After the deserts around Dunhuang I was keen for a change of scene, and jumped on board a 14-hour night train to Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province. It was an uneventful train ride along the Hexi Corridor, a famous strip of land wedged between the mountains of Qinghai and Tibet and the deserts, Read More
The town of Dunhuang turned out to be a pleasant little place, without much of a built-up town centre and thankfully without the massive, wide and soul-less streets that have greeted me at every town I’ve visited in China thus far. I’d heard from a few travelers about some massive sand dunes on the, Read More
I flew into Urumqi late and, after much haggling with a taxi driver, found a cheap hotel right near the train station (no shower though). After a quick six hours sleep I woke up the next day and caught a taxi to the bus terminal. My plan was to head south-east to the town, Read More
I’ve been in China for several days now, and I have to admit it’s been OK so far. I was a bit apprehentious about coming back here since my first trip back in 2001. In Kyrgyzstan I heard my fair share of China horror stories from backpackers heading west, and I wasn’t looking forward,, Read More
Well, my plans have changed – again! Originally my idea was to travel from Kashgar along the remote but spectacular western highway into Tibet, through Ali and past Mt Kailash, and evetually to Lhasa. I was able to ask one seasoned traveler in Kyrgyzstan for his opinion (because he’d just done it) and it, Read More
Kashgar is the beginning (or the end, depending which way you go) of the great Karakoram Highway. This road connects China to Pakistan over the 4800m Khunjerab Pass in the western Himalaya, and continues down to Islamabad. It took 20 years to plan and build and is an engineering marvel. It takes well over, Read More
I made the decision when I first arrived in Kyrgyzstan that I would try and cross into China over the Torugart Pass. Not only is this 3600m pass extremely remote and susceptible to snowstorms year-round, but as a “Class 2” Chinese border crossing it’s meant for commercial freight traffic only – tourists are not, Read More
I stayed in Karakol one more night to give my feet a rest from the pounding I’d given them, and the next morning I had yet another early start. My aim was to catch one of the early morning marschrutky minibuses along the less-visited but more scenic southern shore of Issy-Kul lake. It took, Read More
I left Bishkek early in the morning and traveled an uneventful eight hours to Karakol, in the far east of the country. The drive took us along some atrocious roads and along the northern shore of massive lake Issy-Kul. Karakol is a very “nothing” town that has the feel of a border post. I, Read More
I left Mashhad mid-afternoon yesterday and watched the terrain change as we flet north-east towards Kyrgyzstan. We first flew over the flat desert expanses of Turkmenistan, which reminded me of central Australia. Next came the Fan Mountains of Uzbekistan and the Pamirs of Tajikistan, all easily identifiable as the jagged peaks rose up thousands, Read More