Around China in 100 Days

[Roadrunner]

Kashgar to Kargilik – Day 76

Lulu, still upset about my 'unreasonable request' at the internet cafe the night before, subjected me to the silent treatment again in the morning which got me well and truly annoyed. I’d had about enough of her negative attitude. It doesn’t make the trip any easier when you’re trying to watch out for someone and they’re ignoring you. I seriously felt like driving off without her. A couple of pages of Emerson after I loaded my bike helped cool the fury. Lulu, purposefully taking her time, was ready to go half an hour later.



It had been hot for a couple of days and because we started after lunch, soon we were driving through the hottest part of the afternoon. We stopped for a late lunch of zuafan in a village a couple of hours out of Kashgar, a place where the local bus is a horse and cart.



Yenisgar known for making the best quality knives in the region, and supposedly where the knife I bought in Kashgar hails from. I didn’t even need to see the road signs to know that this was the place. Every second shop had billboards of knives and rows of viewing cases for the more opulent pieces.

The Tarim Basin, surrounded on three sides by dense mountain ranges that form a natural barrier against moisture laden winds, is heavily dependent on melt water from the snow and ice on the mountains. The kingdoms who made this part of the world their home were only possible because of the rivers flowing down from the mountains. This lake is of Kunlun Shan mountain water.



We were soon getting along like old friends again, both of us knowing there’s no point in fighting.



We arrived in Kargilik early evening and drove around town trying to find a place to stay. The places were either too expensive or wouldn’t take us. We drove down the road 10 kilometres, passing the start of the G209, the western road into Tibet. I felt myself being pulled down the road to the mysterious, foridden land. Being so close to an entry into Tibet could be a reason why the hotels are so strict on foreigner licenses in Kargilik.

We went back to town well after night had fallen, and found a hotel for 100 rmb, well above what we usually pay. But it was a supply and demand thing; we were tired, and we didn’t really have an option.

[Roadrunner]

Kargilik to Khotan – Day 77

After the fairly easy day riding the day before, we were up early and keen to get going. We saw the Jama Masjid (Friday Mosque) while driving through the town and stopped for a closer look.



We took our time. Khotan was about 260 kms away, and if the roads stayed as impeccable as they had been around this part of the Tarim Basin, we would get there with time to spare, no sweat.

As it turned out, there was nothing but good roads, sand and rock in between the lush, tree-filled oases fed by concrete canals carrying water down from the mountains to disappear into the desolation of the Taklamakan desert.





We were in Khotan well before sunset and looked around for an affordable da pan ji place (大盘鸡, another favourite meal), but had to settle for a quick combo from MFC (Muslim Fried Chicken).



Khotan is a city of roughly 100,000 people, mostly Uighur, and was an important stopping point on the Southern Silk Road. It was the place to where a Chinese princess gave away the secret of silk by hiding silkworms in her headdress as she traveled from the Chinese heartland to Khotan. It was also well known for its high quality nephrite jade stones found in the rivers around the town, but that was some time ago and the rivers have since been picked clean.

We asked around for a place to stay, but had to find a place out of the town centre, a newly opened guest-house, which may explain why they didn’t have much of a problem with me staying there. We always seemed to have luck with newly opened guest-houses.

[Roadrunner]

Khotan to Niya – Day 78

We woke to the smell of freshly painted walls, amid the usual mess and clutter yet to be repacked.



We needed to take refuge in a restaurant that served da pan ji (80 kuai) because the air was so hot. Even though it was delicious, it was relatively expensive compared to other meals we could get and this would be the last da pan ji for a long time.



We replenished our emergency chocolate stashes (even though they would be melting in the heat soon enough) because someone told us that while heading east from Khotan we were unlikely to be able to buy such luxuries until we arrived in Golmud.

We decided against going to the Melikawat ruins, (the ancient capital of a pre-Islamic kingdom dating as far back as the 3rd century CE) mainly because it was too hot to go exploring. Also, they were 30 kms out of the way to the south of Khotan. We had another 300 km day ahead of us.



We stopped at a town to buy bottles of ice and ice-cream to keep cool. For some reason I was still wearing my bulky riding pants instead of my jeans, which really didn’t help with the heat. Even though we were driving faster than usual, the hot wind heated me up more than cool me down.

Later in the afternoon Lulu gave my bike a try. She had started to feel that her 100cc beast was a bit small for her and wanted to try out something new. I thought it suit her quite well.



Xining, capital of Qinghai over 2000 kms away, started appearing on roadside signs. It was another reminder that we were heading home and how far we had to go. It was a long way from Xining to Chongqing.

Lulu started to complain about a strange vibration she was getting through her bike. I had a look and I thought that the chain just needed tightening. Nothing serious.



We rode into Niya, but drove through because there was a police station next to the guest-houses that we saw, and thought that the places near the police station wouldn’t be so accommodating. I figured there would be a town or village with some places for truckers to sleep at the junction of the G315 and the cross desert highway (S165) to Luntai, somewhere away from the main town and potentially strict licensing requirements. The road outside Niya was raised above marshland and there were plenty of insects and mosquitoes, something I hadn’t had to deal with in the arid surrounds of the Tarim Basin. We got to the junction, and the only building to be seen was a dusty looking petrol station. I was wrong and we had wasted a good 45 minutes of precious pre-dusk daylight.

