Finally…Kashgar!

Our journey started at 8.30am. We lost an hour at the start as the local council decided to build height-detecting gantries on bridges. One road had a gantry and we had to turn back. Another had massive road works and we could not cross. We had to circle around the city to find a road west. Finally a taxi driver directed us out. It was a long journey that took around 7 hours. We decided to have a karaoke sing-along to pass the time.

The Uygurs, a minority group, lived in very spartan homes. The elderly are still cheerful and strong. The husk that contains them is slowly falling away. Their weathered faces tell a thousand stories. There are extremely shy people so the greatest respect for them is not to embarrass them by taking photos of them.

The journey was quite uneventful except for some stunning mountain range along the Gobi desert. Along the route, we caught up with the train going from Urumqi (Wulumuchi) to Kashgar (Kashi). The train ride takes 22 hours. From what we can see, the train was chocker block full of country folk going to Kashgar to celebrate China's golden week - National day falls on 1st October. The nation celebrates for a week. All offices and schools are closed. Shops are open though.

After checking into the hotel, we headed off to the biggest grand bazaar of central Asia. Nuts, carpets, musical instruments and the odd kitsch item were on sale. I hope to get to the live stock market on Sunday.

Tomorrow, we are heading 200km towards the Ka La Ku Lake located 4000m up the Karakorum Mountains. Oxygen is required for older travelers. As it’s going to be a long day, an early night is in order. Blog night for now.

Kuqa or Ku Che and Aksu are also big cities

I was pleasantly surprised when the coach trundle over the Tientsien Mountains to the city of Ku Che. We visited a couple of city ruins, all of which are older than 2000 years old. Later in the day we visited a bazaar where it was just as interesting observing the local minority Uygurs (Weegers) at work as they were interestingly starring back at us. Cost of living is incredible cheap here. When I took a taxi from the city back to the hotel which costs ¥5 (A$0.80) and tipped the driver an extra ¥5, he was so happy. It was great to see such a genuine smile.

At Ku Che, we hooked with a group of Italians travelling on the same route. An exchanged of notes only revealed that they were staying in cheaper accommodation. Anyway, they said their driver got lost leaving Kurle.

After an over night stay at a hotel, we had a 7am wakeup call for a start of our journey to Aksu some 380km away. The roads here are compacted desert sand. The government is desperately building highways to cope with the influx of tourists. It's ashame really as I believe the ancient Silk Road should be left as a tough journey as the pioneers did. Along the way to Aksu, we stopped at another grotto where the Muslims mutilated the Buddhist caves when they introduced Islam to Xinjiang. In these grottoes as in the one in Dun Huang, a German gentleman by the name of Stein, pilfered many relics and sold it to antique dealers. We then stopped at a 2000 year old beacon used for sending smoke messages to the various 'gates' informing them of impending danger. Pine needles were used as fuel as it gave off white smoke. It is incredible to see this beacon standing in the middle if the Gobi desert.

Aksu is similar to Ku Che albeit a larger city. The city is built with petroleum money. We visited an ancient ruin, which is at a very poor state. I am uncertain if it will survive another 5 years. All along the rough sandy track, we meet up with modern caravans (trucks) and odd groups travelling in the opposite direction. South of Aksu is the Taklimakan desert.

October 1st is China's national day so we have come up with an idea to wear a red top. One would think that it's easy to find a red top in Aksu, well, not so. Anyway, I might wear yellow and have Pauline wear magenta and those two colours put together make up red. Wohoo!

Tomorrow we head off on an 8-hour journey to Kashgar. I cannot wait to visit the bazaar.

Blog soon.

Dun Huang to Turpan to Kurle

At Jiayuguan, dramas unfolded with three in the group needed to be ferried to the local hospital for treatment. They were suffering from a local bout of gastro. The journey to hospital included Pauline. She had an intravenous drip. She came good after that.

We spent the day visiting some very ancient places: Wei Jin Dynasty tombs and Jiayuguan Pass. These places date back are thousands of years. The military strategies of centuries gone by are incredible. Food was the traditional Chinese cuisine which was too much and too frequent.

