Huiyuan Hotel Urumqi

... into a magical Christmas card scene - as the blurb says:<br><br>"Nestling among Alpine scenery, with melted snow as its source, lies Heavenly lake. Its crystal clear waters are surrounded by green pastures dotted with the yurts of nomadic Kazakhs, and the silvery mountains soar into the blue sky, their slopes full of fragrant pine and juniper"<br><br>I couldn't have put it better myself! <br><br><br>So, let the photos tell the story:

... A route of over 4000 kilometres.<br><br>The Chinese are brilliant at building roads through incredibly difficult terrain - as we saw when we travelled on the Karakorum Highway from China to Pakistan in 2007.<br><br>For this entry I will let the photos tell the story!

... our China trip finished and Central Asia looming ahead of us. We really didn't know what to expect, having grown comfortable in China, with our basic Mandarin and six weeks of travel experiences. We had seen in Kashgar that travelling without even basic phrases was a much tougher proposition and our Russian was pretty much non-existent, not to mention our complete ignorance of the Central Asian languages. Our first challenge ...

... Next on the list was drinking slushies and beer in the park, then KTV. We figured an hour of KTV would probably do the trick, but ended up yowling away for about 3 instead. Finally, after noodles and beer we parted company. I was extremely happy to have met Ma Jun and sad to see him go. The next day, LX and his uncle took me to the airport. I was already out of sorts in the morning. I had had a fantastic time in Xinjiang. I had met so many lovely people ...

Finally it was time to go back to Changji. We stopped at a couple of shops (including a farm for deer antlers, boo hiss) on the way back, but arrived a lot earlier than I expected. The tour to Kanas was fun, I'm glad I went on it. Not only was the scenery spectacular, but I was forced to speak in Chinese for the whole time and I learnt how to split melon and pumpkin seeds fairly quickly, thanks to the auntie sitting across the aisle from Lirong and I who kept showering us in the damn ...

... decided to walk about the lake instead of taking a boat with the rest of the tour group and opt out of going to the Daoist temple, which had an entrance fee, but then the tour guide, who somewhere along the way must have taken a shine to us, snuck us into the temple and back on the boat for free! Actually, in retrospect, it was probably because we had already been ripped off at the Chinese medicine shop. Tour guides get commission at those kinds of shops, so I guess she figured we had ...

... jiang folk. they're muslim (think more turkistan and less china). anyway, upon arrival we immediately head to the bus station and buy a ticket north, to bu erjin. we're trying to get to kanas, a national park on the kazahk, russian and mongolian border.

It's been a little over a week since I finished volunteering at the Gobi March 2006. I am not going to describe every day, you can check out the details plus photos and videos at the racing the planet web site. In addition, if you want to read a competotor's perspevtive, go to Terri Schneider's web site. I know Terri from Big Bear mountain bike races and I was not surprised to see her at the Gobi March, she is a tough woman and an inspiration for all ...

... common bathrooms, bare lightbulbs with strings as on-off switches, and walls full of crack lines and peeling paint. When the floor attendent keeps reminding you to make sure that your room is securely closed when you leave, you know the place is dodgy. At 2am in the morning, the phone in my room rings and a female voice asks if I want a massage. What kind of a place is this??? Typically, the guide books give ...

... had seen some kids playing in earlier. Had also hoped to have a wander around a cemetery we had seen on the bus on the way here, but somehow missed it on the way home. Relaxing dinner at the nightmarket, consisting mostly of good meat and withered vegetables being kebabed. Supposedly there was to be Uyghur music at some point, but we just ended up with Uyghurs karaoke'ing Chinese music poorly. It was a nice evening though, with even the stars ...