The Silk Route Motorcaravan Club.

Bulletin 97 (Part 1 of 2).

August 2002.
Translated by Christine O'Brien.
Edited for publication by Bill Peckham.

Uploaded from China by Iridium phone so no photographs and in two parts!
Stephen Stewart.

Calm Summer.

Well, it had to be proved and now it has been: Villeneuve-en-Chevrie (Yvelines) obviously hasn't the attraction of Sillans-la-Cascade (Var). Only Gérard Pacciarella and Elisabeth wished to justify our summer quarters. Honour has been saved. And so much the worse for the rest of you. The weather has been lovely. Until the 14 July you could have helped us eat kilo upon kilo of cherries. Of course you still have until 13 August to come, but it's still a bit soon for the cherry-plums, of which there are also vast quantities. And usually we travel south from 15 August to 30 September, to spend the last phase in Cahors and that region. I hope we'll have time to make a short stop at Sillans from 13 to 17 September and I hope to rediscover old acquaintances in the area and make some new ones… The number is still 06 81 494 180 if you want to let us know you are coming.

Following our move, Bulletin 98 for September will be sent out on the 10th and will be limited to financial reports and to the latest really important news. If you want to carry on reading about the Vancouver-Beijing journey you'll have to use the Internet, I have enough trouble keeping up with what is going on now.

On another subject, we should think about whether we wish to collaborate with an association which I consider interesting. This is the Voyages utiles en camping-cars (Useful journeys in motorcaravans). The idea is to use our trips to carry materials and medicines to orphanages, local associations for the handicapped, ex-servicemen, in Roumania, Tunisia, Morocco. We'll discuss it at the AGM, but if you wish to contact the organisation to find out more about them, call Gabriel Harduin on 04 66 476 091 or 06 85 705 819. I'm sure you'll be well received.

Lot, Perigord and the pays d'Albret.

As I haven't the space or the time here, please refer to the previous bulletin. Put your trust in the organiser and if you really want more detail call him, Henri Dujardin on 05 53 951 197. To date we have only 12 teams, plus, I hope, those of the organisers. To qualify for reduced rates for guides, meals, etc, we need at least 50 people.

General Assembly 2002.

This will be very important. And so far we have only 26 definitely enrolled and 13 possibles. Make an effort. If you haven't already done so, please send back your completed forms as soon as possible.

Champagne: Lucien and Maurice have kindly offered to bring 20 and 10 (respectively) boxes of 6 bottles which will be sold in situ while stocks last.

New members.

• MONGAY Rémy, Le Bes, 48250 LAVEYRUNE - 04 66 466 285 - Challenger on Peugeot
• MOREAU Rolland, 4427, route du Tourt, 40260 LINXE, 05 58 429 238 (tel and fax), cesarion@aol.com - Polycomposite cell on Mazda B2500
• PILLOT Jean and Maride-Odile, 8 rue de Pierre Anntoine de Moituroer, 21000 DIJON - 03 80 565 525 - 06 16 161 653 - Eriba on Fiat Ducato.
• JENKINS John Frederick and Thelma Anne, Wodpeckers, Holt Road, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire BA15 1TR, UK - 01225 865616.
• THORNTON John and Jill, c/o BKB Couriers Ltd, Unit 12 Metrocentre, Balcombe Road, Horley, Surrey RH6 9GA, UK - 02341 4701752.

Change of address:

• MUNCH Leititia and Erwin, 430 rue de la Villeneuve, 62142 BELLEBRUNE, tel 03 21 333 175, Familymunch@aol.com

Postcards from...

Bernadette and Christian Lathuliere, Therese and Robert Duguerry, Evora, Portugal, 18 June. Here are flowers, sunshine, heat and sometimes too much. We were dreaming of Wales. But now it will be Perigord. Looking forward to meeting up again…

Michele and Jean Sommer, Les Estables, June. A motorcaravan is just as pleasant if you're making a short peaceful trip 30 km from home. Last year there was frost. Anyone who took part in the 'balade' and whose heating wasn't working, will remember. This year on the same date we have dog days. Incredible!

Marcel Lecorre, Cairns, 19 June. Hello to you and to everybody. To whet your appetite this card shows some gastronomic specialities, including earth worm, which I can recommend for its taste of foie gras. Dozens of crocodiles, hundreds of birds of prey, 4 kangaroos, 3 snakes (one wanted to share a bath with me), thousands of winged creatures in all sorts of colours, immense cold, 10 times running aground, a rodeo for 4x4s. And then Cairns, where the women's necklines are tropical!

