Xinjiang - Part 1

Here I am, blogging away in an internet cafe in here Urumqi! Oh yeah, I have started on my holiday. A holiday that actually gave me a lot of pressures. I haven't done any backpacking since I got back from Europe/UK in 2004. The only booking I did were my air tickets. Other than that, the rest was going to be on faith. Did I mention that I never really had any faith on any religon? 

 

Had tons of work to rush before I start on my holiday. Everyone was seriously pressurizing me to get work done. It was starting to look like my holiday was a whole bad idea. Actually it looked bad at work because I will be gone for more than 2 weeks! And in fact, these two weeks, something critical was going on in the office. It had been a long time since everyone in the office was working on a high pressured environment. The bosses were making a lot of demand and setting deadly deadline. Ok, I'm not supposed to be talking about work. -zip-

 

And yeah, my holiday really did started with a bad day. The flight was delayed due to the heavy rain on thursday morning. Probably its a CAT1 thunderstorm. We only had 2 hours to reach Chengdu Shuangliu Airport and change to a connecting flight to Urumqi and we were delayed for an hour due to the bad weather. Just when we thought we might stil be able to catch a 100m dash through the airport to pick up our luggages and check-in within 45 mins, the plane got delayed due to technical issues! THEY MUST BE SHITTING ME. I called a colleague to check for me on doing claims on air ticket charges due to flight delay. After a conversation on the phone and a few sms later, her reply came back last with probably god want you to stay back for the unfinished work. #$#^&@*%$^#

 

In the end, we arrived at Chengdu Shuangliu Airport at 1540hrs to catch my 1340hrs connecting flight. I guess some god up there might be watching out for me since we managed to get the next connecting flight at 1640hrs on the airline that caused us our delay. We almost couldn't get the ticket since those seats are fullfare whereas the one I paid for on China Southern Airline was discounted price. Oh, by the way, Air China caused my delay. I finally arrived at Urumqi after 2000hrs and hired a taxi to fetch us to the city to look for a lodging. A 2-stars was my intention since I'm not a big believer of staying in luxurious rooms. Just roamed near the hotel to look for dinner and some water supply. And that ended my 1st day of my holiday.

 

Next morning, we were on a little mad rush to get to the 人民公园 (renmin gongyuan) to get our ticket to 天山天池 (tianshan tianchi, heavenly mountain heavenly lake). Our intention was to climb our way up, which was more than 2000 metres high, and stayed in one of the local yurt available up there on the mountain by the lake for the night. We did managed to climb our way up, though with quite a bit of effort. Frankly, it did not exactly taken my breath away. Guess after seeing quite a few lakes during my journey to the Roof of the World back in 2005, lake scene was starting to wane on me. Moreover, I'm pretty upset with the fact that my lens was giving me major problems! The shutter on the lens was failing on me!!!! Photos I had taken either turn out over or under exposed. It really really make my day badddddd. So friends out there waiting to see my documentary photos, this time round I might had to disappoint you guys a little.

 

There was this taoism temple beside the lake and we had to pay to enter it. Well, we did entered it and well, I almost got conned. It would be so unlike me if I dun get conned on a holiday. So there appeared to be a grand ceremony just about 2 months ago, and for some fate related reasons, some of the temple's top priests were giving free consultation for 有缘人(man with fate). We were among the 有缘人 to get to see the priest. When it was my turn to go in, the priest started telling me my character and fortune without asking me what was my wish(es) (I had a lot though). And came the purpose of the whole free consultation. I'm running into bad luck now and I should do something about it. So they offer to do something for me for a price. I tried to look like I'm really considering it but couldn't quite afford it (which was also pretty much the truth). Then he offered that I could do half the ritual first and finish it it up later! This was probably the funniest thing I heard. Once again, I had to reject with earnest. Muwuahahahha!

 

Our host came into our yurt to ask if we wanted to watch some performance by the lake. Initially we thought it was their local dance and drinking session. That would most be fun to attend. My buddy and I took our gears and followed our host to the performance. It turned out to be something of a world tour of a concert of the different cultures in China and Mid-autum festival celebration as well. 30 minutes later, we were bored. Commoner like us dun get to see it up close. We had to watch it from the top of a hill while the VIPs gathered at the bottom, with meals served to them. We left the concert soon after and head back to the yurt. We were so unprepared for staying up on the mountain, where I had enough reasons to believe that the temperature to near zero or even below it. My hands was numbing! I could almost not feel my fingers and the sleep was not sound. Waking up every now and then due to too much cold. My lips were cracking and bleeding. My face felt numb too. All in all, it was still an experiences worthy a try but must come prepared 2 days later, where we are going to be staying for a night at the Karakul Lake which was much colder and above 4000 metres! GOD BLESS ME.