Sunday, 26 April 2009 00:00 Last Updated on Monday, 22 June 2009 08:44 Written by Billy van Graan

In the end it took us nearly 3 days to get back to Kashgar from where we stopped cycling. After leaving getting over the last pass we drove through the desert at night. Near Kudi we had to take off our bicycles from the truck because there was a police check point and the driver doesn’t want to get seen with us by the police or army. We don’t know the reason for this but he was clearly very nervous about this. In two of the small town in the desert there is also a police check points so we had to off load our bicycles in the middle of the night in and cycle 25km and wait for him to pick us up again.

During this he was also selling part of his load to people next to the road. The whole thing felt very “illegal”. This whole taking the bicycles off the truck and putting them back on was a pain in the ass and we were very tired. When we arrived in Yecheng 3 o clock in the morning we parked in a yard somewhere presumably where he had to sell the rest of his load. The driver told us we could wait till sunrise in his truck but Muis wanted to get to a hotel and a proper bed so we decided to ride the last bit and get it over and done with.

Once at the hotel they wanted to charge us more than the last time and I was pissed off. I just stood there until they gave us the proper rate. The woman behind the counter got all nasty but I didn’t care.

Woke up this morning and had my first shower in 11 days. We took a bus to Kashgar and booked into the same hotel. When we arrived at Kashgar bus station I really needed the toilet so I ran in to the bus station and asked around till I found it. The smell was very bad and when I stepped inside there was no doors on the cubicles and you could see some people sitting and doing their thing in full view of everyone else. Lucky for me I only had a number 1.  I loved Muis’s look when he came back from the toilet. He was clearly as shocked as I was.

We spent the rest of the day eating and getting everything organized to go back to Guangzhou including buying boxes to transport our bicycles in.

 

Tags
China  Cycling  Dragons Backbone