Mail from Kashgar

Just a quick posting from Kashgar, to let Margaret Makins, and Wayne and Dinah Rogers know that I have collected letters from them at the main post office here. Thanks, everyone - they are very welcome. If someone else has sent a letter to the Kashgar address then sorry - it didn't get here, or it is still on its way. In either case, it should eventually be returned to the sender's address. Margaret mentioned that she had also sent a Birthday Card - I was sorry not to have got that - perhaps it will arrive home again eventually! My next mail pickup, in Beijing, should be a bit more reliable: if YOU would like to send me a card or letter, you can post it to:

MAKINS, T
Poste Restante
International Post Office
Jianguomen Beidajie
Beijing
CHINA

You should post letters to Beijing by the 20th of June. I will be arriving there on the 5th of July.

As mentioned above, the truck and I are now in Kashgar, which is in the Uigur region of Xinjiang province, China. That's on the far western edges of China, very close to Pakistan and Central Asia - you can see the exact location on my 'Where is Travelling Tim?' map if you click before I update that page, or see here for a more permanent map, compliments of Encarta. On that map, Kashgar is spelt 'Kashi'.

Kashgar is great, very photogenic and a real exotic 'far east' location with lots of exciting things to see - I have been taking lots of photos, which will appear online one of these days. We are here for 4 nights - it took a while to get the truck through all of its Chinese paperwork, and once that was done, the drivers (Jay and Toni) have to apply for Chinese driving licences. Hopefully this is only a formality, and doesn't involve an actual test!

Whilst in Kashgar, I have been visting some of the sights: the Id Gah Mosque, the Apak Hoja Mosque, and enjoying the exotic alleyways and shops in the Old City. Kashgar is now quite a modern place, but still remembers, preserves, and lives in its roots.

The main post office, on Renmin Xilu, was in the modern part of town, and its clean and well run. They don't have much call for Poste Restante these days, though. It took me quite a while to explain that I wanted to collect mail, and when they finally located the right drawer there were only 3 letters in it, two of them for me. To collect them I had to pay a small charge of 1 Yuan per item (There are about 3.5 Yuan to the UK pound).

As expected, finding vegetarian food in China is proving a bit of a challenge. I now have some useful phrases written down, and have been learning some verbal phrases too, some things may get easier. Opposite the Seman Hotel, where we are staying, is a small Pakistani restaurant, so at least I can get a nice breakfast of dhal, parathas, and sweet chai.

Like most other travellers to Kashgar, I made a point of visiting the famous 'Sunday Market'. Actually, its in two parts: the Animal Market, and the Great Sunday Bazaar. The former is basically a gathering of local farmers, who get together to buy and sell sheep, goats, cattle, donkeys, camels, and other livestock. Also present are another group, the Foreign Tourists, who gather to observe and photograph the farmers and their stock of stock. The two groups watch each other with interest - in some cases they could well be from different planets, so strange do they appear to each other. Luckily, a friendly smile and a handshake breaches all boundaries. The digital camera's ability to instantly provide a picture also bridges cultures, and a surprising number of old men delight in seeing their own and their friend's images on the tiny screen.

The Sunday Market proper is a huge bazaar - reportedly the biggest in China - where people sell and buy just about every commodity you can imagine, and quite a few you can't. The richest brocades, woven with gold, a variety of musical instruments, body parts of goats, preserved fruit, duplicate DVDs, dried snakes, and sisal shopping bags arew just a few of the wonders on offer. Some of the stalls are under cover, some are in the open, and the market is fringed by a large carpark of donkey carts, waiting to take stock or purchases home again.

Licences permitting, we will be travelling to, and through, the Taklamakan Desert in a few days time, which I'm looking forward to very much, as a desert afficionado. Please keep your fingers crossed for our journey: the name 'Takla Makan' means "go in and you'll never come out" !! Apparently there is no water in the desert too, and it is, or was, quite hazardous to cross, so lets hope the Dragoman truck keeps going. I'm especially looking forward to more desert camping, which is always beautiful. The moon is rather large at the moment, which is a shame, but it *is* waining, so I'm hoping for lots of starry black nights. This time, I've actually remembered to bring star-maps with me, so identification should not be so controversial!

Sometimes, it can be a very small world. I recently had an email from Caroline, a friend in Kathmandu, telling me that she had heard two people talking about Travelling Tim, and was going to investigate. A short time later I chatted to her via Facebook and discovered that the people in question were two of my other friends, Wayne and Dinah Rogers, who were also in Kathmandu, staying at the Kathmandu Guest House: they had been discussing out loud my last Blog entry when Caroline heard them! She went and introduced herself - previously they had never met, and would not have known the connection if Caroline hadn't heard the chance mention of my name! It really is a small world.