An Aussie Abroad

Afghanistan is ON!

Just got word from the Embassy of Afghanistan here in Madrid that they will be issuing my visa on Thursday, so it's looking like the trip has got the green light - yay!

I have had a lot of people ask me what the hell I'm doing going on "holiday" to Afghanistan, so I guess I should elaborate.  I first considered backpacking through Afghanistan in 2006 while on my Silk Road trip, and was invited to come visit by my old mate Rodney Cocks.  Cocksy, who I know from my days in the Australian Army, and who has worked for the UN, the US and currently the Brits in such places as Iraq and Afghanistan over the years, turned out to not be in the country as I passed by nearby Iran, and I decided it was too dodgy to do solo.

It's been on my mind ever since, and to go there would feel like I've "closed the chapter" on the Silk Road.  With Cocksy soon off to the US to kick off his MBA, it was now or never.  I'm also fascinated to see such a unique culture and sadly notorious corner of the globe.  I'm sure the experience it will be a surprise and an awakening, just like Iran was (i.e. nothing like Fox News and CNN make out).  There's a little George Mallory "Because it's there!" in my decision too.  There's nowhere in the world I won't go - well I guess this decision proves that!  And, I will admit, there's something exciting about the "frontier" nature of the place.

Of course it's a risk but like everything it's a calculated risk, and I've done everything possible to mitigate the risks.  I'm assured that Kabul is as safe as other far-flung parts of the world I've traveled through (dodgy Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan springs to mind), and that the mountains to the north are also relatively secure.  The insurgent fighting is in the south, and close to the Pakistan border, and I'm more likely to have trouble with criminals rather than insurgents.

It's a chance of a lifetime that I'll never get again, to experience such a fascinating corner of the world with someone who knows it back-to-front (and indeed makes the trip possible), so I've seized the opportunity with both hands.  Not like me to do anything by half.

Cocksy has done an awesome job of organising an action-packed schedule for the five days I plan to be there (25-30 April).  Of course, being Afghanistan, this is all subject to change, but if I get to do even half of what's in this list I'll be a happy chappy indeed!

• I am staying in the compund of the British Embassy in Kabul, which should be an experience in itself!  I have no idea what to expect there.

• I will have a couple of days in Kabul, seeing the sights and exploring what is left of "old" Kabul (answer: not much).  Some of the old city walls, the Bird Market, city views from the nearby mountains, watch the kids fighting their kites, etc.

• One day I'm there is Mujahideen Day, to celebrate the mujahideen's victory over the Soviets.  It would be interesting to see, but I hear it could also turn a bit pear-shaped and a wee bit dicey.  Plus probably a few too many bullets shot into the air for my liking.  Instead, we're planning to be out of the city that day.

• Rod has organized a couple of fantastic day trips into the Hind Kush mountains north of Kabul, which form the very western end of the Himalaya.  Together with his mate Jeremy, an Aussie journalist, we're going to kit up in local garb, jump on a couple of motorbikes, and ride off into the hills.  Our objective will be the famous Salang Pass, a tunnel through the mountains that forms a strategic connection between central and northern Afghanistan, and which was the location of fierce fighting through the 20th century.

• The second day trip will be a visit to the Panjshir valley, north-west of Kabul, which is meant to be one of the most beautiful mountain valleys in the country.  I will be tagging along with a UN group headed up there, and the trip is hosted by one of the grandsons of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the most famous mujahideen leader who fought off the Soviets, and who was killed just 2 days before 11 September 2001 by the Taliban. 

• I arrive on 25 April, which as any Aussie knows is ANZAC Day, our most unique and sacred national holiday. Apparently we have plans to join some of the Aussie diggers (soldiers) on base, which should make it a special one.

• I put a request for some range time, figured I can't go to Afghanistan without shooting/blowing stuff up. Firing an RPG is on the wish list. Turns out I might get some range time with the Afghan National Army in training!

Getting there has also been part of the adventure.  Here are a few fun facts about getting to Afghanistan as a "tourist":

• I am officially the first person to apply for a tourist visa at the Afghan Embassy in Madrid! They first said no, but after Cocksy made a call and spoke with the Ambassador (!) they have decided to make the exception. Some have said that fact should tell me something about the lunacy of my plans, but I'm wearing it as a badge of honour.

• Flying in to Kabul takes a little planning. I first need to get myself to Dubai. On my mate's recommendation I have booked the flight to and from Kabul with Safi Airlines, one of the more reputable options on that route with a fleet of two ageing 737s (but that sure beats an old Russian plane).

