A not so perfect, but practically so Day.

Today is a beautiful day in Kashgar, 29* and sunny. A day to rivial a Seattle summer day. I think it has had me in a great mood today. Even though it has been overcoming one obstacle after another.

This morning I emailed elong.com who I booked my airline ticket to Chengdu with, because i needed to cahnge the date of travel if I am going to go see the eclipse. The number I was given by elong was not the actual number and they gave me a new number. I called the new number only to have written it down wrong, so I had to call back the first number... well you get the picture. We worked out the details and the customer service representative told me I had to go out to the Airport.

So I asked the Fuyuan at the internet bar how to get to the airport. I took off on the walk to the bus only to realize that I had left my travel guide with all my flight notations at the internet bar, so needless to say I had to return. I got to the bus stop only to never find bus 29 to the airport (turns out bus 2 goes there). So I flagged a taxi and it cost 15 yuan. I didn't have him wait 'cause who knows how long it would take.

There are only a couple flights a day so the airport was dead and they had to go find someone to operate the x-ray machine before they would let me enter the building. It took a good 20 minutes for them to find my e-ticket in the computer, after calling the central office in Beijing. Finally after close to 45 minutes I had a new e-ticket number. But by then the line of taxis out front was gone. I asked how to get back to the city and they informed me of the bus. But when I got there the attendent was busy cleaning and wiping down the bus. I am pretty sure she didn't speak Mandarin, because I couldn't get her to tell me what time the bus was planning on leaving.
The driver was fast asleep under a nearby tree.

Thankfully a taxi finally showed up and I rode it back towards the city for 11 yuan. I wanted to stop at the international bus station to buy a ticket out to Kabakul lake. Which is on the highway to Pakistan so I went to the international bus station. They sent me to the long distance bus station across town but since I am a foreigner they will not sell me a ticket. In the beginning they said there was no bus, but when I pressed them they said there was a bus but they wouldn't sell me a ticket. This is because it is a second-grade pass which in Chinese speak means for locals only. I have talked to two travelcompanies and one has an overnight trip for 640 yuan, and the other has a one day car rental with driver for 880 yuan. I am going to look around town somemore so we will see.

I am hoping I can hop a ride in a mini-bus. I would love to make it all the way up the pass, but it doesn't sound like it is going to happen. I might we able to get to the lake, where I want to spend two nights. We will see.

I feel like I have faced as much adversity as I did yesterday and yet I have a completely different attitude. Maybe it is the perfect summer day or maybe it is the fact that I am now official 22. Who knows but I am in no rush today and so I have taken everything in stride, which I am very proud of. Somewhere between Hong Kong and here I have lost the crazy pace with which I do things in DC. I have become a lot more relaxed and I am surprisingly enjoying it. For the most part I don't know what the date is (only when I have already bought tickets somewhere or it is my birthday) and I have absolutely no hope in telling you what day of the week it is.

I first noticed the change in Dunhuang when my travel companion was go go go and I just wanted to take the leisure scenic route. Maybe it is because I only have a vague plan that I have relaxed a little. Well see if I can keep up this new pace upon returning home.

Oh yeah, I wanted to share another story from my birthday yesterday. When I was walking from the bus station to the hotel, I heard the faint refrains of song growing closer and closer. It was a familiar song and then I knew what it was.... the song was "Happy Birthday!" It was coming from teh water truck that sprays down the dust on the roads. It could have been a complete coincidence that the truck played Happy Birthday, but I heard another truck today and it was playing a different song. I think maybe God knew what I needed, knew that yesterday I was feeling a bit lonely and missing my family. He's amazing isn't he?

In fact I have been thinking about God a lot on this trip. Him and I are in the middle of a fight as I don't particularly agree on some of what the bible teaches if taken literally. So we aren't really speaking at the moment. But I will be walking through sand dunes or past tiny villages, and wonder if the places Jesus travelled through were similar. I spent 4 hours in the desert He spent 40 days, I can't imagine. When I take off my sandles at night, I am reminded of the story of the washing of feet and I comprehend it on a different level. I never thought that in a place where God is so absent, I would find myself being pulled toward Him.

Don't know what I am going to do this evening, maybe look at this problem of reaching the lake a little more and enjoy a nice cold beer on a perfect summer night.

Happy Birthday to me!

Well yesterday the 25th of July was my 22nd Birthday. It truly was a day of ups and downs and by no means perfect. I think at one point I wanted to cry I was just so tired, and frustrated, and hungry. Maybe if it hadn't been my birthday I would have had a little more will in the situations that presented themselves. But as I finally laid my head on the pillow, all in all, it was a good day.