After Jiayuguan, we boarded a soft sleeper to Dun Huang. Arrived in Dun Huang at 5.00am! The railway station is 130km from the city! Dun Huang is very much a tourist spot these days. The famous Magao Grottoes feature a thousand buddhas. Too crowded for my liking. Most of the grottoes are the same. We later took a ride out to Yang Guan Pass and the Yumen Pass.

From Dun Huang, we travelled to Turpan (Tulufan). Here, we visited Yangguan Pass and Yumen Pass. These two passes were customs out posts that controlled travellers from the west. Both passes are situated on an oasis on the Gobi desert. We ended the evening with had a dance with the minority Uygurs (prounced weegers) group. We went to the supermarket and bought $60 worth of food (filled 2 shopping trolleys) for the trip to Kurle. We knew very little of Kurle. On the map Kurle looked smaller than Turpan. We were really going rough heading to Kurle.

From Dun Huang, we headed west along highway 314 or was 314 the distance from Dun Huang to Kurle. Any the journey was very pleasant. Took 6 hours to get there. Along the way, we made a toilet stop at a soon to be opened fuel stop. The toilets were incredible clean. We saw an old couple on cooking at the side of the toilet. We spoke with them and they told us that they were employed by the prefecture to keep the toilets cleaned. We decided to break for lunch at this spot. We had bread with corned beef and vegemite. We shared our fruits with the couple and gave them a can of preserved fish.

Back in the bus, I had a quick monetary collection for the couple. The reason being, most toilets in China now charge for usage. These people are more preoccupied with collecting money from us than keeping the toilets clean. However, this elderly couple did what they were employed to do, They could have collected money for the entry to the toilets and we would have paid them. This was a nice moment for us for the day.

What a surprise when we arrived at Kurle. Isn't a hole but a bustling city buoyed by an oil mining economy. The hotel we stayed had internet hence this blog. Dinner was magnificent. A western spread of food buffet style. Steaks were done before your eyes. One of the ladies commented that it was due to the good deed we did earlier in the day at the toilet break.

We crowded around the pianist and did singalongs at the restaurant. A great time had by all.
It's now time for bed for a early start to the next town (I bet it's a huge city) of Kuqa.

If they have internet, I shall write then. Take care.

Times fun when you are having flies!

The stopover in Tokyo 7 days ago seemed like a blur now. Suddenly we are into our 8 day of your trek through the ancient silk road. The places we have been to are truly breathtaking. The moment we touched down at Xian, the journey started with a visit to the Terracotta Warriors. I have seen the TWs on posters and post cards, but when we stood in the tomb with the warriors, we were in awe of the painstaking effort taken to create thousands of warriors, each different to the other. The food was magnificent. At Xian, there were many groups going along the Ancient Silk Road but as we ventured off the beaten track to places like Xiahe (pronounced "Jia her"), a Tiabetan Buddhist community, there were less travellers. At Xiahe, we spent some time at the Labuleng Lamasery - one the six greatest monasteries of the Gelupa Sect (Yellow Cap Sect). The Yak butter lamps had an aroma that took some getting used to. We ended the day with dinner at the Sangke Praire Camp.

The next leg of our sojourn was from Xian to Lanzhou, a city renowned for its hand pulled noodles. Naturally, I had my fair share of it. Lanzhou is situated along the valley. The mountains are incredible. We took a 60min speed boat ride to Bilingsi Grotto where a giant buddha is carved out of the mountain side. Today this is the largest Buddha after the one in Afganistan was destroyed by the Talibans. Dotted along the valley were thousands of little buddhas and wall inscriptions. The day ended with a trip to the White Pagoda Hill, however, the pagoda was far from being a white pagoda.

After dinner, we took a soft sleeper to Jiayuguan (pronounced Jia U guan). This is the actual place where emperor Nasi Goreng built the Great Wall (Jia Yu Pass) to keep the rabbits out.
Jiayuguan is flanked by the Gobi desert. (day temperatures get up to 30 degrees centigrade and night temperatures fall to single digits. We just returned from visiting the tombs of the Wei and Jin periods. The artifacts are incredible. Painting on the brich work dates back 1700 years. The group of people we are travelling with is great. They love to try every thing.

