Tag Taklamakan Desert

Mr. Friendly in Alley

As our night train rolled in from Urumqi today (24 hour sleeper train), we came upon a very Chinese station platform. Although I had not awoken to the rolling sand dunes of the Great Taklamakan that I had dreamed of, there was an ocean of a desert that spread as far as the eye could see. We found a driver to take us into town and found a nice hostel in Old Town near the local Mosque.

Xinjiang province was predominantly Uighur until the last 5-10 years as Han Chinese were integrated into the region. The Uighur are a combination of Central Asian Kazak, Tajik, Uzbek, and Mongolian – they are also a Islamic culture. The 2500 + kilometers of desert preceding, slowly faded into a lush desert oasis tucked away in between the Taklamakan Desert and the Himalayas.

We walked around the surrounding alleys leading to the centralized Mosque for hours taking several great pictures.  The 500 year old city wall, which used to surround Kashgar is literally a 3 minute walk from where we are.  It is amazing that anyone could send an army out here to conquer anything, but Russia and China have throughout the past.  In the next few days we will take a camel tour into the Taklamakan Desert and take a bus up the Karakorum Highway.

If you are interested in staying here:

233 Wusitangboyi Road – it is very difficult to find, but most taxi drivers know the street and you just have to find the random unnamed alley ways to this destination.  It is near the Edgar Mosque and West Renmin Road and has two large red doors with a very small “Youth Hostel” sign on the doorway.  I will update later with more information if I can.

Top Four Places We May Consider Living

As the journey to Ashgabat approaches, careful planning is necessary.  We also need to plan for what we will do when we get return, and where we would like to go.  We will travel through some of our favorite places in China and will certainly discover more as we go.  With jobs scarce, careful consideration needs to be given to choose the next destination.  Also, just for fun I have listed the top 5 places I would consider moving to and living for the next year or two.

XinJiang

Easily a favorite of mine, the Taklamakan Desert is fabled for expeditions and discoveries; from Maro Polo to Sven Hedin and Aurel Stein, lost cities and ancient ruins are splattered across the desert.  Arguably the harshest desert in the world, surrounded on the west by the Himalayas and the Gobi Desert to the far East, crossing the Taklamakan Desert of XinJiang Provence, China has been a long lasting goal in my mind.  With some of the friendliest people I have ever encountered, Turpan, Urumqi, the capital, and Kashgar – the famous Silk Road trading outpost – would be great places to spend a portion of one’s life.

Uzbekistan

Easily a road less traveled for most westerners, Uzbekistan, a former Soviet Republic, is one of the most remote “Stans.”  With a wide variety of languages, cultures and ethnic groups, Uzbekistan would be a great place to discover something new.  Tashkent, the capital, would be a good place to start and find a job.  The famous shrinking Aral Sea is rapidly decreasing in size due to drastic misuses of water from the sea and Soviet cotton production.  Boats can be seen sitting in a sand dune where the harbor used to be 50 years ago.  Having a 50% Muslim population would also add to the illustrious and interesting nature of this possibly misunderstood and understudied country.

Thailand

Considered the vacation hot spot for Australians and many Europeans, much like the Caribbean is for North Americans, Thailand is a tropical paradise.  With several islands, forests, beaches and sunshine, Thailand would be a significant change from the smoggy air of Shanghai, China.  Although Thailand is currently suffering some political upheaval over their democratically unelected prime minister, it is still a safe and desirable place to live.  Famous for Muay Thai boxing, several areas in Thailand host Muay Thai training camps to give foreigners the change to learn this incredibly powerful art.  For $3500 USD, one can live and learn Muay Thai for one month.  Many foreign companies have set up branches or offices in Thailand because of labor costs and simply for the desire to live on the ocean.

Ecuador

Right smack dab on the equator, another warm beautiful country, perhaps not as frequented by travelers as Thailand, Ecuador bosts great culture and history on the otherside of the world.  With thousands of years of Incan hisotry, World National Heritage sites like the Galápagos Islands, and massive diversity in climate because of the different elevations, Ecuador would be a great place to live – and learn Spanish.  Also having friends from Ecuador, makes is a very desirable place to consider.  Teaching Enlgish while learning Spanish would be a phenominal way to ride out the recession or just live regardless.