TravellingStrom

Mayan Prophecy Countdown

It has been a while, but I finally have some time to write some more updates. There have been some interesting things happen, some good , some extremely bad, but no jumping ahead this time, read on 🙂

Morning in Akesu, and after breakfast we headed east into the dust storm again, it was not that bad to ride in but the views were pretty much non existent. Although, like yesterday the drivers of the oncoming vehicles don’t care about visibility, they just do what they want! Major success at the servos though, we managed to find some that did not mind filling the tank at the bowser and for those that have asked, I have no idea what the reasoning is behind the filling situation. We thought it was a safety issue, but it is less safe using a watering can so who knows. Neil has quite a good understanding of China and its culture and he says it makes as much sense as a lot of Chinese rules and regulations, it is just one of those things, live with it 🙂 We stopped for a meal at a truck stop at a small village and I must say having fresh made noodles and meat and vegies is great, learning to eat them with chop sticks is another adventure 😉

Now, I was cruising along the highway when as usual, a car which was passing me slowed and waved etc, but strangely they did not take photos and the driver seemed to be waving me over to stop. Now, after my gaff in Kazakhstan I thought about it for a few seconds then decided to do so. This chap seemed to be a rep for some company and proceeded to hand me out a box of biscuits, but I had nowhere to put them, they were huge!!! 🙂

Just then, lucky for me, David, Lyn and Benny drove up and saved the day, it appears this chap was flogging off travel rations and these bread/biscuits were walnut based and were excellent for travellers, they last a long time and are nourishing 🙂 They were hard though and were quite salty to the taste, but we gratefully accepted them and they were duly packed in the car, thanks mate appreciated 🙂

Here is Chris cruising 🙂

This is something we see quite often here, two lanes of traffic going in one direction and a scooter decided to ride against the traffic in the fast lane, death wish riders!!!!

So, around 4pm we rode into Korla, just another city on the way through but with nothing specific to do here, except soak up the atmosphere, which we did by looking around the market area and then wandering the town, eventually finding a place to eat and drink.

It was here I managed to find a replacement cap for my tool tube which had been lost in Kyrgyzstan, but sadly I was to find out later it did not fit, bummer 😦

Valet parking, crikey what a shambles, the red car was needed, I left after 10 minutes, they were still shuffling cars around trying to get it out!!!!

So, as the sun slowly settled through the murk of the dust storm, we found a place to eat, more dumpling type food, not too fond of them and I really want to find a nice fried rice dish, but never mind for now. After dinner we adjourned to a street market area where beer flowed freely, although we did pay for it 😉

So, another day in China over and tomorrow we were riding again, this time to a town called Turpan. This was originally on the schedule, although we had wanted to take a short cut ride through the mountains and bypassing this town altogether. It seems the road we wanted to take was military and also they had changed the rules with regards to Urumqi, the capital city. We are now not allowed inside 30km of the city on our bikes, so it is not worth the effort to go there, so we will bypass it totally. But, in Turpan, there is a desert motorbike rally, a 3 day event and we would get to see the start, that should be fun 🙂

I will leave you with some helpful tips as supplied to me by the hotel 😉

Cheers from Korla, China
TravellingStrom