Mr. Trung started his journey in September, the best time of the year because he and his group always prioritized traffic safety. According to Mr. Trung, in the places he passed through, the rainy season had not ended in August, and in October and November, snow began to fall, the roads were icy, and driving was quite dangerous.
To prepare for a 30-day trip away from Vietnam, he prepared his personal luggage for three months. In particular, he invested the most time in learning driving skills in China during this trip. Tourists need to learn the rules carefully before the trip to avoid traffic culture shock or being fined for unnecessary situations.
The male tourist shared: “Because China does not agree to use international driving licenses, I had to go to the police agency of the neighboring country to study and get a temporary driving license. According to their regulations, I do not need to take the test later and they will issue a similar Vietnamese driving license within the validity of my visa application.”
His companion on the month-long trip was a large-displacement BMW GS. Mr. Trung commented that this bike was very durable, did not break down, and was suitable for long-distance travel.
Before the trip, he had his car carefully serviced. However, to prepare for bad roads, mud, gravel and especially quicksand roads during the trip, he also brought a tire pump and patch kit and a repair kit.
In addition, his luggage is quite compact, only full of essential items, including protective clothing suitable for both hot and cold regions. In particular, on a long trip like this, it is necessary to prepare basic medicines such as: anti-altitude sickness medicine to ensure the days of driving at altitudes of more than 5,000 m above sea level such as Everest Base Camp (EBC) - the first stop on the journey to conquer Everest of climbers, and the Gobi desert, good digestive medicine for energy recharge and electrolyte replacement water to continuously replenish after each hour of driving.
Every day, he drove 400-500 km as planned. In the last three days, to meet the visa deadline, he drove 1,100 km, 650 km and 700 km continuously. Most of the highways in China are very beautiful, the speed limit is about 80-100 km/h, so Trung's journey was quite smooth.
The biggest difficulty in Trung's 12,000 km journey was probably when he drove on the G109 national highway - connecting Beijing to Lhasa, the most challenging part of the journey. He encountered a hailstorm that lasted for about 45 minutes.
“Early in the morning when we left Chongqing, the outside temperature suddenly increased from 26 degrees Celsius to 34 degrees Celsius within a distance of only 1 km, then dropped and increased rapidly. At that time, my body was really uncomfortable, but I had mentally prepared myself,” he recalled.
At the end of the trip, Mr. Trung was satisfied with his experiences. Fortunately, his health was completely fine and the car had no problems when returning home. He himself is choosing China as his next destination because this is a vast land with experiences worth exploring.