I was going to go to the factory in the morning, but decided since it was my birthday I would sleep in. I checked out of the hotel and headed for the bus station not more than one really long block down the street. Boy let me tell you, I was glad to be on the bus to Kashgar. Not because I have ill will toward Hotan,it is a very interesting place, but there was a bit of a mix up at the long distance bus station and it left a bad taste in my mouth.

I consider my Chinese to be relatively decent, but sometimes I get flustered. Like walking into a train or bus station and getting met with touts trying to sell me tickets and calling out names to every city in driving distance. I normally point at the counter, indicating I am buying an official ticket. It probably isn't the cheapest option but at least I am not getting screwed. So as the hawkers stand around me I am trying to talk to the ticket counter directly. They are speaking Uighur and Mandarin and I can't hear the lady through the speaker. I finally turn to them and in a rather harsh voice and say "Bie shou ba!" Meaning don't talk and they do shut-up.

Well needless to say, I either said or the attendant heard Tulufan and not Kashgar. So after I purchased the ticket for $298 yuan I take a look at it and notice where the ticket is actually for. I stop go back to the counter and try and explain that it is the wrong city. Well, the Chinese tend to raise their voices pretty quickly and we are pretty much yelling at each other through the glass and have attracted a bit of a crowd. I spot a police/security officer and go over and explain to her the problem. They helped me out and a couple of people gave money to the counter, they were all speaking Uighur, so I have no clue what actually transpired, but I am grateful for all of their help. I think just to spite me the attendant gave me a ticket for a bus that was suppose to have left 3 minutes before. Nothing ever leaves on time out here. But I knew I needed to hurry and with most of the signs in Uighur I knew it was going to be tight. I took my bags through the x-ray machine and was rushed through the station and onto the bus by an older man in a white shirt and doppi cap. Although I had no time to buy staples such as water and bread, I was on a bus out of town and I breathed a sigh of relief. I always feel better when I move on or at least have a way of getting to the next city. I am not sure what that says about me, but is probably does say something.

I was a bit upset and when I am upset I don't want to have anything to do with anyone as my family well enough knows. I like to brew by myself and work it out on my own, eventually I have an attitude change (as my father likes to say and pressures me to do faster) and go back to my semi-social self. So I put on my sunglasses and turned my iPod and sat responding to emails on my blackberry. On a side note, the data functions on my blackberry seem to be working again after nearly two weeks, don't know what was wrong with it, but it seems to work now at least.

The man behind me, though wanted to be social and he did speak Mandarin. But I didn't final aqueous until he was forced to move next to me when the bus started filling up with each stop. He actually had been nice earlier sharing some of his sweet tomatoes and nan bread, when the ladies who came on the bus selling ran out right as they arrived at me. I did manage to get some cold green tea, water, two hard boiled eggs and an ear of corn though. But since it was notw 3 and I hadn't eaten all day I was starved. So I turned my iPod off and we chatted for a while. He is a military officer/police officer, its pretty much the same word here so I don't know for sure which he was. He was full of the typical questions and I feel I have perfected my answers. He too wanted to talk about the Iraqi war (a Uighur taxi driver in Tulufan wanted to talk about it too). He lives in Wulumuqi (Urumiqi) and was on vacation. He too wanted an English lesson, but this time I got some Chinese words out of it too!

It started all because I glanced out the window and up in the wispy cirrus clouds there was a rainbow reflecting off the ice crystals. It was beautiful and I don't know if I have seen anything like it, ever. This part of Xinjiang is green and there was farmland and trees that remind me of the trees that line the Slew and 60 acres park in my hometown of Redmond. I forgot that I was upset earlier and just enjoyed it, the colors brightened and spread across the clouds until suddenly it was gone, as if it had been a mirage. I wanted to know the word for it and so I asked, the word for rainbow in Chinese is taihong. So thus began our Chinese lesson. We worked on the names of animals (again) and how to say please give me as well as some other words.

As we neared Karghilik, which is the jumping off point to the back road into Tibet via Ali the police check points increased. We must have stopped at close to a dozen. At one I was pulled off the bus and questioned. I probably shouldn't have corrected the police officer when he wrote my name incorrectly, but I did. He smiled ever so slightly so I think it was okay in the end. But I am sure I wasn't pulled off anywhere else, because whenever an officer boarded the bus the gentleman beside me would pull out his military id and tell them I was legit. I am sure the check points are both security measures for the Olympics and the need on China's part to keep foreigners out of Tibet.

