Our first train ride

First Night Train Trip
We sat in an upstairs waiting room that is reserved for tourists only while we waited for the 10pm train. The man with our tickets was on the train and we had to find him quickly, stay together and get on the train before it blew a whistle and took off. It went as smooth as clock work. We were in Carriage 12 with no other persons as yet, no idea when to get off and couldn’t find anyone who spoke English. Our Guide had assured us he had told the guard about us and they would tell us when to get off, and sure enough at 5.30am a knock told us we had 10mins to get off. We followed the crowd along the platform and out of the station. How’s that for trusting the system!

Our next guide was waiting and off we set for a 2 hr mini bus trip to Dunhuang. There was not one metre of this sealed road in the Gobi Desert that wasn’t bumpy. At 80 kph. we were thrown around like 2 rag dolls and felt battered a bruised by the time we escaped this torture. Surprisingly, we were passed by other vehicles travelling at great speed – they must had springs in their vehicles, or they were plain stupid. (probably both)
Breakfast was in the hotel we were staying at. I asked for salt and pepper for our boiled egg and got brought a granule mix of milk and sugar which the waitress placed in my coffee for me before I had time to say no, she then proceeded to find a bowl of salt. Better than Bills episode of there being no clean tea cups and being told to use a large glass and when we shook our heads we were given a soup bowl!!!
The weather was warm with a nice warm breeze so we headed out to the Lake of the Crescent Moon which is a small Oasis in the desert commercialized with camel rides and sand sliding activities. We were greeted by 100s of tourists wearing big bright orange cloth pull over boots ( 10Yuam or $3nz a pair) There are apparently over 600 camels based here and are all needed on a busy day. In a group of 3 camels with a camel master we set off. What a laugh, I nearly went head over neck when my sprightly filly camel stood up. Bill was riding ahead with no hands and I held on for grim death. It was a 30 min ride and thoroughly enjoyable and when it stopped you could go sand boarding, after climbing a wooden ladder to the top of a hill and sliding down on a wooden sleigh. You are never too old for anything!!! I’m still getting sand out of shoes and hair. We walked around the Lake and caught the camels back to the beginning, not before mine tried to take a short cut around a post and through another tied up camels holding rope. I thought for a horrid second I was going to be dumped by the frisky filly and trodden on by other irate honking camels. These beasts don’t particularly look as though enjoy life and looked about as happy as Helen Clark did after the elections.
After lunch we had one of the highlights of our trip so far. The Magao Caves which are located at the foot hills of the Mingsha Mountains.. They began construction of these in 366AD. Now there are735 caves of various sizes containing paintings and statues of Buddha. People using the Silk Rd created these Grottos to pray in for a safe journey. In some cases the carved out Buddha shape in the cave was over 60ft tall and had taken 10yrs to carve. Being off the beaten track and protected by Cho En Lai’s troops they weren’t destroyed in the Cultural Revolution.
A walk around town and a visit to the markets was a great fill in as we waited for dinner time. I fell in love with a black sugar fried fritter. Great for the tummy… all oily but deliciously crunchy and sweet.
The high way to Jiayuguan was a smooth as silk after yesterdays trip. Four hrs on the Gobi Desert got us there and in time for a hotel lunch and then off to the Great Wall, its museum and a walk to the top. Couldn’t come to China and not do this. Amazing fortress and view from the top. We controlled ourselves not to fire arrows down on the dummies acting as the enemy. The fortress was certainly a work of art and no wonder the soldiers here were able to keep the enemy out with the variety of weapons and fortress they had, consisting of an ingenious “trap” whereby if the enemy did break in, they only found themselves in a high walled arena where once the gates were shut behind them, were able to be just picked off at random by the soldiers up on the surrounding wall!
Chinese takeaways were got for us as the train was leaving at 8.30pm and there was no way I wanted to miss it. As it was we only just caught it.