Hozza's Horizons

My travel diaries

Tuesday 21 August 2007 - Muztag Ata and Kashgar, Xinjiang, China

Our bus is due to meet us at Subash at 11am this morning, so we have a short walk back from base camp to meet it. Setting off shortly after 9, Lindsay and Toby decide to take us on a cross country route over rocky scrubland and hillocks instead of taking the path that we used last time. Consequently we are late to meet the bus, but since we can see it arriving in Subash from about 2 miles away, Toby - who, let's remember, failed to reach the summit because of breathing difficulties - decides to sprint the whole distance across hot dusty desert plains carrying his rucksack to greet the driver, just to be on the safe side.

Camel dodging

We drive to a yurt on the shores of Lake Karakul for lunch. I'm innocently taking a photo of Muztag Ata across the water when I find myself mobbed by half a dozen men and boys armed with camels trying to persuade me that I might want to pay for a ride on one of them. They completely surround me, and every time I spy an opening and try to escape, another camel appears to head me off. But there's no way I'm getting on the back of a camel when the prospect of our best Chinese meal for three weeks is beckoning me, and I finally get away with just a few camel hairs on my clothing to show for it.

It takes us about 3½ hours to reach Kashgar, the city on the old Silk Road where Eric Shipton served as British Consul-General for two spells, from 1940-42 and 1946-48. The road passes through a barren rocky gorge before descending nearly 3000m to the Kashgar plains, with the Pamir mountains of Tadjikistan visible on the hazy horizon to our left. We check into the amusingly named Seman Hotel at 5 o'clock amid the predictable barrage of smutty jokes ("I knew we'd end up coming here", "I bet the staff are w---ers!", etc.). Geoff, Orna and Juliet decide to go for the shared dorm option, so I end up sharing a room with Luigi. Soon after checking in we find ourselves paying 5 yuan each for large bottles of beer in John's Café, a relaxing outdoor western-style bar under a large canopy within the Seman Hotel compound. This amounts to about 30p each, so not surprisingly several of them are downed.

Chinese cuisine

We have a strange experience in a Chinese restaurant later that evening. We're brought a dish containing a small white unidentified fruit with a black bit on it. Orna is convinced we've been served a plate of eyeballs, and asks Geoff to find out for her. Unfortunately, good as it is, Geoff's Chinese doesn't extend to the word 'eyeball' so Orna ends up trying to communicate the question using sign language. This involves doing a Long John Silver impression by closing one eye, pointing at the other one and extending it towards the waitress. When she eventually understands the meaning of Orna's eccentric behaviour, the waitress starts giggling and runs off to the kitchen to tell the chef. We never do find out what the strange dish is, but end up eating it anyway.

But the capers aren't over for Orna. She, Geoff and Juliet have an interesting experience when the fourth occupant of their shared dormitory turns up paralytically drunk later that night, dressed as an orthodox Jew with big black hat and bushy beard, and proceeds to rant away about how he hates Israelis. Although they are able to get him to bed and move to another room, Orna is determined to sneak back in and drape her Israeli flag (which, presumably, she carries around with her wherever she goes) over his sleeping form. I can't help thinking this is how grudges end up getting propagated from generation to generation, and although it might be a bit more boring, it might be more fruitful if she just asked him for an apology when he's sober.

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