Kashghar 2

The next day we ate breakfast at a Pakistani restaurant which Omar had seen the night before. We met a bunch of friendly Pakistanis who worked in the fruit import and export business. After, since it was Sunday so we head out to the famed Kashghar Sunday Market, though it is open every day...just bigger on Sunday.There were lanes of all kinds of carpets, cloth, decorations, household goods etc in the market. The instruments that Andy tried were not up to the quality of what we had seen the day before, and I wasn't able to find the traditional clothing I had hoped to, but it was interesting to see, though perhaps a bit over hyped. We walked around for a while, then grabbed a ride back to the old part of town so we Andy and Omar could make their instrument purchases. I hung out for a while, then head out to the bazaar across from the Eid Ka Mosque. The lanes there were very interesting. There were some beautiful mosques and balconies, along with food vendors and people's homes. I wandered about for a while before returning to the tourist shops around the Eid Ka Mosque. I wandered them for a while before joining Andy and Omar. Andy was in the process of choosing having the instruments packed and figuring out the logistics of shipping them, with very little time left as we were taking off the next morning for some sightseeing outside of town. Omar had already made his choice and had a Naagara drum. I hung out as they played around and I joined a bit here and there. A funny little girl wandered into the shop. Every time the fan blew on her she would flinch. She didn't say much, but just watching her look at things and be curious and funny was very interesting. She sat down with me for a bit, before running off to new adventures.Mohammad was tireless and very excited as he ran around between customers making many sales that day, all the while taking care of Andy's needs too. Afterwards, we went to another beautiful restaurant, that featured some live Muqaam music. It was a real treat to check out. Omar had his drum, and the waiters and staff kept looking curiously and asking if he would play as the other musicians had finished and left. Omar started drumming and we both sang some songs. It was funny how quick we were surrounded by excited restaurant staff. It was a lot of fun to give them something to enjoy. The management got a little bugged, well one guy, so we stopped so as not to get them all in trouble. We finished our food, then played a few songs outside before heading back to the hotel where we ran into Musa, one of the Pakistani fruit import/exporters we met at the Pakistani cafe. Actually, helped us at the laundry next door as the guys were trying to explain what they wanted. He happened to be walking by and he helped us communicate in Uighar. We played some music for him and whoever else wanted to be woken up in the hotel, before going to sleep.

Kashghar

The bus brought us to Kashghar in the morning. We checked in about bus tickets to Kyrgyzstan, then jumped on a little motorcycle with an attached wagon to get to the Chini Bagh hotel. From there Andy and Omar got some tour info about exploring the mountainous areas on the way to the Pakistan border. With that in mind for the next few days, we head out to see the old part of town. As we walked down the street, a drunken man invited us to his brother's birthday. He insisted that we join him as he was an english teacher. So I invited him to come pray with us at the Eid Ka Mosque which we were headed to. That got rid of him quick.We walked down some lanes to the old city and followed them to a row of shops with people making wood items, musical instruments and metal pots. I walked into a shop with antiques and the shopkeeper spoke to me in Urdu and English. His father had been to many countries and much of the antiques in his shop were from Pakistan. He suggested I trim my mustache, in fact he really wanted me to trim it, as he showed me how well manicured his was. He was a very friendly person, working all day in the shop, but still full of good cheer. We walked across into the best looking instrument shop and met the owner, Mohammad Abu Bakri, whose family had been making instruments for 4 or 5 generations. He had all kinds of Uighar instruments, including huge bass variations we had never seen. Andy had planned to purchase some and Omar was interested in a good drum. We sat down and started jamming with Mohammad who was very warm and happy to explain the different instruments to us, without any expactations. We started playing different songs and found that old and new Pakistani and Indian film songs were popular amongst the Uighars. He shared some songs with us and we shared a bunch with him, both playing each other's music as a crowd streamed into the shop and outside the glass window. After a while, I walked down the street as Andy and Omar kept jamming.I passed the metal workers, ate some Uighar ice cream, as we had in Urumqi, then happened upon a little barbershop. It had two barber chairs, and was run by two boys who were about fifteen at most with a number of small assistants. I sat down and little eyes all over started watching me. I waited my turn then showed an old photo and with gestures decribed I wanted a mustache trim etc. I figured I'd follow my new friend's advice. I checked to make sure that they use fresh blades etc and then let the kid do whatever he wanted. It was pretty funny, with the little assistant kids watching and helping, and getting my hair washed more thoroughly than I ever thought possible. The young barber himself was very meticulous and after a long time and lots of care, we were done. The guys were still at the shop, quite shocked to see me.We did some more music, as Andy and Omar tested out different instruments. I saw some amazing Muqaam paintings, of traditional music in a catalogue of Uighar instruments. There was a tiny little boy who kept hanging around to see us. He'd ask me something every now and then, I think asking for some money, but mostly just stood and watched. I got him to clap during one song at another shop, but he would not take the food I bought for him. I suppose the sweet little kid was probably begging for someone. We also stopped by the shop of Mohammad's younger cousin and jammed with the cousin and another boy for a few songs before they closed shop.We walked over to a beautifully decorated restaurant, where Andy amused some bald kids with a piano. They even turned off the restaurant music as he played, until some stuffed shirt made him stop playing. We ate some food, then walked back and went to see the Eid Ka Mosque which was the largest mosque in Kashghar. There was a whole open area around it with shops. We walked back to the hotel and got some sleep.

One month on the road!

