One day to relax. Well, this was the plan. But we decided to have a "short" tour through the old town of Kashgar. First thing we saw are tool shops and Kids.
Pretty fast we found out, that the tool shops are not only selling the tools but also producing them. More precise: forging them by hand. Who knows, maybe the smith forged also his own teeths....
The longer we walked, the older the old town went. Somehow we got the impression that also the sold goods are also getting older and older. The transportation through the old town is organized by some motor bikes / vehicles. As we didn't found out where the go and how to stop them, we kept on walking.
Currently the old town is under, hmm, how to say, rebuilding. The Government in Beijing decided that the houses are not safe enough for earth quakes. Well, there was no earth quake in the last 300 years, but who knows. All the old brick buildings are teared down and new ones in the old style are build up again - made out of concrete.
The people living here are moved to some modern buildings and they got the promise to come back after finishing all the area. Let's see what'll happen. Maybe it's too expensive for them, maybe not all of the buildings will be rebuild, maybe everything went fine.
As we're in Kashgar there are also food booths all around. No worries, as long as somebody likes sheep and mutton there is no starving at all. The meat dumplings are prepared freshly on the street next to the tear down workers. This preserves a special aroma in the meal ;-)
It's already time for the noon prayer and we first heard and then also saw the Muezzin reminding everybody about it. Looks more exhausting than ringing a bell but works also.
Still some of the people are living her. Some are currently moving and thinking hard, what's worth to take and what's not. Maybe the big mirror isn't worth the effort.
Everywhere kids are running around, playing, do babysitting for the siblings and watching some weird tourists in the street. And for sure, asking to get a picture taken from them.
Every couple of meters a there's a mosque, easy to identify by the towers with the half moon on top.
The part of the old town which still exists is pretty bubbly.
Usually our photographs are landscape, but some of the portrait format we really need to show here:
The everyday life is mainly on the street. Public viewing of the cartoon channel in front of the candy shop, pedicure, ....
....the nap and open air work shops.
After a long visit in the tea hose we walked back, finding the similar scenes in different streets. E.g. the worker wearing helmets for sorting stones. Or the backing man in the street with the special oven backing bagels.
What we tried to buy in Kashgar was another memory card for Stephan's camera. Just not available. Maybe we get lucky in Ürümqi. We decided to have the last supper in Kashgar in another uygur restaurant. Tudajim and Agba were really pleased that we decided for the uygur restaurant and not a western style. And it was really yummy again.
The next day we'll spend in the car. 530km through the desert, but as always: that's a completely different story.....
Kids...
....with a big grin are everywhere. And they really enjoy to
be on a photograph.....
