Kashgar (CHN)

03.11.
after selfmade delicious scrambled eggs we left our campsite. several men walked there, but only two contacted us. it was 25 km light downhill.6 km outside of Kashgar a checkpoint. no problems . after 33 km arrival at the Pamir Youth Hostel... long shower and laundry. 12 days of cycling without shower or another possibility to wash were over.

04.11.
we walked trough the craftsmen street to the Grand Bazar. one important item in Kashgar is reducing my luggage.honestly I have too much of it and many spareparts are not necessary any more. at the hostel I found a big box, where my trailer had enough space. I do not want to carry anymore luggage up to 3700m more as necessary ;-). in the evening we had delicious food at a Turkish restaurant.

05.11.
terrible night. only vomiting

06.11.
only a little bit better....

07.11.
I felt extremly sick. I decided to go to doctor, we had the suspicion on salmonellae. here it is necessary to go to a hospital. well, in China we are total analphabets. Sago from the Pamir Hostel helped us so much !! without him no chance to understand anything! a blood check was necessary then toilet: toilet??? this was a real desaster , a blame for a hospital!!! old dirty and close to the restricted area of the laboratory. used cotton-sticks from the blood-check on the floor. well, after one an a half hour I had new medicine and at midnight I felt so much better :-)

08.11.
still a little bit weak but strong enough to go to a barber shop. I do not like a beard in my face and my hair needed to be cut. after 45 min of a very professional treatment I felt myself so much younger and fine :-).
in the evening we had dinner at the Karakorum Cafe, which is highly recommended by us. then bad news in the hostel: no water due to repair work in the whole house.

09.11.
still now water in the hostel. we went for breakfast to the Karakorum Cafe. official opening hour is 9 am and we arrived at 9.15. closed ! but we noticed a light. we knocked at the window and had luck. was time to reduce the luggage. I packed the box. we went with Sago to the postoffice. the woman told us that the package with the trailor is too big and it is not allowed to use red tape or there must not be red letters on the box ! totally paranoid this government. well, the CP (Communist Party of China), which currently celebrated its party congress in Beijing, is a so-called gerontocracy; i.e. only old men, who got the position based on their age... seems that they are mentally defective. price for the 10kg-package was 60 USD, which is o.k.

10.11.
breakfast at Karakorum with Sandy from CA, Chinese sim card at China Mobile, new chain for bike and a new tyre.

11.11.
ill again.

12.11.
ill again, with Ibrahim to hospital.
three infusions :-(

13.11.
hospital , electrocardiogramm, sonography

14.-16.11.
ill.

17.11.
ill, but a little bit better. we met us with Annika and Roberto from www.tastingtravels.com", CJ from California, and an Australian couple in an Uygur restaurant. was very funny but in the evening I had again pain in the stomach.

18.-19.11.
ill. Roberto was ill, too. Astrid cycled with Annika to the animal market and had so much fun.

20.11.
Astrid had higher temperature; 38.2 C :-( . breakfast with Annika Roberto and CJ . at 3 pm we left our hostel to go to the airport. flight from Kashgar to Urumchi.....

Id-Kah Mosque

typical Uygur house.

Grand Bazar

craftsmen street

infusion in a hospital...

craftsmen street

f.l.t.r: Roberto, CJ, Annika, Astrid and .... me ;-)

Grand Bazar

barber shop

Sandy from California with us in the Karakorum Cafe

carousel with tanks ... crazy !

craftsmen street

Impressions from the Animal Market. only Astrid was there, together with Annika....

China: Irkeshtam-Pass to Kashgar

31.10
first checkpoint in China at Irkeshtam. Philip from Belgium came to the officer and behaved himself very unfriendly. First bad impression of this guy. 2 km later a new border control. x-ray of all bags. very friendly officers. we met Lukas, Sonja and Yvonne from Bonn on the way to KGZ. their bikes were on a coal truck. due to the story of lost bikes from Dan and Sam from NZL and now this story we expected a bad scenario for our equipment. it was too late to go on a truck , so one of the officers allowed us to camp on the border ground. with Anna from Russia we build our tents in a sideway and cooked some rice. this part of the first part of the border was an exchange between China and KGZ. many left houses and shops and very nasty. People who are living there belong to the Uyghurs. most Chinese belong to the Han-Chinese.

01.11.
during the night I felt ill, stomach problems. a really bad night , barking dogs, trucks, a drunken man, who was angry about our tents. we got up at 8, packed our stuff and went to the meeting point outside of the immigration office. we had to wait again. some truckers watched our bikes and one of them, Ibrahim, contacted us with a pretty good English.he was a tour guide in Kashgar and he offered us to take us in his 55- tons-truck. well, this would be great! I contacted "our" immigration officer and he agreed. we had to wait for another half an hour but it was no problem. outside very cold but inside a oven;-) Philip was there too and his behaviour was very rude. I really do not want to see this idiot again. then we had to hurry : Ibrahim's truck arrived and we had to load our stuff. 5 h gravelled road :-( since Aug 26 2012 cycling or walking is not allowed anymore on this road and we understand this decision of the Chinese Government. minimum 200 of 40 till 55-tons trucks on a very narrow road. too dangerous!! and if it would be possible to cycle there you would eat dust the whole way. in the later afternoon we arrived at the last border control in Wuqui: we had to open all bags and to explain the things. Astrid has to delete two photos from her camera. LP (Lonely Planet) map China without Taiwan! Taiwan declared itself as a sovereign state, but China does not accept this. a longlasting conflict. the staff was very friendly. after one and a half hour we camped on a field . groggy!!

