We arrived in Kuche Friday night. My first impression of the city was the smell of raw sewage. Perhaps because our train had chosen to flush its waste water there, in an apparent contradiction to those “no occupying while stationary,” signs that adorn train restrooms? Well, no; it turned out that there was a sewage treatment plant next to the train station.

Moving on, our first order of business was to purchase onward tickets to Turpan on the same train a night later. We quickly discovered that the LP’s warning about not being able to purchase sleepers there was spot on. (The Chinese train ticket computer systems aren’t very good at disseminating inventory data to city ticket offices, let alone insignificant stations like Kuche.) We decided to purchase “no seat” hard seat tickets just so we’d have a way out, and planned on upgrading onboard (a pretty safe bet).

Next, we let one of the many touts on hand take us hotel hunting. While this may sound sketchy, it’s the best course of action in such situations because the tout provides a discounted fare and gets a commission whether he does so or not. Plus, they generally take you to whatever hotel you specify.

We specified the Kuche Hotel (Binguan), based on info ascertained from our guidebooks. Like the hotels from the 2 previous nights, the Kuche Hotel featured a newish main building from which it got its “star” status, and 2 older buildings that enabled those rock-bottom LP prices. The two Asian guys decided it best that me and the other white fellow stay in the taxi while they negotiated.

When they came back, they had secured us a room in one of the two lesser buildings. On the bright side, the room had 4 nice beds, a functional television, and telephone service. However, it was on the 4th floor (stairs aren’t so nice apart from the gym environment), the toilet was a squatter and was down the hall, and the showers were on the first floor and were disgusting. Nevertheless, even if I had gotten a chance to voice my opinion, I would have been shot down because our group was operating as a democracy and I would have been outvoted.

In the end, the beds worked and we awoke the next morning to tackle the town. We decided to go to the Sabashi (I’m going on memory here, but the name was something like that) ruins southeast of town. These kind of reminded me of Joshua Tree; lots of big rocks (well, ruins, in this case) that facilitated all sorts of fun (for those concerned, we didn’t ruin the ruins).



After 2 hours or so, we headed back into town and had our driver drop us off at the bazaar. The bazaar was similar to the bazaar in Kashgar, only there was nothing worth purchasing, save the food. So, we through down some tua’r and some pilaf (big disappointment) and planned the rest of our day. In the process of our planning, we learned that our bazaar wasn’t the bazaar we had been looking for. The other bazaar was located in the older Ouigar (my first mention of the term because I fear my spelling is poor) part of town. As such, we headed over there in a taxi.

The second bazaar wasn’t really any better than the first, but it was more chaotic and there were more donkeys/horses. Plus, the buildings were more interesting.









In fact, we broke away from that bazaar and undertook a walking tour of the old city. It was similar to Kashgar, but also reminded me of Beijing. There were lots of hutongs lined with sandy buildings and plenty of dead-ends to boot. We walked for about an hour and a half, during the course of which we played cards with the local children, stumbled upon a mosque, and found ourselves stranded in a taxi-less wooded area far from town.










We eventually got back to town, ate some more lamb (I was starting to get into the lamb at this point because it was so much better and fresher than what I was used to in BJ; the y2 skewers were particularly good).




We finished eating at 9 and our train wasn’t supposed to leave until 11:30 so I persuaded the group to get a foot massage (actually, I told them I was going to get a foot massage – no matter what – and invited them along. I found a decent place on Fuxing Jie, a Xintiandi-esque walking street near the Wenzhou Hotel (incidentally, if I ever go back to Kuche, I will consider staying there because there were lots of nicish restaurants in the area). The massages were well received, as was the herbal sauna (unimpressive, but good enough) and shower.

Then, it was off to the train station. At the train station, we asked the attendants how to proceed about securing our upgrade. They informed us that upgrades take place in car 4 and told us where to stand to board car 4. We took their advice and found ourselves at the front of the upgrade line, once onboard.

Within our group, myself and one other guy decided that we would upgrade, no matter what the cost (I knew this could be no more than y300). The other 2 people were only willing to spring for the hard sleeper. As it turned out, the hard sleepers were sold out so when confronted by the u/g lady, I said yes to soft and proceeded to open my wallet.

For a mere y180 each, we ended up getting deluxe soft sleepers (only two beds per cabin) on the upper deck of a double decker car.





Once the other two saw our swell accommodations (in contrast to their hard seat car), they changed their tune about upgrading and jumped in line. Unfortunately, by the time they got to the front of the line, all of the nice rooms had been taken and they ended up getting stuck in a smoky 4-man (smoking is prohibited in cabins, but in China such regulations are often overlooked) room with two strangers. They initially felt cheated and even considered turning in their upgrades, but eventually came to their senses and nodded off to sleep.

We arrived in Turpan, well rested, just before noon ready to take on the day.