To celebrate our first month of travel together, we all decided to have some stomach problems. Mike joined in a bit early, but obviously didn't feel like being a part of the team on this one, because he quit quick. Ubul's mom made some special corn gruel to help us at the family restaurant down the street. After, we spent some time outside of town by a large river. I wasn't feeling well, so I sat on one side and sketched. The rest of the guys and our taxi driver jumped in for a swim. There were all kinds of kids and adults (all male) swimming in the river. As I sketched a lane off to one side, a crowd of 15 kids crowded around to watch. When they left 15 more came by. It was pretty funny hearing their voices and picking out a few words here and there. I showed them the sketch from time to time as I worked on it. It was funny, but cool to share with the kids. After I finished, I passed it around to the kids that were around me and one gave me a "Yakshi" and a thumbs up :). We spent some more time at various spots around the river before rushing back to get our things and jump on the bus to Kashghar. Mike parted ways for a bit to do his own thing, and we'll meet up with him again in a few days. It was a pretty sad goodbye to Ubul and his family. Even with language barriers etc, we really felt close by the time we left. Particularly Ubul, who made time for us and was just so much fun to be around. He is one of the warmest, kindest and funniest people we have met on our trip, and being here with him and his amazing family has been one of the best times in the whole trip.

Khotan Day 2

I woke up early and painted a sketch of the courtyard in Ubul's home. I spent a couple of hours building it up as Ubul and his mother walked passed, checking in on my progress and working on breakfast. I could not really communicate my gratitude to Ubul's mother for her hospitality in words, but it really made me feel good to present her with the sketch as a gift once it was finished. The neighborhoods around there are very nice. They are similar to small town neighborhoods in Pakistan. Being in Xinjiang province is like being in a different country from China entirely. After cleaning up, we walked outside. A neighbor invited us in to eat some nan, and piles of watermelon and cantelope. We spoke for a while, then took off to Ubul's family restaurant. Later in the evening we walked around town, sampled some different kinds of food, went to the river, then went to the market square to look around and eat some food in the open market. After all that walking we head back for some sleep.

Arriving in Khotan!

We rolled out of bed the next day and head for the bus station next door to go to Khotan. Along the way, we passed lots of desert, stopped at a town and ate some food, before finally reaching Khotan. Once there we called a musician friend named Ubul whom we met in Beijing. His brother came to get us. We hopped in a taxi and told it to follow him to Ubul's family home. It was similar to the museum home we had seen the day before. Simple, spacious and very beautiful. We were all exhausted. He and his family brought us tea, delicious sliced watermelons and cantelopes, and a hearty soup to help us sleep. We had met Ubul during a performance at Beijing and I gave him a sketch I had done of him and Omar and he had jammed on percussion afterwards. That was it. From there to the hospitality, warmth and love that he and his family gave us was really amazing.

Cherchen and Bin Chi Leen (Ice Cream)

The next day we woke up, I went to visit my pals at the internet cafe and when the guys woke up we walked around town. We could only get tickets to Khotan for the next day, so we had another day in Cherchen. After checking out a little market where Omar and Andy bought some cool hats, we went to the ice cream place that had broken our hearts the day before. Once there we waited for a while and then ate some watered down tasting soft serve ice cream.We really amused the store owner with our enthusiasm for ice cream. After eating a few, we head over to the local museum which was housed in the former home of a local man who..um..doesn't live any more. The lady there was kinda nuts, but we saw some traditional tools, got a feel for the layout of a traditional home and saw some beautiful carpets in what remained of the household. From there we wandered around some more, asked the music store guy if there were any local musicians we could hang out with, met one who wanted to charge us lots of money to put on a show, and did not seem to understand the concept of just wanting to share music with fellow musicians, so we took off and ate at a nice restaurant.As we ate, a crowd of kids gathered and watched us. When we stepped out, we went to a general store where the lady there spoke english. We bought some ice cream as many children watched us. We sat down eating ice cream amid giggling children who had been playing outside the restaurant. The general store lady invited us to sit on some stools with her and we talked for a while about our travels. She was really kind and brought us some sliced cantaloupes.After a while, the little street tough from the previous day walked up and smacked Mike on the back. He joined us for a bit and spoke his strange street language then left. I was hoping we'd see him again. We walked around some more, then went back and slept.

Cherchen

The bus kept making stops and the lights would go on all night, so none of us got any sleep by the time we got to Cherchen at around 5am. We walked over to a hotel by the bus station and got ourselves a good rate on 2 double rooms thanks to Mike. I woke up around 11am the same day, and the guys were still getting some much needed sleep. There was no water, so I went downstairs and let the hotel owner know, with the help of my phrasebook. He got the idea and said something, but I didn't really get it. So I walked back up, hung out, went back down a couple hours later and still nothing. I could not really understand the replies, but the owner and his family were all very friendly and we smiled at not being able to understand one another. One man in the lobby asked me where I was from and when I replied Pakistan and America, he bought me a Future Cola. I asked about an internet cafe and followed directions down the street. Once there I realized I didn't have my ID on me, so I went back to get it. By then the water was back and I cleaned up before going back to the internet cafe.There is a lot of paperwork at the hotels and internet cafes whenever you sign in. Language barriers don't help this, but the girl and guy at the internet cafe very sweetly typed things into google translate in Chinese and translated their questions to English. They were very patient and polite, as many people I have found here. Another thing that I really appreciate is, even if people might look at you a bit because they don't see foreigners all the time, they still extend the exact same politeness and courtesy to you as they would any Chinese person, for the most part. There are many sweet polite things that people do, like handing you change with both hands in a very respectful manner, or saying there's no need to thank when you say thank you etc. There are many polite customs here, and it adds something good to even the smallest interactions with people.My friends met me at the internet cafe once they were ready and we set out to wander the streets of Cherchen. Andy had found some fresh sesame nan, so we got a few and munched on that. We stopped at a music store, because music always trumps food when it comes to priorities and picked up some traditional Uigher music cds. There Mike met an interesting, assertive character who shall be referred to as the Low Rider for her interesting bicycling techniques. She joined us as we explored the market, funny babies with poop ready pants, and settled down for food at a restaurant.After that we walked down the road through some neighborhoods with beautiful, ornate, wood doors and brightly painted metal ones. Along the way we met many friendly people, and walked through some corn and sunflower fields before making our way back to the hotel.There are lots of cute and funny little kids here. Often, little ones, seeing us foreigners will shout out "Haaalllooo!" with the happiest little smile you have ever seen while walking past with their moms.The little boy in the last pic of the third image met us at lunch. He played with us all during our sit at the restaurant. When we walked outside, he picked out a special booger from his nose and then hugged a leg off each of us..well except the Low Rider. He pulled away from her. She likes kids..but I'm not sure they like her :).We rested a bit, then head out to get Andy from the internet cafe and check out some music at a club with the Low Rider. The music was fun and seeing some people dance was also cool, but it was a monday night and the place was fairly empty so it lacked a certain energy.Andy, Omar and I head out to explore a little further outside. We came upon an open area full of pool tables, food stalls and people enjoying the night. We tried some iced, yoghurt flavored with sugar and pineapple juice that we added.We met a very sweet Han Chinese woman who was born in Cherchen. She explained and translated for us with the Uigher shopkeeper. She talked about how her family had moved there from across China for better economic opportunities, then also mentioned a 24 hour ice cream parlor. She had no idea how much joy that brought us. She'd probably never seen 3 grown men so excited about ice cream. We got directions, then walked over to it, only to find it open, but all out of ice cream. This was worse than the time we found the ice cream machine shop, full of wonderful ice cream dispensing machines...but no ice cream.A little broken hearted, we decided to return the following day. After a long dark walk, we got some sleep.

