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TurpanNov 2, 2005
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Tuyoq
Buddha caves
Uigur houses
Hit the PSB station at 11 to get my passport and hopefully another 30 days in China, I walked in the door, to be confronted by some massive arguement in the queue between some Chinese lady and bloke.
The Chinese are notoriously bad at queuing not like us Brits, but in the police station there was some sort of order to it, I think the lady might have pushed in so the bloke was having a right go, trust me a Chinese arguement sounds savage these guys have got some lungs on them. So the Police finally come out, after letting this thing boil for about 10 mins and put them into different queues. About 5 minutes passed and the women must of uttered something under her breathe, because this dude went nuts, he went straight for her, grabbed her hair, kicked her in the stomach and then drove her into a wall. Some coppers had to rip him off her, but they just put them back in separate queues i couldnt believe it, I thought for sure this bloke is in for a stretch, GBH in a police station, but no, nothing.
Well I got my 30 days and a bit of amatuer wrestling then hit the bus station for the the 3 hour trip to Turpan. Turpan sits in some depression, it lies 80 metres below sea level, so I have gone from 5220 metres above to a 100 below mental. Its also the hottest town in China average here in summer is a crazy 45c, but now its 20c so sweet as.
Pitched up there about half one but too late to go and check any of the local sites out so got some Laghman down the Bazar as you do and chilled watching Chinese tele, bit of NBA action, old Yao Ming the giant Chink was playing.
Thursday 3rd November
Jumped in the cab we had hired to take us about to the localsites, the thing was buggered, was jumping about the place and cutting out the wholeway to the first site Tuyoq, reminded me of GBANs hayday, god rest her soul, still dont forgivr my Cus for that.
Anyway Tuyoq was wicked, real proper Uigur town tucked into some valley in the middle of the desert. It was full of kids not corrupted by mass tourism, as they were all demanding photos of themselves with no charge, obvioudsly not got the business brains of the Tibetans. From here we went to the Emin Minaret, some famous Mosque, again nice place, and no mass Chinese tour groups about. Stopped for lunch at the Bazar again, and yes Laghman was had, but this time with all the locals as Ramadan finished this morning so they were all well chuffed and straight on the munch.
In the afternoon went to some ancient city from the silk road days called Jiohe, it was a massive pile of sandy walls, real interesting if your Indiana but not for me really. From here we made a pit stop in Turpan to sort out this useless car before heading to Daheyan to catch a bus to Lanzhou back in China. We got to the station and the queue was a monster, and orderly for some reason, but our driver managed to push in and sort out some hard sleepers for the 24 hour trip to Lanzhou, Sweet as.
