On the road again...

We are in Dunhuang tonight. This will be our third night in the hotel. It's been very restfull! We had a rough, long desert drive to get here.

Here are out latest stats:

14 hotels
2 different campsites
almost 1 month away from home

Dunhuang is famous for the Mogao Grottoes. The caves are full of Buddhist paintings and sculptures. (No photos were allowed). Since we are getting closer to central Asia, the influence from India and Europe can be seen in the pictures. There are some Indian Budhhas and some Chinese ones too. You can even see the cross as Christianity was introduced from Europe. The caves were started in about 400AD. Here's the wikipedia site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mogao_Caves

The other cool thing we saw was Jaiuyguan fort. The fort was at the very end of the Great Wall. It even had a "banishing gate"! We went out the gate to see what is was like. I think you might have been better off to have your head chopped off. Enemies and a huge desert were the only things to be seen out of the banishing gate...

We also stopped in a town called Wuwei. That's where the Flying Horse was found. Nope, no wings! But, the horse rides on the back of a swallow. There was a number of bronze statues found in a tomb and the flying horse was one of them. We got to walk into the tomb. It was a bit eerie.. Kwesi almost didn't fit.

Last night we had a wonderful meal in the night market. We got to sit in reclining chairs and everything! Meghan had meat skewers and Kwesi had the fish. Kwesi seems to be enjoying his fish lately. Last night he choose the fish from the tank and had to watch the lady whack it on the head and gut it! Right there. Bent down, on the street. The fish was cooked on the grill and seasoned. Kwesi then proceeded to eat the fish (skin, bones etc)! At least he didn't eat the head.

We also got suckered into buying a couple of items last night. It is amazing to see some of the skills the artists have. The market was quite nice and had such beautiful items... We couldn't resist.

Here's an idea of what we have to look forward to:

Tomorrow: 10 hours of driving and a bush camp in the desert
Next day: 10 hours of driving and a hotel
Following day: ? hours of driving and a bush camp
Following day: ? hours of driving and a bush camp
Following day: ? hours of driving and a bush camp (Meghan's group cooks again!)
After that: hotel for 1 night (we think)

We are going to take a moment to explain how eating in a bush camp works.

Most of us on the truck are divided into 4 cook groups of 4 people each. Thankfully there are at least 2 girls in each... (Kwesi managed to wangle out of the cook group by having the daily job of loading all the luggage into the back locker! Not sure who really wins in that scenario).

Cook groups are responsible for cooking dinner, breakfast and lunch. Each cook group has 550 yuan to buy all the food required from any source. There are 23 people to prepare food for. Shopping is an interesting experience. Vegetables are easy enough to find (it's summer!) and a tomatoe is a tomatoe. However, meat is an issue and spices (that we recognize) are non-existant. Nothing like going to the "jar aisle" of a supermarket and not knowing what a single item is!

Luckily Meghan has a resourceful husband who is willing to make a fool of himself to be understood.

Here is what Meghan's group came up with the first time around:

Dinner... Single pot meal. "Jaiuyguan stew" on a bed of rice. It was spicy and had lots of flavour! Eggplant (of course,) tomatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers, onions, white beans, spring onions, and the magic ingredient, the sweet sausauge. (No, we didn't sneak the sausage into the vegetarian's pot!)
Nor did we know the sauage was sweet... It was a hit. For breakfast, we make french toast! We can only find sweet bread so that was ok. Thankfully, the eggs were not hard boiled but fresh! And honey and to substitute for maple syrup. We also had grilled tomatoes, which were so wonderful. Lunch, was, well, lunch. I still hate sandwiches.

Ok, that's all we are willing to sacrifice our lungs for tonight!

Meghan and Kwesi

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