The Silk Route & SEA 2012 The Johnsons

Batu Ferringhi-

Spice Garden- We took the 101 bus to the Spice Gardens(about 15mins) which cost 15Rm each for entry you can get a guided tour for 25RM which could make the walk round a little more interesting from what we could see. We elected to take ourselves, possibly on reflection we wished we had gone with the guide. Nicely landscaped, very humid and hot, so start this one as early as you can. There is a lovely cafeteria at the top of the walk overlooking the bay. Where you can buy food and drink (a bit expensive, but a lovely view).

National Park forTurtleSanctuary & MonkeyBeach-We took the 101 bus (again) to the National Park area. The bus dropped us off about 3-4 yards from the main reception station where we were given an excellent intro to what and how to get about, along with your free map n registration of your entry into the park. Although you do not have to book your boat back as well as there as there were plenty of boatmen offering return trips on spec. We clubbed together with 7 other tourists which brought our boat price down to around 17RM each person for return trip. First to the Turtle sanctuary, which were told no swimming allowed? Actually what we found when we got there was that people were swimming, so don’t believe everything you are told. The sanctuary was very quiet with the small tourist groups coming and going, plenty of information to read and a couple of newly hatched turtles to see. We then took the short walk (which felt like a long walk in the heat) to the one of the few small lakes where there is a layer of salt and fresh water that then work their way out to sea. It was pretty dry when we visited in November but it was still interesting to see. All in we did have about 40minutes here and had a quick chance to paddle in the sea before the boat came to collect us to take us toMonkeyBeach. A short 10minute boat ride away back towards the start of our trip.

Monkey beach, very underdeveloped (great!) and almost idyllic Beach style white sand with beautiful palm trees lining the sand giving you shade even in the water in places. We had two hours there and wasted no time getting settled into the water which was lovely and calm and around 2-3 feet deep for some distance. Be aware that the tide does come in quickly here and almost covers all the beach making it almost disappear after two hours we were at the end of the beach that still had some sand access to it, another hour and that would have been gone too. We left with 5 of our party and left two who had decided they wanted to walk back along the 3.5km walk that takes you back through the interior to the park station. Definitely worth the visit and would have spent longer if we had realised that we could have.

For those of you who thought Singapore was all skyscrapers and expensive Beer (which a lot of it is), here is something that I loved seeing on one of my walkabouts.

Once deep in the heart of the Chinese state of Gansu , on the outskirts of Zhangye are the Amazing Matisi Cave Temples. Carved out of solid rock face a group of 7 grottos hold holy relics and wonderful wall paintings and beautiful sculptures of the Buddha.

Surrounding the Mati Temple are beautiful hills, peculiar caves, unusual peaks and green waters. Tourists can get the chance to interact with the people of Yhugur Minority tribe, try the authentic stewed lamb and learn more about their cultural characteristics and their unique lifestyle as true nomads.

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Blog to follow- I have to say that these were the best pics I could find, not a lot going on in Urumqi [Urumqi-travel-guide-246977] apart from a KFC that did not turn us away, I wouldn't bother stopping there again! We got turned away from three hotels that were supposed to be "tourist friendly" and ended up in a brothel (again). I must get some business cards made up next time I am in China!

In the Peoples sq. Mao with local heroHotan- please note that there is more to come on Hotan [Hotan-travel-guide-221834]!!!!Just posting what I can when I can as internet is so hard to access in the western side.

Our 6hr bus journey from Yarkand [Yarkand-travel-guide-1335370] to Hotan was pretty uneventful. We got onto our bus at the Yarkand bus terminal, again helped by friendly local terminal staff. Same routine, bags away and seated we found ourselves on a bus full of mostly young people on their way back to College/University in Hotan. This journey was to skirt the southern side of theTaklamakanDesert. Only stops we experienced were the obligatory police check points, where everybody had to get off the bus to have their ID checked, as soon as they saw our passports we were waved through.some of the first modernity we saw!How nice, as I had visions of having to take out all our bags and empty everything and have passport details filled out in triplicate in Chinese and then having to sign it or something. Nope, just waved straight through. The second one was a very punctual and on the dot for three hour wee stop. Most of the young men seemed to use it primarily as a smoke stop. I followed two of the girls to the “facilities”, which were the usual drop toilets. Not the best, but hey! When you gotta go, you gotta go!

The scenery on the way to Hotan started with lots of green, mostly maize and sunflowers, lined with trees. Then we hit Desert, Long and very flat and very very barren desert. Sometimes just for fun you would see a giant Chinese cement factory stuck in the middle of nowhere billowing out dust and smoke, surrounded by small very harsh looking settlements for workers.Peoples park is very busy with families and , People in the evenings, such a nice atmosphereFollowed by even more dramatic flatlands with small scrub, again temperatures were hot I guess they must have been in the high eighties and I was glad of the air con on the bus.