• Travel and medical insurance has been a concern of mine, as most insurance companies won't touch you in an active warzone. Cocksy's response to my question on it was a classic: "don't think you'll get it, however possibly the best trauma hosiptals in the world here". Reassuring indeed. As a last resort I contacted Global Rescue, a company that I knew I had coverage with through Bain. I had no idea what they did so I gave them a call - turns out they will provide medical treatment wherever I am in the world, and then evacuate me back to my "home" country. Then the key question: "Is your coverage truly global?" "No" he said, "there is one exception." "Afghanistan?" I asked, preempting his response. "No, North Korea!" he answered. Turns out they can't get anyone in or out of there. So, long story short, should the worst happen I'm definitely covered - phew!

• Cocksy has made arrival arrangements for me, as this is not a country you want to arrive in a little wet behind the ears. He's told me there will be a security detail from the Embassy waiting for me - I have visions of something Blackwater-esque waiting for me outside the arrivals hall!

• I've been asked by Jeremy, who I've never met, to pick up a package containing his new camera from another person I've never met in Dubai, and bring it with me to Kabul.  This goes again every rule book of responsible and sensible travel (think: Bangkok jail) and when I mentioned this to him, his reply was classic: "What can you possibly smuggle into Afghanistan?" he said.

Not sure how much access I will have to internet while I'm there, but keep your eyes peeled to the site for desciptions and photos to come. See you on the other side!!

Day 134: All Over Red Rover

I fly back to San Francisco today, completing my circumnavigation of the northern hemisphere which began way in June.  Looking back over the past several months, at all I've seen and experienced, I do have mixed thoughts.  Of course there's a definite feeling of accomplishing something pretty damn special in traversing the ancient Silk Road from one end to the other.  And apart from "cheating" a little by jetting across the two oceans and a couple of other short hops by plane, I've done it all by road and rail.  It's what I setout to do and I succeeded, which feels really good.

Throughout the trip I've had the great fortune to see some places way off the beaten track that few people have had the chance to experience, and I've learnt a lot about the world around me.  I've seen the seasons and the terrains change, I've watched farmers go from planting crops in the spring to harvesting them in autumn, and I've noticed people's features and their cultures vary in gentle shades from decidedly European to full-blooded Asian.  It's been a real once-in-a-lifetime eye-opener.  If only more people could see the things I've seen, and meet the people I've met, I can't help think that our world would be a better place...

I'm relieved that I made it here in one piece (without a major illness, drama or emergency to deal with!) but I'm exhausted right now - I'm looking forward to putting my feet up at Mum and Dad's next week!  I didn't pick the easiest places to travel through and it certainly took its toll on me.  I didn't ever plan to fly the Silk Road solo, and traveling alone added a greater burden: I couldn't ever drop my guard or be complacent, I always had to stay aware and alert for danger, and of course I also had to keep a constant 24/7 eye on my stuff.  I'd also have to say it was one of the lonelier experiences of my life, and as my friend Nevyn commented, I've probably spent waaaay too long alone with my thoughts.  There were some pretty shitty days and depressing times in there, and I sometimes went for weeks without talking a word in English.  It wasn't all doom and gloom of course but it certainly wasn't all easy peasy either.

Somewhere along the way I lost the excitement of traveling as well, and reckon it might finally be time to hang up my boots and call it a day - God forbid, but I think my travel bug might have died.  But looking back, the bug certainly had a good and prosperous life!  Since I moved overseas way back in 1998 it's been an amazing adventure.  I've lived and worked in four countries on three continents, I've traveled through something like 70 countries, and I've achieved so much of what I set out to accomplish with my life.  It's been an incredible rollercoaster ride and I'm a better man for it, but I think I've had my fill.  It's time to let the kiddies have a turn.

Satisfying my wanderlust and chasing my dreams has come at a pretty heavy cost as well, and I've lost a lot that's important to me along the way.  Some friends have sadly drifted away with time, relationships have suffered, and moving from country to country to begin a new life has been tough work at times.  Regrets?  Many.  I've had to make sacrifices too.  While I reckon I've done a decent job getting back to Australia for most of the really important events, there are others I'm disappointed I missed (my sister Sally giving birth to my niece Zoe and my other sister Marnie's 21st birthday to name a few).  On a personal level I had to give up my rugby career to move to the US for grad school - it might sound wank but that was a tougher choice than you'd think!