I took about 300 shots of the wall. God was shining his light on me as the evening light painted an awesome picture of the the wall. I would like to upload some images but the connections here are quite slow. The schedule is quite hectic.

Tomorrow we head off to Dunhuang (pronounced Doong Wáng). More of the picturesque Gobi dessert and Taklimakan desert. I shall see if they have a faster connection and I shall upload some images.

Blog soon.

110mins to go and the dogs are nervous

The bags are packed, the dog carer has been briefed, Don is ready to water the fish every third day and I am ready to jet off to see Emperor Nasi Goreng's ingenious wall that has kept the rabbits out all these centuries.
Yes, Clio and Zeus (our pugs) sense that we are up to something. Well pugs being pugs, they have decided to feel nervous lying down rather than pacing up and down the house.
The nervousness has soon given way to peace and calm zzzzzzzzz until the cab arrives at 2am!
ps: this is as nervous Clio and Zeus gets.

Picked up at 2am!

Bags ain't pack and not ready to go. Didn't the song go "All my bags are packed and I am ready to go..." That's John Denver hit. Boy am I showing my age!

It's just a couple more turns of the clock and we jet off to Tokyo and then to China for a 25 day sojourn tracing the route of Marco Polo. This has been a destination I have always dreamt of visiting. The best places in the world to enjoy are often the remotest. We start from Xian and head North-West to the city of Lanzhou. From Lanzhou we make our way to Turpan. Along the way we get to see some old Walls. To fully understand how and why emperor Nasi Goreng built this incredible wall to keep the rabbits out! (this is a story only current residents of Australia will understand) It is after this city where the journey takes on a different perspective: places like Kulca, Kuqa and Asku. These towns or cities are predominantly Muslims. Uygurs and yurts.
I hope to finish packing before the cab arrives in 20 hours time. 2am! Why bother going to bed. There is always something to do. Like blogging!

Talk is really cheap

I received a call from Sarah with an invite to a chat on Skype. I thought here I go, the supreme typist that I am hammering away at the speed of a very slow conversation. Sarah would have typed three sentences ahead while I am still looking for the tilde. So I rushed up stairs and fired up Skype. There is no microphone installed on the G5. But I can hear Sarah speaking to establish a conversation. Suddenly it down on me that I could spare my fingers battering on the keys. While Sarah's "Hellooos" were filtering through the Darth Vader speakers, I Skype a message to her that I will boot up the Powerbook instead. Down the stairs, leaping over the 2 sedate pugs lying across my path, I pulled out the laptop and plugged in a set of free headphones from Sanity. (That's another story). In no time I was speaking into my Powerbook. The voice of Sarah through cyberspace was loud and clear. There was so much to talk about. So much to share. So much to reminisce. So on and so forth. After 30 minutes, the Powerbook was handed to Pauline to let her have a go at speaking into a laptop. Many minutes drifted by and the Powerbook was back with me again. More conversation was had. We ended talking for over 90 minutes. The last time I can recall talking for so long on the blower was when I was making a case to Pauline to marry me. I think that was only 45 minutes and it was a local call.
A quick calculation of the 90 minutes came up to be around A$200 plus had I used a landline.
If I had used the land line, our conversation would have been 9 minutes instead and I would have missed out on that long chat with Sarah. The next conversation I will be having with Sarah is at the airport at 3am. After all the plane doesn't leave until 6am. Reason for the 2am pick ups is because the cab has to pick up from 2 other location.
So as long as Skype is available in the backwaters of Xinjiang, China, talk will always be cheap.

I bought a Porsche yesterday

It goes from 0 - 100 in a flash. It's ultra low profile and its metallic silver. I love it. In fact the reason for my acquisition is because I gave my previous Porsche to Sarah. stable and fast and I love it. As a matter of fact I like it so much it's coming with me to China. But as I fire it up I miss the roar of the flat six. Then I realised that I was driving my Porsche designed Lacie mobile hard drive. Well at least it is a Porsche. Emm.

RUSH... RUSH...And it's just the sound of jet engines!

It seems that time flies more quickly the harder we work. When we are in a hurry, it also seems that everyone else around is holding us up. Especially on the roads. Unfortunately, I have been in this state of work for many years. It's not something to be proud off. Nevertheless, it's something I've chosen to do. I enjoy what I do. Uncertain about what I really do but I enjoy it any way! Emm... I'll think about this later.

