Travels with Kathryn

A slightly later start today, and we are off heading over the lower Tian Shan towards Aksu (again, I am writing this on a bus). The landscape is amazing – these mountains are even older than the Himalayas, and you can see how they were pushed up of the ground. This area was almost used as the filming location for The Martian (although I am not sure that Matt Damon would have coped with “being a foreigner” level of celebrity plus being an actual celebrity).

After multiple police checkpoints, we arrived at the Kizil Thousand Buddha caves (I am becoming a big fan of a nice Thousand Buddha cave). These are the oldest Buddhist caves in China, and the best preserved in Central Asia. The earliest dtes back to the 3rd century, and the most recent the 9th century. Although there are 236 caves, only 6 are open to the public. These caves are located in Qiuci which was an important communication hub on the Silk Road, as well as being the political and economic centre of this Western region. It was also the centre of Buddhism in this area, but as the region converted to Islam, they were gradually abandoned.

I shall be honest, having been blown away by the Magoa Grotos these are nowhere near as well preserved or numerous. There has also been much “excavating” by foreign explorers and today paintings and statutes from these caves are in 20 museums in 7 countries. There was also a lot of stairs to climb and as no bags were allowed, whilst this means no cameras, it also means that you cannot carry any water which seems a little silly to climb up the side of a mountain in 30 degree heat.

We visited the folowing caves:

• Cave 27 – this dates back to the 5th century and contains only a small section of mural. I was more interested in the clear hand prints on the back wall which were  created by years of people placing their hands in the same spot.
• Cave 32 – again 5th century, but with only a very small section remaining.
• Cave 34 – containing only repicas of the removed wall murals.
• Cave 8 – 7th century and this is the most complete, but notto the extent of the Mogoa grottos. This had the nicest ceiling mural.
• Cave 10 – this is a monk’s living quarter’s and a wall is covered in script written detailing Han Turan’s contribution to protecting the caves.
• 17 – 6th century and the best preserved as the highest up the cliff (oh so many steps).

I am still on the bus (yes, you are getting something of theme as bus time = blog time) and we are skirting a course between the upper and lower Tian Shan so its biege, flat and the only interest being a passing solar panel farm or some kind of industry to do with gas extraction…

Four hours have now passed and we have had a slight excitement of some rain, in the desert (they get 76mm a year here) and in that there was an accident on the motorway and we have had to divert to a regular road which goes alongside little villages. This is a far cry from the shiney tower blocks and immaculate streets of the cities outside of the Uygur Autonomous Region.

5 hours later… Question for today: there are 5 countries in the world that begin and end with the same letter that is NOT an “a”. Answers in the next post.

Further to the above, you can always tell when you are approaching a city, particularly a new city such as Aksu as suddenly you get a lot of manicured greenery, wider streets (featuring the China flag adorned lamp posts) and its so clean. On arrival we went straight out for a Ugyr style of dinner and then back to the hotel via the People’s Square. There were any number of people skating, having a pomanade, playing very serious games and just being out – however, sligtly coloured by the riot police at each side, police checkpoints within the square and we (as foreigners) were casually tracked by two policeman.

I managed to avoid having to hold any babies (creepy looking or otherwise) in photos, although I did have to have to have my photo taken. I was far more interested in another vehicle option. Ideally I would want a combination of the technicolor dolphin, but would want to add the bubble blowing from the toddler vehicles…

Now, I have stayed in many hotels in my lifetime, albiet far more of the 0-3 star rating as opposed to the 4-5 star rating, however, I have never before had a sex toy/aid mini bar. To be clear: nothing was purchased.