“A journey of a thousand miles starts with single step.” The
step was taken, the journey is done; this is just a small effort to share the
experience.
Day 1 - 16 Oct 2013
Got up early in the morning to catch the morning train to
Chennai. The station is 21 km away from home, so that’s going to be a pretty
good autorickshaw ride away. Cousins volunteered to drop me to the station; at
least I have company till station. Most people are curious as to how am going
to do this all alone; I think its something for me also to figure out. On time
and on board, it’s after a long gap that I am travelling by a sleeper coach. The
train starts, goodbyes and now am off. Allepy-Dhanbad express is thundering
down the pristine Kerala countryside. The countryside does look beautiful. I
haven’t given due consideration to travelling here in Kerala, someday soon I
want to change that. The heat was really getting to me once I crossed over to
Tamil Nadu. I had lost the habit of sleeper class travel in India for sure, so
it was a welcome refresher. For all the thundering run the train did, it became
painfully slow as it got closer to my destination. Stopped for a more than an
hour in Avadi for no good reason. I have heard from my dad that, it was his
last post when he was in the Air force. Finally at 10.30 pm, Chennai Central.
First time in the town, since it is notorious for over
charging autos, prepaid taxi is the choice. After asking for directions from a
few CISF jawans I find the taxi counter. For someone who is used to Hindi it’s
sure not easy to try and converse in Tamil. Still managed with my broken and
bad Tamil. Paid and booked for the cab to airport, they had some weird ways of
assigning cabs, so that meant a wait for around 10 mins. Fed the local
mosquitoes some fresh blood and off I go. May be the blood tasted too good that
some mosquitoes followed me in to the cab, so I did have company other than the
driver. So after a smooth ride to airport my next priority was to find a dorm
to stay for the night, Rs.400 for a night the manager said. Took it straight
away considering the fact that I have no idea when and where I am going to
crash over the next 48 hours. Only after I booked I found out that it’s only
for transit passengers who are flying in and flying out. Luckily for me they let
me stay. Though I had to ask around for directions and went into the wrong
places a few times it was all well in the end as the dorms were pretty neat and
comfortable. So after a decent first day off to sleep at 12.
Day 2
Day 2 started early at 5 am since I had to get fresh and
catch a flight at 8.30. Sleep was just so-so since my subconscious had the
flight in mind and kept waking me up at regular intervals. Did the morning
chores quickly, one final check of the tickets & docs and off I go. To my
surprise a clerical error at the AirAsia end meant that I had a delay of around
20-25 mins. While I was waiting I noticed a co-passenger who was having the
same issue having a though time understanding what the guy at the desk was
explaining. She was Chinese and spoke only Mandarin. ‘Athithi devo bhava’, so I
explained whatever I could with my basic Chinese skills. Since I am going to
need it over the next month or more, didn’t loose the chance to brush up my Chinese
skills. She was glad to bump into a Chinese speaking Indian (though not
fluently). So after the thank you it was time for goodbyes soon. Immigration was quick
for a small airport and security was particularly curious of my big boots that they made me
take it off and scan them.
Since it was Chennai I thought of some ‘Vada Sambar’ for
breakfast. The stuff was running out so quick that by the time I reached in
front of the counter he had only 1 left. So it was ‘Vada upma sambar’ :-P
After a call home and a stroll around the rather small and
not so crowded Chennai airport I was ready to fly to Hangzhou via KL. Even
though the flight is cheap the purchases on board are not, even for bare
essentials like water. One starts wishing only if our Rupee would appreciate a bit
more, so that travel abroad could be a bit more affordable.
A short flight later, KL. It started off pretty well with a
glimpse of a Russian Giant An-124 transport plane on the tarmac. I have heard
about this aircraft from my dad as to how gigantic it looks compared to the
AN-12’s he used to be on when he was in service. The separate terminal for AirAsia
is a smart move, loads of passengers like me flying in and out of KL. They
surely have made it more affordable. A quick check in and security check later
I was in the AirAsia terminal. Roamed around to change a few Dirhams for
Malaysian Ringgit. Admired how valuable the currency is when compared to our
poor Rupee, for a country that freed itself around the same time as us.
AN 124 on the Tarmac in Malaysia
While
roaming around the terminal I felt am missing something. “Oh oh! My favourite jacket.”
This is not the start I wanted for my trip. Since the terminal was small I roamed
around looking for it, but all in vain. Mourning the loss of my favourite jacket and
trying hard to let go, I decided to eat something. May be it’s the food going into my stomach, it
suddenly struck me, “Security Check!”, finished the meal quickly and rushed
back to security and there it was. A big smile :-D that was a relief; at least I
won’t be feeling down for the whole day. Now there was barely any time left to
explore the terminal, the final boarding call was given, so off to the gates.
Only to realise that it was one of the many final calls to be made, so waited
at the gates for almost an hour. It was evident that the flight was headed to
China from the demography. After the gates opened up it was a ‘long march’ with
comrades through the tarmac to the aircraft. Got on board and settled in my seat next to a young
chap and a monk.
