Harbin to Kashgar, and wherever else theres time for

[modron]

Dont be too angry, it could have been worst. You could have been riding a bicycle ;)
When I was in Xinjiang Ive met a French guy who cycled from there from Europe and he said told me a similiar story. 100km up the hill and a checkpoint at the end wher he has been told to turn around......TIC

[centralmoto]

this is a great ride, looking forward to more!

[HarbinSteve]

it could have been worst. You could have been riding a bicycle ;)

Man I can't even imagine...

this is a great ride, looking forward to more!

Thanks! Glad to know somebody is reading it. haha.

[HarbinSteve]

So after our ill-fated trip to the lake, we went looking for a place to stay. The problem was, going down that road had cost us a big chunk of the day, and it was getting dark. In the southeast of Xinjiang, there isn't really anything. Even tiny towns are 100 or more km apart. As dusk was approaching, the only place within reasonable distance was the 36团, I think it was the 36th regiment of the army or something, but there was a small town there to support the army base.

We turned off of the highway and headed down the road. After a km or two we were met by some barricades slapped across the road. They were not official looking at all. There were some road-signs, fence posts and barbed wire hobbled together blocking the street. On the side of the road, sitting by a table were 3 guys with billy clubs, skateboard helmets, random pads and the like. It looked like some kids playing paintball or something, not a government checkpoint, but we had no choice but to stop. After telling them that we were just looking for a hotel for the evening, and were leaving the next day, they recorded our id numbers and plate number and let us through. As we were going one of the local guys crashed his motorcycle into the barricade. I don't know if he was drunk or what, but he laid the bike down and he and his passenger high the ground pretty hard. They were a little cut up, but after a minute of looking dazed they lifted the bike back up and put it on the kickstand. I left.

After having some ice cream and cold water, baxi went to look for a hotel, while I watched our stuff. (after all, according to all of my students, all people from xinjaing are liars and thieves!--gotta love propaganda) While I was sitting there, after seeing a guy sell a huge ball of hash to another guy in broad daylight in the middle of the street, a guy selling paintings walked up to me.

"Hellooooo"

"Hi"

"Do you want to buy a painting?"

"nah, I have no place to put it."

"I painted it myself, isn't it beautiful?"

"its great, but I"m on a motorcycle, I have no place to put it"

"You can just strap it on the back, like this..."

"Nah, I don't want it."

"Its already on your bike, you pretty much bought it already"

"nope"

It was amazing how hard the guy tried to sell it. No matter what I told him he just kept trying. He must have been as bored as I was.

After 20 minutes or so, baxi came back. She had found a few cheap places, and they all had the same answer: If you go to the police station and they can register the foreigner, he can stay.

We went down to the local station, and it was the typical scene. A really nice, mostly empty building, with a bunch of guys sitting around smoking cigarettes. I walked in, and nobody said anything. After awkwardly standing for a few minutes, we went to get their attention.

"hi, I want to regestier to stay here for 1 night"

"Why?"

"I'm traveling, and it is getting dark soon, so I just want to rest until tomorrow, then I will continue on my way to kasher"

"Let me see... no we cannot register you."

"Why? I have all the documents I need, and have registered many times before."

"I'm sorry, its an order from above, try going to the next town"

"Its too dark to ride a motorcycle on the highway now, its dangerous, and besides the next town is over 100km away"

"I really do want to help you, you see, its just an order from above, mei ban fa"

We talked in circles for about 10 minutes, and we got nowhere. After we left baxi told me I was being too nice. She told me if I had gotten angry they probably would have just given up and given me the piece of paper I needed. I'm still not sure what their deal was. Maybe they wanted a bribe from me? All they had to do was type my passport number into their computer and see that I hadn't committed any crimes in China, and I would have been good to go.

What I should have done was just unrolled my sleeping bag in their police station, and played dumb. "Its too dark to ride, and you won't let me sleep in a hotel, so I'll just stay here. As long as you have a smile on your face and are polite, they can't get too mad at you. I know a few people who use this strategy, and it works well for them.

