Xinjiang figure of 8

[futianshenzhen]

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Also near the grand bazaar in Kashgar

[futianshenzhen]

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The view where I stopped for a snack


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The desert north of Kashgar


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My snack break watcher


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This was the room with the catfight, unfortunately the girls are behind the door and I wasn't brave enough to get a proper shot

[bigmonkey]

[futianshenzhen]

31
I left as the sun was coming up at 7.40 to ride to the Pakistan border. This was by far the longest dead end road I’ve ever knowingly decided to take, about 800 kms! The first 100 kms were pretty easy going then I started to gain some altitude, there was a police stop at the bottom of the mountain but it was still very early, about 7 am local Xinjiang time so I slipped through without anyone giving me a second glance. At first the surface was pretty average then it improved as I gained altitude, I’m not sure about the highest point but the bike was starting to suffer from altitude sickness towards the end. I was flagged down at a second police stop, the guys were friendly but were armed to the teeth which made me a little nervous. In the end I just showed my passport and continued on my way to the border. On the way I had a minor prang with a truck, he turned left without signalling as I was going to overtake. I was sure I was going to go splat on the back of the truck but in the end it was only a tiny tap which slightly damaged the headlight. It was really pretty bad luck as we were probably the only vehicles within a few kilometres on that road, he immediately put his indicator on after the fact but I wasn’t going to stick around for the cops to arrive to argue about minor damage to a headlight so I just rode on to the border. I was shouted at by a guard for taking a photo of the checkpoint but there was no way I was leaving without a photo to prove I went there!
The ride back was obviously very familiar and it was very odd to be riding the same road again on a trip like this. I got a friendly wave from the coppers at the police stop and covered great ground going mainly downhill. Back at the first police check at the bottom of the hill there was a huge queue of cars waiting to go through, I went straight to the front and tried a cheeky one but got spotted and stopped. I had to take my passport into an office and they all assumed I’d come overland from Pakistan, it seemed too complicated to explain I’d just ridden a 800 kilometre dead end road and would probably have generated a lot more questions so I just looked dumb and they told me to continue on my way.
I turned right 70 clicks before kashgar, and cut through Alto, the villages in that area were awesome, lots of bright clothing and vibrant street life. Later on there was a proper traffic police stop. They had confiscated bikes and were stopping cars and asking everyone for licenses. I showed mine and they wrote down the details, they looked at the passport but were laughing as they had no idea what anything meant. Obviously these guys had received totally different training and were really just out to catch infringers of traffic law. They were very friendly, and one guy was showing off his limited repertoire of English and Japanese words. It was a little weird and I really wanted to get out of there but had to smile politely as was going on and on ‘nice to meet you’ ‘how do you do’ ‘kon’nichiwa’ ‘arigato’ etc etc etc! In the end he said I should move there because I’d have lots of new friends, ok great – can I leave now?!!

I ended up staying in Yengisar, which is a pretty small town and I was lucky the hotel accepted me. I arrived at 9.15 pm having covered 890 kms, 2650 total. I didn’t need my jerrycan but it was fantastic not to have any range anxiety. Well worth it just for that, my total range now is well over 500 kms which is awesome.

I found this little barbecue stall with a very friendly boss who was deaf, I was amazed he was able to lip read my crappy mandarin but we were able to communicate pretty well. I’d found some cold beer in a little Han run shop and the shop owner and her boyfriend were charming, they even said ‘welcome to China’ in English! They were the only place I could find that had booze and a few restaurants refused me entry because I was drinking. I eventually found another Han run place and had some veggies and my deaf barbecue friend was cool with drinking so I was doing a kind of loop around the town. On my third trip back to the beer shop the girl had left and her mother was there. She charged me 4 quai instead of 3.5 but I thought a laowai tax of 5 jiao wasn’t too bad really so didn’t mention it. Later on I returned again and the mother sheepishly apologised and sold me the next beer for 3 quai. The daughter had obviously told her off in my absence which I thought was hilarious, guilt (and face) is definitely the most important of all human emotions!