On this trip, more than ever before, I've come to realize that I'm just marking time while everyone else around me has been moving on with their lives.  Has everything I've done simply been a self-indulgent waste of time?  I dunno, but I'm asking myself right now whether it was worth it.  I do definitely feel like it's time to unpack my bags (literally and figuratively) and get on with my life too.  I have a new and exciting career to get stuck into at Bain & Co., and I'm looking forward to calling San Francisco home for a while sometime soon.  I've already worked out where I'm going to live (North Beach/Russian Hill) and which rugby club to play for (Olympic).  I just have one final element of this "Grand Tour" to complete first - learn Spanish in Buenos Aires and climb in the Patagonian Andes with my mate Mark McCarthy, plus if I have time squeeze in some volunteer work too - and then I'm good to go.  After that my traveling days are over, at least for now.

This feels like a farewell of sorts so some thanks are in order.  Thanks so much to all of you for your support of me over these years, in all your different ways.  To my awesome family, your unfailing support of everything I choose to do has been a great comfort to me.  To my friends back in Oz, and to those of you in Switzerland and in the USA, I miss all of you.  And to those of you I met on the road, my fellow wanderers, you've enriched my travels enormously.  You were and are the lasting highlight.  Please always keep in touch.

This blog's been a fair bit of work to put together and keep up-to-date while I've been traveling, but I hope you've enjoyed perusing it as much as I've enjoyed putting it together.  I'm going to rest my pen and disappear for a while, but you can always find me at pmando@gmail.com .

Keep living life!  Signing off for now, Paul.

Day 133: Honkers

I hadn't thought about it before, but Hong Kong is a fitting place to finish my Silk Road trip.  The trip began in Istanbul, that great city where "east meets west".  Hong Kong, as a city where "west meets east", neatly bookends the trip (while not having a think to do with the Silk Road!).

It was a long road from Lanzhou to Hong Kong though, but I made it.  It took me one flight, five buses, a train and finally a taxi ride to get here.  I woke up early in Lanzhou and caught a shuttle bus out to the airport.  The flight was uneventful, but I read with dread in the in-flight magazine that Guangzhou's annual Canton Fair was starting that day!  Aaaargh!  This is the expo where the world comes to see what China has to offer...

Guangzhou's brand spanking new airport was chaos.  People everywhere, and definitely more Westerners than I've seen over the last three months combined.  Fortunately there was a lot of help at hand and I was able to work out that I needed to catch a bus to one of the city hotels, and then change onto a Hong Kong bus (HK is a couple of hours away).  Of course that hotel turned out to be enormous Dong Fang Hotel (Dad can you believe it - again?!) right over the road from the fair's exhibition halls.  The traffic was a nightmare and there were tens of thousands of people cramming the streets and the hotel.  But sure enough my bus was there so it wasn't long before I was on my merry way.

A few hours driving through the "new China" of Guandong's Shenzen Special Economic Zone and we arrived at the border.  In my ranking of shitty border crossings this one really takes the cake.  It was chaotic, disorganised The scale of it was incredible, and every couple of seconds another bus pulled up with a fresh load of people trying to get over the border. xxxxxx

I've been staying with my mate Sung from Berkeley, who's started his job with Lehman Borthers here.  He's working investment banker hours (2am and 4am finishes?!?!) so I haven't seen that much of him, but he's given me the run of his great little apartment that has some cool views between the skyscrapers towards Kowloon across the harbour.

I've been here a couple of days and while he's been at work I've been doing a few of the sights and experiences that I missed last time I was here back in 2001.  On that trip I stayed in Tsim Sha Tsui, the tourist dstrict of Kowloon, so this time I've been spending more time on Hong Kong island soaking up the sights and the atmosphere here.  Yesterday was my Hong Kong day (sadly too smoggy to bother going up to the Peak) and today is my Kowloon (and shopping) day.

    

Man this is one cool city...  It's hard to put a finger on it but there's something about the effortless mix of cultures and ethnicities here and the comforting British legacy left behind, the steep and narrow San Francisco-style streets, and the feeling that there's always something new around every corner.  In the future I'd definitely consider a stint here for a couple of years (although I say that about around half of the places I've been!).

Day 130: Last Stop, Shuilian Dong

My last full day in China and one final stop along the Silk Road: some more Buddhist caves at Shuilian Dong!

Shuilian Dong, or the Water Curtain Caves (I like the Chinese name better), are about 20km outside the small town of Luomen.  I traveled from Tianshui yesterday afternoon through some beautiful countryside to get to Luomen.  It's hilly (verging on mountainous) terrain, and every square foot has been terraced and irrigated for agriculture.  Not rice though - just not enough water around here and I reckon the sandy soil isn't up to scratch - but corn, grains, and lots and lots of veggies.  They're in the middle of the late summer harvest right now so there's fresh food aplenty.  Yummo.

