Snow Lotus Hotel Urumqi

... a cold a blustery autumn day. We were glad we had gloves and scarves! There were a few families out walking, and more appeared as the sun came out. <br> <br>There was some confusion about our hotel. The one we were supposed to stay at had been pulled down a year ago! It was half way through a complete re-build.<br><br>But we were 'upgraded' to a 5* hotel, which was fine - nothing special; a typical 'business' hotel - could have been ...

... 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!

My last day in Xinjiang was spent mooching about Changji with LX and Ma Jun. It was exactly the kind of day of doing nothing much in particular that I needed in order to wind down from too many days of seeing and doing way too much! First we went off for a big lunch at another Hui restaurant. Then as we dawdled towards a video arcade, Ma Jun saved me from having to buy a new back pack by getting the old one repaired (the one where the zipper busted just as I ...

... the curiosity was even more noticeable when walking around with LX (Han) and Ma Jun (Hui) than usual. After being very nice, but glancing at me surreptitiously when she thought I wasn't looking, the waitress finally couldn't contain herself and the question "Which race is she?" burst out from her lips. I can see if I come back to Xinjiang I am going to have to have a t-shirt made with this information printed on it in order to stop people from dying of curiosity regarding my heritage.

... enough money to the tour guide fund! Seriously, we paid almost 100RMB for something that later cost me 5.8 RMB in Jinan. And I got a lot more of it in Jinan!!! Going to the temple ended up being a double edged sword. We went in, and sat while the priest chanted, blessed us and then sprayed water over us to get rid of bad vibes. The priest then told people to stand up one by one and gave us some advice after doing stuff to our hands. LX got an extra long lecture and a piece of paper ...

The day started with a bit of a headache. No internet, no text messages, no way of calling out on the hotel phone and no phone call from my mum, which suggested to me that international calls were being blocked, to cell phones at least. I suspected she must have been getting pretty worried back home in Perth. I tried to call out again, failed miserably and then sat back to assess my options. I called JV (in Wuhan) on my cell and ...

... This threw LX a bit, who was struck by what would happen to the both of us if I was thought to be a spy of some sort. Actually, other than a car ahead of us driving like a loony and braking too quickly, causing me to hit my forehead and nose against the bars of the cab (lots of cabs in China have cage-like bars down the middle), the trip to the hotel was uneventful. Well, considering the nightmare-like gangs dragging people from cars and bashing them to death by the sides of ...

... lorsque 5 hommes debarquent, nous devisagent et s assoient avec nous. Je regarde de plus pret et il y en avais un menotee! C etait la police et ils escortaient a 5, un jeune garcon. arrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggg. Ils nous ont demande si on pouvait dormir sur les banquettes en hauteure car le jeune prisonnier dormirait en bas. Re ARGggggggg Bon il etait menotte et il avait pas l air mechant mais je ne crois pas que j aurais pu bien dormir sachant qu il y avait ...

... a busy road when I felt something touch my bag. Turned around to see the inept pickpocket start to walk the other way. At that point, I swore to get out of this hellhole ASAP. Even though I was to go to Tian Chi (Heavenly Lake) the next day to do some horseriding in the mountains with Kazakh herders, I wasn't going to stay in Urumqi another night to wait for the bus to Tian Chi. This pathetic city can kiss my ass goodbye!

... In his defence, apart from seeming like a genuinely friendly guy (even if he is not completely smitten with you), he also knows good places for excellent, cheap Uyghur noodles. More entertainment as he tried to obtain Tiffany's phone number and email without seeming too obvious (his concession was to ask for mine first - alas, while Tiffany has had 3 emails and about 20 phone calls from Abdullah thus far, we don't seem to have heard from him ...