十二天在新疆
(the yellow tag is the place
where we've been sleeping at the end of the day)
Day 1 :
7:00PM, Arrival at Wulumuqi (乌鲁木齐) by plane. Greetings, and we all hop in a van with my 7 fellows + driver and head south, Target: KASHGAR (喀什) in 3 days.
We are three frenchies (Alex, my roomate Aurelie, and me) and 5 chinese (2 guys and 3 girls): Chen Lun (teamleader) and XiaoJia, Peilin, Show and YueLiang.
Sleeping in tents, 300km before KORLA (库尔勒) in an place where there is absolutely nothing!
Day 2 :
wake up and hop and in the van. We go through KORLA at 11:00AM and continue our road. On the left, on the right.. nothing but rocks, dust and moutains.
Arrival at AKSU (阿克苏) at 21:00.
Hotel night
Day 3 :
early morning walk: me and Alex catch a glimpse at some old&hidden cemetery and a weird dog nest!
then, hop again and ride again....
Finally!!! arrival in KASHGAR (喀什) at 18:00. Visit of the Abakh Hoja mausoleum.
Nice dinner in old city, interesting meetings too.
Hotel night
Day 4 :
wake up, hop on the van, and head to Karakorum Highway.
AMAZING! incredible landscapes : high peaks (7546m for the Muztagata) , grasslands, lakes! and nobody on the road.
On the Ulugrawat Pass (4098m), we have a hike until the foot of a glacier (4800m). quite a hard trek due to altitude (headache,...) but awesome! and the frozen lake !!!! amazing.
back on the road, we continue heading to Punjerab Pass and have a stop for a hotel night in TASHKORGAN (塔什库尔干).
Day 5 :
check the stone castle (nothing special) and a nice view on the plain.
then continue on this wonderful road and arrival on the PUNJERAB PASS (红其拉甫). Frontier with Pakistan.
Wonderful landscapes, with high rising peaks. Feel like going hiking, but the frontier guards don't like it when you wander more than 5meters from the road..
We then take the same road again the other way and head to KARAKUL LAKE (卡拉库勒湖).
Set up the tents, enjoy a nice sun light in the end of the day, have dinner and go to bed.....
2:00AM... the light gentle rain became SNOW.... and threatened to make our tents collapse... wao!
Day 6 :
Everything is white! gorgeous vision. incredible feeling !
We head to again to Kashgar and pay a visit to the Mosquee and the Big Bazaar (国际大巴扎).
17:00 climb in the van and head East, to YECHENG (叶城). Arrival at 19:00.
Hotel night plus a crazy adventure in Yecheng Muslim Disco with fellows met after dinner!
Day 7:
Headache.....
and GO !
At 3:00PM, arrival in HOTAN (和田). It's Sunday, the great Bazaar and thousands of people are surrounding the streets. it's crazy. Animals, children, carts, jade, stuff, you can find everything here.
Everyobdy is friendly, very warm atmosphere.
The packup and continue our road.
Sleeping in the middleof nowhere
Day 8:
Desert Day!! We change road at Minfeng to cross the Desert, heading North. We're on it: the trans-desert highway, let's gooo!
Here we are, crossing dunes and dunes and dunes, wonderful.
At night, we stop and walk on the sand, to enjoy a middle-of-desert camp place. there's nobody except us. gorgeous!
Day 9:
end of the crossing, heading to Kuche (库车). Byebye desert!
Day 10:
crazy day : discovery of China Great Canyon. Wonderful landscapes in red stone, after a 3hours trip on a dirt road, crossing a truck every 10 minutes.
On the way back... our car broke down... 3:00PM, so hot, nothing to hide except the shadow of the car and a construction sites vehicles.. A tornado is dancing 500m from us.. glp! we try to kill time as we can.
it took 8hrs to find a way to get out of here, trying fix the car, calling a taxi in the town after hitch-hiking on a truck..., we reached back Kuche at 02:00 AM.. waaa
Day 11: road day! We had to wait for the car to finish be repaired. it was done at 4:00PM ! so we've been wandering in local markets, trying hats, ...
Then we make the ride back to Urumuqi...
Day 12: arrival in Urumuqi at 7:00AM. our driver has been driving all night long... only stopping for short rests on the road...!!!
Head to Urumuqi market, to find some souvenirs (beeerk) and hop on the train in the end of the afternoon...
Day 13: after a good night in the train.. another 24hrs in the train..killing time, relaxing, sleeping... so good to be lazy!
Day 14: arrival in Shanghai.. welcome back !
