Sichuan - Part 2

Finally, its the eighteenth and the last day. We were going to make it an easy and relax day. No more rushing from one sight to the other. No time searching for transportation and bargaining for better prices. No more cheap hotel searching. We woke up late and had our breakfast. How could fans of the Romance of Three Kingdoms (三国志) novel or games or franchises not come to Chengdu (成都) and give the Wuhou Temple (武侯词) a miss? After our simple meal, I sent my buddy on his way to the Wuhou Temple (武侯词). Having been to it on my previous trip to Chengdu (成都), I had decided to give it miss. Afterall, entrance fees had gone up yet again. Damn capitalism. I headed for the Orchard Road of Chengdu (成都), Chunxi Road (春熙路). Not that I wanted to shop but was looking for some gifts for my family members, upon confirming their request.

In fact, I had a hard time searching for them. I actually walked for 6 hours, including all the way back to the hotel! Half way through, my buddy finished his tour of the Wuhou Temple (武侯词), took a cab to Chunxi Road (春熙路) to join me. Those damn mascots. Not all major departmental stores were selling them. After the 4th one and could not find what I wanted, headed back to where we had bought some of our gifts at the previous departmental store. We had to figure out our way back to the same departmental store. Once again, relying on our instincts and almost negative sense of direction, we just bashed ahead and bingo, we did managed to find it back. My buddy ended up buying more gifts for more people!

I wondered how much distances I had walked over the 6 hours. And with that, we had finally came to the end of our trip. Made our way back to the hotel, tried the local bread for the last time, then had a quick bite before collecting our luggages from the hotel. Hopped onto the cab and made our way to the Airport. Nothing big hooha over there except that someone seemed to run into some problem. She had apparently lost her passport and boarding pass after checking in and when got stuck at the x-ray scanning section. Well, curious as we might be, we did not stayed on to find out the end result. Good luck to her, if she's flying on the same flight as us.

Oh, the interesting food for last night was rabbit waist (兔腰子).Tasted a little like liver but the taste were much lighter. Hopefully the next time round, I would get to eat the fragrance meat, not that I were dying for it but I just wanted to bring exotic stuffs.

Bye bye China, but believe me, I would be back.

Sichuan - Part 1

Our 2nd last day, the seventeenth day, started without much of a plan, except we only knew we were going to fly back to Chengdu (成都). My friends wanted to buy me lunch, before sending me to the airport. In the end, he got held up at work until quite late. His german tourists were complaining badly about the lack of heater in their rooms. I never knew germans were that afraid of cold. I thought Germany was very cold as well. So we just had a quick bite across the street from the hostel before rushing to the airport.

 

We reached Chengdu (成都) without much hiccups except for my little hiccup of forgetting to place some of my airplane  forbidden items into my checked in luggage. Thought of saving a little moolah by staying in a hostel. Took a airport bus to the city, then took a cab from within the city to the hostel. What I did not expect was the lack of room when I arrived. When I called them from the airport, they actually had room, but by the time we arrived, all the rooms where taken up in that 1 hours! Arghz! The reception send us on our way to another youth hostel near the area but without giving us a proper direction. So ended up on a slight wild goose chase, kept getting redirected by the locals to somewhere else. Ended up at a 2-star hotel. They actually had a twin room for 40Y but without a bathroom and 100Y for one with a bathroom. We decided to pamper ourselves on our last night here in China, so we took up the room with the bathroom.

 

So once again, after settling our luggages, we went out to hit the street. Started walking in a randomly selected direction, we ended up at a buddhist temple which surrounded it were rows of 2 stories ancient looking building which sells food and stuffs. Its either a tourist spot of some sort or some kind of more expensive food for the locals to spend their moolah on during the weekend. Tried some of the food found there. There was one that display Goose Egg (天鹅蛋). Was debating with myself if I should tried that. Was calculating the amount of colesterol in it, and finally given in to my desire to taste exotic food. Damn, when did I became so health conscious? And I felt conned! Its actually deep fried flour with some sesame on the outside. Arghz!

