Our friends at the Chinese govt blocked all blogs on Blogger for whatever reason(not uncommon), and somehow also all images on Flickr. So instead of giving up, I decided to upload to Webshots and post to the blog via email. Hope it looks alright.
A week and a half ago
I am sitting in our minibus one the way to Turpan, our next destination. As far as I can see in all directions is brown, desolate earth with the odd factory far in the distance or the lost piece of a mud brick house. Behind us and in front of us are trucks continuing the silk roadjourney in a more modern form. The temperature here yesterday was 107degrees.
The train ride out here took us from another desert landcape of sand dunes, mountains, and caves. We were up yesterday morning very early to catch the sunrise over the sand dunes. My roomate and I tried to hike up a dune while everyone else (sadly plenty of other tourists had the same idea) took camels. The winds were strong and filled with sand. It took amazing will power to resist the temptation to pull out my camera for that quick shot. My friend and even our group leader gave into the photographic siren's song and damaged their cameras.
We talked to a lady who is arranging ahomestay visit for us with a Uyger family tonight. The whole Uyger thingis so interesting. These people look middle eastern, maybe Turkish, but not at all Chinese. They have their own language which is closest to what they speak in Uzbekistan, and even have their own time which is two hours earlier than the rest of China's. It should be an interesting evening.The signs here are in Uyger and Chinese, and donkey carts are common
3days later
The last place I found net access was too slow to upload this, so I will keep writing. I am now 6hrs into a boring 8hr minibus ride through the desert to the next town.Tomorrow's will be 12hrs. Ugh. I don&'t think any of us are really happy to be in the
desert again. The place we just left was perfect. It is a large turquoise lake in the mountains called Heavenly Lake. The temperature was mild and cool, and the mountains were green and some snow capped. We slept in a yurt for two nights that was warmed by a coal burning stove in the middle. When hiking up the hills, one finds more empty green valleys with tranquil views over the water. Its the type of place you tell yourself you just have to return to at somepoint in your life. We met a man who was there 25yrs ago and actually did return with his family. But like everywhere, the word is out and I bet I will have plenty of company if I return.
A small town we visited
06-19-2007
The tour is now over and I am on my own again. The famed market of Kashgar that I was told brought people from allover central asia was a disapointment, although the animal market was interesting
In case you've never seen a "fat-bottomed" sheep
Gonna miss those Uyger folks (pronounced "Weeger", or "Wiggly" if you are one person on our tour). It was tricky to really understand the culture. I mean we were in Uyger cities for two weeks but not really immersed or understanding what was going on around us. I know that in a sense theirs is an occupied territory like Tibet, and they apparently aren't too pleased about it, but what the foreigner sees is day to day living: markets, segregated chats on the side of the road, mud houses with incongruous impressive front doors(I have a series of photos of these), and plodding donkey carts or cheap motorcycles. Kashgar also has a decent sized Han Chinese population (the majority elsewhere). And as much as I liked the Uyger, there is a Chinese tradition that is just too precious. I know I talked about the Tai Chi in the mornings, but at night, they like to do something like slow motion line dancing and ballroom dancing. You see it in cities everywhere. This shot is in front of a shopping mall, on a weekday, around 11pm. Just imagine something like that in the U.S.
(Sorry its so dark. Those on brighter lcds will see it better)
I am now off to see if my man in Chengdu has been able to get me a permit into Tibet. Its not easy at the moment. Tomorrow I go to the Panda reserve!
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