Luomen aint nothing spesh and I'd guess I was the only tourist in town.  I certainly didn't meet anyone that spoke even a word of English past "hello" (not even the "English teacher" I met!).  But I was cool with that, in fact I'm pretty happy with my decision to avoid the Chinese cities as best I could and stick to rural town or regional centres instead.  These places are the "real" China after all.  The people in the towns I've stayed have been incredibly and surprisingly friendly, helpful and accomodating - and inquisitive.  The locals in Luomen were no different, and it was a nice place to finish my trip.

First thing this morning I got a taxi to drive me out to the caves.  I soon realized why the driver tried to bump the price so high: the road there had been well and truly washed away by what looked like a biblical-sized flood sometime not that long ago!  We drove along the riverbed for a few klicks, but in the end I had to walk the last couple through a pretty red sandstone canyon to get there.

Shuilian Dong is a mixed Taoist/Buddhist religious site nestled in the folds of a steep-sided valley.  It was an incredibly picturesque place with the mix of red sandstone outcrops, autumnal leaves changing colour and the brightly coloured temples and carvings.  The Taoist temple was wedged underneath a massive cliff overhang, and on the opposite side of the valley stood a 30m tall colourful carving of Buddha on the cliff wall, which dates from the 4th Century AD.  The scale of it was enormous!

    

    
Look at the scale of these carvings!!       Close-up of one.

These rock carvings don't look all that impressive until you actually discover just how large they are!

I've made my way back west to Lanzhou this afternoon to finish my Silk Road trip and I fly out for Guangzhou tomorrow (and then by bus to Hong Kong).  Officially, and somewhat historically, the Silk Road did/should end at Xi'an.  I would like to have got there if not just for the symbolic act of "crossing the finish line", and I had time as it turned out, but I already had this flight booked from when I first arrived in the country (and had to think ahead to where I might be in a couple of weeks).  Oh well, can't have everything, right?

A few of you are surely going to ask me, but I really don't know right now how I feel about finishing up my Silk Road trip.  Hmmm...  A bit of everything I guess!  Give me a few days to think about it in Hong Kong...

Day 129: Chinese Pet Peeves

Nothing much to report today.  I had a look at a "famous" Taoist Temple in the city today, but didn't think it was anything spesh.  I'm off to my last destination, Luomen, this afternoon, and have time to kill until then so I'm chilling in this internet cafe with about a thousand chain-smoking Chinese guys playing shoot-em-up network games or in chat rooms.  Aaaaah the wonders of the internet...

For "fun" I thought I'd list a few of the pet peeves that bug me about traveling in China:

• Spitting.  Ubiquitous, filthy, everywhere, everyone.  Yuk.
• Smoking.  Every guy I've seen smokes like a chimney, but it's the guys having a sneaky fag on the "no smoking" buses that really piss me off.  And Chinese cigarettes reek.
• Pollution.  Like unleaded petrol exhaust was the smell of Iran, in China it's definitely coal.  Whether I'm in the cities or in the countryside, it always stinks of coal.  You see piles of it everywhere, and it's burnt in everything from people's inefficient home-made stoves to the thousands of huge brick kilns that dot the countryside.  The result is a grey smoggy pall that hangs over most of China most of the year.  I hate to think of the greenhouse gas emissions.
• Noise.  Everywhere, 24/7.  One-cylinder put-put-put tractors, honking car and truck horns, construction equipment, and everyone speaking at volume 10.
• Toilets.  I've done a lot of traveling around the globe but China definitely takes the cake for having by far the worst toilet and bathroom standards anywhere in the world.  It's gross enough to even make me gag, and that's saying something...
• Split Pants.  Forget nappies, the Chinese just give young kids a pair of pants with no bum, so every kid's arse is hanging out.  Parents train their kids at an early age to shit on demand - no shit!  With a "psssssss" sort of sound they can make the kid go wherever and whenever.  And I mean wherever - on pavements, in gutters, in corridors of buildings, I even had a mother next to me today on the bus holding her baby over the bin in the aisle to go.  Yuk-o.
• Lining Up.  Or should I say lack of.  They're not big on queues for anything: ATMs, food, banks, tickets.  Train tickets are the worst.  It's a real rugby scrum in there pushing for the window to secure a hard sleeper ticket on an overnight train, and even 10 years of playing rugby hasn't trained me well for it.  But a 30kg backpack on my back does have its uses in clearing a crowd...
• Rushing.  I really don't like - or understand - the go-go-go frenetic pace of Chinese life.  Even on a train with reserved seating, or boarding a plane, it's a real "gotta be first, can't be left behind" rush.
• Overcharging.  It's got a lot better since I was here five years ago, but some people love to overcharge foreigners, and that really pisses me off.  Taxi drivers regularly charge double or more and hotels always add a bit.

