Another day in Bishkek

Enough pictures to catch up with

Just a typical part of the trial

Just a typical street in Karakol

Our trusty jeep that took us up and down the mountain

A butterfly

Just getting the stove lit

Another evening picture, different mountain

Really nothing to say about today. Gave our laundry to the landlady to get washed, should get them back tomorrow. Did some shopping, did you know that a tourist tee-shirt is the same price in every city in the world? Looked for Krygz rugs with no real luck. We have been trying in vain now to find someone to be at Kryg Style (a not for profit organization that is said to sell carpets and such) however whenever we go there regardless of the business hours posted on the door, no one is there. And that was the day in a nut shell.

Tyson and Sara

Mini Bus Fun (note the sarcasm in my voice)

Some much promised pictures. We may try and post some more if we can find a relatively fast connection where we don't have to pay by the MB, but this gives a taste of the scenery, and just so you know we have many more photos that we don't post, so you'll just have to invite us over for dinner... hint.. hint..

The pass that I turned away from climbing is just right of the center rock outcrop, inbetween the two snow patches.

Our turnaround veiw on the hike after setting up camp.

Evening outside our mountain hostel east of Karakol

Today we woke up and I realized that it wasn't hot enough to sit on the beach all day(even though it probably was still plus 30). It was overcast and not much direct sunlight and therefore swimming would be cold and there was not really anything to do in that town but go to the lake so we decided to head back to Bishkek a day earlier. I wasn't too bummed out seeing as my 12 glorious days in Greece are coming up in a short 7 weeks. So we packed up our stuff, headed to a store to get some food (chocolate bars, and 7up. I know mom not a really great breakfast/lunch, but it was all we could fine I promise i will eat some fruit tomorrow!!!) and then we headed off to the bus station to find a minibus back to bishkek.

Ok first of all let me just get this off my chest. If you are a parent and you know that from previous trips your kid gets car sick.. PLEASE DON'T FEED YOUR KID ON THE BUS!!!!! Can someone please translate that into Russian, Chinese, all languages really. I really don't feel the need to see the aftermath of car sickness. Everytime we take a bus somewhere someone gets sick and its really not making me want to take any more buses on those trips anymore. Not to mention in these minibuses the windows don't open, its hot, sticky and smelly, and the last thing i need is to smell puke. Sorry to gross all of you out but really we are not taking any more buses around mountains anymore.. im putting my foot down and i will pay the extra money to take a taxi. If Tyson says no to that, then i am going to make everyone in the car take one of my gravols so i dont have to worry about them puking. I am so not happy about bus trips. But now that i have vented and ranted i feel a little better. Oh and not to mention the Russian guy sitting next to Tyson reaked of Vodka and kept trying to tell us to come to a night club with him and his buddies we politely refused and when asked for our phone number we said we had no phone and the guy looked at us as if the world had stopped. "You no phone"with a shocked expression on his face. Tyson and I have decided that Canada is lacking in the cell phone buisness, everyone here has a cell phone and its like a sin not to as it seems. Also it seems like a sign of wealth or something that if your over 30 you need to have at least 1 or 2 gold teeth... its really weird.

Other than that, we got to bishkek and realized that it was really hot here and sticky and our apartment for the evening (we can't find our Russian land lady) has no fan. Now i wish i was back at the lake haha. Oh well you can't have it all. It is nice to be back in a comfortable surrounding again. Had some good Italian food again for dinner, and watched some much needed TV time during the afternoon. So much happens in a week when your in the mountains.

I would also like to say that I am impressed on how in China everyone knew and liked Steve Nash, and now in Kyrgyzstan everyone listens to Nelly Furtado.. good to see some Canadian influence half way around the world.

Tomorow is definently laundy day, our clothes are so gross that we are thinking of going to buy some cheap t-shirts to wear while we do laundy because all of our clothes are stinky and dirty and we have been putting laundry off for waaaaaaaaaay to long. Thats why we need some moms over here to help us do our laundry haha. Plus we are really lazy to actually hand wash our clothes so hopefully we can find a laundry mat. It is also shopping day because we are sick of lugging this box full of stuff around so we need to finish our shopping and then send the box in the mail, probably the last big shipment of assorted goodies for the trip. From there on we will A) be running out of money so, and B) have to just carry whatever else we buy in our packs.

Well thats all for now.
The agenda for the next couple of days is to do some errand stuff, go to the museum, do a day hike from bishkek, then head to Kochkor for 2 nights to do another day hike around there, then back to Bishkek and then off to Kazahkstan.

Take care,
Sara and Tyson

Some random thoughts by Tyson (most likely false)

My thoughts about the gold teeth in middle aged women's mouths: I think that it is a good way to keep a hold of your money if you don't really trust the government or banks.

I think that the economic situation in Bishkek is strong at the moment, and people feel relatively safe about the future. Why I think this? Because of the number of pregant women walking around here, which is much higher than you'd expect to see.

People all over the world like to relax by a beach and have a couple of drinks, case and point the place we stayed at last night was identical to Sylvin Lake in Alberta expect for all the Russian.

Plus a question: Is the "Under My Umbrella" song popular at home too?

To Cholpon-Ata for some sun and vodka??

I tried to put up more photos but it keeps crapping out, when we're back in Bishkek I'll put a bunch up.

Mountain Flower

View looking up Ala-Archa (just south of Bishkek)

Sara wanted to get up really early and catch the 8am bus to Cholpon-Ata, however she hit or reset the alarm clock so many times that it ended up being 10am by the time we got out of bed. The alarm clock changes it's sound as it goes off, but after listening to it for however long now, I don't wake up anymore to it. After repacking all our stuff (as it was all mixed up from the camping trip into the mountains) we headed off to get some brunch or snacks to eat at the grocery store before heading to the mini bus stand to go to Cholpon-Ata. We decided to take a one block detour to see if Alexi Alexander had his shop at this Antique store that was closed when we had visited previously. Well we walk in and ask are you Alexi? The guy says, Me? I'm Alexander. We had found our man and spent the better part of an hour looking over pins, coins, and other Antique type things from the last 50 years or so. Long story short if you are in Karakol and want to see or buy some pins, coins, etc, Alexi is very helpful, fairly priced (we think) and friendly and worth stopping in on. Now here is the really important part since nobody we meet knew him, his shop is located kitty corner (opposite side of a four way stop on a diagonal) from Neofit Guesthouse which is in Lonely Planet.

We picked up some bread, water, and a pinecone shaped treat and took a taxi across town to the minibus station where we only had to wait 20 minutes to leave for the 2.25 hour drive to Cholpon-Ata. I liked the ride better than the taxis, due to us driving slower, only problem was it was hot, the windows didn't open, and it took a while. When we arrived in Cholpon-Ata, we were expecting to be mauled by hotel owners, not the case. My blood sugar was low, or that is the excuse I give to my foul mood. We looked at one B&B right beside where we were dropped off and decided no. So we took a taxi down towards the beach and got him to stop at a guesthouse that looked nice. It was really nice, so nice that we couldn't afford it, so we got our bags and walked a bit until we found a place that looked more our price range. That is where we got a room, left our bags and headed for the beach.

There is a bit of a sea smell at the beach as the lake has no drainage point, only evaporation. We covered our very white legs and tummies with sun screen, layed out our very small travel towels, I began to read, and Sara began to nap. About 20 minutes later a guy came by asking for a light. We said no, no in english, which made us interesting. It turns out that this guy and his three friends where at the beach relaxing and drinking and celebrating his bacholar party (we think). We tried communicating but we still don't know Russian and they were a bit intoxicated to read what we pointed to in the dictionary. They poured me a rather large shot and motioned to drink and then go swimming. I tried to politely refuse for quite some time. Finally I poured over half the shot back into my hosts cup, toasted and drank. It wasn't as harse as I thought it would be, but it was still straight vodka. I still refused to swim as the water was a bit cool. They continued to insist on us swimming or drinking more, so we decided it was time to go. We said farewell and headed in the direction we said our hotel was. We found another nice bit of beach out of sight of our previous location, and read and napped until the sun had gone behind a large cloud and the wind picked up so that it wasn't so warm anymore. We proceeded to dinner where we ordered somewhat blindly guessing at the Russian on the menu and using a few words from the dictionary, plus we pointed at the table beside us for the french fries.

