July 2011

Deciding it was time for vacation, I managed to collect a week and escape to Philippines for 10 days in July. The plan was simple, dive and train Balintawak (stick-fighting). I found a place on Cebu that was famous for diving, nothing else, and my Balintawak trainer was as least on the same island. I rented a hut for 10 USD per day without aircon and was disconnected from email and Internet for a week.

I managed to get four days of diving, including the advanced open water. Favorite dive site as in the photos below where a lot of sardins and even sharks (for the lucky ones) could be seen.

Movie from the dive visible here:

Moalboal is a quiet and boring place if you don’t dive. For me it was perfect. Between dives I rested in a hammock reading on my kindle

You can say it is very close to the water, taking into account that there is no beach, so when high tide it is on the water, and at low tide rocks.

As icing on the cake, Henry which I last time met 2004 had time to come by for training three days.

And a video of us training here.

And then some photos from Manila where I stopped one day on the way back:

All photos visible here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sigurdsson/sets/72157627392281297/

With a Volvo S80and own bikes, me and a friend went to Moganshan for two days. The area is picturesque located inside the mountains two hours outside of Hangzhou with old villas spread out around the top. The mountains are covered with bamboo and with an altitude of only 600 meters it makes for pleasant rides on small paths and dirt roads. We left Shanghai at 07.30 and after having lunch in Moganshan we went out biking for six hours. We started going downhill on tarmac to later head uphill on dirt roads. The road soon became worse and worse, and after four hours of biking the road disappeared and we had to find a small path and switch between biking, walking and carrying our bikes while heading down. We ended up in a small village in a valley, and after getting down from the mountain we then had to get back up on the top. Halfway up on steep roads we took a tea pause at a temple and chatted with a monk who once had performed in Xian in front of the Swedish king and queen(!).

After one months travel in Xinjiang, this trip has now come to its end. It has been a good trip with many interesting experiences, both in the form of people we met but also food and challenges along the way.

Last day in Urumqi, we first went to our favorite breakfast store. A small han-chinese store on Number 23 Shi Yue  rd. We have come every morning, always having the same food; six baozi, two round sweet cakes, one youtiao, and two bowls of soya milk. We also revisited the nearby market where we bought fresh noodles and dried fruits.

Trip back went smooth, but flight was delayed one hour. Hongqiao airport in Shanghai is a great airport and everything goes very smooth. Back in the apartment around 01am we were greeted by our cats and suddenly was Xinjiang so far away, not only geographically but also in our minds….

Using wikitravel.com I read about a place not mentioned in lonely planet, the southern mountains (??) and the chrysantemum terraces (???). It was easy to get there with local bus (8 rmb, 33 km), but road was bad so it took more than two hours. Arriving at a small town we had to take a private car 15 kilometers up into the mountains. We arrived at a truly picturesque place. Mountains, trees, horses, yort etc. It was just a perfect postcard view. In the valley there were a few hundred yort spread out and sheeps, horses and cows walked freely around on the hill sides.

After our driver first tried to trick is into choosing a yort for 300 rmb per night, with the argumentation that there were no other, we found one 50 meters away for 100 rmb per night. It was run by a guy, 29 years old and of the kazakh minority. He had another 5 yorts, 50 sheeps, and 50 horses and cows. We had apparently come just of season when they were about to move away to huses further down the mountains. The high season is from June to July, when all 300 yorts in the village are rented out and the village’s 400 horses are not enough. The tourists are all Chinese and comes to enjoy the scenery when the hills and mountains are covered with flowers, and especially in mid June when there is a competition of carrying sheeps and racing horses among others.

We rented a horse each and went up in the mountains for three hours. The horse owner joined but instead of leading the horse he sat behind and I was in charge of my own horse. It was a great thing to do and even if there were no flowers it was still an amazing nature experience and I am happy that we went off season when there are no tourists.

During the night the temperature dropped dramatically and in the morning it was four degrees inside the yort. Located on 2500 meters altitude up in the mountains and far away fom any city, the night sky was the most stunning I have ever seen. Standing in the chilly dark, staring up at the sky, the amount of stars I saw was just overwhelming. It was like looking at a 3D picture and all across the sky was the milky way galaxy clearly visible.

