There are moments in every journey where you find yourself
asking “Why the F**k did I sign up for this?!?!” That moment for me was the drive from Duhuang
to Turpan. I knew it was going to be
tough when we were told it was a 6:45 am start.
That alone is enough to put me over the edge (not being a morning person
AND no decent coffee!). But we had to
start that early as it was a 13-hour drive through the desert in summer. Yes – 13 hours in the desert in summer – in a
truck with no air conditioning. Fun
times!! (NOT!) Even with all the windows
open all we accomplished was being blasted with burning hot wind. It was like riding in a blast oven. I hung on for 10 hours and then it was full
on motion sickness with a migraine that was off the Richter scale. I can count on one hand the number of times I
have been so sick I would have welcomed death.
This was one of them.
When we pulled into our hotel I couldn’t push Emma (our
guide) out of the way fast enough as I made a run for the outdoor pool
toilets. I pushed open the door to find
a washroom that had not been functional in 40 years but still well used. If I thought I was nauseated before… Then it was a crawl out of the den of defecation
to collapse on the steps where Ken
rescued me and took me to our room. I
took every medication we had and passed out for 15 hours.
Let’s leave the heaves and go back to the pool. I say this because the “Turpan Hotel” in
itself is a site worth mention. It is a
sprawling Arabic/Chinese fusion hotel that, as Barry put it, was like The
Shining in the Gobi Desert. I think
this place had 400 rooms but we were the only guests. Everything looks as if it hadn’t been used or
cleaned since 1970. There were cars in
the parking lot – expensive cars – that were simply abandoned. I half expected “walkers” to step out at any
moment.
The following day we had a tour of the underground aqueducts
and Jiaohe Ruins. The aqueducts were
literally and figuratively very cool and I thoroughly enjoyed our guide,
Omar’s, informative talk on how they were made.
They are indeed an engineering marvel that supersede anything the Romans
achieved. Then it was off to the Jiaohe Ruins,
which Lonely Planet describes as “impressive in scale rather than detail.” Yep- that about sums it up. Of course, when it’s 4 billion degrees out
with no shade it is hard to appreciate the esthetic of this site. I lasted about 20 minutes and then I was like
“Screw this. I am going back to the air
conditioned visitors center and watching the video.” Ken stuck it out and came back an hour later
looking like death, drenched in sweat and before I even asked blurted out “You
didn’t miss anything” and then ripped my water bottle from my hand.
And who can’t have enough long tortuous desert driving? Well apparently us since we repeated this the
next day and the day after that. Another
11 hr. drive to Kuche. Pulled into a
gloriously grand hotel only to find out we were actually staying in the
“servant’s quarters” around back. No
functional air conditioning but we did have 20-foot ceilings and four bags of
complementary tea. Upshot: they did have a good Chinese breakfast
buffet that we had 15 minutes to enjoy
because you guessed it – ANOTHER LONG DRIVE!
Holy Crap! You amaze me with your perseverance
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