In Korla

In the morning we dragged ourselves out of bed for some complimentary breakfast. There were sesame breads with bean paste, eggplant, tofu, milk, vegetable dumplings etc, all very good. Next we grabbed bus tickets for the evening. That's what it's going to be like for a while, as we travel through towns, not necessarily known for points of interest, making our way west.This town is known for the oil industry. Most of the shops we saw were all selling machine parts etc. The day was somewhat relaxed. We left that night for Cherchen.

Korla

I went out to hunt down an internet cafe while the guys were sleeping. Phrase book in hand, I walked the streets, each person pointing me in the general direction until I found it. After updating some blog stuff and sending out some emails, I head back to the hotel and waited for the guys who had left in the meantime. They came back with bus tickets for that evening.

We had planned to go see a glacier that Tasawar had mentioned and we also wanted to see Tasawar again and meet up with Ubul, a drummer we had met in Beijing who was coming back to this area that day. At that point we were running low on time and could not get in touch with either, so we just relaxed for a bit then caught the bus to Korla. Thus began out turn south across the province, to eventually reach Kasghar.

The bus was very nice, and the scenery outside was breathtaking. We passed all kinds of rocky mountains, gravel trails, desert sand with rock formations poking out etc as the sun made the sky and clouds glow orange and pink as it sunk ever lower. Eventually we were driving in the dark, along a highway with virtually nothing around. We made a few stops along the way before reaching Korla in the dead of night.

There were still some general stores and hotels open. We trudged around with our backpacks, comparing prices, but ended up staying at the only place that could accept foreigners by law. I think it may be a licensing issue or something.

So, at around 2am we waited as the guy at the counter of our hotel filled out forms with our passport info...very...very...slowly.

Finally we went up to sleep, agreeing to get the passports back in the morning.

Tian Chi

 

Mike was feeling tired, so the rest of us hired a car and went out of the city to Tian Chi (Heavenly Lake). The drive out took us past barren desert and rock, past some Kazakh Yurts, and a river until we arrived up in the mountains. From there we walked up many, many stairs, following a beatiful river, up to a waterfall, a gorgeous greenish blue lake, and up to a second larger lake with boats. We wanted to continue up to a small structure at the top, but ran out of time. We ended up walking around a narrow trail with a guide rail, around the second lake, before we started back to the bottom. It was a tiring walk, especially since we never really get a chance to fully recover before the next walk. There's too much to see and too little time. It was amazing to be up in such a beautiful place. We spent time on the way up resting at spots and just taking it in. The waterfall, the lakes and river were all very soothing, and peaceful.

From there we returned to the hotel, got Mike and met up with a Pakistani man named Tasawar, whom we met on the bus the day before. He met us at a restaurant near the hotel. Mike stayed back to rest and we went to the Uigar market again, for some more ice cream. We checked out some musical instruments, talked at length to Tasawar who spoke Uighar also. After that we checked out a large department store much like one you would find in the US. It was fun trying to explain that Andy wanted to buy a towel. After being led to many other things, we finally found one. I met a super cool robot on the way out.

We thanked Tasawar for his hospitality then grabbed the bus back to the hotel for some sleep.

Urumqi

The next morning, still enroute to Urumqi, I awoke to sleepy eyed children stumbling out of bed, tiny toes all over. I joined the herd, borrowed some toothpaste and cleaned up a bit. My pal Li Zhou, hooked me up with some green tea that he had generously purchased for me and we listened to some music on our headphones, hoping to make it through the day as the little savages woke up.

Lots of terrifying giggling followed. Omar and I escaped for a while to the next car, but the evil little cats found us, popping their little heads in one by one, creeping up behind me and delivering painful blows to my back. I held back my tears, trying desperately not to cry in front of everyone as they set their sites on a new prey. We were sitting in the aisle, outside the compartment of one of the blue shirted train staff. He made the mistake of leaving his door open while reading a newspaper. The cats were jumped through the doorway, looking under his bed, on top of it and all around, asking tons of questions and settling in next to him. He was clearly in shock. Fearing for his life, he played it cool, then bravely tried to shoo them away without any luck. They giggled and ran around his compartment before leaving when they felt like it and slamming his door shut behind.

