Kyrgyzstan

And then we left China.

To the west of Kashgar is a couple of land routes out of China...
One is Phunjurab Pass into Pakistan via Tashkorgan
Another is into the mountains (Pamirs) or Tajikistan (currently not allowed to American citizens)
One goes into Kazakhstan to the northwest of Urumqi
Two more mountain passes lead into Kyrgyzstan.

Flag of Kyrgyzstan

We went into Kyrgyzstan two days before the Olympic games started.
The morning we decided to leave was chaotically smooth.

We were expecting Mike to come in that night from Cherchen (he had gone back to take care of some personal business)
and at the same time we really concerned because we thought that the borders may be closed due to some internal security threats that had occurred in Xinjiang.
So we went to the tourist office and consulted about a lot of different things... but the biggest issue was that we thought that we should go that day... we had them get on the
phone to try to negotiate with a tourist office in Kyrgyzstan for a border pick up (the border is about 20 hours from Osh on a bumpy dirt road (to get a comparison do an internet search
of the Mt. Antero 4 wheel drive road (Colorado)...

We finally got the car set up and suddenly Mike just happens to walk into the tourist office for a unrelated issue (none of us had cell phones - no real time communication means) so
if he had not come into the office just a few moments later, we would have not known he was in town and delayed our trip out of the country another day.

I argued with the Chinese tour office lady about the price and then we hopped in what turn out to be "Saidali Senior"'s (the taxi driver from the trip to Pakistan's borderlands) taxi once again. A pleasant surprise.

We had to hurry up because we just had a bit of time before the border would close, and there was no way that the taxi driver on the other side would even think about waiting for us overnight. Along the way we ate some food in the car, Mike had not slept for a day and it was about to be extended into a multiple of overnighting it.

The road to the border was beautiful, resembling red rocks and Utah borderlands... what a beautiful place Xinjiang, it has everything except for Penguins and a Jungle. The river water was also unique in this area, the exact color of the rock outcroppings... muddy as the Colorado river when it hits Utah. (The kind of thing that Alex Ip was wondering if you could swim in it or not.)

After that we went through customs and had no idea if the taxi driver would be waiting for us or not. He was 5 kilometers down past customs so we jumped on a Import Exports monster double load semi that got 1/92 miles to a gallon. It was a Kyrgyz-Uzbek guy from Osh wearing sweatpants, and the ride would be for free and there was enough room for all of our bags as well.

The Border Area

He was really friendly and we started playing music while he was driving 10 Kilometers per hour.
We sang a Yulduz Usmanova song, Jeli Jeli. I played Rubob Omar played his new drum and Adnan sang, mike tapped a plastic bottle on the dash board.
He was nice and explained about the mixed people there in Osh and moreover the Fergana Valley, a nice play we one country turns into another in a sort of gradient effect.

We were getting closer to the second largest city before long and also closer to the Uzbekistan border, that is a good place to get closer to.
Then we had to go through Kyrgyz customs... on the way to there, we saw a line of imports trucks to China, there was probably 400 trucks sitting there.
Probably for days, it was a strickened border customs procedure than usual... shoot. I was wondering if the bord truck drivers had enough food water... they probably did not have enough fresh clothing.

After we got through customs we encountered a character, that was also our four wheel drive high watering volkswagen looking cars driver.
He was wearing an old New York Newsy boy cap and had a look like he had a chip on his soldier... he was also very small and a bit elderly making him a little unique for the circumstances amongst other things.

He strapped our bags on top of his car and started to drive us off... we found him to be a real pain in the neck...

Then I noticed that he looked like a cricket... so I came up with a better name than the one issued on his birth certificates: Jimmy Ricket the Kyrgyzstan Cricket.

He was real rickety when he drove shacking around and not handling the four wheel drive road well, he complained to us and later found out that he had been cussing a lot.