 

Then we continued walking until we thought we lost sight of where we were going. I only had a general direction of where our hotel was supposed to be. Anywhere we just continue walking until we came across a big departmental store. Ended inside it shopping for some gifts for some friends, and looking for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games mascots dolls for a colleague. And after we left the departmental store, we tried to find our way back to the hotel and we ended up in the direction, and then we finally came across that youth hostel that we were supposed to go as directed by the previous hostel!

 

We had the local steamboat for dinner. Its was flaming hot and numbing to the mouth. Almost could not take it anymore but we were closing to finishing our food already. For the 1st time I did not finish the plate of pomfret I ordered. Their pomfret was very small compared to those we ate in Sillypore. I tried the Harbin beer but found it no big deal. The beef was very nice though.

 

And with that, we ended up at an internet cafe to finish off our seventeenth day and final night in China.

 

 

 

 

Qinghai - Part 2

Xining (西宁) was very very cold right now due to the raining for the past month. In fact I had put on 4 layered of clothes. After breakfast, we headed to Guide (贵德). We scaled to the base of Laji Mountain (拉鸡山). It was snowing up there, with the summit covered in snow. I had finally seen my real snow! Went out to take some photos and felt the snowflakes fell onto my face and melted away. Even used the snow to wash my hands though it left it a little frozen after that. Along the way to Guide (贵德), we came across Yellow River (黄河). We reached Guide (贵德) shortly after. Went to visit Jade Emperor Temple (玉皇阁). Inside it was statues of many taoist deities. Even Yue Fei (岳飞) and Guan Yu (关羽) had theirs there too. Of course, the Emperor of all deities (玉帝) had his there as well. Afterall, the temple was dedicated to him.

 

After finishing the temple, we made our way back to Xining (西宁). Along the way, we pass by Chengnan (成南), a new district that the real estate developer were trying to develop. A lot of residential housing were available and its relatively cheap but many of them were vacant. It was still some distance away from  Xining (西宁). Reminded me when Sillypore Gahmen tried to get people to buy up HDB properties in Sembawang and Sengkang back then.

 

Today is the breaking of their month long fasting of the islamic Hui tribe (回族). Their mosque should be pretty packed with Hui people (回民). Along our way to and fro Guide (贵德), could see quite a few number of people bringing their kids with them to do visiting for their new year. I guess we were a lot physically and mentally tired. So we reached back to our hostel by 1500hrs. Dun feel like walking to the mosque to see the human mass orgy. So took a break, staying inside the hostel, relaxing away by surfing the net and watching The IT Crowd Season 2. Afterall, going to be flying back to Sillypore in another 2 more days, and thinking of the mountain of works waiting back in the office was sending the shiver down my spine. Sigh.

 

After that we had dinner by roaming the food alley (小吃街). Had some BBQ squid and pork ribs, and finally tried the ancient candy (冰糖葫芦). Its actually maltose poured over their particular plum or peach type stuff. Now they actually pour the maltose over fresh fruits or dried fruits. And after dinner, we ended our sixteenth day of no excitement.

 

 

Qinghai - Part 1

First time we dun have to wake up in the middle of the night to get to our destination. We reached Lanzhou (兰州) at around 0914hrs. Bought our tickets to Xining (西宁) at 1010hrs but the train was delayed till 1040. Also our first time not taking the sleeper compartment. The hard seater tickets were not allocated seats like those of sleepers. We had to fight our way through the available hard seater compartment looking for seats. The "No Smoking" sign seemed to be useless, and even the passengers just spat on the floor. The train was supposed to be fast train but it kept stopping midway from the station. Dun look that fast to me.

 

Finally reached Xining (西宁) at 1500hrs. Since it was the final destination, we took our time to get off the train. No point in squeezing with those passengers who seems dying to get off the train. Finally met my friends outside the station. Took a cab to one of their friend's operated hostel. Sunshine Pagoda Hostel. Lovely place. Nice environment, nice staff. It was located near the main shopping street in Xining (西宁). Since we had another hour and a half to kill before meeting the friends for dinner, we did our usual walkaround. Trying their local self made potato chips. Very hot and spicy, cheap and nice.

