2 sunsets, 2 sunrises, 1 sleeper bus

  Urumqi, China
Thursday, August 30, 2007

Another Rusty Sleeper Bus

42 hours, 24 smelly passengers, 8 meals at Chinese truck stops, 2 sunsets, 2 sunrises, 1 sleeper bus.  Plus, 6 previous hours on a bus full of soldiers followed by 11 more hours with 1 more sunset and 1 more sunrise on 1 more sleeper bus, for a total of 57 hours, 72 smelly passengers, 14 meals at Chinese truck stops, 3 sunsets, 3 sunrises, 2 sleeper buses, 1 regular bus.

Let me explain.

In Tashkurgan, under 6000 meter peaks freshly coated with snow, at 7:30 in the morning, I caught a bus full of soldiers back to Kashgar.  I arrived around noon, got off the bus, took a cab from the international bus station to the long distance bus station, and got in line in the relatively uncrowded ticket line.

late at night, some truck stop, Xinjiang

The ticket office must have just gone to lunch because for an hour I stood in the same place in the line while the lines grew larger.  The line grew larger in both the entrance and exit sides of the window's stalls.  Before they started selling tickets, a security guard came out and started yelling at half the massive crowd who had lined up in the exit sides of the ticket windows.  Luckily I had somehow managed to be in the right line for once.  It certainly wasn't because I could read the signs in Russian, Chinese, pinyin and Uighur. 

Finally the line started moving.  Unable to buy a ticket to Kuqa, I decided to head straight for Yining, a town with a lake nearby in the Tian Shi mountains which sounded idyllic.  I figured it would be a good place to spend a few days before I met two friends from Beijing in Urumqi.  I planned to go with them up to the hometown of one of them for a wedding and visit a well known lake outside her hometown.  I couldn't remember the name of the hometown, but I was pretty sure the lake was Kanas Lake, another lake I wanted to visit.

Four hours later I boarded the nastiest, skeeziest, mankiest sleeper bus that I have had in all of China.  Previously I had been a fan of sleeper buses, prefering them even over hard-sleepers on the train, much to the contrary of fellow travelers because the buses are faster and less hassle.  

Sunrise number 2

I realize now that each sleeper bus I have taken has been a slow degeneration from the previous.  The first sleeper bus I took from Xi'an to Beijing was so modern--it looked like something from the Jetsons, had clean sheets, a clean and functioning bathroom, air conditioning, and made the journey in record time without stopping.  Likewise the sleeper bus from Wuhan to Guilin was similar though the toilet overflowed. 

And then, the sleeper bus from hell; well, not from hell, but certainly not heavenly.  While still at the bus station in Kashgar, one of the last men to board the bus starts arguing with the father of the family directly below me.  I think what had happened is that the father had told his daughter to claim the bed above me though he hadn't paid for beds for either of his two kids.  So, basically the father's family was occupying new the passenger's seat.  

Sleeper Bus

Regardless, the argument degenerated into yelling which then suddenly degenerated into the two leaping up into the aisle inches from my face and going for each others throats.  The 10 year old daughter, 2 feet away from, directly across from the aisle from me on the middle aisle upper bunk, starts shreaking at the top of her lungs.

With no time to weigh the options, instinct told me I should attempt to break up the fight before knives appeared or inujury occured.  Given that I was the only able bodied adult within in instant grabbing range, fairly safely tucked away in a bed out of striking distance but within fingers reach, and that I'm hear to tell you this story, I made the right decision.

The fight diffused.  A couple other men also lept in to pull the two men apart once I had wrenched the attackers hand from the father's throat.  The daughter gave up her bed and somehow peace prevailed the remaining 42 hours 

Views along ride

That still left me on a hot, decrepit, rusting, dirty sleeper bus with no air conditioning, no bathroom, nasty sheets that hadn't been washed in years full of passengers most who hadn't bathed in weeks, surrounded by 4 men who chain-smoked whenever they were awake.  Luckily I had an open window.

