Bye Bye Central Asia; Hello China

Big Mao, Kashgar
Originally uploaded by rtw2007.

We are now in Kashgar, having made it safely over the Torugart Pass, which is pretty spectacular. This crossing had been in the planning ever since Christmas due to the amount of paperwork that is required to take a foreign vehicle into China, and we were glad that we had done it all in advance – some poor Belgians turned up in a Land Rover and couldn’t get in as they had no permits, so they had to abandon their vehicle and will now have to spend days on a train to Beijing sorting the whole fiasco out. We felt really sorry for them, especially as they have a nine year old daughter in tow.

The border crossing involved a really long and fairly exhausting day over terrible Kyrgyz roads, driving in dust clouds so big that we have only a metre of visibility at points. After waiting for a couple of hours in the cold at the top of the pass, we were met by the infamous John Hu of John’s Café in Kashgar, who had reams of paperwork for our van, including copies of our Chinese registration plate and a big CHN sign for our van. Although there were several Chinese customs checks, vehicle inspections (including having our bags scanned on an airport-style security machine for the first time on this trip), John oiled the wheels nicely and we got through it all slowly but without a hitch.

We descended down through a huge canyon in the evening light. As we came within sight of Kashgar, a proper motorway appeared. That might not sound all that exciting, but that is because you haven’t all just spent weeks on Central Asia roads. We were very excited indeed and enjoyed every minute of driving on a flat road. They even had a toll booth…. it’s like a different world.

We are parked in the car park of the Seman Hotel in Kashgar and have spent the last few days enjoying eating Chinese food; wandering around the city; visiting the huge Chairman Mao statue in the main square; and also looking around the very interesting, friendly old town and bazaar. The bazaar is really reminiscent of Central Asia in terms of wattle and daub houses; food stalls on every street corner; donkeys pulling carts laden with food; bicycles everywhere; and the Uighur people, who look and dress very much like Central Asians. There is so much going on in the bazaar: whether it be baking bread in clay stoves (a big hole in which the bread is stuck around the sides to cook, like a tandoori oven); mending bikes; or selling potions (so far we have seen dried snakes, flattened frogs and crispy hedgehogs on sale as medicine).

We will miss Central Asia in many ways: it was a really interesting and different region, what with its local dress of long coats for the men and a different hat in each country; fermented milk sold in old plastic water bottles on every street; everyone sitting in that slightly odd squatting position with their bottoms almost on the floor, which I thought only Michael was weird enough to do until we came here; really random things happening like being interviewed by a TV crew or having people stop at the traffic lights, wind down their windows and start asking where you are from and what you are doing; and (particularly in Tajikistan), some very, very friendly people. But we were sick of the police waving their batons at us; a bit bored of the food (there is only so much mutton stew / mutton with rice / mutton dumplings that two people can face); and we are glad to see the back of the region in which the diesel and our van didn’t seem to agree one little bit. Plus, it is really exciting to be in China. Everything is so different and we are soaking it all up whilst wandering around the city. Tomorrow we will head out into the Taklamakan desert before returning to Kashgar for the fabled Sunday market.