Originally we thought we had a three star hotel for only $25 US, but the presence of a flyswatter on the table, and the fact that we could not figure out how to get hot water, along with unbussed tables at breakfast, and nothing to drink, led Mike to downgrade it to a two star hotel. On the other hand, Carol was tremendously satisfied with the view out of the window - a huge gilded onion dome a block away, a minaret a block further back, a large statue of Mao and the Uighur peasant, and people exercising in the morning on the square.
We woke up about 8 am, after a half nights sleep. The early morning sky was a repeat of Beijing, except this time it was sand in the air, sand on the pavement, sand everywhere. You could barely see the sun through the haze. Another place where it might have been safe to view an early morning eclipse without safety glasses.
At breakfast, we met an Italian couple, who are doing almost exactly the same trip we are doing. We met them again the next morning for breakfast, and inasmuch as we are following almost the same track, we will probably cross paths again and again on the trip. They considered us courageous for Americans to be doing this trip, but hopelessly bourgoise for paying others occasionally to do our laundry when we could just as easily be doing it in the room.
Our first two tasks were to (1) find the bus station and buy bus tickets to Kashgar for Thursday overnight; (2) find a map of the city with bus routes; and (3) find water in containers larger than 600 ml. We started off walking several blocks, seeing a park of the ancient city walls, crossing a small river, and reaching an intersection. We realized that we had been walking away from everything, so we took the 2 bus back toward downtown, not knowing exactly where it was going. We followed it to the other side of town (east). There we were told that the 5 bus would take us to the bus station. It did not. It took us part of the way and stopped at a bazaar, which we explored.
Hotan is a city of Kodak moments. Even if you took 10,000 photos a day, you could hardly capture its essence. As we were walking through the bazaar, Carol decided to put on her scarf, and Mike decided it was time to buy a Uighur cap - he settled on a white one, with embroidery, for 8 RMB. Instant hajji. He attracted a large crowd. Those who thought it fit thought he was a Turk or a Pakistani. Most thought it incongruous. Carol decided "What the Hey," and took off her scarf when she realized that it was hot, and she is what she is.
The next bus was a 10 bus to the end of the line, which we thought was the Main Bus Station, but was merely the parking spot for several local and regional bus lines, including the 10 line. Carol tried to ask where the main bus station (aptostantsia) was in Uighur. She was immediately surrounded on all sides by 15 men staring intently at her. She panicked. No ticket here, but at least a bathroom.
We started walking up and down this road, and maybe an hour later found the main bus station. We passed a fancy restaurant with large numbers of people nicely dressed entering. As both of us entered the front door, we saw only men. We saw women entering a side door. We finally decided that it was a wedding, or some other nice family occasion. Realizing that they had mistakenly forgotten to invite us, and that unlike the rest, we had no gifts, we walked on.
We finally got to the bus station, bought our tickets on the sleeper bus (lower level - 95 RMB per ticket) at about 2 pm. It was time for lunch, so we walked back to an outdoor restaurant where we had seen the ladies making what we thought were manti (kreplach, small wontons), but which were described as something else. We ordered a serving and 3 skewers of lamb. They brought out a pot of tea and the skewers atop an onion nan bread. After a while, the manti came out as part of a bowl of hot spicy soup, with spinach, lots of garlic slices, and some tomato. Very tasty.
At the conclusion of lunch, we paid 4 RMB, the price quoted, and walked to the nearest bus stop to catch a bus to the Silk Factory. Mike was remarking on how amazingly cheap that meal was, being only 60 cents US. A minute later of of the restaurant ladies came over to us on her motorcycle, asking for an additional 7 RMB, which we gladly paid. Still, 11 RMB ($1.65 US, or 1.05 Euros) was not bad for lunch for two.
The Silk Factory was at the end of the 1 bus line, 3 or 4 km from town. We went over there, were given a short tour of the automated silk weaving machinery. The guide books say that you also get a tour showing how the silk is separated from the cocoons, and how it is processed, but that was missing from our tour. We also were not given the tour through the gift shop. Maybe it takes a tour-bus load of potential consumers to elicit the full monte. The machine rooms were exceedingly noisy, and did not seem to meet OSHA standards for safety. It was nearly 4 pm when we left.
Back to town for several hours at an internet cafe, where we were able to post on our own for the first time in three days.
Then back to the hotel on a different bus. Went out for dinner about 8:45 pm BT (6:45 pm XT). We walked around the corner from the hotel where there were a number of food stalls. A crowd was patronizing a stall with two immense pots. These contained a very thick bright yellow orange soup made from corn, squash, greens, a bit of meat, and seasonings (5 RMB). We split a bowl, and it was delicious, unlike anything else we had eaten.
The next day, we met the Italians at breakfast again. They were going to Kashgar on the daytime express leaving at noon. We got a slow start, with two goals before checkout time at noon. First, go to the central shopping square to find a map of Hotan with bus routes. We stayed on the bus too long and had to walk back, but eventually we found the Xinhua Book Store (shudian in Chinese, kitaphane in Uighur (Carol's guess)). We settled on two nice maps of Hotan at 6 RMB apiece, and made it back to finish all the packing and check out by noon, leaving the luggage in "Left Luggage."
At this point, Mike was at the point of collapse, being down many quarts of water apparently. Carol went out on a liquefying mission with 15 RMB. At the "supermarket" nearby, she bought two containers of Green Tea Drink for Mike, a 1 liter box of carrot juice for herself, and a 1.5 liter bottle of water. This came to exactly 15 RMB, no more and no less. Since we had been paying 1.5 RMB for 600 ml of water, 3 RMB for the 1.5 l bottle was somewhat of a buy.
It was now apx 1 pm, and Mike needed time to drink and revive. Carol went out for maybe an hour and a half, walking around the neighborhood, looking for more of the old city walls. Hotan is an exercise in urban renewal/neighborhood removal. Indeed the Onion Domes and Minaret that we had viewed from the hotel window were actually new construction housing apartments and shopping. We found nothing in this town that was old and historic, except for the city walls, even though the town itself is very old. Bland high-rise apartments effectively hide the old one-story XinJiang housing of the past. Much of this is mud brick construction, which doesn't age gracefully. Inner neighborhoods often have a guard, and the apartments (most of which seemed to be occupied by Han Chinese) are gated and fenced. So Carol had to take a very circuitous route and got a dressing down from two different guards. However, she managed to find public bathrooms on her own.
At 2:30 or so, both of us went out to the Internet Cafe from a day before. We found a bazaar at Nawage Lu (Street) and got some fresh-cracked walnuts, which were fairly green and probably meant for cooking or roasting.
After one hour of internet, we emerged. Mike needed some tea, bananas, and water. Carol had a freshly cooked egg-crepe with green onions, cooked in a sizzling iron pan at least 14 inches across (2 RMB). The place where we sat down for just tea, no food, refused to charge us anything, so we left 2 RMB on the table. We took several long bus rides to kill time and complete our exploration of the town.
For dinner, we arrived at the soup stall at 7 pm, about an hour before the soup was to be ready. So we sat and watched. Finally, the soup was ready and we got our bowl, along with bowls for the other dozen or so people lined up and waiting.
Back to the hotel at 8:30 pm, for a last trip to the bathrooms. Picked up our luggage at 8:45 pm. When Mike picked up Carol's covered backpack, he found that it was sticking to his leg. There was something gluey all over the front of her bag cover, and now one of his pant legs. So we got the hotel staff to scrub the bag cover with soap. The substances was so persistent that it took two staff members armed with toothbrushes to begin to make the cover acceptable. We got it towel dried, by 9:15 pm, caught a taxi to the bus station, in time for the 9:30 pm sleeper bus to Kashgar.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Aug 5 - 6: Urumqi to Hotan
At 21:00 we all boarded a bus to carry us out to our plane on the tarmac. The plane was probably 40 percent sold. We were the only non-Chinese on the plane, it appeared. We took off before 21:35, and were scheduled to get to Hotan ahead of the 23:10 pm scheduled arrival.
