The Silk Road: Part Two
Day 4. 9/19
Day 4 started off feeling very much like a series of 8th grade field trips. First we visited the Sugong tower, a mosque, perhaps the most interesting of Turpan's mosques because of it's old minaret (Imin Ta) constructed in 1778. Imin Ta was built by Prince Suleiman to honor his father Prince Emin. During our tour Habib thoroughly explained to us what it takes to be a Muslim, and because of his charismatic manner I would say about 60% of us were ready to convert right there. (We didn't though.)
After the mosque we visited museum on the well irrigation system used for thousands of years throughout China called Qanats, pronounced "kwants." Qanats are long underground tunnels running from the main source of water, the base of the Flaming Mountain in this case, all the way out to surrounding cities and villages.This tour was actually pretty boring but the vineyard that was on the same property was beautiful and wandering through that was probably my favorite part of the day.
That night was our second home stay with a Uygur family, The family worked in the vineyards, and it was apparent with the copious numbers of grapes just everywhere. They were on platters on the table- though it wasn't a table we ate on the floor, it was a beautiful set up a huge area covered with clothes and mats and platters and platters of food and grapes. You have to imagine a feast for like 60 people. It was amazing. Then there was dancing til around 11 when it was too dark to focus so we went out and wandered under more stars than I'd ever seen in my life(at that point). I saw a shooting star.
I made a wish.
(Jerome, Mike, Me, Jamel at the Uygur homestay dinner)
Day 5. 9/20
Today is the last day that I could still say I was totally healthy. We started the day off traveling to the 'Flaming Mountain' a stop of the Monkey King, a very popular show here, and based off the epic novel, Journey to the West a 1200 page book that is perhaps the most known classic novel in China. To make this more relatable--- Dragonball Z is based off of Journey to the West.
Anyways, at the Flaming Mountain we climbed an obscene amount of stairs- though not uncommon for China, (a country of many stairs apparently) up to some Buddhist grottos. These grottos boasted the very common theme in ancient Buddhist temples of the "Thousandd Buddhas" Now these were nothing compared to what we would be seeing at later points on the trip, but were still fascinating. They had all been defaced by Muslims and Mongols over the years, and the caves were small and only a few were open for us to look at.
So after the mountain, and our nice walk through the surroundingvillagese, nice despite the ridiculous heat. I got significantly tanner in under 2 hours just from walking around. They don't call it the Flaming Mountain for the hell of it.
Anyways back dawdling around Turpan I decide to get some lamb pockets, see below.
Now, lamb pockets are veryprevalentt in the Xinjiang province, and also very delicious. It was not the first time I had had them. This picture actually is from the first time, in Urumqi not Turpan, I just want to clear this nice boy's name.
So I eat about 1/2 of this pocket and then realize that it's kind of pink inside... so I think ew gross! toss it, and don't think about it. That night we're just hanging out in someone's hotel room, and randomly we decide to go get massages (at 1 am) at this place next to our hotel. After my mediocre massage I'm not feeling that great, Mike walks me back to my room, and I'm like Mike, I feel really bad. I barely close the door before I'm on the floor of my bathroom.
3 hours later I haven't stopped throwing up, long story shorter, I'm taken to a somewhat questionable hospital, no pictures of this unfortunately, and I'm there until around 8 am.
Day 6. 9/21
I'm sick. I sit in my hotel room. I miss the bike ride- but I heard it wasn't worth the 40 RMB anyways, so no big deal. I feel a bit better by 5 when we leave the hotel, and leave Turpan, and get on a 12 hour overnight train ride to Dunhuang.
Day 7. 9/22
We have a while to check in and shower this morning before hopping back on a bus with yet another tour guide, and setting off to the Mogao Caves. The Mogao caves are another set of Buddhist cave grottos, or temples. There are 492 caves, and only around 20 are open to be viewed at once, I think we saw 8. Still recovering from my illness though, (oddly enough, the train ride was very pleasant, but all the bus rides shook me up a bit) I started feeling dizzy and light headed and after seeing the important ones, the 3rd largest Buddha in the world, the sleeping Buddha, and the Mona Lisa Buddha- rumored to have possibly influencedLeonardo'ss famous painting because of his curious smirk- I rested comfortably on a bench.
Unfortunately as it is with most all Buddhas in every part of China I have been to so far, with few exceptions, you are not allowed to take pictures inside the Grottos.
Day 8. 9/23
The main event of the day was the visit to the Yadan Ghost City.
The Yadan Ghost city kind of sucked, but not enough that we didn't still have a great time.
First of all, it was a almost 3 hour drive on unpaved roads to get there. When we got there and took a few minutes to walk through their, "museum," it already looked like there wasn't too much to see. There wasn't. Although the museum boasted images of "dinosaurs" as they would have been millions of years ago, with absolutely wonderful English translations. Besides the inadequacy of the museum, there wasn't really too much to the city. We boarded new busses and were taken to three different spots, though if taken back, or shown images, I don't think I could distinguish them.
The day was beautiful, and we had a good time playing with camels they tried to charge us50 somee RMB to ride, and I found a lizard, and lots of pictures were taken as usual. So not a total bust, although it seemed as a group we complained enough that Group B had this spot removed from theiritineraryy. They weren't missing outthougho, the lunch was probably the worst part.
Not to end on a down note, when we got back to Dunhuang wediscoveredd, Charley Chongs, a "western" restaurant that had French toast and omeletss, and so much, it was delicious. Hau Chi.