It would have been a pretty uneventful flight if it was not
for an adamant old man on board. At 6 pm, apparently he was so hungry that he
didn’t have to patience to wait for the flight attendants to serve him food.
And on top of that on a flight in which no outside food was allowed he made a
scene for getting hot water for his instant noodle pack by kneeling down in the
aisle and raising his noodle pack over head and begging for hot water. The
flight attendants were firm on their stand after a couple of minutes of
bickering and confusion some of the fellow passengers convinced him to take a
seat. In some countries such an event might have probably grounded the aircraft
on account of security risk. After a brief wait, I got something to eat, though
they didn’t have what I wanted. No room for complaints on a budget airline. Rest
of the flight was smooth.
A glimpse of Full moon
Touched down in Hangzhou on time. Smooth exit through
immigration and custom and stepped out into the chilly Hangzhou night. Took a
stroll to reach the domestic terminal, to see an almost abandoned terminal
building. Reminded me of a time when I ended up in Palam airport, Delhi, at 2
am in the night. Though this looked much better. To my disappointment there
weren’t any dorms or rooms at the airport for transfer passengers except for
the few pricey hotels at the airport. But to my pleasant surprise I did see
people making plans to crash at the terminal building itself for the night. So
I walked around the huge terminal to find a nice quiet spot. Since it was an
open terminal building there were ladies walking around trying to convince
passengers to take rooms at near by hotels. With a slight concern for the
safety of my luggage I started to settle down for the night. After a
halfhearted attempt to sleep, I noticed a bunch of foreigners sitting in the
corner on some electronic massage chairs. Hoping that the seats would be a bit
better I headed there and sat down by keeping my luggage trolley by my side.
The seats were comfortable but no sleep again, so I was listening to the chat
happening next to me. It didn’t take long; I got introduced to the bunch; so it
was an Indian, a Tajik and an Uyghur guy. The Indian guy was from Mumbai so it
didn’t take long for us to get along. So he was going on and on about how bad
an experience he had in China and so on and so forth. The Tajik guy is a
student of Chinese in Xinjiang who was trying to communicate with his rusty
English. The Uyghur guy was a quiet listener, but very fluent in English. Just
the person I wanted to meet, he was also heading to Urumqi, to meet his
girlfriend. We exchanged numbers and he asked me to call him when I get there.
A night full of conversations followed, leading into early morning, at 3 am we
all decided we would try and get some sleep. By now the fear of loosing my
luggage was gone. So settled in my seat to sleep. All I managed was just 2
hours when my neighbor’s snore woke me up. The Tajik who hadn’t shut his eye
was just waiting for some company. So there goes my sleep. Another hour went
between conversations and dozing off while listening. By then the terminal
became a lot more active and reluctantly I woke up. Freshened up in the morning
and headed to find our respective check in counters. I was so tired that I
needed a strong coffee if I have to stay up, once that was found the
conversations were a bit more interesting. The chat went on about sensitive
political and economic issues. That’s when I picked up an interesting fact that
most Uyghur people find it near impossible to get a passport for themselves. I
am not completely surprised considering where I am, but then again it was a bit
shocking. Now it’s almost time for the flights so we all said our goodbyes and
parted ways.
Day 3
I slept so less that I barely noticed that its day 3
already. Strolled around to find my gate, after some effort I got there well
before time. On a domestic flight in China you do find people from all walks of
life. The sophisticated businessmen, the stylish young crowd and also some real
down to earth people. So as fate would have it, I was seated along with some
real interesting characters. They don’t speak a single word of English, their
excitement of experiencing the flight gives me an impression that they don’t
get to do this often and the good thing is they don’t make any effort to hide
it. Which makes them really genuine and original. It leads me to think China is
certainly more inclusive than some other countries in some sense. We all board
the flight and after a brief stop in Jinan we are back on air heading to
Urumqi.
The mind is filled with excitement and anxiety about the
unknown and starts praying for a safe trip. As the flight reached closer to
Urumqi I realized one thing when I looked down through the window. Nothing can prepare you to the sheer size
of the landscapes there, no amount of reading can tell you what it feels like
when you see that landscape for the first time.
Now when I see the terrain my mind starts asking me “Do you
think you gave it enough time?” then it says, this time you are in it, alone
and for real.
Aerial view of Xinjiang landscape
As we were nearing Urumqi the vast nothingness is suddenly
replaced by organized stacks of buildings and factories. Wide roads and
wonderfully made overpasses all in the middle of nowhere. I sat in the flight
and thought “This was what I was running from, the concrete jungles of China
and here I am landing right into one.” The reason I chose Xinjiang as my travel
destination was because I wanted to see something very different from the rest
of China and I was feeling a bit disappointed in my first impression. The
flight landed and I patiently waited for my luggage. As I grabbed them I had a
feeling that the luggage handling is no better here compared to India. My
tripod was badly bend, the hiking rod was out of the bag, I doubled checked all
of them and put it together since none of them were damaged and left for the
exit.