We arrived in Hotan around5.45pmand this time we did our homework on the Binguans. Our choice was right next to the bus station. Jiaotong Binguan, registered to take tourists, clean and cheap, well within our budget anyway, we paid 160rb for a twin room with own bathroom, western WC and shower.

It was time to get bearings on this larger town, so out we went in search of “Marcos” as per LP. I know I said I wouldn’t do that, but we did. After a very interesting walk through the markets and down thoughtfully placed subways (traffic here is not for the feint hearted) we found Marcos, we had read in LP that the staff spoke good English and this time LP got it right and they did! We were welcomed in and served very tasty food along with some help with our plans for our visits around Hotan.Desert is so close to Hotan, just 20mins drive away.(See review). After our meal we walked to the peoples park, where there is a huge statue of Mao with a local Uighar man who had journeyed to se him and was honoured as this is one of only three statues of Mao with anyone else (see pics) the friezes were stunning around the base too. The park was full of people of all ages, mostly families enjoying themselves with their children and so many playing volleyball type games or just encouraging their very young ones to play too. I did comment to Angela how there seemed to be so many red paper lanterns around the edge of the park, I suppose I thought that sort of thing was just for tourists, but as we had not seen one other single tourist so far, I wasn’t sure.

We walked back to our hotel by the bus station, we needed to plan our net couple of days and already knew we were going to the Bazaar the following morning, well lunchtime as no one gets up early on a Sunday.

Bazaar day!

Yarkand

Yarkand is not really a hot place to stay, well maybe if you count the temperature, but other than that it might not be worth a stop. We decided that we would do the southern loop round to Hotan [Hotan-travel-guide-221834] and the look at either completing it or cutting across the Taklamakan Desert to Kuqe. As we had no experience of Chinese buses and wanted to find out what they were like we thought we would break up the journey by doing a short trip (3hours) from Kashgar [Kashgar-travel-guide-1315664] to Yarkand first.

Well buying a bus ticket was easy, into the bus station at Kashgar and helped by the nice “Official” managing the ques we were able to make it clear that we wanted two seats to Yarkand. Then once again kindly helped by another bus “Official” we were shown to our bus out in the Station (sounds likeIranexperience doesn’t it?). Bags stowed away under the bus luggage compartment and seated in clearly numbered seats (English numbers everywhere so far) we congratulated ourselves in getting this far through the system. Bear in mind this is our first ever trip throughChinaand language is completely different to anything we have encountered so far.

Comfy seats and a swift three hours saw us to the Yarkand bus terminal. We arrived around3.00pmand it was hot! We had read in LP that the Subiyi Aletun Hotel would take foreign tourists, WRONG! No they don’t, well not anymore, after a 10rb taxi ride to said Hotel we were told “no Tourists” in Chinese and hand signals…. .oh no, and we don’t speak English and they don’t speak Chinese. After much discussion and gesturing we managed to get them to understand that we needed to stay somewhere! I hit upon the idea of ringing our English/Chinese speaking tour operator we used for the border crossing fromKyrgyzstantoChinato help out. He advised us that he only knew of the “Yarkand” Binguan (hotel) that accepted foreign visitors there. So with some basic words and a bit of help from the manager at the Subiyi Aletun we got another Taxi to take us up the road back toward the bus terminal and drop us off outside the Hotel. At last, we booked in, funny how the price of this Hotel managed to be more expensive than the one we just left. Never mind, double room with air con, western loo and breakfast did us. We had after all only wanted to stop for one night to A. break up the journey and B. visit a couple of sights we knew were there.

Thankfully nothing shuts early hear inChinaand once we had dumped our bags we were off out and back towards the sights were had come to break up the journey with. First stop the Mausoleum of Ammanisahan a Uighar Queen, revered musician and famed for her work collecting the Uighar muquam. Her Tomb was stunning; they obviously loved her very much as great effort had gone into its placement and construction with surrounding garden for her (see pics). A few meters away is the Mazaar cemetery where members of Yarkand Royal family from 16th& 17thCentury lie. Calm and slightly restored we saw maybe 30 tombs with intricate stone carving (see pics) with the main man (Sulitan Saidyidhans) centralised in the cemetery (also have pics of this). Right next door to this Cemetery is the Altun Mosque Complex this one is an open style mosque and was built in 1533A.D. by Sulitan Abdureshidhan, another Royal member of Yarkand. It also was a cool and calm place and even though it was Friday we were able to walk round and take pictures, although I did run into afternoon prayer time so left a little earlier than I would have liked. We paid 15rb each to get into all three sights which I thought was reasonable considering how much I enjoyed it and how many sights we got for our entrance fee.

