After their forceful detour due to a major landslide between Linzhi and Zhedong, the PETRONAS Adventure Team marches on to Lhasa under minor snowfall, arriving amidst heavy military presence. Find out why, as relayed by PR Director Azman Baharuddin through his daily news despatch:

“5th September. News of the landslide and the subsequent detour spread fast through the team. This morning, we left two cars behind including a Chinese local handler so that Anthony Wong’s car could be repaired in Linzhi. His automatic transmission hose is the culprit. If the car cannot be repaired, it will be put on a truck and sent to Lhasa. If it can be fixed, we hope to see them tomorrow morning.

We are seeing more and more snow-capped peaks. Atop Mi La mountain pass at 5,030m, it was snowing! Very slight snowfall – hardly noticeable. Had we waited awhile, we would see a fine dusting of snow, but we had to push on. Lhasa was still quite a distance away.

When we arrived in Lhasa, we noticed the heavy military presence because of the on-going Tibet Autonomous Region’s 40th anniversary celebrations.

After driving 561km in about 8.5 hours on good asphalt roads, we arrived in Zedang. We continued with our PETRONAS Syntium lubricant sampling exercise, as some cars arrived late last night.

Tomorrow, some team members will arise early to visit Tibet’s first building – it’s even older than the Potala Palace itself!”