Breath-taking sand dunes, camel rides and sunsets

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Dunhuang for me was the part of the trip I was looking most forward to, we just had to get there. I was only around 5hours by train from Jiayuguan but the train times were all really stupid times. In the end our train was supposed to depart around 5am infact it was delayed and departed just before 7 and even then became further delayed so we eventually arrived around noon. Then according to all the information that I could find we wanted to head for Charlie’s café which was apparently across the street from the bus station. Unfortunately the bus station moved 3years ago and the café is no longer opposite it. So after we took a taxi to the bus station we then found out from two German guys that we had to walk a further 20minutes to find the café! Anyway their directions were pretty easy to follow and we found the café no problem, when we finally got there we were starving, the whole morning had ran on China time. So while eating lunch we organised to head into the desert on a camel for the night.

It sounded amazing, we would take a sunset ride by camel into the desert for 1-2hours, we would then climb to the top of the dune to watch sunset while our guides prepared camp and dinner, then after spending the night there we would wake to watch sunrise and then ride the camel back to the town. While booking everything six German guys walked in and booked on the same trip as us, that now made the total 16 for the trip. It was going to be a good night, but we needed to do a little shopping first. Top of the shopping list was gloves and socks plus a bag to take with me. First I went with Ben but soon realised I was never going to get what I needed shopping with him so after he got what he needed he headed back to the café while I did some more shopping and had a look round for an hour or so. Our trip was to depart at 5 and as we arrived so late in the end it basically wrote off doing anything else that day. But even only walking round for an hour or so it’s not hard to tell how beautiful the city it, and touristy too.

So back to the café before 5 we all sat around and got to know each other, the German’s were studying in Shanghai and like us were on holiday for National Day. Not before long and we were off, loaded into two cars, off to find our camels. It was only a short drive and we were there just in time to see them loading up the quad bike that would be going ahead of us with the camping gear and food. Quickly they got each of us on to a camel; they are such beautiful, friendly creatures. The trek was absolutely breath-taking! There is no other words to describe it, it just made me realise even more how much I love my life and how lucky I am to be able to see and experience such amazing things! Everything about the whole evening and night was amazing. First we trekked through an old grave yard by the famous sand dunes before eventually reaching the sand dunes, they are incredible. I was at the back, which gave me the opportunity to take photos of all the other camels in front of me trekking into the sunset. The colours on the dunes as the sunset made you want to constantly take photos, I think in that one evening I took almost 200 photos. The guide that was with us was running up and down the line the whole time taking cameras from us and taking photos of us, he was great and even though he spoke barely any English he was good fun.

When we arrived at camp and got down from the camels it was time to hike to the top of the sand dune for sunset and we had made it just in time. It wasn’t really a long walk up but it was really hard work especially when the sand is constantly coming down due to the fact that there are people in front of you, your feet just push the sand down and it just seems to get steeper and steeper. But finally I reached the top along with the others. Looking from the top of a sand dune over the town and desert is truly spectacular! Amazingly it was to be a full moon and as the sunset the moon rose making it even more special. Going down the boys were boys and ran down or did anything else to get down than just walk. At the bottom dinner was awaiting us, instant noodles, ‘sausage’, bread and some yummy moon cake. We ate sitting on mats with little fold away stools and tables around the camp fire, it was great! After eating the guides came round and offered everyone a beer, can’t go camping without the beer! We then all sat upon a small sand hill where we had the perfect view of the moon rising in the sky, it was getting into winter and in the morning and at night it gets pretty cold. Kindly the guilds knew this and brought with them Russian Mafia type coats for all of us, they were great, so snug and warm. So there we all were stood on top of a sand bank looking like the Russian Mafia had just arrived. Before bed we sat around the camp fire the only thing missing been marshmallows but this was definitely going down as one of the best trips I’ve done (I’m already trying to work out when I can do a week camel trekking trip!).

During the night it wasn’t so cold in our tents and super warm sleeping bags but in the morning the Russian Mafia coat required again. We watched the sun rise from the small sand hill, another beautiful moment before eating our breakfast of bread and fruit. It was not long after waking in the morning that we were back on our camels to leave, while we watched sunrise the guides packed up the camping things and that was that. The camel trek back was just as beautiful, the colours on the sand dunes amazing but it was not long before we were brought back to the city and reality.

Our train was due to depart at 130am ish so we had the whole day, annoyingly the trains heading west departed from LiuYuan which was 130km from Dunhuang and the latest taxi we could get left at 8. That basically wrote out the night market unfortunately. I still wanted to visit the famous Mogou caves and although Ben didn’t the German boys did. They needed to book tickets and wanted to shower first so while they did that I checked out some more of the town and it really is such a beautiful town. I met them back at Charlies (the owner is so friendly we used her café like a home for two days) and together we took taxi’s to the caves. It took a little longer to get there than we thought it was going to then we had to walk to the ticket office while he had dropped us off at the furthest part of the carpark away from where we wanted to be. Then the queue to buy the tickets was big so by the time all this added up we missed the 12o’clock English tour and had to wait until 2o’clock for the next one. We took this time to eat lunch, it was erm… not the best meal I have had in China. Anyway by the time we had finished lunch, took a few photos and walked down to where the caves were it was not far off 2o’clock.

The caves were caves in a sense but not caves as you would automatically think. They were underground but king of built into a mountain side so on the outside there were stairs and steel doors that you accessed them through. There are only around 40caves open to the public all the other 700 or so are permanently closed in order to protect them, you can’t take photos inside them as this will slowly destroy the paintings. There were 8 of us on the tour and although the guide spoke good English she had learnt a script very very well! There was only me that spoke native English and some of the English words she used I have never even heard been used, I just know they must be English; this made it really difficult for the others to follow. She took us around quite a few caves and they were all unique and interesting, many of them had been painted and re-painted over hundreds of years, one had the second largest Budda in it in China (and it was pretty big!) another told a story from that time in history. I found the paintings really impressive, how they painted on roofs with every picture the exact same like they did I have no idea but the artwork inside them is amazing. Each time in Chinese history has a different type of art and the caves were all very different.

After the tour we headed back for dinner, we wanted to try and fit a visit to Cress Lake in before 8o’clock and it all seemed possible. All until the point when we realised it would cost us 120rmb to get into the lake and then if you actually wanted to do anything in there you had to pay extra. In the end I met up with Ben and we found the night market for an hour. We were surprised by how expensive the BBQ’s were 5-10 times more expensive than in Baiyin.

The time spent in Dunhuang was truly amazing but I just wish I could have had one more day there! There is so much to see and do there and we only touched on it. But we had to keep going, our train tickets were booked and we had to be back for school.

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