The Plan B Adventure

When we last left you we had finally had overtaken the evil Chinese boardguards, conquered the brutal roads of Kyrgyzstan and received more education than a full 4 years of public high school. We are happy to say things have gotten much easier (except for one final encounter with Chinese borderguards) as we entered Kashgar, China; jumped on the Karakorum (KKH) Highway and found ourselves among the enchanted mountaintop villages of Northern Pakistan.

As our 20-hour day concluded we settled into the friendly confines of the Qinibagh Hotel, which use to serve as the British Consulate during the Great Game days. We had three days in Kashgar…a welcomed break after an enjoyable yet exhausting last few weeks. Our guide, Abdul Rehman, wanted to show us many of the sights but we had to do half days as our ‘old’ bodies were weary and we needed the rest before our long trip through Pakistan.

Kashgar is famous for two things. Firstly, the city is home to the largest Muslim (local name: Uighur) population in China. As we absorbed this Uighur influence we found Kashgar to be one of our favorite Chinese cities, rich with delicious, different foods and smiling, friendly people. We sampled local cuisines like laghman-noodle soup, Chinese soft serve (ice in a bowl with sour yogurt…YUM?) and mutton intestines and lung. We wandered the handicraft markets of the main Muslim Quarter where you can buy anything from giant copper-engraved ‘hope chests’ to industrial-sized dumpling steamers. Secondly, Kashgar was (and still is) known across the world as having one of the largest Silk Road Sunday Markets. After seeing a gazillion markets in the last few months we have seen almost everything….but Kashgar impressed us with it’s uniqueness and ginormous scale!!!

Early in Sunday morning, we visited the Livestock Market which is probably one of the most memorable experiences of our trip thus far. The farmers, animal breeders, and middlemen of neighboring towns all come together to fill a giant arena where cattle, sheep, donkeys, goats, and horses are all poked, prodded, test-ridden, and negotiated over in a pursuit that has been happening for over 1000 years. It is fascinating to stand back and watch (with your guide translating) the process of middlemen joining buyer and seller while the seller’s son tries to keep all the sheep from scattering across the arena. Really, a most unique experience! Next, we visited the massive Sunday Market (without livestock) where the locals say you can find everything in the world except for Rooster’s milk. Due to the sheer volume of participants (over 100,000) this market consumes 60-80% of the city streets as well as its original building. Being that we are on a fixed income we were looking more for the cultural experience rather than a full blown shopping experience. Although we dabbled in a few purchases the culture was more than fulfilling. The colorful shop owners, ‘huckster’ 13-year olds, adorable Uighur children filled up our camera with a lifetime of memorable photos. The funniest, by far, had to be the Viagra bonanzas which included every man over 50 screaming and pushing as if they were Christmas-Eve shoppers trying to last available Furby doll. The culture, sounds, activity, and personality of both the bazaar and the Livestock market make them a 10 out of 10 on the ‘Worth It’ scale.

Our final day in China was spent setting foot on the famous Karakorum (KKH) Highway. As we wound through the end of the Pamir Mts and beginning of the Karakorum Mts we began to see the enormity of the landscape we were going to encounter for the next week. Over the next week, the KKH, the world’s highest navigable road way will us up to 16,000ft from Western China through three mountain ranges into Central Pakistan. Before we get to Pakistan, though, we must encounter the highest driveable border crossing in the world…..Khunjerab Pass and an even more insurmountable task, a final encounter with the Chinese border patrol. Many of you must be getting tired of our rants against the Chinese authorities so won’t belabor it but after another disorganized 3 hour wait (thankfully, this time with fellow travellers) we reached Pakistan by public bus and enjoyed the gorgeous scenery and wildlife as we stood eye-level with the clouds.

In our opinion, the KKH is really the most awe-inspiring, picturesque international highway in the world. It has everything from ibex and marmots going about life…to sheer, snow-covered mountain faces standing at 20-26,000 feet. The ride is a bit hairy (at least in Jeff’s eyes) as you view the 3000-ft drop-offs which sits less than a few inches away from the not-so trusty wheels of your Chinese public bus….as your driver avoids the recently cleared avalanche without the need to have the bus in gear!!! YIKES! Oh, well he’s done it a million times, right? Well, as we get to the Pakistan-side in Sost we find we are the first travellers to conquer the border crossing this year. Glad our driver shook off the rust and got us there safely. Our new guide, Abbas, was patiently waiting for us at Pakistani Customs and as he moved us through the friendly Immigration and Customs which out much delay we knew we were in for a great time.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 12th, 2006 at 5:55 am 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.