Super 8 Hotel Urumqi Ba Yin He

... see this ethnically diverse city. We were also there just a few weeks after the riots in the city and so it was fascinating to see how this had affected the people and the place.


Our first afternoon was spent wandering around the town centre and visiting the People's Park. We had our first taste of Laghman, a delicious Uigher noodle dish, which looking back was probably the best example we have had throughout our travels ...

... so much beauty... I was not ready to leave. I was glad I hadn't listened to the people who told me to stay away and glad that I had not been scared off. I had gambled and it had paid off. Xinjiang is one of the best places I have been to. But perhaps most of all, I was really bummed to have to say goodbye to LX. Somewhere along the line, he went from being my student to being my friend. A good friend. And goodbyes always suck. Goodbye Xinjiang. Hello Sichuan.

... 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.

... shop (as tours in China so often do) I sat down for a free consultation with a Chinese medical doctor. LX told him I had bumped my head. I told him I thought I had been a bit dizzy before that. He felt me pulse, pressed my fingernails, looked at my tongue and then told me the bump on the head had nothing to do with it. While I was not seriously ill, my pulse was weak and I was exhausted. If this continued for too long, it would make it difficult for me to sleep and may lead to heart ...

... her to help me send a message to my Mum telling her I was fine, could not call out and to tell her the hotel number. JV was one of the few people in China who knew for sure where I was, which was why I called her. I didn't want to go getting even more people worried about me being here in Xinjiang. She readily agreed, but unfortunately while I could talk to JV and JV could talk to my mum, Mum and I still couldn't manage to talk to ...

Waiting at Lanzhou airport I started to get butterflies in my stomach. Not good excited butterflies. Scared butterflies. I don't think I even felt nervous the first time I flew. I might have felt a little worried flying to Israel, but I was with my mum. This time it was just me. I sent a couple of text messages to let people know I'd be out of contact for a while and to tell Mum I love her. In retrospect this was a bit melodramatic. I tell Mum I love her fairly frequently, but to say ...

... respects, Taher is an excellent guide for western China. He speaks several languages (Uyger, Chinese, English, French, plus a smattering of Czech); he's enthusiastic and good humored; he knows the cities of Turpan, Urumqi, and Kashgar, and he's a strong hiker, in case you're headed into the mountains, and we were. However, a historian he's not, and a historian is what we needed to make sense of the jumble of rocks that ...

... in every way possible. After lunch Shaw headed off for Hong Kong (he was here on busines) and I made my way to Hongqiao to catch a flight to Urumqi. Since I was flying during the start of the May 1 holiday period, the flight prices were pretty high; high 2000 RMBs for the 4 hour trip. Usually you can get heavily discounted plane tickets, 35% off and sometimes more off of listed prices, which makes traveling in China a pleasure. Not going to happen during the May ...