As we achieved scheduled altitude, there was an announcement we should keep our seatbelts on because of rough weather. The takeoff itself had been bumpy. We didn't fly through clouds at all, but the plane kept on lurching.
Slightly before 23:00, the stewardess got on and told us that the pilot did not want to attempt a landing, so we were returning to Urumqi. There were unhappy cries in Uighur and Chinese.
We unloaded back at Urumqi about 00:20 on Aug 6. There was a sign in Chinese that apparently informed us that we would be taking off again at 00:50, to try again on another piece of equipment. We walked over two gates, and boarded a smaller plane, at about 01:00. We took off at 01:20. This time most of the folks took different seats, and Carol ended up in her own original seat of 18A, after being unseated, and in turn unseating someone else. Mike ended up in the aisle seat on the next to the last row of the plane. Carol managed to sleep most of the flight, but Mike became an instant curiosity, and was talking the whole flight.
Everybody was taking pictures of Mike, the round eyed one, who was actually trying to say some things in Mandarin. Across the aisle was a woman who taught English in Shanghai, who was visiting some of her students in Hotan. She insisted on trying out her not-very-good English on Mike, with such useful questions as "Do you like China?" and "Why are you visiting Hetian and Kashgar?" These questions would be difficult in any case - after all, we are writing an extensive narrative on this question every day. So Mike looked up the Chinese word for camel, and explained that we were going to Kashgar and Hotan to buy a camel, and fly it back to the United States on the seat next to us. Ask a general question that can't be answered when you don't share a language well, and you get a stupid answer.
The plane arrived at 3:00 am, we had our backpacks by 3:25 am, and we walked out of the airport as they were locking it behind us. Of course, we had no hotel reservations in hand. There were a number of taxis there and they all peeled off with passengers, except one. The policeman there indicated pretty strongly that we needed to take a taxi into town, as soon as possible. He told us and the driver that the fare WAS 20 RMB to the Hetian Binguan. The taxi driver loaded up our stuff, but refused our 20 RMB note. He apparently had visions of charging us 100 RMB, or such like.
We unloaded our stuff and stood there. Eventually, the taxi driver accepted the money, we loaded up and were off to town.
We got to the hotel at maybe 3:50 am, in a quiet residential neighborhood. The gates were locked, and there was a guard there. The guard said something like "No vacancy." The taxi driver talked with the guard for a few minutes. Eventually, the taxi driver drove off, the guard pointed across the street, indicating to us in some language we did not really understand that we could not stay on his side of the street. So we carried our backpacks across the street, past an outdoors bed containing a sleeping man, and awaited the dawn.
We didn't have to wait very long, because 2 policemen, one in uniform, and one in civilian clothes. were walking down the street. We showed them our passports, and our airline tickets, and Mike explained in his best Mandarin: "We want a hotel. We want to sleep."
We all walked back across the street, with the policeman in uniform making a bunch of cell phone calls. He apparently was convinced that the hotel was full. Soon several more police cars pulled up, and the conversation sort of switched to Uighur. This was not a good night for understanding languages not our own, but we showed them the eclipse stamp in the passport. Carol's ears perked up when she heard the word "Yatak" (bed in Turkish and, evidently, Uighur).
Soon we were in one of the police cars heading off. Were we going to spend the night in the pokey?
We headed into town, and he pulled up to another hotel, the Yu Du Hotel. We went inside and learned that a room was available for 168 RMB ($25 US) per night. We agreed to two nights, or 336 RMB. They asked for a deposit of 600 RMB, which we finally understood when one of the clerks used the word "deposit" in English.
We handed over 6 bills, and our policeman friend left us. By now it was 4:30 am. Breakfast was from 8 am - 10:30 am BT. We took the elevator up to the 5th floor, opened the door to room 518 and found a lovely 2 bed standard room with a view of the main square of town. The beds were great and we collapsed.
Question: would things have worked out like this in any other country?
As we achieved scheduled altitude, there was an announcement we should keep our seatbelts on because of rough weather. The takeoff itself had been bumpy. We didn't fly through clouds at all, but the plane kept on lurching.
Slightly before 23:00, the stewardess got on and told us that the pilot did not want to attempt a landing, so we were returning to Urumqi. There were unhappy cries in Uighur and Chinese.
We unloaded back at Urumqi about 00:20 on Aug 6. There was a sign in Chinese that apparently informed us that we would be taking off again at 00:50, to try again on another piece of equipment. We walked over two gates, and boarded a smaller plane, at about 01:00. We took off at 01:20. This time most of the folks took different seats, and Carol ended up in her own original seat of 18A, after being unseated, and in turn unseating someone else. Mike ended up in the aisle seat on the next to the last row of the plane. Carol managed to sleep most of the flight, but Mike became an instant curiosity, and was talking the whole flight.
Everybody was taking pictures of Mike, the round eyed one, who was actually trying to say some things in Mandarin. Across the aisle was a woman who taught English in Shanghai, who was visiting some of her students in Hotan. She insisted on trying out her not-very-good English on Mike, with such useful questions as "Do you like China?" and "Why are you visiting Hetian and Kashgar?" These questions would be difficult in any case - after all, we are writing an extensive narrative on this question every day. So Mike looked up the Chinese word for camel, and explained that we were going to Kashgar and Hotan to buy a camel, and fly it back to the United States on the seat next to us. Ask a general question that can't be answered when you don't share a language well, and you get a stupid answer.
The plane arrived at 3:00 am, we had our backpacks by 3:25 am, and we walked out of the airport as they were locking it behind us. Of course, we had no hotel reservations in hand. There were a number of taxis there and they all peeled off with passengers, except one. The policeman there indicated pretty strongly that we needed to take a taxi into town, as soon as possible. He told us and the driver that the fare WAS 20 RMB to the Hetian Binguan. The taxi driver loaded up our stuff, but refused our 20 RMB note. He apparently had visions of charging us 100 RMB, or such like.
We unloaded our stuff and stood there. Eventually, the taxi driver accepted the money, we loaded up and were off to town.
We got to the hotel at maybe 3:50 am, in a quiet residential neighborhood. The gates were locked, and there was a guard there. The guard said something like "No vacancy." The taxi driver talked with the guard for a few minutes. Eventually, the taxi driver drove off, the guard pointed across the street, indicating to us in some language we did not really understand that we could not stay on his side of the street. So we carried our backpacks across the street, past an outdoors bed containing a sleeping man, and awaited the dawn.
We didn't have to wait very long, because 2 policemen, one in uniform, and one in civilian clothes. were walking down the street. We showed them our passports, and our airline tickets, and Mike explained in his best Mandarin: "We want a hotel. We want to sleep."
We all walked back across the street, with the policeman in uniform making a bunch of cell phone calls. He apparently was convinced that the hotel was full. Soon several more police cars pulled up, and the conversation sort of switched to Uighur. This was not a good night for understanding languages not our own, but we showed them the eclipse stamp in the passport. Carol's ears perked up when she heard the word "Yatak" (bed in Turkish and, evidently, Uighur).
Soon we were in one of the police cars heading off. Were we going to spend the night in the pokey?
We headed into town, and he pulled up to another hotel, the Yu Du Hotel. We went inside and learned that a room was available for 168 RMB ($25 US) per night. We agreed to two nights, or 336 RMB. They asked for a deposit of 600 RMB, which we finally understood when one of the clerks used the word "deposit" in English.
We handed over 6 bills, and our policeman friend left us. By now it was 4:30 am. Breakfast was from 8 am - 10:30 am BT. We took the elevator up to the 5th floor, opened the door to room 518 and found a lovely 2 bed standard room with a view of the main square of town. The beds were great and we collapsed.
Question: would things have worked out like this in any other country?