They joined Omar and myself in the hall for a bit, and I had to subdue them with some tickling, before they ran off again. Finally we reached the train station at Urumqi. We said our goodbyes and I exchanged info with a college professor and Li Zhou, the high schooler. One of the friendly kids offered to help me pull my heavy backpack down. We went out the platform and the herd lined up for a headcount. Omar, Andy, Mike and I waved good bye and head out. It was raining a bit as we walked down into a Muslim noodle shop. The locals stopped and watched us. Two kids with aviation suited ears stood newspaper hawking forgotten and watched us. They unfroze when I pulled out my camera. We ate some food, then grabbed a bus to another part of town to look for a place to stay. Prices varied a lot so we kept looking until we found a cheaper place. The room was being cleaned so we left our backpacks with them and head out to see the city. We walked around a bit, then hopped on a bus to the Xinjiang Autonomus Region Museum. The museum had amazing exhibits on the wide range of diverse people living in the Xinjiang province. From European/Russian looking Tartars, to Mongols, Han Chinese, Uzbeks, Uighurs and many more. Exhibits showed beautiful handicrafts, clothes, musical instruments and other cultural effects from each of group of people. Other sections of the museum showed excavated remains from ancient civilizations, including mummies. All in all, it was a beautiful museum though it underscored the reality of the province.

From there we head over to the Erdaoqiao Market, which is surrounded by Uighur neighborhoods. On the bus, we befriended some Uigher students who showed us the way as well as a Pakistani businessman working in the area. We went with the students, down to the marketplace. We had heard some nasty racist things said about the Uighur people that really made us mad, before we got there. Various negative attributes were prescribed to this entire group of people by some other people at the museum. I actually met some Uigher students while sitting in the lobby of the museum as well and they were, as most people tend to be, very warm and gracious. The students we met on the bus, were likewise very warm and friendly to us. Certainly you have to take precautions whenever you are in a new place and with new people, but that goes equal for all people, and you don't want to become so paranoid that you fail to see the beauty that exists in the wonderful people you meet along the way.

We looked at music instruments and I saw that a few things I negotiated down in Xian had starting prices of half of what I haggled down to. It was a fun marketplace, with so many diverse people, as we had seen in the exhibits in the museum. This area had a very different feel with signs in Chinese, English, Uighur and some Russian. Four scripts and a multitude of ethnicities, styles of dress etc poured in from all around. There were some mosques, and a beautiful square.

We looked around for some fresh nan, but all we could find were stacks of cold, hard bread at all the shops we went to. Finally, we walked over to an area that was full of outdoor eateries and asked around. Many people did not speak Chinese here, so we had to try and use Arabic and Farsi words with some English and lots of hand gestures and funny faces to try and communicate. People were very friendly. We ate some amazing watermelon and I picked up some traditional music cds. Mike ate some spicy noodles and chickpeas, with flavors quite unique from what we had sampled in other parts of China thus far. At the noodle stand, we finally managed to explain that we were looking for fresh nan, straight out of the tandoor (clay oven). He talk to another kid who had his own stall. Finally the kid at the other stall decided he was going to take us. He walked us all around, weaving through crowds, as we struggled to keep up, until we had walked across a good cross section of the amazing Uighur neighborhood and arrived at a nan shop. They had closed and the boys working there smiled as our nan hunter friend explained what we were after. After much talking, they agreed to bake a batch of smaller sesame buns. Omar tried really hard to get them to make a few nans, but they weren't having it. It was a tremendous amount of effort to start the tandoor, and prepare it for baking bread. Three boys, in a rythmic patterm dunked their head and arms into the firey tandoor, placing the dough balls on the inner walls. They joined us outside after getting the whole laborious process started. A crowd of people formed around us as we spoke to the boys inside and outside the shop. We greeted them with a Salam (Muslim greeting) and that helped to endear us to them instantly, but perhaps more than that just our silliness made them happy. Omar and Andy decided to learn how to count in Uighur. None of these kids or adults spoke Chinese. They looked at us very confused as we explained 1-2-3-4-5, counting on fingers and they laughed and repeated, until finally some people in the crowd figured out what we were after and they taught us.

It made everyone really happy, as we waited for the buns to cook. Omar pulled out a page of Uighur phrases from his book and tried them out, much to everyone's delight. People laughed, but the crowd was actually very friendly. They warmed up to us kids, and lots of little ones crowded around and watched. We kept watch of our things as you need to in any crowd..though I still lost my camera that one time in Mongolia...but people were genuinely curious. The boy who brought us about a mile to the nan shop refused any food or anything in return. He simply helped us and then sped off on his way back to work. The kids at the tandoor didn't try to make any extra money off of us, or be mean or anything but the nicest hosts one could ask for. The humored our silliness and we all spoke to pockets of the crowd in our broken words and smiles.

Eventually the bread was ready and we had 5. One of the boys at the tandoor offered to take a photo of the inside of the tandoor for me and I gave him my camera to do just that. The people were so friendly do us and asked for nothing in return. We offered some entertainment, but that was really all they wanted. One man even offered to let us stay with him, though we graciously declined. One new mother, with her seven month old baby in hand spoke Chinese and communicated with Mike. Andy shared music on his laptop, and had a huge crowd of kids around him and a generously lent hat from one of the children. These were not people who had much in the way of monetary riches, but they were some of the warmest, sweetest people we could ever hope to meet. I think often if you put out a good feeling regardless of whether you feel you are getting it back or not, it brings out that in those around you. It doesn't work every single time, in every situation, but it is the only way I know to make being amidst strangers so enjoyable.

We made our way to the bus station, exhausted, with the help of the Chinese speaking mother with her cute baby in her arms, and the kind man who had offered us his hospitality. We said goodbye and hopped on the bus. Finding the tiny hotel at night proved challenging. We all had some idea, but it took us a long time to trace our steps back and find the landmarks we needed to get there. Eventually we did, only to be told that we had been given the room in error.

Foreigners were not allowed to stay in that hotel, and so we would have to find some other arrangements. They refunded our money and graciously called around to try and find another place. We went off in search of places, carrying our heavy backpacks, but their suggestions were outragiously expensive. Apparently it is common to run into the situation where lower cost and lower quality hotels are not allowed to house foreigners, likely more out of maintaining an image than anything.

So we pulled out the lonley planet guide, called a place near the train station and found rooms at low prices that allowed foreigners. The place is the least nice place we have stayed at. The bathrooms have friendly short doors so you can talk to your neighbors while handling your business, but the halls are dark and instead of keys, you get tags that you show the floor attendant who unlocks your door. Still, thanks as usual to Mike's hard work and Chinese language skills, we got out of an annoying situation and found a decent place to sleep at night.

