I faced the reality that today was my last in the Kashgar area and only a partial, as I was flying back to Urumqi in the late afternoon. And I’d be left to my own wiles today, no tour, although Abdul Wahab would be taking me back to the airport from the Seman as part of their services. My first order of business after getting up and having a quick breakfast snack in my room, was to head over by taxi to the Kashgar train station to buy a ticket from Dunhuang to Zhangye. I had checked the official Chinese railway website last night, and with availability still reasonably plentiful on the train I preferred, I wanted to be assured of a berth 5 day's hence and for various reasons, wanted to do the purchasing job myself rather than fob it off on an agent or the hotel. This was a Plan B routing.
Planning Ahead Interlude
My original scheme was to stay two nights in Dunhuang then head by all-day bus trip to Golmud in Qinghai province, then make my way to Xining. However, there were two problems with this plan: 1) Foreigners traveling on the Dunhuang-Golmud road must have a special PSB permit, which isn’t hard to get, but the PSB office in Dunhuang is closed on the weekends, which happened to be the very 2 days I had in Dunhuang. By the time I got a permit on Monday morning, the daily bus would be gone and I’d be sitting around until Tuesday, which I didn’t want to do; 2) Golmud to Xining by train is theoretically doable, but there is only one or two local trains that originate there and don’t start in Lhasa. The Lhasa trains are all full up with no chance of getting a ticket and getting on in Golmud, and sleepers on the trains that do originate there are also tough to get. Bus which can be an option in other areas is not too viable on this route, as the journey would have to be broken up in Delingha County, which is off-limits for foreigners to stay in due to presence of nuclear weapons research facilities. And prison camps. Since Golmud is rarely on anybody’s list of Top Cities of China anyway, I decided to just skip all the hassle and head for a known winner, Zhangye, for a quick second pass. Then take the bus from Zhangye to Xining which would be my final stop on this Silk Road trip.
Kashgar train station is on the outskirts of the city not central, and I arrived at the there about 08:20 (BJ, which is like 06:20 by local biorhythms), to find a packed ticket office with tons of people there. Aargh! I got in line, only to waste 20 minutes when my window’s ticket seller suddenly closed her window and sent everybody jumping to a new queue. Except I was a bit slow on the uptake and ended up losing several places in the new queue. Sometimes I REALLY HATE CHINA!
I spent nearly 30 minutes in that !@#$% queue but eventually emerged, successful in my quest to buy a July 2 soft sleeper, lower berth ticket on a day train from Dunhuang to Zhangye. Whew. Then caught another taxi back to the Id Kah Mosque plaza. I’d decided that I wanted to take a couple of hours for another Old City self-exploration and photo safari in the Old City. My taxi driver was a bit of a cheat and wanted RMB 30 for a ride that by meter should be less than half that. Told him that I knew already he was cheating me and I’d only give him 20. Needless to say, he accepted his RMB 20 with nary a whimper.
Central Kashgar Redux
Took pictures around the exterior of Id Kah, then strolled for next 1.5 hours or so through the Old City, recognizing some streets I had seen with M and others that were new. But try as I might, I couldn’t find the right alleys nor every place that he took me through on that first day. It’s actually still quite a maze, even the part that remains after the demolition. Sadly though, I think that if you did not see Kashgar Old City prior to 2007-2008, you missed the best forever. I also found myself not in a shopping mood, so decided to forego purchasing a musical instrument (which I’d likely later regret) and just stick to my photo-taking. There weren’t any other foreign or Han tourists around, and even though it seemed late at 11:00 BJ time, it was only the equivalent of 09:00 local time and many of the shops and vendors were still half-asleep and trying to get their businesses open. But the food sellers and fresh market vendors were doing a booming business. I was still tired of lamb, beef, noodles, kebabs, etc. so went back to the Karakoram Cafe for a morning second “breakfast” of carrot cake (lovely and without all that disgusting cream cheese icing that I so despise) and an icy Coke Zero. The Breakfast of Champions!
On the way back to the Seman Hotel, I purposely walked to see if I could find Kashgar’s Old City Walls which were marked on the map. Parts of the old earthen Wall are still there, but unfortunately what used to be most visible and accessible is now hidden behind construction fencing. Not sure why, perhaps they are making this another formal tourist attraction with an entry gate and fee. However, I was able to get some views from the back side, between modern apartment and business buildings. You just have to be clever about where to look. I ended up at a little Han place for a quick Chinese lunch, then back to the hotel for a rush packing job in order to get checked out by 14:00 (BJ) and down to the lobby to meet up with my driver.
Farewell to Kashgar
Arrival at the airport was quite a bit earlier than the allowed check-in period, but not too burdensome and there was aircon and a place to sit. Kashgar airport security is similar to Urumqi’s with additional luggage screening for explosives, shoes off at the people-checkpoint, etc. Unlike the rest of the PRC. Got an assigned aisle seat, but this plane was full up and the pillow seat gambit was not workable. Tons of Hans on the plane, each taking back multiple boxes of fruit and other goodies, so the overheads were much more stuffed than usual. Had a squalling brat in seat opposite and row behind...mother didn’t seem to have enough sense to bring something for the kid to drink and snack on. Stuffed earplugs in and endured for the 1.5 hour flight. Was very glad to get off in Urumqi. But at least it wasn’t the 26-hour train journey.
