So this trip happened a month ago... let me see what I remember. Look through the pics on the app to the right; they are all from this trip. Here are the highlights...
On our first day of travel, we boarded two planes and long bus to get to the other corner of China; Xinjiang. The is the uppermost northwest region in China. Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Russia share borders with this province which lends it some really unique cultural characteristics. Many people in this region don't speak Chinese and are not 'Han Chinese'.
After some time on plane and bus, we arrived at our final destination; Kanas, China. 'Kanas' is actually a word from the Mongol language which means "Mysterious and Beautiful". This area is literally at the tip of the country; from one of the mountains/tall hill's that we climbed you could see the mountains in Kazakhstan and Russia.
We spent the day hiking around the beautiful lake and climbing a mountain hill thing. If you look at the pics, you can see how pretty the area is. The area looks a lot like Colorado, and in fact, most kids joked about how no one would believe that these pictures were taken in China because it looks like your in a national park back in the states.
Let me back up a bit. Before our day long hike, we had lunch. At lunch we were given watermelon. The Fuwuyan (waitress) warned us that because we were not from the area, eating this watermelon often gives visitors La Du Zi. See post below about La Du Zi.
I happen to like watermelon. I ate three pieces.
So we start our decent down the path and it starts to hit me; La Du Zi is approaching. I figured I could wait it out. We kept descending, and descending, step after step after step. When we finally reached the bottom we realized we still had a good 3 mile hike through some forests and grasslands till we reached a road. I was dying. There are no words in Chinese or English that can describe the pain and malcontent of a La Du Zi attack. It was vicious.
After a 1o minute bus ride back to our yurt I headed for the second most indigenous outhouse this earth has ever seen (the first is in Hemu, which will be featured on Silk Road Part II !!!). My pants had never been thrown off so fast. I shared my La Du Zi experience with a local who was smoking, drinking, and La Du Zi 'ing two squat holes down. After I had begun, he pulled out an old school tape player and started playing some music. We both jammed out for a good 20 minutes.
That night we slept in 'yurts'. Yurts are basically giant portable houses/tents that Mongolian herders use. Ours were a bit more grounded than the traditional yurt, but no warmer. Temperatures reached just above freezing that night, and when the walls of your 'yurt' are cloth.... tends to get a little cold. Being that our furnace had ample amounts of coal we figured we would stay nice and warm. We also figured that we could leave the furnace completely open so that all the heat would escape into the room and not out through the vent. Well, apparently along with all that nice cozy heat comes carbon dioxide/monoxide/mercury/i study peoples vacation habits so i have no idea, nor do i care too much.... Regardless, a Chinese lady came in before bedtime to refill our coal and explained in another language that we would all be poisoned throughout the night if we left the furnace open. So it was a cold night.
At around 3 in the morning, LaDuZi came again. I tried to fend it off... but after 3o minutes in fetal position, i put my jacket on and ran (as best i could) to the 5 start Kanas outhouse. My buddy wasn't there this time...
The next day we packed up our stuff and took a short bus ride to a small village just south of where we were. Today was horse riding day; awesome. The plan was to ride 25 +/- miles to Hemu - a small village thriving off of herding sheep and bits of tourism. The best way to express how remote this place is would be to tell you that it took approximately 1 month for my parents to get the post card I sent them from Hemu.
IRONY: Being from Texas, and riding a horse for the first time in China.
Our horses were not the best of horses. From what the horse experts in the group told me, they are 'pack horses' so they have never really been ridden much. They just follow whats in front of them so it wasn't too much fun. Some people's horses would actually gallop on demand but mine never did more than a trot; and that was with a local beating it from behind.
What made the trip enjoyable was the scenery; so beautiful. For 8 hours we rode through mountains and rivers and up and down hills are vibrant colors of green, orange, yellow, and unlike Beijing, the skies here are always a deep blue. If it wasn't for that, I would have shot my horse and started jogging. I actually walked in front of it and pulled it for an hour because it was faster. So anyways, if your ever riding looking to ride horses between Kanas and Hemu in the middle of nowhere China, don't pick number 33 horse; he smells bad and walks slow.
Riding into Hemu on horse confirmed how 'middle of nowhere' in China we actually were. The village is primarily lots of houses, a school, a post office, and a sweet river that runs around it. All around it are mountains/hills and a lot of horse poop. Oh, and sheep, lots of sheep. Everyone here herds sheep.
Part II coming soon...
#136: My So-Called Life
14 years ago
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