33rd day Wed 14th May

Sending some more photos taken in during our long wait in China customs yesterday.

Spent a day in Kashgar ,we needed to get our car registration, insurance and have our car inspected, before we could get going with our China trip. I had my first experience of driving in China and the urban roads of Kashgar on route to this particular place.
It was a fair distance from the town, when we reached it appeared not to be very busy – but appearances can be deceiving as we experienced yesterday.
We also had our guide to help us, because without Bing no progress would have been made.
It started with a lot of activity and thought this is running smoothly, car inspected, car insurance issued, only registration left to do. After an hour of waiting we were told that their internet connection was down and at the same time the mandatory two hour lunch break was about to start. They actually get picked up to go to lunch and with it follows total shut down – no replacement staff.

Whilst the Land Cruiser was parked in the forecourt, we had masses of people who were really inquisitive about the vehicle and whenever we opened the door the numbers increased dramatically – just being nosey, nothing else.

We had two hours to kill, so the genius in us decided to played target with a plastic ball, we also had a ‘frisby’ and played a bit of cricket – by the end of this, I was a bit hungry, it was now 2 pm and I hadn’t had any breakfast. The guide said there is a local place we could try. I needed to go to the loo, and as per before the stench was unbearable, however on this occasion when I walked in, their were four guys squatting in a row, having a chat with each other (no partition or separation) all doing big jobs. I almost twisted my neck, reversing my direction to get out as quickly as I could. I still needed to go, and the ladies loo was next door. Someone came out and I indicated is it occupied she said no, and I also shouted “Hello” – no one in there and on the great odds (I thought) these will be cleaner as I was about to go in, this guard shouted out to say, not this one. Stuffed had to wait a bit longer and his lunch break was my chance – which I took!!
The local restaurant standard was not very good either, had some fried rice but hoping I don’t get upset stomach. Apologies, but have to go back to this toilet topic again – now Manvir wanted to go for a leak, he came back with another gruesome story, he didn’t bother going either – people were taking water from a large metal utensil when they went to do their business – we felt that this same water was also being used in the cooking – in addition the ‘site’ he went to was a box, with NO hole in it! Anyway enough of this, but one thing we were all agreed on that no one can call themselves a super power if there is not even basic sanitation.

I had visited Burma a couple of years ago, technologically and in other modern ways it’s way behind the rest of the world, however, never on our three week trip there did we come across a filthy toilet – even when we visited the remotest villages
Kirit the brave wanted to take a photo next to this icon outside the restaurant – so from pharmacy purchasing, he is thinking of diverting his attention to writing a book on toilets of the world. Good luck!

We back to see if the officials were back from their extended lunch break – yes they were, but the bad news was the internet was still down and was unlikely to come back on today – so we would have to come back tomorrow. When we left Chinese customs yesterday, there was a very clear notice which read – Enjoy your stay with super fast internet. Big gap between super fast and no internet. Unfortunately a day wasted, possibly, but slowly getting used to it, situation is not in our control.
Decided to go back into town and get some sight seeing done in Kashgar whilst there was still some light. Noticed there is a predominance of Muslim community in Kashgar and poverty quite apparent. Visited people’s square, which also has a large statue of Chairman Mao Tse Tung – took another great selfy. Played ping pong with one of the local kids – what skill, not me but the kid I was playing with. Used some random plastic bit to hit the ball.
Oh yes, one more minor incident – will I ever learn? So, army guys were guarding a little patch on the People’s Square, fully armed, on guard and had an armoured vehicle with them – I had to take a discrete photo. Not so discrete, he spotted me came over and deleted the photos – but for some reason left a few of them. Surprisingly he was very good about it, after all I am a tourist in a foreign land. Security will increase, no doubt, as we travel further into China and in particular Tibet.

Although a slightly frustrating day, still did quite a bit. Plan for tomorrow is to complete the vehicle paperwork and leave Kashgar.
Destination planned for tomorrow is Aksu which is a 490 km / 9hr drive – long day.