Backpacking through China

Phil Pass works at a gold and copper mine located in Laos. Every year, him and his brother do a trip together and they have visited some amazing places.

This year they are back packing through China and have agreed to share their experiences with us when ever they can get the information back.

Please join with us and follow their adventures by checking the map below.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Hi Guys,

How are you all going? well I hope.

I am currently in Xi'an and leaving for Lanxzhou tonight ( 14 hrs ) in a train.
We are doing fine, didn't realise how heavy 18 kg of back pack was until you have to carry it half the day.
The weather is fine and 23 degrees today, however yesterday was cold , raining and high winds.

We are handling the food OK however my mate is having a little difficulty eating rice and dumplng soup for breakfast but he will learn.

We are doing well so far however the fun begins after Lanxzhou as we enter the remote areas where expats rarely visit. They speak no English and already we are celebrities as locals, including Monks who are celebrities themselves, come up to us and want to feel the hair on our arms.

Bit of a worry when a Monk thinks you're OK?

I will keep you updated as often as I can, I have to find an internet café an there isn't a lot of them where we are heading.

Take care, best regards, I'll give you an update further down the track

Phil

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Hi All

We are in a small Tibetin town at 9,900 ft so the air is pretty thin and knocking me about a bit. We have Yak cheese, Yak yogert, yak butter and yak milk so I will be looking forward to getting some rice instead of Yak noodles.

We leave 6am in the morning on a local bus for somewhere heading toward lower Mongolia and am not sure what happens after that as expats are a rarity in these parts. We have only seen 2 other expats other than the three Austrian guys we teamed up with as you get a better rate on buses and boats etc if there are 5 or 6 in a group.

Phil

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

I will list the towns we have visited so you van mark it on the map when anyone asks where we are.

The Chinese food is nothing like we are used to as it has a Mongolian and Muslim taste to it, no rice only wheat noodles and a lot of lamb no pork and little beef. They eat a lot of goat and dog as well as camel as we are in the Gobi Desert. It rarely rains here so they rely on the melting snow to fill the underground springs.

We flew into Beijing then took a train to Xi'an which was the easy part. Xian is where the Silk Road traders started from when they headed west. We took trains, local buses, local minivans and long haul buses to get from town to town. Every thing here is crowded and they pack them in on the buses and trains, first in - best dressed.

It has been quite an experience to be stuck in the middle of 50 local farmers on a 12 hour bus trip with everyone smoking, no air-conditioning and all the windows closed because it is freezing outside.

A few major places we have been, I have left off the small out of the way places.

Xi'an - Lanzhou - Jiayuguan - Hani - Turpan ( The hottest city in China) - and Urumqi.

We leave for Kashgar at midday tomorrow Thursday 14th, it will take us 24 hours by local bus and train. We will have a couple of days in Kashgar to rest up before crossing the mountains into Pakistan.

We decided not to go through Kyrgyzstan as it would take too long to get a visa and there is a bit of trouble brewing there so our next stop will be over the mountains to Pakistan then to Kashmir and India.

Hope all goes well with you and the crew, I'll be back on email in a couple of days so talk to you then.

Fondest regards to all.

Phil

Monday, September 25, 2006

I am now in Amrister, about 30k indside the Indian border from Pakistan.

We have crossed China from East to West and reached Kashgar.

We then crossed from China into Pakistan over the Korakhan Highway which was spectacular scenery as we crossed the Himalaya Mountains at 6,000 meters.

We stayed in the Hunza Valley for a few days then went to Islamabad, Pershawar and the Kyber Pass. They are crazy there and all carry guns, there is a murder there daily so we were not very sorry about moving on.

We then travelled from Islamabad to Lahore and crossed the border into India.

Phil

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Hi all

We are currently in the desert in western India at a place called Bikinar and tomorrow we will take a local bus to Jaiclamere, still in the desert.

All is going well and so far we are on schedule to be back on site as scheduled.

I am unable to down load any photos as the internet cafe here does not have my program, just a basic computer.

Say hello to everyone for me and see you in about 12 days.

Best Regards


Phil