Aug 5 - Urumqi
Got up and went to breakfast with Joe at 9 or so. We got to talking about our families, and Joe pulled out a picture of his nine boys and four girls - all home schooled, none adopted.
Mike went out just before 10, waited for the bank to open, and changed another $300 US. No tang or other drinks, but the request for the exchange was written in blue and therefore had to be redone in black. 20 minutes later he had the Chinese RMB (the rate had increased to 6.7825.) It would have been a little simpler if we had the passports back. As he walked the block back to the hotel, one of the stores was playing "We wish you a Merry Christmas," in August. We told Joe that this music was a good omen for his trip.
Mike went up and tried a phone call to the hotel in Hotan (Hetian Binguan) where we hoped to stay that night. He heard "You" meaning that there were rooms, but could understand nothing else.
We checked out of the hotel and left our backpacks with the Left Luggage department, and the three of us started walking to the north for the Regional Museum (Qu Bowuguan). We arrived at 11:50 am after an apx 1 hour walk in intermittent drizzle, and cool temperatures.
This is a really world-class collection of ancient relics and contemporary folklore, very well curated in Chinese, English, and Uighur. The museum really makes the most of the concept of XinJiang as a historic crossroads of the world. The highlight is 12 remarkably well-preserved mummies, many with Indo-European features, removed from the Astana Graves, Hami, and other XinJiang sites. Although some date from 2000 BCE, their clothing, hair, and skin is remarkably well preserved. So the Celts took a wrong turn. One female mummy is known as "The Beauty," and has striking hair and features. Another is dressed in a long scarlet robe, all intact. Carol was most taken by the mummy of a six month old swaddled in bright blue cloth, with a blue and red hat. Arrayed with this mummy was a small horn and a sheep's teat, both placed in the grave to give the child a plaything and food. Too bad that we couldn't take photos.
There were also rooms of Uighur rug patterns and ethnographic displays of the 12 cultural groups of XinJiang.
We left the museum just before 2 pm. The market from which the rooster had emerged was about 1 km away. Everything is organized by sales type, spices here, raw meat there, cabbage elsewhere, you get the idea. In the back were the live animals. All kinds of poultry and rabbits awaiting their transit moments. But no row of food stalls, and we were by this point, ready for lunch.
As we emerged from the market, we saw a stall with breads and watched as a man had a bun-like roll split and filled with items from 5 small bowls. We ordered one apiece and a large 11-12 inch crepe like pancake, brushed with spices and folded up. The buns were a standout item with vegetables and meat - a messy, tasty meal (3 RMB apiece).
As we headed out to a street, Carol spied an old man with a push cart full of lotus leaf packages. When unrolled, they revealed a sweat steamed rice desert filled with red dates, still containing pits. This triangular blob was pierced with two sticks, rolled in coarse sugar, and handed over to the eager eater. (1 RMB)
By now it was 2:30 pm. Joe headed off to take a bus to the airport to meet the rest of his crew, flying in from Novosibirsk. We took the bus to the consulate, to pick up our passports, which were to be ready after 12.
We got to the consulate at about 3:15 pm. There were just a few people there, and the place was locked up tight. The gentleman minding the gate said come back at noon the next day. This was unsatisfactory, because we had tickets that evening for Hotan.
One of the woman outside had internal numbers for the consulate, and finally, after much pleading, in bad Mandarin, Uighur, and Russian, we were connected with some people inside, who said they would come off lunch at 4:00 pm, and would give us our passports then.
So we settled down to wait, and finally at 3:30 pm, the woman at the first desk inside the day before came out with our passports, and their register book. We signed for the passports, quite relieved, and headed back downtownwards on a 536 bus, which clearly traversed the neighborhoods, but how we had no idea. 30 minutes later we were about 2 km north of our hotel, so we just walked it, picking up the mended, clean skirt almost as we got to the hotel.
We put in an hour on the internet, sending the blog to our kids as an e-mail. From the States, they were able to get on to post, where we had not been able.
Walking back to the hotel, Carol wanted a popsicle. She picked out a popsicle, with a smiling corn on the wrapper. When opened, it was the equivalent of a frozen ice cream (corn) dog with a bready shell like a cone, surrounding the corn flavored ice cream. At this time "We wish you a Merry Christmas" started to play again in the background, and we broke down laughing. This was clearly one of the top ten failed commercial ideas for popsicles.
We got back to the hotel with a birthday tiny tort (cake??) for Joe, whose birthday it was, and gave it to him, along with our Turpan and Hami travel info, that we were ready to discard.
Our plane was to leave at 21:35, and we were supposed to be at the airport by 19:35. We took a cab, fought the Urumqi evening rush hour, and got to the airport at 20:00. Getting through security was uneventful, and we were to board at 21:05.
Mike went out just before 10, waited for the bank to open, and changed another $300 US. No tang or other drinks, but the request for the exchange was written in blue and therefore had to be redone in black. 20 minutes later he had the Chinese RMB (the rate had increased to 6.7825.) It would have been a little simpler if we had the passports back. As he walked the block back to the hotel, one of the stores was playing "We wish you a Merry Christmas," in August. We told Joe that this music was a good omen for his trip.
Mike went up and tried a phone call to the hotel in Hotan (Hetian Binguan) where we hoped to stay that night. He heard "You" meaning that there were rooms, but could understand nothing else.
We checked out of the hotel and left our backpacks with the Left Luggage department, and the three of us started walking to the north for the Regional Museum (Qu Bowuguan). We arrived at 11:50 am after an apx 1 hour walk in intermittent drizzle, and cool temperatures.
This is a really world-class collection of ancient relics and contemporary folklore, very well curated in Chinese, English, and Uighur. The museum really makes the most of the concept of XinJiang as a historic crossroads of the world. The highlight is 12 remarkably well-preserved mummies, many with Indo-European features, removed from the Astana Graves, Hami, and other XinJiang sites. Although some date from 2000 BCE, their clothing, hair, and skin is remarkably well preserved. So the Celts took a wrong turn. One female mummy is known as "The Beauty," and has striking hair and features. Another is dressed in a long scarlet robe, all intact. Carol was most taken by the mummy of a six month old swaddled in bright blue cloth, with a blue and red hat. Arrayed with this mummy was a small horn and a sheep's teat, both placed in the grave to give the child a plaything and food. Too bad that we couldn't take photos.
There were also rooms of Uighur rug patterns and ethnographic displays of the 12 cultural groups of XinJiang.
We left the museum just before 2 pm. The market from which the rooster had emerged was about 1 km away. Everything is organized by sales type, spices here, raw meat there, cabbage elsewhere, you get the idea. In the back were the live animals. All kinds of poultry and rabbits awaiting their transit moments. But no row of food stalls, and we were by this point, ready for lunch.
As we emerged from the market, we saw a stall with breads and watched as a man had a bun-like roll split and filled with items from 5 small bowls. We ordered one apiece and a large 11-12 inch crepe like pancake, brushed with spices and folded up. The buns were a standout item with vegetables and meat - a messy, tasty meal (3 RMB apiece).
As we headed out to a street, Carol spied an old man with a push cart full of lotus leaf packages. When unrolled, they revealed a sweat steamed rice desert filled with red dates, still containing pits. This triangular blob was pierced with two sticks, rolled in coarse sugar, and handed over to the eager eater. (1 RMB)
By now it was 2:30 pm. Joe headed off to take a bus to the airport to meet the rest of his crew, flying in from Novosibirsk. We took the bus to the consulate, to pick up our passports, which were to be ready after 12.
We got to the consulate at about 3:15 pm. There were just a few people there, and the place was locked up tight. The gentleman minding the gate said come back at noon the next day. This was unsatisfactory, because we had tickets that evening for Hotan.
One of the woman outside had internal numbers for the consulate, and finally, after much pleading, in bad Mandarin, Uighur, and Russian, we were connected with some people inside, who said they would come off lunch at 4:00 pm, and would give us our passports then.