(Soviet Jimmy Cricket: ironically later we were in a media store and I saw a soviet version of Pinocchio and this Jimmy was in there)

The natural scenery was really nice as we where driving: two rivers converged, one was blue and clear and the other was red rock muddy, it was unexpected



Pamir mountains famous of Tajikistan were sitting right next to us, once again we could see 7,000 meter peaks, those majestic monsters!!!

Pamirs of Tajikistan

And the valley that shook your soul with its vast spread. We saw real nomads here... tending to their cattle and tending to their things.
Gurs we set up and the architecture was pretty much the same as others central asian pastoralists use.

As you can see there are Gurs in this motion shot taken from the car

It was really neat to feel you had really seen nomadic peoples.... (they buy snickers and coke from the city 40 kilometers away from time to time, but the difference is that I noticed that they ate snickers too before
they discovered that I eat snickers back home, unless they visited my hometown without telling me at some point).

Then we took a bathroom break and then we got shook around in the car on the road for a while, a guide book said that you should" get ready to have the teeth rattled out of your skull..." everyone was getting tired
and we were going to Osh right away.

We stopped for dinner played music for the restaurant and then went on, the taxi could not understand what it was that we were looking for but finally got that we did not want to stop for the night and wanted to go on.
We learned that it was not good to make someone drive so far before confirming the distance we found out upon arrival in Osh that it would be another 12 hours or so.

When we got there, this nice old lady gave us some help into a dirt cheap place to stay and at 9 a.m. we got to bed for a couple of hours, but we are not party poopers and got back up at 12:30 p.m. to go have a look around this new land... and this new city.

The cricket driver was cussing at the hotel guy in the end, so we judge that he is a crude old soviet army dude guy (as he confirmed when showing his old work permit documents and vertifications.)
We made it into Osh all the way from Kashgar in one non stop drive. We are tough.

Here at the end of the ride we met this nice lady who also was a worker at the restaurant near our hostel...

Osh turned out to be a friendly place with lots of interesting art types and Uzbek influence in the architecture and overall culture.

On top of Solomon's Rock

Traditional Artwork With UFOs
Tigers and Gurs

Horses and such

Traditional Kyrgyz Women
Eagle Throwing A Wolf Off Of A Cliff
Beautiful Clothing
Woman's Clothing
We met musicians (music teachers) after visiting a art center and we played with them and then ate dinner together... they took us out to a restaurant that server fermented milk, it was better than the Mongolian version.

The next day we went to Jalalabad... on the way to Osh.

Jalalabad Gate

Dams (Hydro Electric Power is central to the economy)... this water ends up being use for cotton cultivation west in Uzbekistan and resulting does not make it to the Aral Sea much at all anymore.
Decided to help cook the trout at the restaurant

After that the taxi broke down, a rock smashed through the front windshield and almost killed me, we found a bag of paraphernalia and saw some guy kicked down and left on the ground. It was a really rough night, really really rough. Finally at 5 in the morning we arrived in Bishkek, the capital Kyrgyzstan and we went to the hostel and checked in.

The rock that almost smashed my head, good thing I ducked and saw it coming. (we taped the windshield back shut after that.)

Statue in Bishkek (nice place with tons of trees, second greenest city in the Soviet Union)

We found some great hats to wear

We ended up playing a show for Pakistani's living in Kyrgyzstan, were treated to dinner introduced to many people in the community and Abbass Khan, a journalists from one of the two largest newspapers in Pakistan.

After that he wrote an article about our music in a clipping that was about Mr. Butt (the man in blue's official visit to Kyrgyzstan). He is from a political party that helped bring the military president out of office about two weeks ago... just after we met him, he went back to Pakistan.

I ended up spending quiet a bit of time with these guys and it was very fun.

On the way to Issuk-kul (inland sea in Kyrgyzstan) I saw this billboard
Sunset at Issuk-Kul (just after we arrived)

Accordion Player (really good)

Later we spent much time at cafes trying to reaarange our schedules and fix problems back home...
internet cafe blues and IP phonebooth blues...

