Ancient cities and so much more

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We arrived in Turpan early morning (known by the Chinese as Tulufan) after our delayed night train from Dunhuang. The train station is literally in the middle of no-where, no sign of a town or life what so ever. I knew it was a popular spot on the silk road and there was definitly things to do there but coming out of the train station I started to wounder if this was the right place. Ben was seriously starting the think where the hell I had brought him and what did I think would be interesting here. The drive from the train station to the town was about 40minutes and for 35minutes there was nothing just flat desert land. The taxi driver dropped us off at a hotel and they wanted over 300rmb per night, we didn't want to pay more than 200rmb so decided to look somewhere else but the taxi driver who we believed was quite friendly and helpful told us we wouldn't find accomadation in Turpan for that price. In the end we only needed to stay for one night, desperately wanted a shower and didn't really want to go walking around looking for cheaper accomadation so we stayed.

After showering and getting organised we headed out to see what Turpan had to offer, for me it was the most interesting city, the people were not all Mon Chinese there were a mix of different ethnicities and religions. There were many Muslims and things were also wrote in Urdu as well as Chinese, not everyone spoke Chinese, people looked more Western, like Turkish and this made the choice of food much more interesting. We found a food hall which sold dumplings (lots), BBQ, season chicken and fish and other things. One of the food cart owners spoke a little English and there I ate a delicious dumpling and something else soup. Outside the market had a large choice or different breads and fruit, great for the long train journey home.

I wanted to visit the museum but Ben wasn't so keen so while Ben relaxed in the hotel I went out in search of the museum following the GPS on my phone. After walking around for an hour looking for one of the biggest museums in that part of China I gave up, it was obviously not where the GPS said it was and no one was going to understand what I was looking for if I started trying to ask people, so instead I headed to the park. It was only a small park but really nice, so for the afternoon I relaxed and watched the Chinese people around me do the same and get on with their normal everyday lifes. Unlike the park nearby whre we live in Baiyin where if you sit down people will always come over and start talking to you here they just left you alone to watch. In the evening I had a look around the markets and tried some of the local food.

We had been offered a tour of the sights on the outskirts of the town first by the taxi driver and then by a minibus driver as part of a group. It was obviously cheaper to go with other people and much more interesting than going with a driver who doesn't speak English when our Chinese is still very limited. The tour left at nine and we slept straight through the alarm waking at 815, opps. We decieded we would aim for the tour anyway so after very quickly having a shower, packing our bags and checking out I called the guy for the minibus tour. With in minutes they picked us up from the hotel and that was that, we were loaded into the minibus with perfect timing. It was a whole day tour, finishing around 6 which was perfect for us as our train left at 830.

Our first stop for the day was SugongTower, an interesting building that doesn't look at all like a traditional mosque from the outside but once you get inside you realise thats exactly what it is. We didn't spend so long there but enough time to have a look around, it cost 30rmb to get in and its possibly worth seeing but once you have seen it you don't really need to spend that much time there. We met some really nice people on the minibus and Chinese people always have some random English names, one of the was called Seven! Because he liked the number. OK, Second stop Flaming Mountain, the hottest place in China as the legend goes it was once on fire and the warrior tried to but it out with the girls fan. Anyway we had been told it was free entry but then the ticket office said 40rmb so we paid and entered. We later realised we had paid to enter the museum underground and see the mountain from infront of the fence, we could infact have taken photos from behind the fence as we didn't really have time to read everything in the museum although it did look interesting. With the time of day we visited it it just looked like any other mountain but I'm sure if you visit it at the best part of the day it would look spectacular. Next stop Grottos, they were between the side of the road and sand dunes and this time instead of paying to enter them we decided to climb the sand dune. O and after climbing 2 sand dunes in a few days it works them muscles at the back of your legs! It wasn't so high this time but I still felt my legs and the view was just as beautiful, definitely better than paying to enter the Grottos, some views are just priceless. We then had a bit of a drive ahead of us to reach GaoChang Ancient City, but it was worth it. When we arrived we teamed up we one of the couples on the minibus and hired a donkey cart to take us upto the main part of the old city, driving through it you can imagine families and friends walking around selling, buying, laughing, children playing and just normal everyday life going on around you. There is no complete buildings but just the parts that there are shows you so much about how their life must have been. We arrived at the old temple in the city and thats where we left our donkey behind and headed off on foot, it wasn't a long walk but gave us chance to discover what was there. Most of the temple seemed pretty much intact and there was an old guy playing the banjo. Ben had a go at playing it with him and our donkey cart driver came over and got everyone else who had gathered dancing! It was great! Random moments like that are what makes the trip so much better. On the way back tothe entrance the donkey cart driver sang Muslim songs to us and got us all clapping and clicking along with him, amazing. Our final place for the day was a very late lunch at the grape farm, they gave us delicious raisins and different types of dried grapes while we waited. Two of us had noodles which came pretty quick but Ben wanted rice and it took almost an hour for it to arrive so the dried fruit was a must. We then had some delicious juicy watermelon before heading back to town. The tour had one more destination but due to us having a train to catch we weren't able to go unfortunately.

It was time to get ready for our 26hour long train journey home, we picked up our bags, ate, bought lots of food and caught a taxi to the train station. For the second time on our trip the train was on time, which was great as it was going to be one hell of a long trip. Other than been long the train journey was pretty much uneventful, we arrived in Lanzhou at 2230 the next evening on time. From there we needed to take an hour taxi home or stay the night. We weren't a hundred percent sure what we wanted to do but in the end decided to go home. We bargined it down to 200rmb and then saw the state of the 'taxi' that he wanted us to travel in, we refused! It wasn't even a taxi! So we got in the taxi next to it and after going to the petrol station realised the taxi driver didn't want to go to Baiyin, a guy knocked on the door and said he was going to Baiyin and would take us but he wasn't a taxi and we had no-idea how he knew we were going to Baiyin. So we refused to go with him, so then our taxi driver drive towards the highway and found another taxi waiting, he would take us to Baiyin. So there we changed taxi and arrived home around midnight, easy peasy : )

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