Blogs from Kashgar, Xinjiang, China, Asia - page 7

Within one hour, we were eating lunch in Andijon, Uzbekistan and the next thing we knew, we were walking across the border into Kyrgyzstan. It was a sad goodbye with Dav - we all agreed that he far exceeded our expectations and taught us so much about his country. Once we went through the formalities, Freya, our Kyrgyz guide met us in Osh with cold water and ice-cream so she instantly scored points with us. She speaks English faster than any of us which is quite amusing given it's not her first language. Osh is Kyrgyzstan's capital of the south, with Bishkek being the official capital in the north. This city has a large number of Uzbeks living here, so we still felt like we were in Uzbekistan for a little while. Luckily the Uzbek and ... read more

morning guys ..ladies too please ..kinda new to this computer stuff old hippie living in the woods of alaska ..radio link to web ..learning to type ..got a bad habit called k2 ..get some extra dollars in my pocket ..well that's where i head ..pakistan was safer a decade ago ..china side very demanding treck ..lotz of fun ..camels ..shaskam river valley ..local camel men ..great guys ..smoked all my cigerrets ..well got out to road with a few to spare ..gonna cut it short here ..see about getting out and back in again ..kinda flag my way out and back track ..this man gets lost eazy in cyber space ..stop at the top ..blog later ..nice to be here ..mt paul... read more

Sorry for the big break between entries, but accessing an internet cafe in Xinjiang has turned out to be pretty difficult. Well, not its almost over. I'll try to recap what has happened in the last week or so, as the majority of events have not been that interesting. After the great time in Turpan, we (Miles, Saskia and Myself) took a bus to Urumqi, where I rushed to try to get a bus to Tian Chi (Heavenly Lake) where the plan was to stay in a yurt with a Kazhak (sp?) family. It was no to be though, as the last bus had already departed. Instead, I booked tickets for a day trip the next day, and checked into a hostel with Saskia and Miles. After a little bit of relaxation, we went out for ... read more

The second half of my trip through China has been so different from the first part that Its hard to believe its all one country. Just about everything is different except the money - which goes further the further west you go. After posting the last blog I settled down to some serious travel covering a couple of thousand Km by sleeper train, bus and jeep. The route took me round Tibet (not allowed in!) crossing the lower part of the plateau at around 3000m. Its all desert, not big sand dunes but miles and miles of dusty gravel with ridges of hills that look like they would just turn to mud if it rained. Vegetation is very sparse with some tough grass in small clumps meters apart. I was following the southern silk road route ... read more

Salaam aleykum, Zoals bekend konden we onze Tibetaanse plannen definitief opbergen na de Chinese invasie in het hoogland. Gelukkig konden we plan B nog uit de kast halen. De weg naar Xinjiang was lang, erg lang, maar onze uiteindelijke bestemming bleek de moeite waard. Vanuit Chengdu namen we een 21-uur durende trein tot Lanzhou, om daar een aansluiting te nemen tot Urumqi dat 25 uur treinen verderop ligt. Aangekomen in Urumqi beslisten we om nog een "stukje" verder te reizen tot Kashgar, 1470 km en 24 lange busuren verderop. Kashgar ligt afgelegen genoeg om aan de ijzeren Han-greep te ontsnappen, en is mede daardoor het kloppend hart voor de Chinese moslimgemeenschap, de Uighur. De stad is eeuwenlang een belangrijk knooppunt geweest tussen de noordelijke en zuidelijke Zijderoute, handelaren uit alle windrichtingen konden hier even op adem ... read more