Turpan to Ürümqi, CHINA - 09 june 2002
We made the easiest bus-trip so far to Ürümqi on an excellent bus which really barred smoking and actually had a luggage-storage area below, and we sped through an excellent highway.
There were modern, wind-powered structures like white, tall, skinny wind-mills in the desert around the highway. It reminded me of the scene in ‘Se7en’ where Kevin Spacey took Inspectors Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt to the desert to look for ‘two more bodies’. Very ‘Develop-the-West-Everyone-prospers’.
We placed ourselves in a nice hotel and I headed out to the train station to try and buy a ticket to Kashgar for a few days later.
I stood behind pushing and shoving men at the ticket window. The policeman yelled at them and they got into proper lines for a while before resorting to pushing and shoving again. It was unruly. I was a little disturbed but I believed patience would prevail.
A 100-kg guy pushed past me and jumped in front of me. The impatient old man behind me was dismayed. He started scolding me for allowing the 100-kg guy to jump the queue.
A 70-kg guy pushed past me and attempted to jump the queue. I believed my 48-kg frame could handle this one and elbowed him, yelling at him to queue up behind. He looked at me, unblinking and indifferent. After ignoring me successfully, he tapped on the shoulder of 100-kg guy and asked him to buy the ticket for him. 100-kg guy successfully ignored him as well and 70-kg guy slithered away when the policeman veered near us again.
Impatient-old-man-behind-me started scolding me again and asked if I was really buying train tickets. No, I am just casually standing here amongst you unruly men for the pleasure of annoying you! I supposed since I was not pushing and shoving or standing restlessly on one leg or the other, my sincerity in purchasing a train ticket was not so obvious.
When it came to my turn, the lady curtly told me she would not sell tickets for another day. She only sold for today. No wonder. Now I understood the urgency of these people. Oooomph, I was shoved off to the side by impatient-old-man at once.
I had no choice but to arrange with a travel agent then and pay the commission, sigh…
Ürümqi to Tian Chi, CHINA - 10 june 2002
Tian Chi is a beautiful glacial lake at the top of Tian Mountains. Being so accessible from Ürümqi, it meant many local tourists came here and it also meant the whole place was done up with kitsch touristy activities and high admission fees were charged.
Jane and I wanted to stay a night in a Kazakh yurt on the lake. The tour guide on my bus simply could not fathom why anyone would not want to follow behind her little flag, pay another Y20 for the boat-ride around the lake, visit a Kazakh yurt and wear the Kazakh costumes for a photo, stop for lunch at 2pm, have some free-time around the lake (but please do not stray too far) and then, take the cable-car for a lovely ride down by 4pm for the return journey to Ürümqi. We split from the group, pronto.
I was not feeling well again. It felt like fever. So, while Jane explored around the lake after we settled ourselves in Rashit’s Yurt, I slept in the yurt for most of the afternoon. Later, when I felt remotely better, I walked along the edge of the lake around the headlands and valleys until I could not find a safe route around the rocks and returned to the yurt. It was really quite peaceful and picturesque after the majority of the day-tourists had left.
Rashit’s name-card had promised ‘Three delicious meals’. I must correct that the meals were the worst we had ever eaten.
Tian Chi to Ürümqi, CHINA - 11 june 2002
I hate to disgust readers with this but I crapped every 2 hours from 2am this morning. I was really sick with diarrhoea but as I had packed a smaller bag for the trip here, I did not have my medicine with me.
A Chinese tourist staying at another Rashit’s yurt gave me some medicine. He asked if I knew this brand ‘Xie Li Ting’. I replied a ‘no’ and he proceeded to sing the jingle for me, hoping to jolt my memory from my presumed bouts of advertisement-watching on Chinese TV.
I could not eat anything and Jane and I decided to leave the yurt early and make our way slowly back to the touristy area and see if I could purchase a bottle of Coca Cola. Always Coca Cola for diarrhoea.
Near the dock for the boats, I sat and waited while Jane went for the boat-ride. A few men came to sit with me and invited me to eat at their restaurants further down the road. “Er… sorry, I have diarrhoea. I cannot eat anything today.” Immediately, the concerned men asked if I had medicine for it and told me a brand – ‘Xie Li Ting’, the same brand as what I had just been given - and promptly sang the same jingle. This must be the most popular brand in China for diarrhoea.
Hmmm… I was OK once I returned to Ürümqi. Good medicine.
Ürümqi to Kashgar, CHINA - 12 june 2002
Kathy (we met previously in Dunhuang) was issued a bed in our dormitory this morning. We greeted her ‘hello’ but she kept her back to us. Jane, later, tried to chat with her. Kathy did not look up from her diary and answered one-word answers to Jane’s questions. Gosh, she must be mad at us. She must have thought we ditched her that day in Dunhuang and now, refused to talk to us. Fine, I did not care. I was leaving Ürümqi today.
I braced myself for the 23-hour ride to Kashgar by stocking up on snacks and cup noodles. Jane would be flying to Kashgar tomorrow. So I would see her there tomorrow evening.
The train to Kashgar was the most luxurious I had been on. The announcement over the train kept harping on how one should be civic-minded and not smoke, throw rubbish, spit, etc… in the train cabins.
Hmmm… I had heard from a fellow traveller that she had once seen the train attendants dutifully gathering up rubbish from each compartment and putting them in plastic bags before tossing the bags out of the window.
I did not know if the attendants would do the same on this luxurious train but I would not be surprised. If one ever does a walking tour of China’s railway lines…
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