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dunhuang, silk road

Dunhuang
Dunhuang

More photos here



After the hell that was Jiaohe we left our wonderful tour guide and hopped a train to Dunhuang. LOVED it. First time on a train and I'm addicted. America totally needs more of them. Nice cheap transportation. We had hard sleepers. I think it made it more fun that nearly our entire group was in one car. Good times. There were about 5 of us that stayed up really late playing name games for movies. I'm sure everyone else hated us.
Cave of a Thousand Buddhas
What I wouldn't GIVE to have pictures of this!! I have some postcards and a deck of cards with images on them, but, wow, this place was AMAZING. The caves were huge and everything was so well preserved, save some of the faces that Muslims destroyed way back when. In one cave is a HUGE Buddha. You walk in and all you see are his feet. You walk out of the entry room and look straight up. HUGE. I think it was 30 meters tall? Or something like that. Maybe bigger. Damn impressive though. The rest of the caves were all fantastic also. The colours were amazing. I was so surprised that everything was still so bright, even with the restorations early in the 1900's. I don't really have much to say about this stop. It's indescribable. Seriously amazing.

Back in the town we went (again) in search of the 'famed' night market (that every town seems to have). Which we, once again, could not find. We were just not destined to find any night markets. On the way there some guy on a bike started following us. Not really following, but right next to us. And get this. Holding out his camera phone taking a picture of us. O_o Odd. He didn't know we noticed him, so I whispered to Brandeice and Kat to stop and pose for him. So we did. Haha, he was very amused and took his picture.

Sunrise

Next to Tian Chi, one of the best parts of this trip, by far. Hell, it was the selling point for coming to China for most of the people here! Camels in the Gobi desert. Nothing I ever DREAMED of! We woke up at 4 and hopped on buses. Got off the buses, it was pitch black out, which was fun in itself. SO many stars! It was further away from the full moon at Tian Chi, so it was darker out. I like being up that early. Exhilarating. Amazing. Never seen so many stars in my life. Got on our camels and walked across the sandy desert. Leaning back, staring at the stars. Fun. Saw a shooting star. Second one on the trip :) Ah. The camels were fun. I quite enjoyed that. Then…..they dropped us off….at the bottom of this MONSTER of a sand dune. What?! Ok. Most painful thing in the world. If there is a hell, this is what you would be doing for all eternity. Climbing a sand dune. It's seriously impossible. Two steps forward, one back. Took close to 45 minutes just climbing up the sand dune. No matter how many different crawling methods you use, it doesn't get easier. Talk about burning in your thighs. SO painful. I thought I was going to die half way up. Could have taken stairs, but that cost 10 RMB. $1 is far too expensive. It didn't help that I had a horrible case of the 'Beijing cough' which apparently I'll have every time I leave Beijing. Caused by all the pollution. I was weezing by the top of the hill. Yay for collapsing. Quite a view. And the sand was so soft. I've never felt sand that fine in my life. Softer than most all of the beds I've been on since I've come to China. Next magazine moment here. The dunes were beautiful, with the moon above them, in the dark. Wow. And just like they warned us….sand in the camera. I thought it was done for good, but I got it working a bit later after we were back in the city. Sad though. But sometimes it's very nice not to have a camera. Let's you be in the moment and really experiencing it instead of living through the lens. Sun rise was amazing. Everyone cheered when the sun finally peeked over the horizon. It was beautiful. The colours, the place, the waiting for it. Amazing.
Ok, as if reward for climbing up, going down was SO much better!!! What you do is this. Have someone hold your stuff and then run, full speed, down the hill. And then trip yourself and ROLL. Head over heels, tumbling down the hill. SO.MUCH.FUN. Sand everywhere. But it was worth it.

Went back to town and got some pancakes at a western restaurant across from the hotel. Turned out more like crepes, which was disappointing, but come on, could anything really be worse than Chinese breakfasts? After that, instead of sleeping like everyone else, Kat and I decided to rent some bikes for an hour. $0.12! 1 RMB! So worth it. We just took off and drove around the town. Small town, about 3 streets, but the residential area and…less tourist area was big. We rode around there, some amazing looking places that I bet tourists NEVER see. It was awesome :) First time on a bike in years! And I didn't die. I'm quite proud of that.
Went back to the hotel. I walked around quite a bit. I was the only person who didn't sleep the entire day! Everyone else did, but whatever. Everyone was surprised that I stayed awake. It was a beautiful day out. Once other people woke up we went down to a park that I found while walking around and laid around for a few hours (we had the entire day free) and I had time to get my camera working. The park was fun, they had a little exercise area that they have all over china with workout machines and whatnot, so we played on those and some curious little kids came up and played with us too. I got a few pictures. One of the girls picked a flower for me to put in my hair :) Kids are much nicer than adults.

Hung out for a while, did some shopping and dinner with whoever I found who was awake. Met up with Christian who actually knew where the night market was! So we all went there. Did some more shopping, bought some souvenirs. It was a cool night market. Ate more than our fill of skewers, which are a specialty here. Bought these awesome wood carving things. Circles of wood with paint on them and then some carves pictures into it. The negative space is the relief and the picture is what it left. Very impressive. I bought 2 :)





That's it until the next update with the next town!

~Nikki