After everyone else left I made my first friend from Turkey, his name is Burush.
We hung out the last 5 days I was there, it was a really good time.

Sunset in Bishkek

Another person who I met in Japan through my homestay family went back to Kyrgyzstan before I came and we met up several times... she showed me around the city, a really cool museum and several good restaurants and a Bizarre...

Me and Asel

I also met with another friend Roman who helped me on the Burma project... Mike and I went to see his church service, there we met his colleagues and since the church pastor was not there he gave the service... the praying style although Christian was like none we had ever seen... really intense fast taking (everyone did it individually). For the service Aiijamal and Fatima translated for us.

all and all it was a trip to Kyrgyzstan to see friends and to enjoy a little bit of natural scenery. It was also a time to reorganize the trip and to get ready for the next leg... everyone would split up in Kyrgyzstan and stayed there for another week, finally we reconnected but it was much later in another country.

At the heart of central asia, the most mountainous nation (90%) and the most interesting buses and fabric designs... until next time see you again Kyrgyzstan.

Across China into Uighurstan

Play this Uighur music while reading the blog...(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igpNZ1kHgKI&feature=related)

Off to Xinjiang and Uighurstan(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang)
Northwest of Tibet is the most interesting part of China, Xinjiang which is the size of Alaska!!!, this was the main destination for our trip across asia................................................................................................................................

The journey across China was journey of discovery.
We learned a lot about each other, we learned a lot about the difference between what we had heard about China and the way that China really is.

Our second visit to Beijing was even closure to the opening of the Olympics...
One day I split off from the rest of the group and walked around this lake district near the center of town... and found a Xinjiang Music Bar.

This is a building near the bar that looks a lot like the imperial city.

That night we listened to musicians from Xinjiang play a fusion of Xinjiang traditional music there.
We made friends with the drummer Ubul Hussain and his other Uighur friends from Xinjiang, we made plans to meet them again when we got there.
(They were going back home at the same time we were going.)
The whole trip was focused on getting to Xinjiang, the music, culture and natural beauty of the province.



This is a fabric design hung inside of the bar, probably also from Xinjiang.


1 Picture of the Performance

Another Picture from the Performance


Adnan often painted pictures while people were performing, this is one of them:


Xinjiang can also be called Uighurstan, since its historic and current population and strongest cultural attributes can be attributed to their people, almost the same as their neighbors next door

We started our trip from Beijing and worked our way across the country starting with a second stop in Xian, historically the capital and arguably the beginning of the famous Silk Road, I wanted to cross the entire silk road if possible all the way until Istanbul.

Adnan in Xian

The air in Xian was really dirty, we had a hard time breathing but we were able to get used to it.
The city of Xian is surrounded by an old wall, I guess they put it up when it was the capital city for protection.
On the inside, we walked along the wall and worked our way towards the center of the city.



Several houses stood with the trees there before protected during construction.

An older couple walking in China: China's life expectancy is challenging the United States

One of the castles near the center of the city.


We went to the Muslim district and found the architecture was more eastern than middle eastern...

Omar inside of a Mosque

The interior of a Mosque

Some Arabic and Chinese paired together on a blackboard.

Somebody making food outside.

Sitting Inside The Mosque.

Muslim Wedding Depiction in Xian.

After we went to this district we met a young man studying in the Mosque and we asked him to take us to a place that served halal food... after eating Omar and I went back to the Mosque and he provided me a place to rest in the meeting quarters and he walked Omar around. While I was resting several of the monks came in and started praying and chanting... the songs sounded like a mix of Buddhist and Muslim chanting... it was an insiders view.

After waking up and starting back home, we ran into a really nice guy who was selling us some shoes and fruits, we asked him to join us for some music that night and he took us around the town looking for a place that offered live performances. After not being successful, we decided to go get some ice cream, while eating he explained that it was his birthday and he had no time to celebrate since he was so busy. We sang happy birthday with him and took a picture.

