Kashgar to Urumqi

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Two days to go -- to the eclipse and we are getting excited. But now we are traveling, and traveling. Today was a long day -- up before 6 am to leave Tashkangur to drive to Kashgar. Visit a mosque and then off to the airport to fly to Urumqi. The highlight -- David's camel ride in the Mosque!
Urumqi is a modern and nice city. Mat Kaplan at the Society visited here twenty years ago and said it was ugly and nothing here. But now it is a thriving and modern city, and the hotel we are at is the best of the trip (we just came upstairs from our swim in the indoor swimming pool overlooking the city). To me, Urumqi is a bit of an epitome of China -- confidence in their future, and working hard to create it, I'll add some photos now. Tomorrow we fly to Altay -- the eclipse viewing site. Everyone is getting nervous about weather -- although we have had beautiful weather for this whole trip.
David is also getting quite a lot of experience in passport control and security checks. We seem to do three per day either along the road or in airports. Well, it is part of understanding the world.

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