 

Had dinner at a rather famous local muslim restaurant. Then headed back to the hostel. Luckily I checked my email, only to discover my flight back to Chengdu (成都)  was cancelled due to bad weather. Had to postpone our flight to saturday afternoon. Only after I agreed to the change did I realised that the air ticket price had been reduced by another 100Y! Damn. My itinerary was fixed by the friend. Due to the additional time in Xining (西宁), the original itinerary had been changed. With that ended my fifteenth day in China.

 

 

Gansu - Part 1

Twelfth day started at 0314hrs, as I had stated in my last entry. After alighting from the train, we made our way to the exit, forgetting to make our next train ticket purchase, from  Dunhuang (敦煌) to Lanzhou (兰州), As we made our way out of the train station, there were already few hasslers around, looking for people to take their cab. Anyway, we just randomly selected one driver and went with him, getting him to help us find a 2-star hotel, as usual. The 1st one we went to was full, so we headed to the one across the street which got a room, but ended up we had to pay for 2 nights, since the time we checked in was considered as previous night. Damn hotel! And worse, the shower ran on solar power, so no hot water until later in the morning. So we only did some wiping before heading to bed.

 

Woke up at 1100hrs and still felt the coldness in the air! The windows to the room was not closed, so the whole room had dropped to below your standard aircon room temperature. And to make matter worse, there was NO HOT WATER at all! It happened to be a dark cloudy day with almost no sun. So its was very cold out there. We had to put on 3 layers of clothes. With my running noses, my resistances to coldness had dropped a fair bit.

 

Apparently there was no public bus to the local tourist spots. So after settling our lunch with one of the local restaurant, we called the driver who picked us up earlier in the morning to bring us to the local sights. So in the end, we decided on going to 3 just sights, skipping Wei Jin Tomb (魏晋墓). We started with JiaYuGuan Fort (嘉峪关关城). Quite a big place. After seeing castles in Wales some years back, I ought to see a chinese Fort. The fort was decorated with a man-made lake and museum around it. The inside of the fort retained most of its original style and this fort is an important fort back then, protecting the China's border due to its strategic location. We spent more time in it than expected. There was even an archery area, where tourists got to shoot arrows down at the straw dummy from the top of the fort. As usual, it was not free but its relatively cheap, at 1Y per arrow. There was also a GuanYu Temple ( 关帝庙) inside the fort too. There was a legend saying that a great man calculated the building of the fort to great accuracy that at the end of the construction, only one brick was left.

 

After that, the 2nd sight was a part of the Great Wall. We got to climb till the end of it. A few hundreds steps later, we were at the end of whatever was left of this part of the  Great Wall. The climb up was a little unbearable. With a running nose and ice cold wind for companionship, it did took a fair bit of labour to get to the top. With each step I took, I was asking myself why was I paying moolah to put myself through such labour. At the top, we were rewarded with a bird's eye view of the city.
 

The 3rd sight was the 1st sector of the Great Wall (第一墩). It was the 1st section because it started from the end of the cliff. Frankly, only one small section of it was left and give it another couple more years, or decades, it will probably disappeared, with the erosion of nature. The cliff was by a gorge, which will slowly "eat" away the cliff. At this sight, we got to see an underground cave. It was purly man-made that contained fossil skeletons on the wall, and underground excavation sealed with glass floor for viewing, and a gallery that extended out of the cliff, having a good better view of the gorge beneath it. There were cable car service that brought paying tourist to the opposite end of the cliff. It was a single seater swing like seat. I'm sure one can felt the adrenaline rush while sitting alone, gliding across the gorge with no protection around you.

Slightly further away from the underground cave was a filming site. Its was constructed like an ancient army camp. We wondered around the camp with the cold wind freezing us. There was a bridge across the gorge to another filming site which was constructed like an ancient home, with well too. Looked exactly like those in a period drama. Crossing the bridge did gave me the adrenaline rush, with the chilling wind around me and the fast rushing but not huge enough river roaring beneath me. The bridge did swing with each step I took. Its about 100m - 150m across.