And that was our day, tomorrow we lie on the beach, and maybe check out some petroglyphs.

Tyson and Sara

Almost but not quite

We almost decided not to write ever again but not quite.
Sara almost decided to go home but not quite.
We almost didn't find a ride to Karakol but not quite.
We almost drove the speed limit but not quite.
We almost were not three cars across a two lane road with no shoulders but not quite.
We almost got thrown out of the jalopee (jeep) on the dirt mountain trail but not quite.
We almost got ripped to shreds walking through the bushes but not quite.
We almost burnt down everything with our Russian camp stove but not quite.
We almost enjoyed our pasta filled with dirt from the silty water but not quite.
We almost froze to death in the tent but not quite.
Sara almost fixed her cramping (pooper) problem but not quite.
Tyson almost made it to the top of the pass but not quite.
Sara almost saved some M&M's for Tyson but not quite.
We almost thought this single female Canadian travelling for 18 months was sane but not quite.
We almost had to drink coupous amounts of Vodka but not quite.
We almost posted pictures (slow internet) but not quite.
We almost got laundry done but not quite.
And finally...
We almost found Alexi Alexander but not quite.

So much has happened since we last posted, and I apologize agian for no photos. The internet is both slow and you pay by MegaBit not by time, so photos you'll have to wait for. We are in Karakol now, alive and smiling, and very smelly. I believe the last you heard from us we had just finished a day hike up Ala-Archa (just 30 km south of Bishkek). To better explain Ala-Archa, think of an alpine valley filled with flowers of every color that on either side has rather large new mountains. By new mountains I mean mountians that have yet to see the erosion that is observed in the Canadian Rockies. Here the peaks are jagged and raw. Not having a map we just headed up the main valley until we got hungry, had lunch and walked back down. Since then we've bought a map of the area and are told that the waterfall up the side valley is utterly magnificant, so we plan on going there later.

The next day was suppose to be laundry, bank, food shopping, map buying, relaxing, and basically organizing to come to Karakol day with a major goal being the laundry. However it didn't work out that way. We ended up spending the day just relaxing in our apartment making some much needed headway into our novels and contemplating all things under the sun. Before we knew it the day was done with nothing accomplished.

Skip to Monday morning early. We where at the Caravan grocery store when the doors opened and loaded our basket with all things required for the mountians. We then were able to find and purchase a treking map of both Karakol and Ala-Archa. Next we took out enough funds to get us to and from Karakol where there would be no ATMs. Finally we went to Fatboy's for brunch and to try and get a taxi to Karakol. Sara was not keen on taking another public bus through any mountain passes, and I agreed. (Side note, public buses take way longer, smell, and in the mountians people get sick, however they drive a more reasonable speed so you aren't always reaching for something to hold onto as the seatbelts don't work, so you choose your own posion). At Fatboy's we meet a bunch of expat peacecorps guys who gave us some good advice about our upcoming adventures. One of their key pieces of advice was that when in Karakol we should go see Alexi Alexander who sold all sorts of old Soviet era stuff, for bargin prices. They didn't know the address but said, "Ask anyone who speaks a bit of English and they'll know Alexi." That is a quote. The driver associated with Fatboy's asked a rediculious price, as did many others we asked. We ended up returning to a tour agent we had dropped in on just out of couriousness earlier in the day. We finally left Bishkek at a little after 1pm. Sara's turn.

It gets kind of boring here when you just watch someone type and seeing as the blog is called "Tyson's and Sara's stroll around the world" i figured i better jump in before people begin to think i left or something like that. Also side note.. I also figured i should defend myself for Tyson really makes me look bad when he writes things on here from my perspective. I am really not that difficult to travel with i just have a few things such as really hating driving up mountain passes in any country really and seeing as my family and friends read this too im sure they dont want Tyson beating on me too badly!!! The drive to Karakol I thought was fine compared to driving from the togourt pass to bishkek. I took my seatbelt and pretended to buckle it in, knowing that it really did not do anything for safety it made me feel better anyways. Tyson just zoned out and glued his face to the window.. which i am getting much better at. Karakol to me seems like a little more economic disparity then in Bishkek the panoramic views from the city to the mountians make it very beautiful and for anyone who is a big mountain lover it makes you itch to want to go into the mountains (yes even I wanted a little taste.. quick someone write that down, time stamp it and sign it). After finding the Yak guest house ( I think Tyson just liked the name Yak) The places was a russian designed house that reminded me of what my Baba's house would have been like.. very old, wallpaper everywhere, old dressers and such and the smell of bread. We got hooked up in a room and the garden outside had very nice roses of every colour. Being hungry we set off to find the only restaurant that has english menus and had a small dinner of rice, chicken, fried veggies, and bread (I really can't get enough of bread). After that we walked around a bit and then headed back to the guesthouse hoping to talk to the Owner Valentine about getting us hooked up with a stove, and a tent to go to the mountains.

Valentine did not show up till the next morning. At breakfast he talked with us about our plans and told us he could take us in his jeep in the afternoon to his guesthouse in the mountains where we could stay the night and then head off for our overnight hike the following day. We decided that that was a good plan seeing has nothing was really holding us here in Karakol. So in the front yard of Valentines guesthouse here in Karakol there is a yellow very old jeep (50 years old) that looks like a Jalope that Archie owned in the comics. We thought it was pretty cool.. but me still being nieve thought for sure we were taking a land cruiser or something.. but nope Valentine loaded up the Jalope and said well lets go.. I looked at Tyson and just started to laugh because I can't wait to see how the heck we are going to make it up the mountains in this. Oh before this it is important to note that we spent all morning looking for Alexi Alexander.. going to tourist information places, tour places, shopping mall, taxis anyone really. Then we realized that it was hopeless and that it was like going to Quesnel and asking some random person if they knew where they could find the great fiddler Peter vanLeusden (but with a common name like Joe Smith) Because im pretty sure every Russian has the name Alexi, or Alexander in it.

Back to the Jalope ride.. it was bumpy, no paved roads, huge boluders from various landslides that had occurred over the years and the jeep was packed with me in the front, tyson and two outher women (a cook for the guesthouse and her daughter) in the back with our bags and the girls packs who took a lot of room because they spend the whole summer in the mountains. We didn't fall out, but a couple times im pretty sure i was sideways on a boulder. Tyson it explained it like a the real ride of Indiana Jones and not the rip off ride at Disneyland. I have come to the conclusion that if you get car sick or motion sickenss this trip is not for you. 3 bone jarring hours later (dont worry we got video coverage) we arrived at the guesthouse. It was nice accomodation with breakfast and dinner. Tyson ate everything because hes good like that, i picked and stirred and played with my food because im good at that but managed to eat some. The homemade jam and bread was fantastic as well as these pancake like sweet fried bread things.

The next morning we headed off on our trek. We got our tent and stove and some petro in a pepsi bottle and headed off. The scenary was amazingly nice, at parts i didn't really feel like I was hiking because the valley was so big and wide.. i felt like i was at someones farm with all the cattle, wild horses, and sheep we came accross. It took us about 3.5 hours to get to our place to set camp. After setting up camp, eating some lunch and getting ready for our excursion further up the valley to get a better view of the glacier we went on our way. We really didn't follow the route properly the way up and got ourselves into some thick bush. Ok iv'e been told that I am not being my honest self and forgot to mention a small minut detail about crossing a river. I don't like rivers.. there pretty to look at but i dont like jumping accross them. Tyson made a little path that was good enough for him so he figured it would be good enough for me.. we kind of had a little scrap abotu it.. no harm no foul right dad?? So after standing at the river , Tyson on one side, me still on the other side.. arms crossed shaking my head. I finally jumped and no one fell in .. end of story. Apparently I am not allowed to just put the good things in the blog i have to say everything. Who knew? (Tyson's note: since I use this as a journel of sorts it is important to me to tell it like it was, so that I can remember things such as spending half an hour throwing huge stone after huge stone into the river and saying to Sara, you can jump this now? eh? (Side side note, I thought basketball players could jump, I guess only up and down in the same place, but not over freezing cold rushing water)) We honestly really do love eachother .. if we are being honest then i might as well say that prunes taste gross and you can really only eat them after taking a bite of chocolate.

