Scouting Ahead to Lanzhou

It's 9:30pm in Wuwei, Gansu and I am typing from my hotel room! Unbelievable! This very moderately priced hotel comes with a desktop equipped with Internet in every room. China is moving up!

I have come and gone from Dunhuang, a place where I could see myself spending more than a day. Despite the high traffic of foreigners to see the Mogao Buddhist caves and the sand dunes, the town is quite clean and charming. In fact many of the cities we have been through have been surprisingly unpolluted and clean. As I approach Lanzhou, this will certainly change. The towns are already developing a slight haze to them. This is either actual pollution or my mistaking the interior environment of the bus. *Cough* My fellow passengers enjoy endless packs of cigarettes to pass the time.

I arrived in Lanzhou via Zhangye at 17:00. A mad dash ensued to find hotels before it got too late. By dusk, three were discovered, the last being what I feel to be the best choice. Tomorrow I am off to a very small city (by Chinese standards) named Tian Zhou and then off to Lanzhou tomorrow evening. I'll enjoy one day of rest and then will get up early for a plane ride to ShenZhen and then a hour long ferry ride to Hong Kong.

For those of you who have been following the TDA website you may have noticed that once a week Henry, the tour founder, does a radio spot on a travel radio show. The show is out of California and is hosted by Sandy Dhuyvetter. As it is an American show and our company is Canadian, Henry wanted two Americans to chat with Sandy.

The biggest drawback in being invited is that Sandy likes to do the show live, meaning that our time slot is around 0:30, 8:00 in sunny California. We wait until about 12:30 and then use our satellite phone to make a call into the radio station. Henry, Scott and I stayed up around a campfire (possibly enjoying some libations) passing time before Sandy could interview us. To make a long story short, you can listen to the three of us speak here.

Our last stretch was not much of one. It was a mere three days, with a hotel on the second night, to Jiayuguan. Jiayuguan is known for the Jiayuguan Pass, the largest and most intact entrance to the Great Wall. I went to visit the area, but when I found that it cost 100 kuai for admission, I thought better of it and managed to take a picture from the entrance gate. Although these areas of China are quite inexpensive, the tourist spots are outrageous. The Mogao Buddhist caves were 180 for foreigners, I managed to haggle them down to let me in for the price of a Chinese ticket, only 20 kuai cheaper.

Duncan, Sandra and I took the time to see the Great Wall. The Xuan Bi section, quite a big disappointment. It looked more Disney than Badaling. As we were leaving, I had to laugh as I noticed a sign. It proclaimed that the Xuan Bi section was the "Badaling of the West" They weren't kidding.

The Gansu landscape is quite amazing. At any given moment, there is a staggering, snow covered mountain range to one side. To the other is the most rocky and arid desert I have ever seen. I am happy that I opted to take the day bus, rather than sleeping through this majestic landscape. I'll miss cycling through this area, but for Ultimate, it is totally worth it.

I must say that I am thoroughly enjoying this computer in my room. The computer even has speakers, so I can listen to some smooth online jazz tunes. If I don't turn away from the screen, this standard Chinese room feels like a WiFi hotspot in a hipster coffee shop. However, it is getting late and I need to get up early to continue my pilgrimage to Hong Kong. Three more weeks of tour, with a week off for scouting and Ultimate. So really only two more work weeks until Beijing! I can't wait to get back to the Jing. As always, I hope all is well.

-CB

Dunhuang, Gansu

I finally a few of my pictures uploaded to Facebook. The site told me this is the public address to see the pictures so hopefully it will work for you if you do not have a Facebook account. Please click here for the pictures.

Also, Skype is now call forwarding to my work cell phone. Call my 843 number if you would like to get a hold of me. The number is posted on my Facebook account. Don't forget that I am 12 hours ahead of you East Coasters.

We've just arrived in Dunhuang in Gansu Province. Tomorrow I will take an excursion to visit the largest collection of Buddhist cave paintings in the world. We will be on the road for another three days and will take another day of rest in the city famed for having the Western most part of the Great Wall.

Everything is going as smoothly as things go in China. It is hard to believe that we barely have a month left. More errands to run for the tour. Hope all is well.

-CB

Hami, Xinjiang

I am in the land of Melons. This area of Xinjiang is famed for the Hami Gua, a melon that is eaten all over China. Just in case we forgot, driving in this morning, we were greeted with a delightfully tacky statue of a Hami Gua in the middle of a traffic circle. Even with such a structure, my attention was directed to a nearby KFC.

Our last rest day was in Turpan, an area of XinJiang that is very famous for grapes. Cycling into the city, we passed hundreds of small brick structures walled in a lattice pattern. Later we found out these buildings were used to make Turpan's second most famous export. You guessed it, rasins.

