Hotan

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Hi All



We stayed in the travel hotel near the bus station which was cheapish, 150rmb double en-suite, and comfortable enough, although there never seemed to be much hot water. The good thing about the hotel was that it was in the Uyghur part of the city. The feel of the city was a little tense as there are a lot of police and army on the streets. Travelling from city to city takes ages as the bus has to stop at every checkpoint into ,and sometimes, out off the cities and towns. Everyone has to get off the bus and have their ID cards checked by the police then everyone gets back on the bus.

Anway, back to Hotan. The area along TongBei Lu was amazing. It really feels like we've gone back in time. 90% of the women here wear the full veil and the men nearly all wear the Uyghur skull caps and there are camels and donkey carts in the street. The Sunday market, which is really why we came here, was really big speading through the covered bazaar and onto the streets. OK so it's really dirty, being in the desert doesn't help as there is sand and dust everywhere, and there is nothing to see here, no old town to speak off and no huge mosque, but the people more than make up for it. I don't think they get many foreign visitors and everyone was very surprised to see us. But a smile and just knowing a couple of words of Uyghur goes a long way.



We had to make a decision here in Hotan and that was which route we were going to take to XiNing. We decided we would carry on up the southern silk road to Cherchen and then onto Charklik. From Charklik we can catch a bus, we hope, to Golmud in Qinghai province.

Enjoy the photos

Jah Bless

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