Wednesday morning, just after 4am we got up to travel to the Airport. Vacations. At least, we nearly didn't believe this will ever happen. After checking in and having a first coffee in the lounge we realized, that it's really true. Where are we going, by the way? Somewhere north west China, to the border of Tadshikistan, Krigisistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Sounds coll, let's go.
Five and a half hours later we landed in Urumqi, which is still China in the province Xinjiang. But this was only a small stop over, changing planes to Kashgar. In Xinjiang are other rules than elsewhere in China. It's for example not possible to check the luggage through, so we had to carry it by our selves to the other terminal.
In Kashgar we were picked up by our guide and driver and went directly for dinner, it was already 8pm local time. Have we mentioned, that all the minorities in Xinjiang are Muslims? The biggest minority are the Uygurs which have their roots at the turkey. The language is very similar and also the look is similar. And , most important, the food is excellent, as long as you like mutton.
After a delicious meal with uygur music in the background we checked in into the hotel and took a walk. And yes, it looks really different from the rest of china but the statue, which you find everywhere.....
In Kashgar the people have to different times. On the on hand side there is the Beijing time. Independent of the size of china, the government decided, there is only on time zone in whole China. Ok, but Kashgar is 2 hours behind. And that's the time, the people are living in. It just complicates everything to double check, if we're talking about Beijing or Kashgar time. At least we started the next day at 10am Beijing, 8am Kashgar time.
Where we're heading to was not that clear for us at this time. We knew the name of the village: Tashkorgan and that we have a stop over at a lake. Ok, let's go, but first of all we bought some proviant.
Enough bread and fresh fruits we hit the road for the next 320km. In Europe it's around 4 hours, here in the mountains we're more likely talking about 8 hours. Our first stop was pretty soon after our guide and driver heard, that we never tasted mulberrys. Unbelievable, so the next tree was our stop and Tudajim and Akbar acted like kids, climbing in the tree and harvesting mulberrys. Yummy
The land changed more and more to an inconsolably mountain desert more and more. And we climbed some altitude.
Good thing in having a own driver is, they stop whenever we want to take pictures. That's really perfect, even if the weather wasn't that fine.
The Mountains grew higher and higher and turned red. Red? That looks weird. Looks like there is a lot of iron and copper in the stones.
In the middle of the red mountains are also living people. Even a souvenir shop exists. And we thought, we're already at the end of the world.
Where is this lake we're looking for? What was the name? Karakul Lake. Sure, we're traveling on the Krakoram Highway, the direct street from Kashgar to Islamabad, so its quite logical, that the lake is named Karakul Lake. And if we had prepared ourself a little bit before the journey we would know it. In the middle of no where we hit a traffic jam. A landslip hit the road and we had to wait half an hour until the road was free again. But we were lucky, the street is sometimes closed for days. And this quite often, 3 to 5 times a year. No wonder, if you look at the street in the right picture......
The air went thinner and thinner, the wind blow stronger and stronger and the temperature get cold. Uuuups, we're already at 3.500m.
Oh yes, the street changed challenging with each meter we drove. And yes, it's the single road from China to Pakistan.
Hours later we reached the Karakul Lake. The weather wasn't that fine and the sight also. The mountains around the lake are more than 7.500 meters high and the lake is at 3.600m. Ok, no it's more clear why it's that cold. The people around the lake are all Kirigise and they're living in the typical round houses which look like Yurts.
The lake is really idyllic but unfortunately some chinese also found it. Now they build a chinese Restaurant with chinese food. No goat or sheep or mutton on the menu. They also plan to build a hotel and than it's done with the peacefulness. Right now you find only camels and some chinese, sometimes combined. So if somebody plans to visit here, hurry up.
The good thing of the tourists here is that they build a new toilet. Unfortunately it will be opened not before next year, most probably with a big firework, dragon dance and all. Until then, the old open air should do it.
The Kirgise people are very businesslike. You pay for a camel ride, to visit a krigise Yurt in the village, for sure, somebody drives you there by motorbike, which you also ave to pay and so on. But they are real characters and really friendly.
But now it's about time to get into the mountains. Next to the so called road there are plenty of animals, Camels, Sheep., Donkeys, Yaks and so on. Fences are not necessary, they can't get very far away and there is not that many food around, so they stay in the valley. And we thought, we found some wild living Camels......
15 kilometers from the Tadshik border we were stopped by the police. Speeding, at least 95km/h, allowed are only 60km/h. We were speeding? Not very probable with our car in the mountains. After some discussion and the hint, that german tourists are in the car we solved the problem. A small missunderstanding, not more.
After reaching the highest point of the road we headed directly to an Thunderstorm. Lucky us we didn't hit it but we saw some nice rain and flashes in the mountains.
After 320km and 10 hours ride we reached Tashkorgan. From here it's only one hour by car to Afghanistan or 2 hours to Pakistan. But that's not why we're here. We want to see the valley with the green grass, Yaks, Cows, Sheep and the people living here in more than 4.000m altitude.
Tudajim and Akbar were also pretty happy to reach Tashkorgan without any big delays or accident. Just big kids they are.....
The weather wasn't that friendly. It went darker from minute to minute so we had to shorten our walk. The rain hit us anyway and it was really freezing cold.
What a day. We really got hungry, so we went down town together with one cow. The people here are mostly tadshiks and boy, they know how to prepare noodles. For sure with mutton.
Tired and exhausted we went to the hotel and planned a calm evening, if Tudajim and Akbar wouldn't have found out, that it's Reginas birthday today. Just after reaching the room they surprised us with a birthday cake, a "happy birthday song". and the birthday crown.
How they found out about Reginas birthday and why they waited until the evening to congratulate is as always another story......
Vehicles...
....in
Xinjiang are worthy of an own picture collection.....
