Me-go: Around-the-World

Can you believe I’m updating again? I’m sure you’re starting to get sick of me. But you’ll all be complaining again once I’m in Central Asia on a mountain somewhere staying in a ger with no electricity.

I’ve updated the gallery. Now, NW China is up to Urumqi! The Urumqi, Food and Design galleries will probably be added to but I’m putting up what I have so far. Now you can get an idea of the landscapes I’ve been traveling through for the past week or so.

Today was hot and my hat came in useful. I took a bus up to the Xinjiang Museum which had loads of costumes, jewelry and musical instruments from each minority in the region. I did some drawing and walked back almost the entire way to the hotel, stopping for a coke in a park and to get my first batch of cartwheel photos developed.

The actual cartwheel photos often don’t live up to my expectations but these were pretty good. Not too much stomach (the key is to tuck your shirt into your underwear!) and not obviously over x-rayed. I’m slowly amassing more things to ship home even though I just sent a package from Hohhot.

I will admit that I had KFC for lunch and also bought overpriced cola flavored gummy worms. Even though it’s 11:45 pm I haven’t had dinner yet but I may pick up some ramen on the way across the train station plaza to my hotel. My cold feels better today and I’ve been drinking the medicine/tea the pharmacist gave me. When I tried to take a shower this morning there was no hot water (but I have an electric tea kettle in the room for my ramen) so I really hope there’s some tonight so I can finally get clean.

Just before coming to the internet place I bought my train ticket to Kashgar (Kashi on the ticket but called “Kashker” by the Chinese). First I went to my hotel room and emptied all of my pockets and left my bag. Pickpockets are horrible at Chinese train stations. I wrote down the date and Chinese name for Kashgar on a piece of paper to give to the clerk.

At 9:45 the station was much more empty than usual but there was still a group of 20 people pushing in a crowd to stick their hands in first for a ticket (instead of standing in line). I waited a bit and finally got to the front and asked what time the train to Kashker was. She told me “no” and pointed for me to leave. So I checked the schedule on the wall, compared Chinese city names/characters and figured out there was a train that left around 4pm.

With that train number written down I pushed my way in and slipped the paper to the clerk. She pointed to the next window—I guess she was returns only. Finally I pushed my way through my third line, holding my pockets, and the woman was very nice and explained that the train was at 12pm. I picked the other train on the schedule because I have to pick up my passport and visa at 1pm and can’t leave before then. She spoke English, surprisingly, and told me in not so many words that the train I wanted was from Kashgar to Urumqi so it wouldn’t work.

I had to buy a ticket for the train on the 3rd instead, meaning I will be here one more night than I thought. All middle beds were sold out (already!) so I had to buy a lower bunk. They’re slightly more expensive but I’ve been enjoying them on this trip. my last time in China I bought upper beds but I don’t want to have to take off my shoes so much. I’ve since realized that the train is 24 hours and will have a lot of lounging/non-sleeping time which means I will have to share my bed with the other passengers as a bench a lot of the time. That doesn’t thrill me so much but at least I have a ticket. It’s already Sunday here, I hope everyone’s enjoying their weekend and keeping cool.