Ray's post on his Silk Road trip
KARA KUL LAKE ON TUE AND WED
Sitting in the married couple’s yurt looking at the lake listening to the rain outside. Our beds have a musty smell to them; hope I can find my travel sheet for the night. They say it will get very cold tonight; we have a coal stove in the yurt. Place is a primitive tourist destination… just picture a nice shallow lake in high brown and grey mountains mostly covered with clouds. No tree some green grass at the far end with Yak herds, otherwise gravel and sand.
The ride up was an experience in Chinese high mountain travel. And mind you this is the main road to Pakistan border which is about 50km. It is a narrow hairpin road with minor rockslides everywhere which makes it one lane here and there. Add huge trucks coming down full of iron ore with brakes smoking (they stop once and a while to cool them by spraying water on them and returning empty at high speed passing everything on the road. At one point we were backed up for about a ¼ mile with rockslides and mud. I see an occasional camel, yak herds and sheep herds grazing on what appears to be little or no grass.
Guide says this area is not in a dangerous rebellion the police check point was only a preliminary checkpoint for the border crossing and going thro was simple…police did not have guns but there is an army base nearby.
He also says the Uygur region is the poorest in china and the central govt is not really investing like in the the east. In rural area the new houses are marginal..little sq adobe structures, but no paved streets and minimal water and sewage systems. It is an agricultural region from Kashi to the Pamirs with lots of water as the mountains drain East.. Interesting though that beyond Kashi is the taklamakan one of the most brutal deserts in the world (actually the word means something like “he who enters does not return”). Our guide is taking a break from his NGO work of being a public health trainer to the village “healers”….they did not know the location of the heart, liver, lungs etc. Extremely high incident of tooth decay so taught them to brush teeth and arranged to have toothbrushes and paste sold at low prices…caught on so well that now selling such items is a big local business. Taught them how to avoid fecal diarrhea, cleanliness etc….also the locals had been told that breast milk caused diarrhea and tooth decay so would not nurse babies so needed to be re educated. Very successful program supported by Finland NGO. He says the Chinese central govt would not help but insisted everything be taught in Mandarin even though the locals can only understand Uygur. He successfully went to the mat with them and they finally agreed that mandarin would be in the subtitles and Uygur the spoken language. He is a very talented man and I told him today to apply to Harvard Public Health Program and try for a scholarship….he is a perfect candidate, experience and 32 yr old. We talked for a while and then he said but America does not want anyone of the Muslim faith!! I said no way and really pushed him….he may just try as he was beaming at the end of our conversation that it may be possible.
They are building another major dam in the area for electric power and irrigation…a seven year project now in its 3rd year of development.
Three sick members today…food…white mulberries(delicious and dangerous to the intestinal track) and some curry restaurant the Dragon lady took people to…I did not go thank god.
It is a cold damp night and it went from hot to very cold fast. Went from T shirt to thermals, vest, jackets, and anything else we could but on in a matter of ½ hour. The toilets are death defying…think of a cement/adobe structure, no roof, a 4 feet wide, 12 feet long, and 6 feet deep trench with wood planks every 12 inches extending the width. If you have to use it…walk out, straddle and while doing your number hope nothing falls out of your pocket as it is lost forever. At night…well just squeeze and hold!! Actually everyone used any rock or obstruction they could find…travel insurance does not cover death by primitive toilet. The cleaner called the toilets a “death by excrement” experience.
By the way the cleaner is turning out just fine…he has taken to his new nickname with great humor but his wife (the scout) lost her job as everyone in the group who can’t eat everything just brings it to him.
Turns out the guide says there is no rebellion in this area…what occurred were riots over a justice issue. Apparently some Chinese severely beat/injured/killed some Ugyurs and the central govt just did not act nor did so slowly that people took to rioting. Sounds like an equal rights/justice thing out of the civil rights era in USA. Some big concert celebration in Kashi tonight at the statue of Mao. Lots of riot soldiers in trucks and on the streets with the big shields and batons and guns. Everyone is peaceful but perhaps they are expecting something. We are far away from it now….but drove by today.
Tomorrow Kyrgyzstan…about 160 km to border and then they say 3 hours to get through border and then to Torugart Pass and a Tash- Rabat Caravan- Sarai. We will be at 3753 meters….more altitude pills ….they do work.
And one more chapter in the Babe Magnet story….the other night Allison and Toms phone rings and some women with an oriental voice says “Ray can I come up now”. Of course Allison had to tell the whole group. This is beginning to be a pain in the you know what.
TOMORROW KYRGYZSTAN…we are all ready to leave China. Have no idea what email access I will have there.