29 hours, countless truck stop meals and nasty bathroom stops later we arrive in Urumqi at 11 PM and exchanged about 2/3's of the passengers for a gaggle of chattering, cell phone crazed college students.  13 hours after that we pulled into Yining.  Gratefully I escaped the bus, bought a ticket to Sayram Lake for the next morning, and searched out accomodation.

Urumqi's most famous building, now rebuilt...

Unfortunately the budget hotel recommended by Lonely Planet China 2005 edition no longer accepts foreigners.  I noticed an internet cafe next door, so I went online to see if I could find accomodation online.  I found nothing, but I did happen to catch a message on Facebook from Raya, one of two friends from Beijing Language and Culture University who I was planning to meet in Urumqi in a week.  I sent her a quick note back, mentioning that I just arrived in Yining.

She just happened--thank Allah--to be online and writes back, "So you are in Yinning?  That's where my hometown and where the wedding ceremony going to holding! 
I thought we are meeting in Urumqi and going to Sayrum together..." (sic)

Ohhhhhhhhh crap, I write back.  Suddenly I realized my errors: I had been told that her hometown was Ili which I didn't recognize.  I figured it was near Kanas Lake and probably the Uighur name for Altay.  But no.  Ili is the name of the region containing Yining.  Sayram, the lake for which I now had a ticket to go to the next morning, is the lake Raya planned to take us to.  Oh crap.

Cornfield Youth Hostel

Well, luckily I hadn't check into a hotel...which was probably going to be pretty expensive by Chinese backpacker standards since there are no budget accomodations in Yining.  So, I dragged myself back to the bus station, disappointed that, 1, I had opportunity neither to change out of clothes that I had been wearing for two straight days; 2, after five days without, I still would't get to shower; 3, I'll have now wasted a day on sleeper buses; 4, I'm going back onto another bus after two nights on the nastiest sleeper bus ever.

Three hours later I found myself on yet another sleeper bus, this one headed back to Urumqi where I had been 15 hours earlier just the night before.  Luckily this one was much newer and the spare driver occasionally policed the aisles, which kept the crowd subdued and the aisles mostly clean.  One more sunset, one more sunrise, one more day in the same outfit, one more day without a shower, and I finally found a bed and a shower at the Cornfield Hostel in Urumqi.  Whew.  

Eating Unknown Fruit

The three S's taken care of (shit, shower and shave), I chatted a bit with some other travelers--always refreshing after days of bleary broken Chinese and English conversations--and then wandered next door to what turned out to be perfectly massive, clean, well stocked western super super market next door called Parkson's. 

Now refueled by two cans of Nescafe, a fresh banana and a Snickers (I hadn't seen a Snickers bar in a month), I wandered up into a great park in the hills above Urumqi and relaxed.  Later I had a perfect hamburger, fries, and a salad at a place called Fubar run by two expat dudes, one Irish and one Kiwi. 

Fubar has to be the best western bar--meaning best bar altogether--that I have visited in China.  It rivals and just beats out Lush in Wudaokou.  Both owners had relaxed chats with me and the other two customers.  The windows on the east side of the bar let in light and scenes of walkers strolling next to ponds and gardens in the People's Park.  They have perfectly clean and functioning western bathrooms.  The food was delicious, the beer cold, the service perfect.  I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the markets of Urumqi and finished the night off at a beer garden in the central plaza in front of a palatial movie theater.

Urumqi

So I like Urumqi.  Plus, at this juncture I really enjoy being in a big city after Kashgar, Karakul Lake, Tashkurgan and about a week's worth of sitting in planes, buses, and waiting rooms.  As I have mentioned before, one great feature about large Chinese cities is that they're accustomed to seeing foreigners.  Very few people stare at you or yell 'hello' incessantly from across the street. 

Now I'm off to try and figure out how to fly to Llhasa from Yining and get my visa extended one last time...