Alright so maybe I'm being a bit harsh on the Chinese.  It's definitely not all bad and the country does have its highlights.  But to appreciate China's highlights, you've gotta put up with a fair bit of crap.  And that said, for a country this big, there's a whole lotta nothing you need to get through for the few choice sights to see.

My two cents.

Day 128: Teaching in Tianshui & More Buddhist Grottoes at Maiji Shan

I was disappointed to leave Xiahe, but also excited at the realization that I only have a handful of days left before it's all over.  I fly out from Lanzhou on the 15th for Hong Kong, where I'm going to chill (and stock up on yummy yum cha/dim sum) before I fly back to San Fran on the 18th.

I caught the 7:30am bus back to Lanzhou, getting there around lunchtime.  After being screwed around by a taxi driver (and short-changed by an Aussie union staffer I decided to share a taxi with, tight-arse...) I got from one bus terminal to another and jumped straight on a bus to Tianshui, my penultimate Silk Road destination, in eastern Gansu province.

On the bus I was befriended by a friendly young Chinese guy called William (his English name of course).  He wanted to practice his English so we had a chat about this and that.  When we arrived in Tianshui he was nice enough to check me into the hotel, saving me the extra 20 yuan I'd have to pay as a foreigner if I walked in myself.  He then offered to take me to his grandfather's apartment for dinner with the family, which I gladly accepted.  After a superb dinner of home-made dumplings, and after meeting all of his lovely family, he topped the night off with an offer I couldn't refuse - the chance to speak to his class at high school!  I've always wanted to do this on all my travels...  And last night was the night!

It was a great experience talking to the class.  I had about an hour with them and gave them a bit of my history, a bit of info about Australia etc., and then opened it up to Q&A.  It was all pretty kosher until the teacher left the room, and then the students really let fly with all the juicy bits of info they wanted to know: do I have a girlfriend, what music do I listen to, how much money does x and y cost, what do I think of China etc.  Actually that last one got me in a bit of trouble, as I was pretty truthful in my assessment and opinions of China.  I was in the middle of describing some of the differences between a democractic government and a communist regime when the teacher walked back in.  He gave me a dirty look and I was asked to leave sortly thereafter!  The kids loved it though...  :-)

The were great kids and I had a lot of fun with them, but the experience did leave me doubting the quality of Chinese education.  These guys were around 17 years old, and this is their last year of school before they hopefully go off to university, but rote learning methods (memorizing and regurgitating information on demand) were clearly de rigueur.  Get them thinking?  God forbid!  Their English was OK but their vocab severely limited - most didn't know the word "China" in English, and even words describing their own country (like "communism") were beyond them. And for all those people fearing Chinese world domination, don't.  It's not their fault but these kiddies don't know much about the world outside China (e.g. couldn't find Europe on the map, had never heard of Britney Spears or U2, didn't know what an iPod/mp3 player was) and weren't at all up-to-speed with the internet and email.  But at the end of the day they've all got their big dreams, so good on them and good luck to them.

   
William and some of his family.             Say cheese!

All that fun aside, I came to Tianshui to see Maiji Shan, one of the four largest Buddhist cave groups in China (the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang are also on that list - so I can tick two off now!).  I caught the bus out there this morning, and after all the deserts and arid landscapes I've seen recently, the lush green forests and hills of the countryside out of the city were a welcome change.

Maiji Shan means Haystack Mountain, although I didn't see the similarity in its shape when I saw it.  What's amazing about the place is that there are hundreds of Buddhiust caves covering one side of the mountain, with most of them dating from around the 4th and 5th Centuries AD.  But how they ever constructed the caves I have no idea...  The caves are built into an overhanging cliff face, with the highest probably a good 200 vertical metres above the base of the cliff.  I learnt that the stone for the statues isn't even from the local area and would have had to be brought there (the stone in the mountain is too soft to carve).

   

While the caves themselves weren't anything near as spectacular and exquisite as those at Mogao, exploring the caves was infintely more exciting!  For once I didn't need to take a tour and could roam the area by myself, and best of all I could snap pics along the way.  Yay!  Scaling the many stairs and platforms plastered to the overhanging cliff was definitely a little vertigo-inducing (and admittedly had me questioning Chinese engineering standards), but it was heaps of fun and a good way to spend a few hours.

   

Day 127: A Taste of Tibet

After the deserts around Dunhuang I was keen for a change of scene, and jumped on board a 14-hour night train to Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province.  It was an uneventful train ride along the Hexi Corridor, a famous strip of land wedged between the mountains of Qinghai and Tibet and the deserts of Inner Mongolia.  In ancient times it was the only way out of the Chinese kingdom towards the west, and was therefore an important part of the Silk Road route.  There were numerous important cities scattered along the route including Jiayuguan, whose fortress marked the western boundary of China back in the good ole days (the Great Wall in fact terminates there).

