新疆 Day 2 - Breakfast

We rose really early in the morning thanks for last night's adventure. I felt quite refreshed though, and walked over to the central building from where our rooms were to have breakfast. 

There was a buffet of traditional/local food, which was quite tasty at first despite being unfamiliar and either very salty or very sour (I would, over the course of the next few days, discover that I really didn’t like the food at all, but that’s life). 

 


Outside, there were numerous other buildings making up the little village in the mountains, mainly whitewashed buildings with peaked roofs that had a strangely western sort of feel. It reminded me of the fjords in Norway, or the mountains in Austria, and the air was fresh and cool like spring mornings in Canada. There was this animal pen with chickens, turkeys and rabbits, as well as a stand selling something like naan, freshly made. The lady kneaded the dough tirelessly, while two men manned the oven at the back. It was extremely good, piping hot out of the fire and crispy with sesame seeds on top.

om nom nom

新疆 Day 2 - Mountains

We boarded a large tour bus that took us into the mountains since private vehicles are not permitted into the designated scenic areas. It was filled with other tour groups from different places in China, and the people were very excited and very loud. Our first stop on the mountain road overlooked a river, and we all got off for pictures. I found a walkway leading down the valley towards the water. There were wildflowers everywhere, yellow and white. Trees I thought looked like aspens swayed in the wind, leaves flipping back and forth, the whole tree shimmering in the sun. Clouds cast their own shadows on the mountainside as they floated by overhead.

 

My dad and my uncle

It was breathtakingly beautiful at that first stop, and I was so in love with the view that I was sad to board the bus once more. We stopped at numerous other places too: there were platforms perched at the edge of a cliff, walkways looking out at green fields sprinkled with flowers and dotted with cows and sheep. Here and there, the local people of ethnic minorities had their cloth tents and wooden houses, smoke rising into the clear mountain air as small, brightly-dressed children stood in doorways to stare. At some stops, we stayed for a long time, but at others we moved on after five minutes or so. 

hmm, bonus picture

新疆 Day 2 - The Climb

The bus finally brought us to the very highest point, where we would be able to look back down at the river and the valley. The way was steep, narrow and winding, so the people in the aisle seats were told to put on their seatbelts. The bus rumbled and bumped its way up at an alarmingly high speed, coming to a few very close encounters with opposing traffic. It always seemed impossible that both buses could pass each other, but somehow the drivers would honk and manoeuvre their way, squeezing rather treacherously side by side on the narrow road.

At the top, we had to make our way up 1050 or so steps set into the mountain to get to the viewing tower. The way up was sunny, windy, and quite exhausting at times, but the view all along the valley and mountains beyond was amazing. We stopped to take pictures of course, and finally reached the peak and its glorious scenery. I was dying a little bit by then, since my feet were tired, but otherwise I felt really fresh right there.

On the side road down the mountain, my feet trembled and my eyes threatened to close. The fatigue rolled in and bore down on me in waves, and so I stumbled my way back to the buses as we returned the way we’d come. As I dozed off in the bus, I started leaning against the window beside me despite the bumping of the bus, occasionally waking up when my head smashed into the window particularly hard. Once, I opened my eyes to find passengers of another bus staring at me from their windows, only a few inches away from my face. My sleepy mind couldn’t comprehend how it was possible, but I realized it was just another bus we were passing, and that was how close they cut it. O_o
Panorama from the top from my dad's camera

新疆 Day 2 - Riverside

After a late lunch at one of the only restaurants in the area, we went down to the river we’d seen from the mountaintop in the morning. There was a dock for small boats, and a wide area along the shore with boardwalks and benches. With only a gentle breeze and the waves lapping against the shore, the atmosphere was very calming and serene. Looking up, we could see the tower we had climbed to, and I was pretty proud of myself for having survived the climb because the mountain looked especially high from where we were. Strolling along the river bank, we stopped periodically for the resident photographers (my dad and cousin, along with my uncle and his camcorder) to get the shots they wanted. While waiting, I saw an eagle swoop down to grab a fish from the water, flopping and shiny in its claws. Later on, I watched a mother duck taking her ducklings for a swim. The little duckies were trying to swim upstream, straining and straining, swimming together towards their mother as she waited on a rock. I didn’t manage to get a picture though, since I’d left my phone in the car.