Reed's latest post re Shangri-La
Shangri-La Here We Come - A Motorcycle Touring Blog from Chiang Mai, Thailand to the Tibet-China Border - Asian Motorcycle Tours - Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam Motorcycle Tours
Shangri-La Here We Are!
Before I share this trip report, I want to qualify right here and now, just as a frame of reference, what kind of riding experience I have; Over the last two decades I have ridden motorcycles across nearly every square inch of Southeast Asia + China. And I have to say that the ride to Shangri-La was, hands-down, the most spectacular, most enjoyable, and for sure the greatest ride in my entire motorcycling career. Period!
First, though, some of the day’s riding statistics before diving into the blog:
Present location: SHANGRI-LA!
Riding distance to Shangri-La from Jiliang: 270 kms.
Driving (moving) time): 7:15
Moving average: 38 kph.
Present elevation: 3235 meters
Highest elevation reached: 3688 meters
Total trip cumulative distance: 2042 kms.
Trip track shown on map below:
Our route to Shangri-La
Tomorrow destination: Deqen (pronounced nothing like the spelling)
Approximate distance: 180 kms
Guesstimate driving time: 6 hours
Phil Gibbins is taking a ton of photos, way more than me. He is posting them online on his RideAsia.net rider forum. But this url changes daily. To see the photos from our ride to Shangri-La, you can view today’s photos at the following url:
http://www.rideasia.net/motorcycle-...-karpo-6-740-meters-22-113-a-5.html#post29552
Hello Interested Parties,
Like I just said above, and which does bear repeating, the ride to Shangri-La was, hands-down, the most spectacular and most enjoyable motorcycle ride in my entire riding career. Period! The scenery, the road, the road condition, the weather, the dearth of other road users, glaciated mountain peaks scraping the clouds, Tibetan dwellings sprinkled throughout the meadows, all added up to the greatest seven hours and fifteen minutes of motorcycling in my life. And it is not only I who is of this opinion, as Phil and George share the same viewpoint and one would have to describe them as highly seasoned bikers.
(We are also being told that tomorrow’s ride is even better if that is at all humanly possible¬¬. So stay tuned.)
The road and road conditions were so terrific that we could have easily ridden them at a 70 kph pace, still with a sizable margin of error built in (and we were on the perfect bikes to do it on). 60 easy without any degree of difficulty. But we only managed a pace of 38 because the three of us were so mesmerized by what was unfolding in front of our eyes, that we had to slow way, way down to drink it all in. Every bend in the road opened up a new and wonderful vista and all we could keep saying to ourselves was “wow”.
Primary over everything else was the scenery. Our first target of the day was Tiger Leaping Gorge. After Kali Gandaki Gorge in Nepal and the Grand Canyon in The States, Tiger Leaping Gorge is the third-deepest gorge in the world. This is where the young Yangtze River, with its headwaters not far away in the Himalayas, comes roaring down in full force, eating its way through whatever mountain dares to impede it. And these are serious mountains; snow-covered peaks, glaciers running down their flanks like crooked, white fingers.
Tiger Leaping Gorge
The road we drove hugged a contour line around 100 meters above the roaring, boiling, boulder-strewn rapids below us. The tops of the canyon loomed, I would guess, 3000 meters above us
Tiger Leaping Gorge is a major Chinese tourist attraction, and for good reason. You arrive there a couple of kilometers after turning off the main trunk road we rode in on out of Lijiang. None of the numerous tourist busses, minvans, or private cars ventured past Tiger Leaping Gorge Visitor Center and View Point because the road continues on another couple of hundred kilometers with no way off it. But we continued and virtually had the road to ourselves for the next several hours.
There were few towns on this road as we followed the angry Yangtze northwards as the terrain is way too steep and rugged to support a population of any size. Maybe we passed three towns over the next hundred kilometers.
At the first village we came to, around 15 ks past TLG, we stopped in a small guesthouse restaurant and dined on the freshest vegetables you could ever eat, snow peas, pan-fried wild mushrooms, egg and tomato omelet, a vegetable stock soup, and diced chicken with more veggies.
