Beijing (Silk Road Tour Ends)

Quick Description: Humid, Hazy, over populated and busy at anytime of the day.

As we fly from Xi'an to Beijing the group is moving slower and slower (is it the heat or is everyone ready for a good sleep in - maybe both). We arrive in Beijing at approx 12:30pm and we are all keen to get to the hotel and drop off our bags so we can see what Beijing has to offer. Little did we know that from the Airport to the hotel would be such a challenge (by challenge I mean traffic jam).

Finally we get to the hotel search around for a quick bite to eat so we have energy to check out the Temple of Heavens (which so happens to be a 5 min walk from our hotel). The Temple of Heavens is surrounded by some great gardens where the locals some out to relax, dance or even play some games. The temples were also amazing, was not expecting a temple in this round shape pretty cool huh!!!Some of the sites I went to are a given and do not need to be mentioned but... just in case I will mention them for those that don't know where I am talking about. That is Tienanmen Square & the Forbidden City. With the Forbidden City being the one-time home of the Ming and Manchu (Qing) emperors and the largest and best preserved collection of ancient buildings in the whole of China.

Off in the afternoon to the Summer Palace (this is a must go see). This can only be best described as a n immense old imperial garden or religious retreat. My only wish would be that I had more time to explore this AWESOME site.

Just a nice medium sized town! [Xi'an]

Xi'an is a what China considers to be a nice medium sized city of ..... approximately 8 million people. Ummm.... makes you think Sydney only has 3 - 4 million and that is large in Australian standards.

This medium sized city is a lot more humid than all the other cities we have been travelling through, should be interesting to see how I hold up.

Xi'an has a number of things to do and see. Of course there was the visit to the Army of Terracotta Warriors. There are 3 pits with a slightly different type of warrior or level of excavation done. Pit 1 is my favourite.

OK afternoon free to do a bicycle ride around the City Wall. This took us approximately 1 hr 30 min on a not so smooth surface. Of course this gave us good reason to stop and take several photos. With this taking longer then thought it was a mad rush for Lisa and I to get back to the hotel (Sorry Kitty we left at the City Wall) to have a quick shower and get a taxi to the Dumpling Banquet and Show. O M G!! this was the best dinner I have had thus far in Asia I love the Vege Dumplings they were serving, just wish I had room for more.

During my stay I also had time to visit the Big/Giant Wild Goose Pagoda (sorry no climbing this tower on this day), the Great Mosque in the Muslim quarter and the Forrest of Stelae Museum.

I can't wait to go back to discover more of what this city offer.

Camel Ride anyone?

Its Day 15 & 16 of the tour and I have now arrived at Dunhuang. This city is also on the edge of a desert (Taklamakan Desert).

This afternoon I set off to the Mingsha sand dunes these are right at the edge of town. I took the opportunity to wear some AWESOME bright orange knee high shoe overs (Go! the orange). To break in my new foot wear I walked up the dunes for a sand ride down. Since walking up the sand dunes I am exhausted and think that a camel ride at sunset is just what the doctor ordered.

Bob (that's my camel) walked up the dunes to the perfect place to take every angle of and stage of the Sunset (Jacki you won't be disappointed).

Early rise the next morning to see the Mogao Caves. This is where some of the largest carved Buddha's are kept. AWESOME!! (Sorry but no photos were allowed to be taken inside the complex)

I am now moving closer to the eastern coast.

Xi'an next on the list.

I'm Melting

So Yep they were right Turpan is HOT HOT HOT!!!.

As we stepped off the train we received a welcoming dry heat of 45 C+. I never thought I would be looking for the nearest air-conditioned bus.

FACT: Turpan is recorded to be the 2nd hottest place/city on earth after the Dead Sea. All this is due to the fact that Turpan is approx 150m below sea level.

I visited a few sites in this oasis of a city based on the edge of the vast Xinjing Desert. 1000 Budda Caves at Bezeklik, the ancient underground Irrigation system (Yep!! it still delivers water to the town today). Also went to the ruins of Citadel Jiahoe (old city between two rivers) - they say you can still imagine what life was like. (Think the heat soaked up my imagination on this one - What do you think?)

