Heading West to Yaks, Yurts and Yoghurt.

Well despite it seeming like an age ago we will start where the last one left off.

We did indeed go to see our newly emmigrated friend Wendy in Rayong, Thailand. We had a great time enjoying her luxurious pad, bath, TV, Kitchen, Air-con, Swimming Pool etc. We met up with her new colleagues and got involved in a lot of the introductory events and banter - so much so that I think some people thought that we were actually going to be teaching at the school, and may even now be wondering where we are and why we are not attending staff meetings!!! Everyone seemed great and we liked the lifestyle but soon had to pack up our bags and hit the road again (Jack).

We could not face the windy overland journey back to China as we had covered it all already so took a cheap flight to Chengdu in the middle of China. In the 24hrs there we got a good sense of the city. We also supped jasmine tea in the tea gardens whilst watching locals have their ears cleaned by a chap with a set of tools that would not have looked out of place next to your fireplace!

From Chengdu we took some fairly long bus journeys up to and across the Tibetan Plateau. First stop Zoige, a place which was run down in our guide book, but we loved it. It was our first taste of the wildness to come. The distinctively looking Tibetan people; wild hair, huge dark glasses, massive winter jackets, knives, garish jewellery and red red cheeks, seemed both astonished and pleased to see us. We visited the active monastery which was quiet, and colourful and clearly the centre of everything in Zoige. On our way to catch a bus to our next destination, Dave was dragged into a shop selling these massive Tibetan jackets by some very enthusiastic local ladies and couldn't resist investing in the biggest and probably the warmest jacket - much to the amusement of the crowd which gathered. At $25 I think he got a bargain but not sure when it will make an appearance in the UK - Bonfire night?

From here, we passed through fantastic countryside, fertile valley slopes, gushing rivers and groups of Tibetan tents. Initially, the grasslands reminded us of the Mongolian plains as the cultures, religions and people are similar, however we soon found there to be many differences. After an eventful journey, involving having to bribe our bus driver to drive on the grass to avoid roadworks that would have held us up for 7 hours we arrived in Langmusi. This tiny little place immediately grabbed us. The town is the equivalent of the Tibetan Wild West. Tibetan Cowboys however have largely traded in their horses for Honda 250cc motorbikes. We spent a few days here, spending time in the large and important monastery bonding with monks, sitting in on 3 hour prayer and meditation sessions and pottering about the monastery's tiny maze-like alleys. We spent a day in the hills up above the town and stumbled, literally, onto a Sky burial site. The traditional Tibetan burial method is to take the body to a sacred hill, chop it up with axes, and leave it for vultures and eagles. This initially barbaric practice actually seems quite apropriate in the setting.

We dragged ourselves away and then travelled many more hours through the grasslands, passing loads of Yaks and Yurts to Xiahe. Another Monastery town, this is one of the most important monasteries in Tibetan Buddhism. The site is huge, and takes pilgrims, many hours to circum-navigate the prayer wheels, and stupas around the outside. We did the offical tour with the "English-speaking" guide, who only managed to confuse us about the basics of Buddhism and practices of the monks. To us it seemed like not a bad life. The monastery is beautiful and they are catered for and looked after by friends and family. We felt very relaxed and at home there and were coming to love the Tibetans. However we had begun to learn and see some of the signs of Chinese interference - very frustrating.

For us this was as close to Tibet as we were going to get. We had taken a conscious decision not to go due to the hugely damaging Han Chinese occupation and the conscious destruction of Tibetan culture. The Chinese have now built a rail link directly into Tibet and this will exacerbate the problems even further. Fortunatley lots of the Tibetans seem to be able to live fairly uninterrupted lives in the villages that we saw.

We took another bus up to the city of Lanzhou, to meet up with an overnight train to Urumqi aka (Wulemuqi) an astonishing 36 hours away. Lanzhou was the first place we started to see significant number of Hue people- Chinese muslims, a sure sign that we were heading west. Chinese train journeys are inevitably long but fairly comfortable. We were in a cabin with businessmen selling Car parking devices - fascinating even in basic Chinese and English!!

In Urumqi, after getting ourselves straight, we dived headlong into our next ethnic group - the Uighurs. These muslims are to be found from Turkey all the way through to western China. These landless people don't look chinese, and dish out fantastic if slightly repetitive food, mainly spicy noodles, decorated flat breads and kebabs. They also go in for sparkly clothing and the blokes all have embroidered square hats - don't worry Dave has one!

Urumqi is a massive city and so we didn't stay long. We caught a bus up to north Xinjiang, very close to the borders of Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. In Buerjin, having spent a good few hours trying to find a hotel which would accept foreigners, we were taken to what looked like a disused hotel, in the middle of nowhere, opposite a quarry. The next morning we headed up into the Altai mountains to Lake Kanas. This is a remote, beautiful, aquamarine lake bounded by steep, wooded slopes - it could be in Switzerland. We were lucky enough to be there in autumn, just as the leaves were changing colour - amazing reds, oranges and yellows. We camped by the lake for two days and then with a Kazakh family in their encampment for another night. The temperatures at night dropped to on or arond freezing - a bit nippy!

From the north of Xinjiang we had to take taxis, a sleeper bus and a train to get to Kashgar in the far west of China (the teeing-off location for our next two trips). It's a great city - the first really Islamic place we've been to. The majority of the population are Uighur mixed with Uzbeks, Kyrgyzs, Kazakhs and Tajiks with a small Chinese contingent as well. We have spent our time wandering around the back streets of the old town, rummaging around in the bazaars and visiting mosques. The hats on offer here are something else - massive Russian-esque buzbees made of all sorts of endangered species (snow leopard etc). Today we went to the Sunday market - the busiest market in Central Asia. We spent most of the time trying to insulate our tent after reports of sub-zero temperatures ahead. Dave also got himself an on-street Uighur cut-throat razor shave. He now blends more with the local population...

From Kashgar we also spent a memorable day in the Taklamakan desert with a lovely family we had met. We walked around in the dunes, sheltering from the fierce sun and cooled off in the surpringly chilly lake.

We reached our first 'Stan' yesterday .... Kyrgyzstan and we are currently in the southern capital Osh. The journey here took us through really desolate terrain over the Irkeshtam pass with views of snow-capped mountains. We are now in ex-Soviet country where Chinese is useless. We are quickly having to adapt and learn a new language.

We hope everyone is well back home - we are thinking of you xx

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