Ok so we crossed the river, made it through thick bush that could cut a hole in your shirt and while I had had enough i stopped and Tyson continued. And then i thought i made it this far up i might as well continue too so i met him at the rocky part up to the view of the glacier. It was stunning and big. After admiring it for a bit and taking photots we decided we better get back down before dark sets in. We actually found a better path this time along the edge of the scree rocks and down by the river. Also write this down and time stamp it about half way to our tent Tysons says "are we almost there yet, im tired" i almost had a heartattack.. your tired of hiking WHAT!?!?!? and a smile came on my face, i made him exhausted I WIN!!! He says, "well i was carrying the day pack.. and ask him the next day who carried the day pack down ??? ME!!!).

So to make a story that is already long shorter, we got some silty water to make pasta and it was gross .. (mom thanks to your over concerning worries about purifying the water, i made Tyson let the water boil for like 10 minutes, made him purify it and such) You can laugh Marilyn and Peter it is a little ridiculous. But none the less it was done.. and we had pasta with silt for dinner. Bon appetite. I had like 3 bites and decided that the silt between my teeth was enough and ate some dry ichi ban noodles, bread, and a mars bar. Tyson managed to choke down all of his and a little more but even he had enough. When trying to get the stove filled a bit of petro spilled, which caught on fire when trying to light the stove. There is not much more to say, except it was a good thing the handle to adjust the fuel intake was long. It was funny though.

The sleep in the tent was freezing and since were all about honesty i told Tyson he is going to be freezing if he sleeps in his birthday suite and he said "no no its hot in here" and so i put on my layers and got in the thin sleeping bag. Within about 15 minutes a freezing Tyson started to get his clothes out.. i had a chuckle and he didn't put socks on and i told him too but he ignored me and his were wet so i told him to put my extra ones on but he didn't want to stretch them.. like i would have cared i would rather have stretched socks then have to amputate my boyfriends toes. But no instead he thought it would be fun to during numerous accounts throughout the night stick his toes between my feet and legs to which i would jump and get very angry. It was not a good sleep even snuggling it was FREEZING.. even more freezing then the metal shed in Tibet. But we survived and nothing was amputated and took some good water that we had filled our water bottles from a stream along the hike that had no silt and made some soup for breakfast. (Tyson: the sleep was so cold because the tent had large areas of only mesh, we were sleeping on a horse blanket, and our sleeping bag was rated for plus 20.) But hey we survied and on to day 2 of hiking.

It was a short hike to where we dropped our packs and started to climb up to the pass that overlooked Lake Ala Kol. I made it about half way up and decided that the cramping and the not being able to well use your imagination was putting me to a halt so i stayed back and let Tyson continue on to see how far he would get. He was about 1.5 km from the pass when he decided that out of being alone, having no ranger rescue here and that it was very steep scree that he would have to climb decided to turn back and that he would have to return another day when there was more people, or he had some more technical skill. (Tyson: the hike up the valley from the get go was difficult, with the valley climbing over 1200 meters in under 7 kilometers. The last bit up to the pass was from where I stopped a combination of scree and snow, and the snow had the dirt trails from rock slids on it, not something that I felt comfortable doing that day. The wind, rain, and thunder at that point in time also helped in my decision to turn around there.) I had a nice nap and enjoyed the scenary and choked some more prunes down while waiting for Tyson and I also ate all the M&Ms. After about 3 hours he returned and i was shocked to hear that he didn't make it.. and felt bad for him. But he reassured me that it wasn't my fault and that we will just have to try it again another day in time. So after sitting and looking at pictures we decided to head on down.. me being a really nice person carried the pack down. We got the other pack where we had left it and made our journey back to the mountain guest house. We were so tired, our feet hurt and we were looking forward to having a hot springs bath.

When we got back to the guest house we were suprized to see some other people. For when we had arrived it was just us and one guy from Germany who was also peterified about the water source (see its just not me!!!!) There was a couple from Japan who really kept to themselves, and then this girl from London, who is now a Canadian Citizen who lives in Toronto and calls herself Canadian). I was happy to hear that. She was a super nice girl. But also maybe a little too crazy for us. She had at this point been travelling solo for 12 months now with 6 months remaning in her journey.. i almost fell of my chair.. and then she started talking about going to afghanistan to get to Iran and i was like.. are you kidding me?? It was nuts to us.. but i admired her strength and was also glad to hear that just a couple months ago she has a big bout of homesickness and had actually bought a train ticket to beijing and one to Urmuchi .. she was orignally going to Urmuchi to continue her journey and then at the train station she made the decsion to continue on and got the refund for the bejing ticket. So really i am normal... but she is still crazy. We had dinner of soup with some chunks of bone.. it sounds gross but it was not that bad, and then rice with fried something or other and of course jam and bread!!!! Then we headed off to the hot springs to soak for a bit. Then half asleep got to our room and went straight to bed exhausted.

The next morning we got up had breakfast and arranged a time to get back to Karakol. We left around 12:30 and it took less time to get down then up since we spent half the time in neutral rolling. If you ever wonder what it is like to get stuck between a sheep herd and the road.. we have video coverage no worries.. also picture a old Russian man (Valentine) getting out of the jalopee and being a little irritated that his road was blocked, was kicking his way through the sheep to get them to move.. it was a sight to see. We made it back to Karakol where we once again tried to find Alexi.. no luck hes in hiding or something we dont know we can't find him... we also can't find laundry services and we have far too many stains for hand washing so i guess we wait till we get back to Bishkek, seeing as for the next 2 days we will be wearing our bathing suites and lying on a beach on Lake Issyk-Kul. My type of thing. We ran into too Italians at the guesthouse back in Karakol who just came from the lake all nice and burnt who said it was fantastic. We are looking forward to it. So that is all for now, we stink and are hungry and need to go eat and shower badly. Congratulations if you read this entire blog.. if i had a candy i would give it to you, but instead pat yourself on the back. You will not hear from us probably until Monday or so when we arrive back in Bishkek.


Tyson and Sara

Hiking just south of Bishkek

Since my parents happen to be online at the moment we''ll fill you in with the details of our hike later, maybe tomorrow as we only have to get organized to go to Karakol tomorrow, so we should have time to write more.

So the internet in this particular shop will not let me post pictures. Tomorrow I promise.

Frustrating Day in Bishkek

Today was really suppose to be a productive day that turned unproductive. It really all started with not getting what I expected at lunch today. This was a huge disappointment and really spiraled the day into being frustrating and walking a whole lot to get to no conclusion. We tried to find some trekking companies to help us find information about hiking in and around Bishkek. We couldn't find any, except this guest house which was way the heck out of the way that didn't give us much information but did set a price for how much a guide and transportation would be for a day hike. After much grumbling with Tyson and I (we weren't really clicking today) we decided that the price was ridiculously high (80 US dollars) and that we would figure something else out. So we went back to our flat where we would gather our thoughts... then no more then a minute after getting in the door our land lady showed up asking in Russian why we were still here and that it was 6:00 o clock and we should be gone. We sat down and explained that we had paied already yesterday for 2 more nights and then she said noo we had paid for some water damage that happend from the leaking bathtub.. with our russian-english dictionary we tried to sort things out.. and after some broken english and broken russian we came to an agreement that we would pay 500 more soms for another night till june the 18th. So this was all good.. however she had left some money (1500 som) on our bed and after she left i realized this and chased after her to give it back but for some odd reason she was shaking her head like "no this isn't my money", and i was saying "yes this is your money this isn't ours, it was in your hand when you came to talk to us and you put it down for a second". I tried everything from Russian words in the dictionary, to english words, to re-enacting how she came in and was holding the money, to finally just laughing because for some reason she had forgotten in those 2 minutes that she put down her money. I am thinking the Russian Vodka is starting to get to her brain cells.. then she continued to ask if we wanted 6 nights because she thought this money was ours and we were trying to pay her more... it was all very strange.. and after she just took the 1500som and gave us back the 500som that we paid for , to stay till the 18th of june so to make a really confusing story short.. our land lady may have too much vodka, and we didn't pay for the extra night so really we saved money in an odd way. I am starting to think maybe i need some Vodka to keep myself sane for the last 2 months , seems to be how everyone else survives haha.