Train Ride

The next morning, we caught an early morning buffet before running off to the train station. There were older people playing badminton with children along the way.Each town we have visited has its own feel to it. Lanzhou felt laid back and more comfortable than some of the other cities we visited on this trip.

We boarded the train with no idea what was in store. Early on, we noticed that there seemed to be lots of children in this train car. In fact there were probably 6 children to every adult on it.Securing train tickets last minute is difficult and necessary in many of the places we are travelling. These tickets ended up being in the same car, but in seperate bunks. I traded my seat with a lady so she could be with her daughter, and ended up with an older couple below me and children all around. I was in the middle bunk on the left out of 3 bunks on either side bringing the total to 6 instead of the usual 4 that were on previous trains.

I stared out the window, sitting in the narrow train aisle for a while, watching the mountains push off into the distance and turn to flat planes. After a while, I climbed up to my middle bunk. Just as my head touched the pillow a stream of children came racing into the compartment. Some had tried to speak to me earlier, but I smiled and explained that I didn't understand Chinese. Now all these kids were back, led by their solution; a little bespectacled girl with braces. She said hello as ten or twenty faces giggled. She asked if she could get a picture with me. I smiled and agreed. I climbed down and sat on the lower bunk with an older lady already sitting there and the little girl's aunt squeezed in with children in the aisle. The little girl grabbed my arm and posed with a huge smile much to the glee of the army of children. A few cameras were passed around for photos including mine. She said my smell was nice, but I think she meant smile...long train rides don't do much good for smells.

I laughed so hard while the kids were taking photos. I pointed to "I don't understand" in the Chinese phrasebook to the girl's aunt. The kids were all excited (I think in general), and the little heartbreaked said "I love you." Hahahaha! Limited english is so cute.I figured there could be no more cuteness to top that, so I went to back to bed and managed to stay there for a good 8 hours or so.

I was wrong. I awoke and the kids had mobbed my friends. There was an intense game of cards at one aisle table with Andy and Mike, a happy kid we named Sgt. Bellpepper and many other smiling faces with random missing teeth. There was music playing through the train speakers and Omar was teaching kids math and learning Chinese. The aisle was packed with nervous kid energy. It was too much cuteness for so small a space. My English speaking pal it turns out loved everyone else too, and though I was a little devastated, I managed to pull myself together and sit at on of the aisle tables. The party train slipped past flat, dry land with mountains in the distance. Every so often, a vendor squeezed down the packed aisle hawking drinks, books and food, as tiny tots squirmed past through spaces that did not exist. The staff on the train was actually smiling (except the dining car, they were not in service as usual).

I stared out the window a bit, then pulled out my phrase book and spoke to a high school boy named Li Zhou.

He was very quiet, but helped me with some pronounciation. Through him and Mike I learned that the kids were returning from a field trip to Beijing back to Urumqi, where they lived. Li zhou liked Chinese rock music, had a twin brother and sister, and gave us the name of an ice cream parlor in Urumqi. The kids were very sweet and bursting with energy, excitement and kindness.I heard Andy and Omar start some music down the aisle and joined them. We soon had kids giggling and clapping around us. Two tiny, shy, cat like girls kept running up and then running away. They were trouble. Andy pulled out a Chinese wind instrument and we sang with that for a while. At one point, a boy with broken glasses jumped in and shared his talents on Andy's Chinese instrument. He was very good and had a few little girls chasing after him after his performance. It was so much fun singing and playing with these kids.

The train stopped at a number of stations along the way, where we bought instant noodles, tofu and one time ice cream which we shared with Li Zhou. After the music, the little cats became bold and approached me with evil little smiles. They struck terror in my heart with swiping claws and evil giggles. To hide my fear, I started drawing one of them. That made them curious. Four tiny eyes watched me. Finally, I added a super cool handlebar mustache (always a crowd pleaser) and some chin hair, but the little cats didn't approve. This is always a challenge when travelling. It is easy to offend one from another culture, unintentionally, through no fault of your own, with only the best of intentions through what seems to oneself to be a good gesture of friendship.

They made little frowns and threatened me with some harshly shouted Chinese. Petrified, I handed them the pen and notebook, begging for mercy (sure, I towered over them even sitting down, but these things were ferocious!).

They scurried down the hall, then returned after a bit having added some flying hair and funny teeth to the drawing. I guess once the rage subsided, they decided to draw some pretty birds, fish and a sun on the following page, before the madness took hold again and they came charging back at me, told me what was what and handed me their evil creations.

Andy came to my rescue by becoming the human chomping machine, with long arms as chompers. He sent them running back down the hall, only to return, then flee many times after.Just to note, Sgt. Bellpepper, (the gentlemen in the green wahaha shirt) is a fascinating card player. He is a thing of wonder to behold when he plays cards, climbs bunks or squirms away from little girls who try to make him sing. Eventually the savage little beasts turned to slumber and so did we.

Lanzhou

 

The next morning we caught a train to Lanzhou. We arrived in the afternoon. Just behind the train station, you can see beautiful mountains. We grabbed our things and trudged across the street to find a place to stay the night. After some searching and bargaining, we ran into a man who ran a hotel down the street. He showed us the place and we took it.

After cleaning up we walked around to explore the city. We ended up grabbing a bus to the Yellow River. The sun was setting and it was an amazing sight.

 

Along the boardwalk, there were many families with children. Many were learning to rollerblade, or just playing.

A little further, there was some Chinese music playing with a group of mostly older women and some men being led through a synchronized dance by a very enthusiastic, talented, dancing man. We sat and watched for a while. It was so peaceful there, watching people relax along the Yangtze. Omar and Andy joined the dancing for a bit.

