Day 117: Change of Plans
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 really sounded like a serious undertaking with lots of planning and preparation. This route, apart from being technically illegal for foreigners to travel along, is bloody hard work. It takes about 2-3 weeks from end to end, requires fording many rivers (some windshield deep!)and circumventing washed-away river bridges, traveling some atrocious roads, of course vehicle breakdowns are common, you have to carry your own supplies because there isn’t much food en route, and of course you have to dodge (i.e. drive around) the many Chinese army checkpoints. The traveler I spoke to even had to buy a 4WD vehicle in Lhasa to do the trip! In all it seemed too long (I don’t have much time) and too expensive, and enquiring here in Kashgar has led me to that same opinion. I’ll have to save that for another time… (Sadly the Chinese are paving the road all the way through so in a couple of years it’ll be a doddle.)
Plan B was to travel the remote Southern Silk Road route east along the edge of the Taklamakan Desert and over the Altun Mountains to Golmud, where I could join the main tourist bus/train route to Lhasa. Once again this idea was thwarted by the travel time (one week to Golmud), iffy public transport connections and zero reliable information along the route, and the extortionate costs of getting in to and out of Tibet (the Chinese PSB really rips foreigners off with the handful of permits and passes you need to acquire and the "tour" you have to join to go there).
With Tibet off the agenda, I started looking at my other options. Xinjiang Autonomous Region (the big block of Western China where I am now) really didn’t seem to have much going for it once I worked through my guidebook, so I switched gears and looked a little further east. The next province along is Gansu, a thin and long strip which hugs the north-eastern border of the Tibetan high plateau. It has a treasure trove of things to see and do, so I set my sights on there. I’ll still be following the traditional Silk Road route (which historically ended at Xi’an next door), and will pass various Buddhist caves, Silk Road towns and cities, and even a Tibetan Buddhist monastery along the way! This last one, the Labrang Monastery in mountainous Xiahe, was a real find and means I can get a Tibetan "fix" without stepping foot there. In fact, for the reason that it’s not within Tibet (with its associated politics and issues), it’s even more Tibetan than the parts of poor old Tibet that have been heavily infused with Han Chinese migrants and culture.
It’s good to have a plan and I’m really looking forward to experiencing this little-visited corner of China. I’ll get started in a couple of days, when I return from the Taklamakan Desert (I’m off there tomorrow) and fly to Urumqi, and then hop on an overnight train to Dunhuang to visit the world-famous Mogao Caves.