Tired, hungry & hot we decided that the next task was to find food, and edible food. There really is only so much shashlik a girl can eat. LP was pretty useless and it seemed that anything LP suggests turns out to be pretty expensive and quite a disappointment. We decided to trust our instincts and let me follow my nose and eyes on the locals. Sure enough on the main road back to our Hotel we found a restaurant whose name I couldn’t read let alone pronounce, but I do know it was number 161 on the street. We walked in with other customers and followed the way they did things. Seated we looked around at what other patrons were eating which gave us a good idea of the kind of food they served. Great! Food at last, the obligatory pot of chai was brought to us and we basically pointed at what other people were eating and said “one of those please”. The staff was really friendly and brought us two Thali like plates with an assortment of chicken, beef (small pieces), some peppers and aubergine with cooked onions, and a decent portion of plain white rice. Yum! At last a lovely spicy, filling meal. We were stuffed, we left after paying a whole 15rb for the two of us and this is what we had been looking forward to. We walked back to our hotel as we had already purchased our next day’s bus ticket to Hotan and wanted to make sure we had ourselves packed up and ready to go the next morning. Not the most exciting place inChina, but then again my view is it’s what you make it; it gave us a good introduction to Chinese buses and local “foreign tourist registered only” hotels and definitely a taste of good local food. Hotan here we come!

Jeti Oguz

What is Jeti Oguz? I thought to myself when I first heard it being banded about as a destination. Well I can tell you now some of the most amazing and beautiful places I have seen so far inKyrgyzstan. Our drive took us approx 20km outside Karakol [Karakol-travel-guide-1019301] before veering off to the right and entering a much rougher road than we had previously experienced in this region. As we drove through the very wide valley we saw the high mountains in the distance both sides. Stunning! We noticed as we came into the narrower part of the valley the extreme red sandstone colour of the hills around us. Much like the Red sandstone found in ranges in theUS. Our carrier stopped just around an area called the broken heart formation, for obvious reasons the two large chunks of red rock looked like a broken heart, in two pieces (pics). Behind us looked like some very nice hills, in front of them by the roadside were a collection of mobile beehives and vendors selling natural honey harvested in the summer season only. Next to these were a couple of Bird of Prey “Hawkers”. These were not your real traditional Hawkers, but ones that were “hawking” on the tourists. Takai warned us that if we started taking pictures they would start asking for money. I chose along with the rest of the group to ignore them and walk after our guide who informed us that we had a quick twenty minutes to walk to a lovely vantage point where we could photograph the “broken heart” rocks and view the vista around us. He was right, the view was great and we got some lovely shots of the rocks.

Onwards we went, about another 150mtrs to our main walk in this area, the Dragon back Gorge. We were altogether in this walk and I was wowed by the sheer redness of the crumbling sandstone. A small stream worked its way through with us and we passed Kyrgyz folk with their Yurt and horses. Using the natural shape of the cliff breaks to create sheep pens. Newly fallen giant boulders reminded us that we should be careful of the fragile rock walls around us. Along this bit of the valley I did see and picture some flora and fauna, but the main event was the gorge.

When we reached nearly the end of the bit we could do, our group split into two, our guide, Talai took the other group and they started to climb what looked like a very steep ascent to the hill in front of us, whilst Angela and I walked back round with Talai’s dad, who coincidently started all the tours Takai does now. We got back to the vehicle after about 30mins and crossed the road to take a closer look at the raging river that banked the other side of the road. A rest was welcome for my back at this point. About 30mins after that we spotted the second group coming over the hill approx quart of a mile ahead, so got back into the car to pick them up.

We continued along the road for a few kilometres when we stopped at The Valley of flowers (no flowers now as they flower during spring and early summer). Talai walked us up to a stunning view point which was quite steep in places, but as I looked back about half way up I could see the climb was worth it. As I reached the top I could see the huge rolling Jailoo below us with a huge linear forest of pine trees planted in between two large camps of Yurts.Dragon Back CAnyon with our group for scale, stunning rock formations here.This was planted for Gagarin by the Russians as he used to visit this valley to help him acclimatise after his visits in space. How nice (depends on your point of view) these trees are all in rows back dropping some beautiful mountains. To the left is a huge Jailoo pasture which had several Yurt camps and plenty of horses to match and on the right of the trees is another Yurt camp with a break before the mountain where you can walk to a waterfall. We all stopped for half an hour to catch our breath and then made our way back down to the vehicle. Picnic time! Except Talai had forgotten the tomatoes and cucumber, so our salad was a bit sparse. Takai took the group off to the waterfall; I stayed behind with his dad as A. my back had had enough and B. I could see the very large black rain cloud, I think Takai could too. I spent some time taking pictures walking through the Pine forest. Sure enough I was right, after about half an hour Angela returned with the rain on her back, and it poured.