We spent another hour trying to find a place to sleep in Niya. Lulu got fairly cross, as it was my fault for being a foreigner and for wasting an hour on a silly caper.



We finally found a place, not too far from the police station and had to bargain hard for a room, after which we scouted the road-front food stalls opposite the hotel for late night shish-kebabs and naan bread for dinner. We had to get our beer separately, from the Han Chinese lady at the convenience store under the hotel because the Muslims (both Uighur and Hui) in Xinjiang generally didn’t sell or drink alcohol.

Lulu switched on the TV just before midnight. She wanted to relax, something I tend to find very hard to do with the noise of Chinese television invading my ears. Our differences in ways to relax was another contributor to our arguments and consequently we had another heated discussion, this time about the merits of watching TV (when, to me, sleeping would be a much better way to relax). I gave up in the end, remembering that getting into a fierce argument would be so frustrating (and pointless) that I would likely exhaust myself trying to prove my point over the loud verbal counter-attacks of my opponent. On top of that, I would most likely spend half of the next day trying to communicate with an uncooperative Lulu. Better a late start than that.

[Roadrunner]

I do not think that this is a live report…maybe I am incorrect?

You're right there. We finished the trip in mid-June last year and I've only recently had the time to put up these posts.

For example, day 70 was the 17th May 2011.

Cheers

[Roadrunner]

26-5-2011 - Niya to Cherchen – Day 79

And so it was another late morning. We took the bikes to the local Lifan dealership and had them look at Lulu’s bike to see what was wrong with the back wheel. Lulu’s chain needed replacing as well as the back sprocket, and the front sprocket needed tightening. We both got the oil changed because we couldn’t remember when it was changed last.



Cherchen was something like 290 kms away and we weren’t sure if there was a petrol station on the way, as this area of Xinjiang is mainly frequented by trucks with massive fuel tanks who don’t need to worry so much about where the next fuel stop is. With 10 litre tanks, fuel was on our mind a lot along these vast, uninhabited stretches. My trusty reserve tank, the 1.5 litre plastic bottle that I had tied to the side of my bike since Inner Mongolia, offered more peace of mind than actual usefulness.

We got lost down a county road somehow. Blame the navigator. Always! It was a nice road through sand dunes and it was easy going until the road turned to sand and gravel, then mud at a small river that we had to ford. I wasn’t complaining. River crossings are always a bit of a rush for me.



We came to a dead end and had to ask the locals where to go. We were running parallel to the national road and had to drive more bad roads, sand and gravel to get there.

We had our daily dose of action, and the rest of the day was much less exciting. On our breaks we had to shelter from the harsh sun in the shadow of the concrete huts that seemed to be built alongside the lay-byes for just this reason.





A while after nightfall I had my first decent crash looking up at the sparkling night sky. I looked down and I was driving straight at the edge of the road as the road snaked off to the left on a corner. I slammed on the brakes and slid down the ditch in a cloud of dust. I got up and there was nothing more hurt than my own sense of pride. Naturally, I felt like a real moron. It would be the only noteworthy fall I would have on the trip and I had absolutely no-one else to blame except myself. And that corner. Seriously, who would put a corner there?!! Of course I told Lulu I crashed because I was looking down at the engine to see where a strange noise was coming from.

Staying in Cherchen would provide the worst night of trying to find a place in the whole trip. We must have asked at least 15 guest-houses, which were either full or wouldn’t take us. There was a guest-house owner who said he didn't have a problem with me staying there, but after 10 minutes of talking to us he suddenly announced that we must stay (and pay for) separate rooms because it is illegal for an unmarried man and woman to share a room in China. We smelt a rip-off, because this issue wasn’t usually a problem for us and it felt like we were being manipulated. We weren’t in the mood so Lulu told him to get stuffed. We would find a proprietor with a bit more integrity.

We kept asking around and started getting desperate. We had driven around half the town and thought that we would need to stay in the opulent 400 kuai per night hotel that I had asked several enquiries earlier (rip-off guy wasn't an option). On the corner of the street, next to the grand bazaar, there was a small place, barely visible from the main road. The owners seemed a little concerned, but gave us their final room. Luckily, this was before a man walked in five minutes later asking if there was a vacancy.

[felix]

Sounds like such a pain in the ass to travel that region as a foreigner (on a budget). Thanks for all the useful info, when i finally make it out there i'm definitely bringing a tent. It looks like there's no shortage of flat sandy places.

I particularly like the international youth hostel that doesn't take foreigners!

[bigdamo]

Sounds like such a pain in the ass to travel that region as a foreigner (on a budget). Thanks for all the useful info, when i finally make it out there i'm definitely bringing a tent. It looks like there's no shortage of flat sandy places.

I particularly like the international youth hostel that doesn't take foreigners!

Plenty of gerts to stay in they don't care who stays in them.

