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.