The PETRONAS Adventure Team’s journey on August 27 lasted 15 hours, of which 8.5 hours was spent driving only 284km. This is how the story unfolded, as relayed through the team’s daily despatch:

“We continued our off-road adventure out of Luang Namtha. The Ford Everest and Rangers are doing well, handling the difficult terrain with no complications. Where local buses were bogged down in mud, the Fords’ powerful engines got them right through the obstacles.

From the Laos border town of Bor Ten, we crossed into China with no incident at all, and quickly moved onto the next sector of driving. As in Laos, we will drive on the right hand side of the road. Driving in China requires a great deal of attention and patience. Our journey into the hills of Yunnan Province begins as the sun sets. Co-drivers must guide drivers when’s the right time to overtake the many blue, white, or red-coloured trucks, bicycles, motorbikes, people and the odd animal or two! Night-time driving is often avoided as it is quite dangerous. Convoy leader Faruk Rahman has to anticipate the handful of stationary vehicles on the road and avoid them.

Many of the cars are generally all right after tightening up some parts shaken loose by the bumpy roads. With a faulty alternator and one wheel disabled because of a broken hub screw, Kok Wai Chee was laden with car troubles. Fortunately he wasn’t alone; Technical Coordinator Stiven Sim and the mechanics Mohd Arif Othman and Lok Chun Mean were beside his car most parts of the day. Our camping plans were cancelled because of road closure.

We had yet another long day of driving on August 27 – 572km – from Jinghong to Kunming, Yunnan’s provincial capital city. The first 180km consisted of poor roads due to the construction of the Kunming to Bangkok expressway. After that it was both good roads and expressway all the way to Kunming. We will stay in Kunming for the next two nights because tomorrow the team is going to plant trees. Find out why in our next dispatch.”