Life in Cambodia

After the most pleasant train ride yet (a nice compartment of a college student, middle-aged woman and older grandmother-type and a businessman)--no smoke-filled nights or drunk, card game playing beneath us, but lots of little chats trying to understand each other in broken Eng and Chinese, map viewing and picture showing. We arrived in Xinjiang Province and our new friends hugged and waved us on and wished us luck. We took in the landscape and it has been like flying to the moon (Urumqi also happens to be the farthest place on earth from the ocean). We have left the old China behind us and remain in China solely in political terms. Linguistically, ethnically, culturally, we are a world away, far more Central Asian that Chinese. Xinjiang Province is the historical homeland of the Uygher, a Turkic people related to the Kyrgyz, Uzbek, etc. Formerly, the province was majority Uygher but since 1949, the area has been flooded with ethnic Han Chinese settlers to where, I believe the Uygher are no longer the majority in their own province. Many high ranking positions and business opportunities are headed by the Han Chinese and as one can assume, the relationship between the two groups is none to cordial, to say the least. However, many of the ethic Chinese are centrally located in Urumqi (the capital) and surrounding areas and many of the cities in the south are completely Uygher populated and not yet wrought with (noticeable) air pollution, although we have heard that China tests it's nuclear weapons and radioactive materials in the desert of Xinjiang...

We've been able to see a bit of the area and want to give a little update now because we are soon headed to Kashgar and that will be a whole story in and of itself. We hung out in Urumqi for a few days, though the only real thing of note that we saw were some mummies in the museum, which, of all things, are of Indo-European descent. Thousands of years old. Otherwise, in Urumqi, our time was spent eating kebabs, samsas (mutton-filled baked bread dumplings), and plenty of tasty flat bread. We've also had some really good tea, often flavored with nutmeg and cloves.

From there, we jumped out to Turpan for a night. Turpan is only about 2 hrs east of Urumqi but it is the hottest place in China (record of 130 degrees) and also the lowest point in China, supposedly only second to the Dead Sea. Turpan is famous for its grapes, which rumor has it have the highest sugar content in the world. In Urumqi, we picked up a lone British guy, David who has been traveling around with us for a few days and will continue onto Kashgar with us. Anyway, we made it out to Turpan, checked in, and despite the heat, headed right out. Admittedly, there isn't too much to do in Turpan, but it was a nice break from Urumqi, something different. David and Maggie seemed unimpressed with our first stop, the ruined city of Jiaohe, though the heat kinda put a damper on most things (and its not even the hottest season now!) Jiaohe was kinda just some old mud brick houses that you couldn't even explore, but had to look at them from a distance, which looking back, wasn't too terribly interesting. Our next stop though, the Emin Minaret was really cool--it is mud brick through and through, clean right angles and large and cool inside. Set amongst rows and rows of grape vines and mud houses, the Minaret was a calming and refreshing breath from the heat outside. We opted to walk back to our place from the Minaret and loved the neighborhood, where we could peak into household compounds and courtyards where racks and racks of grapes were hanging to dry to become delicious raisins (the best we've had! forget Sunkist, Turpan grapes are where its at!). We also had kids running around, asking for our names and shouting 'Hello' as we walked past.

Back at our hotel room, which was more like an old boiler room in the basement that they turned into a dorm room, we relaxed and David and Maggie went swimming at the 'pool'. The downside of the hotel (other than being in a basement boiler room) was the fact we were no where near a bathroom and were only allotted one shower each a day. The upside? The pool. After our allotted showers and pool time, we popped into the Turpan Bazaar, but it was closing down (Friday night) and we were there only long enough to grab a Uygher hat and some eats before calling it a day.

After another lay over in Urumqi, we headed north to Tian Chi, or Heavenly Lake, only a few hours outside of Urumqi. We had thought about heading to the far north of Kanas Lake, but it was far away and opted for the closer lake. The arrival at the lake was met with the typical Chinese tourism sites: music, cable cars, tourist crap, and anything else that would turn it into a carnival atmosphere, including the ability to dress up in faux "traditional" local outfits and have your picture taken. We were looking for a man named Rashit, who had some yurts on the back side of the lake that took boarders. Needless to say, he found us and we knew he was a keeper when he came up and asked, "do you want to get away from all the tourists?" We said - "lead the way!" The lake is not huge, but with about a 30 min walk we were away from everything and made it to "Rashit's Yurt" on the south end of the lake. Rashit is a local Kazakh who apparently has been renting out yurts for years and seems to know what foreigners are looking for in their Tian Chi experience. For 50yuan a night, you get to sleep in a yurt and are provided 3 meals. 50yuan is about 7 or 8 dollars and is what we are paying in Urumqi for a single dorm bed. Regardless, the yurts are set up right on the lake in a beautiful grassy semi-cleared valley. At first arrival it was Maggie, David, myself, and another American, Ben, and we set off for a quick hike before dinner. Off in the distance were a few snow covered peaks and for a while there was talk of trying to reach the snow line, but a two hour hike that brought us no closer kinda put an end to that talk. That first day, the weather was cool, very crisp, almost like a fall day, though it would get much colder at night (as well as during the following days). That first night, Rashit's wife lit up the little iron stove in the yurt so it was nice and toasty and we all got under our own huge felt blankets (amazingly warm) and whiled away an hour talking before we drifted off to sleep.

The following morning found Maggie and I on horseback and Ben and David making another half-hearted attempt to the snow line (which foundered). On horseback, we went straight up into the mountains through some pretty rocky terrain and made it to the top of some smaller hills which opened up into grassy pastures that afforded beautiful panoramic views of the lake below. We rested up there for a bit before descending back into the camp and being greeted with handmade noodles, mutton and carrots. The rest of the afternoon we headed out for some snacks and a quick hike and then were greeted by the arrival of 3 more couples: a Dutch diplomat from Shanghai and his wife, a young traveling couple from England and a New Zealander and his wife from Beijing. We all spent the rest of the evening and into the night eating good food, drinking beer and building a great bon fire down by the lake. As the fire died down and the cold started creeping back into our tired bones and muscles, we headed for the yurts and curled up for another night. We headed out the next morning after much picture taking and thanking to Rahit, his wife and daughter (see pictures) and got back to Urumqi where we showered for the first time in 3 days, relaxed and (gasp!) ate some KFC...ahem, that will be a discussion for another time, but it left us less than fulfilled!

Tomorrow, we are on an overnight train to Kashgar and will be over in Western Xinjiang for 10 days or so...more stories to follow! (We also just posted the previous blog on Xi'an, don't forget to check that one out too!)