August 19, 2011
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The Silk Road (Sort Of) Overland
Saturday 13 August 2011
I managed to see the Abakh Khoja Mausoleum this morning before it was time to get to my train. The Abakh Khoja Mausoleum was absolutely fascinating, and very beautiful. It had the same blue tile work I’d seen in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, but it also had some of the colours I had seen in Bukhara – orange and dark olive green. What was different was that some of the green and orange tile work was quite basic – just large, plain tiles, which were mixed with the more elaborate tiles in other colours. This mix of elaborate and kind of a rustic, or basic style, is what made this mausoleum so beautiful I think.It is quite interesting at this stage of my journey to be able to begin to compare the design and ornamentation of different mosques and mausoleums I’ve seen along the Silk Road. I’m obviously not an expert, but the Silk Road as one single entity is starting to emerge for me. Exciting!
My train journey to Kuche went quite smoothly. Originally, I had planned to go to Aksu, since it was listed as a major city along the old Silk Road, but after I had bought the ticket, I read the fine print: there are no archaeological remains left. So I am extending the journey a few hours and I’ll get off in Kuche instead, a small town according to Chinese standards, but it has a lot of interesting stuff to look at.
An immediate and obvious difference between the trains in the Stans and here in China is the security. I had to show my ticket three times before I was allowed to board the train, and my luggage was X-rayed and I had to walk through a metal detector as well. For the train itself, the seats are smaller and they get more passengers into one car, especially since most of the train consisted of two-story cars. However, the air-conditioning is working and they keep cleaning the train every two hours or so by sweeping and mopping the floors – asking the passengers to lift their feet.
They apparently allow for train tickets with no seats because there were quite a few passengers who were sitting in the staircases or standing, leaning against the walls. The toilets look a bit scary (squatty-potty style) but they don’t really smell. I think they clean them quite frequently. One similarity between the Stans and this train is that we are running later – an hour or so.I seemed to be the only European on the entire train. No-one spoke to me, though I had quite a few curious kids standing around me at times while I was writing my blog on my iPad, or texting on my iPhone. At one stage, I showed a little boy some pictures on my iPad and suddenly several sections of the car were looking at my pictures from Tashkent as well. They seemed to understand the word Uzbekistan and they were chatting amongst themselves as they saw pictures of the medressas in Tashkent. Most of the passengers seemed to be Uighurs so they obviously understood what kind if monuments they were looking at.
Arriving at the Kuche Hotel just before midnight was quite interesting. I walked up to the reception desk only to discover that none of the three receptionists knew one word of English (except for “no”). Very quickly all three started saying, “No, no!” either loud voices while looking at me. Not the world’s most customer-friendly approach to a new hotel guest. Luckily, I had the faxed booking with me in Chinese, arranged by the hotel in Kuche, and when I showed it they suddenly seemed to understand that I actually had a booking. What if I had not had this fax?! Weird situation to have a hotel booking but not being able to convince the receptionist that you do. Anyway, they quickly got an English-speaking person on the line who explained all about the cost of the room, the deposit, breakfast etc.
The room was nice and large, with A/C and satellite TV, but again, not a single channel English. Also, when I showed one of the receptionists the log in page for the WiFi at the hotel, I realised she had no idea what she was looking at. Irritating to have WiFi but not having any hotel staff who knows who knows what WiFi is! With no English TV channels, I can at last listen to the BBC World Service if I’ve got WiFi – but not this evening. Again, I feel very much cut off from the world.
I also feel a bit apprehensive about tomorrow. My plan is to arrange for a tour of all the Silk Road-related monuments in Kuche and then take the night train to Turpan. What if there is no English-speaking receptionist tomorrow morning? I have this feeling that with planning only one day in Kuche, I might have been over-optimistic. In this part of China, it is apparently not obvious that the top-end hotel in a city has anybody who speaks English.
Well, tomorrow with tell.
