Day 4, Turpan to Kuqa

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After delightful breakfast at Silk Road Lodges, took taxi to the old Turpan station, 50 km from town, about 1hr 20mins in all along superb roads; all roads so far have been perfect, up to eight lanes, with traffic fairly light. This is convenient for drivers who choose to straddle lanes, or randomly move around, for example by overtaking, undertaking or whilst distracted by gesticulating or deep in hand-held phone conversations. Oddly enough, one feels quite relaxed. Reached railway station and checked in (n.b. it is worth arriving in very good time, about one hour before departure, if you wish to travel without any stress, so as to give time for proper check-in etc.). So far, we have not seen any other Westerners and have been almost embarrassed by the consideration that we have received - at the station we were surprised to be ushered into the VIP Waiting Area, and then to be personally summoned and directed to the train. This proved to be a great bonus as we were able to get aboard, find our seats and dump our luggage about 30 seconds ahead of everybody else. It seems that a lot of people are still returning from Chinese New Year visits home, which is why we were in 2nd Hard Seat class, and so was everybody else. Our trip was to be 420 miles (cost £10 a head), and to take about 8 hours. The train was VERY full, our bench of 3 seats was about 60 inches long, and we faced a family of 5 using the same three seats, three adults and two lively, loveable wee boys. The attempts to pack, stack, stuff and re-organise the enormous quantity of luggage were fascinating, and during the most ambitious manoeuvres the entire carriage stood up and watched with delight. In addition to every seat being occupied, and every inch of stowage, about twenty passengers stood in the central passageway, plus dense groups in the unofficial smoking area between coaches. It sounds like the journey from hell, not least because the temperature was in the high 30s; we had blazing sun on the south side of the train (heavily curtained) and to the north looked out across frozen desert and rock-solid flood water and rivers. In fact, it was a great trip, the people were friendly beyond belief, with us and towards each other - nobody got cross, people took it in turns to stand, quite a few people had us pose with them for photographs and went out of their way to be helpful. Even the train official made a point of ensuring that we did not miss our stop. The desert, the first that we have seen except in North Africa, was a bit of a surprise - it seemed strange to see such vast expanses of seemingly level terrain,abruptly fringed by mountains, yet so varied in detail. Some patches very rocky, some covered with mineral deposits, some undulating, some striated by water courses (currently dry or frozen). So, another wonderful day, and now at a magnificent hotel, Tinyuan International, built last October and on an epic scale (£40 per night per room via Ctrip). Accommodation is 5 star by UK standards, very efficient despite language problem, excellent buffet dinner and (once again) just when we thought we were full, staff brought us additional local specialities that they wanted us to experience (which we did, with gusto; luckily Maghnus is a trencherman). Already now for breakfast and a chance to explore Kuqa, at one time an important Silk Road crossroads and an early adopter of the incoming Buddhist faith.

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Comments

[Ruari]

Cold here too
Glad all goes well with you and your exciting travels. Apart from you and Christa who else is in your party? Snow here disrupting everything and hopefully not our early morning flight to Tenerife on Saturday. Very interesting blogs which I am enjoying. Take care. Ruari