Today, I believe in working smart and playing hard. I enjoy travel too much to give it away. After all you never know when your time is up. What's is the point of literary working yourself to the ground and fall sick. Spike Milligan in Monty Python has a show where his epitaph read "I told you I was sick!" And there is always someone else to do your job. What brought upon this? Just look at Steve Irwin. A man at his prime can suddenly lose his life. So be all you can be and do all you can too. And enjoy it.

In 5 days time, the light at the end of my tunnel is not an oncoming train but stars in the sky as the plane lifts off at 6.00am to Tokyo on route to Xian, China, and the start of my sojourn on the ancient Silk Road. Suddenly, as I sit here blogging, waiting for markups from my client in Santiago, it doesn't seem so bad at all. Fasten your seat belts.

My name is not Earl

This is the next and final episode to the heater at my parents' home. A few weeks ago a couple of us had made an attempt to diagnose the condition of the heater but to no avail. Finally the tradesman had to be called in. The first company I contacted never returned my call. My parents were returning on the 9 Sept. With panic beginning to set in, not that it showed, I contacted another company. This company was referred by one of my church mates. So I made it a point to let the company know that I came recommended. Their charges were A$85 for a call out and A$25 per 15 minutes.
Last Friday, a young apprentice, 21 years old, arrived at my parents' home just as I pulled up. He checked the heater unit and gave it a clean bill of health. He suspected the thermostat. Armed with a 5cm sliver of insulated wire, he connected the terminal and concluded, yes, it was the thermostat. He said it is good news. I only have to change the thermostat - A$110. He left to purchase a new thermostat and returned 45 minutes later. Took him 5 minutes to installed it. We spent the next hour in conversation about his goals and aspirations. He had a girlfriend and they pooled their meagre income and rented a house. He intend to save enough and buy a house. I thought at 53 years old, I would have picked up some words of wisdom and I began to share with him. He was in his early 20s - building foundation, 30s - building a career and business, 40s - growing the business, 50s - consolidating the business, 60s - planning for retirement, 70s+ - his life to enjoy. Too many people squander their money when they are young and when they hit 30s, they have to make a real start. They were the same goals he had set. I could tell that he was inspired and encouraged. I was happy for him. In the end, I told him we should go our for dinner when I return from China in October. He passed me the bill and said to me he had taken $100 off the bill.
Well, good thing come to those who do good, my name is Casey

Bak Kua - a taste of the tropics

Those who have been to Singapore would have walked past some shops with smoke billowing out of a charcoal barbecue. It's a local delicacy - Bak Kua in Hokkien dialect and Long Yok in Cantonese. But it's delightful in any language. It's made from mince pork marinated in a mix of secret ingredients. The recipe is as sacred as the Coco Cola recipe. Of course my recipe is unlike the real thing but when you are 7,000 km from the shops that sell, this will do.
It's takes a long to prepare and make but extremely fast to eat. I know there are Aussies currently working in Doha salivating over this serve. Emm... I'd promise I make up for it when you guys get back.

To bee…

A couple of weeks ago, the Spring breath woke the hibernating fruit trees. Over the course of a week, fruit trees were full of blossoms. I have been a keen photographer. Emphasis here is on keen, I decided to log the events of Spring. While photographing a plum blossom, a bee (I don't think it's a wasp as wasp do not do the pollinating thing or do they?) flew on to one of the flowers. Busily scampering from flower to flower, I tracked the insect and took in excess of 40 shots to come up with a couple. I could have sworn that the bee looked me in the eye. Well that's what weekends are for.
I have always subscribed to view that to be the best in what we do, regardless of work or play, just be yourself and enjoy. Yay (to quote Sarah).

Blogged and off.

Washed Out… maybe Not

It was planned a week ago that a group of us from work would arm ourselves with a digital camera and venture to the National Gallery and experiment with some night photography. The weather forecast last night was for rain. But knowing Melbourne, maybe the rain would cease by night fall. But it was not to be. It rained the entire day. This was good as Victoria's reservoirs are only averaging 46% full, or 54% consumed one way or another.

