hungree

  dinner and dessert. delivered to your room. 

nearly orgasmic.

chain hotel big city

back in possibly my favorite city in the east. in a nice holiday inn express. 

where the girl at the hotel reception is confidently reassuring and delightfully helpful. and no smoking means just that. and the washer comes pre-loaded with detergent. and the dryer lint catcher is lint-less. and the meituan options are (possibly) legion.

oh shanghai, how i have missed you!

onward bound

camping out in the airport lounge waiting for the next leg and being thankful for HOM's frivolous foresight in planning a convalescent second half to the vacation.

at last

final dinner in urumqi, sans logistic imperatives sans innumerable photo takes sans time keeping sans stress.

thank you for organizing! everyone tells HOM. thanks for everything!

we need to start planning the next trip, i hear someone say, all proactive-like. yikes.

general tso's chicken

what i learn today from the cotton tour is that the guy behind the dish was a real person and he was a military hero who won back xinjiang's western borders!

imagine proving your great prowess and being rewarded as a foreign fast food item! if you ask me, colonel sanders had the better deal.

thoughts on xinjiang

• the VIP tour bus has in-seat lumbar massage and a fast charging pod that works 
• AAAAA attractions live up to their classification. the toilets there are a sight better than the hoi polloi variety. TP provided!
• the local milk popsicles you find at pit stop stands are really to-die-for
• amazing how they get 4G and 5G coverage at the most remote locations high up deep in and everywhere in between. what did people do before data?
• xinjiang is enormous. its size expands your spirit and makes you realize how small you are
• the smoke, as with pretty much everywhere else in china, seeps into your bones thru your nose

last stop

lovely view* that HOM hauls me up hundreds of steps to enjoy. 

quads weeping but heart sang gloriously for a bit.

and THAT'S IT!

*tianshan tianchi

currency

the most precious breakfast commodity, it appears, is the chicken egg. yes that humbly ubiquitous oval-spherical long-time staple that we don't even think twice about. at xinjiang hotels you need to produce an issued-by-person coupon attached to a warm body before you can access one unit per human.

this must be the (almost) unbelievable thing i learn before breakfast on this trip.

longest day into night yet

the torment finally ends at 11:30 PM when we arrive at the hotel. i will need a vacation to recover from this one.

in other news, the views are spectacular.

lake kanas

unwittingly decanted into a human sardine can situation at the AAAAA tourist attraction so the only sensible thing to do is to decline to add to the overcrowding and have a cuppa.

motivation-challenged

here we are, HOM and i, shooting the breeze whilst our travel mates hike up to 280-odd steps to the scenic spot and back.

anthem

today we shlepp to the altay peak to ooh at the boundaries between the 4 nations. the views are even more stunning than over the last few days and the sun keeps up a sizzling presence.

shortest day yet

the bus decants us into the hotel at 6:30 PM. there is a collective gasp of relief from all the women in the group. laundry finally gets done. the hair gets washed. and we are in time for a late dinner instead of supper!

the guide promises us payback tomorrow. 

duku highway

if you ever think of adding a highway to your to-do list this might be a candidate. you'll get expanses of jaw-dropping scenery interspersed with a nerve-wracking drive along hairpin bends. throw in a supremely confident driver in a poorly suspended vehicle and you also get hair-raising. altogether memorable.

nalati grasslands

much hyped and justifiably breathtakingly gorgeous. but just a little bit greener in the photos and just a little bit better as a concept than in reality, owing to the blazing sun and abundance of dung of the bovine dromedary and equine variety.

another long day into night

during which we visit many spots take many photos have lots of pointless discussions and walk many steps.

today's lesson: in the profusion of numbers lies an explosion of frothy interactions opinions distractions and impediments.

long day into night

the xinjiang tour is shaping up to be the modern day equivalent to cecil parkinson's pre-retirement tour for civil servants*. as in, the program is packed and inexorable the pace is relentless the cheer is distressingly hearty and the loo breaks are fewer than i need.

i don't need to do so much! i want to whimper. i want to stay in the hotel and rot! unfortunately we move to the next location hundreds of miles away tomorrow. and tomorrow's morrow. and the morrow after.

note to self: try not to be part of a group tour again.

*per Parkinson's Law (c. n. parkinson, 1957)

souvenir

fairly dinky flat hat that i persuade HOM to get.

now he can accessorize his entire wardrobe of blacks greys and navies.

loo break

plumbing new depths in bathroom design.

urumqi grand bazaar

great tourist trap. other words escape me.