We passed through several small villages, with the officer explaining a little about each one to me. At one he said "qiong" meaning poor and I heard "chong" meaning rough, it took us a couple minutes to sort out that I had the wrong word, but I am pretty sure that both words fit this small village that well could have been from a bigone era. The next city we passed through was Yengisar which is known for their elaborate knives (dao). Earlier when I told the man next to me that it was my birthday, he gave me the knife from his bag. The only birthday present I was given today. It is a small little thing no bigger than a Swiss army knife but with a wicked pointy blade, like elf shoes. It is inscribed with Uighur writing and Chinese characters. It has pink, green, white and gold stones embedded in it. It really is a beautiful thing.

Finally we arrived in Kashgar and I bid the man goodbye and followed my map to the Chini Bagh Hotel on the old British compound long decommissioned. Most likely the Consulate thrived when England controlled India (the Karkoram highway goes into Indian controlled area and onto Pakistan), but now the British have absolutely no use for it so it has been converted to a hotel.

I tried to get a dorm room as those are normally the cheapest but first when I wanted to look at a room and then when I paid for a room they sent me to a room where all 6 beds were already taken! I was tired, I was hungry, it was my birthday, and there was a moment where I could feel the tears of frustration form behind my eyes. After about a half hour it was all worked out and nly for 5 yuan more. Geesh! I dropped my bag on my bed with a sigh of relief. I did not want to pay for a single (280 yuan) and I did not want to go find another hotel. I liked this one.

There are foreigners everywhere here, but that is because of a unique set of circumstances including a group of 50 people from Amsterdam making the trek from Holland to Beijing by car! I met a couple in Tulufan that was doing this privately too! And it got me to thinking what an amazing trip it would be, someday right? But everyone is in town because 600 miles away (I know close right?) is a city called Hami on the Urumiqi-Beijing rail line lies a city called Hami. About 100 miles north very near the Mongolian border is a place called Eclipse City. One million dollars has been spent to build this small town for the single purpose of watching the Eclipse that will occur on August 1. I had met a couple of guys in Dunhuang who were here for the eclipse too.

Well low and behold the guy who organized Eclipse city and has arranged for the tours prior to and after the event, a guy named Xavier, was staying in my hotel. I knew this because I met up with a group of guys from Holland and a guy from Denver who were on his tour. They convinced me that since I was so close it would be a shame not to see it because it is amazing. So Xavier is working on getting me a permit to travel into the area and I am arranging transportation to Hami (he'll get me on one of his buses from there). It also involves moving my flight to Chengdu around, but since my plan was to be in Chengdu no later than the morning of the 3rd I think it will work out perfectly. As I want to see the torch relay which will pass through town.

At dinner, the other gals headed off to bed and I stayed up with the men folk. We talked about everything from Geo spatial Imaging to how Holland's government is run and even craps and poker. It was a very enlightening conversation, you never know who you will met on these trips it is quite amazing and it is one of the reasons I have enjoyed traveling alone.

At the end of the night we had 16 1 liter bottles of local beer on our table, but the bill only came to about 130 yuan, including snacks! Needless to say that I was a bit tipsy, the guys walked me back to my room. When I arrived in the room and was almost asleep the guy sharing the room started talking to me in Chinese. He kept talking about a shower tomorrow and I just didn't get why we were making a shower schedule at 3:00 in the morning. Turns out that he was saying that he was going to Xijang in the morning, I thought he was saying Xizao or shower. We both had a laugh and I fell into a hard sleep.

I was woken at 9 by Xavier wanting to confirm details before they left Kashgar and then I went about finishing sorting out the mess of hotel rooms that happened the night before. With a new bed (this one only 30 yuan) and a breakfast of undercooked french toast I was set for the day. I handed my clothes over to be thoroughly washed, which let's face it they definitely needed after only being washed in a sink with a bar of dove soap for 5 weeks! I will be excited to get them back tonight, all nice and clean. I decided that this afternoon I would go see the bazaar and then tomorrow I am going to go on the bus out towards the Pakistan-Chinese border. It is suppose to be an amazing ride and I plan on staying near Muztagh Ata peak (7546meters) at this amazing lake called Karakul. It is about 5-6 hours out of the city. I wanted to arrange a tour but they only have day tours and I want to go out for 2 nights, so I think I will just buy a bus ticket towards he border and get off early as I have heard is possible.

Will try and post some pictures tonight. Until then, Ash.