Xin Long Kashgar

... droge paardenpoep redden we het wel een paar uurtjes. De volgende ochten om 8 uur is het -4 graden in de bus en toch heb ik lekker geslapen zonder het koud te hebben onder de dike Kyrgisische deken. Buiten is de zon al weer aan het stralen op het witte sneeuwdek en puntige Bergen, mooi! Ik ontdek ook een stapel gedroogde poep, ****, had ik dus niet klappertandend poep uit de sneeuw hoeven bikken…dat is dus een stapeltje voorraad voor in de bus.

Dikke trui ...

... a huge and sadly empty hotel. The town seemed highly affected by the troubles in Urumqi, which had also spread to Kashgar, and we were told that tourist numbers were down some 80-90% from a couple of years ago before the Olympics and the region's recent riots had drained the flow to just a trickle. The hotel we stayed in, Chini Bagh - on the grounds of the former British Consulate in Kashgar - must have been heamorraging cash, as were the bars and restaurants that ...

... on for about ten minutes until Fiona called Wolf. A strange co incidence as we had been looking at a beautiful wolf pelt only a few minutes before. Unfortunately the NZ Customs does not allow this sort of purchase and we would have had our $10,000 USD pelt confiscated on arrival if we had completed the transaction. Yeah Right.

One final set of photos reduced me to tears as Fiona warbled, “he is squeezing my bum, hurry up!” Ah it was Priceless.

... 8212;ALL shops on the street were shuttered and there were two police cars full of officers in the hotel parking lot.

The television went to 24-hour coverage of the events in Urumuqi interspersed with nationalist movies and programs dedicated to telling the Ughyrs how many good things the Chinese government has done for them. Every channel was flooded with this sort of thing, and even today, on 07-08-09 there is a movie glorifying Mao. We watched for a while, but only had the ...

... 1496;עים. סמסות (סמבוס
511; בשר כבש בצל ושומן), פולו (אורז וגזר עם צלי כבש), לאנגמ 88;ן (איטרי
493;ת מוס ...

... Finely shaved ice + fresh yogurt + sweet honey = heaven.


I find somethings have changed since three years ago.

The lovely Ostanbuyi Square(name?) tea house now has a owner that charges tourist 10 yuan to sit on the balcony. The locals still pay 1 yuan for tea and bagels. I hate it when this happens so we walk downstairs and find another place to eat kebabs and nang bread.

Kashgar, Xinjiang Uygur, China whereskyle

... millennia age. (Considering it’s 1,000km through a desert furnace and its varmint brigands from the site of modern Urumqi, they were brave souls). Its strategic crossroads location has seen it as an epicentre of cultural conflict and cooperation for over two millennia.

Today Kashgar is still a great trading hub and very famous for its Sunday Bazaar and camel and horse trading markets. Although it has only a population of 340,000, it is a surprisingly modern and ...

... us (see note below). The guard gruffly waved us on, an official wearily dragged open a disappointingly nondescript metal gate and we were back once again in China.

For some reason you think that China should look and feel different from Kyrgyzstan. But of course it didn't – at that stage. What was different was the seemingly illogical and frustratingly slow administrative procedures and the rough car and baggage searches that followed. If we ...

... problem in crossing is that the Pass is not meant for tourists. It is a Class 2 border and designated by the Kyrgyzstan and Chinese governments as a commercial thoroughfare. In short, tourists just aren't welcome there. What we didn’t know then – and neither Vita nor Slava knew either - was why the Chinese drivers were always late when the Kyrgyz drivers were always on time.

We were to find out from friends who had crossed Torugat before and ...

... hours of wandering through the streets, learning about the buildings and the residents---small plaques above the doors indicated households where no one engaged in 'separatist activity' lived--and taking pictures of the local kids, we went to catch the train to Turpan. As we said good bye to our guide, I gave him a free English lesson: "Next time, tell the visitors the tour is included in the ticket price." Walking away, I heard him repeating, "included in, included in."