We returned through the valley to the homestay and everyone agreed that they had had a lovely day.

Karakol

We arrived in Karakol [Karakol-travel-guide-1019301] from Tamchy on Saturday lunchtime (well about2.00pmto be precise). We got the driver from our taxi to drop us off outside the CBT office which I cannily spotted on the way into the town. Well outside door open but inside door shut! Across the road we crossed to the Tourist Information office which also has great English speaking staff, success! We were asked how close to town? How much did we want to pay? Toilet inside or outside? Etc. We got directed to Teskeys (under hotel reviews). We also asked about getting about the town and we were offered a great town map which at the time of writing was 100com, which really was great value and invaluable for buses and sights, names of streets (rare here).Dungan Mosque, it's hard to believe that this was built using NO nails!Our other enquires were aimed at trips out to Jeti Oguz [Jeti-Oguz-travel-guide-1354514] and Altyn Arashan, the first one for the scenery and the valley of the flowers and Altyn for the natural hot springs that we had heard about. The young woman (all of the tourist info office is manned by volunteer University students) at the TIO told us all the ways we could get there by buses, or shared taxis, or private taxi, oooor taxi with guide. All with their appropriate prices. No hard sell, great. We decided that we would discuss and get back to her if needed. We walked to our homestay/guesthouse it was hot, and the side streets are not so good for pulling trolley holdalls! We found it and Takai was kind enough to come out and help us in with our bags and show us to a lovely cool room.

Our first night’s meal we went to a restaurant called Kench, just a couple of streets away and mentioned in LP. Takai also gave it his endorsement so off we went. Angela had a lovely fish dish and I had a Chicken and sweet pepper dish common here inKyrgyzstan. Real “ice tea” made from cold tea and lemon wedges…so much more refreshing than tins or plastic bottled variety you commonly get everywhere in CA.

We had already decided that we wanted to go to Jeti Oguz & Altyn Arashan; we spoke with Takai as we noticed he had lots of info about tours that he arranged himself for Jeti Oguz and the surrounding area. We were clear that we were not fit enough for tough hiking; Takai said “no worries”. We spent the next day doing a town tour by ourselves. We visited the mosque made with “no nails” no not a squishy caulk used for fixing skirting boards, but no nails were used in it’s construction, Dungan in style it is still a working mosque so headscarves were donned. My first taste of Chinese architecture this side ofChina!

I was particularly on the hunt for local Architecture so our next stop round town was the Russian Orthodox Church (always an interest to me as my mother is Greek Orthodox,and although I am not religious,I am aware that the two churches share many similarities). This one had originally been made of stone but destroyed by earthquake and replace with a totally timber offering. Looking at it I could see how much loving work had gone into it’s the carving and decoration (on the outside).Look No Nails!Inside the Dungan Mosque, which really does not look like a mosque as we know it.I spent quite a lot of time walking round the outside and taking pics of different angles. Inside was beautiful too, with the typical saints on display and candle turns for prayers and worship. The dome had some very clear and almost new looking paintings with various saints and of course Jesus. No pics were allowed indoors as is usual with very much working orthodox churches in this region.

We left the grounds of the Orthodox Church to be greeted outside the front gate by an old colonial building, now a pedagogical society building. Very grand and with quite a nice large front garden area which seemed to be a good dropping off point for the mini buses that were stopping to let the Russian tourists get off. Further along the road behind the church, we found further examples of colonial buildings, windows ornate and many of them on the sides of these huge buildings. One in particular, a wealthy merchant’s house was a very good example of Soviet style Architectural colonialism. Now a Youth Volunteer organisations training centre, you could see its former glory even in it’s so very poor and sad state. Alongside it on both sides of the street were more single storey buildings of the same era, no doubt lesser minions lived in these. We made our way back into the town centre to eat a well earned lunch with the thought of taking it easy after lunch and meandering back to the guest house, picking up money from the numerous ATMs in Karakol and some meds from the also many, Aptekas, or pharmacy.

Next day started at eight with breakfast with a set off at nine. We were being joined by four other tourists, a French couple and a Belgian couple, both in not so dissimilar age’s group to ourselves. Good company as we had all got chatting nicely the evening before. Takai’s dad was also coming with us for us slow coaches! A Mitsubishi people carrier met our eyes on the front drive; we all piled in on our first trip Jeti Oguz.