We took off and had no choice but to camp again, for the 7th day in a row. In that area everything was dead flat, no bushes ,no hills, nothing. Since my tent is neon green, it would be easy to see from the road. Finally we saw a group of trees, with an abandoned house next to them. The tree's were all dead, and it kind of reminded me of a haunted house or something. Especially since we had arrived when it was kind of dark. The place was surrounded with empty beer bottles, clothes, and that kind of junk. It looked like it had been a party spot about ten years ago. Baxi wouldn't go in the building, and I wasn't too keen on sleeping in it either, so I parked my bike behind it and we went behind the dead trees.

We were woken up about 530 or so in the morning by a super strong wind. There was a massive sand storm, and our tent was being blown down, even with us in it. We didn't have much time before all of our stuff would get ruined by the dust, so we took out the poles, rolled all of our stuff in the fly, and carried the whole mess into the abounded house.

It was hard to get the door open, but finally we managed, and it did a good job protecting us from the storm. I have no idea what we would have done if that building wasn't there. The visibility was only about 3 meters or so. I've never seen anything like it before. We set up the tent inside the room, and since the storm was showing no signs of letting up, went back to sleep for a few hours. It went on until about noon, then we packed up and headed out.

When we got to the bike, it was all covered in sand. About an inch deep over the seat, tank, and bags. I wiped it all off as good as I could and we headed off.

Home sweet home

(1 of 1)-2 by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

deluxe accommodations


(1 of 1) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

Sandstorm


(1 of 1)-3 by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

[HarbinSteve]

After the storm, it was more cruising west. Not much to see besides sand.


(1 of 1) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

They had some horribly labor intensive process of sticking straw into the sand in a grid pattern to keep the dunes off the road. Putting that in would have been a tough job...


(1 of 1)-6 by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

Found a better position for the sleeping pads. Nobody at any of the checkpoints seemed to care that you couldn't see the license plate.


(1 of 1)-4 by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

All of a sudden there was a massive river, in the middle of a barren desert...


(1 of 1) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

All around it was some epic quicksand. I have a video somewhere, I'll try to find it later.

Under a bridged there was some graffiti. I guess other people had gone to hide from the sun. Can anybody on here read Uighur? I wanna know what the tank shooting the birds says. haha.


(1 of 1)-5 by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

There weren't many towns along the road as the sun was going, so it was camping again. We found a patch of trees and settled in.


(1 of 1)-7 by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

I'm not sure how long we were in this area, but it was a few days. Just hot straight sandy riding. Once in awhile there would be a random stretch with trees, then it was back to sand.

Afternoon nap. Super hot, no water to be seen, but still mosquitoes!


(1 of 1)-8 by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

A desolate campsite


(1 of 1)-9 by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

[HarbinSteve]

The harsh desert heat took a toll on my dash panel


(54 of 121) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

We stopped in some small town to rest in a hotel, and found a decent place for the night. I went to fill up at the end of the day, and found a nasty surprise from the sand storm a day or two back. The super-fine sand had actually gotten into my gas tank through the sketchy recessed gas cap. I don't know how, but the area surrounding the hole was filled with sand. When I opened it some fell into the tank. Good thing I put that fuel filter on before I left... I couldn't figure out a good way to get the sand out without getting more in the tank, and I had no vacuum. Stuffing the opening with a wad of wet paper towels and scooping it out was the only thing I could think of. I got most of it out, and didn't have any problems from it later in my trip, but its still amazing to think that the gas cap was designed that poorly.

After that we made our way to Kashgar

The outskirts

(55 of 121) by HamSandwichChina, on Flickr

[Tunafish]

Great stuff!

[Tunafish]

By the way, that "huge lake" is long gone... Used to be an important stop on the silk road, ages ago. More recently China tested it's nuclear weapons there, it's called Lop Nur. So I'm not surprised it's off limits. But then, why the brown tourist area signs?

[Hok]

This is a great post... one of the best...

You really have to hang on to that girl... my wife wouldn't go near anything near a camp site let along 300 KMs of barren dessert and sand!

[Meiguo-007]

Harbin Steve,

Amazing travel log. Very Very impressed with this trip on such a small bike. You haven't said too much about Baxi's thoughts on the trip. Would be very interesting to get her take, especially comfort/lack of comfort on the back of your bike.