With that ended our sightseeing in JiaYuGuan (嘉峪关). We got the driver to send us to the bus station to get our tickets for Dunhuang (敦煌). Along the way, he pointed out there were restaurants that sell fragrance meat (香肉), which was actually dog meat. Sound exotic enough, I would not mind trying that but it was too far from our hotel and I could not remember the there. We ended eating at this famous bun restaurants called Gou Bu Li (狗不理)which literally meant dog dun care. After dinner we headed for the nearby internet cafe, after which we walked to their night market. It was a little boring compared to the bazaar at Xinjiang. The day ended with NO HOT SHOWER! I normally went normal tap water at home but temperature below 20°and ice cold water, bathing in my current condition was a bad idea. We could only made do with kettle boiled water to wipe ourselves.

Thirteenth day started with a mad rush. We headed to the nearby train station to get our Dunhuang (敦煌) to Lanzhou (兰州) train tickets. Due to some miscommunication, I was issued the wrong tickets. Standing there to argue was a bad idea since we needed to get ourselves to the bus station for the trip to Dunhuang (敦煌). So I was directed to the next counter to cancel the tickets and made a new purchase. The line was a little long with certain people having priority queue and computer hiccup. In the end its 10mins rush to the bus station.

The ride was uneventful, taking nearly 6 hours. We reached Dunhuang (敦煌) at about 1500hrs and a lady started hassling us to get a cab for the famous Mogao Grottoes (莫高窟). There was no public bus to Mogao Grottoes (莫高窟). So in the end we took one of the cabs to city central which was actually only 2 streets away. The hotel we stayed was the most expensive so far. Most spacious but looked a little rundown. The toliet was a little flooded after bathing too. But this was the only one that provided each room with cable TV! I tuned to latest movie channel and I'm looking at a movie I watched more than 10 years back! We took our shower without the hot water since the temperature in Dunhuang (敦煌) was a little warm by the time we reached.

We went to MingSha Mountain ( 鸣沙山) to climb the sand dunes and to view the Moon Crescent Lake (月牙泉). As we expected, the sights in Dunhuang (敦煌) was among the most expensive for this trip. MingSha Mountain (鸣沙山) was a 5A site, like Tianshan Tianchi but more expensive. According to Frommer's China guide, the climb up the dunes was some sweaty work. It was no kidding me. If you dun walk with controlled steps, a lot of energy was wasted. A step up, half a step sinking was going to happen, not to talk about my physique. Perspiring with chilling wind blowing was no fun.

With each step, the same thoughts ran through my mind. Why was I paying to suffer? But as always, the higher you climbed, the better the view got. Along the way, we could see people sitting along the side of the slope catching their breath. Some were playing with the sand, rolling in it. They were very fine sand. 2 ladies on the way down suggested to us to take off our shoes to enjoy the feel of the fine sand. Looking down at my boots, its not a good idea. There were shoes protective cover for rental, covering from kneel down to the floor. Its a good thing we came in our boots with gutters, so no sand could get in unless we sank to our waist.

From the top, I really got an awesome view of the Moon Crescent Lake (月牙泉), man-made lake as well as its surroundings. We hanged at the top for a while, enjoying the chilling breeze and the sweaty effort. One side of a particular dune was named the sliding slope. As the name suggested, tourists paid to sit on a float and slided down the slope. We chose to walk down the slope. Taking 1 last look at the surrounding so not to leave out anything else since I dun wish to climb up again, we made our way down.

We made our way to the Moon Crescent Lake (月牙泉). Its a naturally formed lake in the middle of the desert. A building was constructed next to it in the recent decades. The lake had been around for milleniums. Like the saying beautiful from far, far from beautiful. From far, the lake looked beautiful but close up, it looked disappointing. There were a lot of camels sitting around, waiting for their owners to get tourists to pay for the ride. Riding a camel in a desert looked so fun but my wallet refused to sponsor me. Sigh.

