Xinjiang - Part 5

As I was mentioning on my last entry, we were taking this long hour sleeper bus from Hotan (和田) to Luntai (轮台). We board the bus at 1700 hours though the bus was some 20 minutes late. While it was trying to be late, which kind of surprise me since their long distance bus seemed to be almost always on time, we got to know this Canada french. He's been touring in China for more than 4 months and planning to stay for another 1.5 months more. Wished I had time and moolah like him.

This luxury bus that we took was really quite a luxury one. Everyone was in lying down position, provided with a blanket and pillow. 3 rows of about 10 berths each, consisting of upper and lower berth. The floor was laid with carpet. I was everyone taking a black plastic bag when they board the bus. Since I had no idea what to do with it, I decided to adopt the monkey see monkey do mentality, taking one myself. As I was stepping through to get to my berth, the bus driver was shouting at me to take off my shoe! Now I knew why everyone was taking the black plastic bag.

Apparently the bus did not take us straight to Luntai (轮台), We had to take a cab from bus stop at Lunan (轮安). The bus driver did woke us up, but not just us but the entire bus caused everyone was trying to make sense whom he was calling to get up. At 0500 hrs and got woken up abruptly, it was kind of a mad rush to pick up all of stuffs and got off the bus. With the freezing cold night, we had to accept whatever fare the cab driver was going to charge us. Standing in the middle of nowhere, with cold wind blowing and minimum lights, bargaining for lower fare was not a fun idea.

We did get the cab driver to bring us to cheap hotel. After paying up, only then do we realise that we were to check out on the same day at 1100hrs since 0530hrs was still considered as yesterday, though the reception gave us a bit of allowance that we could check out at 1400hrs. At least we thought we could do some washing up after taking a short nap. Gues what? After we woke up at around 1030hrs, there was a water curfew and the staffs had no idea when water supply would be back! Huge waste of moolah and time. We should bought the direct bus ticket to Kuqa (库车) instead since we did check out ard 1130hrs and hired a car to fetch us to Kuqa (库车). The only thing I saw at Luntai (轮台) was that its a very dusty town, which I thought most of Xinjiang's towns and cities were dusty.

The car we hired brought us to the bus station, which we could get our bus ticket to our next destination at Turpan (吐鲁番). We decided to check into the hotel beside the bus station, which shared the same name as the one at Hotan (和田), called Traffic Hotel. But the one at Turpan (吐鲁番) was the smaller room we had come across so far. Suddenly we felt so cramped up in the room, with so little space to throw our things around. But on the bright side, it had a PC in it with free internet access, so here I was typing this entry.

We wanted to visit the Kizil Thousand Buddha Caves today so that we dun have to rush for tomorrow's visit to a valley (天山神密大峽谷) near Kuqa (库车). However, the price charged by the cab was over our budget so we had to wait around to see if we could meet some other people who would be heading to the same place to share the cab. We got approach by a private car rental service whom had another 2 persons who wanted to visit the Kizil Thousand Buddha Caves as well but wanted to hold back till tomorrow since they had only just arrived in Kuqa (库车) today. So we were hoping to get in touch with the 2 fellows to see if they were interested to visit the valley. In fact I think the valley was a more worthy trip than than Kizil Thousand Buddha Caves since there were several thousand buddha caves in Xinjiang.

So we spend the rest of the afternoon walking, again, in a general direction. Seems like a non-shopper like me ended up quite often in several of their departmental store here! But as we walked around since a 3km range from the hotel, there were some interesting buildings and places that we come across. As usual, there was a Quici Bazaar which consist mostly of restaurant. As I was mentioning to my travel mate that we had yet seen any local massage parlor, then did we notice one huge advertising board that was for food massage. The price look cheap too. A full packge for only 65Y, which I had no idea what it consist of. If the full package was taking more than an hour, I think its quite cheap. We walked into another area where the miniority groups trading area was, with street side stores selling dry food to fruits to cooked food. Bought some local dried tibits while we were there. In fact the owner saw me taking photography of his store, signalled for me to come over. Tried out his dried white date and sesame seed sugar coated peanuts. There was a brawling going on when we were there but I believe it would be very unwise to take out my camera at that moment.

We ended our walk and head back to the hotel, stopping along the way for dinner. Inside the restaurant, saw this group of han chinese teenagers. They really looked and dressed horribly, and ordered plenty of food yet eating only little of it. Damn, after seeing so many exotic beauties around, I think the Han chinese were starting to look bad for me, especially those who dressed up like some rock punk. They looked really really ugly, minusing the dressing. Since we were unabled to get in touch with the driver who was supposed to confirm with us if we were going to be taking his car, I had to activate some relationship (关系) for help hoping to get cheaper rates. Gave my previous guide, whom I got to know during my Roof of the World trip, a call. He was a really good person with a lot of friends and business relationship around China. He got me in touch with a good friend who was in the travel business in Xinjiang, whom got in touch with the Kuqa (库车) local agency. A lady gave me a call and the price quote for a rental car was cheaper than I was willing to budget for. Lucky me, I guess. The road to the valley was under heavy construction, making it difficult to travel, so I would expect pricing to be higher for that part of the journey.

Also made a call to a guy recommended by the fellow (Ho Sen) whose yurt we stayed in at Tianchi (天山天池). According to Ho Sen, with a friend recommendation, we would be able to get a cheaper rate compared to just asking for the price on the street. The price he quote was fair enough for us, since we wanted to include in a place called Tuyoq which was further than the usual 8 sights of Turpan (吐鲁番). In fact most travel guide books suggested skipping some of the 8 sights. Ho Sen suggested 3, namely Grape Gutter (葡萄沟）Gaochang ancient city (高昌故城), flaming mountain (火焰山). We shall plan what else we could see along the way since we had already booked the car for the day.

Time to turn in to end my eighth day.