One of my best trip. nice people, nice fellows, nice place, nice food ! thx all
Day 1 :
7:00PM, Arrival at Wulumuqi (乌鲁木齐) by plane. Greetings, and we all hop in a van with my 7 fellows + driver and head south, Target: KASHGAR (喀什) in 3 days.
We are three frenchies (Alex, my roomate Aurelie, and me) and 5 chinese (2 guys and 3 girls): Chen Lun (teamleader) and XiaoJia, Peilin, Show and YueLiang.
Sleeping in tents, 300km before KORLA (库尔勒) in an place where there is absolutely nothing!
Day 2 :
wake up and hop and in the van. We go through KORLA at 11:00AM and continue our road. On the left, on the right.. nothing but rocks, dust and moutains.
Arrival at AKSU (阿克苏) at 21:00.
Hotel night
Day 3 :
early morning walk: me and Alex catch a glimpse at some old&hidden cemetery and a weird dog nest!
then, hop again and ride again....
Finally!!! arrival in KASHGAR (喀什) at 18:00. Visit of the Abakh Hoja mausoleum.
Nice dinner in old city, interesting meetings too.
Hotel night
Day 4 :
wake up, hop on the van, and head to Karakorum Highway.
AMAZING! incredible landscapes : high peaks (7546m for the Muztagata) , grasslands, lakes! and nobody on the road.
On the Ulugrawat Pass (4098m), we have a hike until the foot of a glacier (4800m). quite a hard trek due to altitude (headache,...) but awesome! and the frozen lake !!!! amazing.
back on the road, we continue heading to Punjerab Pass and have a stop for a hotel night in TASHKORGAN (塔什库尔干).
Day 5 :
check the stone castle (nothing special) and a nice view on the plain.
then continue on this wonderful road and arrival on the PUNJERAB PASS (红其拉甫). Frontier with Pakistan.
Wonderful landscapes, with high rising peaks. Feel like going hiking, but the frontier guards don't like it when you wander more than 5meters from the road..
We then take the same road again the other way and head to KARAKUL LAKE (卡拉库勒湖).
Set up the tents, enjoy a nice sun light in the end of the day, have dinner and go to bed.....
2:00AM... the light gentle rain became SNOW.... and threatened to make our tents collapse... wao!
Day 6 :
Everything is white! gorgeous vision. incredible feeling !
We head to again to Kashgar and pay a visit to the Mosquee and the Big Bazaar (国际大巴扎).
17:00 climb in the van and head East, to YECHENG (叶城). Arrival at 19:00.
Hotel night plus a crazy adventure in Yecheng Muslim Disco with fellows met after dinner!
Day 7:
Headache.....
and GO !
At 3:00PM, arrival in HOTAN (和田). It's Sunday, the great Bazaar and thousands of people are surrounding the streets. it's crazy. Animals, children, carts, jade, stuff, you can find everything here.
Everyobdy is friendly, very warm atmosphere.
The packup and continue our road.
Sleeping in the middleof nowhere
Day 8:
Desert Day!! We change road at Minfeng to cross the Desert, heading North. We're on it: the trans-desert highway, let's gooo!
Here we are, crossing dunes and dunes and dunes, wonderful.
At night, we stop and walk on the sand, to enjoy a middle-of-desert camp place. there's nobody except us. gorgeous!
Day 9:
end of the crossing, heading to Kuche (库车). Byebye desert!
Day 10:
crazy day : discovery of China Great Canyon. Wonderful landscapes in red stone, after a 3hours trip on a dirt road, crossing a truck every 10 minutes.
On the way back... our car broke down... 3:00PM, so hot, nothing to hide except the shadow of the car and a construction sites vehicles.. A tornado is dancing 500m from us.. glp! we try to kill time as we can.
it took 8hrs to find a way to get out of here, trying fix the car, calling a taxi in the town after hitch-hiking on a truck..., we reached back Kuche at 02:00 AM.. waaa
Day 11: road day! We had to wait for the car to finish be repaired. it was done at 4:00PM ! so we've been wandering in local markets, trying hats, ...
Then we make the ride back to Urumuqi...
Day 12: arrival in Urumuqi at 7:00AM. our driver has been driving all night long... only stopping for short rests on the road...!!!
Head to Urumuqi market, to find some souvenirs (beeerk) and hop on the train in the end of the afternoon...
Day 13: after a good night in the train.. another 24hrs in the train..killing time, relaxing, sleeping... so good to be lazy!
Day 14: arrival in Shanghai.. welcome back !
One of my best trip. nice people, nice fellows, nice place, nice food ! thx all