Lanzhou has the unfortunate reputation as being the most polluted city in China (and that's saying something!), so I had no desire to stay there one second more than I had to.  After a bit of faffing about I was able to work out my bus connections south towards the important Tibetan Buddhist city of Xiahe (pron. "Shah-huh").   I got there at sunset seven hours later and checked myself into a cheap but friendly Tibetan guesthouse.

Xiahe is about 3000m up on the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau, on the border between Gansu province and Qinghai province to the west.  In historic times the area was part of Tibet, but Chinese divvying up and meddling meant that bits of Tibet ended up in Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai and other provinces.  But ethically this place is definitely Tibetan.  The town is situated in a narrow mountain valley and is neatly divided into different quarters for the different ethnic groups: a Han Chinese quarter (boring and ugly), a Muslim quarter (I'm surprised how many Muslims I've seen this far east) and the sprawling but chock-full-of-character Tibetan village which surrounds the monastery complex.

It's home to the centuries-old Labrang Monastery, one of six important monasteries of the Gelugpa order (the Yellow Hat sect of Tibetan Buddhism - I couldn't resist and even bought one of their yellow mohikan hats!).  I used my days in Xiahe to soak up the atmosphere, immerse myself in Tibetan Buddhist culture and do some deep soul-searching and spirit cleansing.  Each morning I joined the pilgrims on the 3km (clockwise of course!) route around the monasteries, turning each of the 1174 prayer wheels along the way.  My faves are the big prayer wheels that you need to walk around to turn, and after each revolution a little bell goes "ding"!  I was luckily able to sit in some of the decorative and colourful prayer halls with monks during prayer (although even after talking to some of the young monks I'm still bamboozled by what goes on in there...), and I even dabbled in a bit of "Om Mani Padme Hom" chanting along the way.  It's really been a great and relaxing few days here.  I could stay a month.

   

   

I was in Xiahe for several days and so took one day to visit the Ganjia Grasslands, a large expanse of open grassland some 30km away well up on the Tibetan plateau.  The Tibetans graze their yak herds in these pastures over the summer.  I saw a few nomads up there - no yurts here though, just tents - but unfortunately most of the herds have been driven down from the summer pastures already (it's really cold here once the sun goes down and there have been some snowfalls on the upper reaches of some of the mountains nearby).  I was however able to visit a traditional Tibetan village which was surrounded by a very old and crumbling mud brick wall.  They really rough it up there, and you could see everyone preparing for the coming winter - stacking firewood, dung and feed for the animals, repairing the roads and roofs etc. - which I'm sure is really harsh and unforgiving.

   

   

Further up the dirt road was another monastery at the base of a very beautiful mountain range, complete with limitless views over the grasslands.  The Tsewey Monastery is a different sect to those found in Xiahe, but I wasn't able to glean much more than that because no-one spoke English and my Tibetan is completely non-existant (they even speak a local dialect of Tibetan here so what hope have I got)!  Although one interesting difference I did observe is that they went around everything counter-clockwise.

    

    

One slightly grisly discovery was a sky burial site nearby.  The Buddhists here believe that once a person dies the soul leaves the body, and they dispose of the body by sky burial.  First (and unlike the Zoroastrians, if anyone read my Iran blogs earlier) they dice up the body into limb-sized pieces and then let the vultures pick the bones clean.  There wasn't much to see really, just a patch of ground with lots of old rusty knives lying around, but the huuuuge vultures circling high overhead was kinda spooky.

   

Last point: Xiahe has really just been found out as a great tourist destination, and the tour buses have only started rolling in over the past few years.  One reason I really loved the place is because there weren't a lot of tourists around, either Chinese (my Mandarin phrasebook even proved pretty useless) or gweilo . I hate to think what the place is going to look like in five years - so get here quick!!!

Day 122: Sand Dunes, Sand Storms and the Mogao Caves

The town of Dunhuang turned out to be a pleasant little place, without much of a built-up town centre and thankfully without the massive, wide and soul-less streets that have greeted me at every town I've visited in China thus far. 

