Tom: Turpan (June 20)

Turpan (June 20) · Jun 24, 09:13 AM

The train arrives in a desert mountain sunrise. I snap a few pictures around the station after meeting Ahmet who has good English and a minibus for ten yuan to Turpan. He takes me to a hotel next to the train station and talks me out of a 30 RMB dorm into a 90 RMB room here. At the train station he was singing Scarborough Hill. At the hotel he helped me “bargain” the room down to 90, then “bargained” me into paying 90 for a car and driver to two sights — the Jiaohe ruined city and a touristed karez (underground irrigation system). The are about 3km from each other and 10km from the city; ninety is a bit much. The karez was disappointing — more shopping than information on the thousands of kilometers of underground tunnels dug by hand to drain water from mountain reservoirs into desert cities. The ruined city was not — it was haunting and hot. I spent an hour wandering through city streets and exploring the northern temple district.

Back int town a had a cup of vanilla ice and paid a visit to the local PSB looking for a visa extension. They redirected me to a new office where I filled out a form and dropped off my passport. The officer told me to return tomorrow between 9:30 and 13:00 or during the afternoon hours; he had no problem giving me 30 days. Next, I wandered to Johnny’s Information Cafe across from the Turpan Hotel and spent an hour in a very awkward place. First I was talking with Johnny about hiring a driver for the evening to see a couple sights. Then Ahmet was called in. Then a couple other travelers show up. We go with the first guy (I’m sorry, Ahmet), and a third fellow shows up. We are two from England and two from the states. The other American has been traveling for about a decade after a four year stint as CEO during the dot-com bubble. We’re each paying 70 to visit a local Uighur village and the flaming mountains. We reach the mountains at dusk, then wander around the outskirts of the village for half an hour, staying outside the ticketed area, unwilling to pay another thirty. On the road back to town we catch a brilliant sunset through a hole in the overcast sky. In the town we eat (I remember a double order of sweet and sour chicken), then we find an outdoor TV tuned to the World Cup. We sit down with beer, then stand up to leave after a strong wind picks up. It’s knocking over tables, breaking bottles. A power surge knocks out the TV, but not the mandarin broadcast — that’s when we leave. Everyone goes back to their cheap dorm, except me going to my expensive air-conditioned room double. I think it’s about 01:30 when I fall asleep.

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http://tom.spacing-guild.net/2006/06/24/enroute-to-kashgar-june-21

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