Cross desert drive to Urumqi
Trip Start
Jan 25, 2010
1
107
116
Trip End
Aug 18, 2010
Hotan, Xinjiang, China
Sunday, August 8, 2010
An hour outside of hotan was endless desert. Vanilla dunes peppered with desert green shaded shrubs; khaki and olive the only bright colours. Even the sky was a muted blue due to the dust in the air. The simple 2 lane Aksu highway cutting north/south across the desert was only opened 3 years ago as a means of transporting extracted oil back to civilzation! Thousands of purposely planted brown shrubs line the edge of the road to keep the sand from covering the road completely. Luckily the pill appears to be working although there were a few dodgy moments when I feared having to stop the bus.
I managed to aquire an epic space opera novel from an unwatched bookshelf in a cafe that is helping pass the time but is certainly a tad complicated and scientific.
We stopped for dinner in god knows where. Just a few dozen wooden shacks cooking food along the road. These towns are like open air prisons, so far from anywhere allowing a social life or the opportunity to do or go somewhere a little different. Serving food or cooking bread is all they do, the children as soon as they can walk it appears clear tables and the adults do the cooking.
Feeling hungry i risked the usual uigher noodles with lamb and tomatoes. The gamle has so far paid off as i have not had to stop the bus.....
