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!

Osh gosh b' gosh

I'm in Osh, the second biggest city in Kyrgyzstan.

We have just entered the country from Uzbekistan. Our three border crossings over three days went exceptionally well. We lost one rider during yesterday's border crossing. After having alerted the US embassy and the Uzbek police, he turned up at our hotel in Osh. He somehow made it to a border crossing 25km north of us and then took a cab once it grew dark. It was nerve racking, but it proved to us that we as staff are ready for just about anything.

Kyrgyzstan is a spectacular country, certainly one I will return to. The country is over 94% mountainous with the average elevation around 2,750m. There are plenty of mountains and passes. I am very excited to leave Osh and begin our four days across this country. China will be our last border crossing. It is hard to believe that we are halfway through our trip and we will soon be in China!

Slavik, our tour guide, was explaining some of the passes to us. In one area, our tour rented four yurts to sleep in. Slavik told us that we could only use one once we get there because the other three blew away during some high winds! The night time temperatures may to drop to -5C and the wind chill will be significantly lower. We have been further warned to change to offroad tires because of the poor quality roads we will encounter all the way across this country.

The guide books warn us of other perils of the road...Landslides, oncoming traffic, and drunk Russian drivers! The book recommends rear view mirrors so you can see a swerving driver both behind and in front of you. [with a Russian accent] What a country!

Our stay in Tajikistan was very pleasant. Our first day of riding brought us through a desert, river valley, and a Chinese road construction project. Apparently the Chinese are building many roads in Tajikistan. I took the opportunity to practice my Chinese with the road crew.

We are almost to our official half way point. It is hard to believe it has been nearly two months on the Silk Road. I need to take care of laundry before we start getting into the higher elevations. I hope all is going well and I will post again once I am in China!

Safe in Samarkand

What a stark change. Uzbekistan is worlds away from Turkmenistan. Although the country has experienced similar problems with their government, the powers that be allow things be somewhat progressive here i.e. working Internet, more cities and more free enterprise.

This is my first "weekend" of our trip. We are enjoying two days in this Silk Road mecca. Samarkand is where Silk Road goods could change hands and travel southward to India or continue westward. Samarkand is also known as the mid point of the Silk Road. This would be true for our trip if we ended at the true terminus of the Silk Road--Xi'an. However, we are continuing onwards to Beijing.

The buildings are spectacular; even though they are reconstructions...most of this city was leveled by the Russians during the early 20th century. History is everywhere. This morning we went to a Bazaar that has been unchanged for centuries. Pictured is the Registan, the center of the city for many centuries. The Registan was also the place where many public executions took place. Sand was thrown on the ground to soak up all of the blood that was spilled here. In Tajik, Registan translates to Sandy Place.

Faces are looking more and more Asian. We will be in Kashgar on the 26th of September and I am very excited to be back in the Middle Kingdom. If any of you in Beijing would like to meet up with our tour somewhere along the way in China, drop me a line. I'm sure you would be welcome to spend a few days with us.

The ride from Bukhara to Samarkand was pretty uneventful. I rode sweep and kept loosing riders. Uzbekistan is much more populated than Turkmenistan and many people ride bicycles, which makes it very difficult for me to spot riders who have taken a break at a cafe along the way. Our biggest logistical challenge just ahead, we have three border crossings in three days. Out of Uzbekistan, into Tajikistan, back into Uzbekistan and then into Kyrgyzstan. What a headache. Five days later we will cross into China with no more border crossings until Egypt!

The Uzbeks are very friendly, with the exception of one little kid who stole a camel bak out of the truck. We managed to find him and so did the police. I don't think he will be looting from any more foreigners.

Thats about all from my end. I hope all is well. I am working on getting some pictures up, none of the computers here have USB ports. Talk again soon!

I'm Still Alive!

ilIf you have been following my progress, you can imagine why I have not been posting regularly. For the past 12 days, I have been in Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan is one of the more desolate places I have ever visited. The area has been experiencing quite a bit of turmoil since the passing of their colorful dictator, Saparmurat Niyazov; more popularly known as Turkmenbashi.

Although I will harp on this country for a bit during this entry, I would first like to say that the Turkmenistan people are outstanding. We’ve been invited into many homes and onto many rugs to enjoy tea and snacks (dried camel yogurt balls). We enjoyed their golden smiles (literally, almost everyone has their entire upper teeth gold plated) and a friendly wave throughout our cycling here. They are very curious about who we are and what we are doing here and are patient enough to watch our gesticulated explanation (which we are getting very good at).

The police have been equally friendly and helpful in always giving us right-of-way and safely directing us through the maze of roads encircling the larger cities. When we were tired on the side of the road or relaxing at camp they always had a bottle of vodka handy to lift our spirits. To that I give a huge Thank You to the people of Turkmenistan.

But first…the Caspian.

We took a trip over the Caspian Sea via a ship. While walking up the gang plank, I was taken back to my days of Semester at Sea. A wave of nostalgia fell over me while watching sunset from the rear deck. In the belly of the ship, our trucks and bicycles were kept company by full-on trains! It was impressive to see our “ferry” carry such a load.

After being on so much water and watching oil rig after oil rig pass in the distance, we ported in Turkmenbashi. Sound familiar? Yes, the city’s name was changed by Niyazov. We were greeted by a long wait at customs and 16 year old soldiers making sure we were not taking pictures. After getting through customs we had our next surprise that would follow us throughout Turkmenistan. The temperature was peaking around 50C in the mid day. We have been battling heat exhaustion ever since.