So after our crazy but nice land lady left.. we decided that tomorrow we will go do a day hike by hiring a taxi driver for the day (if you can do that...) and then coming back in the early afternoon. We went to the supermarket to get some lunch for tomorrow.. and well we have some sort of salami looking meat.. that I am not really sure if it is salami, horse meat, beef tounge.. who knows really.. Tyson being all optimistic and "nothing phases me im in the middle of no where" says it will be fine.. I think i might just stick to the bread and some m&m's really can't go wrong there. Then we headed to our favorite place to eat, if you guessed the Italian reasturant you are correct. I had the calazone highly would recommend it if you are heading this way (haha.. anyone..? heading this way? no?) and Tyson had some rich cheese trouffle pasta that he said was also good. That was pretty much the best part of the day.. dinner.. maybe tomorrow we can start on the right foot.

Sara

Sara now knows not to order the French bread at Fat Boy's because it always comes with lettace and too much mayo. We also know that if you own a business here you really don't need to advertise it because everyone must already know about it. Ie. We have to climb to 3rd story flats to try and buy maps (PS, if you have office hours posted on your door try and be there for them) and into back courtyards (ie, room 12 around back). Also if your guesthouse is on an alleyway you may want to consider putting up at least one sign. There wasn't even a sign on the gate, door, or anything. This is the third guesthouse we've been in where we've walked in to the enterance way and had to ask "Is this such and such a place?" Other suggestion to the government here, get meters for your taxis, as a taxi here is just a car with a sign stuck to the roof with a magnet. While your on that you may want to try a street light or two. But really Bishkek is a great city, much better than we thought it would be, which says alot about our thought of China eh? We'll leave those thought till we're further away from China I think. It is understandable when you've only been a country for 18 years. If things have changed as much as they have to make our Lonely Planet good for only toilet paper and that was written 4 years ago, this place is doing remarkable. Honestly I and I think Sara does too have good thoughts about this country and city so far.

Sara's explaination of the dealings with the landlady were overly short and simplified if you can believe that. We also mailed some letters today, that surprisingly enough went so well that I completely forgot we did that today until now.

Finally salami stays good for a day right? and salami meat is salami meat right? Tomorrow will be better, we're going to see a waterfall!!!

Tyson

Pictures from Kyrgyzstan and Bishkek

Outside our apartment

One of many squares

View from our apartment window

Busy intersection in Bishkek

The "Other" White House

Typical street in Bishkek

Oh Lenin...

A Rose

Streamer or Toilet Paper?

Typical, beautiful mountain pass Kyrgyzstan

Road just after crossing the boarder into Kyrgyzstan

So nothing to say today, just enjoy the photos. We slept in and rested and relaxed away the rest of the day. Tomorrow we'll organize to do something, most likely.

Tyson and Sara

Bishkek

Hello,

We spent the day walking around Bishkek getting our bearing to an even greater extent. Bishkek is a very European city, and not at all what we expected. From reading and hearing from other travellers we thought the place would be very unfriendly and bleak, but we don't find it so. We find it quite green. The squares have some weeds, and almost no lights work at night, but by day it is quite pretty. Today it was 31'C and with the slight breeze we didn't find it hot at all, we've been in the desert too long. You can get anything you need here, the department stores carry everything that a department store in Canada would carry and more. The grocery stores likewise are well stocked, clean, just like a Safeway back home. We restrained ourselves to M&M's today, which tasted amazing. We walked through some of the parks admirring the alarmingly massive number of statues, and watched some pretty good 15 year old guys play doubles tennis. We then walked more than halfway across town to find the movie theatre. When we finally did, there was the latest movies playing however we were told they were in Russian without even English subtitles. We may watch Shrek 3 when it comes out but figured some others might be hard to understand without knowing what was going on. We went back to the amazing Italian place for dinner. Sara ordered the Spagetti with Tune (we thought it was a fancy name for something or other, it turned out to be Tuna. Sara not liking seafood was disappointed but scrapped off the tuna and ate the pasta. I ordered the Risotto, also not the best choice, while it tasted good, it was more like Spanish rice. Tomorrow the plan is to maybe go to a muesum, get organized to start going some day hikes, and stop walking so much and read our books for a bit.

Pictures would describe Bishkek much better, however the computers we are on tonight won't let me load them, so you'll have to wait... sorry.

Sara and Tyson

If your going to die.. it might as well be to Micheal Jackson!

Hello from Kyrgyzstan!!!!!!!!!! Caution EXTREMELY LONG.

Well we have made it out of China "safely" and now are into our second country of our journey. Yesterday we left Kashgar eatly at around 9:30 am Beijing time, after getting up late, we hurried to get ready and to get some breakfast. Our breakfast as usual took forever to get here and I was pretty much eating my crepe in my hand on the way out the door. Turns out that our driver was late anyways so I could have actually chewed my breakfast instead of swallowing it whole. Anyways we got in the car and were off to the Toguourt Pass.

The drive there was bumpy as the roads were not paved and we had no problems going through China customs and getting our exit stamp. The problem started to arise once we got to the pass. Our guide was so excited that there was lots of vehicles around she thought for sure that our Kyrgystan driver was there, however she found out otherwise. She at this point was calm and told us he should be here any minute. However any minute turned out to be 3 hours later. Once an hour had gone by our guide was getting anxious and scared because this has never happened to her before and the driver has never been late, there were a couple of tourist buses who had unloaded and were going into mini buses that were waiting for them. Our guide wanted to just get us over the boarder because there was no way we could get back into China now that our visa had been stamped out. She talked to the boarder guards and with a lady who was organizing the tour who was from Australia and she kept telling our guide that she couldn't take us accross the boarder. Tyson getting a little ancy told the Australian lady that he would pay her money, and even join the tour for a day just to get accross the boarder.. the lady wouldn't budge because she said that there was an incident last year where they ended up taking some other tourists across the boarder who weren't on thier group list and there ended up being an accident and the people sued their company.. Tyson was willing to sign his life away with some waiver but the Australian lady said it was a no go and that she was sorry. Meanwhile in the back of my mind im saying "please don't leave us stranded here in the middle of no where with no where to go, we don't take up much room and we're Canadians we're good". Our guide at this point now was frustrated and upset.. she wanted to as she said "pow pow pow" them. So we just went back to the car and waited.. the options were getting slim and it came down to the next big truck we see coming from the Chinese side to cross the boarder we are going to hitch a ride with them to get us to the customs office on the Kyrgyz side where then we would find out what happened to our driver who was suppose to meet us. Well what do you know the next car was a car coming from the Kyrgyz side.. and not any car, im talking about an Black Audi (Felt almost like a limo mom with leather seats) (Tyson is writting now, as Sara is off having an MSN conversation). The Audi was ours. The guide jumped for joy. We took our bags and finally put both feet across the imaginary line in the dirt at the same time. 7 kilometers down the road we hit Kyrg Immigration. A great rusting Russian building, with men sitting around outside in heavy army jackets smoking with AK-47's over one shoulder, or resting against their knee. I really wanted to photograph this, but though otherwise. Immigration was a breeze, our bags even stayed locked in the truck. No more than 10 minutes later we were on the road again, driving beside two parallel barbed wire fences (both on the left hand side). A couple of times we passed a watchtower or bunkers with trenches connecting them. I felt like I was driving through Normandy in 1950 or something, it was really surreal. I think I learned more about military defenses driving that dirt road then any history book or movie for that matter. (For note, these defenses all appeared abandoned, except the fence, but who knows...

