Last night I took a 10:30pm night sleeper train from Dunhuang (actually a station 2 hours from Dunhuang) to Turpan (actually a station 1 hour from Turpan) and arrived in town this morning around 9am. I’ve been traveling with a girl from Taiwan and a guy from Paris for the past few days. There’s only a few foreign tourists around (but loads of Chinese, of course) and we’re all going the same route to Urumqi. It’s interesting traveling with a native Mandarin speaker, even though she gets charged foreigner prices, which demonstrates the Chinese way of thinking.
More and more men with pillbox Muslim hats have been popping up in the past few cities but in Turpan you can actually see the transformation from Han Chinese to Middle East culture. The people are more mixed and have more varied features and women are starting to wear head scarves.
I’m told it’s around 40 degrees (104 F for all my fellow Americans) and everyone’s complaining. It doesn’t feel that hot, especially becase there’s no humidity. Many of the streets are lines with trees through irrigation and some streets have trelises built over them forming a tunnel of grape vines. I am in need of a good rest and will have to break down and start drinking tea because my throat is really sore and I have a cough. Your body really starts rebelling when you tavel hard for too long. My time in Urumqi will include visa applications so I will have some rest time there as well.
6 responses to “Second Lowest Point on Earth”
Megan,
We just returned from a trip to Alaska and Canada. It was a grand experience, but I was delighted to return home. I don’t know how you do it!
Sharon Darcey
Hope you don’t get sick, gargle with hot salt water. We are dying with the heat in Canada as well, northern Canada and last two days have been record breakers 35.2C and we are now into our 3rd week of temps above 20C. I don’t mind 25C but otherwise it is unbearable. Of course it gets often -35C below in winter, do you know the winter temps there?
A tip I’ve learned recently about how to get rid of colds faster. If you can get ahold of it, flush your ears out with hydrogen peroxide. It sounds insane, but apparently the cold develops within the ear canal and the peroxide will kill it. I haven’t tested it myself yet (I’ve not been sick recently) but I’ve heard from others that it really does work.
Well, rest up so you can feel better. And stay safe in those hot temps! It’s been overly hot here in the midwest of the U.S. too. Have you met any interesting locals on your trip so far?
As always I am following your adventures. I hope you enjoy your rest and feel better. We just got back from Thailand, which is way too Westernized but a lot of fun. We were thinking about going to Vietnam, so I reread your entries. Unfortunately the tickets seems really expensive . . . any tips on finding cheap airline tickets?
Be well . . .
Hot salt water, ew. I can get hot water, but salt? Hmmm. I’m also weary of buying peroxide because it won’t be in English and wouldn’t know if it was the right stuff. I did break down and go to a pharmacy yesterday and they gave me some powdery stuff that I assume is to make a tea.
I think the way I have to travel is to think of it as living, not as a vacation. That way you take care of yourself and rest when you need to. Also, you can splurge on things that remind you of home when you need to.
As for Vietnam… My cousin met me and flying from the States I think it was on Korean Air. They were expensive and I might look into flying to Bangkok or Singapore first and then buying a cheapo ocal ticket that way. airasia.com I think has those fares but all of those regional carriers should have cheap flights. I might have different Asian airlines bookmarked on this site. On my blog in the sidebar is a link to my del.icio.us links. In there look under Airlines maybe… there might be something there to get you started.