Mingshan Hotel Dunhuang

... eddies and settles in more or less the same place, so the dunes have kept their distinctive shapes for years. Dutti decided to climb to the top of the dunes to see if she could spot the Spring; but all she could see was more sand dunes!!


The rest of the day we just lazed and enjoyed being in such a nice hotel! Pintoo went for a massage.

21st October

We checked out and then spent ...

Dunhuang was our next stop along the Silk Road. It was a desert town where you could literately see huge sand dunes at the end of some of the roads. Our purpose there was to visit the Mogao Caves and although the caves that we saw were pretty impressive it was a bit of a disappointment. The caves were run in true Chinese tourist style. We had to have a guided tour, we could not take our cameras in and we ...

... a few dozen feet away but then you find yourself walking for an hour to get to it. Or if you are on the crest of a dune it is really hard to find the exact highest point because the dune is changing even as you are walking on it. So we are hiking up this dune and what I thought would take me 30 minutes tops turned into expedition. The hike to the top of that thing was one of the hardest things I think I've ever done! It took us an hour to get to the crest and by that time we ...

... of the caves and the encroaching sands of the Gobi desert effectively sealed the site for centuries.

Wealthy traders and important officials were the main donors responsible for creating the new caves as they stopped to pray before attempting the infamous Taklimakan desert wastelands to the west. There are some great photos on the web of these traders. Just use Google Images and the cave name. Even I was impressed as we were ...

... français, donc au lieu de visiter les cavernes avec 30 chinois, on le faisait qu'à 3 avec une française expatriée travaillant à Beijing. Fort plaisant.

Déjà la fin pour le désert, ce soir on prend train et avion pour se diriger à Chengdu, plus dans le sud ouest de la Chine.

A bientot,
Sylvain et Josee

Amis de facebook, les photos sont la:
http://www.travelpod.com/z/sylva inboisse/1/1248335210

... we only have another 6 camping days left before we start staying in hotels due to the cold but also as we are slowly moving to more civilized areas where finding a camping spot might not be as easy. No more setting up tent, baby wipe showers, desert toilets and miles' cooking. I think I will only miss the latter. I have combined the last two days as it was "same same" except for staying in a hotel in Hami on one of the two nights, but besides that it was like "Groundhog day ...

... Händler, Unternehmen, Fabriken, redsail, EasyCut. low cost laser engraver vinyl cutter Laser-Graveur ...

... that his meaning could be pushed into my brain if he expelled the words with enough force. I shook my head sadly to indicate that his noble attempt had been unsuccessful. Not a quitt**, he tried one more time, loud** still. No good. He frowned h**e and I could see that he was really concentrating. Then he held up his hands and drew a large rectangle in the air exactly mimicking the gesture from charades. "Alright," I said dubiously, "it's a TV show." Laura s******ed ...

... beginning of our boiled egg fetish that haunted us the rest of the trip...From this day on, I think we had eggs for breakfast every day...even resorting to boiling them in our hotel kettle one day...) Anyway, the Mogao Grottoes are amazing, and they have English tour guides. A flashlight is definitely needed as there is no light in the caves to preserve them as much as possible. There are also no cameras allowed, so I have no ...

... I had no information about this in the Rough Guide. The second guy that we picked up had a press card. He takes pictures to illustrate books. Hard to communicate with him as he spoke little English but at least he spoke some, as much as the other guy. I'm not sure which out of the two guys wanted to come here. I was there just because I got the chance to go to the Great Wall bits. It all reminded me of the Bungle Bungles in Australia but without the wonderful ...