When I got back to the hotel the police were behind the hotel desk. They said nothing and I was allowed to stay so I went to bed happy and a bit pissed!

[futianshenzhen]

The road to Pakistan from Kashgar

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[futianshenzhen]

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Honey dip on the go


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Pikey petrol


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The Pakistan border, the Pakistani side was not in view, there maybe some kind of no-mans land in between the checkpoints.

[futianshenzhen]

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My lip reading bbq friend

[futianshenzhen]

1 June

I left at 7.40 again! No idea why that seems to be the norm but no matter how many times I hit snooze I always seem to leave then. I tried to get on the gaosu just outside Yengisar and the toll booths weren’t even built yet so it looked easy but some coppers turned me around. One of them actually wanted to let me on but his partner was a stickler and said no. A little further down the road the barb wire fence had been stretched apart and a tired and epically failed to get the bike through the gap. In the end I dropped the bike into a pile of rubbish but luckily got the whole shameful episode on video so all is not lost. Another kilometre down the fairly beat up old road I found an old construction entrance that had been blocked off using earth mounds. That wasn’t going to stop me however and shortly afterwards I was on the prefect surface of the gaosu. On these straight desert roads it really makes a huge difference. On the gaosu I can cruise at 120 and don’t have to worry about potholes, even though the old road is also very straight it’s hard to cruise at more than 90 and not get shaken to pieces.

The gaosu ended at Yarkant (my new favourite place name) and there were a few surprised looking coppers at the toll but they didn’t try to stop me so I moved on and changed the oil in town. I drew a huge, friendly crowd with quite a few local beauties but it was way too hot to stay and chat so I was quickly off again. The road to Hotan isn’t gaosu but is very good so I was whizzing along when I saw another rider. I pulled over and he was also on a yingang, a 150 cc, he’d ridden all the through Tibet and was heading back to Hebei. He was properly loaded up and was planning to ship all his camping gear back from Hotan to lighten the load a bit. I stopped shortly afterwards to have a drink and the bike was completely dead. I unpacked all my bags to get under the seat to check the fuse, which was fine. I’d been chatting to some friendly truckers from Henan beside the road and they’d kindly given me some tomatoes. I called them over and they gave me a push, luckily the bike started and I continued on to Hotan looking for a bike shop. I was pretty sure the battery had failed as it was a cheap one I’d bought in Jiangxi province and it’d done 20,000 kms. There was only another 150 kms to go to Hotan and on the outskirts I found a battery shop that stocked huge yuasa batteries. I decided to spend a few hundred and more than I usually would and we just managed to squeeze the battery in. The battery guys were awesome and gave me great advice on hotels and even found the Yidu hotel on google maps for me. After checking in I went to buy some new sunglasses and there were two punk Uyghur kids hassling the shop owner, he was clearly terrified but dealt with them very well, a good deal on some fake gold Ray Bans and they were off! I then found the barbecue and beer street and embarked on a fairly long drinking session. I was admiring a 2 cylinder regal raptor and had a few with the owner then got invited over to another table and had a few more. All these guys were Uyghurs and seemed pretty committed drinkers but said they tried to hide it from their parents and grandparents. At the end of the night one of them dropped me back to the hotel on his scooter and that was a wild ride through the city at considerable speed. The square by the lake had been completely transformed into a water and light show which the local kids were loving. They obviously can’t be that short of water despite living on the edge of the desert!

[futianshenzhen]

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The very loaded up yingang 150 rider

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Fitting the new battery


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It was pretty expensive so I hope it lasts a while!


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Loved the name of this shop in Hotan. I asked and apparently it is named after the Egyptian, dictator sandwich anyone?


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One of the monuments in the square, this one is an outline of China

[futianshenzhen]

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The other monument in the square, it's Mao having his hand enthusiastically shaken by a Uyghur elder. I think the message of the 2 monuments is pretty clear - we are strong, we are good and we are here to stay



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A nice regal raptor cruiser


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It's beer o'clock



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Local ass



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Some of the lads I was boozing with