By Heather Cigas
Hello from sleep deprived me. We just finished our 13 day trip across China to follow the Silk Road, which I have to say was one of the coolest trips I’ve ever taken. I don’t think I ever would have traveled 2 hours from the Pakistan border on my own.
It was our last night in Kashgar, the final city on our trip, and a group of us wanted to hang out so we decided to venture next door to get icecream (my common diet here has been kabobs, dumplings, and icecream). Across the street from our hotel was a giant statue of Chairman Mao, and a huge park called the People’s Park. We decided to sit under the shadow of Mao to eat our icecream. To the left of us in the huge square there was a couple of young men playing with a remote controlled car, with 2 little boys chasing after it. On the right, there were 10 soldiers sitting watching the statue. And in front, there were at least 5 military/police cars. And we just sat there on the bridge casually eating our icecream, all while telling ourselves, “we’re actually in China.”
Getting to Kashgar is also a story of it’s own. We got to the train station in the middle of Turpan, only to find out that there was a sand storm and our train was indefinitely delayed. The only hotel nearby was in my opinion rated a half of a star, but we stayed there anyways. My roommates pillow was yellow, and my bedframe was completely broken. Safe to say, I sat on the steps outside of the hotel from 7pm to 1 am. At 3am, we were woken up to get on our 16 hour train, and proceeded to spend the next 16 hours on an overnight train to Kashgar.
It’s almost impossible to detail the entire trip and all the memories in one blog but here’s a few:
Xi’an: Bustling city with Muslim Street. Great for bartering (I’m getting really good at it). Here we biked on the city wall and went to see the Terracotta Warriors.
Lanzhou: Famous beef noodles, though we ate them for breakfast – still getting used to eating non breakfasty things for breakfast. Also my birthday was here. We went for hotpot (accidentally got spam and vegetarian chicken), tried to go to a music bar which ended up being another hotpot restaurant, and then went to a pub.
Xiahe: See my previous post about Tibet!
Dunhuang: Mogao caves were actually really cool. They are holes in the rock with tons of painting and hidden statues on the inside. Of course it only rains like once a year in this desert town, and of course it rains while we’re there. We got to ride camels in the morning to see the sunrise (except not really because it was so cloudy) BUT riding a camel and climbing the sand dunes was very very cool. I named my camel “Cami.”
Turpan: Where we discovered real NAAN. As a bread lover this is the best discovery ever.
Kashgar: Giant Mao statue and second largest Bazaar ever. Also lamb kabobs – these will now be a thing when I return. I didn’t think I would like lamb. Also since I said I’d try everything, we tried Lamb feet, safe to say I’m not a fan.
And now about the title of my blog – On the 6 hour plane home, I dumbly chose to sit in the middle seat so I could sit by my friend. Of course, a random person sat in the aisle seat. I have no problem sitting next to strangers, however I do have a problem if they sit in my part of the seat. This man was lounging so hard that he was half in my seat and I was not having it. So we were at war the entire plane ride to claim the armrest and everytime he’d get in my space I’d gently nudge him back. Also, I enjoyed making the flight attendant laugh because everytime he’d ask me if I needed something in English I’d respond in Chinese and it’d catch him off guard.
After spending hours on buses and trains, I feel so close to the 40 people in this program. Now that our main travel throughout China is done and classes are about to start, I can finally focus on getting routine back, and my Instagram won’t be as crazy.
Until next time: peace.
Recently, Thomas Michael, a professor at The Beijing Center (TBC), was interviewed our staff and shared with us his perspective on studying Daoist thought and living in China. Professor Michael is a researcher at the School of Philosophy at Beijing Normal University.
Five Loaves and Two Fish is a volunteer organization centered on providing support and international education opportunities to the local migrant children who comprise its student body.