Later, we grabbed some chocolate cake, having failed to find an ice cream parlor. Having gotten our chocolate fix, we went back to the hostel to sleep

Terracotta Warriors

 

  

The guys woke up around noon, giving me plenty of time to update the blog etc. It rained all day. We head out to the bus station and caught a bus to see the museum of the terracotta warriors just outside the city of Xian. Early in the trip we suffered a setback when Andy forgot his oreos on the bus. Inspired by the Terracotta Warriors and their participation in the 2008 Beijing Olympics the group managed to put it behind us and continue. We started with the museum and worked our way up from Pit 2, to Pit 3 and finally the massive Pit 1. Each one made us more excited to see the next. It is a fairly mad creation, but the scale of it is quite amazing. I liked the horses with their riders and chariots most. The museum itself is really nice, though the hawkers try a bit too hard. On the way out you pass a ton of stalls selling all kinds of souvenirs and just when you think you have passed through them, there is a huge barrage of hawkers standing with handfuls of trinkets that you have to navigate to get to the buses. Afterward we head back to Xian.

Mike and Omar decided to stay in, while Andy and I head to the South Gate of the walled city where we were told there were some music performances. The rain probably prevented any street music that night, so we met up with a bead maker whom Omar and Andy had met the night before. We walked down a lane of empty western looking bars before we came upon a more traditional looking establishment. We went upstairs to a room with a stage and enjoyed various traditional music performances, along with some food. I had some mushrooms with peppers and rice. The bead maker had engraved two flutes with Andy and Omar's names as a gift for them.

We spent some time trying to play them. He showed us how, though Andy had better luck. I managed a sketch of a man who was like a one man band with a leg playing percussion, and a long string instrument with snake skin on it as well as other small instruments on each limb. He seemed to tell an interesting and humorous story, but your guess is as good as mine. We jumped in a cab and head back after the show ended, thanking our host graciously. I spent a few hours that night updating emails and photos. The hostel owner; Bob was interested in some of my animation work so I shared that and he shared some beautiful photography of his own from trips to Southern China.

Xian

We arrived in Xian in the morning, then walked a long way from the long distance bus station to the hostel with our heavy backpacks. After cleaning up, we entered the city walls and made out way past lanes on the outskirts with old buildings marked for demolition, to new shopping centers by the belltower until we reached a lane that led into the Muslim Quarter. Apparently there have been Muslims there since the 6th century when Arab traders travelled the silk road, bringing their religion. A number of them settled down there and thus began the Islamic influence in Xian. The lanes had tiny mosques, many general stores, restaurants, food stalls and places to buy souvenirs. We stopped at a very Chinese style minaret complete with a loudspeaker for the Muslim call to prayers.

As I was photographing the minaret, my friends ducked into some place and I lost track of them. I looked around, walked up and down the street and no luck. We all know how to get back to the hostel and that is always a good fallback plan for if and when we get seperated, so after a bit of searching, I just continued down the street, and looked at shops. There were little terracotta warriors, paintings, sculptures and all kinds of other souvenirs. I picked up a few things bargaining to less than half the stated price, wondering how bad I'd still been had. As I came upon older Chinese women with hijabs I found that they were very happy to learn that I am Muslim. I saw interesting mixes of Chinese and Arabic calligraphy. Eventually I made my way the the Great Mosque, where as a Muslim I got in for free. Nice to get that special treatment in a positive sense now and again :). The Great Mosque is a large, very Chinese style structure. It is interesting to communicate with some Arabic with the local Muslims. A few words that we use when referring to religious functions that are in Arabic were easy to communicate.I walked all the way through, and offered some prayers. Most of the mosque us a long courtyard with little alcoves and towers.

As I was about to leave, I as reunited with my friends. We hung around a while longer, then asked around about good food places. A boy named Abdul Rahman offered to show us the way to a good place to eat. We invited him to join us and made our way to a shop down several lanes for some bread bits in soup with beef. Abdul Rahman told us about his studies and the general history of the local Muslim community, all through Mike's translation skills. This area has more breads similar to naans than other parts of China we have seen thus far. Andy was in pretty bad shape from being sick, so he just drank some tea. He decided to stay with Omar at the mosque for a while, as Mike and I walked back through the city. 

We walked passed all kinds of shopping plazas, and drank some plum juice on the way back. Later on, after several wrong turns, we made our way back to the hostel, having explored a chunk of the city.

Leaving Beijing for Xian

Some days you just work on resting and getting ready for that next overnight bus. We took it pretty easy in the morning and then trudged around with our heavy backpacks to metro to bus to finally overnight bus from Beijing to Xian. It was a pretty comfortable sleeper bus, as far as they go..best we have been on yet. I was expecting worse, bracing myself for it, and was very relieved. We stopped at a food place around 11pm and grabbed some tofu and peppers that were really good. The buffet looked somewhat ancient and the staff told us they had no plans to making more, so we opted for fresh food as always. They were very nice and as usual very confused and happy at Mike's Mandarin skills. As always, he helped us get some much needed food, before we piled back on the bus and continued along the road to Xian. There were some Chinese music videos, much like ones in other countries playing on the bus and some bizarre movie with recognizable European and American actors about these two people from medieval times who come to the present and wackiness ensues. It looked fairly recent. Mostly I tried to sleep.

Great Wall of China

 

Andy and Mike were busy with their individual plans. Andy had an interview to conduct. Omar and I had plans to go see the Great Wall of China. We are starting to get the hang of getting around. It helps that I have a lonely planet guide that has the names of places which I can point to written in Mandarin. Besides that, it tells you which bus to get on etc. The public transportation in this town is great!

We grabbed some food, and I finally gave up on being vegetarian here, having starved, and stopped eating many vegetable meals halfway through realizing they had pork in them, or eating horrible, nutritionless garbage for too long. I already lost five pounds, so enough of that. The next areas we are going to in China as well as the next few countries will all be brutally tough to find vegetarian food in, so no more.

I started with a fish fillet sandwich at the McDonalds...

