Since our last installment in this highly popular series (Magnificient Tunnel Road, November 2006) we have received many tips and pictures of the roads that are no less intimidating, and in some cases just as dangerous. The world is obviously full of little known roads, encompassing a fascinating geography, waiting to be found by adventurous types. In this post, we will cover a few more, but these articles seem to be developing into a separate series, and may even become our monthly feature.
1. Road from Tibet to Nepal: sheer drops
We finally have some photos documenting hair-raising twists and drops of the road from Tibet, China (Lhasa) to Nepal (Kathmandu) - courtesy of Tatiana, whose father took these pictures in October 2006 (He was also a witness to the crash right in front of him) - The 1000 km long Friendship Highway includes seven 3500 meters passes, with one pass as high as 5000 meters. Most of the road is pretty manageable driving, although is has some rather fascinating parts:
See more pictures of the road from Lhasa here (thanks, Cee!)
"There are some crazy "roads" in Nepal as well. The road to Besisahar is a road in name only, and it's the only route to the most popular trekking path (the Annapurna Loop) in Nepal".
2."The Halsema Highway" in the Philippines.
Greg Brennan sent us some interesting pictures of this route, and it seems to fit the bill as one of the most precarious and shudder-inducing roads out there.
Greg writes: "The Halsema Highway, also known as the Baguio-Bontoc Road, runs through the Central Cordillera Valley on the island of Luzon in The Philippines. The beginning of the highway starts off slightly paved and quickly turns to dirt. It is approximately 150 miles long and takes about 10 hours to get from Baguio city to Sagada on a nice day. It is known for rock slides, mud slides and buses driving dangerously fast on its narrow passage. It also goes through some of the more remote provinces in The Philippines. There are many accidents and overturned buses on a yearly basis. Often there are sheer drop offs of over 1000 feet without a guard rail. During the rainy season it is nearly impassable."
These buses travel the Road of Death, and in themselves evoke solemn speculations about reasonable risks, life/death and possible breakdowns in impossible locations:
They are definitely not an air-conditioned coaches, and their technical condition often is a matter of prayer, not engineering.
Here is a rare look inside such bus...
...as it negotiates a road ahead:
Rob has a wonderful account of traveling on buses in Bolivia, and helping to clear a few rock slides along the way...
The last picture of the Jeep on the ledge has been around since at least the early 80's. It was a Warn winch poster / advertisement. Photoshop didn't exist then. Don't know how they did it though.
indeed, the last pic is of a jeep on black bear pass in telluride, co. supposedly, the road used to be that narrow, however, it has since been widened.
For sheer terror, the Bolivian road still wins, but 10 hours of hellish driving (Halsema Hwy) makes one wonder if there are really places roads just aren't meant to be...
List is great! Bolivian road is mad!! But there are 2 roads that can compete- Sani Pass, South Africa/Lesotho, and the the roads in Northern Pakistan in the Pashtun region (Afganistan/Pakistan). While in Lesthoto for only 1 day, 2 cars went off, 4 peeps died. CRAZY SH$%!!!!!!! There was no help!
I did the Neal to Tibet trek you mention on foot back in 1996, its quite safe (if quite gruelling) but some of the bridges are quite dilapidated and freaky to cross. Mind you not everyone makes it, some villages showed me the corpse of a trekker they found which had been up there for months like "one of your friends, yes?". Well I took his passport with me to leave at the German embassy so they could tell his parents. Great experience and lovely people there but things might be different now, I hear Lhasa is ruined.
I remember going through that Halsema Highway in the Philippines two years ago when I went on holiday. It's not that bad but it got a bit intense sometimes because some drivers would overtake each other and what made me kinda concerned was the signs that read "Caution: falling rocks" haha
Traveled the Tibet-Nepal route with an REI Adventures Tour in July 2007. "Exhilarating", to say the least. And to add to the experience, the highway authority was doing maintenance on large portions of the road in anticipation of the increase in tourists expected from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Fortunately, the Land Cruiser drivers were exceptionally competent.
que arquitectura mas espectacular. la verdad es que me sorprende ver como avanza la tecnologia y la imaginacion de hombre. Inspirarse en un Ovni para construir un edificio es algo digno de tener en cuenta a la hora de analizar los gustos... como dicen acá en Chile..."En gustos no hay nada escrito" a mi en especial me gustó el nuevo edificio, espero algún dia estar allí para verlo con mis propios ojos. saludos...
A lot of those old vehicles may still be current production! I was just at the VW plant in Peubla Mexico, and they just recently (2003, 2004, sometime) stopped building the old style VW beetle. You can still buy an old-style beetle as new at some of the auto dealers down there.
Hey now! You insult those who refuse to fund the manufacturers of cars that look just like this in a few short years. At these prices you should get some kind of cosmetic longevity return on your big investment of cash. I applaud those plucky few who sneer at car manufacturers and put advertising for the low quality and high price in automaker's faces by continuing to drive them. I too am insulted because my car looks little better than these.