Omar and our friend from Xian.

The next day he took us to see another live performance and when he came he gave us flutes to play with our names carved in each of them.
We also went to see the Terra-cotta Warriors outside the city.

Adnan posing in the rain.

A historical elephant painting on the wall at the excavation site.

The Warriors and the horses...





City Night Scene Back in Xian.

The next morning we went on to Langzhou, northwest of Xian where we would get on a train to Urumqi.
This area is famous for its fruit... it is also famous for the Yellow River banks it holds within the city limits... we got a look at both.

Fresh and cheap fruit for sale.

Adnan getting tired.

Me selling some fruit.

The sun getting near setting.

As the sun went down we were happy to arrive at the Yellow River where we were surprised by riverbank activities including dancing and rollerblading.

Me watching the sunset.

Watching the dancers.

The next morning we went on to Urumqi another really long train ride, 30 hours. Urumqi is the capital city of Xinjiang and the largest city in central asia.
On the train we met many kids that were very excited to hear our music and play cards with us. We made good friends with them and taught them how to play "Speed" by the time we arrived in Urumqi they were hooked on the game.


We made a lot of friends on the train, St. Bell Pepper to the front right side included.

When we got close to Urumqi, we started to see a bunch of wind generators.

Adnan and two of the biggest trouble makers on the train.

When we got to Urumqi it was raining pretty hard but before long the rain past and we found a cheap hotel to check into.
We started to explore the town and went to see the museum.

A cool building.

An unusual Mourin Khuur with snakeskin at the local museum.

After going to the museum we got on a bus and went to see the the Uighur district, on the bus we made friends with a Pakistani guy who was in the imports and exports business as well as a group of Uighur guys who helped us find the Uighur district.

With our friends from the Uighur district. (A lot of times police would be confused by Omar and Adnan and the idea of Pakistani americans, the idea of nationality and ethnicity not being the same thing still exists in countried like China and Japan, so we want to say take a look around your own country to all those people! its a world that will be more and more free everyday!)

Ninja Kid, need I saw more?

That night we went to see fresh naan being cooked, it was really interesting to see the bread-makers put the uncooked bread into the coal-fired oven, they would stick their entire bodies down in taking turns going back and forth:

In...

and out and someone else goes in...

The next day we decided to go see some of the natural beauty near the city in Tianchi... a famous lake outside the city.

The lake is followed by a series of waterfalls you must traverse to see the lake...

There is a baby lake towards the top and the water is the color of green jade, really beautiful.

When we finally got to the lake we really enjoyed the walk around on this wooden bridge that is fastened along a cliff shore of the lake for about 1/4 mile.

A funny sign on the lake.

Back in Urumqi we managed to find another parody of McDonald's title "Madeena".

The next day we left Urumqi and made our way to Korla a big oil industry town due south on the edge of the Taklamakan Desert.

At a rest stop we managed to find a good place to hang out and take some pictures, you would be surprised about how casual and the places people do their buses in China.

The following day we took a bus to the next town, which is on the south silk road, a still hardly travelled area by outsiders... we arrive in Cherchen and we were quick to make some more friends.

Outside a cafe with a bicycle rider.

A sunflower near the city.

Sitting on the road.

Me posing with a duck toy ride thingy at an semi-abandoned amusement park.

Squash being grown on racks aside houses throughout the city.

These cities along the south silk road are very interesting because they all depend on rivers that flow in from the south the eventually end up being sucked dry by the Taklamakan desert... the dune ridden second largest desert on Earth. It is hard to believe that the giant rivers surrounding flowing through these cities supplying a great amount of agriculture and city water would end up disappearing into the sand... take a look at a map of Xinjiang and you can see the river dot off and disappear on the map as well.


A CD shop in Cherchen.

After leaving Cherchen we would stop in Hotan another famous city along the south silk road, that existed also due to a monstrous river that disappeared into the desert.

Our first full size sand storm (when I got it I felt that it was alive, some kind of organism in itself.)