The deserts here have all sorts of fun things to keep our attention. I’ve seen more camels in the past two weeks than I have in my entire life. They carry the same facial expressions as a cow and their smell is infinity worse. Some riders have their best times when they are downwind of a herd…sprinting the entire way. I’ve kept my eyes peeled for a Zemzen, or desert monitor. They are large lizards that are unique to this area; unfortunately, I have yet to see a full grown one.

There is a surprising amount of agriculture in the desert here. During Soviet times, they used Turkmenistan for producing cotton, lots and lots of cotton. In many places, I felt as though it was cycling through South Carolina in the very middle of summer. How, you might ask, are they irrigating the desert?

During the 1950s the Russians built a canal system to irrigate the area. All of the water comes from the Aral Sea (or I should say what used to be the Aral Sea as it has now become the North Aral and South Aral). The water level has been falling ever since. The Aral Sea is located in Kazakhstan and the areas surrounding the Aral have experienced compounding problems.

The fishermen no longer have any fish to catch. As the water recedes, evaporation happens much more quickly leaving the water much saltier. This has further caused the number of local species to dwindle from 173 to a mere 38. The consequences (changes in seasons, precipitation, airborne salt and dust, to name a few) go on and on. The water level is still dropping and once it is gone there will be a lot of people in Turkmenistan without jobs. When Turkmenbashi was asked about this problem he shrugged and said that everyone else is doing it [destroying the environment, which is very true], why should I do otherwise?

For most of our time in Turkmenistan, we skirted the Kopet Dag Mountains. This is the physical barrier separating Iran from Turkmenistan (The southern border). The ancient travelers of the Silk Road did not have the luxury of a ferry to cross the Caspian Sea; therefore, the true silk road goes underneath the Caspian and across Iran. We cycled a safe 3km or so from Iran during much of our Turkmenistan crossing. We avoided Iran for obvious reasons, but there is a strong possibility of us going through Iran next year. (The ferry was not cheap) Am I concerned? Absolutely not.

Ashgabat is the capital of Turkmenistan and is the work of a mad man (guess who). City planning was a pastime for Turkmenbashi and you couldn’t find a more unnecessarily large and architecturally bankrupt city. Architecture follows a Russian theme—large, white, and faceless. The roads are immense and stretch all over the city. They are deserted to the point that one can stand in a major intersection for a good ten minutes without seeing one car. Guess how fun finding a taxi was.

To break up the monotony of empty roads and the occasional building, fountains and gaudy statues speckle the city. The worst of these being a 10-story high rocket ship-like monument. The top boasts a life-size, gilded Turkmenbashi. The best part…Golden Turkmenbashi is on a rotating platform that follows the sun from dusk to dawn.

In Ashgabat, ironically enough (we’re in the middle of a desert), I ate the most spectacular fish I have ever had in my life. The sturgeon is an over fished species that is on its way to extinction. Caviar is its specialty, but the meat is second to none. It is so delicious, I completely understand why so many people break the law to catch this fish.

The Tolkuchka Market is the highlight of Ashgabat. The market is a gargantuan place where you can find absolutely anything. Many of the goods I recognized from Chinese markets, but the rugs and the local food vendors give this market its charm. I even found some “American Tea” there.

As quickly as we had entered Ashgabat, we were gone again. More desert camps depositing sand in just about everything I own. My eyes glance to the ground more frequently in hopes of discovering a scorpion before he finds my toe. Even with the unfamiliar perils of living in the desert for the past two weeks, I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. I mentioned the night sky I encountered in Turkey, but I find the desert affords an even better vista for star gazing.

At first I couldn’t understand our guide’s choice for sleeping. He sleeps outside every night on merely a carpet. This particular desert has many deadly creatures, not to mention the myriad of bugs. Asking him about this, I found out that the carpets he sleeps on are made from goat hair and camel hair. He told me that most of the poisonous creatures scurry away if they get even the slightest scent of this carpet.

It took me a little bit to put this one together. Keep in mind that they herd both camel and goats here. If a little scorpion gets wind of a herd of goats, that means that there are a lot of little hooves that are on their way...it would be impossible for him to defend himself.

Our next rest day was in Mary, a very sleepy town build by Russians in the early 19^th century. The ambiance of the city is not a far cry from Ashgabat. Mary’s claim to fame is the nearby city of Merv—Turkmenistan’s only UNSECO world heritage site. I will not go into the details of Merv, please check the link to find out more about the area as it’s history spans many centuries. I will say that the area is enormous and quite boring. Any archeological expert would find themselves in heaven here since most of the area has not been heavily explored and certainly not restored.

Right now I am in Turkmenibad, a city about 30km away from the Uzbekistan’s border. I was the morning sweep for the ride here. It was very difficult as we had one hell of a headwind. Tonight we are sleeping in a hotel and then cycling to Bukhara, where we will enjoy a rest day. Three more days of desert camping and then we will be in Samarkand. Both cities were very important for the Silk Road and thus have spectacular Silk Road ruins.

All of us are quite excited to cross the border into another country. We will be crossing into Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan over the next three weeks and then into China! Kashgar and the amazing scenery of Xin Jiang still await!

To close, I’ve got a bit of an announcement to make. During a rest stop yesterday, Philip (our German bike mechanic) and I were having quite a long chat with the Tour Founder, Henry Gold. Somehow we got on the topic of Tour d’ Afrique 2008. Henry wanted to know if either of us would be interested in working on the tour. I’m sure you can guess my answer…Africa here I come!