China here we come

As I write this, we have two more nights before the Chinese border crossing, over the Torugart Pass. This is uncharted territory for us, and for Odyssey, since last year's trip was unable to enter China for various reasons. However, at our last bushcamp at Djety Oguz we met another overland group who had just come from China, which shows that it can be done, and done recently.

The other group were a Dragoman group travelling from India to Istanbul. Their crew traded advice with our crew, and we got a chance to meet some other overlanders in the setting of the first Odyssey Pub Quiz.

We learned quite a bit about overlanding with the "other lot", for example that they were on their second truck because the first one broke down five times. The second truck was also apparently the worse of the two, and had broken a suspension spring near Bishkek for which they were having trouble sourcing a replacement. They were also paying substantially more for six months with Dragoman than we have for six months with Odyssey.

There are some benefits to Dragoman of course, they seemed to stay in more and better hotels than us, their group size is smaller, and they have the option to travel in shorter legs if the client desires. It was clear to me, however, that a not inconsiderable number of them seemed to prefer our truck and our way of doing things. And they were really jealous of our chairs! I think that Odyssey will have some more customers next year.

Just over the hills in the background of the picture is China.