The day after we hiked another hill in the morning, by foot this time. We climbed some 300 altitude meters, and I felt that I was far from my ideal fitness level. Heading back we decided to walk the 15 kilometers to the village from where the bus left. It was a walk that took us down some other 700 meters in altitude, but it was done in sunshine with a blue sky and a cold wind that told the winter was coming.

Notes:
- car from the bus station, reasonable price is 60 rmb
- accommodation, 300 rmb per yort during season, 100 off seaso– From 2011 there will be a new road making it a more convenient to access

After travelling around the Taklaman desert we were finally forced to return to Urumqi. There is not enough time to visit the northern parts so save that for another trip. Instead we took a day to rest and buy some more spices and souvenirs.

Leaving Ruoqiang for Korla at 10.00 this morning, the final plan was to find a way to reach Bayinbolak. After six hours through the desert we reached Korla and was recommended to continue to Hejing another 86 km north where they should have a bus.

In Hejing we bought ticket for departure 0700 the following day. Satisfied we went to find a hotel. This showed to be the hard part. After almost an hour and three hotels we ended up at the police station. Apparently was foreigners not allowed to stay in the city, nor travel in the district at all. Even Bayinbolak was restricted. One explanation why no one stopped us earlier could be that I speak Chinese and they don’t, strange enough, believe I am a foreigner before I hand over my passport. Then they realise they can’t host me. There are a lot of non typical Chinese looking here in xinjiang as it is close to central Asia and Russia.

Disappointed we had to return our tickets and get new ones, this time to urumqi on a sleeper which is just about to leave and arrive tomorrow morning, unless delayed due to the bad weather…

Update: the bus just rammed a herd of sheep. They covered the road and sleeping on the first row I had a clear view of how the bus tried to stop but slowly slowly went straight into them and you could here “bonk” after “bonk” as the sheeps when down like bowling pins. Luckily they all survived thanks to the slow speed and space underneath.

Arriving in Ruoqiang we have reached the most eastern town on the southern silk road in Xinjiang. From here the road continues either north to Korla or south via Qinghai to either Dunhuang, Golmud or Lhasa.

Ruoqiang is a clean and pleasant oasis town. The areas all around the city is full of ancient and interesting sites but still the city mainly serves as a transportation hub for travellers.  There are several famous ancient cities such sa Loulan and Miran, tombs such as Xiaohe, wild camel reserves, mountain parks etc in the area but all except the two cities are forbidden to access and the two ancient cities too expensive for foreigners to make it worth it (quoted 10,000 and 1000). The mountain nature reserve also seemed to not be accessible when inquiring about it.

Asking for info in the hotel we were introduced to a guy responsible for ruoqiang’s museum. We got a private tour of the small collection of things they had in a room on the third floor of a governmental building. Especially famous is the ancient city if Loulan, discovered by Sven Hedin, a Swedish(!) explorer, in the very early 1900.

A bit tired after long bus rides recently we took it easy and enjoyed the clean hotel room and english speaking movie channels such as hallmark.

There are several sights of interest outside Qiemo, such as a jade mine in the mountains (2 day trip), rock carvings (180 km), and a wild animal park high up in the mountains (3 day trip). What complicated matters for us was,according to a guy at Qiemo tourist bureau: 1) the jade mine is involved in a conflict with some other operator close by on the rights for finds not making tours possible; 2) the wild animal park is on an average altitude of 5000 meters making it very cold and we didn’t bring any warm clothes; 3) the area has been badly hit by flooding and roads are just starting to be repaired.

So, as an alternative we managed by the kind assistant of Mr Xie, head if the local governments  tourism office, to arrange a motorcycle for a day. Mr Xie was by the way very helpful. On our arrival in Qiemo we called him and 15 minutes later he came to our hotel to introduce what is recommended.

With a motorcycle we travelled about 150 kilometer around the city. Going north to a small village by the rand of the desert; west to where the protective green of the oasis ended and the desert began and factories for bricks are located, east and south tracing the river first through green fields and then into the desert. This was the most challenging part with roads in bad condition, shifting between gravel, mud and sand. The fine sand was most difficult and it was a struggle to keep the bike up. On some parts the road was gone and on others covered in water. Back after the adventure and before returning it we had it cleaned up by three people(!). Clean and nice the motorcycle refused to start so there was a period of struggle to get it working again.

