Going crazy in the Desert

I'm in Korla, 1100km from Kashgar. Korla is a boom town. It's wealth comes from the oil that is being pumped from the desert not too far from here.

The last 4 days have been pretty good. The road is perrrrrfect. Headwinds, when they come, don't last all day. I can communicate with the people. The weather is good, no digestive issues, and I feel fit.

So what's making me crazy?

It's just that it's the same thing everyday. The landscape has not changed a bit for a week. No mountains or rivers to provide a memorable point of reference. No interesting geologic formations. The vegetation never changes. My mp3's are starting to repeat. Noodles for every meal.

So I just keep pushing those pedals because the only thing that changes is my cycle computer. I focus on the speedometer, which leads to an obsession with speed, which leads to massive daily distances. 140km, 130km, 135km, 180km.
I play this silly game of trying to draft off of passing trucks which forces me to go as fast as they drive. Once I even reached 67kph.

Once in a while, I pass through a village which is a nice relief. You can spot them from far away because they're the only places that have trees.


Nice places to eat a popsicle and try to figure out what the Uighurs are doing.

Or try to figure out the Chinese government's thinking.


But you'd have to contend with the trash.

This was just by the side of the road, where people from nearby houses come and dump their trash. I guess their horse died and they just dragged the carcass across the street. The road is punctuated with these small villages every 40 or so kilometers. They're usually not this bad but it's still much better to camp in the wilds than to sleep in these places.

But the big cities are nice: a good reward for my sensory starved eyes. They're pretty much all the same, and in the city center you hardly know you're in Xinjiang. Very comfortable places to rest.

Aksu. The square fills with people of all ages at night enjoying the breeze, walking the dog, or dancing in unison. Charming places to be in the evenings.


Kuqa. I stayed at a Hotel owned by Mr Zheng, who moved here from Zhejiang province. He treated me to lunch before I left. It was a very Chinese event. He invited the manager of the restaurant and his hotel manager to dine with us. He ordered way too many dishes, including live fish which is very expensive here. I was the only one that ate because, as it was explained to me afterwards, Chinese people like to go to big expensive restaurants, order a bunch of stuff, and barely eat as a way of displaying wealth. Nobody takes home leftovers so restaurants usually throw out platefuls of untouched food. All this to save face.
Mr Zheng and his daughter.


Korla. Another thing about Chinesified cities is that their standardization makes finding your way around very easy. They all have a Renming Guanchang (People's Square) that is at the center of where all the action is. I don't need to have a map when I roll into town. I just ask people where the Renming Guanchang is and the hotels and wangbas (Internet cafes) are usually within a couple of blocks.