The scenery was breath-taking to say the least. The Switzerland of Asia is not a bad way of putting it, as we've been told before. Only it is the Switzerland without the permanent buildings, at first anyways. The countryside was dotted with grazing horses, sheep, goats, and cows. Lots of horses. Once the pavement finally started we wished it hadn't. Only one side of the road was ever in very good condition, usually the wrong one. The other was pitted with large truck ruts. We made our way to Naryn in good time. Most people stop in Naryn for the night on the way to Bishkek, we stopped to wash the car. For 20 minutes the outside and inside was washed and hand dried to a perfect shine. I enjoyed a chia with the houses grandmom, who enjoyed way too much sugar in her own chia. One sip, add another spoonful of sugar, another sip and repeat. After leaving Naryn the driver seemed to speed up, and we didn't feel so comfortable, as the roads hadn't gotten any better or wider. We got the driver to limit himself to 100 km/h. Still we reached for the ow sh*& bars a number of times. I tried to distract myself by looking out the side window at the amazing scenery, but Sara would squeeze my hand really hard anytime she felt uncomfortable, so I didn't get to miss the large transport truck and us sharing the same lane of the road for what seemed like way too long. Luckly there was a English mixed CD in that played classics like Micheal Jackson's Billy Jean and others. As you've probably guessed we reached Bishkek at around 10:30 local time, after 12 hours of driving and 3 hours of waiting. The driver got a Travel agent on the phone to get us a hotel, we had read on Thorn Tree of a nice guesthouse, but I'd only written down directions from an intersection for walking. We couldn't find it as the streets aren't well lit at night, and we didn't leave the car. The driver got frusterated, and I got back on the phone with the Travel Agent and asked for another guest house, she said she'd call back in 5 minutes but refused to tell the driver this. We had a language barrier, so we ended up driving 5 minutes to a street where we stopped and were greeted by a Chinese man that spoke broken English. The driver basically threw us out of the car (for who knows how long he'd been driving for) and we got into a Toyota van with this Chinese man who we hoped would take us to a hotel or guesthouse. We first went to this apartment building and got in an old Soviet Elevator that made all the noises you're supposes to be scared of in Canada and rose to the 8th floor. Where we were greeted by a Russian women who lead us to the 7th floor and quite a nice apartment for all intents and purposes. The apartment was more than sleepable, however we wanted something with a frontdesk and a sign. So we picked the highest recommended place in Lonely Planet and tried to call them. No answer. So we picked the second highest. The Chinese man talked to them on the phone, but it appears that the hotel we picked was not just off the map but rather 7 kilometers out of town. He said he would drive us no more and 1 km. He said he would take us to a nice hotel that was close, we said no. I had another phone conversation with a man that spoke better english. (I wonder if I spoke another language very well if I would get random phone calls at all hours asking me to explain to some lost, tired, and grumpy tourist something that seemed to make perfect sense..) We agreed to see this other hotel and if it wasn't any good to get a taxi to the one we wanted. The hotel ended up being quite nice, expensive, but not more than we were willing to pay for the night. We made another 2 successful trips in Russian elevators before watching some music videos (Avil, P. Diddy, Christina, etc.) and falling fast asleep.

The sun was bright in the morning and we were well awake before our alarm went off. Sara was feeling very homesick and strongly contemplating going home. This discussion took a couple hours with no real conclusion. We agreed to check prices on flights and consider what exactly was involved in seeing Kyrgyzstan. We went to Fatboy's for lunch. A nice place with good food. We then had a quick internet session ($1500 to fly from Bishkek to Edmonton for those who are interested and coming this way (28 hours of travel time)). We then went in search of a guesthouse for tonight. We found the one we missed last night, but they only had dorm beds. We went to another but again the same. This walk took a couple of hours. We grabbed a pop, and a taxi back to the bank district to try and get money. We ended up having to pay with a mixture of Som (Kyrg money) and US money for the taxi. We needed a bank. Here lots of places change money, and can give you money on a Visa or Mastercard, but few ATMs that accept forgein cards. Sara spotted one not in the LP and as always I was relieved to have a couple days worth of money. We walked back past the White House to a travel agent. We wanted a guesthouse, they didn't know any, but they did help us rent an apartment. So now we are renting an apartment for 500 Som per day, by the day. It is a second story flat, in an old Soviet building that is rented from a pleasent Russian women. It is clean and comes without a fridge or hot-plate. After watching the sports news on both CNN and BBC, we went to the best Italian Restarunt we've ever eaten at. The food was amazing, rich, filling, and really tasty. The terrace on the street was packed, and at the end of the meal we invited a father/son from Norway to join us instead of standing and waiting. They gave us some good information as the father has been here many times with NGO's.

Well it is getting late and this is getting long. Tomorrow well see some sites, find some hiking routes, and post some pictures.

Tyson and Sara

Nothing like a man stroking your face for 30 minutes

One of my favorite images, a girl playing near a water fountain infront of the mosque in Kashgar

Men bargin over sheep at the Sunday animal market

Tyson's loses his beard

nuts, and dried fruit at the regular Sunday market

Today Sara really didn't want to get out of bed, and I barely made it myself. We then waited almost 20 minutes for toast and yogurt for breakfast, while full breakfest food like crepes and omelets were order and delivered. Really John and his Information Cafe we are not that impressed... We ate quickly and took the toast with us, and tried to pay, but it seems neither them nor I have small bills in the morning. We meet the carpet guy who was a couple of minutes anyways, and went off to the much talked about animal market. We arrived and thought we had made our way back to rural Canada. Cows, donkeys, sheeps and goats we tied up around this large enclosure. Men went around touching the asses of the animals and talked to the owners about price. We were a little early as the entire time we were there people continued to show up with more animals to sell. We were surprised because back home if you went to anything farm related event at 7:30 am (that's even local time) almost everything would be done. Anyways we walked around watched some barginning take place, but really at that time there was just a lot of ass touching. We decided as we left that it really wasn't any different from going to any animal sale in rural Canada, and that if you where from a large city or had never seen farm animals before it would have been impressive, however for us it was any given weekend at the 4-H sale.

From the animal market we made our way to the Sunday market (the government seperated the two markets about 3 years ago). Again we were too early as most of the permenant stalls were just opening. We quickly made our way through and found the temp. stalls where people from out of town came and sold their stuff. These out of towners were selling all types of cloth, and there was many a lady eagerly digging through the piles. Afterwards we walked through the food section before returning to our hotel. Again somewhat disappointed with the Sunday market, maybe we were too early, maybe it was overhyped (probable) maybe people selling things in an organized layout just isn't our thing.

Once we reached the hotel we tried numerous times to phone Canada. The night before they said we could do it from our room if we were calling collect, but this wasn't true. We ended up just calling normally and paying for the calls. As always it is emotionally difficult and strange to call home from so far away. You always think you'll be on a crackly line, but the connect is usually clear and it is like you are phoning from within the same city. To say the least we both enjoyed talking to home. After calling home I went and spent another 2 or more hours sending my parent's carpet home. Post offices are run in a odd way here, or odd to me. You have to send it in a China post box (only bought at the post office), with China post packing tape, and the box must be packed at taped in a certain way. There is only one person in the whole place who can sell you a box, and if the box you need (a rather large one) is not in her area, and she is busy you have to wait forever for her to go get the box. This is while someone sits within reach of the box you need, but since it isn't the box seller, she can't give you the box. It took a while, but eventually we mailed the thing home, so go visit my parents in 3-4 months to see their new rug.

After a late lunch of French fries and a book break (to avoid the heat) we went for our last walk in Kashgar. We have to physically walk across the border tomorrow, our last walk in China. On the way back from the walk I gave in to Sara's complaints about the beard and had it shaved off. First they rubbed a water/cream into my beard for at least 20 minutes. Very enjoyable. Then with a good old fashion razor there went 5 weeks of growth. My face has never been this smooth since my last worldly trip 11 years ago. Silkly smooth, no razor burn, and all for less then a dollar. I paid double enjoying it so much. I can't wait to grow another beard so I can get it shaved off again.

