Xinjiang - Part 4

It was China's golden week starting today, which was my fifth day here. The night before, there seems to be some massive celebration going on around all over China since it was their National Day. Today would be my last day in Kashgar, after visiting the Kararul Lake. As I was saying, we got to know this couple at the airport whom we went together with to Kararul Lake. It did help us to save 50% of a normal priced bus ticket. As the chinese saying goes, 在家靠父母,除外靠朋友 (when one is at home one depend on your parents, when one is outside one depend on friends). It was a good thing that we met this couple. Because of them, we made some changes to our original plan and they were for the better. We decided to leave on the same night, catching a night bus from Kashgar to Hotan.

 

There were some delays to our morning plan to visiting the Kararul Lake. Apparently China chinese had to apply for a permit to visiting the Kararul Lake whereas foreigner like us just need to show our passport though the official at the outpost along  karakoram highway did take note of our details. Apparently China chinese can travel around within China without having to bring their passport, only their IC suffice. Come to think of it, we dun even need to show our IC when we go over to Sentosa or Pulau Ubin or Pulau Tembakuli. The taxi we hired seemed to be a very careful driver who was not very keen on speeding, so we were almost overtaken by most of the vehicles passing us. It was a four hours journey to the Kararul Lake, which we might be able to cut down to 3 if he was to only exceed the speed limit!

 

As I mention earlier, we were lucky to have change our plan to stay the night over at the Kararul Lake . I was so not overwhelmed by the scene. So many travel guide books mentioned that Kararul Lake  was worth the journey there. If i taken the public bus, it would be a 6 hours ride, which was our initial plan since we wanted to journey on a budget. It seemed to be a one way journey to Tashkurgan, the last chinese town before hitting Pakistan. So the return trip, we had to sit by the roadside and hoping to catch the bus going back! And even luckier that we changed our mind about staying on the night in one of the yurts at Kararul Lake. The peak season was over, lady winter was on her way to the place, so what should have been a huge peak of green grassland was nothing more than dried ground. However, from a distance you could see the local normads staying there. A little boy was trying to convince me to take a ride on his camel. As I talked to him, I learnt that they would be moving up to the mountain after lady winter had arrived. No shitting me! That was a minimum of below 30 degrees!

 

The couple did went for some horse riding since the girlfriend was so enticed by the horse. Somehow they had such a happy time that they had forgotten they were suppose to go back to Kashgar to catch their night flight to Urumqi. They were on a tighter schedule compared to us. Our last night bus was at 2130hrs compared to their flight at 2105hrs, and we dun need the 30 mins check-in period. We left Kararul Lake at around 1800hrs. After the couple been breathing down the neck of the driver to rush them to the airport, which they din managed to in the end, the driver did speed up on the way back. Think they had to change to another airline to catch a 2210hrs flight out. And for us, after nearly 8 hours in the car, its another 9 hours on the bus. The journey felt like Osim massage chair. The only time the bus was not bumping on the road was then it stopped at one of the stops for passenger to alight.

 

We finally arrived at our destination at 0530hrs. Lucky for us, there was a 2-star hotel next to the bus station where we arrived. We checked into that place and did some cleaning up and head for bed. After catching a couple hours of decent sleep, we headed out to roam this small town, a town famous for jade, silk and carpet. We missed dinner the night since we were in a hurry to catch the last bus out and together with breakfast this morning. We were famish by the time we headed out to start our day. We walked in the general direction of the Eastern Bus Station where we were supposed to be taking a bus to Minfeng (民丰). Had our brunch at one of the local restaurant where we ordered a little too much food. Din expect the potion to be so huge. What we had ordered is probably enough for 4-5 person. We tried our best but finish as much as we could but it was really too much. But I did love that dish of fish (回锅鱼). One whole fish chopped to pieces and fried in Chengdu spicy 麻辣 style for only 25Y! I could never get that kind of price back in Sillypore. Only problem I had with the dish was a little too many tiny bones.

 

It seems like there was no direct bus to Luntai (轮胎) from  Minfeng (民丰). So we had to come back to Hotan (和田) after going to Minfeng (民丰). So we decided to give that a skip and headed for Luntai (轮胎) or Korla or Kuqa (库车). We had yet to decide which town to go next but we did had some time, and if the good thing about backpacking. Afterall, we had already we regained 2 extra days by leaving Kashgar earlier. After getting out of the bus station, we decided to try out their local bus services to get to the carpet factory. Their bus had little seats with a lot of room for standing. There was a bus conductor who would issue ticket when paying for the fare, and collected back the ticket after getting off the bus. It seemed to me that they dun use the buzz for the bus to stop. You tell the conductor and she (so far only seen female conductors) would shout at the bus driver to stop.

 

For some unknown reasons, we seemed to alight at a location that show no indiction of where the carpet factory was. Had to check with a local, to only realised it was some 500m down a dusty road to the carpet factory. Wait, the whole Xinjiang was dusty. I guess sand and dust was their middle name. There seemed to have no security guard around. We just walked into the factory, standing outside a glass room where the girls were working on the carpet. One of them noticed us standing outside for a while, before indicating to us to come in! Seemed like they could bring their toddler to work as well. And inside the glass room, there were some exotic beauty. How nice. Eye candy for me :-P

 

Shortly after, we were thinking of walking in a general direction of a silk or dunno what factory. A recommendation from the reception at our hotel. However upon seeing the returning bus, we changed our mind and ran after the bus to head back to town central. On the way out, the bus passed by this river (I think it was the river though it looked like its drying up, probably due to the season) with a lot of people on the bed, looking for something. Probably this was where they picked the famous 和田玉(hetian jade). We alighted nearby to one of the local mosque, which dun look impressive compared to the one seen at Kashgar. Then we went over to the local bazaar area, and I saw someone selling that ancient sweet candy (冰糖葫芦). I was very tempted to try this but I dun trust the amount of dust in the air!

 

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped over at this store where local bread-like pizza base staff, which I think was called nang, was made on the spot. We walked past the store earlier in the day, standing there taking photos of them. The people working there and standing around seemed to be fascinated with us. The female boss(I think) recognised us and signalled to us if we were buying. She attended to us pretty fast, and there was quite a queue. I guess that bread collected some dust on our way back to the hotel. Life was pretty much like this over here. If you got a pretty weak stomach, coming down here might be a bad bad idea for you. We bought some local satay-like stuff back to the hotel for dinner. That pretty much end our day 6.

 

Day 7 was a very relaxing day. Since we cannot figure out how to get to this river where the local did their fishing, we decided to just walk in another general distance and looked at whatever we would see on the street. We were leaving for Luntai (轮胎) on a luxury bus, which we bought the most expensive ticket and I hoped it was worth it, at 1700hrs. Travelling too far might be a bad idea. More exotic beauty as well. Inside one of the departmental store, we heard some Chinese and Western Pop music sung in local dialect. I wonder if they were paid royalties. Think I would be going back to the same store again to buy the bread stuff one last time before boarding the bus. It was nice and fragrance. I might get to eat it warm again. Most of the people buy in bulk and nang could be stored away for a long time since the humidity level was very low here. The bus would be going through the Taklamakan Desert, so that would be a ride of more than 10 hours. I doubt they will be stopping over in the desert unless there where stores or toilet break in the desert. I doubt. I really doubt.