Overland trip - to Lanzhou...

Having left the peace and quiet (relatively) of the plateau, arriving in Lanzhou to the sound of car horns and traffic, together with the choking smog. Lanzhou is apparently one of the most polluted places in the world, being tucked at the end of a valley which houses numerous industrial works - mainly brick and cement factories and other aggregates.

Chris is missing Tibet already, though pleased to arrive in a modern hotel for a shower. Once again, nice sit-down toilets, and 50+ channels of classic chinese television. No CCTV 9 (only english language channel generally available) here.

Whilst nice to be away from the ground floor traffic on the 15th level, we seem to have the slowest lifts in the world - usually a 5-6 minute wait each time. Imagine the delight to find that your keycard doesn't work when you finally get to your room, with all your gear...

Nothing of particular interest in Lanzhou, but enjoyed more good food, and treated ourselves to 100 Yuan worth of bottled beer - 50 bottles in total (15p a bottle) and happily treated any local that cared to toast with us. Not sure if that's quite eco-tourism, but we were famous for a night.

Briefly back to the food - we ordered some BBQ skewers, which included liberal lumps of fat, which turns out to be a favourite here. In fact, so much a favourite that we came across a wok-full of sizzling fat-lumps. Yummy.

More clubbing here too, which included a free pole dance. Unfortunately, a skinny gyrating man in leather hot pants doesn't quite do it for me. Once again, the westerners get gawped at with their strange dancing behaviour - no-one heard of breakdancing before???

So, two nights in Lanzhou then more road-work as we make our way to Xi'an, via a camping spot (probably not quite official) outside an electricity sub-station. Drew the biggest crowd of the trip so far - I think a whole village came to watch us tonight - all good hearted and plenty photos exchanged.

Just one more long day on the road before Xi'an....

Paul and Chris