Colette and Jacky Moyen, Noto, 20 June. Flowers and vegetation. From 15 May to mid June Sicily is super. Fields, roads, half empty sites, deserted beaches in the south. Hot but bearable. Friendly welcome. On the roads a lot of dreaming but no rage. No problems for motorcaravans, there have been plenty here for a long time. Best wishes.

Marie-Jo and Rémy Chaigneau, Eugène and Madeleine Deschateaux, Manastirea Moldovita, 21 June. From the Danube delta to the monasteries of Bucovine we are travelling round Roumania in wonderful sunshine. In the villages people are very friendly and welcoming. Best wishes.

Gisèle and Gérard Mulaton, North Cape, 27 June. It is raining, the sun shines. The weather is bad, the weather is good. That's Norway. But the midnight sun shines on our meeting. See you soon in Perigord.

Jean-Claude and Michèle Lombard, Lake Baikal, 28 June. A big welcome for motorcaravanners here. We have spent 4 days at the lake and on a fishing boat. A destination to be recommended to long-distance travellers. Good wishes.

Léon and Elisabeth Humm. Reykjavik, June. The Icelanders' mockery of cars is real. The cartoon of Highway 1 with a vehicle teetering on it (postcard) is hardly an exaggeration. From this marvellous country, friendly greetings to you both and to anyone who is driving, driving along.

Serge and Eliane Rousset, Parrsboro, 19 July. Best wishes from the New World, where we're escaping the dog days.

Members 104 (Jonquoy) and 99 (Humm), Snaefellsjökull, 11 July. A planned meeting in Iceland from which we send our warm and glacial greetings. Midnight sun, whales, wind, sheep, extinct volcanoes, sleeping, busy, seals, solfataras, puffins, waterfalls (and what water!), seagulls, black sand, wild geese, glaciers, swans, lava fields, horses, icebergs, petrels, streams, terns, mud, eiders, geysers, deserts, bathing in hot water, waiting for the 227 other members. But watch out for the bad roads that wreck your vans.

Aimeé and Charles Nabais, Port-Navalo, 25 July. Friendly thoughts from Brittany.

Paul and Nadine Leclerc, email of 16 July. Thanks for all the good news. We are still on the North Amercan continent and more precisely at Victoria on Vancouver Island (British Columbia). At the end of the week we shall be leaving for the Yukon and Alaska for around a month and a half. Evrything is fine at the moment, and we're looking forward to encounters with grizzlies.

South-east Asia (continued from Bulletin 96).

We had to rely on a team of mechanics. They confirmed in gestures what we had diagnosed, two days of stripping down the engine as piston number 4 had deteriorated. Communication was difficult as nobody spoke either English or French. The only connection with the outside world was by a single solar-powered phone/fax perched 1500 metres above the village and constantly used by the chattering population. To get to Luang Prabang 300 km away you had to take the overloaded lorry-bus which would get you there in two uncomfortable stages. But we had to get in touch somehow or we'd have had to spend the night in a guesthouse without being able to warn anyone of our delay. A real predicament!

We put in an urgent order on the 4th and after waiting three hours heard that the nearest concessionaires would be sending the necessary part from Malaysia 2500 km away. And we couldn't be sure that the order had been received since it wasn't possible to receive calls from outside. At this point the team split up. Madame set up a base camp at the Elephant in Luang Prabang, while Sir stayed to look after Camion and the engine, now in pieces. In the hour after Simone left, the process of stripping down the engine ran into further difficulties and the connecting rod was bent. This time the new part was to come not from Malaysia but from Ho Chi Minh City on the 20th!

It was a difficult period but gave us the chance to observe the life and activities of the people living along the river and using what amounted to a river port. Around 30 motor boats 15-20 metres long were responsible for fishing, transporting passengers and freight, trading. For her part Simone spent her time discovering the big town. To add to our existing doubts and speculations, we had a further fright when storms in the middle of the night raised the water level and Camion had to be towed 8 metres from its usual spot up a pebble beach.

On the 21st all the parts had arrived and the mechanics set to work. The engine was back in position that night, too late to try it. The next morning, we could not get it to start. Further examination revealed that the camshaft was broken. New orders for parts were put in and we were facing another long delay. This time Ho Chi Minh City offered to help. On Easter Monday the mechanics set to work again while team morale was at its lowest. But at 3 pm, a miracle - the engine turned over and was humming like a new vehicle. It was now the 2nd April and we'd had 30 days of enforced delay and anxious waiting.

But a month of insidious oxidation produced other problems. After a stop for the night, the starter refused to work and had to be fixed by a specialist during the day. Then, near Vientiane, the clutch gave out as we climbed a slope and we had to be towed to a town 30 km away. Camion was again in the hands of a local mechanic. In the afternoon in an indescribable garage he removed the faulty part and a replacement was found in Vientiane. Three more days to wait.