So we settled down to wait, and finally at 3:30 pm, the woman at the first desk inside the day before came out with our passports, and their register book. We signed for the passports, quite relieved, and headed back downtownwards on a 536 bus, which clearly traversed the neighborhoods, but how we had no idea. 30 minutes later we were about 2 km north of our hotel, so we just walked it, picking up the mended, clean skirt almost as we got to the hotel.
We put in an hour on the internet, sending the blog to our kids as an e-mail. From the States, they were able to get on to post, where we had not been able.
Walking back to the hotel, Carol wanted a popsicle. She picked out a popsicle, with a smiling corn on the wrapper. When opened, it was the equivalent of a frozen ice cream (corn) dog with a bready shell like a cone, surrounding the corn flavored ice cream. At this time "We wish you a Merry Christmas" started to play again in the background, and we broke down laughing. This was clearly one of the top ten failed commercial ideas for popsicles.
We got back to the hotel with a birthday tiny tort (cake??) for Joe, whose birthday it was, and gave it to him, along with our Turpan and Hami travel info, that we were ready to discard.
Our plane was to leave at 21:35, and we were supposed to be at the airport by 19:35. We took a cab, fought the Urumqi evening rush hour, and got to the airport at 20:00. Getting through security was uneventful, and we were to board at 21:05.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Aug 4 - Urumqi (First Day of Our Solo Trip)
At 5 am (3 am Xinjiang Time or XT) the rest of the group got wakeup calls. So did we, so we went down to see them off at 6:15 am for their 8:10 flight to Beijing.
We were looking for a 24 hour internet, so at 6:45 am Beijing Time (BT), we wandered around downtown unsuccessfully looking for same. We found two internet bars, but they were both locked. Carol was not happy to be in what seemed to be a big boring overbuilt city, unlike most of what we had enjoyed about China up to this point. She was ready to leave Urumqi that evening.
The agenda for the day simple: (1) get our Kazakhstan visa - be at the consulate by 9 am; (2) wash our clothes; (3) buy an airplane ticket to Hotan (Hetian); (4) get some internet time; and (5) convert some dollars.
At breakfast we saw another foreigner sitting alone. We invited him over - his name is Joe, and he was coordinating a group of Baptists who were going to be trying to spend 8 days converting Uighurs. Joe is a really neat guy from north central Alabama, who had experience in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Russia, among other places. He was a "missionary kid" who spent his early years in Hong Kong. We agreed to explore the town together that evening.
At 8:45 we took a taxi to the Kazakhstan consulate, (apx 5 km to the north), arriving at almost exactly 9 am. There was a large crowd there, but we were waved in immediately, along with a few other non-Kazakhs. After filling out our applications, going out to get our passports copied exactly the way they wanted, being interviewed, and paying 522 RMB (apx $78 USD), we were told to come back Wednesday at noon to pick up our passports. We pleaded, so they changed it to Tuesday at noon, as they had done for the Dutch foursome who were also there. There was a knife edge balance of bureaucratic control and the need for efficiency broken by a grandmotherly Kazakh woman who pushed her way to the front of the line, and screamed her entire party of 5 including a baby through the necessary processings. On the way from the copy place to the consulate, Carol tripped over a protruding wire in the sidewalk and took a hard fall, causing a bad cut on the back of her left leg.
Went up the street to an Internet Cafe. Could not get on to post and also had trouble with accessing other sites. Wondered why, and moved on.
Next block we saw a bank and went in to convert $400 USD. This was made slightly trickier since we no longer had our passports, but only a laminated color copy of the pertinent pages, a receipt from the Kazakh consulate, and our hotel plastic key. The bank hostess fed us plenty of Tang from a cooler, and hovered over us, while the tellers were figuring out how to process this transaction. Finally, 20 minutes later, we had our RMB. The rate had slightly improved to 6.778, so it was slightly more than 2700 RMB.
Took a bus back toward the hotel. The 45 bus came along. Not knowing exactly where it went, we got on. For a while it went downtown on the main road. Then it took a right turn and headed away from downtown. We passed a market on the right and an old woman got on the bus.
AT THIS POINT WE ACHIEVED ONE OF OUR LIFE MILESTONES.
The woman was carrying a large live rooster, bound on the feet by a cloth cord. She was holding it by the wings. It was remarkably relaxed. So we have now seen live poultry on urban public transportation. In the spirit of Olympic competition, WE ARE NOW GOING FOR THE GOAT.
After a mile or so, we decided that enough was enough. We got off, walked across the street, showed the map to two older guys, who told us to take the 907 bus from there downtown. As we were almost to the hotel, we saw the China Southern office, so we got off the bus, and went in to buy our airplane tickets to Hotan. None of our credit cards worked, (we wondered why). So we pulled out 2020 RMB ($300 of the $400 we had just gotten) and got our airplane tickets. Goals 3 and 5 accomplished. Goal 1 well underway. Goal 4 mysterious.
We walked the last 5 - 6 blocks to the hotel. At the hotel we bandaged up the leg, discovered a small rip in the skirt, but a lot of small blood stains. We took the skirt over to a nearby laundry to be dry cleaned and repaired. Amazingly, all of this was to cost only 7 RMB ($1.05). It was to be ready tomorrow at 3 pm.
We could not find a water laundry (laundromat, not a dry cleaners), so we did a 2 day wash in the room sink.
Then out to the internet (it is now about 5 pm), where we still could not make anything work. More on this after we leave China.
Back to the hotel, where we called Rana, our local guide on the XinJiang portion of the eclipse trip, who assured us that Kashgar and Hotan were fine to visit.
Joined up with Joe about 6:30 pm. We walked south toward the EdDaoQiao Market, on the Uighur side of Urumqi. We started off in upscale downtown, and then walked through an electronics -cameras market, where MP4s and other cutting edge things were plentiful. Then we crossed a street and now there were Uighur guys selling large melons. Quickly, there were side streets with vendors of food. At this moment, it started to rain. Wise Carol opened her umbrella she had brought, while Joe and Mike ducked under awnings. We bought some onion samsa and watched a 10 year-old kid try to sell umbrellas for only 10 RMB.
It cleared up a lilttle, and we turned down a side street where there were welders fabricating tandoori and nan ovens, large canopies and water closets. Serious metal cutting and acetylene torch welding right in the middle of a busy market alley. Mike and Carol bought a couple of kabobs, and Mike turned back to buy a large 4 kg melon, which we then carried the rest of the night.
While Joe and Carol were waiting, he pulled out his camcorder to film some cute kids to dance for him. Their mothers, fathers, and grandparents gathered delighted to view the short flick. He was planning to bring this home to show his family and friends to show what life was like in this bustling part of China.
We passed an apothecary, with dried lizards, frogs, live snakes, and so much more, all for the healing of the greater Chinese population. There was a handy grinder for customers to concoct powders from the purchases of their choice.
We stopped at a "Booc Store" to check for a Uighur-English dictionary in Western alphabet. No such luck.
While strolling through the market, we sampled a strange, knobby, bright orange fruit, which peeled open to reveal scarlet pips, with a light rose taste. We were touched by the people who went out of their way to help us find our bearings.
Finally, after wandering through and about and back and forth, we found Avral, the ice cream shop listed in the Frommer's Guides, and sat down for three individual bowls of the house specialty, an amazingly good butterscotch ice cream, along with a pot of tea.
By this time, it was well past 10 pm, beginning to rain again, and time for Mike and Carol to take a bus back to the hotel and to sleep. Joe stayed out for a few more minutes.
Carol's final opinion: Viva Urumqi!
We were looking for a 24 hour internet, so at 6:45 am Beijing Time (BT), we wandered around downtown unsuccessfully looking for same. We found two internet bars, but they were both locked. Carol was not happy to be in what seemed to be a big boring overbuilt city, unlike most of what we had enjoyed about China up to this point. She was ready to leave Urumqi that evening.
