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So, after pligrimming for a while I decided to go camel riding for 3 days in the desert. I think that camels were part of my destiny for some time, and on Sunday it became reality. With two travel companions, Gil and Cedric, I book a tour (yes, a tour for tourists and everything) to go camel riding for 3 days/2 nights around the giant sand dunes of Dunhuang.

We thus started this thing with a strong feeling of being scammed just like any other fool tourists, and as we would later realise it was a sort of scam. We paid too much.

But as we were getting going we put our anger on the side and decided to enjoy this thing; and it was really cool. The suffocating heat and our sore ass made us understand the Bedouin life. Also my camel had some driving issue and was always on the side. But I fast learnt to sit and enjoy. Camels are a quite comfortable thing (for a while). It was the occasion to take some nice pictures, get a Central Asian suntan, and climb a dune that was high as something very (very) high. Camping in the desert is also a fun experience, but the best was when we found a little stream with some shade available and water to clean ourselves.

One of the most thrilling moment of this trip was running down from the gigantic dune, creating a mini-sand avalanche, and hearing the whole dune resonating as the sliding sand was making vibrations. Quite nice also was to arrive back in town as this lazy trek was in fact exhausting.

And now I’m barely able to concentrate so I’ll take a nap before going to Turpan tonight!

Cave at Mati Si

Thousand Buddha Caves and etc… In the past week I realised I have seen quite a lot of Buddhist sites on the Silk Road; almost as performant as a pilgrim! And actually I could say that I have been religious sites hoping accross the Silk Road. It all started with the big Mosque in Xi’an, and then Tianshui with the cliff full of huge Buddhas, then Zhangye, with its 35 meters sleeping Buddha, Mati Si, a temple carved on another cliff somewhere in Gansu, and finally the cherry on the French Toast: Dunhuang!

So I went to one of the most famous sites on the Silk Road: the Mogao Caves （莫高窟）。 I was quite sceptical of this big tourist attraction. I had even read somewhere that it was quite disapointing.

But the night I arrived in Dunhuang is worth a short summary:
I arrived at a hostel, which I had been dreaming about for days! A real hostel with dorms, a courtyard, some backpackers and even some foreigners!!! Fantastic! Among the people I met was a French couple, travelling with a Jeep Cherokee, and coming from Beijing. Quite cool. And the best is that they had Pastis de Marseille, the wonder drink. So we drank, and some Chinese travelers joined us, and we played Chinese drinking games, and at 3 a.m we decided to climb the enormous sand dunes (150m) that’s just behind the hostel, see the stars and finally the sunrise. That was quite fun. I went to sleep at 8 a.m.

But the point was that Daphnee, the French girl, told me I still should go and see the paintings, as they are suppposed to be amazing even though you have to follow a group with guide. And that was true. The painting are actually amazing. Some flashy light blue color dates from the Tang dynasty, 1300 years ago… Really impressive.

Apart from the caves DUnhuang itself is quite pleasant. It lies in a oasis in the middle of the desert, with lots of grapes, water-melon, and tons of other fruits. People are so chill! It’s all tranquillo! Great. And from everywhere within the city there is the ubiquitous presence of the sand dunes that lies right on the borders of the town. Very nice!

I should write again after my camel experience, and then I’ll be going to Xinjiang…

A late merchant following Marco Polo's caravan?

My travelling around has finally found some real relevance! I have found the lost heir of Marco Polo! She was a bit late though, but trying hard to catch up with her Grand-Father’s caravan…

More seriously I am today in Jiayuguan, 嘉峪关，at the ‘mouth’ of the Corridor of Hexi. Here lies the historic Fort which was the last stronghold before the barbaric lands of Central Asia… So I went to see this fort they talk about, and it started with a frustration because the entrance is now 100 RMB, which is quite expensive for China. And then there was the tourists, with their tour groups and yelling and being everywhere… So I waited they every one went, and I got some nice momments by myself in this historic place. And I also managed to get the above picture of the Chinese tourist trappers bringing their camel back home for the night (they offer a 5min ride on a camel in front of the fort).

The city itself, however, is not that interesting. There is actually nothing, it just another developing city in China, with big avenues, ugly appartment buildings and factories vomitting a black smoke.

But I saw my first long bearded Central Asian looking guy! There are some Uighur here, and they all seem very nice and smily. So that gives me some hope for Xinjiang, which is coming soon…

My journey to the West continue, with its good and bad experiences. Backpacking anywhere around the world usually brings some highs and lows, but this is especially true about China.