Anomalyzer! How do you think the crank for the fan on the back of the jeep is turned if she steers with one hand and shifts with the other. Where is the hand for her cell phone?
On the Cuban buses: Cuba has an enormous problem with public transport, or lack thereof. The Camel buses are quite a clever invention as they can carry far more passengers than an ordinary bus. I suspect they're made of parts of buses welded on a chassis. The odd thing I found is that I've seen those buses in Havana where more ordinary buses run outside Havana to transport hotel personnel. Seems impractical to have such a long vehicle in a city.
Sorry to disappoint you, but the dragonfly is more akin to an rc airplane or car than a robot. It's also available at your local Radio Shack for USD 50.00
Somebody seriously needs to develop a robotic honeybee since the real ones are disappearing... and what will pollinate the fruit trees (and bazillions of other things) if they're gone?
I have worked at many radio stations over the years. Some of these pictures are TAME compared to the nest of wiring I've seen. One engineer even said that it was easier to run a new wire than to trace the one that needed replacing.
The Cray is NOT a bad job. Part of the PM on a Cray, and any other Supercomputer that I have worked on has been to measure the impedance of the wire and trim until it is within spec. The wires have to look like this because it would be insane to lace them have to unlace them all trim them and relace them all.
The MD-80 is actually not a bad job, neither is the cray 1 (if that is what those bins of what looks to be 24 gauge wire is for). In both cases, it's just a lot of wire, at least it's not being stretched and thrown around in a mess. It's all orderly and bundled
@casus belli please avoid making Russian what is well-known to be Soviet - Victory Day on 9th of May is USSR achievement, not RSFSR one; strategic armed forces were done in Soviet time (not Russian); etc etc etc. And if you take it for granted - even "modern" Topol missile system were designed and launched in production (and then suspended in early 90s). In other words, current Russian system can not do anything apart feeding huge bureaucracy machine and filling up oligarch's pockets ;)
The Rubezh" MAZ-543M to which you refer is an anti-ship cruise missile launcher of the CSSC family of missiles (Silkworms, Seersuckers, etc...NATO designations).
Despite the skull and crossbones that cover the bright red button at the center of this Self Desctruction USB Hub and give it the aura of impending doom if you get anywhere near that button, the device is actually just a four-port USB hub. But in those moments in front of your computer when you lose a ton of work, get fired via email, or slow processing simply breaks the camel's back, sometimes a resource for even merely mimicking your own self-destruction can provide relief. You'll be happy when you wake up the next morning that it wasn't real.
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16 Comments:
the name made me laugh! friendship highway!!! very driver friendly indeed.. :D
cheers,
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The last picture of the Jeep on the ledge has been around since at least the early 80's. It was a Warn winch poster / advertisement. Photoshop didn't exist then. Don't know how they did it though.
indeed, the last pic is of a jeep on black bear pass in telluride, co. supposedly, the road used to be that narrow, however, it has since been widened.
Great coverage.
I will take some pictures when I go back home.
you missed : el espinazo del diablo(devil`s back) in sierra madre occidental mexico...
For sheer terror, the Bolivian road still wins, but 10 hours of hellish driving (Halsema Hwy) makes one wonder if there are really places roads just aren't meant to be...
Irish roads are far from perfect and they are less picturesque too but I am not gonna complain now.
They had something on discovery not too long ago about the Bolivian highways it was really eye-opening.
The road from Tirana to Elbasan in Albania is very hairy even though the mountain top views are pretty stunning.
List is great! Bolivian road is mad!! But there are 2 roads that can compete- Sani Pass, South Africa/Lesotho, and the the roads in Northern Pakistan in the Pashtun region (Afganistan/Pakistan).
While in Lesthoto for only 1 day, 2 cars went off, 4 peeps died. CRAZY SH$%!!!!!!! There was no help!
that's a shit! I'm having butterflies in my stomach seeing pictures like that
&&
for the last picture I think that's impossible
Wow -- great collection. Here's another: a double spiral loop bridge in Japan. Check it out at techtonic.org
I did the Neal to Tibet trek you mention on foot back in 1996, its quite safe (if quite gruelling) but some of the bridges are quite dilapidated and freaky to cross. Mind you not everyone makes it, some villages showed me the corpse of a trekker they found which had been up there for months like "one of your friends, yes?". Well I took his passport with me to leave at the German embassy so they could tell his parents. Great experience and lovely people there but things might be different now, I hear Lhasa is ruined.
Wolfie - fantastic... "One of your friends, eh?" Tell us more - will go into next articles - and perhaps you got pictures?
I remember going through that Halsema Highway in the Philippines two years ago when I went on holiday.
It's not that bad but it got a bit intense sometimes because some drivers would overtake each other and what made me kinda concerned was the signs that read "Caution: falling rocks" haha
Traveled the Tibet-Nepal route with an REI Adventures Tour in July 2007. "Exhilarating", to say the least. And to add to the experience, the highway authority was doing maintenance on large portions of the road in anticipation of the increase in tourists expected from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Fortunately, the Land Cruiser drivers were exceptionally competent.
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