The TLG road continued another 22 ks north-northeast. When the gorge petered out and the Yangtze veered away, the road struck northwest and we climbed over a mountain pass that topped out at 2820 meters. It was down and up another two mountain passes and this brought us up onto the Himalaya plateau proper. We knew we were now officially on the eastern slope of the Himalaya massif when we started seeing herds of yaks. Yaks! For the last third of the ride we hardly ever dipped below 3000 meters. At this height we seemed to be above the tree line and the dominant pine forests gave way to small bush-type pines. Most of the land was open meadow covered with grass.
The day’s weather was mostly overcast and we did hit some intermittent drizzles, nothing worse than that. This slickened the road and we slowed down even more. Temperatures stayed in the low 20′s C and dipped into the high teens when we topped 3000 meters. All I had on was a synthetic, long-sleeved shirt under my body armor. Over that I wore an unlined, waterproof jacket and I did not feel cold. I probably would have if we were riding faster, but this was not the case. I started feeling a little chilly when we reached the Himalaya Plateau, but at this point we were only around 20 ks outside of Shangri-La and I did not feel like donning anything else for so short a duration
In this part of China the dominant population group is ethnic Tibetans of various subgroups. The ladies wear traditional costumes but the men sport cheap western-style clothing. Many village houses were log cabin-style with a roof fashioned from terracotta roof tiles weighted down with large stones. Animal husbandry seemed to be the main occupation. Herds of yaks, goats, sheep, and cattle grazed on the rich plateau grass, chickens,and assorted breeds of pigs wandered through the villages.
It took tremendous amounts of willpower over the entire day not to stop the bike every five minutes to take photos of these stunning scenes, as we knew we had lots of riding to cover.
(I know, I know, enough with the superlatives, but I know of no other way of describing the ride to Shangri-La.
The road itself was nearly perfect the entire way: excellent surface, terrific engineering. A sport bike would eat this type of riding up, as long as one remembered that most mistakes would end in a long, long drop to the valley floor. If you did not die, you certainly would wish you would have.
GPS Track screen shot on road to Shangri-La
The final twenty ks were over a long, straight, flat road. I could see Shangri-La on the horizon, ringed behind by snow-capped mountains on all sides. The houses over this final stretch were massive and square; all two or three stories tall, each story being at least 15-20 feet in height, all facing east with a high surrounding, stucco-walled courtyard in the front of each house with a massive entrance gate. The gateway doors were always intricately carved and decorated. On each side of the dwellings, four massive tree trunks stripped of their bark, each one propped on a thick concrete foundation formed the basic framework. I know this because many houses were under construction, and this was a hint we were entering a prosperous region.
We reached our hotel an hour before sunset and the temperature was 16 C. We quickly changed and showered and walked to Shangri-La’s Old Quarter and here we entered another world. The narrow streets were rough paving stones worn smooth over the centuries. Lining the streets were solid rows of shop houses built in the Tibetan style. Colorfully decked out Tibetan tribal ladies were numerous, not posing for photos but doing their daily chores.
Shangri-La Old Quarter
All the locals were friendly and curious about us, not shy at all, and went out of their way to be welcoming. If they were cooking something they offered us a taste. If they were making some sort of handicraft they enjoyed having us take their photos.
That night we supped in a Tibetan restaurant on Yak steaks that were tender and tasty and excellent. Local barley beer washed it down, also quite tasty.
After such a long ride we went to bed early. I awoke at dawn and the streets were all wet but there was no rain, no sun either. It was 8 C. George and I went to the famous Gandan Sumtseling Monastary and below, in front of it, is a photo of yours truly.
RR in front of monastery
Wednesday morning we intend to wake up early for what promises to be another excellent ride to Deqen and the holy Tibetan mountain, Kawa Karpo. I may have some spiritual connection with Kawa Karpo because a brass statue of the Tibetan holy deity that lives on this mountain is in my apartment. We shall see,
It will be chilly in the morning, and probably wet, and I plan on wearing an extra couple of layers.
Until tomorrow, Bye bye.
Our route to Shangri-La
Tiger Leaping Gorge
GPS Track screen shot on road to Shangri-La
Shangri-La Old Quarter
RR in front of monastery
