Babs’ travels -The Peking to Paris Rally and other driving adventures.

Vera and Herman decided to leave Maymyo early for the descent from the hills.  They had probably moved about 2 metres when they broke down.  It was nothing too major and, breaking down in the car park before anyone else has left, is the place to do it.  They were soon on their way.  About 15 of the cars have needed help from the mechanic team over the last few days; the major job bring to fit new shocks on the DB6 - a rather more complicated machine than a Model A!  I am pleased to report that car 2 is behaving impeccably since it's little mishap with a wheel bearing.  It is purring, well, maybe not exactly purring, but certainly jogging merrily along.  It is the slowest car in the rally, the second oldest, after the Bentley, but holding its own magnificently. After the brief moment of being joint first it is now back in its rightful place of languishing at the bottom with so many penalty points on the board it looks like a telephone number.  It d...

A jolly crew set off early to catch the train today. Our departure station was about an hour away straight up the main road to China.  The train starts in Mandalay but, as the track is not the best, it only manages around 24 kms per hour. The little station was quite delightful.  There was a little 'buffet' and a few ladies with little baskets laden with everything that the weary traveller might need: cake, crisps, quail eggs, beer, cigars etc. I bought some quail eggs, 5 in a little packet for 15p. The train arrived  half an hour late, but we didn't mind as the station was an interesting place to be. Off we set for our one hour journey where buses would be waiting to ferry us back to Maymyo.  It will not surprise you to hear that Adrian, along with mechanic Richard, managed to ride the whole way in the cab.  I don't think Richard will ever stop smiling!  Travesing the Shan Plateau, the scenery was, as always, ravishing.  The highlight however, was cro...

I adore places that are waking up so, this morning, I went for a bike ride at 0630.  The roads were mercifully free of traffic, the nuns were out collecting alms, the sunrise was perfect and the street food sellers were busy with breakfast.  Heaven.  Shooter, A. stayed in bed. A 45 mile drive, uphill all the way, has brought us to Maymyo, the hill station and former summer capital of the British in Burma.  It is all quite delightful.  There are flowers everywhere, the air is fresh after heavily polluted Mandalay and it is very neat and tidy.  It is a favourite place for the rich and powerful to have holiday homes and there are mini palaces everywhere. The former Britsh golf course is now used by The Generals although I gather that a few of our people have managed to blag a game  tomorrow. There are still plenty of colonial buildings left, some in rather poor repair, sadly.  I would be restoring one of those to live in rather than the new mansions ...

If Rudyard was able to return to Mandalay now, he would recognise the hill and the wall and moat around the (rebuilt in the1990's) palace, but very little else.  What a disappointment.  It reminds me of Casablanca, both names that conjur up such romance, in reality, both do not have a shred of it.  Poor Mandalay was very heavily bombed by the allied forces during the Japanese occupation but the rebuild is very shoddy. It doesn't really have a heart, just a jumble of messy concrete buildings thrown up without a thought of architectural merit.  It's set out on a grid system and so is easy to negotiate but, in truth, the roads are choked with dust and fumes with a mess of "spaghetti" wiring looping from pole to pole.  Take my advice and go elsewhere in this marvellous country but forget about Mandalay. That said, we had an enjoyable day.  We went to the only remaining original carved wooden pagoda.  It gave a real sense of how beautiful the city must have...

The first 160kms today was on a perfect rally road.  We were leaving the Shan hills to drop down to the plain and thence to Mandalay.  The "roads" were rough and narrow with: bumps, ruts, dips, rocks, potholes, twists and very sharp bends - altogether marvellous.  It was also a journey of outstanding natural beauty.  Alas, none of my photos capture that fully so you will not be seeing them; you'll just have to take my word for it. With few motos and even fewer cars we were definitely far from the tourist trail and very few Western people would have been seen here.  The welcome, as always, was quite wonderful.  First, you get an incredulous stare, then, when you wave and smile, a great big grin appears.   We started to see lots of pick ups, crammed to the gills with people, all going the same way as us.  It soon became clear why.  We reached a small town to find a festival in full swing.  There were elephants made from papier mâché  ...