The agenda for the day simple: (1) get our Kazakhstan visa - be at the consulate by 9 am; (2) wash our clothes; (3) buy an airplane ticket to Hotan (Hetian); (4) get some internet time; and (5) convert some dollars.
At breakfast we saw another foreigner sitting alone. We invited him over - his name is Joe, and he was coordinating a group of Baptists who were going to be trying to spend 8 days converting Uighurs. Joe is a really neat guy from north central Alabama, who had experience in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Russia, among other places. He was a "missionary kid" who spent his early years in Hong Kong. We agreed to explore the town together that evening.
At 8:45 we took a taxi to the Kazakhstan consulate, (apx 5 km to the north), arriving at almost exactly 9 am. There was a large crowd there, but we were waved in immediately, along with a few other non-Kazakhs. After filling out our applications, going out to get our passports copied exactly the way they wanted, being interviewed, and paying 522 RMB (apx $78 USD), we were told to come back Wednesday at noon to pick up our passports. We pleaded, so they changed it to Tuesday at noon, as they had done for the Dutch foursome who were also there. There was a knife edge balance of bureaucratic control and the need for efficiency broken by a grandmotherly Kazakh woman who pushed her way to the front of the line, and screamed her entire party of 5 including a baby through the necessary processings. On the way from the copy place to the consulate, Carol tripped over a protruding wire in the sidewalk and took a hard fall, causing a bad cut on the back of her left leg.
Went up the street to an Internet Cafe. Could not get on to post and also had trouble with accessing other sites. Wondered why, and moved on.
Next block we saw a bank and went in to convert $400 USD. This was made slightly trickier since we no longer had our passports, but only a laminated color copy of the pertinent pages, a receipt from the Kazakh consulate, and our hotel plastic key. The bank hostess fed us plenty of Tang from a cooler, and hovered over us, while the tellers were figuring out how to process this transaction. Finally, 20 minutes later, we had our RMB. The rate had slightly improved to 6.778, so it was slightly more than 2700 RMB.
Took a bus back toward the hotel. The 45 bus came along. Not knowing exactly where it went, we got on. For a while it went downtown on the main road. Then it took a right turn and headed away from downtown. We passed a market on the right and an old woman got on the bus.
AT THIS POINT WE ACHIEVED ONE OF OUR LIFE MILESTONES.
The woman was carrying a large live rooster, bound on the feet by a cloth cord. She was holding it by the wings. It was remarkably relaxed. So we have now seen live poultry on urban public transportation. In the spirit of Olympic competition, WE ARE NOW GOING FOR THE GOAT.
After a mile or so, we decided that enough was enough. We got off, walked across the street, showed the map to two older guys, who told us to take the 907 bus from there downtown. As we were almost to the hotel, we saw the China Southern office, so we got off the bus, and went in to buy our airplane tickets to Hotan. None of our credit cards worked, (we wondered why). So we pulled out 2020 RMB ($300 of the $400 we had just gotten) and got our airplane tickets. Goals 3 and 5 accomplished. Goal 1 well underway. Goal 4 mysterious.
We walked the last 5 - 6 blocks to the hotel. At the hotel we bandaged up the leg, discovered a small rip in the skirt, but a lot of small blood stains. We took the skirt over to a nearby laundry to be dry cleaned and repaired. Amazingly, all of this was to cost only 7 RMB ($1.05). It was to be ready tomorrow at 3 pm.
We could not find a water laundry (laundromat, not a dry cleaners), so we did a 2 day wash in the room sink.
Then out to the internet (it is now about 5 pm), where we still could not make anything work. More on this after we leave China.
Back to the hotel, where we called Rana, our local guide on the XinJiang portion of the eclipse trip, who assured us that Kashgar and Hotan were fine to visit.
Joined up with Joe about 6:30 pm. We walked south toward the EdDaoQiao Market, on the Uighur side of Urumqi. We started off in upscale downtown, and then walked through an electronics -cameras market, where MP4s and other cutting edge things were plentiful. Then we crossed a street and now there were Uighur guys selling large melons. Quickly, there were side streets with vendors of food. At this moment, it started to rain. Wise Carol opened her umbrella she had brought, while Joe and Mike ducked under awnings. We bought some onion samsa and watched a 10 year-old kid try to sell umbrellas for only 10 RMB.
It cleared up a lilttle, and we turned down a side street where there were welders fabricating tandoori and nan ovens, large canopies and water closets. Serious metal cutting and acetylene torch welding right in the middle of a busy market alley. Mike and Carol bought a couple of kabobs, and Mike turned back to buy a large 4 kg melon, which we then carried the rest of the night.
While Joe and Carol were waiting, he pulled out his camcorder to film some cute kids to dance for him. Their mothers, fathers, and grandparents gathered delighted to view the short flick. He was planning to bring this home to show his family and friends to show what life was like in this bustling part of China.
We passed an apothecary, with dried lizards, frogs, live snakes, and so much more, all for the healing of the greater Chinese population. There was a handy grinder for customers to concoct powders from the purchases of their choice.
We stopped at a "Booc Store" to check for a Uighur-English dictionary in Western alphabet. No such luck.
While strolling through the market, we sampled a strange, knobby, bright orange fruit, which peeled open to reveal scarlet pips, with a light rose taste. We were touched by the people who went out of their way to help us find our bearings.
Finally, after wandering through and about and back and forth, we found Avral, the ice cream shop listed in the Frommer's Guides, and sat down for three individual bowls of the house specialty, an amazingly good butterscotch ice cream, along with a pot of tea.
By this time, it was well past 10 pm, beginning to rain again, and time for Mike and Carol to take a bus back to the hotel and to sleep. Joe stayed out for a few more minutes.
Carol's final opinion: Viva Urumqi!
Aug 3 - Turpan to Urumqi
Breakfast was from 7 to 10. Internet at the hotel was from 8 am on at the Business Office. Carol came down before the office opened, and went to breakfast, but by the time Mike arrived at 8:10, there were two people online and one waiting. Luckily by 8:30 a computer opened up, and we were able to post successfully.
During breakfast, we learned that some of the group members in male only rooms had received calls and knocks on the door in the middle of the night offering "a massage." The time came to leave our hotel (10 am) once again into the HEAT of Turpan.
The first tourist attraction was JiaoHe (the intersection of rivers), a Unesco World Heritage site since 1986, a thousands of years old ancient city, last inhabited in the 1300s when it was sacked by the Mongols. It was in its prime in the Tang Dynasty era (7th - 10th century). This city was build in sandstone on a plateau, bounded by steep ravines, with rivers at the bottom sustaining crops and pasture. In the distance were snow covered peaks of the Tian Shan range.
The entrance is to the South. In the North are the Buddhist Temples, and further to the north are the stupas. The residential, government, and business areas were clearly delineated. There were elaborate gates which included watch towers. You couldn't get in if you were not wanted. Visiting these remains in August at 100 degree heat in the morning gives you some idea of how difficult it must have been to live here.
Next we went to the Karez. To the north of Turpan are mountains, which have snow and water. Early inhabitants built gravity driven waterways leading down to Turpan, an amazing feat of engineering the world should have learned about in history books, but never did. This almost surpasses the Roman aqueducts. But for the Karez, no one could grow anything in Turpan. With the water, you can grow some of the sweetest grapes, melons and fruit in the world. As we descended into the structure, cold water flowed through channels, and the temperature dropped markedly.
Turpan grapes are famous. As we left, Mike bought 200-250 gram bags of each of 14 different kinds of raisins. Total weight 3 - 3.5 kg. The store asked 250 RMB and Mike held to 150 RMB. In retrospect the fair price was probably 130-150 RMB. We now have enough raisins for the rest of the trip.
