Day 18 : Hotan

On reaching Hotan the previous night most surprising thing happened to me, I got down from the bus and caught a taxi to reach the hotel that was booked for me by my friend after tirelessly checking through a lot of hotels to find one that takes in foreigners. To my pleasant surprise when I got into taxi I heard Bollywood music, which made me really happy and made me feel at home. 
But that joy was replaced by a little shock when I realized that taxi driver could not understand a word of Chinese or read the address of the hotel I showed him on the mobile. Even more shocking was when he stopped the cab right in the middle of a 3 lane road and jumped out of the cab with my mobile, for a moment I thought he was stealing my phone but then when I jumped out after I saw he was talking to another taxi guy behind asking for directions. So after such an eventful ride I reached my hotel that looked a bit shady. Since I had no options that late in the night I checked in. 

Day 18 started early with a search for a bit more better hotel that might take foreigners. After searching and checking with a lot of hotels I realized either they are even more expensive or else they don't take foreigners even some of the most plush looking hotels. Some of them turned me away with a strange looking expression on their face as if they are scared. Anyways I gave up the hunt after walking for half a day. I decided to head to a local attraction called "Mazar of Imam Asim" the tomb of a saint called Imam Azim sitting at the edge of the city right in the desert. According to what I read Thursday was the special day there so I wanted to go and see for myself. 

That journey to the Mazar was the most memorable experience of the whole trip, I got to experience the generosity of Hotanese people first hand. So to get to the Mazar I took a city bus to a bus station that has shuttle buses heading to my destination. But strangely neither did I see the bus station nor could I find the shuttle bus number that takes me to the Mazar. I strolled around looking for either of that, eventually asked a local who was walking by me carrying his lunch for directions. After hearing a foreigner speaking in broken Chinese he also tried to tell me directions in his broken Chinese. Then after a brief pause with something in his mind he asked me to follow him. He walked into a workshop and was discussing something with a couple of guys there in a very animated fashion, then he gave his packet of lunch to one of the guys and got a key from him and pulled out a car that was parked there and asked me to sit. I was in two minds that a complete stranger is asking me to sit in a car in a city that I have no clue of, but still I got in. He drove me all the way to a bus stop and just at that time there was a bus pulling in. He asked me to get on it and explained to the driver very clearly where I had to go and made sure that he understood that well. When I was about to offer him some money he just said Goodbye and drove off.

The bus took me to where I had to go from there it was around a km walk according to my map, I asked for directions to be doubly sure. A lady showed me the road and said just head straight and you will reach there. I started walking through the dusty village road with Huyang trees on both sides. I got to see very modest but nicely kept houses. As I walked past I saw these 2 small kids with an old man and as I turned around with my cam he was giving me a salute while trying to get one of them to do the same.

Teaching him to salute....Loved the look on their faces...

The old man and the kids...

After that I walked in the shade of the trees slowly to my destination, I could see the signs of desert around me. Just then a motorbike went by with 4 people on that and suddenly it stopped, I noticed that the lady whom I asked for directions was on it with 2 kids. She got down and took the kids off and was telling something to the bike rider. Then she turned to me and told me to sit on the bike, I felt so bad that she got off with her kids to send me to where I wanted to go. I tried hard with my chinese to convince her to sit but she was very sure and she made sure that I took the ride. The rider of the bike took me right up to the gates of the Mazar. I thanked in him Uyghur and said good bye, when I pulled out my wallet he said "No no" with his hands and just left.

A scene right by the gates of the Mazar

Way to Mazar

Mazar of Imam Asim

Day 17 : Kuqa cont.

On Day 17, I was planning to cross the mighty Taklamakan, from Kuqa. It was a 14 hour journey by bus and the bus was at 1 in the afternoon. So since I didn't see much on the previous evening in Kuqa, I decided to step out to see something interesting in town. So I visited the Grand Kuqa mosque and decided to visit another Mazaar of a famous saint. With the route plan in mind I stepped out and since time was of essence I decided to take a cab. The cabbie was a very interesting character like most cabbies in Xinjiang. Looking at me he was very curious to know where I am from and my background and what I was doing there in Xinjiang. Since both our Mandarin was not that good conversation was not that difficult. He took me through small alleyways and streets of the old town and dropped me right in front of the mosque. As I approached the mosque I noticed a group of tourists with big cameras and even bigger lenses running around all over the streets of Old town. I later found out they are a group of Taiwanese tourists on a trip. It was a ticketed entry into the mosque, so I paid the modest amount for the ticket and got in. The taxi driver said he will wait for me to take me back to the hotel or any other place, he now turned into my tour guide and came along with me inside and showed me around.

It was amazingly peaceful inside the mosque, the chilly morning along with the shining sun was a great setting. I walked into the prayer hall and was not sure if I am allowed to take photos inside, and when I asked the taxi driver he looked around and said "Take take, no one around". So after spending a bit of time there, I quietly left the place by then the other group of Taiwanese tourists had already reached there so the peace was broken. I clicked a few pics and left.

The dome of the mosque

The Grand Kuqa mosque from outside

The mosque courtyard

Prayer hall, very old and peaceful...Beautiful carpets were spread all over the place

A design on the roof of the prayer hall, it looked like a sun to me.

Morning sun shining his grace into the prayer hall...