The day panned out to be just another day where one job led to the next and the next. The body was crying out for some much needed sushi. It seems to be doing that a lot - crying out for Japanese food. I've been having Japanese food for the last month!! I can even recognise if I get the same bowl when I get served. It's rather sad. But the food is good. Well it's that Omega-3 oil that is good for the body.

I was very happy to connect up with Sarah in Doha via Skype. I looked a little silly trying to speak into my laptop. Must remember to buy a head set. Fortunately, Sarah couldn't hear me and we ended typing our conversation at 40 words a minute. After trying to match Sarah's typing speed, my fingers were cramping and it was then I decided to pick up the phone. It was just great. My fingers were happy joy!

With the evening washed out. Plan B was to get to Pacific Seafood Restaurant in Richmond for a roast duck for dinner. Why they sell roast duck at a seafood restaurant is another story. I ended out buying more than just the duck - roast pork and "Char Siew" barbecue pork. I walk past a butcher shop and ended up inside buying 2 kilos of mince pork to make my special Singapore 'bak kua' or barbecue pork (no not Char Siew). I can never make enough to share. I eat as I cook them and by the time I finish making it, it's also finished.

The evening was quiet and peaceful. so peaceful that I fell asleep in the study. I was woken by Pauline to give her a hand to take some photos of her latest stuffed critters (bears and echidnas and seal pup)

In the end, everything fell into place. I did get to do a little photography, taking shots of little bears and the state's reservoirs got their fill albeit a couple of cc! The catchment areas always seem to be in the wrong place when it rains.

Tomorrow is frantic Friday. A couple of frantic meetings and hopefully it unwinds into the weekend. May be the 'Heating serviceman" for my parents house may call. May be not. But one thing is for sure. When my eyes opens and the clock says 11am, yay it's slowly starts… super Saturday.

Logging off the blog for now.

Living in Doha time

Got up very early this morning… if we were in Doha - 5.00am.

Having spent most of Saturday looking at Doha time on my ipod, Pauline and I ended up going to bed at 9.oopm Doha time. But we are in Melbourne, Australia! Just as well it's the weekend. It gave me a quiet time to finish my work and have more time to look at time on the ipod.

The plan for the day, Sunday, is to help Pauline dye some fabrics. This could be fun not having done this before. May have to sacrifice a Scanpan pot! There goes dinner.

Yesterday the fishes were happy when I went to feed them. The filter boxes needs cleaning though.


The "Heater Report"
I went to pick up Beng-Poh, a good friend our family and Gene and we ventured over to my parent's house, (they are still in Canberra) and look at the problem with the heater. I was in good hands. Beng-Poh is an engineer, Gene his technically minded and I am the driver.

We spent a few minutes prodding the control unit but everything seemed to be alright. We went out to the heating unit and opened it. Except for some well established spiders and their web strategically anchored around the pilot light, everything looked alright. As we were thinking about what could be wrong with the unit, Beng-Poh suggested that it could be something very simple, like a flick of a switch. One would think that switches abound but there is only one - manual or auto. I suggested it could be the pressure switch. (a highly technical input without any knowledge of what it is) We all scratched our heads. We read a label "Only to be opened by qualified person" and a 24oV and a lightning symbol. Aside from Beng-Poh, I thought this was a no go zone and it was time to pull the pin. i suggested we should all go home and I will call the professional tradesman to come and flick the switch and part with a couple of hundred dollars! So it was time to go home and look at the time on the ipod. It was 10.00am in Doha.

I have to get back to my Melbourne time sleep pattern or I will be working the night shifts! Well since I am still awake, its time to fire up the pot and start dyeing the fabric.

Blogging off for the moment. (6.00am in Doha!.)

Blossomed

Every journey to the airport always has its dramas. Ours was traffic. When we were on the way to Tullamarine to send Sarah off to Doha, news came on the radio that there was a bad accident on the freeway. A 40 min journey was looking like 2 hours. This gave me a lot of time to reflect on this journey.

It took me back to a time when I as a student going to London to pursue my tertiary studies. Similarly, my parents took me to the airport in their 1957 mission brown volkswagen (that's another story) It was my first journey to a far distant country and be on my own for the first time in my life even though my sister and brother were there. I was leaving the comfort and security of my parents. I remembered I had a T-shirt printed "Today is the first day of the rest of your life" Filled with trepidation. I moved on.

