World China Xinjiang Kashgar

Africa Plus Plus Central Asia Onward

Kashgar, China 09/26/2008

Up at 5, breakfast incl milk rice which was very good w/ the raspberry jam that came w/ - Bon doesn't eat this early so lucky me, yeah!~ Pulling out at 6, the dawn lite was just arriving so once we reached the 'road' to the border(very much under construction or non existant) we got a great view the whole way of a beautiul, wide dry valley - small stream snaking it's way back & forth, and across the valley white mtns, their jagged peaks making a toothy grin at us. When the sun finally hit them they literally glowed a wonderful peach/pink. Now, of course, there is just really many tracks across the hillsides, up and down...many semi trucks travel this route so the dust is thick and many times deep, rising into the air everywhere. This is the last day to enter/leave China we hear before the border is closed for their 10 day holiday celebrating the establishment of the Peoples Republic! It takes us 3 hours to reach the 1st ck point in Kyrgyzstan at 9. After 4 more w/ passport checks & waiting time at one gate for more than an hour where the guard was not letting us go on even tho our driver makes this trip twice a week and knows them, Bon heads for the head and suddenly as if this were some sign they say we can go(it's now 12:15 and the China border closes at 12;30 for lunch until 2:30!), but RIGHT NOW! So now in a big rush our driver takes us to the Kyrg immigration and stamp out point, we go thru in a wild rush, jump back into the van and drive the last 7 km to the last check point(actually they look at every passport 2 times again before we get to leave)! Our driver can go no further, we bid him a hasty good bye and thank you and march off & up 200 meters to the Chinese border post! CLOSED! All our hurry made no difference. While we waited playing Yatse in the road one of the main border guards asked Nathaniel(who speaks Chinese) if we had any euros, specifically, a 10 euro note...Mari did and thus began one of the most amazing scenes. With Nathaniel's help we discovered that this guard was trying to collect $$ from many foreign countries and during the hour that ensued a frenzy of trading yuan for other currencies took place: sheqalim - Israel, lira - Turkey, euro - Europe, real - Iran, crona - Danish, dinar - Serbia, sumoni - Tajik, som - Uzbek, minat - Turkmen, shilling - Austria. In our group we had all the above currencies among 6 of eight of us. The guard was so happy he went back to their barracks w/ his buddies and returned w/ pins/insignia from their own uniforms as gifts to all of us to show his appreciation! Wow, what an unusual experience!

When time came to go onward at 2:30 this was by far our easiest checkpoint, he was a very thankful, happy fellow - too bad pictures were not allowed because he had the most expressive grin of any Chinese I think we have ever seen! Next a short walk of 500 m. wher we passed a long line of trucks waiting, arriving at the passport ck. Again - after a complete opening of bags inspection - Nathaniel was instrumental in getting us a ride via bus the 3 km to the next stage in the process. After the bus to immigration where we were required to toss all our fruit and cheese(we stuffed ourselves first) we got stamped in and walked to the parking area where we found no transport to Kashgar waiting...Nathaniel finally convinced one driver who was not going to leave for at least an hour to take 4 of us for 75 yuan ea. Then we approached the Austrian tour group we had been tandeming all the way from Sary-Tash. With Nathaniels help we were able to get another 4 on their bus but for 200 yuan ea...once we agreed to share the costs evenly among all 8 of us (140 yuan ea = $21 US) which was twice what it should be on most days according to the LP, we took off. Being 4:30 there was little hope of any other transport and none of us had reservations in Kashgar but we all arrived at Qini Bagh Hotel(Nathanial's recommendation and one we'd all heard/read about in LP) around 10 pm local time(they go by Bejing time as well 2 hours later than local time, ha!) we were all anxious to shower and eat. Unfortunately, electricity was off for 3 hours so the cheapest accomodation was out(no lite, no water)...we bit the bullet for the higher priced rooms where their generators provided juice only to discover there was no hot water until main electricity went on at 1 am. At least the food at John's restaurant nearby was good and cheap as well!

