One of the most interesting aspects of our journey has been the multiple ways of getting from one place to another. We flew from Xi'an to Urumqi on China Eastern Airlines, which was very nice. We were even served a full meal, not just tiny packets of peanuts. We then went from where the airport was, some ways out of Urumqi into town by tour bus, a very nice new tour bus. We were taken to a 3 star hotel which was more like a .3 star hotel, but the next day we were moved to a very nice 5 star hotel (by Chinese, not American standards). It was pretty classy--we even had tiny orchids floating in our western-stype potty and two yellow rubber duckys on the side of the tub! Can you get classier than that? From Urumqi we went by bus to Turpan, then took donkey carts to an ancient city's ruin dating from some 2,000 years back. Our next adventure was to take the train overnight from Turpan to Dunhuang. You wouldn't think it but that was a highlight of our trip! The train station was as old as dirt and for the holiday travel it was crowded beyond belief. Though we had soft-sleeper coaches reserved for us but in the station we had to all group together with the masses and believe me our 49 pale faces stood out amongst the Chinese, Mongols, Uyghurs, and other minorities crushed together. Every pair of eyes was riveted on us as though no one in that station had ever seen a Caucasian before. Maybe they hadn't. We decided we would sing to them and so we did. We sang rounds in Chinese (thanks to our one returned missionary from Taiwan who led out), then sang popcorn popping and finally "If You're Happy and You Know it"--by the time we had clapped, stamped our feet, and shouted Hurrah! through all the verses we actually had a good number of our fellow travels joining in with us in a lovely bonding time. They began crowding up around us bringing their children to touch us and have pictures taken with us. It was a priceless moment of connection and we felt the Light in that dim station.
Our 4-bunk soft sleeper compartments were great--best beds of the trip, though a bit narrow. Julie Monson joined me on the top bunks (though had a challenge to fit her junk in!) since we didn't trust either John or her husband, Dave, not to fall off and hurt themselves.
Both of them have had some mishaps since we have been here--John falling off his bike on the city wall and Dave missing the last step from the Branch president's house and leaving a puddle of blood from his head (which still adorns the landing each time we go there.) I loved being rocked to sleep by the motion of the train. It was great. We arrived VERY early outside of Dunhuang and had a 40 minute bus ride into town. What a trip that was! It was like traveling through heavy air turbulence. The shocks on the bus must have been totally shot and the road felt as if we were riding over speed bumps of drifted sand or the worst case of potholes that exist this side of hell. After a couple of hours we made it to our 4 star hotel (which was pretty nice, though each morning after we showered the tub wouldn't drain and the water came up from the floor drain to flood the bathroom floor so it provided us with a chance to clean the bottoms of our shoes. Fortunately our bathroom floor had a inch high tile lip into the bedroom so the flood was self contained.
Dunhuang is on the edge of the singing sands of the Gobi so our next mode of transport was by camel train. What an experience that was, from our bright orange camel boots, to a ride up the sand hills and over mountains and hills. I have never seen so many camels in my life. I didn't think I'd ever get John to go but he was a good sport and did so. It was awesome! From Dunhuang we walked out on the tarmack to broad our 1 1/2 hour flight on Southern China back to Xi'an and "home" for us. This was the end of the Silk Road and a chance to show off our city to the rest of the group.
That is a BEAUTIFUL picture!
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