Travels with Kathryn

I am writing this on Sunday, and for a change I am not writing it on a bus, but rather in my hotel room having an afternoon escape from the heat of the day. There was an attempt to purchase a mango smoothie on the way back, but either I failed to find the shop or it may have been closed so I have settled for an over-sweet (and that is coming from me!) watermelon juice. However, I am sitting at a desk with limited stationary available:

 

Anyway, let me pick up where I left off yesterday. We made it back to Kashgar in the later afternoon and visited the Id Kah Mosque. This is the largest mosque in Xinjang province (with a capacity of up to 20,000 people) and is, so unusually, a real life actual working mosque. It was originally built by Saqsiz Miraz in 1442 AD, but was destroyed when Kashgar was sacked by Tamerlane in the 14th century. The mosque was rebuilt and  expanded in 1538 by Ubul Abidek, and then restored and rennovated several times in the 18th and 19th centuries. The mosques that we have visited in the last couple of days have each felt like calming oasis away from the chaos of Chinese daily life. We have also made a big point of wearing head scarves which were banned by the Chinese government for local people in 2014.

We then went off on a sort of semi-lead meandering through the old town. As I mentioned briefly in my last post, the whole old city was saved from demolision in 2008, but has been heavily restored and is now a bit of a theme park version of what it once would have been. Its delightful, but doesn’t feel particularly real or authentic. However, you could buy almost any touriset souvernier you could think of and the stall holders are very relaxed about the whole thing which makes it a very easy shopping experience. I may have had to buy a couple of silk ikat/Atlas design scarves- one can never have too many scarves…

We returned to the hotel and having stopped for a cup of tea and a cake, I decided I really didn’t need dinner. Instead I spent my Satursday night doing a full load of laundry and having an early night. I am very cool.

Today we started with a visit to the Kashgar Museum. This does not feature in any Guidebook and all that is mentioned online in Lonely Planet is: “This regional museum is not as good as soom of the other excellent local museums in Xinjiang, but its free and includes an incredible 6th century Buddhist urn and a mummy amid the otherwise rather forgeattable collection” I was therefore expecting a small mseum with a couple of exhibits. Nope. Welcome to the museum of One China! There is not actually much in it (certainly no urn or mummy that I could find), but there are a lot of display boards pushing the one China message. I am not sure I have ever seen such a propaghanda rich museum – not even in comparison to Vietnam or Cuba. Just a selection:

In order to recover, we headed to the Sunday market. Pre-Pandemic, Kashgar had a Grand Bazaar with a big Sunday market, and a seperate Sunday Livestock Market. The Grand Bazaar has disappeared (and its difficult to find out exactly what happened) and the Livestock Market has been moved from the bazaar to outside the city and I had read that it has been seriously santisied. I therefore went with very managed expectations, but actually rather enjoyed it. Many of the stallholders from the Grand Bazaar have set up shop here and there were locals buying food, drinks, clothes and kitchen equipment. The back of the market has a very small tourist section which you can ignore on route to animal accoutrements.

However, all of this was a prelude to the main event –  the Sunday Livestock Market. This is where Uygur farmers and herders come to buy and sell their livestock. Now, some prices to get you in the mood (exchange rate is around 9 yuan to £1 GBP):

• Sheep – 1,000 to 3,000 yuan.
• Cows – 5,000 to 7,000 yuan.
• Horses – 5,000 to 20,000 yuan.
• Donkeys – 5,000 to 10,000 yuan (much prised in this part of this China for their meat).
• Camels – 10,000 yuan.
• Goats – 800 to 1,500 yuan.

I did not get involved in any bidding, however, I would perhaps have been interested in a camel (had any been available!) and forgoe my return flight to London and instead head out on the Silk Road… However, it is a place of much action and there were lots and lots of big bottomed sheep. The bottom is (unsurprisingly) just fat and they do like the lamb kebabs here. It may have been santisied, but it is stil dusty, smelly and much discerning purchasing going on.

So, as I was unable to purchase a camel, I treated myself to a very expensive (£3) teapot:

For lunch, we visited a restaurant in the grounds of the original Russian Consultate. Much like the British version, this 1925 building is abandoned and covered in hoarding – I expect if you come back in the next 5 years this will be a mall, or a replica or an extension to the car park…

Today is our last full day of the tour, so tonight we had a final group meal. I would absolutely travel with Wild Frontiers again (and they have some great itineraries in some more unusual places) as its a great group of people, covering the main sites and people are engaged to listen and learn. However, as its more on the pricier side you get a slightly more up market person than me (I am common as muck) and also an older crowd. Not that either of those things are necessarily an issue. I have also found it odd to have a seperate guide and tour leader (only the leader has been with us throughout) and I think I have got more out of my Intrepid trips when I have really got to know our guides (who are also local people). Also, the quality of the local guide really makes a difference – Tracey and Amy were excellent, Lui middling and Osman pretty ropey. I can certainly see the value in having the tour leader (and I was rather skeptical at first) Spike was a great intermediary with the guides in terms of our expectations and to have that connection throughout and it did mean there was effectively a dedicated person to keep us (lets be honest, me) entertained…

Anyway, our final meal was one of my absolute favourites – hot pot:

I have a final day in Kashgar tomorrow, and then I am heading off to South-Eastern China to tackle the next stage on my own. Time to put my big girl pants on!