Yesterday I started the day quite happy to move on to Zhangye (张掖), described by the Lonely Planet as nice and colorful. But then I get to the train station and I learn that my train is long gone: the departure time was 2h48 a.m, not p.m… How could I be so stupid!

So, quite angry about myself I go and see if a train is leaving soon to the ticket office; and by chance there is one leaving at 14h43! So I ask for a ticket, but there is no more room on sleeper!!! So I take the hard seat, ready for 16h of pain and torture. I am even more angry about myself now; I was actually looking forward to relax on my bed in the train for 16h!

Then I get in the damn train, and after one minute a guy come and seat next to me and start talking to me as he want to practice his English. Very annoying, because I am tired and angry. But I have to behave, so I talk. But then it appears that this guy is a complete weirdo, he ask me if I was virgin, shows me a porn video on his cellphone, tells me he never got any girl, etc…

So that was for the down. At that point I really hate myself for misunderstanding the train situation. But suddenly a very nice looking girl seats next to me, and everything changes. The weirdo has eyes only for her, and since she’s very nice (she’s a nurse) she talk with him also, so he forgets about me. Ouf. So things start to get better. When they leave the girl gives me another gift from Maiji Shan, the Buddha mountain I visited the day before. And the guy gives me some sour vegetables cooked by his mum. Nice.

Then the people change at Lanzhou, and I stay, so I get to have some new travel mates… And what a change! Suddenly I am at peace, the couple in front of me is very sweet and smiling, I have a beer with 2 guys from Dunhuang, everyone is silent, no baby crying, it’s not too crowded… it’s perfect. As the train continues it’s smooth ride I observe the landscape, which is gorgeous. We pass through arid red mountains with white horizontal stripes, the valleys are of a splendid green as there is irrigation, and I can just imagine being Marco Polo and passing through this magical landscape several centuries ago. This was for the high. But now sadly an ugly factory pops up here and there, and the hideous highway destroys permanently the valley’s perfect composition…

And then I get to Zhangye, at 2h in the morning, half awake half asleep. I go to a hotel indicated by the Lonely Planet, but there is no dorm as indicated in the guide, so I take the double room for 40 Yuan, which gracefully came with hordes of bloodthirsty mosquitoes. So I am eaten alive, and impossible to fall asleep since I am bitten every 5 sec. Finally at 6 a.m I collapse. This was another down. When I wake up I also realise that there is no shower! And that the town is ugly. Down down down. I hate Lonely Planet, it seems that the did not even come here. I’ll try to explore a bit more the place before giving my final judgement.

Keep him on the leash!

Today’s adventure: Go and see some Buddha!
And it went all right. I met 3 Chinese students who were also going to visit the stuff, and I kind of got stucked with them all day long. The girl in the group came to me asking if I wanted to walk together to the grottoes, so I said ok,  so nice I am. And then the photo sessions started, they all wanted pictures with me, especially her. So every 5 min we were stopping to take pictures. Very tiring. But it was ok until we reached a platform with lots of Chinese girls… One asked the one accompanying me if she could have a picture with me, and suddenly a crowd was around me and I was flashed at least 500 times (I may slightly exaggerate).

But then came lunch time and I was relieved that we found a abandoned table away from the crowds, and even more relieved when she insisted to share their picnic with me (they even had a fried duck!).

So I finally was able to turn off my constant vigilance against Chinese weirdness; to the point when she offered me the head of the damn duck, with its beak wide open and its eyes staring at me.
And she insisted, as apparently it was 很好吃 (very good).

So I had to eat the damn thing. Lessons to learn: “always stay vigilant by all means”.

Apart from that the Buddha and his cousin Bodhisattva were quite truly impressive. It was all carved (or it started) around 550 AD! And the biggest one (25 meters high) stands in the middle of a cliff which is already high enough to give me an impressive vertigo. These Buddhist monks had it! Also it is said to have been funded by rich merchants on the Silk Road who had a permanent residency in Tianshui. Cool eh?

I also got a present from the girl: a Buddha bronze medal with my name engraved on it. It was still a nice day after all.

And now I am exhausted because I had to get up early again this morning, so tomorrow I shall finally relax.

And tomorrow I’ll go to Zhangye, continuing my Silk Road experience…