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Published: July 16th 2022
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Karajun National Park
Our tour of this park started with a boat ride. A large dam creates a lake and to get to the park proper we had a short boat ride to where the tourist buses wait. The idea is to take the buses and get off at various stations and explore parts of the park. At these station you ay simply walk, take photographs or indulge in other activities such as horse riding or off road carting.
Once again the scenery is stunning. Mountains in the background tower over the plateau where we were. Down below a river feeds the lake and dam, the walls of the valleys are steep. Once again we had a glorious day it was warm to hot and sunny with a nearly cloudless blue sky.
Later in the day there were threatening clouds in the distance but the rain stayed away from our location.
I come from Australia. I am used to large wide open spaces. However what I am not used to is the towering mountains that border the edges of the open spaces. The mountains provide a measure to show the sheer size and expanse of this
part of China. It is simply awe inspiring.
Hotel Brickbats and Bouquets
We had been informed that our hotel for the night was to be Tex Tianyue Hotel and that we would be getting a free upgrade to a Suite. As we entered the hotel reception there was a flurry of activity to the side and a dance group sprung into action to welcome us. It was a lovely reception, unneeded, and attracted a lot of attention from other guests. Actually it was a bot of a distraction as we were checking in.
During check in the driver noticed that we had been offered 3 bed rooms. As singles a room of that size was a waste, not required and not really suitable for us. This erupted into almost all out war in the reception. An argument carried out in Chinese and a very irate lady from the hotel staff. I couldn't really understand what was going on but eventually I was forced to follow the angry woman, our interpreter and the driver along with another member of our group to inspect the rooms. It was a room with a bed, I was tired, it was suitable. The
angry woman then cornered our driver and the anger really showed she was verbally tearing him to strips . Eventually I had to intervene and stepped in front of the woman and literally had to fend her off.
Eventually she stormed off and the reception staff completed our bookings.
I discovered later that there were cigarette butts and hair in my shower recess. The room was not well cleaned.
Tekes
Where we were was the City of Tekes. Tekes is notable for being built in an Octagonal shape. There is also the claim that it has no traffic lights as the road layouts give very smooth and even traffic flows. I reserve judgement on that.
We headed out for some food and had an excellent meal of Shasliks and bits and pieces.
We also visited the Centre of the Octagon, which seems to be a walking street at night with entertainment, music and people, hundreds of people. I was mobbed by young people wanting to get selfies with the Foreigner. I must have had close to 100 pictures taken with various people. Mainly young teenagers, but also plenty of more mature people. It
became to much after a while and I had to say stop. I never got a single picture of the selfie takers. Our group was the centre of attention and eventually it all became too much so we left the area. But it was nice to be outside meeting people even if spoken communication was low or non existent.
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