Yesterday evening, my mind was having a cerebral party. I felt so happy for her, so proud of her, so privileged to have her and so on and so forth. It is settled in my heart that this was indeed a milestone in both Sarah and our hearts. The child has indeed blossomed. What a spectrum of colours in her life! One undoubtedly she will never forget, even though we did miss another Char Siew rice dinner, on route to the airport, and settled for a Double Bacon meal at Hungry Jacks.

More shopping was to be had at the airport. An OS adapter and A short history of everything for Sarah to read during the 14 hour flight was good prescription. As I type this, it's around 6.10am in Doha and it's lunch time here. This reminds me to feed the Koi fish. They must be starving.

Gene is feverishly filling his forms for his travel to Doha in September and I this he is going through the same emotions. Have to remind him to get back to his home and have some time and a meal with his parents.

Now it time for me to put on my heater tradesman hat and get over to my parents house and see why their gas heater is not working. I think this tradesman wilprobablele call a rea one and fix the problem.

Well, I'd better go and feed the fish and myself.

A full inquiry and report of the heater problem will be made available soon.

Blogging for now.

Friday is flagging day

Isn't great to come to the end of the week where you know that the weekend is just another working day! Emmm not sure about that! All the jobs are like ducks in a row ready to be flagged off. More change, more flagging, for changes and more flagging. I hope some one is on top of this.

This Friday is also a flagging day – to flag Sarah off to Doha! Ha ha. Why am I happy I hear you ask? She's not going anywhere else except to a DO work at a HAppy place. Gees this sounds really bad. So bad I ought to have erased it, but then no one else ould know.

Opps more changes are coming and I have to flag them off.

so I shall flag this blog off for now.

Dragged into the 21st Century

I have always thought that I am an early adopter of all things new. But after today I discovered that the more I know, the less I really know. Which proves a point about learning. When we learn something new, we will discover that there is much more surrounding what we've just learnt. Hope this makes sense. It did in my head. Not sure when it's typed out.

Today I have discovered how to Skype. This is not new by any measure but it is new to me. It sort of contradict my 'early adopter' mentality. Maybe now I am a not so early adopter. Well I suppose I have also discovered that need is more important than want. So I needed to be able to communicate with Sarah in Doha and wanted it to be FREE. Skype is good. BUT in the back roads of Xinjiang in China, I am not too confident in getting internet. I can always carry a satellite dish and a generator or maybe I just have to pay and use the cell phone.

Tough day ahead with a pile of work to complete and ensuring I get home in time to take Sarah and Pauline off to Pacific House in Richmond for some great tasting Char Siew (roast pork) before Sarah leaves for Doha. Char Siew is not available in Doha. Not even vegetarian style.

Well the sun is about to rise and this bat better get back to the roost and hang up his glasses and get some zzzzz.

Blogged out for now.

While I was waiting

Why am I waiting? Just did another round of author's corrections. I did tell the client that I will be ready as soon as I finish the changes to the corrections to the alterations to the author's changes!!

It's going to be a long day. I can see the clear sky outside my window but I do not know if it's blowing a gale. Well, I could look at the trees. I am not where I wish to be.

Better blog off for now… changes beckon.

I could have blog all night

Just cannot leave the blogging bizo alone. It's 2:10am and I have just finished a financial report. I should be in bed but I am just too happy to learn that both Sarah and Gene are going to Doha. I am happy not just because I will have my house back, ok may be a little, but more so (the truth) they are doing something they are passionate about and in Doha! Could be in Footscray and I'll still be happy, but not as happy as in Doha.

Well I suppose that it is all happenning and all we can do is go along for the ride except for the Koi fish, Zeus and Clio the pugs and Herman the rat!

It's really late now and I really ought to be in bed.

So blogzzzzzzzzzzzzzz for now

An addiction

I find myself a day after setting up this blog that I am addicted to this. Positive side is it may improve my typing speed. Down side is I am not doing any work. That is bad. However, I think it is therapy for me and also let my friends know my weaknesses. They may help me with the work!

So blog for now