Until next time.
Day 4 started off feeling very much like a series of 8th grade field trips. First we visited the Sugong tower, a mosque, perhaps the most interesting of Turpan's mosques because of it's old minaret (Imin Ta) constructed in 1778. Imin Ta was built by Prince Suleiman to honor his father Prince Emin. During our tour Habib thoroughly explained to us what it takes to be a Muslim, and because of his charismatic manner I would say about 60% of us were ready to convert right there. (We didn't though.)
After the mosque we visited museum on the well irrigation system used for thousands of years throughout China called Qanats, pronounced "kwants." Qanats are long underground tunnels running from the main source of water, the base of the Flaming Mountain in this case, all the way out to surrounding cities and villages.This tour was actually pretty boring but the vineyard that was on the same property was beautiful and wandering through that was probably my favorite part of the day.
That night was our second home stay with a Uygur family, The family worked in the vineyards, and it was apparent with the copious numbers of grapes just everywhere. They were on platters on the table- though it wasn't a table we ate on the floor, it was a beautiful set up a huge area covered with clothes and mats and platters and platters of food and grapes. You have to imagine a feast for like 60 people. It was amazing. Then there was dancing til around 11 when it was too dark to focus so we went out and wandered under more stars than I'd ever seen in my life(at that point). I saw a shooting star.
I made a wish.
(Jerome, Mike, Me, Jamel at the Uygur homestay dinner)
Day 5. 9/20
Today is the last day that I could still say I was totally healthy. We started the day off traveling to the 'Flaming Mountain' a stop of the Monkey King, a very popular show here, and based off the epic novel, Journey to the West a 1200 page book that is perhaps the most known classic novel in China. To make this more relatable--- Dragonball Z is based off of Journey to the West.
Anyways, at the Flaming Mountain we climbed an obscene amount of stairs- though not uncommon for China, (a country of many stairs apparently) up to some Buddhist grottos. These grottos boasted the very common theme in ancient Buddhist temples of the "Thousandd Buddhas" Now these were nothing compared to what we would be seeing at later points on the trip, but were still fascinating. They had all been defaced by Muslims and Mongols over the years, and the caves were small and only a few were open for us to look at.
So after the mountain, and our nice walk through the surroundingvillagese, nice despite the ridiculous heat. I got significantly tanner in under 2 hours just from walking around. They don't call it the Flaming Mountain for the hell of it.
Anyways back dawdling around Turpan I decide to get some lamb pockets, see below.
Now, lamb pockets are veryprevalentt in the Xinjiang province, and also very delicious. It was not the first time I had had them. This picture actually is from the first time, in Urumqi not Turpan, I just want to clear this nice boy's name.
So I eat about 1/2 of this pocket and then realize that it's kind of pink inside... so I think ew gross! toss it, and don't think about it. That night we're just hanging out in someone's hotel room, and randomly we decide to go get massages (at 1 am) at this place next to our hotel. After my mediocre massage I'm not feeling that great, Mike walks me back to my room, and I'm like Mike, I feel really bad. I barely close the door before I'm on the floor of my bathroom.
3 hours later I haven't stopped throwing up, long story shorter, I'm taken to a somewhat questionable hospital, no pictures of this unfortunately, and I'm there until around 8 am.
Day 6. 9/21
I'm sick. I sit in my hotel room. I miss the bike ride- but I heard it wasn't worth the 40 RMB anyways, so no big deal. I feel a bit better by 5 when we leave the hotel, and leave Turpan, and get on a 12 hour overnight train ride to Dunhuang.
Day 7. 9/22
We have a while to check in and shower this morning before hopping back on a bus with yet another tour guide, and setting off to the Mogao Caves. The Mogao caves are another set of Buddhist cave grottos, or temples. There are 492 caves, and only around 20 are open to be viewed at once, I think we saw 8. Still recovering from my illness though, (oddly enough, the train ride was very pleasant, but all the bus rides shook me up a bit) I started feeling dizzy and light headed and after seeing the important ones, the 3rd largest Buddha in the world, the sleeping Buddha, and the Mona Lisa Buddha- rumored to have possibly influencedLeonardo'ss famous painting because of his curious smirk- I rested comfortably on a bench.
Unfortunately as it is with most all Buddhas in every part of China I have been to so far, with few exceptions, you are not allowed to take pictures inside the Grottos.
Day 8. 9/23
The main event of the day was the visit to the Yadan Ghost City.
The Yadan Ghost city kind of sucked, but not enough that we didn't still have a great time.
First of all, it was a almost 3 hour drive on unpaved roads to get there. When we got there and took a few minutes to walk through their, "museum," it already looked like there wasn't too much to see. There wasn't. Although the museum boasted images of "dinosaurs" as they would have been millions of years ago, with absolutely wonderful English translations. Besides the inadequacy of the museum, there wasn't really too much to the city. We boarded new busses and were taken to three different spots, though if taken back, or shown images, I don't think I could distinguish them.
The day was beautiful, and we had a good time playing with camels they tried to charge us50 somee RMB to ride, and I found a lizard, and lots of pictures were taken as usual. So not a total bust, although it seemed as a group we complained enough that Group B had this spot removed from theiritineraryy. They weren't missing outthougho, the lunch was probably the worst part.
Not to end on a down note, when we got back to Dunhuang wediscoveredd, Charley Chongs, a "western" restaurant that had French toast and omeletss, and so much, it was delicious. Hau Chi.
Until next time.
posted by mal at 4:21 AM
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