Hot Feet

After I finished the last post, i went down to the "night market" and had some dinner of chuanr (kabobs) and some bread, walked around some more, and came across this group of kids in front of a Dico's (Chinese KFC) dancing to this music. It was really funny, just watching them, and I got some pictures as well. Went back to the hotel, took a shower, helped out some Americans who were trying to communicate with the hotel staff, then went up to bed to chill, and relax.
Turns out, the chuanr (i think) was a bad idea, so I wake up at 12ish with stomach issues, and 4 immodium later, I got a halfway decent night of sleep.
Woke up at 5:15 to catch my train out of Jiayuguan to Dunhuang. The train ride was allright, about 7 hours, with a baby who had this toy that played really annoying music. The cool thing was the scenery, which was simply empty. We did pass through multiple variations of desert, and this really cool windmill park, with probably 100 or so power-generating windmills. Got to Dunhuang at 1:15 and got a cab to town, which was not very far away, and went to one of the hotels suggested in my book. Got a room, with bathroom and western toilet, for 50 kuai, nice :). Walked around after I settled in, walked to a place to buy train tickets for tomorrow night, turns out they were on their lunch break, from noon to 3! Props to communist nations. While waiting for the staff to get back from lunch, I went and got some of "laowai" staple food, good ol' "gongbao jiding" (Kung Pao Chicken). Went back and got my ticket for tomorrow night at bascically midnight. Looks like another night of poor sleep, oh, and top bunk :(. From here, I caught a local bus to one of Dunhuang's sights, "Mingsha Shan" which consist of a really awesome set of sanddunes. Accompany-ing the park was a steep entrance fee, which thankfully to my student card, I got cut in half. There was some argument about if my card was valid, so I had to take to multiple people for varification.
Got into the scenic spot, and was accosted by people wanting me to rent a camel, jeep, hat, bascically everything. I told them I'd just walk around, and so did that, along one of the roads that the tour car drove on. Feeling a bit ambitious, I decided to summit one of the dunes, and thankfully there was a pair of steps on the side of the dune. I get ready to go climb, and am told that I have to pay to use the steps...whatever, it was worth it, not having to take 3 times as many steps. The hike begins well, and I make it to the top. I have to walk in the sand a bit, which is really hot, and I didn't think to much, and wore my Teva knockoffs. So, get to the top, and think, I should go to the bottom of the other side, because then I would be completely surrounded by dunes, and that would just be awesome. Kind of -- the first 10, well maybe 5 seconds were cool as I ran down the side, until I found out that this sand was hot, really hot, the kind of hot that made me wonder if it was possible to get 1st or higher degree burns on your feet because of hot sand. Oh, and the wind was different on this side, so I was constantly getting blasted with sand. About 1/3 of the way down the side of the dune, I couldn't take it, so stopped, wondering how I would get relief for my burning feet. Thankfully, I had brought some extra clothes, notably a wifebeater and a bandana, so unstrapped my sandals, wrapped up my feet, stuck them back in the sandals, then continued down. The relief was instantaneous, a good decision. After I made it down, I walked up some more "steps" and then went down the other side of the dune to where I had originally started. After I made it down, I went to the main attraction, some temple/building/fort thing, with a crescent shaped lake. It was nice to rest a bit, and take some pictures, and sit down in the shade.
On the way out of Mingsha Shan, I saw a family (I think) of foreigners so we talked for a bit. They were living in Australia and were heading back to their original home of England, and were taking a sleeper train to Beijing tomorrow, 36 hour train. That would be rough.
Got back to Dunhuang proper, and went back to my hotel to shower the sand off me, and did some of my laundry in the sink, which is really hard on the back. Looked through my book for restaurant suggestions, and found there was a restaurant with Western food just down from my hotel. I wanted to take the food easily after the bad experience last night. I had a burger, and some yogurt with raisins in it, on a bed of oatmeal (musli). A really good dinner.
Now I'm just sitting here in a nearby WangBa, typing this up, while I upload my pictures to Flickr. Thankfully no weird shocks from my camera this time.

Tomorrow is Mogao caves, maybe biking out to a temple, then 7:00 bus to the town of Liuyuan, where I catch my train to Turpan at midnight.

Until then...

BTW -- I guess there was another earthquake or something. Nothing here though, so no problems.

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