So...anyway, after that Omar and I head over to the metro, on to the long distance bus station and off to the first town on the way to the section of the Great Wall that we decided to visit. We stopped in the town and then hired a car to take us to the wall. It started pouring as we approached, but this was our one chance to see it. It actually worked out beautifully. We got there and it was pouring. After purchasing tickets we went to get on the cable car, but it was not running due to the rain. We didn't know how long it might be and we only had a few hours to check things out before it would close. So we decided to grab some junky umbrellas and walk up the stairs with our tired bodies. One step at a time we made it up to the top. The shops below as well as the drink sellers on the way to and on the wall tend to quote very high prices. ALl you have to do is tell then how much you want to pay and then walk away if they refuse. They would say something ridiculous like 15RMB for water, and I'd tell them I'd give them 3 and start walking away when they said no. There was hardly any customers there, so I got my water at the normal price each time. Omar and I made it up to the top and it was gorgeous. I thought the Forbidden City would interest me more than the Great Wall, but it turned out to be the opposite. The Forbidden City was very repetitive, whereas just driving up into the mountains then up the stairs to the Great Wall was an amazing site. It stopped raining as we reached the top of the Wall. The view all around was stunning. The wall wrapped over hills far into the distance as far as you could see. Layers of fog revealed mountains in the distance. The sun started to creep out from behind the clouds as we walked over many more steep steps, over the wall and made our way to the tram going down. We hopped on after a while, grabbed some quick souvenirs after bargaining the price way down (not down enough apparently) the same car that brought us there and hopped on the bus back the Beijing.

As we reached Beijing, satisfied that we had maneuvered our way around without Mike's invaluable skills and knowledge we hit rush hour. People were pouring out of buses and the crowds were quite amazing in their size. It still wasn't that bad getting to the metro and packing ourselves in to get back to our hostel, but it was interesting to see so many people. We walked back to the hostel, sat for a bit, then explored the many shops that lined the way to the music cafe we had been to the previous night. There was a Mongolian music performance there that night, so we decided to walk around there until then. Omar started playing different percussion instruments to the delight of a music store owner and his customers. I took some photos then head out to find an internet cafe to send out a birthday message.

I checked out the toy stores while Omar jammed and gave someone a tabla lesson. We ended up grabbing some seafood at a restaurant, before I went to the internet cafe and Omar went to see the show. I finished up at the cafe and went to the show also. The place was packed and I caught the last four amazing songs of the performance. I managed a sketch in the crowd, but I didn't see Omar or Andy. I bought the group's cd and returned to the hostel, where I met up with Mike and went to sleep.

Forbidden City

The next morning we got up to a slow start. Mike and Andy were busy with other plans, so Omar and I set out on our own. We grabbed some food (fries, milkshake and ice cream for me) after the usual hunt for stuff we could eat. Then we went down to the metro and head over to Tianmen Square. As we walked through, a lady came up to us and asked us if we'd like to see an art gallery. We said sure, and walked to the gallery, which was one of the stores inside the path to the Forbidden City. She was very nice, and explained some of the cultural context of the paintings. She said she was a volunteer. We looked at the gallery, appreciating the information she told us about the pieces. Finally we had walked through the gallery and she asked us which piece we wanted. I thanked her and told her I could not really carry any of these pieces with me. 

At that point she transformed. She was not happy. Omar and I spotted a South Asian couple (first I had seen in China) so as she had her little internal meltdown, I introduced myself to them and we traded notes on Indian grocery stores and restaurant info. In the middle of this, psycho art lady starts staring me down and pointing at the door. Omar and I glanced at her and I was annoyed so I told her to wait. I took my time talking to the South Asian man before I walked out.

 

Even the sales people at the stalls in the middle section were extremely pushy and annoying in selling their over priced garbage. Thankfully, once we entered the Forbidden City, there was none of that. We purchased our tickets and walked through many large open areas, taking in various museum exhibits along the way before reaching the living quarters in the back. By then it was time to close, so we started making our way back. It was cool to check out, but much of the architecture is more of the same. The large open spaces must have been very impressive when filled with armies long ago. As we walked past the gallery, some other guy asked if we wanted to see the art gallery and I let him know we had already been tthrown out.

Afterwards, we walked around some of the streets around that area, before walking around the Performing Arts Center and then taking the metro back to the hostel. We met up with Andy and the hostel and a fellow traveller who was visiting from Zimbabwe. Mike returned, but was too tired to go out with us, so the rest of us walked down the street towards a music show Andy and learned about along the way. The street we walked down was an interesting mix of young hip clothes and toys like you'd find at Giant Robot etc with interesting and pricey cafes as well as small general stores, and little hole in the wall eateries with old and young people hanging out. It was a really interesting place. We walked past all of that and turned down narrow lane past a large traditional style building. It was dark so all you could make out was a huge looming silhouette. The lane opened into a small park, with buildings that looked like temples on either side. People were hanging out in the park. We walked into a cafe where a band was setting up for a performance that night. It felt like a really nice, intimate music venue in Los Angeles. We grabbed a table toward the front and waited for the performance to begin. It was a lot of fun.

The musicians were mostly from in and around Xian as was the style of music. They played from 10pm to 12am and I managed some sketches of each of them which I gave to them later in the night. During the break Omar and Andy got to talking to the percussionist who was visiting from western China. We didn't have a common language, but another girl from Xian helped translate. The percussionist and the a group of girls in the audience who knew him were all Muslims from the areas we are traveling to next. We went back in, enjoyed the rest of the show, then hung out. Andy talked to the girls in the audience and got some info on the places are traveling to next. One was studying to become a tour guide so she may help us once we get to Xian. We may meet up with the percussionist in his town as well. Omar and the percussionist jammed together, trading rhythms from their respective countries. They could not speak to each other through words very well, but that didn't seem to matter when it came to music. It was a lot of fun to see them interact that way, and they both left having really pushed themselves playing. We all walked out around closing time, and head back to the hostel to bed.

It's 4am in Beijing...

