12. 4 Oct - 29 Oct 2011 - South through Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces, China.

We were wrong to think that we had left Tibet when we entered Sichuan Province. A line on a map means nothing and Western Sichuan seemed more Tibetan than Tibet.

Beautiful mountains and rivers, with even more chortens beside the road, and so many prayer flags, much bigger than we had previously seen, and also large rocks along the river made into mani stones with prayers engraved and painted on them. Before entering Sichuan, we had our last high altitude pass in Tibet to negotiate, with large trucks wanting the giant share of the narrow roads which had become slushy above the snowline. At 4452 metres we thought this may have been the very last pass, but the next day in Sichuan, we had to cross the San Mountains, and Mt Chola Pass was 4924 metres! Completely snow-covered and an absolutely beautiful day with magnificent views, but we were still looking forward to following the downward direction of streams and rivers, and no more breathlessness and oxygen canisters. But we still had one more freezing campsite ahead, at minus 3.4 degrees outside, and our Webasto heater still not working. In fact it hasn't worked since our second day in Tibet, which has been very frustrating!

Our first town in Sichuan was Dege, squashed between the rocky walls of a narrow valley with a fast flowing river racing through the middle. The monastery here is Western Sichuan's main attraction, and it's easy to understand why. It houses the Bakong Scripture Printing Press and Monastery, which still uses traditional woodblock printing methods and contains 70% of Tibet's literary heritage. Apparently there are more than 217,000 engraved blocks of Tibetan scriptures here from all the Tibetan Buddhist orders and they include ancient works about astronomy, geography, music, medicine and Buddhist classics. Had we really left Tibet? There is also a history of Indian Buddhism comprising 555 woodblock plates, and it is the only surviving copy in the world. Dozens of workers at this monastery hand-produce 2500 prints to order each day.

The roads in Western Sichuan were appalling, so our travelling companion trucks were bumping along at 10-20 kph, which was excruciatingly slow. We had enjoyed Tibet so much, but at one stage we felt it was lingering on, so we were looking forward to some contemporary Chinese cities and some hustle and bustle again. Travelling in vehicles at any speed, however, does allow an observation of gradual changes in culture and life style - a joining of the dots so to speak. We passed through many interesting towns and villages, the Tibetan influence and chaos gradually diminishing, and the beautiful Tibetan painted style of decoration slowly giving way to a plainer design, and more order, with vegetables and flowers neatly in front gardens. We saw changes in dress, especially for the women, who initially wore more decoration in their hair, favouring turquoise, and headgear which was black and highly embroidered but square-shaped at the back. And then slowly, less decoration and then more and more western gear.

Vegetables grow on every square centimetre in China, sometimes way up on the steepest mountain slopes, or bordering every road below us and above us, in house yards, under bridges - everywhere. They really do know how to do vegetables, not only cook them but also grow them. Always neat and in perfect rows, either straight or following the slope of the land, each plant given precisely the space it needs to grow to maturity. We saw carpets of cabbages, huge plots of Chinese (or spring) onions, lettuces - all varieties of vegetables and all looking scrumptiously healthy. They are carried in the traditional baskets or buckets dangling from the over-the-shoulder poles, or behind push bike or motor bike wagons, or in baskets balanced behind the bikes or strapped to their backs and walking along the road, and also in pony or donkey carts or trucks. And there are always people working the soil with hoes, bending over in the plots tending carefully to their plants. Vegetables are fantastic in China.

Some of our food experiences were marginal, with hot, hot chillies, a feature of Sichuan food, which we eventually were trying to avoid. But other food experiences were fabulous. We had Peking Duck in Chengdu, and in the city of Kunming in Yunnan Province, the seven of us went out and tried the Province's best known dish called 'Across-the-bridge-noodles', named after a woman married to an imperial scholar who studied on an isolated island. Every day she tried to create interesting hot meals for him and carried them across the bridge. The restaurant provides a bowl of very hot soup, made from chicken, duck or spare ribs, and on side plates they supply thin slivers of pork, vegetables and a raw egg, and a bowl of rice noodles. All the ingredients must be placed quickly into the soup bowl where they are cooked by the steamy broth. We thought it was delicious! On another evening the two of us went out for dinner with Ping. It was in a small lakeside town called Luchong, also in Yunnan, and well on the way towards the Chinese/Laos border. Ping often goes into the kitchen and inspects the vegetables and meat, which are usually on display. She felt like having chicken - fresh chicken she said - rather than what we thought looked like tired, immobile fish in suspect-looking tanks. So we were happy. But I must say very surprised when shortly afterwards there was Ping with the cook while a live chicken was held upside down by the feet and weighed on scales. Yes, that was our dinner! And quite tasty too, especially after a couple of beers while we waited.

