In my 7 month trip around South America, Mongolia & Thailand (mentioned in my
earlier post this week), I kept my eyes open for vanagons (my Westy was in
storage here). There seem to be very few on the roads in these places (here in
Northern CA I typically see 5-10 a day). Here's the full list;
- Valparaiso, Chile: late model GL passenger van
- Patagonia, Chile: '86 Syncro Westy
- El Alto (La Paz), Bolivia: late model Westy (German plates)
- Sucre, Bolivia: many DoKa buses (not Vanagons) (some in beautiful condition)
- Lima, Peru: passenger van (an early & smoky air cooled)
- Lima, Peru: passenger van with some strange engine conversion (raised engine
lid, custom drainpipe exhaust)
- Lima, Peru: ~85 Westy (very rusty)
- Chiang Mai, Thailand: late model 90 - 91 GL passenger van (like new)
- Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia: ~86 L passenger van (in very bad shape, holes in sides,
crunched front corner etc..)

In Mongolia, I saw (& rode in) hundreds of the Russian equivalent to the syncro
: the 'Russian Van' a very simple vehicle (the UAZ-452) with a cab forward
design, 4WD & very low gearing, first sold in 1966 and basically unchanged to
date;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UAZ-452
The roads in Mongolia are so bad that the Mongolians put loads of extra steel
strengthening into the vans they buy from Russia. Actually to use the word road
suggests something that has been built, in most cases you just drive across open
country - we took a month long tour, imagine Syncro de Mayo for 6-8 hours a day
for 30 days! If you really want to abuse your syncro, take it to Mongolia!

Mike,
'87 Westy
Palo Alto, CA