resort, right by the Mother of Watcrs, the 4350km Mekong River. A cosy restaurant, complete with bamboo and palm frond chalets all around. I made a mental note to return someday
Oudomaxai was just that, exotic as its name. Enroute, we stopped at small villages in the mountains and distributed food and gifts to the children. These are habitats sans electricity and running water. Attap houses built on hilly and eroded slopes offer little protection against the elements, Yet the human spirit lives on. Our 4am morning call at Oudomaxai did little to cheer us up, especially when we had to roll out almost immediately. Breakfast of two boiled eggs and slices of bread, would have to be packed and eaten on the, way.
We had to reach the Laotian border town of Boten (160km) away by late afternoon. The border station closes at 4pm daily. As incredulous as it might sound, it took us almost 5 hours to reach Boten, due to the bumpy, pot-holed hilly wet roads. Our average speed was a snail paced, mind numbing 30kph We left Laos at Boten and crossed over the Chinese border and arrived at Mohang for the usual immigration procedures. At this border town, the vehicles were washed, inspected and given Chinese registration plates. Clean as a whistle, we left for Jinghong, 200km away, with the Chinese public security bureau providing escort.
Part of the excitement of this road trip was the rare opportunity to visit and explore remote townships and villages like Simao, Mojiang and Chuxiong. Most of Yunnan province is of mountainous terrain. On one day in particular, we took 10 hours to cover 300km. But the mitigating factor was the reward or breath taking mountain scenery, deep valleys and abundantly green forests. On the road from Mojiang to Chuxiong, for example, our bones were shaken and bodies massaged by very bad, rocky and extremely dusty hilly roads which lasted for 5 hours. The altitude changed between 800 and 2000m, amidst a temperature variation of 15 degrees C, all these in a span of just 3 hours. We arrived in Chuxiong, exhausted. lungs full of dirt and dust, road-beaten, but happy.
On the ninth day, we were in Lijiang. Lijiang is fast becoming a major tourist destination, with a phenomenal rise in tourist arrivals from all over the world. As with all popular destinations, one can see the usual visitor traps. ln Lijiang old town, there are lots of souvenir shops, pizzerias, designer coffee outlets, internet cafes and music centres, Still, the 700 year old town has her charm of ancient stone houses and cobbled walks built during the Ming Dynasty. (Lijiang is listed as a Unesco World Heritage site). We made Lijiang our base for two days, branching out and visiting nearby attractions. The Yufeng Lean Lamasery Black Dragon Pool and the scenic Yulong Snow Mountain were all nearby. On our way to Zhongdian on the eleventh day, we stopped and took in the first bend of the mighty Yangtze River. It is at this point that due to geographical factors, the river changed its course and unlike the Mekong, flowed eastward towards Shanghai. If this had not happened, the Yangtze. might well have carried on southward towards perhaps Thailand. It was cold and wet in Zhongdian. It rained and the temperature was about 6 degrees C at an altitude of 3400m. We noticed too that the farm animals here wore mainly yaks, no doubt life is tough in this semi-arid rugged landscape with little agriculture. As a little side trip, we had a very interesting visit to a Tibetan family home for some cultural infusion.
Deqing, the Land of Sun mid Moon in my Heart, the fabled Shangri.-La in James Hilton's novel, The Lost Horizon, was magnificently picturesque. Enroute we stared in awe at Baimang Snow Mountain (4250m) and Mountain slopes filled with azaleas and huge rhododendron with its pink, red and white flowers. the road ,or more accurately paths, to Deqing was narrow, winding, nasty and precipitous. lt was almost. rnoonscape, with grey, khaki and brown boulders and hillets everywhere. Here the morning greeted us with a 4 degrees C and the afternoon slammed us with a 40. It had taken us 8 hours to cover a mere 18.5 kin, from Zhongdian to Deqing. The mountainous meandering road, carved out of the very torso of the mountains, was perfect landslide territory. I prayed. In Deqing, one has to be there to see with his own eyes, the humbling and wordless spectacle of dawn's curly light striking the sharp edges of the still asleep snow capped mountains kind the soft, warm, yellowish glow that accumulates dances and gathers around the peaks. Truly, Shangri-La.
If you enjoy or yearn for the open road, if you like to drive and see different sides of mountains, every bend a new view, a new piece of cloud or if you want to smell freshly picked tea leaves at Pu Er and lunch on deep fried bamboo worms at Simao, warm your soul and venture on the road northwards. As for my friend, the elderly indefatigable Douglas Choong, he has been on such road trips since a teenager, If you look closely at his feet and I mean, examine carefully ... you'd swear the man has wheels for feet.
Written by Mr. Choo Chee Ming, a participant from Singapore in the recent RPMC Friendship Overland Expedition China 2001, Shangri-La Adventure`