Interestingly, we drove through Wenchuan in Sichuan Province where on 12 May 2008 a massive earthquake killed 88,000 people, many of whom were children in schools. We could see roads and rivers that had been covered by huge landslides, bridges still standing but broken alongside the roads and bridges that were immediately re-built, and are being replaced yet again. The quake lasted 2 minutes and near the epicentre the ground shifted 10 metres. Whole villages were buried. But of course, life goes on.

Dujiangyan was our first big city in Sichuan, a fabulously interesting place, with two gushing rivers racing through the middle which we later found out were part of the ancient Dujiangyan Irrigation Project, conceived in the 3rd Century BC. Clever Chinese engineers way back then successfully tamed the fast flowing Min River, diverting it into a man-made river which splits into two, rushing through the city, and later is diverted into 16 separate courses to take irrigation water down to Chengdu. They had to move a mountain to make the man-made river, cleverly burning vegetation to heat the rock which then shattered from the icy water of the river. It took 8 years, all carried by hand, with no explosives or machinery. Meanwhile the natural river flows on, eventually emptying into the mighty Yangtze River. They also successfully controlled the flow of this natural river to prevent floods downstream. The engineering knowledge they possessed so long ago was astounding.

Eighteen kilometres north of Chengdu, we visited the Grand Panda Breeding Research Base, a fabulous complex stretched over 100 hectares, It has numerous areas for the Panda in a natural environment, as well as Panda nurseries, veterinary hospitals, gardens, a restaurant and cafe. Much of the bamboo for the Pandas is grown at the research centre. Seeing a Panda so close was incredibly exciting, not to mention the little Panda babies in their huge square cot, fast asleep in the nursery. We spent the whole morning wandering around looking for more Pandas, and even saw the racoon-like Red Pandas.

An Irish pub called the Shamrock, owned by an Australian, in the Chinese city of Chengdu, was our venue for watching the World Cup's France vs Wales match on the Saturday, and the Aus vs NZ match on the Sunday. Maggie, who is Irish and a passionate Rugby follower, found it on the internet and booked a table for four. Turned out there was a huge ex-pat population in Chengdu, and each and every one of them was at the Shamrock - both days!! Gavin from New Zealand, who has worked in Chengdu for 18 years, was very generous, looking after us all with a table near the screen and endless drinks on both days. A sole French supporter, Jean, managed to keep his great sense of humour amongst a huge crowd of Welsh supporters on the Saturday - and had the last laugh of course. And we had to keep our sense of humour on the Sunday! All great fun.

But travelling can make it hard to keep up with what's happening in the world, and in Kunming, in Yunnan Province the following weekend, Maggie had found yet another Sports Bar for us to watch the semi-final between Australia and Wales. When we walked into the bar to find it completely empty with Chinese weightlifting on the TV screen, we felt eventually phoning for help, only to be told that the match had been yesterday!! And that Australia had won!! We caught the final the next day though, this time the bar full of French ex-pats, so the few of us urging the All Blacks on felt rather conspicuous.

We really enjoy the cities, and just observing everyday life. In Dujiangyan, we wandered around the restaurant area bordering one of the rushing rivers all lit up with green lights, to find all manner of live produce destined for the dinner plate - rabbits, chickens, fish, shellfish, and eels all on display outside every restaurant. We were camped not far away further down the river in an unused section of a park, and woke up the next morning to the chatter of people and the music of taichi, which is very popular in all the parks in China.

In Leshan, our last city in Sichuan, walking home after dinner we watched a crowd of harmonious singers in the park on the river bank, led by a conductor in front of an overhead projector screening the words (in Chinese characters so no sing-a-long for us). That day we had taken a short boat ride to see the Grand Buddha carved into a cliff face at the junction of two major rivers, started by a Buddhist Monk in AD713 who hoped it would calm the waters. Ninety years after his death, the Grand Buddha was completed, 71 metres tall and very impressive. Kunming, our World Cup Final city, was also where we went to the theatre one night. An unbelievably wonderful show called 'Dynamic Yunnan', a native song and dance medley which was contemporary dance on traditional themes. It was superb, and an incredible experience sitting in the fifth row in the midst of a mainly Chinese audience.

We are now well and truly on the last leg, in Yunnan Province, south of Kunming, south of Luchong in a city called Simao, and well on the way to the China / Laos border. We are very concerned for the people of Bangkok coping with appalling floods, and somewhat apprehensive of how all the water will affect our drive south. But as we get closer, we will no doubt get more up to date information.

China has been incredible, and so friendly. Here we are camped not far from a school, and as we walk past as they are hopping on their bicycles or scooters, they love to say 'hello', so we reply 'Nihau' and they laugh, and many have then said 'Welcome to China'! And Ping has been the most superb guide, we are all so fond of her, and she has given us such an insight into a country we definitely feel we would like to visit again.