I must also add that our travels of the past 2 days were greatly assisted by Anna from Switzerland who was our Russian interpreter and communicator w/ our driver. W/o Anna & Nathaniel this journery would have been much more arduous and frustrating!

The scenery between Sary-Tash & Kashgar was spectacular, so much so that I would say almost overload. Too much to take in actually. The rock formations and colors just take your breath away along w/ the sheer immensity and barroness of the landscape...awesome! Once in China the roads were very good, smooth and surprisingly little traffic...altho when we first crossed the border there was a huge line of trucks waiting, reminding us of Zambia!! After traveling about 2 hours we also came to oasis areas and much greenery...the same poplars we saw in 'stans lined the road in dense profusion as well as thick 'forests' of them...unfortunately, we could not see a lot for long since it turned dark. Our driver drove quite slow but his headlights were not working well and I really think he suffered from night blindness as well.

9-27

Got mixed messages everywhere regarding border closings, etc. First it was Oct 1-10, then it begins Monday the 28th and goes thru next Sunday, then it does not affect all borders the same, maybe the one to Pakistan is open maybe not. Well, we finally got the story that there WAS a regular bus across the border but due to the problems in Pakistan there are few travellers going/coming over so it only goes when it fills. We decide that it is better to buy tickets and take a chance since our visa to enter Pakistan runs out on Oct 6th! We get the message that it will go when there are 15, but maybe 10, and with the 3 of us it might have 9 so is likely to leave on Monday. Since it would not leave if it could not cross the border we assume that its a safe bet we can get into Pakistan on Tuesday. We shall see.

We were also able to mail our packages from here on a 'slow boat' for only $25 US. These two tasks plus finding an ATM took us most of today!

Met a bicycling clown i.e. he is bicycling around the world giving free one hour performances...interesting web site, all in Spanish tho: Visit Alvaro Neil the Bicycling Clown

9-28

Sunday animal market...free bus from John's Cafe at 10 Bejing time, we got up and just made the bus w/o breakfast. A great market (see pics) with Bactrian camels as well...really fun to watch the exchanges/sales, only one I witnessed where I saw the $$ for a stud sheep, really big w/ huge fat tail - paid 1500 yuan or $225 US. Many other sales took a lot of back and forth w/ seller consulting friends and buyer as well before the final, very determined hand shake! We watched a lot of horses being shown off w/ their carts...galloping, canter, hard run/trot over very stoney ground, really a good show. Likewise w/ donkeys and indiv horses lots of showing off and parading around. It looked to me that the greatest # of animals was sheep of course, of every size and description and likewise goats.

Went back to John's via bus (bus travel here is very easy and only one yuan but taxi is not bad either - 5 yuan to anywhere in town) for breakfast of omellette, honey pancake, and fruit w/ yogurt, yum! Then off to the main market which was just as the LP describes, not to be missed, huge, anything and everything is here for sale, not really a lot of tourists but then we were much later in the day (2 pm). It was jammed w/ locals it seemed to me wall to wall people the coming and going of humanity was the most incredible scene. We walked back thru the old town area which was mainly just narrow streets and mud/cement/wooden houses lining the curving streets w/ the 3 wheel motorbike taxis & freight haulers and bicycles honking their way among the pedestrians. What is unique here - which I did not find out until much later but noticed immediately - the motorcycles are very, very quiet. We thought at the time it was because they had mufflers but later when we were in Lahore where the motorcycles and noise is unbelieveably loud I mentioned it to someone and they said that in Kashgar there is a law which required motorcycles to be electric! Wow, now that is amazing, and after our experiences in most other cities which are crammed w/ motorcycles and huge noise pollution I am super impressed by this in Kashgar!

Checking at the bus company was not possible since the window for internatl trips was closed so we really aren't sure if the bus is going tomorrow or not...we must just assume it is and be there ready to go at 10 am.