Tyson and Sara

Camels and Carpets

Tyson and Pippen after a long morning in the sun (sleeves are down because I didn't want to burn any more)

Bernadette

Sara feeding a banana peel to Chris' unnamed camel, Pippen in the foreground

Today we got up relatively early, depending on what clock you are using (Beijing or Local), had breakfast and meet up with Chris an American teaching English in China who agreed to go on a camel safari with us. This was because he had yet to see the desert, so off we went in a taxi cab for a two hour drive through the countryside to the edge of the desert. Along the way the fields were full of people cutting a crop of barely (I think, not a farmer) by hand using a sickel, and loading it onto donkey carts. Very interesting to see, however we seemed to get the only guy in China to drive without constantly honking his horn. Sara and Chris were sound asleep for most of the trip and I drifted in and out. We arrived at the overly touristy location with a lake (don't know how much of it was natural) with speed boats, seadoos, and big balls you could get in to rent. There were also dune buggies and of course the camels. We paid for 3 hours and loaded up, Sara got on Bernadette while I got on Pippen who whinned everytime he had to get up or down. About 5 minutes in Chris asked if there was a way to get comfortable on these things. Sara felt very sorry for the guy leading us through the sand dunes. We made a large circle through the dunes often backtracking to avoid soft steep decents that the camels didn't handle so well. It was enjoyable and felt much more like we were going someplace then just nowhere. However after about 2 hours we had all had enough, our asses were sore and we were all overheating, not to mention the poor guy leading our camels on foot. We turned back to camp and arrived only 15 minutes before we were supposed to. I can say I've had my fix of camels for a while and my back and bum says it may be for longer. We all napped on the way back, as there was little action in the fields due to it being the heat of the day.

When we arrived back in Kashgar I went off to try and get a carpet for my parents. I'd sent them a picture of some nice ones we'd found and they picked the one they liked and set a upper price limit. I went to the shop. Two hours of talking later I had reached the upper limit of the price for the carpet I was given to bargin with. We sat for a long time the two owners discussing the price. It was a no, we were still quite far apart, so I got up shook their hands, said no hard feelings, thank you, and goodbye. I had hardly got my sunglasses on, when one of the guys came after me. We were able to settle for just slightly above my upper limit (could probably have gotten to the limit, but I was getting hungry) (Sorry mom and dad, I did try and get it for less, honest). So we went back in and talked about when we would meet tomorrow to get the money from the bank and mail the carpet back to Canada. The english speaking one, not wanting me to take all day at the market (my thoughts) offered to show us around the markets in the morning (animal and regular) I agreed because it could be helpful or interesting, and he is a nice guy for a saleman. Anyways we'll spend as long at the market as required to get a good feel for it (my thoughts) Sara is planning on calling home so she won't want to stay forever anyways.

After the market, mailing the carpet, and maybe some meaningless strolling around, we'll pack up and get ready from country number 2.

Tyson and Sara

Pictures from Karakol Lake

Sunrise

Sunrise on Mount Muztagata 7546 meter.

Ladybug on a flower (obviously)

Young camels, wouldn't let us get too close

Sunset on the side of a 7800 meter mountain.

Our yurt was the second one, the family with the two little childern seen infront lived in the first one.

Not much to add since yesterday. We booked a 1 day camel safari for tomorrow, a American guy is going to come with us. We must look like we've been travelling for a while because at dinner and breakfast quite a few pasty people are coming up to us and asking what we've done and what we recommend they do. An odd change from a couple of weeks ago. So while I explain what we've done, Sara is off asking more tanned people what they've done. On the bus ride down yesterday, after we arrived back on the flat lands, "The Gods must be Crazy II" started playing in Chinese. Everyone got some good laughs, especially the Chinese military guys on the bus when the kids are trying to climb out of the water tank using the rifle. Other than that, I am planning on strolling through some of the market streets this afternoon, hopefully get some good pictures. We cross the Torugut pass on Monday into Kyrgyzstan.

Enjoy the pictures.

Tyson and Sara

Vomit, Vermin, and Variety

Today we arrived back from Karakol lake, some 200 kilometers south of Kashgar, and on the road to Pakistan (1/2 day journey further south). Before we left Sara's tummy was in all kinds of fits and we almost didn't go. It was Sara's decision what to do and she left it till the last possible second. With 12 minutes before the bus departed we took are belongings checked out of our hotel, took a taxi across town, and found the correct bus, paid extra for heavy luggage and took the final two seats at the back of the bus. We felt like we were in the Amazing Race. Side note there is an Asia Amazing Race with a Phil lookalike. The bus ride took forever to get started it seemed. After racing hard for 15 minutes we were tortured to a 20 minute fill up of the gas tank and two stops for food the first lasting 10 minutes, while the second lasting almost 45 minutes. All this within the first 1.5 hours of travel. Then up into the mountains we went. The highway had been replaced relatively recently but parts had already been swept into the torent river below and rocks littered the pavement in some sections. Everywhere along the route wire baskets were being constructed to try and keep the river from dragging the road into it. The bus driver navigated with one hand on the horn and the other frantically changing gears in some vain attempt to make up for all the time at the rest stops. I keep my thoughts on irrational fears such as the "Godfather" type character sitting infront of us with his family who was in my mind going to be the subject of an armed assult upon the bus. The driver's one hand was on the horn so to let oncoming traffic know we weren't even partly in our own lane. On numerous occasions I reached for something to stop the slingshot effect as we rocketed through and up the mountains following the river. About an hour in we stopped for a police check where the first batch of vomit from a small girl was cleaned from the aisle. Back on the bus and up the valley we went. At one spot we drove directly towards a 500+ foot cliff that rose directly from the canyon bottom and then proceeded to drive under it. And then after 3 hours of being on the bus we crested a bolder strewn pass into a wide valley with a lazy river and green valley bottom. Yaks, camels, goats, and sheep could be seen with their shepards. At the edge of this valley was a desert like rolling hills and even some sand dunes that rose to glacier and snow covered 6000+ meter peaks. Another hour up this wide valley and we arrived at Karakol lake, not before the little girl had emptied her stomach for the second time.

Off the bus and we were instantly hounded by about 5 men trying to get us to stay with them. We decided which direction we wanted to go and all but one of the men left us for the two Danish guys. Our guy led us to a traditional Kyrgzystan yurt beside the road. We went in and it was clean enough with carpets covering a dirt floor. The local english speak arrived to lay out the prices, what we wanted for dinner, and if we wanted a camel or horse ride. We decided on no camel or horse and that we wanted to just walk around the lake today. After we (tyson) drank some tea that they had offered we were off to go walk around. We were amazed at how big the mountains were and how they were not like the rocky mountains at all, they reminded Sara as the mountains she use to draw as a child with constantly high peaks in a zig zag way. The lake was not as nice as Namsto but the mountains were better then in Tibet. They were laced with snow that looked almost fresh. After coming face to face with camels and yaks so that Tyson could take pictures we stopped for a little lunch break of bread and some pastery like thing that was amazingly tasty. We had a little nap on the shore of the lake, and then got up and walked around for some more. At this point the wind was picking up so we decided to turn around and walk back to our yurt and dinner was soon to be had.

When we arrived from our walk, within a couple of minutes the lady who's husband had brought us to this yurt had offered us to get warm and come into thier families yurt. We were a bit chilly so decided to do this. While we warmed up there were 2 little kids, and one sleeping who were just playing around and doing their thing, they didn't looked phased by us one bit. We watched the lady prepare and cook dinner (which was amazing for some reason, it just tasted so good) it was rice, potatoes, lettuce, tomatoes in this pressure cooker pot that was all thrown together... it was the best tasting rice we had had since being in China.. and we have eaten alot of rice!! Before dinner, the lady tried to sell us things that she had in her home, and tourist things as well, we looked at them and bought some necklaces for really cheap, we felt this was how they made thier living so we didn't mind buying something small. After a dinner, the smallest child woke up and was very confused about us and why we were in his yurt. He was about 2.5 and really cute. We gave him a bouncy ball and he seemd a little less tense after that. We learnt some Kyrg language that we now already forget, and we talked about our families with some language barriers but for the most part we all understood. We showed them pictures of our families and talked about ages of people, and things of that nature. They offered to sell us some hats made from real fur, but Sara was feeling apprehensive for real fur isn't really her thing, and we wouldn't be able to get them accross the boarder into kyrgyzstan anyways. We graciously thanked them, and tried to explain that we couldn't buy them. After some fun picture taking, and learning more words, we decided to catch the sunset. There was a big cloud in front of the large mountain that wouldn't blow away, but even so we did manage to get some good sun setting light for photos. Once the sun was down we retreated to our Yurt for our sleep. It was much better then sleeping in the metal shed at Namtso, much warmer, still cold, but we had alot more heavy home made blankets and there was no dogs barking, just peace and quiet.

