Day 33 Still in Kashgar

Following on from yesterday’s events we had come to the conclusion that we would ship the car to Shanghai as planned.

Late tonight we received an email from ROARR & the travel agent (any foreigner to this part of China has to have permits & a guide) demanding that our car be trucked to Lhasa. Agent suggested that if we got it to Golmud, he could arrange to get it to Lhasa. The problem remains though that we then have to organise to transport it to the Nepal border then on to Calcutta.

The travel agent had informed ROARR that all cars must leave China together as he had put up a $47,000 bond & the other 4 cars would not be allowed to leave & would be fined $400 per car per day if all did not leave together.

He also informed us that the lady we spoke to at Customs yesterday was not a Customs officer but someone he had employed to prepare the documentation to get the cars into China & she was afraid of Customs & was not prepared to amend the permit.

A very upsetting and sleepless night during which, we pondered our options.


(posted from the Victorian head office of the Blog - Noel)