We reached Beijing at 4am, without having gotten any sleep the night before. It was still dark out as we walked over in a daze to a McDonalds (the only place to eat at that hour). We all washed up a bit and sat there quite out of it for a while. We had to wait until 6am for the metro to start running so we could rush over to the embassy district and hunt down the Uzbekistan Embassy to get visas for our planned travel there later in the trip. We weren't sure where it was because they did not answer their phones and several addresses were listed online. It was only open from 9am-11am and we needed to get the process started quick during the week, so we would not have to stay too long in Beijing and have to cut out days from the rest of our trip. So, with that in mind, we hopped on the metro with our heavy backpacks and trudged all over, after getting bad directions from all sorts of people. Finally we came upon the German Embassy and from there the Uzbekistan embassy, having walked all over, up and down all kinds of stairs etc with our heavy backpacks for a couple of hours. We got to the embassy early and put our things in a pile on the sidewalk. I slept on my backpack for a bit as we waited. Finally the opened and we spent some time on filling out the applications and getting it all taken care of. Thanks again to Mike and Andy's preparedness, we got it all done on the spot. Afterward we went back to the same hostel we had stayed at last time we were in Beijing just before going to Mongolia. This time we didn't have a reservation, but after being hassled a bit by the kid at the desk, we got a 3 bed room and Andy got a bed in a different room. We washed up and hung out in the cafe for a while. I updated some blog stuff and just relaxed. I figured I would just sleep at night. Sunny and the rest of the kind staff at the hostel cafe asked if we would perform there again like we did last time. She was very sweet in expressing how much they all enjoyed the music we played last time. It was a pretty spontaneous performance, but it had been lot of fun. We agreed to come back after dinner and play. In the evening, Andy, Omar and I walked around a bit. We found a really good restaurant and ate a bunch of food. The kids working there were all young college students who were extremely friendly and happy to talk to us. Two kids in particular were really nice to us, so we invited them to the hostel cafe to check out our music performance there later that night. We got back and Andy and Omar grabbed the guitar and bongos which we took upstairs to quickly figure out a few more songs. We really had not had no to prepare, and the guitar turned out to have one really messed up string that Andy frantically tried to clean up and make usable. Omar and I head down as it was time to start, and Andy was still working on the guitar upstairs. I sat down with my laptop and the cafe was packed with people, as a note had gone up on the board that a World Music performance was to take place that night, or maybe they all just happened to be there. I don't know.

Andy finally made it down having miraculously made the guitar barely useable and we started playing. The crowd this time was less attentive. Last time we were just playing around and soon everyone just turned and started watching us. This time it was much louder and we had no mics just like last time, so we really were not loud enough for that setting. But there were groups sprinkled in the crowd cheering and clapping. More important than that though, what really made the night for us was that, for one, the cafe staff were really happy, and the two kids from the restaurant were there from the very start of the performance. After a few songs, they asked me to sing a favorite song of theres, so I pulled up the lyrics and we all sang it together. It was so much more fun to include them and sing together rather than just perform to them. They suggested another song that they taught us and we sang that together too. That was the best part of the night. It's what really made it worthwhile, was to interact and give thanks to these two kids that went out of their way to be nice to us at the restaurant. We sat around and talked to people, including the two kids late into the night. They wanted to know about our travels and told us about the beautiful parts of China they were from. Finally we all exchanged emails and called it a night.

Border Crossing

Woke up in the train. The door out of our compartment was stuck. I remember half asleep watching Omar struggle with it a bit before giving up and going back to bed. I tried with similar results. I looked through the slit in the side of the door and saw some Mongolian men hanging out in the hall, looking out the window. I knocked on the door and pulled at the lock a bit and they kindly came over and yanked it open after a brief struggle. I thanked them, my eyes barely opening and we both nodded in agreement at the crappy lock we agreed not to lock again. I walked across about 8 cars to find an open bathroom to wash up. I came back and rested. We all spent time in the hall, watching the barren landscape roll past, talking to other passengers like Jaigal. I played some chess on a Mongolian chess set with Omar before we got the word that we would arrive in Zamanud momentarily. We quickly grabbed all our stuff and rushed to the nearest exit where there was already a line of people. As soon as the doors of the train car opened we made a mad dash out, across towards the buses. A guy with a jeep offered to take us across the border (this is normal practice) for 80 RMB (Yen) so we hopped in and he stepped on it. Basically, we needed to get through customs on either side of the border and try and make it to the train station on the Chinese side in time to get a train ticket back to Beijing. We had lots of competition for this goal, so there was a rush. We went to the Mongolian exit authority, jumped out the jeep with our things, ran through processing, back on the jeep and through a number of similar forms and lines, in and out of the jeep until we reached the train station on the Chinese side of the border in a town called Erling. We jumped through some hoops to change our Mongolian money (which is really hard, if not impossible to convert anywhere else). At the station it turned out there were no more trains out to Beijing until the next day, so we went over to the long distance bus station. Thanks as usual to Mike's language skills, we were able to purchase overnight sleeper bus tickets to Beijing. We grabbed some food, then hopped on a bus full of beds that was a lot nicer than the one we took with Kim Jong's brother from Anqing to Beijing. We had saved a lot of headache coming back by not having to wait for the insanely slow process of changing train wheels at the border, and not having to deal with the horrible staff on the train, but we were in for a new fun adventure on this bus. Every time we crossed from one province to another, as well as several other checkpoints and stops, the bus was boarded, IDs were checked, everyone given a once over and then we'd start moving again. This happened all night, so just as you'd fall asleep, the bus would stop and the conducter and some security people boarding the bus would have a flashlight, all the bus lights would come on and people would start demanding your ID. After they were done checking the IDs (often off the bus), the conductor would spend another 20 minutes yelling out people's names to return their IDs. So, we didn't get much sleep, much as we tried. We talked to a Mongolian man who was a fashion designer, working in western style leather clothes in Beijing. Many people on that bus went through this process on a regular basis, as they were Mongolians traveling from Ulanbataar to Beijing on regular business. As annoying as not being able to sleep was, the ride was much less painful than the train going from Ulanbataar from Beijing, thanks to the absence of "Pork Rind Face" and the rest of the wonderful train staff.