The first wild camel we had ever seen in our lives.

Once we arrived in Hotan, we met up with our friend Ubul Hussain again and he took us to his house. Where we were dined a treated to fresh fruits...
his house was situated on the outskirts of town in a beautiful country area which reminded me a lot of the house I grew up in.

Mike playing guitar in the dining room.

Ubul giving Adnan some food.

Outside of Ubul's house.

Uighur Corn (its dried first (see below picture) and then reheated and served... makes it extra crunchy and probably helps keep it for the winter.


More visions of wind energy in a Uighur magazine (are you surprised to see an entire society inside of China that uses the Arabic alphabet!?)


Playing along the riverbanks near the city.

People eating watermelon near downtown then throwing away the waste on top of the stand.

Mao shaking hands with a famous Uighur villager that tried to ride a donkey to Beijing from Hotan to meet him several decades ago.
Along the way Mao, heard about him and decided to send an airplane to pick him up before he got half way there.

I found a wood-shop near Ubul's house and they let me come and also let me take some pictures.

Ubul's relative that runs a restaurant near their house, we had the best noodles there.

After that Ubul took us way out into the countryside where we found a great place to swim in a rapid running water canal... the concept was interesting, you jump in and then you get going about 40 miles an hour!


A picture of the canal I drew

Its a little scary, then to get out, you paddle upstream as hard as possible and then start grabbing on thin tree branches on the side of river. We had so much fun that we did it about ten times, but more than that is impossible because you have to swim so hard to get out of the water.

Playing in the river

Before leaving we visited Ubul's house and saw his father again

That night we had to get on a bus to go to Kashgar! our long awaited destination, the city of music for the Uighur nation... although not international recognized this is the capital of the Uighur people and the invisible nation of Uighurstan.

The first stop was the famous musical instrument factory, here we met the owner Muhammad and spent hours playing music together... it was a wonderful time.
I eventually purchased four Uighur string instruments and shipped them back to the United States.

Uighur Music Instrument Shop

Back room

Cool Sunset in Kashgar

Music Shop

5 Generations (the shop has been by this family for 5 generations.)

Kashgar was a lot more modern than we hard imagined, but by far the most pleasant surprise was the hospitality of the music store owner.
Before long, we decided that we should take a trip up the Pakistan-China Highway to the border of Pakistan... this was a memorable and majestic journey to the roof of the world and the historic border of Pakistan.

We went all the way to Tashkorgun, where we made friends with the local Pakistani workers, they took us to diner and taught us many things about the Hunza and Tajik cultures of the area.

Along the Pakistan-China Highway

Me and Adnan

Some Kyrgyz people who enjoyed our music (they actually brought the entire town out and were running around dancing and singing!

Our Taxi Driver, who somehow resembled my friend Saidali from Uzbekistan but 50 years of age.

At the top of the past

Entering Tajik County (this is right next store to Tajikistan a really interesting place.

Our Pakistani and Tajik friends

Our Pakistani friends at the breakfast joint (Pakistani food place) hard to find!!

Another cool thing that we saw in Tashkorgan was the stone city inside of the city, hear you got a contrasting view of the old abandoned city, perfectly flat steppe-lands below dotted with Gur's as well as modern house just below the city walls, and in the background 7,000 meter peaks. It was really really beautiful.



Pictures of us on the city walls.

A Gur with Solar Panels outside of the city.

A guy hauling some hay.

Guys traveling by camel.

Me Adnan and Omar standing in front of the 7,000 peak to the south... it had a bunch of glaciers on it.

Another picture of the mountain.

Alpine Desert!

A Kyrgyz family we play music for (the Kyrgyz people in this area did not mix their language with Russian so it is a pure form of the language.)

That commenced our journey through China, our next step would be Kyrgyzstan, we would take a taxi across the border over a pass, we were looking forward to getting out of this country and seeing another.
Farewell friendly China, and see you again someday.