Sunday September 17th The bus to Gilgit was at 6:30 so Jason, Samuel and I got up way too early again, had some Corn Flakes, checked-out and got in. The minibus was starting from the hotel so we got the best spots, but then again that doesn't mean much. It filled up pretty fast and soon enough we were squished, 4 per row. Samuel dropped seemingly in the middle of nowhere, I'm not too sure where exactly. He said he was gonna do some trek so he hopped off in some village. As we neared Gilgit military presence increased. Soon enough [View Full Entry]

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Friday September 15th After a few relaxing days in Karimabad it was time to leave for Minapin and Rakaposhi Base Camp trek. We had breakfast, checked-out and then walked down from Karimabad to the KKH. We hailed a Suzuki that was going to Aliabad, a sort of market town with onward minibus to Minapin. It took about half an hour to get there, during which we had to have all our lugages on our knees to be able to squeeze an extra person in. Comfy! Then we had to wait for about an hour and a half for a minibus to [View Full Entry]

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Monday September 11th Aaron and I were planning to leave for Karimabad, in Hunza valley while Jason was planning to chill in Gulmit for another day. We set up a meeting point for tomorrow in Karimabad and said goodbye after breafast. Jason was moving in a room with some polish climber who told us crazy story about their attempt to climb a 5900m, but highly techincal mountain and having to sleep for 2 nights at 5600m without tents or sleeping bags. Though guys. They never reached the summit. Aaron and I headed to the street to catch a minibus or hitchhike, [View Full Entry]

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Saturday September 9th Last day in China. Bus was leaving at 10AM Beijing Time but before we went I took a morning walk to Tashkurgan Fort which was alright but nothing to write home about. We had to skip breakfast because the bus was supposedly already at the customs so we hurried to walk there only to realize we were the first one from the bus in there. We waited for a while, talking with an american guy named Dave that Aaron met in a dorm somewhere that was also heading to Pakistan. Eventually the communist Pakistani (I'll call him comrade [View Full Entry]

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Thursday September 7th I was supposed to meet with Aaron, the irish guy from yesterday at 10PM Beijing as we were planning to go to the International bus station to get our ticket to Sost, in Pakistan. I actually woke up earlier than that but I went around town trying to find a Pakistani guidebook. I had been told on Thorn Tree that there was one on Carre Cafe in some hotel. I wasn't too sure where was the Carre cafe but ended up finding it and they indeed had one used guidebook. I tried to bargain the price down but [View Full Entry]

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Monday September 4th Tienh wanted to wake up at the crack of dawn the catch the first bus but her plan, thank god, collapsed when she woke up at 8:30. We packed quickly and made it to the bus station. We managed to catch the 9:10 bus. I bought some bread thingy and juice before heading on the bus. We met a chinese guy who had been on our bus from Dunhuang. Tienh talked with him for a while and at some point he started speaking french to me. He had lived in Paris for 5 years so he could speak [View Full Entry]

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Sunday September 3rd We finally arrived at Turpan at 7AM, 13 hours after we left Dunhuang. The pain from my leg had been unbearable for the past few hours. There was no way I could find a comfortable position so I didn't sleep for longer than a few minutes the whole night. I was pretty tired when we went off the bus and was not feeling like dealing with the touts who was trying to sell us "one day" tour of the attractions around the city. I still asked for the price just to get an idea and he said 70, [View Full Entry]

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Thursday August 31st We arrived in Xian train station in the morning but there was still 8 hours to go. I had noodles again and passed the time by reading my LP India. We arrived in Lanzhou about 10 minutes late at 3:40. The sleeper bus to Dunhuang left at 5PM so I ran to the bus station but the tickets were sold out. The lady told me "Please take me to the train station" to get a train to Dunhuang. She was cute so I was more than happy to take her out but she wouldn't move. I went to [View Full Entry]

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Sunday August 27th Today was Great Wall Day. I had to wake up quite early to catch the bus at 7:20 which was supposed to pass by the hostel. I was down in the lobby by 7:10 and I met this french couple while buying food for the day (hey, Snickkers is a complete meal mmkay?) named Marianne and Pierre who were going on the same trip. They were leaving for France in a few days and had been in China for 3 weeks. We talked while waiting for the bus which turned out to be 45 minutes late. A chinese [View Full Entry]

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Thursday August 24th One of the man in my train compartment woke me up at around 7AM. We were approaching Beijing. We arrived quickly thereafter and I managed to make a fool of myself when I got down from my (top) bed (I slipped when I put my feet on the middle bed and almost fell). Hard sleeper is definately luxurious travel. The ride had been really easy and comfortable. I was a bit lost when I got out of the train station as I was expecting to land in Beijing Train Station but I ended up in West Beijing Train [View Full Entry]

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