Found the airport shuttle to the city, a rather packed one,
since the driver was not putting the luggage in the space below I troubled all
the fellow passengers and made my way to the last seat of the bus. Tried to
explain to the lady conductor where I had to go and asked her to tell me when
we reach there, she nodded as if she understood. But I had a feeling that today
my Chinese skills are not working well as compared to yesterday. As it turns
out she either didn’t understand or she didn’t bother to call out the stop, the
lady got off herself somewhere near the stop I was supposed to get off and I
was sitting there looking at my Google maps telling me that I am passing by the
stop. But since it was China and since I told her I waited for the call that
never came. For some reason I felt like asking a fellow passenger about the
stop who passed it onto the driver, who told me we passed it. So I got off at
the next stop and checked my maps, I am a fair distance away from there. So
after crossing the road I tried to flag down a cab to get there, after a few
attempts one guy stops, he knows the place so off we go again. This time I am
dropped right in front of the hotel. For checking in I called a dear friend to
explain to the hotel people that I have a booking. It was not a day for trying
my chinese skills further. Checked in, dumped my luggage, freshened up and took
some rest.
I wanted to do some exploring and didn’t want to just sit
inside the hotel so looked on the map for something interesting nearby. The
downtown looked rather close as per the map and saw some mall down there. So
decided to walk down there without checking the actual distance. The location
of my hotel looked like a rusty old neighborhood. There was nothing appealing
to see around. I kept walking; the evening started slowly getting darker. As it
started getting darker the real size of the blocks was dawning upon me. The
place I wanted to go was a good 6 miles away and I was barely half way. So I
walked around to find something to eat and then head back to the base. By now
the body was running on fumes, so took a cab back to the hotel, which was a
full 4 miles away by now according to the meter. After a rather unproductive
evening I decided to call it a day and crash early. Tomorrow I need to plan
better and find some cheaper alternatives to stay. After a short chat with my
folks to inform that I reached safe and sound I was off to bed.
Day 4
Woke up bright and early at 7.15 am based on my usual habit,
only to find outside it’s still total darkness. Then I realized the time
difference and the reason why local Uyghur’s use Xinjiang time and not Beijing
time. Geographically it is quite far and it does make sense. But this is no
time to think such complicated matters, so decided to do something better,
cover up and sleep again ;-) Even at 9.30 the day was just dawning. Woke up and
did my morning chores and had some breakfast that I picked up the previous
evening and sat down to plan my day. Today I have to explore and change my
hotel. So as I left the place this time I asked around for city buses so that I
don’t do the same stunt like the previous evening. I did check on Google as
well before I left the hotel. Armed with the bus numbers and the addresses I
was off. It was easy to find the buses and get to the place near a youth hostel
that I was looking for. But even though I was very close I couldn’t find the
exact place. So asked around for directions using the chinese address, even
though the local chinese people didn’t know the place they were determined to
help. A lady and a guy they tried their best to find out, still no luck. Then
they asked me to look on the street in the back. So some help and an intuitive
mind helped me find the place even though the directions were wrong.
Next stop a tour agency that arranges trips to the Northern
most lake in Xinjiang called lake Kanas. This is not going to be easy, because
Google maps that I was using doesn’t work well in China especially with China
Mobile internet and it seemed to be even worse in Xinjiang. So after landing up
in the wrong place that had no sign of the office I troubled my friend back in
Shenzhen again to help me find the address. She checked on the website of the
company and came up with an address in chinese. So after putting it up on
Google it showed a place a fair distance away. Walked there so that I can
explore the place at the same time. Even at 12.30 in the afternoon the feeling
is like 10 am outside. I reach the place and meet a friendly security guard who
shows me the way to the office and tells me that since it’s a Saturday the
office might be closed but they had a second office on a higher floor that
would have people in it. So I get there and checked up with them, but as luck
would have it they have stopped all tours to that place for the season because
of the weather. So the first setback of my trip, a place that I badly wanted to
go is not reachable. Still as I was heading back I was considering doing the
trip alone without any agents, there are a few things that I need to put in
place for it to happen and I would consider that option once am back at the
hotel. Next stop hostel no 2, finding it was not difficult because of the prior
research. Google maps was perfect in its directions in Urumqi when it had a
proper internet connection. Got on the very impressive and very efficient BRT
system in Urumqi to get to the hostel that was right next to a lake; a popular
touristy place. The staff was not very friendly, just like I had already read in
the reviews. They flatly denied to show me the rooms and when checked about the
tours to north they said all are closed due to weather. So I finished there and
spend some time at the lake and the park nearby. Very artificial, it’s a kind
of place where the local people would spend their week offs. I sat there
thinking of the next items on the list and having some fruits for lunch.
Some chores for the trip like banking, refilling phone and
shopping for the road was left. By the time I was done with all that it was
nearly evening and was getting tired. The inability to use Google services on
the move was really making me annoyed as all maps, translate and all my research
is on that. Still I found my way back to the hotel by hopping between BRT, walks
and some rather crowded buses. When I reached back I realized that the city is
pretty big just going to 3-4 places took me a whole day. Now its time to eat, chat
with friends & family and sleep. Morning need to check out and move to the
hostel and do more research on what I want to do here.