We left the place, taking the public bus back to town central. We then started our ritual walk around the town. We went looking for a place to eat donkey meat. I doubt I could try that in Sillypore. As usual, we ordered too much food again. We asked for small plate of yellow noodles but it looked like extra large in Sillypore term. Reminded me of the entrée spaghetti I had when I was in downunder 5 years back. Temperature dropped pretty fast in Dunhuang (敦煌) by night fall. We finally found our way to the main shopping street, somewhat of the Orchard Road in Sillypore. Went to the internet café to gather information on the train schudule from Lanzhou (兰州) to Xining (西宁). Booked our airticket back to Xining (西宁) to Chengdu (成都) as well. And that ended our thirteenth day.

We woke up early for the fourteenth day. Half a day at the famous Mogao Grottoes (莫高窟) was recommended. Our driver arrived earlier than we were ready. Mogao Grottoes (莫高窟) was at least a 5A site, costing us 160Y each. If you are holding any China guide, if it is not the current year copy, the pricing in it are mostly outdated. It was a 10mins walk in the early coldness before reaching the entrance. All cameras and big bag had to be deposited at the free deposit counter. A chinese speaking guide was provided for free but it would have to wait a group to be formed. The thing was that each guide might show you a slightly different set of caves though the 3 main caves would always be part of the highlights.

There were 735 caves in Mogao Grottoes (莫高窟), with 492 of those containing paintings and statues, out of which only 30-40 caves were opened to public. Each guide would show 8 - 10 caves, so we shall 10 + 1 caves. After we finished our guided tour, we were allowed to roam the place on our own. We came a group that went into a cave that we din see earlier, so we joined them. If we hanged around the place for a while more, we could see even more caves. But we had a time schedule to adhere to, so we could not stick around the caves all day. Photography were only allowed after stepping through the exit, from behind the fences. So a lot of moolah making opportunity for people outside the fences. They would take a photo of you from behind the fence while you were still inside. Photo to be collected after you exited.

One of the oldest caves we visited was more than 1500 years. At some caves, layered of paintings could be seen, due to different dynastic changes in fashion or repair works. Tang dynasty had done the best art, especially during the peak of the dynasty. The world 3rd largest buddha, but 1st for indoor buddha statue, was found here in cave 96. It rosed in rank because the previous 3rd and 4th was destroyed in... errrr I think Pakistan... by the extremists. That buddha was over 30m in height and 1 of the 3 main caves to see. First built during the Tang dynasty and repaired numerous times over the different dynasties. Inside the caves, one could see the layered floor tiles over the different dynasties.

The other one was the 2nd largest buddha in Mogao Grottoes (莫高窟), which was over 20m, in cave 148. The final highlight was the sleeping buddha in caves 130. The inside of the caves was shaped like a coffin depicting buddha's death at age of 80 years. 72 monk sculptures was added to the back of the buddha, each having a different facial expression depicting their different understanding of the buddha's death.

One of the caves contained a sculpture that was said to be the Mona Lisa of the East. From one angle, when light was shone onto it, it was smiling and from another angle, it had a different smiling expression. And this was more than 1500 years old. In another cave, many of today's fashion design of clothes were found on the wall paintings.

In another cave was a vast treasures of Mogao Grottoes (莫高窟) discovered. The cave was done up by a great monk. After his death, his disciples excavated a smaller cave within the same cave.  In it was the statue of great monk which the disciples done to be a memorial place of him. Some 200 years later, the local people that smaller cave to hide all their religious and treasured artifacts. The area was entering a warring time. They then sealed up the smaller cave. Another 800-900 years had passed before a priest discovered the smaller cave while cleaning up the cave. He took some of the artifacts to sell. Slowly news spread about the treasures. Between 1904 - 1911, the germans, americans, russians, japanese and french came and bribed the priest with little moolah for the treasures inside. By the time the government took over the place, only 10000 artifacts were left compared to 50000 when the smallor caves were discovered.

His disciples believed that he had done great contributions to cave since he used the moolah gotten from the sales on artifacts and religious contributions to repair the cave. A plaque in memory of him was took up by the disciples in the but that plaque was now a reminder of his shame and treachery. After we exited from the caves area, we went around taking photos of whatever we could.

