China to Istanbul...Merhaba :)

Finally, as promised, here is a more comprehensive update of the route from China to Bishkek. The route I travelled was from Urumqi, Pau-yang-hu, Korla, Luntai, Wensu, Aksu, Kashgar, Waigi an then the border. Over into Kyrgyzstan and from the border to Osh, Uzgen, Jalal-Abad, Bazar-Kurgon, Taskomur, Kara-Kol, and eventually Bishkek.

The desert

Xinjiang province

From Urumqi I cycled 1560 km to Kashgar straight through the desert of Xinjiang province the most western part of China, I started close to the border of Mongolia and at the end I was close to Pakistan. It was my first experience to cycle through a proper desert, in Northern Australia I learned that there was not much between the towns, but here, there was totally nothing at all! Sand, sand dunes, mountains, and one road. 

Sandstorm

The distance between some towns was sometimes 200 km, that's when you sleep under the road in tunnels, these are the safest spots to sleep out there. I was quite lucky; on the longest road I had a sand storm at my back with a tail wind of more than 25 knots per hour. So in 9 hours and 15 minutes I cycled over 200 km! If you get a headwind the only option is to find shelter under one of the tunnels under the road. I sometimes slept at truck stops which had no water or electricity, but I never camped. 

 

Tunnels under road where I slept

My police friends :)

In China you are not allowed to stay in any hotel, you are only allowed to stay in special hotels for foreigners. Most of the time you pay 3 times as much for this. But I discovered a little trick. On my entire trip in Xinjiang I saw no foreigners at all - that means they don't know how to handle you if you do things against the rules. I went to hotels where I was not allowed to sleep, nobody speaks English, and if you do not leave after a while they call the police....

The police then take you to a hotel for foreigners and they find someone who speaks English. Normally the price is 50 to 60 dollars. Then I say to them that I want to pay, but I am a poor cyclist, I sleep on the street. Then they take you to the head office, take your passport and after a lot of discussions they bring you back to the same hotel and then you pay only NZ$8. It takes a lot of time to do this, but it worked well for me 6 times. In the small towns there is no problem to stay for a normal price. Eventually the police are your best friends :)  

I found China to be an amazing experience and met a lot of nice helpful people. Even if they couldn't speak English and me no Chinese, the smart phone was a great help to communicate on those days.

Last stretch of the desert

Kashgar was almost at the end of my trip through the desert - it was an incredible stretch of the jourmey. Many times truck drivers offered me a ride but the cycle trip was so much nicer. I met a lot of camels, herds of sheep, and some fata-morganas (mirages). Long straight roads for hundreds of kilometres, but many times I felt on the top of the world.

Kashgar was the first city with an old historic town. All the other cities they had bulldozed all the old buildings down and put skyscrapers in its place. But in the desert you meet the people who have lived the same way for thousands of years. They invite you in as they are very curious about this strange dutch man on his bicycle. 

Kashgar livestock market

Yak

After Kashgar I cycled towards the border of China, where they put you in a van to get to the Kyrgyzstan border. That's 130 km through the last part of the Xinjiang desert, and soon you are at the border at a height of 2500m. When I went through the border the snow was 2m high. A really beautiful experience, such a contrast from a sandy road in the desert to the middle of snowy landscapes with wild foxes and wolves - incredible.

My little friend the white fox

I like Kyrgyzstan; men on horses, mountains everywhere, clean streams, the highest peak is over 7000m high. Osh is also a nice old city with a big, old bazaar with lots of fresh greens, meat and wild mushrooms. I lost 9kg travelling through China, I really missed my steaks. In Kyrgyzstan I was able to cook every day, nice fresh soups etc. Now that I am out of China, internet access is back, and I am able to connect with Google and Facebook again, makes life much easier.

On the road to Bishkek

On the road to Bishkek

I cycled to Bishkek over the mountain with another amazing view. I decided not to cycle to Iran and East Turkey, maybe later I will come back and do it. 

On the 28th of April I flew to Istanbul to meet up with my youngest sister Thea and together we will cycle the last part of the journey from Istanbul to Amsterdam - 3500 km to go and looking forward to meeting her in front of the blue mosque in Istanbul.

From there we will keep you informed about the route and our adventure. Once again I thank everybody for all your support over the last 2 months and hope to see you in Amserdam in June. Serefe!