Urumqi

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Today is the second day of our 16 day tour of China. We flew in from Beijing yesterday and will continue east along the general path of the ancient silk road until we get to Xi'an. After we arrived yesterday, all 60 students in our group from TBC went to the International Bazaar. We shopped for a few hours amid the scarves, jewelry, and other knick-knack items. I did not buy anything yesterday because I wanted to know a good price before I bargained, but I asked around for starting prices for the scarves. In the afternoon, the tour guides had us board the buses, and a few minutes before we were out of town we stopped along the road to pick up some Kazak musicians. We were then driven two hours out to the Heavenly Lake where we hiked for almost an hour with our night packs to spend the night in some yurts along the lake. A yurt is a round seasonal home of the Kazak nomads where thick rugs are hung from a frame to make the walls several layers thick. The stay was a lot of fun and I could easily have stayed longer. The children in the small collection of yurts were very adorable and several from our group played frisbee and some other games with them even though only some of us spoke a little Chinese. That night the musicians played us some traditional music along with some Eagles, the theme song from Titantic, and a few others. We finally went to bed after watching the stars in the chilly night air. Most people saw at least one shooting star. In the yurts, they provided each person with two thick quilts that had to be twenty pounds each and a pillow. We all brought our own sleeping bags. With one quilt under us and one on top, nine girls piled into our yurt and fell asleep on the raised platform covered in rugs. I was actually quite comfortable and did not get chilly at all, though during thi night it did sleet for a while. This morning we got up around 7 and walked back to the buses and then onto the hotel for breakfast. We drove back to Urumqi and checked into our hotel. The rooms are very nice and have a western toilet which is a bit better than the squatting behind a boulder that had to be done at the yurts. After having lunch on our own, we met up with some students that brought us to a more locally populated market and helped me barter for a scarf, getting it down to about 30 yuan (thats about 4.50 in dollars). After shopping we decided to get something to drink and the two students brought us to a nice restaurant and ordered a traditional drink that is similar to beer and honey called Kavas and some sort of ice cream that tasted like caramel. Then we decided we would just like to eat dinner there and so they ordered everyone a noodle dish with meat, onions, and pepers, and some beef skewers. When we had finished eating, we headed back to the hotel, stopping to watch a street performer perform some tricks and stand on butcher knives. Then I pretty much crashed. We have a lot of stuff going on in the next two weeks and I will try to keep everyone updated.

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Photos

International Bazaar
Just a shot of some of the vendors.