On the way back to town for lunch, we detoured to a Northern Wei Tomb (北魏墓) which was nearly 1800 years old. The tomb was discovered in 1981 only after they caught a tomb robber. He was only an accomplice. The main culprit was never caught. Almost everything was cleared out of the tomb, hence the owner of tomb was undeterminable. But based on the structure of the tomb, the owner was likely to be someone high up in the society hierarchy. The design of the tolnb was to make use of gravity to support itself. No cement was used at all. The tomb robber was very professional, knowing how to break into the tomb. Only the 4 corners of the roof was the possible way to break in. Removing a wrong brick would caused the tomb to collapse. It was said the real coffin of owner was to be found behind the wall painting found in the main room but no way to determine it. Removing that wall would caused the tomb to collapse.

After the tomb visit, we went back to town for lunch. Had donkey and lamb dumplings, together with wanton soup. We then headed for the West Thousand Buddha Caves (西千佛洞). Its was deserted with no tourists when we visited. This place paled in comparison to Mogao Grottoes (莫高窟). A total of 16 caves with only 6 opened for public. Many sculptures were unfinished. Due to weather and earthquakes, most of the paintings were ruined but works from Northern Wei could be seen. It showed the refinement of the artists' styles and skills over the dynasties.

Our final stop was at the Dunhuang ancient city (敦煌古城). It looked great and grand from the outside, similar to the JiaYuGuan Fort (嘉峪关关城). Only after entering did we realized we got duped. Its was a filming location. Many dramas and movies, including from Hongkong, Japan and Korea, had used the set. We just did a quick tour around the place and left. We headed back to town and killed some time, arranging with the driver to picked us up at 1800hrs. As usual, we sat down in an internet café to kill time.

The original driver we arranged with the day before could not pick us up for our day tour. Then the driver who came to pick us up at 1800hrs heading for the train station was another driver since the previous driver went to Liuyuan. With that we ended our adventures in Gansu. We paid the most expensive and cheapest entrance fees in Dunhuang (敦煌), together with the most expensive hotel stay for us. Our train would take us to Lanzhou (兰州) where we would changed to another train to Xining (西宁).

 

Xinjiang - Part 5

As I was saying in my last entry, we were going to be visited 2 sites in Kuqa (库车). Our 1st stop was the Kizil Thousand Buddha Caves. It had a total of 330 caves with only ONE Buddha and we did not even get to see THAT Buddha in that Kizil Thousand Buddha Caves. In fact, only 8 caves were opened to the public, so we only saw 8 of them, and most of them are in pretty bad shape due to neglience, destroyed by Islamic fanatics, destroyed by local villagers for the gold-plated painting or paints as fertilizer, or stolen by german archeologist. In fact the lower caves, which were built around the 3rd to 5th century had already collapsed. It was quite a sad thing. A culture and history lost forever.

 

In fact this driver was quite good. He noticed that I had a running nose, so he did not turn on the aircon the entire journey. Driving with the windows winded down was pretty common in Xinjiang. However, the road condition was not good enough for such it. Along the way to the 2nd site, Tianshan Mysterious Grand Gorge (天山神密大峽谷), it was an extremely dusty road. There were heavy construction going on, building another expressway.

 

We had our lunch at the foot of Tianshan Mysterious Grand Gorge (天山神密大峽谷). Its a little overpriced but still acceptable. We only had an hour and a half, at most, since we need to rush back to Kuqa (库车) to catch our sleeper bus to Turpan (吐鲁番). We walked as quickly as we could, kepting looking at the watch to see how much time we were left with before we had to descend down the mountain. It was a uphill walk, and at times we had to scale some rocks, squeezed between narrow grooves, climb some steel ladders and stairs. The good thing was the return trip was a downhill rush, so needing only 1/3 of the time taken to way up. We were about to give up till we came across this couple that told us that the end was just ahead. So we decided to take a few more minutes to continue, deciding to do very very brisk walk with some short run on the way down. I'm not sure if that was the original endpoint since it looked to me that there should be more passage upwards but due to a huge rock that collapsed down blocking the way. There was the signboard that tells all visitor that all were to stop at this point. At least I could say I had completed my walked through the Tianshan Mysterious Grand Gorge (天山神密大峽谷). With that, we started our mad dash downwards.