Dinner spent at one of the best restaurants we found in Xinjiang. A good tip is to look for the slightly larger ones with lot of activity outside with many different pots on fire cooking food. Then you just look around to see what delicious food they have prepared. In my case I found a pot that had been cooking some bone with meat and had it served on top of a naan bread. Digging in with my bare hands the meat fell of the bones and the bread was soft after laying on top of the meat while being prepared. Another four sticks of kebab also came in and the higher price of 3 rmb was a proof of its better quality. A part from the food, the second best thing is the tea, if not the most enjoyable part of eating in Xinjiang. Large as well as small hole in the wall restaurants, they all serve their own homemade tea. Eating and drinking tea at all kinds of restaurants and even in a family’s yort on 3600 meters altitude, we have not once got sick. Instead we have in each city stocked up on the kind of tea that seems typical for just that area.

Qiemo is a pleasant oasis located south of the taklamakan desert and was a stop on Marco Polo’s travel to Mongolia. Just next to a river it is green compare to the yellow desert, and along the roads there are both flowers and trees. The vegetation around the city also protects against sand and wind. Just a few minutes outside the center it immediately becomes more windy and sandy. A few kilometers in any direction takes you into desert.

Convenient located from the center are two attractions, the Toghraklek Manor Muses and Zaghunlug Ancient Mummy Tomb. In order to visit these you must first go to the Museum located next to the airfield and opposite a governmental building. There you can look around and read about the history. There are not many artifacts and all information is in either Arabic or Chinese. A visit is though required in order to buy tickets both to Toghraklek and Zaghunlug. It is recommended to arrange a car before going to the museum so they can drive you to the other two as well. Should cost between 30 to 50 rmb. Toghraklek is about 100 years old and built in aristocrat kashgar style. There are several rooms to look at but they are all only decorated with carpets and nothing else. After the house you go to the ancient tomb some five kilometers away. Another man is living there managing a gate to the area. Getting through the gate you leave the green vegetation behind and are suddenly on a road in the desert. The tomb is quietly located all alone with desert around, not far is the very edge of the oasis visible. It is a small building with a grave holding several mummies inside. It is a strange feeling looking at them in their grave as they were initially put there to be in peace and away from people. Now they are an attraction. Worth a visit.

Just west of the airfield on the other side of an apartment complex is a large uighur area pleasant to walk around in. There I started to chat with an old man and greeting him in uighur he happily came up and grabbed my hand as common in greetings. There are many beautiful door gates and inside there are grape plants providing shadow from the strong sun.

In the evening we strolled around in the bazaar, bought tea prepared by a mix of different herbs, and had too much Chinese food for dinner. Was a good change to have some tofu instead of lamb.

After spending a day in minfeng we realised it was not much more to do. We managed to visit the museum in the evening and the director even told us to go to next city. So of to bus station we went to buy a ticket to cherchen / qiemo the following day. Well, it was quite not that simple. Apparently there are no buses starting in minfeng so only option is to wait for a bus passing through and that they have seats. Slightly discouraged by the news and lack of willingness to help from the people in the mutation we instead statred they next day trying to hitch-hike. Only issues was that our destination was 300 kilometers east with barely any towns in between. Cars heading that direction was therefore few if any.

After lunch we went back to the bus station and did a new try with the very impolite lady that just started to ignore us after first question and pretended we were not there. By being persistent we learned the following: Only two buses a day, one from hotan and one from yutian, passes through and seats cannot be reserved in advance. After bugging the lady for a few hours (and her boss) they seemed determined to get rid of us. They finally called the bus driver and arranged two seats for 80 rmb. After waiting two more hours we had a bus, although only one seat, so I had to sit next to the driver on a carpet for 4.5 hours. Not too pleasant to be aware that if any thing happens, engine starts to burn (I sat on top of it) or bus hits something, I am the first one to notice it.

With a sore butt and pain in my lower back I still had a good trip where i tried to either chat with my neighbours or go through unanswered emails.

Arriving in cherchen we had a good dinner and did a walk around the city center.