Kashgar (CHINA)

Yay!! I made it into China. All this after another long day of driving. Lets just say I have now mastered sleeping on the bus. :) (Mum you proud of me?)

I know this is going to be surprising but Day 11 & 12 proved to be AWESOME days in Kashgar with visits to the animal bazaar - if you are interested this is a great place to trade and buy your live stock. The Sunday Markets was also a blast this is where you can purchase just about anything (Oh!! this is known to be one of the biggest bazaars in Central Asia). The days are not over yet we also made a visit to the Jade & Carpet Factory/Centre - me think they were more interested in trying to sell the goods then showing us how it is made. Finally a few of us had some fun at the local night fair - Kashgar has a observation wheel too.

Last but not least - I did a day trip out to Karakul Lake which is near the Pakistan Border. This journey was great, as we made the long drive (yes another long drive), we stopped at a small lake that gave the most AWESOME reflection - I think I took about 50 photos of this, I just wanted to make sure I got the shot :) hee hee (Jacki you understand don't you!).

Now a 22 hr train ride to Turpan - The 2nd hottest place on earth.

YURT ! ?

Day 9 - We had a long day of driving ahead of us approximately 10 hours. To break up the day we stopped at the magnificent alpine lake of Issy-Kul. this lake was described as one of the holiday places where the locals swim (there version of a beach not mine).

After some lunch we are back on the road to continue our way to Tash Rabat where our Yurt camp will be waiting. Before we get there we have one more stop and that is at an family run Yurt Camp in Naryn. This is where we offered some fermented mare's milk (Yep! I passed not for me). Others tried it and well lets just say we had to stop again and again!!! before arriving to Tash Rabat our Yurt Camp.

Phew!!! make it to the camp and its now approximately 6pm and time for dinner and orientation of toilets etc... AWESOME!!! there is a sauna. Count me in !!!. Dinner was a true Kyrgyzstan meal with a tomato/vege soup (Yum!!) and a rice dish called plov (OK!! so it had some meat through it, I just put those bits aside).

Sun has nearly gone to bed and before I do the same I am off to the Sauna. Lisa and I are in our swimmers enjoying the Sauna when we get a knock on the door. Confusion enters out mind as it sounds like Borat is outside offering us a real Russian Sauna experience, we quickly replied ummm.... No! Thank you!

So time to get out of the Sauna and off to bed in our Yurt for a good night sleep (well thats what I thought). Our enture group of 6 ok 7 including the Tour Leader were sharing this Yurt (Yep!! nice and cosy). As is started to drift of to sleep 2 members of our group started to have a snoring competition. So I did not get a good nights sleep this night but hey!!! with the number of blakets I had I was warm!!! (There is always a positive).

Next country China

Fine or FINE?

So I have a few days that I need to catch you up on .... Ummm... lets start with Day 8 of my tour.
Its an early 2:30am wake up to get to the airport for our flight from Tashkent to Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan). After all the pushing, waiting and FINE's. OK!! no fines for me (Thank goodness) but, 2 people in our group purchased a carpet and customs would not let them take it our of the country (Uzbekistan), you know it being a natural treasure (pst!!! bah!!!). Apparently they did not have a Certificate that stated that is was a new carpet and not a natural treasure. (No one had ever heard of this before) So to keep the local authorities happy the couple of my tour paid a Fine of US$100, no receipt was given so I think we just gave a nice tip to this officer. Good thing was they were released just in time to get on the flight to Bishkek.

After all the excitement at the airport it was nice to arrive in Bishkek in the afternoon and take a trip into the Tien Chan Mountain to view the stunning 'alpine' scenery and get some cooler fresh air coming from the Ala-Archa Gorge.

Samarkand (Summer where???)

Day 6 and its still not getting any cooler. Not that I wish for it to be cold, I only packed one jumper.