 

The driver decided to go a shortcut, which was about 20km shorter than the original route taken. The road travelled along the base of the mountain, and along the river. The road condition was poorer but much less dustier. We came to a point where we could see cars queuing. The 1st time that came across our mind was that it better not be jammed since we would be missing our sleeper bus to  Turpan (吐鲁番). Luckily, it was only a short wait, since there were some road blasting somewhere further up on the mountain. The road condition was indeed bad. There were some very big humps and holes along the route. The driver had to drive very slowly just in case if the car got stucked. At some point, we even had to get out of the car to clear the holes.

 

We seems to be slightly ahead of time, so we stopped by a 3rd unplanned site, Subash Buddhist Temple Ruins. It was in very bad shape too. Hardly recognised it to be of any temple or monastry. In fact those in Angkor Wat were in much better condition. And with that we reached at the bus station in time to catch our sleeper bus to our final destination in Xinjiang. And that pretty much ended our ninth day adventure.

 

Our tenth day adventure started at the wee hours of the night. We reached Tuokexun (托克逊) at 4am in the morning. We were woken up by the driver, again, and got out of the bus in the middle of nowhere. Took a cab from the bus stop to the bus station in Tuokexun (托克逊). We dun felt like paying a night room for just a few hours of sleep. Just when we were thinking of taking a break by having a drink at the nearby restaurant, we were approached by a guy who were gathering people going down to Turpan (吐鲁番). It was 10Y per person. No argument there and it was cheap compared to all the prices we had been paying for transportation. After an hour and a half of delay, the minibus was finally fully loaded and about to head off when someone from the local Petrol Squad stopped him. After some begging and persuasion, the lady still refused to let him ferry us to Turpan (吐鲁番) due his bus load of I had no idea what. Look to me to be some huge sacks of potatoes or carrots or onions and an empty LPG container!! In the end, he ferried us back to the bus station and swapped us to another minibus. After delayed again, we were moved from the 2nd minibus to the 3rd minibus! We finally moved off from the bus station at 0830hrs, as stated on the official bus ticket.

 

About half hour later, we arrived at Turpan (吐鲁番). We gave the driver a call and he picked us up 5mins later. Got him to send us to a 2-star hotel. As usual, did our human waste dumping and hot shower before planning where to go. The driver recommended by Ho Sen was busy for the day. He got his younger brother to drive us around. Quite a handsome fellow, I must say. Like those taiwan teary Chongyao drama male lead, with a tint of foreign blood.

Since we had booked his car for the entire day, we tried all the sights within the day. At the same time, we tried to get the elder brother to buy the train tickets to JiaYuGua (嘉峪关) for us. Since we had to get the tickets from an agency, there was a 50Y commissions per damn tickets. What to do, the train station was 54km from the city.

On the way to our 1st sight, we drove past the Grape Valley (葡萄沟) entrance which so  definitely was charging an entrance fee. Our driver told us that we woúld be coming back to the valley later, and going through another entrance which was free! Sound good to us.

We started with GaoCheng ancient city (高昌故城). A city established more than 2000 years ago but had fallen into disused over the centuries. As with that Subash Buddhist Temple Ruins that we seen in Kuqa (库车), it was in a pretty bad state. A sign stating an unknown shape of a building to be a buddhist monastery. Either 95% of the building had corroded with time or people back then in the region some 2000 years ago were petite in size. We got persuaded into taking the donkey cart. We were told by our driver that its was fairly huge and walking to the end is some 2km-3km. So we took a ride to the end and came back some 30mins later. It dun feel that far and what was that distance comparing to what we had been walking. Sigh. Tourist stupidity.

Next on the list was Flaming Mountains (火炎山). There happened to have 2 entrances to it. The 1st had to pay the entrance fee. We drove past that and we could see several tour buses in the carpark. The latter entrance was free though the view was a little less grand, or rather it was a smaller part of it. We were fine with that. There was no one around, so we had the whole mountain for ourselves.