I'd heard from a few travelers about some massive sand dunes on the outskirts of town, so I rented a ricketty old Chinese bike and rode out there one afternoon.  The gigantic Sahara-esque dunes loomed up hundreds of metres above the desert floor and were an impressive sight to ride towards.  Of course there's a but tho...  What I wanted was an empty stretch of desert to take some cool sunset pics, but what I got was a Chinese theme park!  First up there was the 80 yuan entry fee just to get in (to climb up some dunes?!?), which at $10 might not sound that steep but when it's double what I'm paying for my accomodation it seemed like a bit of a rip-off.  I first tried to ride my bike around the edge of the dunes to find the end of the fence, but they seemed to have thought of that as it keep going and going.  I grudgingly paid the entry fee, along with just about every Chinese person on vacation in China it would seem .  The place was packed.

I wandered around for a while, amused and slightly miffed at how well the Chinese can fuck up an otherwise beautiful place.  Everywhere I looked I saw groups of tourists on camels being dragged across the dunes by a guide, each of them wearing the most ridiculous bright orange booties to stop any sand from entering their shoes.  And each slope of the sand dunes has been converted into an amusement park by some entrepreneur or another who all charged ridiculous prices to slide down the slopes on a sled or inner tube.

   
I love the orange booties and the numbered camels - very "authentic".

I climbed up one of the larger dunes to get away from the tourist scene; it was tough, slow going in the deep sand and I've still got about a kilo of sand in my shoes even as I write this.  As I neared the crest of the dune the wind started to pick up - cool pics of the sand but not so good for the camera!  I also noticed an ominous looking darkish cloud on the horizon.  At the top I snapped off a couple of pics of the desertscape but couldn't help noticing that the same cloud was much closer and coming my way.  I remembered a huge sand storm that blew into Melbourne when I was a kid and this looked just like that, so on that hunch I started legging it down the dune.  Sure enough it turned into a wild sandstorm with whipping winds, choking dust and visibility down to about 20 metres.  With nothing at all left to see I rode back into town - which was an experience in itself!  I knew my mujaheddin headscarf would come in useful somewhere...

    
(L) See the two specs on the dunes?  These guys picked a bad day to get adventurous!  (R) Uh oh looks like trouble brewing...

    
(L) Argh it's coming my way!  (R) Chinese tourists. Hilarious.

The real highlight of a trip to Dunhuang are the Mogao Caves, and they were OUTSTANDING!  Well worth the effort (and the price of 120 yuan!!) to visit, which is a first for this trip in China - everywhere so far has been overpriced and has underwhelmed.

The hundreds of Buddhist caves line the cliff of a shallow valley about 25km south-east of the town.  Historically the caves were an important centre of Buddhist learning and worship, and from around the 4th Century AD to the end of Silk Road trade (around the 1400's) many wealthy merchants and officials sponsored the creation of new caves on the site.  In its day, traders and caravans would take a long detour to visit the caves to either give thanks for a safe return, or to pray for a safe journey through the dangerous lands to the west.

The only way to visit the caves is on a two-hour tour, no cameras or bags permitted (doh!), and the tour guides take groups around and open up some of the hundreds of caves to see.  The artistry within the caves was truly incredible, with hundreds and hundreds of elaborate statues, carvings, beautiful frescoes and paintings, most in fantastic condition after more than a millenium.  You could also easily pick out the different influences (Indian, Tibetan etc.) in caves from different periods, even though I find Buddhism really difficult to get my head around because it's so complex and minutely nuanced.

The biggest statue there is a 35m tall seated Buddha, which we were told makes it the third largest in the world (not including Bamiyan in Afghanistan which the Taliban destroyed).  It was damn impressive!  My favourite cave, and we saw about ten, had a large reclined Buddha (Nirvana we were told) with 72 statues representing the disciples surrounding it.  We were also shown some of the many thousands of important manuscripts and exquisite silk paintings plundered by western archaeologists in the early 20th century (which you can now find in Britain, France, the USA etc.).

   
The gigantic sitting Buddha is built into the cliff face, behind the temple structure shown here.

Day 120: Quick Stop in Turfan

I flew into Urumqi late and, after much haggling with a taxi driver, found a cheap hotel right near the train station (no shower though).  After a quick six hours sleep I woke up the next day and caught a taxi to the bus terminal.  My plan was to head south-east to the town of Turfan, about 2.5 hours away.  I'd then see a few of the sights around there before racing back to Urumqi to collect my overnight train ticket from a black market dealer at 4pm (it's a national holiday all this week so the trains are chockers and it's really hard to come by tickets the "official" way).

It was past midday by the time I got to Turfan, and I knew I only had about 1.5 hours to see a few of the sights.  So I chartered a taxi and off I went!  First stop was the ancient city ruins of Jiaohe, on the outskirts of town.  As it was made of mud brick, the centuries haven't been kind and there unfortunately wasn't that much to see.  Some of the Buddhist temples were still somewhat visible, but that was about it.  What made the visit interesting was the geography.  The city was built in the middle of the desert on top of a naturally fortified "island" between two river beds.

