(Author Note: Day Five, Aug. 24th, 2011: I finally have ethernet in the hotel. All of the Silk Road trip blog posts are written on a daily basis, but posted only when I get internet, so please refer to the time phrases as having written them at the time.)
Yesterday I embarked on an ancient journey that used to take traders of all races through China. Since I am in group B, I get to start west and travel east through China on the Silk Road. If the trip continues to be anything like the first day, I’m in for one heck of a ride.
Yesterday morning we gathered outside our dorm at 5am. I had gotten one hour of sleep but was pretty jazzed for the trip. We travelled by bus to the airport and left for Dunhuang, located in a poor agricultural province. We landed at 10am in an airport so small it didn’t have a gate (we disembarked outside). I was immediately struck by the blinding sun and the large sky that held it. The land was flat, reminding me of Texas, except with gorgeous sand mountains of the Gobi Desert framing the backdrop.
We took another bus to our hotel, which is actually pretty nice. Along the way I watched as fields of produce flew by. The fences of these fields struck me as odd—they are constructed with diagonal instead of horizontal logs. After reaching the hotel, I went with some friends to the local market. People kept looking at me, the only white person in the group. By now I’m getting pretty used to this.
We walked around, baking in the hot sun, until we finally found a large sheltered marketplace that held dozens of small cookeries. We choose a noodle shop, and the owner was extremely nice and talkative to us. He only knew a little English, so we mostly spoke Chinese. A grandfather sat at a table across from us, and brought over his one year old grandson to wave hello and clap for us. The grandson was pudgy and fidgety, but the grandfather held on to him. I could feel the immense love radiating from both the grandfather and the grandmother—who would look at us from the table with a large smile on her face.
We returned to take a well-deserved nap, went to the marketplace for dinner again, and packed for our desert adventure. The bus left at 7pm, and once we arrived we set up our tent and then climbed a large sand dune, sat, and stared. The dunes were magnificent in size. Nature has a way of making one feel very small.
We gathered around a bonfire to hear a few student presentations on China. The best part though came when our tour guide cut up several watermelons and a few cantaloupes for us. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten more delicious fruit.
By the time the fire had died, it was already 9:30pm. The sun had disappeared long before, and the stars came out into full view. My friends and I decided to climb up the sand dune again (this was harder than climbing the Great Wall, which is saying a lot) and we laid down on the sand to look at the stars. A warm desert breeze floated along, carrying the thin clouds with it. I will never forget this experience.
The next day we brought down our tents and boarded the bus by 5am. It was still dark out as the bus bounced jauntily down the dirt road. We arrived at our next destination within half an hour—Singing Sand Dunes Park. I changed into long pants (in a stall with a squat toilet) and walked towards a group of camels.
Over two hundred camels sat in teams of five on the sand. I climbed aboard one of them and with one word “Di” the Chinese lady got my camel to stand. She led me and four others on camels behind me to a sandy spot 20 minutes away. After we arrived there, with one more word she commanded the camel to sit (“tuh”). Sitting on a camel who is sitting down is a weird experience: first they lower their front legs and then they swoop forward then backward to lower onto their back legs.
I thanked my camel for taking me there and then proceeded to climb a ginormous sand dune. They offered stairs for 15 kuai, but I’ve become rather cheap since coming to China so I decided to walk up the dune instead. Once up the dune (huffing and puffing) I sat down and watched the sun rise. The other TBC students watched with me, as well as maybe a hundred Chinese tourists.
I sat there, thinking at times how pretty the sunrise was and other times finding it hard to believe that I was actually there.
Motto for the trip: “Somebody pinch me.”
We stayed a while longer, took the camel to “Moon Lake” and then back again to our bus. I ate breakfast back at the hotel (another Lazy Susan) and proceeded to take the best shower of my life. (Desert = Lots of Sand = Stacy needs a shower)
Given that I just literally experienced an unforgettable event, I wonder what this afternoon will bring…
