China Road Trip - Bye Bye Calypso

Taking the truck all the way through China was always going to be a challenge - it was finally the weather that prompted the decision to leave Calypso behind.
Severe flooding, landslides and bridges being washed away has meant that Pete will have to take the truck to Kathmandu when he has renewed some permits and will then catch up with us as soon as possible. The rest of us flew to Chengdu and will then use other forms of transport to reach the China-Laos border.
To be able to drive the truck in China Pete and Kirsten had to obtain Chinese driving licences - the test seemed to be comprised of reading a comic - anyone think of suitable captions for these cartoons?

Spending a total of 5 weeks in China has meant that we have stopped in many towns and eaten in a variety of restaurants - sometimes we are not quite sure what we have ordered!  Maggs and one of the few things that she has ordered that has not contained offal.

 At a restaurant in Gyantse (with a very friendly chef)

 

Ben's very good meat pie in Kashgar, and one of Maggs' unidentifiable dinners..

This is what we ended up with one night - can you see the chickens head?

In Golmud some friendly locals came to our rescue and helped us order - we ended up with a fish hot-pot.

One of the groups favourite places to eat and drink - the Dunya bar in Lhasa.

Sometimes we have had to make meals on the go - this was the breakfast set up one day when we set out very early.

 

After all that eating there has been plenty of time for sleeping.

 

For the last month we have also had plenty of opportunity to try out chinese snacks purchased in service stations. A few words of advice:
Chili peanuts contain significantly more chili than peanut.
If it says strawberry ON the packet it is most definitely not strawberry IN the packet.
All biscuits - regardless of branding/packaging etc - taste of banana, except for the ones that taste of meat.
Anyone for dried Yak meat...

 or how about chicken feet...?

 

Some handy instructions can be found on some packets...."Edible method....."

Special mention must also be made of Chinese public toilets - I don't have any pictures of the service station one (that might put the more delicate of those amongst you off your dinner) but here are the ones up near Everest Base Camp...

To say goodbye to Calypso we had a little party in Lhasa - it was also an excuse to finish off the beer in the on-board fridge.