The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Lazy Dog: Day 33: The Uighurs Culture

I dont know that people eat salted Dou4 Hua1. I still prefer the sweeten one.

Went back to my hotel after breakfast and I finally met the owners of the BMWs. They are japanese and are riding into europe on the silk road. Sigh, thats what I wanted to do. Just too bad that I had sold away my bike the day before, if not I would have people to ride with now. It takes another biker to understand the feeling of having no bike to ride. Sobsob...

Anyway, they are riding professionally and are fully equipped. They even have a support vehicle, mechanics, special cameraman, video man etc. HAHA and I was being filmed by them like a mini interview. They asked me where I came from etc etc.

The thing about having no bike is that it is very inconvinence. Here, all the sightseeing spots are like 20-30km away from town and there are no buses to get there. So I had no choice but to book a taxi. Expensive as I had to book them for a few hours.

First, I went to visit another ancient old city but the difference is that this is still in use. Which means people still lives there.

People painting.

Is that a well?

Just as I got nearer to take a closer look, a kid popped out from within.

and then more kids appeared. What? Are they playing in the well?

More pictures taken from this village.

A ancient cemetry.

Then my driver had to go and attend a wedding. He had to lend his car to his friend to join in a wedding convoy. As agreed, he will bring me along which is great. How many tourist can say that they had attended a Uighur wedding? ME!!!

Decorating the convoy cars.

The band. They were playing non stop.

There goes the convoy.

Waiting for the bride to come.

Lots of kids around. The moment they saw me, they were all running towards me asking to be photographed. Boy just love guns and like to act cool.

and girls just love to be beautiful.

Oh here comes the wedding car.

and out comes the bride and the sisters. If you look carefully, everyone were crying. I ask my driver why and he told me that the more they cry, the better. It is like good luck to them.

Soon it was time for me to go and so I asked to be sent back to the town. Saw a cute little boy along the way.

From there I bought a bus ticket to Urumqi. Just like at the train station, noone queues up. Everyone was like squeezing and rushing and pushing everyone else around. Fought my way to get a ticket. Then in the bus, I realised that noone sit according to the seat number stated on the ticket.

Reached Urumqi at night. Had some problem in locating the hostel I wanted to stay in as the address does not tally. Then I found out that they had relabeled the whole city due to the olympics. WOH!! That must be a real tough job to relabel every single unit. Incredible.

Approached a guy on the street to asked for directions. He was very kind. He helped me made a call to the hostel, asked for directions and brought me right to the doorstep. He also left me his number and ask me to call him again if I ever run into any problems here.

Then its time for dinner. Had some noodles and the local speciality (Kao3 Niu2 Rou4 Chuan4). Its just like a very big satay.