At the last minute it became apparent that I didn’t need to work for 10 days! This is exactly the same realisation I had at this time (over Qing Ming) 7 years ago and the destination I chose was the same – Kashgar in XinJiang.
I quickly got online and bought a ticket for the following morning. Last time I went by train but this time I took the easier route by air via Urumqi. However it wasn’t until an hour before take-off that we were informed the plane would not be going any further than Urumqi because the weather in Kashgar was too dusty for the plane to land. High winds at this time of year wreak havoc with travel plans.
OK, well Urumqi is in XinJiang and so, as I was already at the airport and looking forward to getting away, I started making new plans. The airline was offering an overnight stay in Urumqi and a flight the following day but this meant I would miss the Sunday market and there didn’t seem any point in going if I was going to miss that. I decided to take a train to Turpan, an hour east of Urumqi.
So it was that I ended up in Turpan, not a place I had very fond memories from 7 years ago but better than overnight in Urumqi. I found a lovely lodge in a Uyghur village on the outskirts and negotiated a good late deal for two nights.
Walking in to the town was a delight. I ambled through the local village where playing, laughing children were scattered all over the streets, much freer than city children. It makes me sad to see the difference between the lives of children in the countryside and city.
I
know the living conditions are not as good outside the cities but these kids have so much much freedom, have siblings and do a lot more laughing than those in Shanghai. For all its development, children are under so much pressure and are less happy.
The buildings were made of mud and straw so were the same colour as the earth, a dusty russet mud colour. And there was a lot of dust, this being the best season for dust lovers. It was more a case of dusting myself down at th
e end of the day rather than showering!
Near the edge of the village I saw two girls crouched over something in the middle of the path and when I got closer I was amazed to fnd they had three neon coloured chicks. I don’t how they had done it (i don’t like to think really!) but they had died them bright purple, green and orange I reminded me a bit of the poodles I see in Shanghai with coloured ears and tails.
On reaching the centre of Turpan, of course a lot of people stared at me – in curiosity, nothing more evil. Some said a cheerful ‘Hello’ as I passed. As I passed a restaurant there were men outside waiting to be served and one of them leapt up and ran to me. He wanted to chat and I was happy to stop and talk to a local. He was originally from Hefei, lived in Turpan and worked in the petrochemical industry in Iran. He was on leave for a few weeks and bored and was keen to show me around.
We made Wechat contact and agreed to meet up with his wife and daughter for lunch. The traditional XinJiang restaurant was great although I am not a great fan of lamb and it dominates the menus here. I chewed politely at one piece of fatty meat and then concentrated on the noodles and fried rice.
Jackson turned out to be a great new friend as he offered to drive me the 1:30 hours to the old Turpan railway station the following morning. I don’t know how I would have got there without him. This station baffled me when I first came to Turpan in 2011 because I couldn’t work out why I had to get off the train so far from Turpan and then get a long distance bus.
Now there is Turpan North station which serves fast trains from Urumqi and Xi’an and Turpan Station which is not actually in Turpan and serves local destinations to the south towards Hotan and Kashgar.
On Jackson’s advice I had bought a hard sleeper ticket to Kuqa where I would spend 2 nights before heading down to Kashgar. It turned out to be a great plan as Kuqa was a fantastic place and little visited.