A Journey to Well Known Places

That was my Dunhuang experience in a dusty nut shell. In a heroic effort to make the most of today (I only have 4 more days on the Silk Road) I borrowed an alarm clock from a fellow traveller and set it for 7:30am. GASP! Of course I hit the snooze and actually got up at 8. It was almost like being gainfully employed again. Rushing around changing, showering, and packing. It brought back memories. My intent was to catch the 9am train to Jaiyguan and get there at 2:30 so I could see some sights and my laundry. I got to the ticket counter at 8:30 only to find out (I think) that there is no 9am train. I was misinformed. The first train is at 2:30. I bought what I think was a ticket for a hard seat, but it may be standing only. I really hope the train trip is only the two hours I was led to believe it was. Oh well. Truth be told, Dunhuang is what I really wanted to see.

When I started researching this trip I just looked up China and travel on google and read away. The Silk Road seemed really cool. Camel rides across the desert, exotic sights, shish kabobs, and ancient wonders. All of it has allure; the very sort of thing that lures one from Texas to China. What I will say about Dunhuang is that it is what it is.

I awoke from my sleep still at 6:30am and the train was still moving slowly. The night before my bunk mates drank and talked well past ‘lights out.’ Even if I spoke Chinese I would have felt a little lame saying anything, but I wish I would have had the forethought to pull out my ear plugs before I got on the train. I blew my nose and it started to bleed from dryness. Ah, the desert. I pulled back the curtains and the cabin was illuminated with sunlight, much to the dismay of the late night revellers. Payback bitches. There was no mistaking that we were in a great desert. I have been through south Texas, New Mexico, and parts of Utah and Nevada, but I have never seen a landscape as devoid of, well, everything but sand. Sand in waves like freeze framed water. I am in the Gobi. Cool. Gradually little scrub brush started to appear. Then small patches of green. Then tall trees, farms, and grass. Dunhuang is an oasis. Not in the figurative sense, but an actual patch of green in a sea of yellow sand. I tried to imagine being in a caravan hauling goods across the desert and seeing the trees on the horizon. It must have been such a relief. Fresh water, shade, and hot food. I was relieved and I was on a train. No wonder silk was so expensive.

A long time ago though, camels stopped coming through Dunhuang. Still the people remained. The government put in a rail system to connect the far west with the rest of the country in the 60’s. Dunhuang was not on the rail line. They were two hours by bus to the closest stop (they finally got on the rail line two yers ago). In a way this saved them. The residents of Dunhuang are heir to some wonderful cultural treasures and from what I can tell most of their economy is tourism. The most famous are the Mogoa caves. There are over 500 of them. Similar to the caves in Datong, they were dug into sandstone cliffs over a millenia ago. There are elaborate scultptures and paintings. Most were private places of worship funded by wealthy traders and politicians. During the Cultural Revolution where many Chinese artifacts were destroyed by the Red Guard, Dunhuang was spared. The caves survived and are protected. Protected so well that you can’t take pictures and they only open 10 at a time up to tourists. It is cool that they still exist, but all the rules put a bit of a damper on my sight seeing. Frankly, the caves in Datong were better. AND I got to take pictures. Can you feel the snobbishness coming through? 1500 year old sculptures and painting……if you have seen one three storey budda carved from a mountain you have seen them all. Not really, but I am getting a little spoiled on neat ancient stuff.

The second thing they have is the Crescent moon lake. Cool. I have seen posters of this place. It actually is really neat even though it is not artifically refilled because it was practically nonexistant by the early nineties. It is a lake that has existed in the valley of dune mountains for thousands of years. A bit of a paradox actually. Desert dunes and lake side by side. Something about the way it formed kept the water protected from the wind and the sand from filling the lake. I have some decent pictures of this one. They will come later.

The most interesting thing about Dunhuang though, is the Mao band myself and the other travellers in my dorm room have been hanging out with. Kai from Santa Cruz is a singer/song writer. He is a cool guy. Anyway, we were walking around and came across what looked to be a grand opening of a restaurant. There was a stage with people singing, dancers and even a fire works display. Well, a local rock band got up and played a few songs. Little did I know that would shape my whole Dunhuang experience. When they were done Kia asked the singer if he could get up on stage and play a few songs. No, he could not. But he could come back to ‘the bar’ with him and jam for a while when the gig was over. To the bar we went. It was noon. The first thing you see when you walk in and the lights are turned on is a giant picture of the ‘great father’ Mao above the stage. I was then shown the rest of the walls. All covered in Mao posters. I thought it was kitsch. They talked about singing Mao poetry set to music. I thought, how retro. Cool. No, my friends. These guys were straight up. They started going on about remembering their past and calling Mao the Great Father; the whole bit (as an aside you can still see the huge brick forges all over the country side from when he thought China was going to make alot of steel). Super nice guys though. So we went to lunch with them. They ordered the local specialty. You guessed it: yellow noodles (spagetti) with tofu and donkey in a brown gravy. Yeck! I can still taste it. I had to eat it lest I offend, but it was tough. The smell of it turns my stomach. Later that night we went back to the bar so Kia could play with the band on stage for an audience. The show was OK, but afterwards the headlong dash into oblivion began. For those that did not know ‘Kom-pie’ means ‘finish.’ Not sip, FINISH. The drinking games started and only finished when the Swedish guys in the group successfully communicated ‘Please, God, no more. We are done.’

When we returned to the hotel we noticed the cafe next door (I mean literally the next door on the same floor as our dorm) was all lit up and there was music playing. Interesting. It was about 1am and we were recklessly curious. We stumble in to see two Chinese girls in night gowns and high heels sitting and watching TV. Umm. ‘Sit, sit.’ OK. They broight out tea and the girls giggled. ‘You like? Which you like?’ OOHHH, it seems that we have found a massage parlor that did not even give the pretense of massage. We got up and went to our room. The next morning one of the girls was mopping the floor outside our room wearing lingerie and high heels. You don’t see that every day…even in China.

Pictures….later. Check back in a few days and this will be a link.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, May 19th, 2007 at 10:46 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.