新疆 Epilogue

This was a trip of learning to be alone, of appreciating the company of my friends whom I missed so much, and of survival in an unfamiliar place. 


On this trip, time flowed strangely. The sun goes down at around ten, and we often didn't have dinner or stop for the night until midnight so that we could cover the maximum distance during our waking hours. This means that I usually never got to sleep until long after 1 or 2 am. During the day, I was drowsy, and slept ridiculous amounts in the long car rides. Often, it felt like time passed by too quickly without me noticing. I would wake up to find that hours had passed, feeling like I had only dozed off for several minutes. Sometimes I would get back into the car after what felt like a leisurely afternoon stroll at some sightseeing destination, only to realize with a start that it was nearing 8pm, not 3 as I had imagined, with the sun swollen yellow in the sky. Then there were times in the car, in between naps, where I felt impossibly 100% awake and could not possibly sleep a second more. The dusty unfamiliar landscape would slide by alarmingly fast as the driver sped along the backcountry roads, but the minutes would tick by at a snail's pace. I felt as though I never could stay awake for more than three hours at a time, and never was allowed to sleep for more than 5. If it weren't for the photographs to remind me of the vivid realities of the sights I had seen, my memories of the trip would be only hazy at best, as I felt like I sleepwalked through the whole ordeal. 


There was an element of culture shock, of course, and I felt isolated as my uncle and cousin were in their own country, my dad was returning to it, and I was always left on the outside as the little girl who could not understand. My grasp of the language was often misunderstood, and this made for awkward spots where I could understand everything they were saying about me-- the fact that I was a foreigner, a woman, a child --but I was not able to respond at all. It did help me to feel a bit more confident in my comprehension abilities,  I suppose.  


Overall, I found this place to be unnerving and repulsive on some occasions, but immensely pure and beautiful on many others. I would come again, on my own terms though, and hopefully a little bit more awake. 

新疆 Day 7 - Foggy Mountains

In the morning the rain let up, and we drove up the mountain. Then we switched from a large tour bus to a golf-cart-like thing to travel the narrower roads. Yesterday’s clouds still lingered on the hills, floating along through the trees as though it were a living thing. The grassy hillsides were curiously ridged, like a fork pressed into cookie dough. Our guide informed us that these were created by herds of sheep being driven across to new grazing grounds. Horse, sheep and cows dotted the landscape here and there, with local dwellings set up along the way. At one stop, a crowd of local children pulling tiny goats on leashes came up to the touring vehicles. The goats were dolled up with brightly coloured ribbons and sashes, and the children with their shrill voices called out to the tourists offering photo ops in exchange for small change.

It was quite chilly on the mountain, the cold made worse by the dampness all over. By the time we returned to our car, I had lost feeling from my feet to my calves, and my fingers could barely move. We went for lunch, at the same restaurant for the third time, and warmed up with our final meal on the tour—complete with my favourite spicy roasted lamb. 

so cold.

新疆 Day 7 - Dreams and Departure

On our way to the airport, we stopped to take pictures by a golden field of wheat. I was my first time seeing wheat in real life up close. After this trip, I have two new things to dream of doing in life: to run through a wheat field and stand in the middle; and to do the same in a sunflower field.

At the airport, something went wrong: They had combined two flights into one without taking into account all the people, so us checking in so last minute left us without seats. We were informed that there was nothing to be done about the flight, so we would have to wait for the next and then stay at Urumqi for one night since we would have missed out connecting flight back to Guangzhou. 


To atone for their incompetence, they let us into the "VIP" area, but it was really just a musty little room with mustard yellow couches and a tiny TV which, for reasons unknown to me, my uncle used to watch infomercials presented in a local language that none of us understood.

新疆 Day 3 – Stranded

They let us into the lounge/waiting area labelled VIP, but it was really just a musty little room with mustard yellow leather couches and an ancient TV (which for some strange reason my uncle used for watching a channel that only seemed to show Uygur infomercials). I ended up going for a little walking tour of the tiny little airport, and had a look at some of the souvenirs they were selling. I finally bought a pack of playing cards because I didn’t have any on the trip before.

 

Our boarding call finally came and we made our way onto the least populated airplane I have ever seen. I wonder how much of a waste it is to fly across a province with like 10 people on the plane. Once we got back to Urumqi, we wandered around the airport until we found a service desk that knew what to do with us. I was frustrated because the light board displaying flight statuses said that our plane was still boarding…which meant that we probably technically would’ve still made it on. In any case, we were herded onto a shuttle bus (again, ten people riding a full-sized tour bus, but of course China’s not that eco-friendly I suppose) and taken to a hotel owned by the airport, aptly named something like The Petroleum Hotel. We would have to stay in Urumqi for a night in order to catch the next flight to Guangzhou. 

 

新疆 Day 7 – Night Market

We heard of the night market that happened to be going on at the time, so we hailed a taxi to get there. On our way out, the concierge girl gave us an interesting tip. Apparently in Xin Jiang, only females can sit in the front seat of the taxi. They’re scared you’ll attack them…and apparently females are too soft to do that ;) Anyway that’s how I ended up getting shotgun while my uncle, cousin and dad were squished into the back. It made me a little happy, because typically I’d be shafted to the back automatically.

bahaha..

We had dinner at the night market, where the vendors had a vast array of food items we could choose from and have them roast on the grill for us. The meat was pretty good, and we even got some quail. There was also some other rather questionable stuff that we didn’t dare to try…

crayfish..

ew...

After that we walked through the market and looked at the other stands selling things like clothes, decorative items, toys, automobile paraphernalia, and fruit. Parts of Xin Jiang province are well known for production of fruit, because the climate is suited to growing things like melons and grapes. I was able to eat the sweetest little green grapes I had ever tasted in my life, and we also got to try some other interesting locally grown fruits. 

Those yellow things in the middle shouldn't even be called fruits,
I think they are actually some kind of squash >_>