Tyson got up in the morning, Sara was not going to move from her warm blanket, and took some pictures of the sunrise. Which he then climbed back into bed after and fell back asleep for another hour or so. We wanted to walk around the lake more in the morning, but to our suprize the bus was an hour earlier then we had told it would be. Tyson was in the middle of drinking his tea, but we were rushed to get our stuff and load onto the bus.

Saga 2 of the puking diaries. The bus ride started ok, there was only one little kid and he didnt look sick so we figured good, should be fine.. wrong. About 30 minutes in, our first puke victim occured outside the window.. Anyone who knows Sara, knows that her and puke, or hearing puke or anything of the like don't mix. So she closed her eyes, had one headphone in, while Tyson had the other headphone in from the mp3 player and she closed her eyes and covered her other ear to muffle the sounds of the puke. So we continued along the windy mountain passes, up and down, and all around, and within another 20 minutes our second puke victim occurred, this time a different man who was thrown from his seat, to the nearest window seat so that he could do his buisness. To make a long gross story short 4 people puked on the way down, we were not hit, and most ended up outsie the bus, much to the anger of the bus driver who had to wipe it off. So neadless to say, mountains are beautiful, getting to them is not!! This tops the worse bus ride Sara has ever had!!!

We arrived back in Kashgar and went back to the Quinwak hotel where we had stayed before. The guy at the counter who wouldn't give us a better price last time we tried to check in was there again. We argued with him that we had paid 100 Yuan at his hotel before and wanted the same. He relucantly gave in. We went to our room to find the air conditioner and TV not working. They said they would get a guy in to fix the air conditioning in an hour, but the TV was a no go. While we don't speak Chinese or watch large amounts of TV, it is nice to watch some sports from time to time. So we requested a got a room change to a room that stank of mildew. This would not do so we went to the front and demanded nicely another room. They were out of single rooms and were not willing to give us a double (they said they were out, but the ledger infront of him said otherwise) So we said we would leave and asked for our money back and a taxi to another hotel. Slowely our money came out, and we went and collected our bags. The staff were completely unhelpful by this point. We gave our recipit in and asked for them to pay for our taxi since they promised us a room with working features that they hadn't delivered. The vermin at the front refused and we (tyson and him) got in a bit of a yelling match infront of the hotel. I feel if you sell me something that doesn't work you not only owe me my money back but are inclined to compensate me for my 2 hours and frustration. NO was all we got, for 5 Yuan or 75 cents. I may try and speak to the other front guy tomorrow morning about my issue, and if we do not recieve an apology will be writting poor things (and rightfully so) in Thorntree and other travelling websites. Anyways we've settled into a not so nice hotel at the same price and now it is time for dinner with Sprites.

(Sara is really hungry so pictures will have to wait until tomorrow)

Tyson and Sara (Sara wrote the middle)

Carpets and Scams

Today was an interesting day. We knew that we had to leave our hotel room because the entire place was being overrun by college students taking some sort of big exam. However we were relieved to find that we could get a room at the same hotel different building, for the price we had fought and lost over 2 days previously. This room was as nice or nicer (Sara: i dont think it is nicer, it smells like a swimming pool) than the other and we didn'd complain, except our window looks out over the hotels laundry facility. After a brunch (we're inbetween Beijing and Xinging time right now (you have to ask what time things happen at because it could be either time)) we put our deposit down to cross the Torgurat pass on Monday, hopefully we or they find two more people to share the cost with us by tomorrow when the paperwork needs to be filled by. Then we went looking for the bus station to buy a ticket to go to Karakol lake (3400 meters) on the way to Pakistan. We found the bus station but not the ticket office at first. We ran into some Taxi drivers to insisted in no english that you need to take a taxi to the lake and it would cost us 1000 Yuan a massive over charge. We escaped into a hotel where we think an Indian man assisted us. He spoke to a local women who took us around the other corner to the ticket window, no bus to Karakol from there. So when we didn't understand this at first we went back to the hotel and got translation through the Indian man. The scamming taxi driver offered to take us to the correct bus station for only 400 Yuan (almost 60 CAN). A ride in a taxi anywhere in town costs 5 Yuan, the train station 15 km out of town costs 10 Yuan to get to and this guy wanted 400!! He was yelled at, laughed at, and kicked out of the hotel. We left a couple of minutes later with directions to the other long distance bus station in Uiger. We had to try a couple of taxis before we got one to take us for 5 Yuan, the first time this had ever happened to us. We bought a ticket for tomorrow morning, Sara is concerned with when we know when to get off (Karakol lake isn't a stop) and how to get back (again because Karakol lake isn't a stop). We've been told that if you're on the road by noon you should have no trouble catching a bus or other vehicle back to Kashgar. Sara: I guess we will find out, im going to be really mad if i can't get back on a bus to Kashgar on Thrusday afternoon...and there will be repercussions to pay.... i insisted on doing things the easy way but Tyson wouldn't budge!

We picked up some nan bread (not the same as the Indian kind) and went carpet shopping. The nicest carpets were the silk ones, very expensive. The second nicest ones were the Afgan carpets. The local Uigur carpets did not really turn our fancy at all. We spent a couple of hours in a somewhat dimely lit room filled with carpets and an old man flipping through a couple of hundred carpets. The original stack was probably 3 feet high. We narrowed it down to three different but nice carpets. Then we asked the price. The price was much higher than we were willing or able to pay when you also factor in the cost to ship it home. We gave our price that we could afford to pay, apologized and left. The owner did come down in price, but even then we were so far apart and we were already at the higher end of what we could pay. We looked in a couple of other shops for smaller rugs but nothing was nice or it was way too expensive. So our carpet dreams ended.

In other sad news the camel safaris around Kashgar here are like you ride for no more than an hour maybe if you're lucky two. And during that time you are not out in the middle of the desert, you are on the edge close enough to smell the irrigation. Not the type of camel trip I want. They say there is good desert near here, but at the good desert there are no camels. We're going to go to another area for dinner tonight where there are other travel agents, but if we're going to do a camel safari it is going to be in the middle of the desert and will last most of the day. Sara: I have pretty much had it with deserts, i keep telling Tyson lets just relax and read and chill out, but he insists on go-go-going and laying down money as if we have a stash of it growing in the back of our hotel. If we can't find that Sara says we could do it in Morocco.... (not this trip and not the one after (Hawaii) but maybe the one after that). Sara: No, morocco would not be till im at least done travelling Western Europe and the places I want to go, Hawaii isn't even a trip plan its just a standard thing to do, it will be Hawaii, then my trip plan which has no intention of putting in another desert, or any other eastern/ souteastern countries in it.. I would like some decent food on the next trip thank you :). She said we could go to Morocco soon, she's mean. We'll just have to find someone to take us to the desert here for the day now. No we won't .. im done with the desert.
Tyson and Sara

Around Turpan And On To Kashgar

WARNING: THIS IS A LONG ONE, GIVE YOURSELF 10 MINUTES MIN.