[bigmonkey]

yeah a combination of a ger and your own tent will be ok, and 5 star hotels

[bigdamo]

If your coming into Xinjiang with little info on were to stay or relying on chinese people telling you which hotel yeah your going to have trouble finding a good cheap place to stay.I don't have any problems finding some where to stay.

[Roadrunner]

Cherchen to Charklik – Day 80 – 27-5-2011

We were looking for gas stations as we hadn’t found one the day before. I figured it made sense to have them on the national highway, but that wasn’t the case. In a country where most of the petrol stations are owned by the state (the ones with the best reputation for quality petrol anyway), they aren’t always placed in the most convenient or effective places. I ran out of petrol whilst searching on the G315 and had to ask Lulu to head back to town to get some for me. I didn’t care if it was petrol from the national providers or a local station. I just needed those wheels to move. I had forgotten that there were petrol stations loaded onto my GPS. I hadn’t used the ‘find’ program for a very long time.

We got back and tried to find a Zhongguo Shi You (中国石油 China National Petroleum） or Zhongguo Shi Hua (中国石化, Sinopec), but the only one of either we could find only had diesel. Lulu told me that the station attendant said there was a station with petrol just down the road, maybe three kilometres in the wrong direction. I was sure we could find a closer one in town; so said the GPS (with the 3 year old map). I got sick of looking and settled for a local place. Lulu exploded. “You just dont listen to me!!” I felt guilty, knowing that I hadn’t listened to her and screwed up again that morning, so I went back to apologise. Instead of getting, “It’s ok, we’ll find one next time”, I got shocking, sputtering “I will never accept your apology!!!” in the middle of the forecourt. She drove off in a fit while I filled up my bike. I didn’t know which road she took. There were two roads to Charklik; The national road and a county road that was 100 kilometres longer that went through desert. I was sure she didn’t know there were two and may have gone down the longer one. I tried calling her. No response. I texted her about the wrong road, hoping she would realise which road she was on. In case she was on the national road, I sped down the 315 to catch her, but after an hour and a half, figured that she wasn’t on the road. I stopped for an hour and a half in case she called to ask me to come find her. My main concern that the desert road wouldn’t have food or fuel or water. She didn’t have a lot of either and she might get stuck in the middle of nowhere. After three hours of worrying, she sent me a text saying she was on the right road now and wanted to drive by herself for the day. "Great! Thanks for letting me know!!!" I yelled at my apathetic little Nokia.

I continued along in the windy, dust laden air. We hadn’t seen the Kunlun shan ranges since Kashgar despite them not being more than 100 kms from the main road, and I was a little disappointed. I wanted to be reminded that the Teebetan border wasn’t far away. The roads were generally good tarmac, apart from the brief roadworks here and there.



Without Lulu, I made much better time than usual and got into Charklik late afternoon.

I drove around town looking for a place to stay. Every time I stopped to ask at a guest-house, the owners told me to go to a foreigner approved bingguan, but I didn’t want to play that game, mainly out of stubbornness at a rule that seemed discriminatory and unnecessarily inconvenient. I found a Zhaodaisuo (招待所), a guest house that tends to be cheaper than most. They said “Yes, come on in”. I unpacked my bike and started to relax but 90 minutes later they kicked the solitary foreigner out.

I waited for Lulu (thinking that it would probably be easier to find a cheaper place with her magical Chinese ID card) and went with her to search for a place, spending another hour looking. We drove around the whole town (it’s not very big, couldn’t have more than 10,000 people) and got out onto the 315 to find a bingguan with trucks all parked outside it in a big parking lot. It was nice and not so expensive and we took the room straight away. We did 311 kilometres for the day (around 10kms of that was driving up and down the town streets looking for a place to stay), and I had the highest moving average I would get for the trip (55km/h).

We had dinner and a beer or two. Lulu was in an incredibly good mood. Why? “I was driving by myself today”. It wasn’t so good for me and I was still pissed off that she had me worried about her whereabouts for more than 3 hours. She went to the room first and I found a nearby Uighur restaurant that had and amazing string instrument group playing and singing traditional Uighur music. I made friends with the slightly tipsy owner. He was from Korla, but lived in Charklik (just across the desert) to run this restaurant and send money home to his family.



Later on, Lulu and I had our biggest fight of the journey. Our room didn’t have air conditioning and it was uncomfortably hot. The windows were open and I closed the curtains, so that the morning sunlight wouldn’t heat the room up in a couple of hours. She thought I was closing the windows and decided to sleep in the doorway with the door wide open, hoping to get a cross-breeze. I had some expensive stuff in my bags (computer, cameras etc.) and I couldn’t accept an open door all night. Again, we were as stubborn as each other, and refused to back down. I turned the TV up loud so that she couldn’t sleep, so she went to sleep outside in the corridor. I went out to take a picture of such silliness and she rushed into the room trying to shut me out. I pushed my way in. She threw the (empty) electric kettle and her helmet at me (and broke the visor). It was about this time that I realised I should have insisted on separate rooms from the minute we got in. It was mainly down to miscommunication and misperception, and it escalated out of control because of fatigue, unsolved issues from the day and our overly stubborn natures. Oh, and there was a fair dose of stupidity in there for both of us as well.

I retired to my new room calm down and relax with some much needed solitude.