Ray
Sitting in the married couple’s yurt looking at the lake listening to the rain outside. Our beds have a musty smell to them; hope I can find my travel sheet for the night. They say it will get very cold tonight; we have a coal stove in the yurt. Place is a primitive tourist destination… just picture a nice shallow lake in high brown and grey mountains mostly covered with clouds. No tree some green grass at the far end with Yak herds, otherwise gravel and sand.
The ride up was an experience in Chinese high mountain travel. And mind you this is the main road to Pakistan border which is about 50km. It is a narrow hairpin road with minor rockslides everywhere which makes it one lane here and there. Add huge trucks coming down full of iron ore with brakes smoking (they stop once and a while to cool them by spraying water on them and returning empty at high speed passing everything on the road. At one point we were backed up for about a ¼ mile with rockslides and mud. I see an occasional camel, yak herds and sheep herds grazing on what appears to be little or no grass.
Guide says this area is not in a dangerous rebellion the police check point was only a preliminary checkpoint for the border crossing and going thro was simple…police did not have guns but there is an army base nearby.
He also says the Uygur region is the poorest in china and the central govt is not really investing like in the the east. In rural area the new houses are marginal..little sq adobe structures, but no paved streets and minimal water and sewage systems. It is an agricultural region from Kashi to the Pamirs with lots of water as the mountains drain East.. Interesting though that beyond Kashi is the taklamakan one of the most brutal deserts in the world (actually the word means something like “he who enters does not return”). Our guide is taking a break from his NGO work of being a public health trainer to the village “healers”….they did not know the location of the heart, liver, lungs etc. Extremely high incident of tooth decay so taught them to brush teeth and arranged to have toothbrushes and paste sold at low prices…caught on so well that now selling such items is a big local business. Taught them how to avoid fecal diarrhea, cleanliness etc….also the locals had been told that breast milk caused diarrhea and tooth decay so would not nurse babies so needed to be re educated. Very successful program supported by Finland NGO. He says the Chinese central govt would not help but insisted everything be taught in Mandarin even though the locals can only understand Uygur. He successfully went to the mat with them and they finally agreed that mandarin would be in the subtitles and Uygur the spoken language. He is a very talented man and I told him today to apply to Harvard Public Health Program and try for a scholarship….he is a perfect candidate, experience and 32 yr old. We talked for a while and then he said but America does not want anyone of the Muslim faith!! I said no way and really pushed him….he may just try as he was beaming at the end of our conversation that it may be possible.
They are building another major dam in the area for electric power and irrigation…a seven year project now in its 3rd year of development.
Three sick members today…food…white mulberries(delicious and dangerous to the intestinal track) and some curry restaurant the Dragon lady took people to…I did not go thank god.
It is a cold damp night and it went from hot to very cold fast. Went from T shirt to thermals, vest, jackets, and anything else we could but on in a matter of ½ hour. The toilets are death defying…think of a cement/adobe structure, no roof, a 4 feet wide, 12 feet long, and 6 feet deep trench with wood planks every 12 inches extending the width. If you have to use it…walk out, straddle and while doing your number hope nothing falls out of your pocket as it is lost forever. At night…well just squeeze and hold!! Actually everyone used any rock or obstruction they could find…travel insurance does not cover death by primitive toilet. The cleaner called the toilets a “death by excrement” experience.
By the way the cleaner is turning out just fine…he has taken to his new nickname with great humor but his wife (the scout) lost her job as everyone in the group who can’t eat everything just brings it to him.
Turns out the guide says there is no rebellion in this area…what occurred were riots over a justice issue. Apparently some Chinese severely beat/injured/killed some Ugyurs and the central govt just did not act nor did so slowly that people took to rioting. Sounds like an equal rights/justice thing out of the civil rights era in USA. Some big concert celebration in Kashi tonight at the statue of Mao. Lots of riot soldiers in trucks and on the streets with the big shields and batons and guns. Everyone is peaceful but perhaps they are expecting something. We are far away from it now….but drove by today.
Tomorrow Kyrgyzstan…about 160 km to border and then they say 3 hours to get through border and then to Torugart Pass and a Tash- Rabat Caravan- Sarai. We will be at 3753 meters….more altitude pills ….they do work.
And one more chapter in the Babe Magnet story….the other night Allison and Toms phone rings and some women with an oriental voice says “Ray can I come up now”. Of course Allison had to tell the whole group. This is beginning to be a pain in the you know what.
TOMORROW KYRGYZSTAN…we are all ready to leave China. Have no idea what email access I will have there.
Ray
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