02.11.
wake up with sun shine at 9. crowded road with trucks . . 8 km uphill with 6% and headwind.in Toba now 6000 km by bike ! there were small shops with delicious food ... chicken wings , banana chips, peanuts, cookies.... so yummy!! then downhill from 1915 m to 1589 m. in a smaller village we asked in a sideway some pedestrians for the possibility to camp or a guesthouse. we showed our "point it" dictionary, only some discussions , there should no possibility to camp.. no invitation, although the backyards of the houses would have enough space to build a tent. people were more interested in the dictionary than in us. it was late. against the advice of the people not to cycle further downhill we found a camp site close to the river. quite and hidden. thanks a lot for your hospitality :-(

first campsite in China, 1 km behind the border

on the road to Kashgar

after 12 days of tough cycling without any possibility to wash ourselves or to shave my beard ;-)

camping inside the 1.border

on the "highway" .... too narrow and too dangerous for cycling or walking

Sonja,Yvonne and Lukas from Bonn

on the "highway"...

yeah !!!!

Anna from Russia, camping with us inside the border

new fans ;-)

from Osh (KGZ) to the border of China

24.10

33km , 2150 alt. camping, -0.1 C

25.10.

36km, alt. 2389. nach Guelchoe camping 1685 alt.

26.10

47 km, alt. 2400. total 5824, camping

27.10.

24 km cold makes me less powerful. on our way we met aKyrgyz who worked in Plymouth and Czech. with a very good english he asked usfor autostop, but we refused it.  campingon 3000 m, where usually nomads have their jurtes.  after dinner with noodles it began to snow.

28.10.

the night was cold but we have very good sleeping bags.we woke up with snow. we started quite late, at 10:30 we left our camp site.  km total. 8,5 km till Taldyk-Pass. from 3000mup to 3.615m.

average speed 4.5km/h. a real tough trip. the coldexhausts me more than the heat in the desert. a truck driver offered us to takeus uphill, but we wanted to take the challenge. it was very windy and on thesummit we met two other truck drivers. we had a funny small talk. the mother ofone of them lives in Grimmitschau in East-Germany. we expected a longdownhill-section to Sary-Tash but after 5 km again a 2-kilometer upclimb with8%. dark clouds were approaching. we arrived in Sary-Tash and noticed a signfor a guesthouse. it was 4pm. snow cold and no more food in our bags . it wastime to relax a little bit. it was a simple guesthouse, but with a very hotoven. the very friendly host served us some noodles and tea. what luxury !

29.10.

20km, avs 8,2. only 1., 2. or maximum the 3. gear on a quite flat road !  strong cold headwind,   better storm .an empty waggon from a shepherdsaved us. we used some criminal energy with our multitool and opened thelock;-) cooker with diesel was a desaster.we had to cook inside thewaggon.  after 4 hours we had tea and awarm meal. due to the cold it is always important not to freeze. so we keptmoving while brushing the teeth. ;-) we call it the "brush-your-teeth-dance" :-). we build Astrid'stent inside the waggon and it was quite warmer.

30.10.

no more storm, only a small wind! we met Regan fromTennesse (USA) who travels by autostop. the owner of a small house behind thenext hill visited us. I asked him for benzin and later I bought a liter. goodluck, no more f....g diesel !  we metHenry from IR, cycling the same way as us. 20km up to 3770 downhill up to 2914.super weather, military checkpoint in front of a strategic bridge. we boughtsome bread and juice at the local small shop and I gave my Keen sandals to theowner. they were too heavy and I wanted to reduce my luggage. after 2 km wecamped at the river. 40km in total.

31.10.

cold night. minus 4. 24km.some altimeter again. In Nura,a small village, we bought some food. very funny and friendly meeting withpeople there. In the LP (Lonely Planet travel guide book) it was a warning forthis village! no problems at all:-) I should take photos from differentfamilies. then first exit of KGZ. we had to wait for an hour. we met Philipfrom Belgium, who was hitchhiking. no problems with the officers.  Exit KGZ ! short uphill and then many trucks. some know us, because we always tryto greet every TIR-truck, they are our best friends :-)

snowy evening in the mountains

rockfall.... not so funny.

8% upclimb on the Taldyk-Pass

summit !!!!

now downhill to Sary-Tash

Sary-Tash, snow is approaching

what a view !

inside cooking in "our" waggon due to storm

next morning: no storm anymore !

Diesel caused this "desaster"

on the summit: 3.770m altitude. a really exhausting ride, but so gorgeous !

now downhill from 3.770m

village of Nura, 5 km to the first checkpoint for China

in Nura

the night inside the checkpoint

inside the checkpoint. from here we had to take a truck to Wuqi

camping on a nomad's place: left usually are the so-called jurtes

Taldyk-Pass, 8% !

Guesthouse in Sary-Tash