:: zone3 ::

Anyone that is keen to on the idea of seeing east Europe, Central Asia and taking entirely in-appropriate cars (1000cc) over in-appropriate and at time non-existent roads, should enter the Mongol Rally 2008.

Entries opened today for 24 hours with a random draw with another chance at the draw on 6th Nov.

Even if not doing it, worth checking it out the site. And if doing it, will be a cool chance to see a lot of piles and get some cool photos.

Serious thinking of doing theMongol Rally next year. Waiting for entries to open on the website.

Haven’t decided on what route to take yet, although starting to think about it. Given the time of the year, St Petersburg could be a good option making it for white nights… Am very interested to see as much of the ‘Stans as possible and get a feel for what the ex-Soviet states are like and how they are changing since 91.

Just now need to convince friends to join the expedition...

Have been uploading the rest of my photos from the trip I had away recently to China.

Silk Road Photos
The photos cover following the Silk Road from Xi'an to Western China as far as Kashgar.

If you register, you get to see the larger versions of the pics instead of just thumbnails.....

The last couple of days of my time in China were Kashgar. Took it pretty relaxing, made for time to catch up.

The Kashgar animal bazaar had an array of various animals being brought and sold. Although it wasn’t that much different than a New Zealand farmers market, just needed to swap the donkeys for some extra tractors & throw in some swandrys and would be pretty much the same.

A while since being online for more than a couple of minutes.

Spent two days at Heavenly Lake staying in Yurts (Gers). A beautiful mountain lake area off to the side of the Taklamakan desert. It's the source of some of the water for the Karez in the region. Was nice and relaxing spending a couple of days by the lake. The mountain are snow capped and looked a bit like home (a little like the Nelson Lakes area).

After the nice relaxing, on to long driving days in a bus... Although the views of the sand in the desert are amazing to see, it is a bit tiring spending 22 hours in a bus over a couple of days.

Turpan makes for a pretty hot city, located in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region it is about 35-40C.

After arriving from a 12 hour train ride and a having a relaxing lunch, visited the lowest point in China (2nd lowest in the world). 156m below sea level. In the middle of the salt flats at the lowest point was about 45C. Took a an hour of a bumpy ride in a mini-bus to get there (and an hour back out too).

From there on to visit a small village out of Turpan. The Xinjiang Region is largely muslim, this little village with it mosque and mud/clay houses look more like something out of footage of the Middle East. Stand there look out of the small place, was easy to think were no longer in China. Some of the houses there are over 300-400 years old.

The Minshan Sand Dunes in Dunhuang seem to be quite low when the bus arrives to them at 6am. Have to get in at that time if want to catch the sun rise from the top of the Dunes...

Climbing a Sand Dune in the Taklamakan desert takes sometime. Even following the ridge line up, it is two steps forward and one back. Takes a good 20 minutes to get up. Then it is a case of sanding around waiting for the sun to rise.

It is a beautiful thing seeing the sun rise up over the the sand. The shapes of the dunes beginning to become more apparent as the sky gets lighter and the shadows starting to give the Dunes shape. With it getting lighter, can see it was actually quite a climb to the top of the Dunes.

The train along to Jiayuguan made for a nice ride. Soft sleeper cabin are so much better than the hard sleepers. Get a bit more room to the cabin with only four instead of six.

Jiayuguan is a pretty sleepily little place. It has a number of attractions related to the Western end of the great wall and about 120,00 people. Although it is hard to believe it has that number of people going by what is around the town. The streets match a bigger city, but the number of people on them match a much smaller one...

Xi'an is the the official start of the Silk Road from the Chinese end.

So, the journey along the Silk Road begins with a visit to the monument marking the start.

Pity only going as far as Kashgar this time....

Silk Road Monument


Map of the Silk Road


1st Camel Ride

It's not uncommon to see some 'interesting' translations of Chinese into English on signs and the like when in China.

Sometimes the direct Chinese to English translation does not come out quite as intended.. The funny result is known as Chinglish.

With the upcoming Olympics, the Chinese government is keen to get all the signs fixed and into 'proper' English.

In the four months since was last here, one of my favorites has been sadly corrected.
The before and after of the rubbish bins at the Terracotta Warriors:
Before: The "Recycling" and "Unrecycling" Bins

After: The "Recyclables" and "Unrecyclables" Bins

(It's a bit clearer on the full sized version...)

I'm going to the miss the Chinglish.... It makes for much entertainment.