The day before Julian and I had been approached by Akbar and Guli, English students who were offering to be our guides for the day in exchange for the opportunity to practice their English. We were skeptical, but in the end figured 'what the hell?' and decided to go along with them. They were both really nice and showed us around the market. We had lunch at Guli's house, where they force fed us. Hospitality in those parts is really evil. You think you're done, which is good, because you're full, and then they bring out another course and guilt trip you into eating it. Ugh. We went home to nap after that. Akbar asked us if we would be willing to meet him and a couple of businessmen (also studying English) for coffee that evening- their treat. We agreed (Jenna loves coffee and good coffee is hard to find). They were a 22 y.o. guy in the shirt business, and a 30 y.o. guy in the shoe business. I don't know what they did in these businesses, but they were wearing suits and didn't look like factory workers. The 30 y.o. was married with three kids, the other was single. They had only been studying for a few months, so conversation was slow, plus, Jenna was trying to pick up some Uyghur, so part of it was spent on that. They, like several other people, commented that I looked Uyghur (the headscarf helped). I should stay there and get married.
Another reason to visit Kashgar is decent beds. Perhaps not to those of you used to sleeping on proper beds with "springs" and such, but to someone living in China, it was heaven. Our hotel room had two beds and a cot. The cot was hard as a rock, but the beds, while lacking in support, gave that wonderful sinking feeling. Now, don't get me wrong, in the middle of my bedroom is a large square thing covered with a blanket that I sleep on every night (beats camping out with the roaches), but every morning I wake up thinking, goddamn, how old am I? Can't. Move. Back. Usually my alarm clock goes off and I manage to stall for an hour or so before getting out of bed. I wake up feeling more tired than I felt when I went to bed. Back to Kashgar. So I slept on this wonderful bed and woke up feeling refreshed and ready to take on the world. yay. nice and happy.
Jenna, Julian, and I made a pretty good team out there. Julian got a lot of weird looks and questions about being with TWO women. So, which one's your wife? Are they both your wives? Can you have two wives where you come from? We didn't know how to say "bitches" in Chinese, so we stuck with "coworkers." Actually, I think Julian did know how to say "bitches", but refrained. Mr. No-Fun-Man. He was good for the fluent-ish Chinese. It got us a room in a Chinese-only hotel. There are hotels for Foreigners and Chinese, and then hotels for Chinese only. These are distinguished by their cheapness and general crappiness. The government just wants foreigners to pay more and not see the kinds of places they let their people stay in. Not any worse than some road-side motels, though. Jenna was good for the Uyghur. It helped us make friends: even if it didn't aid communication, they either appreciated the fact that she was trying, or were happy for a good laugh. I was there to be sold, should the situation demand it.
And I should write more about the Kyrgyz yak farmer and his family. There's a picture of the place where we stayed in Julian's photo album. I have never seen as many stars in the sky as I did that night.
Turpan
After checking in and dropping our things in our room, we went downstairs and ran into Israeli Guy (he's the one in the picture having dinner with us). He had been in Turpan for a couple of days already and we were in a wandering mood, so we all went off to see the bazaar and get lunch, and then wander down dusty country lanes. Jenna and I are faster walkers than Julian and Israeli Guy (IG), and we figured that Julian was craving non-Chinese male-bonding, so we let them talk. Turns out IG was asking Julian about Chinese women. He (IG) understood that they are really easy (why is it that all guys think this about foreign women? i guess the girls at home aren't easy enough), but couldn't seem to get any play. I think Julian must have explained that Chinese women aren't easy, so IG started asking about prostitues. As one does... Fortunately for western guys, the availability of prostitutes here makes up for the "uptightness" of the women. Apparently all you have to do is check into a decent hotel alone and you will get a phone call offering "special services". Unfortunately, IG tends to sleep in the cheapest place in town (or in his tent) and most prostitutes don't make dorm room calls.
Yeah, Israeli Guy ended up being a source of amusement for days. Whenever we would buy something (bread, for instance), he would tell us how he got it for 2 yuan less at a place down the street. Or how he climbed Emei Shan (a holy mountain)and managed to avoid the first fee by climbing over a fence, but was caught at the second checkpoint. Fortunately, he was able to save money by sleeping in his tent and not eating for three days. When we left him, he was heading off the next morning to hitch-hike across the Taklamakan desert.
The next day we set out on our tour around Turpan. We started with a visit to Bezekelik Caves. They were a series of buddhist caves set in an "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" style crescent valley. Painted inside them were religious images. Most were destroyed, but I took some photos and will post them.
Then we drove by the Fire Mountains, but they only look like they are on fire in the afternoon and it was early.
Gaochang Ruins. An extensive walled city with remains of houses and some large public buildings. There was a temple left, in which you could still see the niches where figures of the buddha had once been present (see my Yahoo photos page), but they had been stolen by some German. Probably for Hitler. There was a group of donkey carts in the beginning that took people around the ruins (they were rather extensive) and every time one cart left all the other donkeys brayed in unison. It was eerie.
We wandered around for a while. That was where we found the world's cutest camel. I have more pictures of him that I'll post when I get the chance.
Lunch. Karez well system. Interesting system, boring and touristy presentation. In order to get water, the people dig a well down near a mountain or other high area and tap a water table. They then dig a long underground tunnel with periodic wells to the surface that brings enough water for crops and personal use.
Jiaohe Ruins. I already made some comments about these. They were awesome, but buy the end we were tired and sunburned and ready to go home. After visiting the Emin Minaret, that is. It was nice. It was less something to see and more something to not miss.
You know, the truth is, I get lazy writing this, esp. since I can't listen to music and write at the same time. So, sorry if my writing is mediocre. I was doing pretty well until we downloaded WinMX.
Actually, paranoia is cool, b/c it means we didn't have to teach today. We're all really tired after finishing our journey with a 37 hour bus ride. It would have been 24 hours, except for the evil bus drivers, blown tire, and sandstorms. Mostly the bus drivers. It was a long, interesting journey.
Here's the quick version. April 21- fly to Urumqi. April 22- bus to Turpan; wander around town; meet Israeli Guy. April 23- tour of Gaochang ruins, Jiaohe ruins, and some other stuff. April 24- Train to Kashgar. Aprill 25- arrive in Kashgar. April 26- wander around. interesting bike ride that included walking our bikes on planks over fetid river of human waste. Jenna ran into a donkey cart. Julian and I visited a tomb with a razed cemetery (to make way for apt. buildings) and there were human bones lying on the ground. April 27- Sunday Market at Kashgar. bought carpet. April 28- bus to Lake Karakul. stay with Kyrgyz yak farmer in stone and mud house. climb hill/mountain. April 29- bus back to Kashgar, bus to Hotan/Khotan/Hetian. April 30- wander around Hotan. May 1- same. May 2- afternoon bus across Taklamakan desert to Urumqi. May 3- Neverending Busride continues. May 4- bus ride ends at 3am. plane at 9am. Jenna throwing up, but able to pass 4 SARS checks.
I am really, really tired. Sunburned too. We saw the cutest baby camel today. He was a bactrian and his first hump kind of flopped over. He kept nuzzling us. Uyghur food is good.
I'll try to write from Kashgar, when I'm hopefully less tired. We're having a blast.