The Silk Road 丝绸之路

We started off in Kashgar after a short flight from Xi’an. Kashgar (known in Chinese as Kashi) is located on China’s far western border, close to Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. We rested a little in one of the most strangely decorated hotels ever (think Barbie + Middle East) and then moved on by bus to Lake Karakul.

(Stop on the way to the Lake)

We hiked around the lake, which took at least a good three hours…I think. Honestly, I don’t remember that well. It was long. And cold. And windy. The views were really nice though. We walked across the ice at some point, which was kind of cool but also a little nerve wracking for me.


That night we slept in a yurt, which was really cold at first but I managed to warm up after a while. I think I’ve become altogether too used to uncomfortable sleeping conditions and now I can pretty much sleep anywhere, anytime, through anything…except snoring. And lo and behold, that night someone snored all night. Ah, well. It happens.

I woke up pretty early the next morning, before any of the others. Crystal joined me after a few minutes and we took photos as the sun rose over the mountains.

On the way back to Kashgar, we stopped near a few Uyghur homes and the others bought some trinkets from them (I think little goats made out of bone were the most popular item). I took a few photos of the kids and one of the adults who, unlike most strangers I’ve met, was not very camera shy.



Back in Kashgar, we wandered through the Old Town. There were mosques everywhere, women in veils, dusty streets – I felt like I was in the Middle East, not China. Although there were Han Chinese around, I mostly heard Uyghur being spoken around the city. Kashgar (or even the rest of Xinjiang for that matter) was not “Chinese” at all to me. I felt like I was in a different country (which was also often the case in Yunnan).


Speaking of minorities (and religion), we visited a mosque with an interesting written introduction on display:


And, as always, we managed to attract a huge group of staring and giggling children:


Patrick, Joey T, and I also wandered over to the giant ferris wheel we’d spotted earlier. It was empty and very old looking, but running and only 10 kuai. So we went on. It did not actually stop. We just had to jump on real quick. I had a few brief seconds of terror as it rose to the peak and creaked like everything was going to fall apart, but we survived. Amusement parks in China? No big.



Next we took a plane to Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang and not particularly interesting. From there, we took a night train to Dunhuang, which is in Gansu Province. We visited the Mogao Grottoes, which were interesting enough, but the really cool part of this trip was going into the desert. We rode camels to our campsite and then climbed a massive sand dune. I honestly did not know if I could make it to the top. The others slowly drew ahead of me, except for Darren, who turned back, and Joey Tex, who sat and contemplated for a long time whether or not he should continue. I kept going, telling myself, “only a bit further, a few more feet maybe”. Every footstep I took, I slipped back at least half the distance. I was on my hands and feet, just crawling forward. And, suddenly, without even realizing it, I was at the top. The others were cheering a few meters to my left and I just collapsed, stretching out on the ridge of the dune. Joe caught up a little while after me. Sean, who had been among the first to get to the top, pulled out a beer from his backpack and we all shared a victory sip. I started heading down a little while later, although a lot of the others decided to stay put for the sunset. Sean was all set; not paying attention to what he had been lugging around in his backpack, he ended up bringing not only a bottle of beer, but his ipod, textbook, jump rope, and a case of ground coffee.

I had been a little wary of going down the dune, but it ended up being so easy and fun. I literally just leaped and bounded all the way down. When we reached the bottom of the dune, however, Darren and the tour guide ambushed us with water guns. As the others started making their way down, we filled up our waters guns in preparation. Sean came first, and we got him pretty good. However, Christopher was by far our best target. He came running down, all excited. Crystal and I came running towards him, our guns hidden behind our backs, and a hand waving out as if to high-five him. Then out came the guns and poor Chris just ended up crashing to the ground. Joey T’s entrance was pretty entertaining as well. He was wearing his cowboy hat, jacket waving in the wind, torn pants, and an air soft gun in one hand, walking slowly and confidently towards us like a cowboy getting ready for a show down.

Then all hell broke lose and we just had a massive water gun / air soft gun battle, which ended when I might have accidently crossed a line and dumped a giant bucket of water on Christopher. Oops. It was the tour guide’s idea, although he wanted me to go for Sean. I picked an easier target – Chris distracted by someone else – but approached him thinking he would probably catch sight of me and duck out of the way. He didn’t.

Evening came, and we set up a bonfire, which brought me back to weekend nights at Wheaton (I kind of miss it…). Sean had gone overboard and bought us all about four nine-packs of beer and a bottle of bai jiu (rice liquor). Still, I enjoyed a couple bottles and roasted some marshmallows for everyone, mostly trading them in for more chocolate. Slept in the tent, and then got up for the camel ride back to civilization.

We took a night train to Lanzhou, and then a bus ride to Xiahe, which is, for the most part, a Tibetan community. We went to a monastery a little ways outside of Xiahe, where the others played basketball with some monks. Then we went to a small Tibetan town and wandered around a bit. I ended up at a school with Malcolm and let the kids play with my camera, dig through my bag, and flip through my sketchbook.

(I can't take credit for this photo - one of the kids took it)

Back in Xiahe, we also went for hike up one of the hills, passing a sky burial site along the way, and visited a living Buddha at Labrang monastery. The living Buddha blessed each of us (a light tap on the head with what look like a wooden object wrapped in cloth). He was just a boy, about nine years old I think. The others weren’t very fond of this experience, questioning why such a young boy should have so much importance in the Buddhist community. It’s like everyone is getting tricked, they said. None of the other students are religious at all, and I am not either. However, I still feel the need to defend religion to them, because religion is not really (just) about beliefs to me. It’s about people; what religion means to others, how it affects their daily lives, etc. I may not accept religious beliefs on a personal level, but that does not mean I think other people are stupid for having those beliefs. Besides, I think religion has everyday purposes that extend beyond beliefs concerning salvation or the afterlife or whether some nine year old has the authority to affect your spiritual wellbeing. Religion gets intermixed with so many other aspects of life.

One of our last activities was a visit to a small Tibetan community close to Xiahe. Our bus got stuck in a small ditch right by the town, and there were many humorous (and possibly dangerous) efforts to dig it out. We had a dinner of tsampa, noodles, and tea with yak butter and sugar. We also took a short ride on some scraggly Tibetan horses. My horse was possibly the laziest horse ever. That or I’ve completely lost any riding skills I might have previously possessed. I tried everything I could to make that horse just trot a little – I squeezed, kicked, clicked my tongue, cursed, imitated the Tibetan words I overheard, and gave my horse a really long, well thought out pep talk – but, alas, nothing.

Afterwards, we took the bus back to Lanzhou, from which we took a night train back to Xi’an. It’s been good being back here. I have access to laundry, a regularly hot shower, a bed. Life is good. And I missed Xie Miao so much! It’s good to have her back. I played some volleyball today, and got Western food at the Village. Classes start again on Monday, although I have a wedding to go to tomorrow. Oh boy, is that going to be an experience.

Also, I've added a few links to the box on the top right. It's Christoper and Joey T's blog links. Joe's last post is particularly hilarious.