Kashgar to Yiling

15 may 2012

I decided to avoid going all the way to Urumqi

I decided to avoid going all the way to Urumqi in Western China so took an over night bus from Kashgar to Yiling close to the Kazakh border. This bus was a sleeper coach with a mix of travelers most returning to their home town after visiting family in Kashgar. There was a mother and baby, a gran with her grandson, a mother and toddler, a group of colleagues from an agricultural workhouse, business men..... You get to feel like one big family after traveling these sort of distances together through the night and day. We stopped on route for food and breaks, always to eat kebabs and bread.

It was amazing to be able to see the difference once leaving the dusty deserts of Western China and climb up into the mountains before winding down the steep mountain pass into fir tree lined valleys. Here were the shepherds herding goats and travelling on horse back or motorbike. I saw tents like the ones used by the reindeer herders in Mongolia. The skies are blue and there is so much more colour.