TURPAN

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TURPAN TUESDAY 24 JUNE 14

Distance: 96 Kms SubT. 3,500 Kms Bal 8914 Kms

Road Condition: highway. Good

Weather: fine, cloudy and moderate wind.

Time in Saddle: 4 hrs Av Speed: av. 25 kph.

Elevation: 350 m : Decent 750 m

Calories burned : 5000

Left our marvellous hotel at 7 am. Room was best on trip. Pity to leave it so early. The ride today was relatively short, good road, reasonable head wind. Today we road below sea level, meaning that the only meaningful direction is up! Within the next 3 weeks we climb to over 4,500 metres.

Winding around the streets of TURPAN to the hotel was pleasant. The entrance was along a colonnaded, tiled road, with overhanging vines.

Ate lunch at John's Cafe, a chain in DUNHUANG, TURPAN, & KASHGAR. No John in residence. A welcome change to have western food- cheese omelette, fries, cold beer. Will explore beyond hotel zone later!! Everyone is very tired.

Spent the afternoon doing chores- hand washing clothes, packing and repacking bags to make camping easier, it's astounding how difficult it is to fit everything back into the camping bag, I think the hardest thing in a camping/ cycling day! Thought about buying a Chinese laundry bag, but an edict was issued today, 2 bags per person ONLY. I would like to see this enforced, as some have multiple bags.

Before eating strolled down the grape vine covered, with hanging grapes, mall ( must be 2 Kms long), before adjourning to eat. The mall has a pretty garden off to one side and a mix of general stores and cafés on its edges. Found a few of the TDA crew and ate with them, Doug the mechanic, and Claire the nurse. Both have helped me out, so I bought dinner for the three of us, 130 yuan, $20-. The last of the BIG spenders! Tasty goat skewers, cooked over smoking coals and round, dinner plate size bread dusted with chilli, pepper and salt. Delicious, washed town with a couple of low alcohol local beers. The beer is all less than 3% which is ideal on riding days.

TURPAN has a comfortable feel to it. The people mostly look weathered, square jawed, with broad faces, ruddy skin complexion and are generally welcoming. There are Han Chinese, but they stand out like me! I would like more people photos, but feel that they are intrusive, although the Chinese have no hesitation about photographing us, up close and personal.

Rest day tomorrow.



TURPAN : WEDNESDAY 25.6.14. REST DAY.

Western China has its own local time zone as well as Beijing time. Local time is 2 hours behind Beijing time. More confusing than Queensland Summer/ daylight saving time. TDA is working on Beijing time.

Apparently the provided breakfast was beyond description in a negative way, so passed, and went to John's Place for a slow delivered meal of pancake and yogurt, mushroom omelette, banana smoothie. It sounds better than it was!

Afterwards a few of us hired a van and went to the local winery, Chateau Tuoling, not far out of town. Very impressive operation, similar to the larger Barossa Valley wineries, in size and amenity. After viewing the cellar and displays we sampled their white and red wines. All quite expensive to purchase- $ 50+. The white I think was a Semillon, passable; a red Cabernet Sauvignon, passable and a second red which tasted like a sherry or tokay, awful. None were worthy of bottle purchase in my view, and after a day in a hot truck over bumpy roads, would have been undrinkable.

Later we went to "TURPAN KAREZ PARADISE", an underground water channel- aqueduct constructed over 2000 years ago, and considered an engineering feat on par with the Great Wall and the Beijing - Hangzhou Great Channel. The channels distribute water throughout western China from HAMI, to Urumqi, to TURPAN, and major centres. The water flows underground by gravity avoiding sun dehydration, and has enabled the deserts to be settled and cultivated. The complex also housed the grape drying towers, so it was possible to view how that worked.

An interesting morning topped off by visiting the TURPAN bazaar. Mainly clothing, some tourist knick knacks and cloth. Interesting. The Silk Road definitely opened China up to Middle Eastern cultures, clothing and food. The women's clothing is considerably brighter in colour and style and worn with greater flair than Chinese traditional style clothing seen further east.

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