At the front of the museum, we tried the fresh squeezed grape juice (5 RMB for a small cup), incomparably delicious. 5 RMB for a pound of grapes inside. 5 RMB for 1 kg of grapes just outside. (The group shared some fresh grapes at lunch.) There was wine tasting of reds and whites of varying sweetness. The Chinese person in the group bought a fancy bottle of what he said was the best local vintage.
Finally, at about 1 pm, to the Emin Minaret, built in 1778 in honor of the builder's father. This is a mosque, used only for Friday afternoons and holidays, plus a single minaret, which is supposed to be very rare. The minaret had a beautiful brickwork pattern.
Back to town (Turpan) for lunch. Then at 2:30 or so, off for the 3 hour ride to Urumqi on a modern 4-lane interstate quality road. We were climbing steadily, passing the Bogda Feng mountain, a 5445 m mountain, which our guide had actually climbed, on a 3 day climb. As we passed the ancient town of DaBanChang, David Peng and his daughter led us in an old Chinese folksong about a local son who invited a local woman with beautiful long braids for marriage, and also asked her to bring along her younger sister.
At the rest break, the vendors were selling huge quantities of roasted flavored soy beans, the Chinese version of crispy snacks. Yum. However, the dried yogurt snack was yuck.
Throughout our long bus drives, the back of the bus crew had been working their way through several Will Shortz (of NPR fame) puzzle books - riddles, anagrams, and lots of laughs, as people competed to shout out the answer first.
Finally, into Urumqi, to check into the Xin Jiang Grand Hotel. We arranged a second night for $80 US.
The final dinner of the tour was at 8 pm, where we had plenty of bai jiu, white alcohol, and plenty of ganbei (empty your glass) toasts. We honored the first time eclipse viewers, the person who had viewed the most eclipses, the oldest, the youngest, the vegetarians, the person who rescued the one who fell into the latrine, the one who traveled farthest, etc. Lots of goodbyes all around.
During breakfast, we learned that some of the group members in male only rooms had received calls and knocks on the door in the middle of the night offering "a massage." The time came to leave our hotel (10 am) once again into the HEAT of Turpan.
The first tourist attraction was JiaoHe (the intersection of rivers), a Unesco World Heritage site since 1986, a thousands of years old ancient city, last inhabited in the 1300s when it was sacked by the Mongols. It was in its prime in the Tang Dynasty era (7th - 10th century). This city was build in sandstone on a plateau, bounded by steep ravines, with rivers at the bottom sustaining crops and pasture. In the distance were snow covered peaks of the Tian Shan range.
The entrance is to the South. In the North are the Buddhist Temples, and further to the north are the stupas. The residential, government, and business areas were clearly delineated. There were elaborate gates which included watch towers. You couldn't get in if you were not wanted. Visiting these remains in August at 100 degree heat in the morning gives you some idea of how difficult it must have been to live here.
Next we went to the Karez. To the north of Turpan are mountains, which have snow and water. Early inhabitants built gravity driven waterways leading down to Turpan, an amazing feat of engineering the world should have learned about in history books, but never did. This almost surpasses the Roman aqueducts. But for the Karez, no one could grow anything in Turpan. With the water, you can grow some of the sweetest grapes, melons and fruit in the world. As we descended into the structure, cold water flowed through channels, and the temperature dropped markedly.
Turpan grapes are famous. As we left, Mike bought 200-250 gram bags of each of 14 different kinds of raisins. Total weight 3 - 3.5 kg. The store asked 250 RMB and Mike held to 150 RMB. In retrospect the fair price was probably 130-150 RMB. We now have enough raisins for the rest of the trip.
At the front of the museum, we tried the fresh squeezed grape juice (5 RMB for a small cup), incomparably delicious. 5 RMB for a pound of grapes inside. 5 RMB for 1 kg of grapes just outside. (The group shared some fresh grapes at lunch.) There was wine tasting of reds and whites of varying sweetness. The Chinese person in the group bought a fancy bottle of what he said was the best local vintage.
Finally, at about 1 pm, to the Emin Minaret, built in 1778 in honor of the builder's father. This is a mosque, used only for Friday afternoons and holidays, plus a single minaret, which is supposed to be very rare. The minaret had a beautiful brickwork pattern.
Back to town (Turpan) for lunch. Then at 2:30 or so, off for the 3 hour ride to Urumqi on a modern 4-lane interstate quality road. We were climbing steadily, passing the Bogda Feng mountain, a 5445 m mountain, which our guide had actually climbed, on a 3 day climb. As we passed the ancient town of DaBanChang, David Peng and his daughter led us in an old Chinese folksong about a local son who invited a local woman with beautiful long braids for marriage, and also asked her to bring along her younger sister.
At the rest break, the vendors were selling huge quantities of roasted flavored soy beans, the Chinese version of crispy snacks. Yum. However, the dried yogurt snack was yuck.
Throughout our long bus drives, the back of the bus crew had been working their way through several Will Shortz (of NPR fame) puzzle books - riddles, anagrams, and lots of laughs, as people competed to shout out the answer first.
Finally, into Urumqi, to check into the Xin Jiang Grand Hotel. We arranged a second night for $80 US.
The final dinner of the tour was at 8 pm, where we had plenty of bai jiu, white alcohol, and plenty of ganbei (empty your glass) toasts. We honored the first time eclipse viewers, the person who had viewed the most eclipses, the oldest, the youngest, the vegetarians, the person who rescued the one who fell into the latrine, the one who traveled farthest, etc. Lots of goodbyes all around.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Aug 2 - Hami to Turpan
We woke up for a 9:00 am bus boarding for a long trip (410 km) to Turpan on rough 2-lane roads with plenty of short construction detours. Lunch was to be at Shanshan (Pijan) about 320 km in. The road went slowly up, reaching perhaps 6000 feet, then slowly down and down. Shanshan is within 1000 feet above sea level, and is a whole lot hotter than Hami, which was 98 F. We had mountains generally to the north as we traveled, being the long Tian Shan mountain range. The highest peak on this stretch was at 4400 m or so, which is low by Chinese standards, but is still close to 14000 feet. We took a number of roadside pit stops, women to the right, men to the left, not much terrain or foliage for modesty. We swapped eclipse stories with everybody on the bus, and there was puzzle solving in the back to try to pass the time.
Lunch was at Shanshan, at 2:40 pm. Again we had a whole fish dish per table, as a treat. More of the old luncheon standbys - scrambled eggs with tomatoes, chicken with potatoes and veggies, various vegetable dishes, etc., and of course soup as a last course.
Between Shanshan and Turpan we had two scheduled two tourist stops. Between the two cities there are the Flaming Mountains, a series of fairly colorful mountains, in which we believe the desert scenes of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon were filmed. By now we were close to sea level, and the temp was well above 110 F (perhaps even 115 F). We pulled into the Bezeklik Grottos, and got off into the scorching heat. The grottos are a poor sister of the Mogao Caves, especially since a number of Sinologists (German, mostly) took away almost all of the Buddhas and a good number of frescos in 1905, or thereabouts. These treasures were located in a museum in Berlin, which was destroyed by Allied bombing in the Second World War, so they were lost. That which had not been taken was generally not taken because the local muslims had damaged the faces over historical time. On top of that, local farmers also scraped the surface for use as fertilizer. That said, the contrast between the fertile below, the Flaming Mountains above, and the line of caves is still striking. Using flashlights, we could scan some of the remaining frescos inside. Ceiling in "Thousand Buddha" patterns were the most intact sections. There was a local musician outside playing a long string instrument with a bow. We ran the sale area gamut, and picked up a Bezeklik Grottos booklet, for only 10 RMB, which had colored pictures of the frescos, much better than anything we could actually see in the dark grottos. Oh, the wonders of photoshop.