We are three days into our 7 day stretch to DunHuang. The past two nights have been very cold, but we have enjoyed the now expected natural beauty of Xin Jiang. Our first day out of Turpan, we passed the "Flaming Mountains." These are petrified dunes, that when looked at from the right angle, Richard Simmons can be seen making out with Christopher Lowell. Seriously.

Ok, not so seriously. They are red sandstone hills on the northern edge of the Turpan Basin that when the sun light hits it just right, the hills look aflame. Brilliant orange, red, and purple colors play tricks on your eyes. They really look like they are on fire.

Cycling yesterday, we climbed small hills with spectacular purple mountains in the distance. "Purple Mountains Majesty..." kept playing over and over in my head. I had to remind myself that I was not in America. Although our local Texan likened the landscape to his home state.

Our disgusting tour guide has finally left and we are enjoying the help of a new guide. Before our old guide was put on a bus back to Kashgar, he had the nerve to ask each of us staff for a tip. Each of us responded in pun "Here's a tip, learn how to use a shower," or something similar. Zabi, our new guide, heard me and our boss expressing our disgust and shortcomings of our previous guide. Needless to say, he has been working extra hard ever since.

I'm going to take a short vacation from the tour in about two weeks. My cohorts in Beijing convinced me to come to Hong Kong and play in an Ultimate Tourney. It took little convincing other than Sandy telling me she could get a round trip ticket from Lanzhou at 60% off. Big Brother, Here I come! I can't wait to see all of you.

It's hard to believe that the tour is nearly one month from being over. We have already had a meeting for next years Tour D Afrique which will commence the second Saturday in January. Many of the staff have already been on the trip and each time they recall a memory gets me even more excited for the trip.

It's getting late in the afternoon and I am going to try and fix my iPod. It wants me to reconnect it to iTunes to restore, I hope it is not broken or all of my pictures from Turkey to Samarkand will be lost, which would be a huge shame. However, my favorite pictures are from Kyrgyzstan so it will not be a total loss.

As always, I hope all is going well with you all. Take care and I will be in touch.

-CB

Kuche, Xinjiang

Kashgar has come and gone and we are enjoying our second rest day in China. China is just how I left it. If you dropped me in the middle of these cities and told me I was in Beijing, I would definitely believe you. The only difference is the high population of Uigers (the locals before the Chinese began pumping in Han Chinese).

The presence of Uigers add Delicious breads and kebobs for us to enjoy, but are also a huge inconvenience for communication. Their Mandarin is either non existent or very slurred and always impossible to understand. This area used to be called Turkmen in it's earlier days and in the smaller villages it does feel like we are still somewhere in the Stans.

My last post was in Osh, ever since we have crossed the border I have been working like a dog. My Mandarin is sufficient in booking hotels and other day to day communication with our local driver. It is still lacking for more advanced speaking. But this is only to improve, I've been studying and adding about 10 new words a day to my lexicon. By the time I reach Beijing, I will be an Expert in getting foreigners around this land.

Kyrgyzstan was, by far, my favorite country. I will certainly make it back to that part of the world. The Swiss have introduced a CBT (Community Based Tourism) program that is unlike anything I have ever experienced. They have established channels to contact local farmers, English guides, etc and it is very very inexpensive. In practice, they cut out the middle men (travel agents) so the money goes directly into the local economy rather than in the pockets of oversea investors.

The cycling in Kyrgyzstan was also my favorite, as we finally had a great deal of off road. Hence riding my mountain bike finally paid off. We had one 3700m climb which culminated for me when we were five switchbacks from the top and it decided to snow! I had meager clothing and most of my body was frozen. I must thank Chip for giving me the "Top 50 Funk Songs of All Time" before I left Beijing. I was soaking wet and navigating my bicycle around potholes and puddles at nearly 50km/hour. Once I got to the bottom, I had to drop my bicycle, crank some funk, and dance until I could feel my hands and feet. Thanks Chip!

Here is something I wrote for the website:

The temperature is falling and we are two hundred meters from the top. Inhaling brings in a mix of moon-like dust and the smell of cold. My lungs are trying to sort through the grit and the thin air of 3600m. My flaring nostrils steadily shoot two columns of icy air into my head, chilling me to the core. The temperature has fashioned my cheeks in a way that my teeth exposed and barred against the elements. A quick run of my tongue reminds me of what my nose already knows, cold and grime. Granny gear and pedaling ferociously, I move half as fast as a pedestrian, but I refuse to leave my seat.

After that intense encounter, I found a warm, dry yurt waiting for me. The second day was another of spectacular vistas and a fresh blanket of snow over the mountain range we cycled along the entire next day.

China is China, we have been blessed with a fantastic driver and cursed with an unbelievably unhelpful tour guide. He is a Uigur and speaks worse Chinese than mine. If it wasn't for me and the bicycle mechanic, there would be huge problems on this trip. We get rid of him in Turpan and all of us are quite excited.

My time is running low, more errands to run before we leave for the desert again. Hope all is well and stay tuned for great pictures!