Bishkek to Tamchy [Tamchy-travel-guide-1019393] – Lake Issak Kul

So we now have our Chinese visa and decided as much as we had enjoyed Bishkek [Bishkek-travel-guide-1019239] it was time to move on. We had already looked at staying aroundLake Issak kul, we had so many other travellers all recommending their favourite spots, it wasn’t difficult to sort through them and choose our own!

We thought that we would start at Tamchy on our way to Karakol [Karakol-travel-guide-1019301] to renew our now fast running out Kyrgyz. Visa. So we took a taxi to the West Bus stand in Bishkek to try and either negotiate a shared taxi to our destination or take a shared minibus instead.I didn't believe there was a beach at the Lake either.Oh the joy of Central Asian Taxi drivers, in fact Taxi drivers the world over, right? The bidding starts at 500com each, now LP (five years old, but have downloaded update) suggests that it should be 500 for two(hahahahahahahahahaha) So Off Angela walks to the actual bus station just a few yards away whilst she leaves me to continue with the barrage I am dealing with. Then the Taxi fixer (just about everywhere has one it seems) offers me 400com each, “OK” I think, “lets keep going”, Angela returns and tells me that the minibuses are 250com each person, but most were either full or had gone! Grrrrr, I suggest 350com each to the fixer who takes the deal and then sets about sorting us out which poor smuck of a driver was going to take us. Two cars later and we are in a car with a lady and her two children, ok, this looks good, naaah! To good to be true? It certainly is, about twenty minutes later we arrive at an old soviet apartment block and pick up two more (one very large adult) and a young boy around 8 or 9 yrs old.Vendor selling smoked fish @ Issyk kul Lake, we bought fish for lunch and it was delicious along with our own bread. Banana sellers and ice cream sellers too!After a bit of musical seats I am sat in the front passenger seat, Angela is sat behind me squashed against the door by the larger couple and their son and the mum and two in the back tailgate seats! Now please don’t get me wrong, we are not exactly small ourselves, but this passenger was much larger. I also had Angela’s backpack jammed in between me and the driver. This was going to be fun for the next 3.5hrs.

It was one of my more interesting journeys in so much as I normally sit in the passenger seat and enjoy the view(not my choice, drivers always seem to put me there) not so this journey. He drove like a maniac, overtaking when there was clearly no road left to overtake in, undertaking on inside on a gravel track, playing “chicken” with oncoming cars. To say I saw my life flash before me is not an understatement (several times in fact).Through the trees and a two minute walk to the Beach, what more could you want?I was mighty pleased when he announced “welcome toLakeIssakul” after handing over a toll at the end of the road. This was all after a cheeky standoff at the Benzene station after picking up the extra passengers. He demanded we pay him there and then so he could pay for the fuel (you normally pay when you get to your destination) which was ok, but he decided to bump the price back up to 500com each, errr Nyet! As they say in Russian, the fixer had obviously not bothered to let him know the agreed price. We stood our ground, as far as I was concerned the deal had been done back at the West Bus station, I handed him the 700com for the two of us and just looked away, I was so angry. He took it and fuelled up, so I guess he worked out that when I was telling him (he did actually speak and understand English) the fixer had agreed the price, I was not going to budge.

We had another 30mins before we got to Tamchy, he kindly asked the couple with the young boy where they were staying so he could drop them off, but didn’t ask us. Thankfully he had stopped just past the CBT office in Tamchy to ask directions for the other family; we decided this was our moment to escape, so we did.

We crossed the road to the CBT office and were met by two lovely people there. We explained in our broken Russian/English and gesticulating/drawing pictures and using the very useful picture of a town map (drawn on paper). Two options one available in the street behind the CBT office and one down by the beach, yes I said BEACH! Ummm now let me think? Which one do you think we went for? Beach, your right, literally a minutes walk outside the gates of the homestay.Banana Boats at Lake Issyk Kul, you might have thought you were in Benidorm!Heaven! We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming in the not so cold water(warmer than Brighton) and lying on lovely soft sand. The clouds were a little hazy, but that only helped us to not get burnt. We spent our time at the quieter end of the beach, but to be fair, even at the “happening end” it wasn’t so crowded. This was definitely a good choice. The sunset on the mountains behind us was to die for, creating stunning colours not only on the mountains, but casting a crystal clear blue reflection on the lake We need to check if we need to go to Karakol to extend our visa, that’s a phone call tomorrow, if we do then it’s off on Weds, if not I can see us spending a few more days here.