As we were leaving, a couple of the Irish guys on the trip bought a Hami melon, and attempted to dunk it through the basketball hoop in the parking lot. Unfortunately, they missed catching it on the way down. Mike tried a bit of what landed peel-side down, and it was only an average melon. Still, no respect for the melon!
Then across the road to the Astana Tombs. These are apx 2000 graves, 400 of which have been excavated. 3 are open for display. Of these three, only one had the mummies therein. The other two had only some frescos. You have to use a lot of imagination here, and our sweaty and tired bodies had little imagination left.
There was a third scheduled stop, at the Grape Valley, a tourist spot where you see how grapes are grown. It was the unanimous feeling that this could be skipped, and we did so.
We arrived at the Oasis Hotel in Turpan at about 6:45 pm. HOT HOT. Luckily the rooms were air-conditioned, and the showers perhaps the best so far on the entire trip.
Dinner was at 8 pm. We were at the table with a couple celebrating their 29th anniversary, and so another couple had gotten a bottle of a Loulan dry red wine, which we all shared, and which was quite tasty.
After dinner, it was out on the town. Just near the hotel was a "supermarket" which had some food, and various sundries. They had underwear for "Big Fat Man" with an appropriate picture. Carol got a 1 RMB popsicle - green bean enrobed in a white milk layer. Very tasty. Mike went back much later to get some water for the room, and discovered that they charged .1 RMB (1 jiao, or 1.5 c US) for the plastic bag.
After the market, we walked around a little bit. Mike was approached by a little girl, of apx age 4 or 5, who was aggressively waving a 1 RMB note in his face. Carol noticed a guy close behind Mike, and we quickly got away from the situation. A chance to steal something from the tourists??? Who knows.
At 11 pm we finally found an internet cafe, but we were refused service. Why?? Maybe they were closing, but midnight is early in Turpan, since it is only 10 PM in XT (local time).
Back to the hotel where we found the tail end of an ice cream party, and a group playing cards. So we joined them for a while, and then to bed at about midnight.
Lunch was at Shanshan, at 2:40 pm. Again we had a whole fish dish per table, as a treat. More of the old luncheon standbys - scrambled eggs with tomatoes, chicken with potatoes and veggies, various vegetable dishes, etc., and of course soup as a last course.
Between Shanshan and Turpan we had two scheduled two tourist stops. Between the two cities there are the Flaming Mountains, a series of fairly colorful mountains, in which we believe the desert scenes of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon were filmed. By now we were close to sea level, and the temp was well above 110 F (perhaps even 115 F). We pulled into the Bezeklik Grottos, and got off into the scorching heat. The grottos are a poor sister of the Mogao Caves, especially since a number of Sinologists (German, mostly) took away almost all of the Buddhas and a good number of frescos in 1905, or thereabouts. These treasures were located in a museum in Berlin, which was destroyed by Allied bombing in the Second World War, so they were lost. That which had not been taken was generally not taken because the local muslims had damaged the faces over historical time. On top of that, local farmers also scraped the surface for use as fertilizer. That said, the contrast between the fertile below, the Flaming Mountains above, and the line of caves is still striking. Using flashlights, we could scan some of the remaining frescos inside. Ceiling in "Thousand Buddha" patterns were the most intact sections. There was a local musician outside playing a long string instrument with a bow. We ran the sale area gamut, and picked up a Bezeklik Grottos booklet, for only 10 RMB, which had colored pictures of the frescos, much better than anything we could actually see in the dark grottos. Oh, the wonders of photoshop.
As we were leaving, a couple of the Irish guys on the trip bought a Hami melon, and attempted to dunk it through the basketball hoop in the parking lot. Unfortunately, they missed catching it on the way down. Mike tried a bit of what landed peel-side down, and it was only an average melon. Still, no respect for the melon!
Then across the road to the Astana Tombs. These are apx 2000 graves, 400 of which have been excavated. 3 are open for display. Of these three, only one had the mummies therein. The other two had only some frescos. You have to use a lot of imagination here, and our sweaty and tired bodies had little imagination left.
There was a third scheduled stop, at the Grape Valley, a tourist spot where you see how grapes are grown. It was the unanimous feeling that this could be skipped, and we did so.
We arrived at the Oasis Hotel in Turpan at about 6:45 pm. HOT HOT. Luckily the rooms were air-conditioned, and the showers perhaps the best so far on the entire trip.
Dinner was at 8 pm. We were at the table with a couple celebrating their 29th anniversary, and so another couple had gotten a bottle of a Loulan dry red wine, which we all shared, and which was quite tasty.
After dinner, it was out on the town. Just near the hotel was a "supermarket" which had some food, and various sundries. They had underwear for "Big Fat Man" with an appropriate picture. Carol got a 1 RMB popsicle - green bean enrobed in a white milk layer. Very tasty. Mike went back much later to get some water for the room, and discovered that they charged .1 RMB (1 jiao, or 1.5 c US) for the plastic bag.
After the market, we walked around a little bit. Mike was approached by a little girl, of apx age 4 or 5, who was aggressively waving a 1 RMB note in his face. Carol noticed a guy close behind Mike, and we quickly got away from the situation. A chance to steal something from the tourists??? Who knows.
At 11 pm we finally found an internet cafe, but we were refused service. Why?? Maybe they were closing, but midnight is early in Turpan, since it is only 10 PM in XT (local time).
Back to the hotel where we found the tail end of an ice cream party, and a group playing cards. So we joined them for a while, and then to bed at about midnight.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Aug 1 - Eclipse Day (Rev)
Got going at 8:30 am. Sky absolutely clear - not a cloud in the sky. Dropped off at the , where the Tomb of Gess (mausoleum), one of the earliest Islamic missionaries in China, where we saw the tombs of the 10+ former rulers of the Hami Kingdom (apx 1600 - 1905, when the Chinese took over). Very nice wood roofed mosque.
On the bus and off to the eclipse site, apx 200 km away. We go off north into the desert. About 50 km north of Hami, parallel to the road is the Karlik Tagh (Karlik Shan), a mountain range, part of the larger Tian Shan mountain range. The highest peak in the Karlik Tagh is 4885 m, or 15000 +. We get to the pass at about 7000 feet, (Hami is about 3000 feet in elevation) and go right another 90 km to Yiwu, a town of 20,000, then north to a special site called Eclipse City, built by the Chinese and one of the eclipse chasing groups somewhere in the world. There is a building and museum here that supposedly tourists will go 200 km out of their way to see forever and after.
In order to get on this road (303, then 302) , you had to buy a special 300 RMB ticket ($45 US) in advance. Your driver had to buy such a ticket. Your bus had to be registered, etc. This is called (by Ralph Chou, he of 17 prior eclipses) MCE, or Maximum Currency Extraction.
The first checkpoint was right out of town (Hami) . It took 20 min or so to get through this checkpoint. Finally cleared, we drove up into the mountains, along a clear stream, through beautiful cuts in the rock, with occasional clusters of small homes. Lots of buildings for drying fruit, and lots of police standing on the road, to make sure one did not leave the road.
At the pass, we stopped for an early lunch. It was 10:40 am (8:40 am XT), so it was much more like late breakfast. We were early and finally got served about 11:30. Huge platters of "finger pulling" lamb, along with the rest of the food we had been eating, but this time, like last night, it was uighur cooking, not Han Chinese. Mike and Carol, for some reason, got special trays containing a selection of foods along with a marvelous stir fry of big chunks of spicy green pepper, long dried hot red peppers, lamb slivers, star anise, and other spices. In another party of 4 Indians, there was an older woman, dressed in an elaborate sari, who went to the latrines, and instead of straddling the opening, leaned over one side and fell in. Amy, of our party, had to rescue her, and thus was late getting back to the bus. Amy reported that the woman would probably have to be towed behind their vehicle for the olifactory comfort of the group.
There were clouds in the sky to the south. The sky was no longer absolutely clear.
