Go West , Young Man!

Hi Everyone (all 47 individual visitors since I installed tracking on the page!)

Well Michelle and I are finally smiling amidst the sunshine again and all we had to do was travel 3000km's away from Beijing! In fact we have left China behind in everything but purely administrative sense by arriving in Xinjiang (pronounced Shin-jiang) which is the westernmost province in China and not, in actual fact, really part of China at all. In one of those imperialist moves that the Chinese denounce when on the wrong end (read Shanghai circa 1927) but are more than happy to start when it suits them (did anyone say Tibet?) the Chinese took "responsibility" for the administration of Xinjiang way back in the day (2nd century BC) but have never really been accepted by the ethnic majority. But anyway China now own a large oil rich chunk of desert that is the home of 10 million Uyghur (pronounced sort of like Wiggar) who are ethnically closer to Turks than chinese.

It is a picture postcard place of stunning mountain ranges, alpine grasslands, forbidding deserts and oases. I think it looks like the Flinders Ranges (minus the snow capped peaks) but Shell reckons it is like Syria. The houses are all built out if mud bricks - you would love it Dad - with much desert and wilderness. It's also got extremes of everything, with the highest mountain in the region the mighty K2, topping out at about 8600 metres, a large desert basin that is the 2nd deepest point on the earth at 152 metres below sea level and some wicked weather that sees Turpan with an average tempreture of 11 degress C, but a 40 degree + and 30 degree - varience. It was about 42 when we were there and these dudes are all getting around in long pants! A great place and they grow excellent grapes, ie ones that you actually want to eat instead of the standard Chinese grape which looks good but tastes like a sour apple (or something. Suffice to say there are not good.)

Anyway after being in the real China for so long we loved the change - it was as good as a holiday! We got off our 36 hour train ride from Xi'an at 6:30 am in Turpan, but the train station is about 80k's from the city so we sat on the bus for another hour or so and then arrived. There is quite a bit of historical sight seeing to do around these parts so we did that including:

• the Flaming mountains, so named because they look and feel like they are on fire;
• the irrigation system at Karez which is a really cool series of tunnels they used to bring snow melt water into the desert via tunnels that were dug about 1600 years ago (And I can't even get my storm water drainage right).
• an ancient city called Jiaohe which is a really old city built out of mud and clay that was quite rich when they used the silk road for silk, rather than tourists; and finally
  
• a Uyghur cultural show was the best example of a cultural show we have seem on our trip so far
  

The next day we got another long train to Kashgar which is way out west. When we arrived the next day we kicked around town for a bit; Kashgar is probably one of the strictest muslim towns in China and there are quite a few women getting around wearing their carpets over their heads. And I'm not being culturally insensitive! They are actually wearing carpets and it is about 45 degrees. Anyway we ate some bagels and also at this great restaurant called Intezar which is legendary amongst locals and tourists alike for serving the most massive plate of chicken in existence. It's pretty good and we go to try other specialties such as yoghurt and bread (yes! finally real bread!!! It was a great day) and Laghman noodles and mutton dumplings which unfortunately taste like mutton.

The rest of our time in Kashgar was spent with me hanging out on the toilet thanks to a bug I'd aquired in Turpan and Shell sleeping, although we did manage to drag ourselves along with the tour to the animal market which is a big saleyard for Cattle, Sheep, Donkeys and Goats. Pretty smelly but lots of fun. Oh and we bought a totally excellent Fur hat at the main bazaar!

Anyway the next day we were to head for the border and Kyrgyzstan which we did despite a pretty nasty terrorist attack in Kashgar. For a detailed report check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Xinjiang_attack. This happened at 8am Beijing time (about 6am in reality but non official Kashgar time) and we left our hotel at about 10 BJT.

We didn't actually notice anything obvious rather than more than the normal amount of police cars tearing around town and a big road closed off. We had seen this occaisionally for dignitries and the like so we didn't think too much of it until Sandra, one of the members of our tour group, got the news on her Blackberry that said there was an attack against Border Security police in Kashgar. Now we were in Kashgar and heading for the border so we were a little concerned but we kept getting through the checkpoints so we figured there couldn't be too much going on at the border itself. And this was what happened:- we drove to the border, went through a great many number of checkpoints and eventually made it to our personal Shangri-La, KYRGYZSTAN!

So finally we had finished with China and frankly we were both sick to death of it. It is an amazing, brilliant, infuriating place filled with the nicest and meanest, most beautiful and most disgusting people and places on God's great earth. There was a great many things to admire in China and even more things to hope to hell they clean up, fix up and remove altogether before they take over the vacant Super Power of the World job. But happily for us we were done with it, although the insurgency that was present in Kashgar had spread to my stomach so I still had a couple of persistent reminders about our trip through China.

Next stop - KYRGYZSTAN, where we marvel again at the difference a border can make, go horse riding through the mountains like Jenghis Khan, get our preconceptions about Soviet Infrastructure brutally confirmed in a Kygryz toilet and wonder why they still use Asbestos Cement Sheeting for roofing in the year 2008! All that and more the next time I can be bothered using the Internet!