We took a fresh look at our plans. Delays and weather made our intended visit to Vietnam impossible. We had to leave Cambodia. On the other hand we did discover Angkor. And as the morning news was reporting further demonstrations in Muslim Indonesia, we saved on our sea trip, which compensated in part for the financial outlay we'd made to deal with mechanical troubles.

We had an uneventful journey across Thailand and in three days we were at the Cambodian border where the less than modest buildings are staffed by blundering officials. On the 14th April we were on the national 6, a road ending in Phnom Penh and infected for 240 km by the wretched town of Sisophon. Siem Reap, on the other hand, because it receives passing travellers, is modern, well cared for and lively. There, a French restaurant, La Noria, was able to offer just what we wanted in the way of a birthday dinner. Angkor deserves its description as a Kmer jewel. It has the largest concentration of temples in an area of 230 square km and after four centuries of complete neglect the ruins have now been permanently restored. All the monuments are religious in origin, first Hindu then Buddhist. With five towers visible from Siem Reap, the temple at Angkor is an architectural masterpiece and the biggest temple of carved stone in the world. In spite of a 40 dollar entry ticket, crowds flock there to walk through the galleries and admire the exceptional carving. We combined our visit with a flight over the sight. It takes at least two days to do the outer and inner circuit and you need to be a specialist to fully appreciate the history of the place.

Passing through Bangkok on 27th April we turned towards the south. This time we frequented the beaches of the gulf of Siam with great enjoyment as far as Chumpon. Then we went along the Isthmus of Kra to Phuket on the Adaman sea along a road which was monotonous apart from the tropical vegetation alongside. Phuket is not a place for motorcaravanners: worse than Acapulco.

We returned to Malaysia on the 26th April, near Kota Bharu in the Kelantan. As far as Kuala Terengganu, a new Muslin state, the journey through fishing villages and huge palm plantations is not particularly interesting except for the odd clean, quiet beaches. The seaside towns are agreeable enough with a number of colonial style buildings, beautiful mosques and very green gardens. Most of the way we were some distance from the gulf, in poor agricultural areas where stock rearing was the basic activity. This less cared-for region of Malaysia ends at Pahan, another Muslim state. The capital Kuantan with its efficient road system is extremely clean. We enjoyed our overnight stop on the edge of the bay. The first advertisement for an alcoholic drink appeared as we entered Johor. There is nothing original at Johor Bahru, a large modern town, except the odd trace of the Portuguese.

We entered Singapur (local spelling) on the 30th April. We were invited to pass through the Malay and local checkpoints without stopping, presumably by mistake. We didn't stop to wonder why, we just went. We had hoped to have a good look at the town before going to the port to find out about disembarkation. We journeyed round the outskirts without incident and spent a hot but peaceful night under some large trees in a park. In the morning we received a friendly welcome in an office in the port, and we began to explain what we were after. But when he looked at our documents, the official pointed out that our entry to Singapore wasn't valid, and as we hadn't entered the city we had no right to be driving round it. We had to go back to the border as carefully as possible so as not to attract police attention. Without undue haste - and because nobody knew who we were - we made an anonymous exit.

Now driving northwards we left Malaysia on the National 1 in almost unbearable heat. We made a welcome stop at Muar at a pleasant unexpected parking lot on the banks of the wide river. Then we pressed on to Melaka which still bears the traces of the different peoples who have fought over this strategic spot, from Alexander the Great to the English. The historic parts are concentrated to the east of the Malacca River, within a semicircle formed by Salan Kota. Centred round the statue of St Francis Xavier and the church of St Paul, this area is full of reminders of the cultures and religions which shaped the place. Finally, it was as we left the town that we found most relics of first the Portuguese then the English presence in the style of the houses still occupied here and there along the streets. We returned to Kuala Lumpur to take stock of Camion's condition. So we had time to appreciate the atmosphere of this lovely capital city and forget the heat of the south-east in visits to those havens of coolness and peace, the Cameron Highlands and the Gentills Highlands, the latter suggested by the friendly owner of the Iveco at Batu Caves in the suburbs.

In five months and almost 15000 km we had discovered south-east Asia. Camion was to leave from Port Ilang on the 23rd May in a container, while we flew to Perth on the 4th June to join it.

Although it had prevented us from going to Vietnam and part of Cambodia, the mechanical genius of Laos had helped to make our journey agreeable and given us a wealth of human contact. Wherever we went the people were interested without being nosey. We were impressed by their constant good humour, their smiles and, most of all, the harmony between different ethnic and religious groups. A good example!

Jean and Simone Moriot.

Part 2 of 2.