Reflections on this Trip Module
Kashgar City and Area in General:
--Get there any way you can. If you go to Xinjiang and miss Kashgar, you have sorely screwed up, similar to missing out on Turpan.
--Once you spend the time, cash, effort to get there, you might as well stick around and see more of the surrounding region. Whether you choose mountains, desert, culture, combination of any per your own interests, it’s all good.
--Try to allot a block of time for the SW region in your overall itinerary of at least 5 days excluding travel. And week would not be overdoing it.
-- More than any other place I’ve been in the PRC territory, this one benefits from good local knowledge and that means a guide. Also within Kashgar City itself, it’s easy enough to see the highlights on your own if you wish.
--Use a Kashgar-based Uighur-owned and operated agency.
--Once you have your dates bracketed as part of your overall trip itinerary, do some homework on your various sights and activity options, then contact an agency (or two) and start a dialogue. The three best and most well-known have their own websites. Most tours are set up as private trips so are infinitely customizable. If you are a solo, let them know if you would be willing to join up with another party to share costs.
-- It's not particularly cheap. Even if traveling on a budget as I was, these 5 days (out of 20 total) accounted for 30% of my entire trip spend. The end of this Trip Report will have more details on cost breakdowns.
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Important: Understand that in Kashgar, like other Xinjiang cities (except for Urumqi), you will not be living in the lap of luxury since it doesn’t exist yet. You will be safe, you will be comfortable, you can stay clean, but you’ll have to put up with deficiencies in facilities and services—most of which are minor annoyances not major tragedies. If you’re the whining and complaining type, stay in East China where you can be catered to properly.
Karakoram Highway Trip:
--One of the highlight experiences of my long time in the PRC, and I’ve traveled to some pretty cool places so have some basis for comparison.
--Independent travel by foreigners as of 2012 is not available anymore past the Gez checkpoint so you must arrange transport through an agent. And at any rate, it’s more practical to do so and get a driver/guide as well.
--If you don’t speak Uighur, Kyrgyz, or possible another Turkic family language, you will have trouble communicating. Mandarin is of very marginal usefulness.
--The longest part of the drive is between Gez and Karakul, so once you’ve gotten that far, going all the way to Tashkorgan is an easy incremental to add, though it will require at least an overnight.
--If you feel you can stand the altitude and traveling May-October, heading all the way up to the Khunjerab Pass is recommended, even if like me, you aren’t trying to cross to Pakistan.
--A daytrip only as far as Karakul and back is very long and IMO a lot of driving for brief reward. Therefore, I would recommend at least 2 days/1 night trip. or better yet, 3 days/2 nights.
--If you are extremely fastidious, need privacy, hate primitive camping, and cannot deal with taking nature’s calls in the Great Outdoors, it might be better to suggest to tour agent that while you want to see Karakul Lake, you don’t want to stay in local housing there. Nearly all agents assume most foreigners want to do this as part of the “experience.” But after looking at the situation, I think this trip for some travelers might be better just seeing and maybe spending time at the lake, but staying elsewhere. Tashkorgan has adequate hotel facilities, and the Oytagh Glacier Park guesthouse also looked OK from the outside. The latter could be an option between Karakul and Kashgar. But the agent must know your desires and needs up front, so they can properly pace the tour and the driving with appropriate overnight locations. There are large stretches of the KKH where NOTHING is available.
--Toilet stops. There are also long stretches on the KKH where no toilets are available. In addition to Karakul, we had two other Great Outdoors comfort breaks when no other options were available. Make sure that when the opportunity arises (Toilet buildings at Upal, Gez Checkpoint, Tashkorgan, Oytagh) that you take advantage.
--Take a jacket even in summer, or a few layers that pack light in a suitcase. It is very cool even in summer, and as we experienced, downright cold especially at Karakul Lake and Khunjerab which are the higher elevations. Tashkorgan not quite as chilly.
--Food and water conditions are frankly, unsanitary. Best to bring emergency snacks, eat very sparingly and cautiously when staying there, and bring in and use all bottled water from Kashgar or Upal. Hot cooked food in Tashkorgan restaurants is fine, though they may not have much on their menus available.
--Take your own toilet paper, tissues, and handwipes/hand sanitizer!
--Altitude: many people feel the effects especially if driving in from Kashgar, as there is nowhere you can be long enough to acclimate. I had to pace myself slowly. This is most likely to happen at Karakul and especially at Khunjerab Pass.
Since I didn’t do the Taklamakan Desert/Caravan trip, I can’t speak for conditions, but I expect many of the same caveats (except altitude and freezing weather) apply as per the KKH.