Squatter for those who need to know

Grapes growing in a field

The sun through the dust at the ruined city

The enterance to the irrigation system

Typical inside of irrigation system,

Stream through the desert, could've walked all day here

I know it has been a couple of days since we last wrote. I blame sightseeing and a 18 hour train ride, you can blame laziness and sleeping in if you want. We did end up joining a British/Japanese couple to go see a number of sites around Turpan: Flaming mountains, a old village, the irrigation channels, and a ruined city. We started the day by driving out and making a loop through the Flamming mountains to a creek above the old village. The driver stopped and said good place for photos, he said 5 minutes, 30ish minutes later we were back in the minivan (not just my fault). From where the driver stopped it was a short scamper down to the actual creek. It was quite impressive standing ankle deep in cold water while the desert rose up around me. There was vegetitation in the valley bottom right along the creek but no where else. The landscape was a clayish red color sedimentary. After climbing back into the mini van down to the village we went. The village has been where it was and lived in for over a thousand and had remained for the most part unchanged, or so they said. They grew grapes and raisins with the water from the small creek. We found the villagers (Ulger) quite unfriendly, probably since every day tourists ourselves included and tourists in large buses fill their town snapping photos. There was some mostly destroyed buddhist grottos just above the city, and I on an impluse bought a huge bag of these berries that tasted like sweet blackberries. About 20-25 berries into the couple 100 in the bag I had had my fill. The bag broke shortly after and I only felt bad for paying so much for eating so few berries. We left the village quite unimpressed. On the way to the Flaming mountains the driver stopped to get something to eat or drink or something, and there was two women picking at some sort of fiberous plant. From the car I couldn't tell if it was cotton or silk (mainly because I don't know what the silk worm's cacoon looks like). I got out to investage to find it was cotton. After pulling cotton from the buds for 10 minutes we continued on to the Flaming mountains. So here we are driving along this road in the middle of the desert, nothing to the left or right, and then we turn left into this depression, just a hole in the ground beside the road, paved, and lined with shops. On one side of the depression was a ticket window for going to the best place to take photos. The pictures also showed a milk run, the opportunity to ride a camel, and a few artifacts. No thank you, we said, got out of the van, climbed the ramp back to the road, walked 1.5 minutes to the edge of the gate and took our photos. It was really unimpressive as well. They say when it is really hot and the light is right the red mountains look like they are on fire. They didn't look that impressive. The British guy started walking towards the mountains, while we stayed and admired the road and the hills (the mountains weren't all that tall either) from the shade of a billboard sign. After a while the driver wondered where we had all gone and came and picked us up off the side of the road. The driver than tried to explain that instead of going to the irrigation channals where we would pay 40 Yuan a piece to get in he would take us somewhere else. I really wanted to see the channels, but wasn't sure what we were or weren't agreeing to.

After driving to a small village we got out by this small hole in the ground. One of the well sites for the irrigation channel, I was thinking great, here it is,but I can't get into it and see it... Then around a wall we went to where the roof had long ago fallen in and trees were growing. Down the steep bank we went, well 3 of us, Sara decided this wasn't for her and stayed up above. The three of us climbed down and started into the irrigation channel. At first it was quite wide, but after 50 meters or so the banks began to get steep and making progress in the dark was difficult. Both the British guy Sean and the Japanese girl Nain (sp?) slowly slide down the bank and into the water together. The water wasn't deep but flowed steadly. Nain had had enough and so we turned back, so I could get my headlamp. Now equiped with two headlamps Sean and myself headed back into the irrigation channel, this time Sara wasn't trying to hit us with rocks from above either which was nice. The system lay about 30 meters under the ground with wells every 50 meters approximately. Further in it became apparent that the system had use to be oval shaped with being probably 6 feet wide and 3 feet deep. However over the years erosion had made it look like an invereted tear drop. Underground was cool and even damp, a nice change. After Indiana Jones'ing our way about 500 meters up the system we were both getting tired, and not too much was changing in the view. So we turned around and after falling in a couple of times due to being tired we made it out safely.

After this we drove by the tourist section no more than 500 meters downstream of where we entered the system, and returned to our hotel. We waited dirty (mostly just me being dirty) in the hotel lobby for an hour for the guy we had given 670 Yuan to, for him to buy our train tickets for the next day to show up. We were not all that pleased with the lack of him, or his inability to be reached. The tour guide cordinator was getting sleazer by the minute. After an hour we gave up, and returned to our room for a freezing cold shower (no choice in the matter) and a quick nap before we were to leave again at 6pm. When we came down at 6 to leave the guy with our tickets had been there, shown them to the receptionist and then left with them. Again not happy. Being unable to do anything about it we left to see the ruined city. The city was built on a natural island between two halfs of a river. The ruins were extensive to say the least. The city was built through both digging into the sandstone rock and building above it. Unfortunitely after about 30 minutes of being there the wind started to pick up, until the point where it was difficult to stand. When the wind is blowing that hard in the desert the sand once more wiped around into our eyes, nose, mouth and ears. What could have been a very enjoyable evening exploring turned quickly into a take a quick look and lets keep moving affair. The sun was becoming blocked by the dust clouds removing any chance of nice sunset photos. So we decided to go down to the river valley by the exit and wait for the others. We were arrived 30 minutes before our arranged departure time and were trying to find a spot out of the wind to sit when the taxi driver called us over. Where better to wait then a air conditioned car? The driver kept trying to start driving away and we kept saying NO, wait. He got the tour guide on the phone who told us that the other people had hired a taxi there and had already left, we thought this strange, but could do nothing to varify or dispute this. So we left, finally got our train tickets and enjoyed a nice dinner. It turns out that the driver had mistaken a Spanish couple for the British and Japanese couple. They didn't look at all the same, starting with two long hair and ponytail, to short haired. Anyways I have trouble telling some Chinese apart so I can't say too much.

We got to the trainstation without too much to comment on, just the sleazy guide being sleazy. And where greeted by some train station guy who led us to the VIP lounge to wait for our train. The air conditioned oversized leather chairs would have been amazing if it wasn't for the milking that followed. We politly refused and were eventually let to board the train. The train was different from the others we've been on, instead of being 6 to a bunk this one was only 4, but the whole car was double decker style. We settled into our cart and had a nice conversation with the two Chinese men with whom we shared the bunk, through the translation book. We played some Chinese poker, very similar to Butthead or Asshole, and were served quickly and politely in the dinning car. At 10:00pm the lights went out and I slept soundly on and off until 8:30, Sara slept till 9:00am. Snoring was minimal, Sara didn't risk it and used ear plugs.

We arrived in Kashgar and was delivered to the hotel we requested by a taxi driver who 5 minutes before the hotel, stopped, and pulled out photos of himself driving a French couple to Karkol lake. We said thanks but please go to our hotel. We arrived at the same time as 4 other backpackers, a couple from Upstate New York and two (we think) British. The girl from New York spoke Chinese (a bit) and tried to get us all a good deal, the hotel never once moved on it's price. 50 Yuan per bed in a dorm (3 beds) not a bad deal, or 180 Yuan for a double room that looked the same as the dorm room. We tried and tried to get the double of 100. We ended up checking another hotel down the street which was quite a bit cheaper, but it had a strong mildew smell that Sara would have nothing of. We returned to the first hotel and ended up quite by accidence ended up with one bed in a dorm room to ourselves (so far, knock on wood) for 50 Yuan, for both of us. However in 2 days the whole hotel is booked by a huge student group and we may have to leave.

We had a not very good lunch at John's Information Cafe #3, and took a taxi to the Sunday market. Not as impressive as either of us thought. Sara described it as a large outdoor but covered Walmart, with 10-20 stalls each selling the same thing beside each other. The grid layout and large walkways didn't make it feel all that markety. We strolled for a while then took a taxi to search in vain for an hour for an internet cafe. (I am not going to pay 10 Yuan per hour at the hotel, when this one we eventually found after watching the 2007 American Highschool Cheerleading Competition on TV for 3 Yuan). If your interested to know a team from Hawaii won the small female only devisision and a team with a large G won the large varisity for the second year in a row. Also did you know that Canada has a men's field hockey team. It lost 4-2 to China in the 16th Annual Sultan cup, do not know where it is being played. Also the Chinese women at least continue to roll through the competition at the Table Tennis World Championships in Crotia.

Tomorrow we figure out which way we are getting into Kygzstan through and how to spend the week, and I need to do laundry.

Tyson and Sara