   

En route back to the bus terminal I had time to sneak in one more attraction - an architecturally interesting minaret in front of one of the mosques in town.  Enough said.

I made it back to Urumqi half an hour late but was able to collect my ticket - phew!  Chinese sleeper trains turned out to be a surprisingly pleasant experience.  The carriages are much newer than a lot of the trains you'll come across in countries like Italy or France, and the sleeper cabins were actually more spacious and had heaps more room for backpacks and suitcases.  The beds had linen and pillows provided, and the rooms supplied with hot and cold drinking water for endless cups of tea and ramen noodles.  I had a great sleep as the train trundled 14 hours across the deserts of Xinjiang and Gansu, and woke up feeling pretty good this morning.  I'm now in Dunhuang, another desert town and former Silk Road city, and also home of the World Heritage-listed Mogao Caves.

Day 119: Kashgar Impressions

I've been in China for several days now, and I have to admit it's been OK so far.  I was a bit apprehentious about coming back here since my first trip back in 2001.  In Kyrgyzstan I heard my fair share of China horror stories from backpackers heading west, and I wasn't looking forward, among other things, to the nightmarish rugby scrums at bus and train ticket offices, filthy toilets and bathrooms, pushy and rude Chinese, everyone spitting everywhere, and restaurant conditions that automatically get your stomach churning.  But, since I checked in to the inappropriately named "Seman Hotel" (a classic, dog-eared and former grand hotel), it's been so far so good - sort of.

Kashgar is a pleasant enough place.  Anywhere else this would be considered a small city, but in China this is nothing more than a town.  But the Chinese have done their best to make it as Chinese as possible - i.e. fuck it up.  The ethic Uighur here are distinct from the Han Chinese in every way from their looks (Central Asian), their language (Turkic, written in Arabic script) and their religion (Muslim).  They are also fiercely proud of their hertiage, and will often make the distinction that they are not Chinese (I was also pleasantly pleased to hear that there is still a strong independence movement in Xinjiang).  The Chinese government have done their best to dilute the Uighur people here, and have for the past few decades urged Han Chinese to "Go West", and the two races are probably 50-50 these days in Kashgar (although the Han Chinese are said to get the lion's share of the economic pie).  On the up side, Ramadan hasn't been so hard to tolerate here...

China has also pumped billions of yuan into the region.  Once again, the up-side are things like great roads.  On the down-side, Kashgar now looks and for the most part feels like any other Chinese city.  Brand new, wide, tree-lined streets strip all the atmosphere out of the place, displacing the old city centre along the way.  All in the name of "progress" I've been told (yes Andy, I've actually heard it said many times!).  There are only a few places now you can delve into the old mud brick parts of the city and see the traditional Uighur life, and some of those you have to pay a ridiculous 30 yuan for the privilege!

   

   

One fascinating experience was the Sunday Livestock Market, held every Sunday for generations on the eastern outskirts of town.  All morning long trucksloads full of sheep, goats, cattle and donkeys rumble in, and local shepherds drive their flocks in from nearby farms.  They treat the animals terribly by Western standards, but it was still intreresting to see the trades take place.  Sellers primp and prepare their animals, giving them a last brush or a shear.  Buyers check out the merchandise, inspecting the quality of the goods.  And then the dealing begins!  Sometimes violent and always heated, the two parties discuss and argue the trade until the price is agreed, and it's settled with a good old-fashioned handshake (and witnessed by tens of people!).

    

    

Unfortunately, the famous Sunday Market was a bit of a let-down.  This is the market in the region to find all the touristy souvenirs, clothes, hats, and everything else a person here could ever want and need (including a street-side shave!).  Once again though Chinese dabbling has ruined it: it's housed under a soul-less tin shed roof and everything is neat and orderly into categorized rows.

   
A few shots from the Kashgar market.

You can't beat a big Chairman Mao statue!

For the last couple of days I've been out along the southern edge of the great Taklamakan Desert where the Silk Road route once passed - not much left of it now though!  I wasn't able to find any other travelers interested in joining me for a tour (+ camel ride + sleep in the dunes) so I was stuck catching public transport along the highway.  I traveled through Yarkant, where the Uighur culture was far more visible than Kashgar, and I got to see a little bit of the flat and featureless desert expanses.  I ended the day in Karghilik (also called Yecheng, depends which language), where the road south into Tibet turns off.  Karghilik had NOTHING going for it and so I got out of there asap this morning.  I fly out of Kashgar for Urumqi this evening.  Next stop: Turpan, another formerly famous Silk Road town, this time north of the desert.