Well yesterday (Day 5) we were in the air-conditioned bus for 6 hours. 3 hours into this drive we stopped at a town called Shakhrisabz for a spot of lunch and some site seeing. I climbed a 38 metre tower inside one of the monuments (Kat - more training :) for me), again I rewareded myself with a coke after the climb. Back in the bus for the 3 hour journey to Samarkand.

Today (Day6) we did a walking sight seeing tour (water a must), went to the see Registan monument, this s a majestic square formed on 3 sides by huge madrassahs, ancient centres of religious learning; the Shah-i-Zinda, with its double row of jewel like mausoleums (which I also climbed - at sunset yesterday (Day 5)).

Registan is AWESOME, my favourite of all mosques and madrasshas so far.

Tomorrow a half day of sight seeing before we get back in the air-conditioned bus for a drive back to Tashkent. From Tashket I will be flying to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan.

Hot! HOt!! HOT!!!

I am now on Day 4 of my tour and I am in Bokhara we arrived after travelling from Tashkent on an overnight train. Nice little adventure but should not get to excited as I have at least another 2 train journey’s to go.  

We arrived at approx 7 am and already it was 35 C. OMG!!!! I wondered what it would be like at 12noon. …….. OK, stop guessing, we were advised that the hottest it got on this particular day was 48 C. So yeah!!!! Drinking some water and a few Cokes was on the agenda for this day.


As we walked (staggered) around the city of old and new Bokhara we saw some AWESOME sights like, Arrar Mosque and the tallest monument in town the Kalyan Minaret or some of you may know it as the “Tower of Death”, from which prisoners were once hurled to their death on Market days. 

So I did not think it was hot enough (LOL!) and I thought I would do as some of the local women do and get myself a full body massage and exfoliation. Well of course when you get this done you are required to sit in the steam room for 30 min. I had not idea that I had to sit for so long – maybe the joke was on me, being a tourist and all but OH!!! MY!!! GOODNESS!!! It would have been at least 60 C. As you can see I live to tell this story and now I have the smoothest skin and maybe 5kg lighter (that won’t last long as after I have another bottle of water – Yes, Water!!!). Would love to do it again but I guess Uzbekistan is a long way to travel if I want to do this again!

Next stop Samarkand!!!!

Silk Road Tour Map

Awesome Adventure #1 - Silk Road.

My awesome holiday starts with a Silk Road Tour. Tashkent (Uzbekistand) to Beijing (China).
Now every holiday has to have a story. The annoying person on the tour, lost luggage etc.... and really I am not exception to this rule.
My first story is all about waiting around or running to the next flight. I was due to be picked up from my house in Australia at approx 2pm by a shuttle service. Well as my luck had it the shuttle service did not have me on there books luck they had a car free and picked me up right away. Of course this meant that i was 45 min late to check in so all the good seats were gone :(. Bah!!! suck right in the middle of the middle (OK I was on a aisle)
As Marleen bid me a great farewell I was through customs and on my plane in no time. As most of you know I landed in Singapore at midnight ready for a 7 hour wait. OK so I slept for 5 of the 7 hours but it was still a long time to wait for another plane.
I am now on my way to Bangkok well at least I thought I was. This plane was sitting wait for 45 min before we could take off. This started to get me worried because I only had limited time in Bangkok to connect to Tashkent.
The plane lands in Bangkok and the flight staff shuffle me to forward to be the first of the plane I run to the transit desk. (Thanks CanToo I knew running training would come in handy - Kat yep still in training - Watch out :) hee hee).
I get my boarding pass and was told to run to security. Security took what felt a life time to check my bags etc... then I am off running again to the Gate for boarding. (Was it my imagination or was this the last Gate and the end of the airport). I make it the boarding Gate just as all passengers a boarding the plane.
Phew !!! A close call, I thought I was going to have to sleep in Bangkok for the night.
Bangkok to Tashkent flight was not full I got 2 seats to myself and slept the entire way. I arrived in Tashkent at 2pm (Taskent time). with a temp of approx 38 degrees. Yep nice and hot just the way I like it.
Will there be other close calls.... stay tuned.