After that we had over to Bezklik Thousand Buddha caves (柏孜克里千佛洞). Again only a few caves were opened and they were mostly cleared out. We decided to hop over just for some quick photo shoot without going in. Seemed like the area where I wanted to snap could only be taken after going in. So we turned back to our next sight. Apparently they were building an amusement park or something near the caves, containing characters from the novel, Journey to the West.

We got to Tuyoq after the Bezklik Thousand Buddha caves (柏孜克里千佛洞). It had a four sections in it. Its own grand canyon, Uygur ancient folk settlement, Hojamu Tomb and Thousand Buddha caves! I was not expecting that many things at this sight. As we were walking through the settlement, we came across a group of people entering a house. So we followed them in and everyone started to take out their cameras and snapped away. Half way through, an old lady appeared out of nowhere and smile at us. She asked for some money for  photographing her place.

We then continued down the path looking for theThousand Buddha caves. Not sure how many caves were here but we saw four. We had to climb some couple hundreds of metres upwards before reaching the caves. As usual, most of the wall paintings had been gone with the centuries. On the way out, we thought we spotted the grand canyon but we did trekked it. We wanted to keep to our time schedule. We noticed some children playing by the path. One of them noticed us taking photo of them and started to pose for us. In fact they started fighting among themselves to be photographed. At the end of it, they asked me for moolah! Argh! I never seemed to learn my lessons! Took out a few 1Y notes to give some of them.

We headed for the Grape Valley (葡萄沟) shortly after. We did not go through any gantry. The route was probably used by the locals. We just drove through some of the grape vineyard without stopping. It was some 15mins later that we stopped by a store inside the valley. Its a place with exorbitant prices for anything.

After lunch, we headed for our final sight, Ermin Minaret (苏公塔). On the way there, we detoured a little to pick up the train ticket from the elder brother. After paying him and moving off, I noticed the timing on the ticket to be a little too early. Once again, we were screwed, arriving at  JiaYuGua (嘉峪关) at 0314hrs. Damnit. Extra night of lodging for nothing. I could not possibly barked at the elder brother for getting tickets with too early a departure time. Ermin Minaret  (苏公塔) was a kind of memorial place for a local great man. We climbed up and down, up and down and we left. With that we ended our standard local sightseeing and headed back to the hotel. We made arrangement with the driver to fetch us to the train station tomorrow. Its more expensive than the minibus but saved us the hassle of taking a cab to the bus station and looked for the bus to the station for an unknown number of hours. Walking around with 20kg on your back was not enticing enough.

After an hour rest in the hotel, we started our walked around the city. We found the local bazaar and bashed through it, taking note of any local products to buy back. We just keep roaming the streets until night fall before heading to the night market for dinner. All the internet cafes we came across seemed to be closed for the day. I wondered if it was internet resting day. I knocked out pretty early hence ending our tenth day.

We woked with a startled on the eleventh day. Wanted to wake up earlier to do our last shopping in Xinjiang before heading for lunch, then looked for internet cafe to kill some time before heading to the train station. Ended up waking at close to noon. That left us with 3 hours. Headed back to the bazaar to get whatever we needed, then to a restaurant for a sumptuous lunch. The restaurant was not even ready for business. In the end, spent an hour and a half having our lunch, then walked back to the hotel to get ready for departure. The driver was late and it was not him who arrived but his friend. Apparently his wife was in hospital, either giving birth or something regarding him, his wife and baby. I could not seem to get a decent chinese response back from the friend.

 

The train was pretty spacious in fact. Quite liked it! The most expensive seat on the train would be the soft lower berth but we got the hard lower berth, which was just as good. So we remind ourselves to make sure that we get the same hard lower berth for our train ride from Dunhuang (敦煌) to Lanzhou (兰州), before switch over to Xining to meet that friend who helped me. And with that would be my last few hours in Xinjiang. The only thing I would be hating was getting off the train at 0314hrs.

 

Damn.

 

 

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.

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.