On the road again: 540km to Hotan. The good message is, we had a car
and no camels. After the first 2 hours we reached our first stop for
today in Yengisar. Stephan was really eager to buy a uygur knife there.
The rumors are saying that the best knife makers are located there.
Everyday in the week another production step in the knife making
process is executed. Today was the riveting and gluing of the handles
done. Unfortunately we haven't had the chance to watch the forging
process of the hand made blades. Anyway nowadays a lot of the knifes
are produced in a industrial process and are made of stainless steel.
But who want to have something like this?
After finishing the knifes are put in a sheath and a nice looking box.
It's hard to believe that the knifes are really made in the backyard of
the shop ;-)
After long discussion with the shop owner Stephan decided to buy a
really nice one for a quite reasonable price (see the next picture,
it's the only one of it, more about the knife later). The blade is
curved in a way to make it easy cutting down a sheep into nice pieces.
The sales man explained exactly, how to do it. Now we're only missing a
sheep. There are also offers for complete kitchen boxes, including a
ax, knifes and chopper. Stephan really loved this shop.
The journey went on in direction of the dessert. All the field sin this
area are watered by artificial water systems. The biggest portion of
the people here are farmers, farming some rice, grain, fruits and
vegetables. Due to the nice clima there are 2 harvests per year. And
this is really a busy time for the farmers.
We got told, that the farmers have their own land, which is usually too
big for a single household to harvest, so all the neighbors are helping
each other. Rumors says, there are very nice parties at the end of the
harvest period.
After another couple of hours we arrived in Yarkant. There are two
pretty old mosques, the tomb of Amanni Shaham and some graveyards.
The tomb of Amanni Shaham is very famous by the uygurs. Amanni was the
wife of Arbdu Rushitiham. What, you don't know him? He's been the king
of Yarkant in the 15th century. But this dos not explain the popularity
of Ms. Amanni. What she did: she collected music until her early death
in the age of 34 years. In sum she collected the "12 Mukamms" and
preserved it for the people.
Even it wasn't Saturday the big cleaning was ongoing, carpets were
rapped and aired. Maybe because of us tourists. We had the impression
that not many of them are visiting in Yarkant.
The Amanni tomb is part of a graveyard which also includes an mosque.
There are also the tombs of some Sultans and so on but we frankly
forgot about their history and names as it was a too big flood of
information. Maybe we google it some other time and put int on line
then.
Tourists have to pay extra for the graveyard, just to make this point
clear: don't forget to buy the ticket.
Usually the tombs has no writing on it, who is buried there. The family
knows it anyway and the rest mustn't know. Only the tombs of the real
important people get a nice plate with the names. Sultan Arbdu
Rushitiham is important enough as the husband of Amanni to get this
privilege.
Due to the heat (more than 35°C) we didn't recognize that were
starving. But we're still missing our driver, Akba. No problem, we can
walk to the restaurant. But where is he? Well, after some questions to
Tudajim we found out, that he's at the local officials to get an stamp
on one document which allows us to go to the province of Hotan. We'll
meet him later, maybe.
Having yummie pigeons for lunch we only have on mosque left to visit
before we can drive to the next city.
In the mosque it was forbidden to take pictures. Our guide Tudajim told
us plenty of details and didn't stop to talk. And this we have to see
and there we have to have a look on. Hmmm, the real reason for the very
intense explanation was, that Akbe and the stamp were still missing.
Lunch break at the gofernmental office, so it'll take at least another
30 minutes to get the stamp. Perfect, so we can stroll around the city.
One hour later we got the stamp and took of to the desert. We haven't
been to the dessert before, well Stephan was once in Dubai but had no
tour in to the dessert. Ok, then let's have a look to one. Just getting
to the border of the dessert we were into a sand storm. Cool, that's
how a dessert is.
After the sand storm it started raining. Raining? We just double
checked with Akba, if he's sure we're on the right track. Usually a
dessert is dry, hot and so on, isn't it? Seems everything is a bit
different when we're traveling.
Hours later we after the rain stopped we got at least the dessert
feeling. Not much sand but a lot of rocks.
After sun set it started getting real challenging on the street. Who
needs a light, there's only a straight street and switching on the
light would be a waste of energy. The small detail that the rain washed
a lot of sand on the street is no real reason for switching the lights
on. After Midnight we finally arrived at the hotel with nearly broken
back bones, but this is as always another story......
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Dentists...
....are really good handraftsmen but lousy in advertising.....
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