Tom: Yarkand (June 25)

Yarkand (June 25) · Jun 29, 09:46 AM

Katie and I checked out and took a cab to the livestock market. We arrived early — trucks and motor tricycles were still carrying cows, sheep, and goats in to the market area. On the side street outside the market proper locals sold food, vegetables, clothing, and knives and other tourist junk. There are half a dozen tourists with cameras. People are already inspecting, arguing, agreeing, and buying animals, both in the market and out. We leave while the market is still gathering momentum and take a taxi to the main sunday market. This one is big; it spills out onto the main avenue from both sides for several hundred meters. We dive in on foot.

It’s not long before I have two wool ponchos for one hundred yuan. We wander through the throngs. People sell fruits and suits, wool and silk, knives and musical instruments, hats and scarves and shoes, watches and cookware and stereos. The market’s size is measured in square blocks. Sections are indoor, sections are outdoor, and sections (like the fabric courtyard) and under large cloth tarps. The crowds are thick, but away from the main “silk and knives” area we don’t see many tourists. Out of the market we wander up through the brick and adobe old town. Kids run along with loops. Donkey carts ferry locals. Bakers bake bread. This is Uigher life. We stop in a small roadside shop and sit down on benches for a bite. I think I had meat noodles, but Katies fresh tomato and pepper salad was the memorable dish.

After a fun time at the market Katie and I spend three hours at John’s Information Cafe. I can’t burn DVDs like they had said yesterday, so I plod through two sets of 5 CDs, plus another 1 CD set for Katie. She’s online emailing and doing research. Afterwards we walk next door to the Caravan Cafe for fruit and yogurt and planning.

We retrieve out bags from the hotel and get to the bus station; we’re going to Yarkand, a stepping stone to Hotan. There is just enough time before our bus departs to grab a bowl of noodles and chopped meat under a hot awning next door to the bus station. Our bus leaves full and takes its time getting out of Kashgar. City gives way to farmland, then to wasteland. It rains a little. The bus is a slow one; it’s dark when we arrive. Three local boys help us find the Shache Hotel. They said there were beds for six yuan next to the bus station, but we’re taking a 100 yuan double at the Shache instead. It’s a dirty room. The bathroom — sorbet-green toilet and bathtub — works, but the room hasn’t been repaired since its construction; the walls are in a heavy state of decay.

We unpack and plug in our chargers. Katie’s sunscreen has exploded into a mess all inside her toiletry bag. I shower and miss the end of a dubbed and heavily edited “The Mummy” before falling asleep. The front desk said the Hotan bus leaves tomorrow at 9:00 Beijing time.

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http://tom.spacing-guild.net/2006/06/29/hotan-june-26

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