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