On the bus on to Yiwu (or Yeeee-Whooo, as everyone kept shouting). The second checkpoint was halfway to Yiwu. There we saw a 12 car/bus convoy of Dutch who had DRIVEN from Holland to that point, passing through, among other roads, the Pamir highway, that we had had to scratch from the trip because of visa and time constraints. Lots of long hair and provocative slogans on their vehicles. http://www.amsterdambeijing.com/.
Everyone on the bus had to surrender both tickets and passports, for checking. Without proper documentation, you could not proceed past this checkpoint. The whole spectacle was a source of amazement for the local Uighurs, who gathered to watch.
By the time we got to Yiwu, the clouds were building up pretty substantially, but it was clearer to the north, the direction we were supposed to go. Some on the bus wanted to go to the Eclipse City site, and continue north along the road perhaps another 40 km north of the center line to a town shown on the map as Nom.
However, when we got to Eclipse City, before 3 pm, the driver turned into the site, and there was nothing we could do about it. That was what we were permitted to do, and that is what we did. When the Chinese say, "This is the best place to see the eclipse," they really mean: "This is the ONLY place to see the eclipse."
Our tour company had set up a tent for some shade, and some of us wandered over to the freshly-minted museum itself and the surrounding booths to (1) buy Hami melons, to (2) get a commemorative t-shirt, to (3) get an eclipse postmark in their passports, to (4) see the museum, and (5) to use free bathrooms within, since they were charging 2 RMB (30 c) to use the port a potties at the tent. We did 1, 3, 4, and 5.
The clouds were building up, and some wanted to go at least a couple hundred meters north. so 15 minutes before first contact (apx 6:10 pm), the bus moved and most of the group got on. Ralph Chou and about 6 others stayed at the original site. The ones who moved had made great effort to set up their cameras and they had to pick them up and reset them up.
Anyway we moved north. At least we were looking at the eclipse across an empty desert, instead of across a long line of parked tour buses. Several Uighur women with young stood in our area. They had gotten floppy disks, that they were using, so we gave them some extra glasses. They ran back to their village to tell them that the floppy disks were insufficient.
As eclipse totality approached (apx 7:09 or 7:10 pm), the sun was being blocked by a large cloud at the original site, and the cloud was approaching the northerly group. Some immediately started running north as fast as they could, leaving behind the cameras. We walked north quickly. Everybody ended up seeing the eclipse, although I think we saw it through it through thin clouds. Nice diamond at the end, and great colors in the corona. After the eclipse, we broke out a melon and 3 bottles of champagne. The Irish couple (Mary and Dan) who had brought their huge lens (called "Trouble") never got to use it, but filmed themselves running and cursing with their video camera.
Back on to the buses at about 8:20. Stopped at sunset for a group picture. No more road police. Stopped in Yiwu for beer and fresh water. Stopped in the mountains for a group piss stop - the skies were the clearest we had seen in many dozens of years.
Back at the hotel just after midnight. To sleep.
On the bus and off to the eclipse site, apx 200 km away. We go off north into the desert. About 50 km north of Hami, parallel to the road is the Karlik Tagh (Karlik Shan), a mountain range, part of the larger Tian Shan mountain range. The highest peak in the Karlik Tagh is 4885 m, or 15000 +. We get to the pass at about 7000 feet, (Hami is about 3000 feet in elevation) and go right another 90 km to Yiwu, a town of 20,000, then north to a special site called Eclipse City, built by the Chinese and one of the eclipse chasing groups somewhere in the world. There is a building and museum here that supposedly tourists will go 200 km out of their way to see forever and after.
In order to get on this road (303, then 302) , you had to buy a special 300 RMB ticket ($45 US) in advance. Your driver had to buy such a ticket. Your bus had to be registered, etc. This is called (by Ralph Chou, he of 17 prior eclipses) MCE, or Maximum Currency Extraction.
The first checkpoint was right out of town (Hami) . It took 20 min or so to get through this checkpoint. Finally cleared, we drove up into the mountains, along a clear stream, through beautiful cuts in the rock, with occasional clusters of small homes. Lots of buildings for drying fruit, and lots of police standing on the road, to make sure one did not leave the road.
At the pass, we stopped for an early lunch. It was 10:40 am (8:40 am XT), so it was much more like late breakfast. We were early and finally got served about 11:30. Huge platters of "finger pulling" lamb, along with the rest of the food we had been eating, but this time, like last night, it was uighur cooking, not Han Chinese. Mike and Carol, for some reason, got special trays containing a selection of foods along with a marvelous stir fry of big chunks of spicy green pepper, long dried hot red peppers, lamb slivers, star anise, and other spices. In another party of 4 Indians, there was an older woman, dressed in an elaborate sari, who went to the latrines, and instead of straddling the opening, leaned over one side and fell in. Amy, of our party, had to rescue her, and thus was late getting back to the bus. Amy reported that the woman would probably have to be towed behind their vehicle for the olifactory comfort of the group.
There were clouds in the sky to the south. The sky was no longer absolutely clear.
On the bus on to Yiwu (or Yeeee-Whooo, as everyone kept shouting). The second checkpoint was halfway to Yiwu. There we saw a 12 car/bus convoy of Dutch who had DRIVEN from Holland to that point, passing through, among other roads, the Pamir highway, that we had had to scratch from the trip because of visa and time constraints. Lots of long hair and provocative slogans on their vehicles. http://www.amsterdambeijing.com/.
Everyone on the bus had to surrender both tickets and passports, for checking. Without proper documentation, you could not proceed past this checkpoint. The whole spectacle was a source of amazement for the local Uighurs, who gathered to watch.
By the time we got to Yiwu, the clouds were building up pretty substantially, but it was clearer to the north, the direction we were supposed to go. Some on the bus wanted to go to the Eclipse City site, and continue north along the road perhaps another 40 km north of the center line to a town shown on the map as Nom.
However, when we got to Eclipse City, before 3 pm, the driver turned into the site, and there was nothing we could do about it. That was what we were permitted to do, and that is what we did. When the Chinese say, "This is the best place to see the eclipse," they really mean: "This is the ONLY place to see the eclipse."
Our tour company had set up a tent for some shade, and some of us wandered over to the freshly-minted museum itself and the surrounding booths to (1) buy Hami melons, to (2) get a commemorative t-shirt, to (3) get an eclipse postmark in their passports, to (4) see the museum, and (5) to use free bathrooms within, since they were charging 2 RMB (30 c) to use the port a potties at the tent. We did 1, 3, 4, and 5.
The clouds were building up, and some wanted to go at least a couple hundred meters north. so 15 minutes before first contact (apx 6:10 pm), the bus moved and most of the group got on. Ralph Chou and about 6 others stayed at the original site. The ones who moved had made great effort to set up their cameras and they had to pick them up and reset them up.
Anyway we moved north. At least we were looking at the eclipse across an empty desert, instead of across a long line of parked tour buses. Several Uighur women with young stood in our area. They had gotten floppy disks, that they were using, so we gave them some extra glasses. They ran back to their village to tell them that the floppy disks were insufficient.
As eclipse totality approached (apx 7:09 or 7:10 pm), the sun was being blocked by a large cloud at the original site, and the cloud was approaching the northerly group. Some immediately started running north as fast as they could, leaving behind the cameras. We walked north quickly. Everybody ended up seeing the eclipse, although I think we saw it through it through thin clouds. Nice diamond at the end, and great colors in the corona. After the eclipse, we broke out a melon and 3 bottles of champagne. The Irish couple (Mary and Dan) who had brought their huge lens (called "Trouble") never got to use it, but filmed themselves running and cursing with their video camera.
Back on to the buses at about 8:20. Stopped at sunset for a group picture. No more road police. Stopped in Yiwu for beer and fresh water. Stopped in the mountains for a group piss stop - the skies were the clearest we had seen in many dozens of years.
Back at the hotel just after midnight. To sleep.
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