Day 16 : Kuqa

On Day 16 - I headed to Kuqa or Kuche as it is known with Mandarin speakers. A good 4 hour bus journey away. I paid for the ticket and was on my way to get on to the bus when the Airport styled security at the local bus station while scanning my luggage found something 'suspicious'. The item in question my favourite Deodorant. After a futile attempt to convince them that its not and IED but my deodorant, I moved on. As if that was not enough I was soon to find out that my seat is the non reclining added seat on the bus which was right next to the driver, which made me more grumpy. But as it turns out all unfortunate events have a silver lining attached to it if you look for it, in this case I had wonderful 180 degree view of the road and my journey. So even if its was not the most comfortable journey, I did enjoy the sights on the road.

After reaching Kuqa, my next challenge was to find my hotel. I was booked into 'Kuche Grand Hotel' a rather plush looking hotel on the website and the only hotel that took foreigners in Kuqa. After walking past an under construction building which was called Kuche hotel at least twice I couldn't find the actual hotel. I was getting tired after walking for a good long distance with my heavy sack. Then I finally managed to understand from local's that the actual hotel was behind it. It was indeed plush hotel and a very attractive price, my only regret was that I was staying there only for 1 night. Checked in and rested for the while and got our to explore Kuqa.

Kuqa is one of those booming small towns of China, with all the standard issues like not enough public transport and traffic snarls. It was quite a challenge to get around and the blocks were quite big that what looked small on the map turns out to be a good fair distance away. Finally I took a bus to get to the old side of town, I strolled around a little around there and when I couldnt find much interesting things except for an old small mosque, I decided to head back after having some nice Kebab for dinner. So photographically it was again not a very interesting day...

Our Bus driver, a rather serious chap....(shot from my Galaxy S4)

Long road to Kuqa....(shot from my Galaxy S4)

A group of elders spending their evening near the mosque...

Day 15 : Korla Cont.

Day 15 in Korla was a bit more fun, I decided to roam around the town to look for interesting things, since heading to the Bosten lake was not happening. So I roamed around to click whatever that caught my eye. Spend nearly a day like that, luckily in the evening the hostel owner invited a few of us guests and took us for a drive to see sunset. This time even though there was a language gap things turned out well... ;)

This was my first sight at a park when I was strolling around, the guy who is supposed to protect the law was killing time...playing cards... ;)

The region of Korla is a Mongol autonomous region, so its apt to have the carving of the Great Mongol himself...Genghis Khan...

The clock tower in the middle of the town...

While strolling in the downtown near the clock tower, this old Ustad who was nearby was very curious to know where I am from and what I was doing in Korla and all... :)

It was immediately after I clicked these pics my lovely friend from Shenzhen called me and said she booked my tickets for my return journey and insisted I go and pick it up at the station after that. If it wasn't for her I would have had a hard time getting the tickets myself, a big Thanks to her...Later in the journey I found from travellers that it is nearly impossible to book tickets to leave Xinjiang in November, because the harvest season gets over by then and many people head home for winter....

The hostel owner took us to this park that was full of young Huyang trees, though I couldn't see the main Huyang forest I was happy with the sight of this itself 

At the top of the hill, Nature and culture...

Huyang trees...quite a few of them...

After the sunset we headed to the square to see some dance and then to the night food market for some snacks...

A proud father and his cute child....

A cute kid at the market...

Kind of looks like serious discussion over snacks...

Couple of curious, but friendly locals.... 

Busy making a perfect roast...

Day 14 : Korla

On Day 14 I got up early to catch up with my new Chinese friends who were giving me a lot of ideas on what to do in Korla, one of the ideas was to head to Bosten Lake, the largest freshwater lake in China. So with some new found friends who barely spoke any English and a fellow hosteller who said he knows everything about the place we took a bus that was supposed to take us to Bosten. So we reached near a lake which was covered with tall grass almost completely, which my map said was not Bosten. Only to later find out that the real lake where I wanted to be, was 30 kms from where I was standing and the whole thing was a glorious waste of time. The guy who took us there had some work around there so we were all just giving company to that 'genius' and due to a glorious 'miscommunication' which in my experience used to happen with quite a few of my Chinese friends every now and then I was also stuck there. 

Though day was kind of a bummer I at least managed to get a few shots around, what ever that makes you happy...

A young Huyang tree, these trees grow to great sizes. Their leaves turn yellow and they shed them in Autumn 

Autumn...

The Lake that we eventually saw...

Day 13 : On road to Korla

Day 13 started early, I left the hostel at around 8 to catch my bus to Korla an oil boom town in the middle of Xinjiang. The distance to Korla was small, but the roads through the mountains were quite bad and treacherous that it took a good 12 hours for me to reach there. The views along the road were amazing, it started in the hilly areas and grasslands near Yili, slowly climbing up to the high mountains after a famous grassland called Nalati. On to the plains/plateau over 3000 meters after crossing the mountain passes. The plains were so cold that at 3 in the afternoon it was near zero and the moment the shadow came over the plains it went sub zero. I was too lost in the scenery that I didn't take out my camera and when I did click I just pulled out my mobile to shoot a few pics.

The twisted and turning roads on our way up to the mountain passes.

Our bus stopped for a break sometime in the late evening on the plains over 3000 meters. The moment the bus stopped our driver jumped out with a mat and went to pray. I was amazed by his dedication that even at such subzero temperatures when the wind was howling away he found time to say his prayers.

After the plains when darkness swept in we descended to lower altitudes to similar twisted roads and finally reached Korla after a 12 hour trip. I found myself a taxi to take me to the holy hostel that was there in Korla, where I met a great bunch of backpackers all of them Chinese travelling through Xinjiang. It seemed like I was one of the few foreign tourists who went to great pains to find that place. They had rather comfortable dorms and beds and a great crowd all of them going out of their way to help the lonely foreigner. After long conversations trying to understand whats there in Korla I said my goodbyes  and hit the bed pretty late in the night.