Kashgar23 Aug 2009
|
|
Left Hotan and our next camp spot appeared to be idealic - by river no where near the main road - beautiful - unfortunately the dirt road we took was being used by truck going to a nearby quarry and guess what in China they work 24/7 so my tent was about 2meters from the road and all night I thought I was going to be runover by one of the trucks - tried stuffing my ears with toilet paper helped just a little -not too many people got much sleep. I did however get a river swim in my t-shirt and knickers so warm and I actually felt clean afterwards.
Not sure where our next stop was but it was to see a knife factory apparently the area is renowned for the quality of the knives - pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to bring one back with me tho.
Arrived kasgar about 3.30 in the afternoon to stay in a hotel in the grounds of the old Russian consulate. The Chinese towns in this area are starting to look very much alike in the centre - wide streets and grey buildings but the older areas have lots of character.
the Mosque her is supposed to be the biggest in China but was fairly unimposing - the old town was good tho - narrow streets busting with locals selling everything you could imagine. We got to the Sunday Market and it was huge fortunately we got there early as by lunch time you could barley move. It sold everything from tourist tat to clothes saucepans lollies fruit material Actually bought some souvenirs my first for the trip - again lots of Chinese Army present in every place where there could be a group meeting - especially outside of the Mosque.
Also went to the Animal market just a bit out of town where the country people come in with their horses goats sheep cows to sell fascinating to watch the haggling over them.
Had dinner at a Pakistani restaurant - we are still quite near the border.
