Kashgar

As mentioned in the previous post, the convoy failed to appear and pick up the Lucky Seven team, which ended up with us wandering about the town of Kashgar looking to have a bite late at night.

Kashgar, situated in the Southwest extreme of Xinjiang, is made up of a good mixture of Uyghurs, Han Chinese, Kyrgyz, Tajiks and Uzbeks. Walking through the streets of Kashgar, we discovered a local bazaar near our hotel, giving us an idea of what the city was like.

Remnants of Kashgar being an important trading centre since the days of the Silk Road is reflected through the people whose ancestors had probably settled down there as a result of trading in this strategically placed centre, where the city is on the Western part of the Taklamakan desert connecting the road from Eastern and Central China.

The Night Bazzar

To this day, Kashgar is still a key trading centre and judging by the bustling bazaar, we do not doubt it at all. The difficult part though, was that despite having Suzhen with us, there was still an amount of difficulty communicating with the locals who were not Han Chinese as they go about their daily lives communicating in their own language.

Unsure of how the hygienic conditions are, we decided to have a meal in a local restaurant instead of street food. Lucky for us, it was not hard to find a Halal restaurant, as most of the people here are Muslims. Finally settling in at a restaurant where the owner could speak some form of English, we ordered the first thing we saw – chicken grilling outside this eatery.

We were a bit apprehensive at first at how the eating customs were like in Kashgar. The chicken was served on a plate sitting on top of some bread that was reminiscent of Naan bread, except that it was thicker and much tougher to chew through. But after a while, hunger set in and we just dug in the food, ignoring the strange stares from the locals who I think might be fascinated with foreigners eating in a local restaurant, away from tourist spots.

Roasted Chicken

Through the meal, one item oddly stayed in our minds. While shopping around for a place to eat, we spotted a restaurant called Iskandar where most of the patrons were enjoying cups of what looked like vanilla ice cream. When it came to dessert, I was glad that the team was in-sync. We marched down to the restaurant and got us each a cone (printed with the restaurant’s name, mind you) priced at RMB2 per piece. We couldn’t really tell the flavour, except that it was milky, creamy and good.

Ice Cream!!!

 

With our stomachs filled up, we started to be more aware of the surroundings. First thing we noticed, was that even while on the pedestrian walk, it was pretty dangerous. Silent scooters just quietly glided on the roads, where anyone was in danger of being knocked down if your attention wandered about just for a while. Apparently, instead of the usual noisy engines, the locals powered the scooters with electricity. While I find no fault in that, it was really interesting to notice that they rarely honk at people unless they were on the brink of running you down, which we experienced first hand.

The next thing we discovered was that ice cream is as popular and common as Teh Tarik in Malaysia. Instead of mamak, the people here congregated under a make-shift tarp roof with chairs facing one television, enjoying whatever show was on at the time. Next to the television would be an ice cream machine, always ready to serve the next customer with nice, cold ice cream cone.

The local hangout place

The next morning, after slaving over our car, we were rewarded to a great lunch with an awesome serving of lamb racks. 

Laaaaammmmbbbb

We couldn’t wait to tour the city with the rest of the convoy, whom we were briefly introduced to at breakfast.  Walking on the streets behind the famous Id Kah Mosque, we observed more street activity.

There was an abundance of copper kettles and teapots were being sold in the shops, which probably mean these were popular items to purchase in Kashgar. We even spotted one of the locals either making or repairing teapots by the side of the road.

Repairing copper teapots

One of the more fascinating foods for sale was this big tub of what you might describe as local style ice cream. While we were tempted to buy a big container for RMB5 from the two cute little salesmen, the huge flies buzzing on the ice cream quickly put us off. It is on a sad note I conclude that we never did find out what it tasted like. 

Local delights..

Watermelon is also very popular with the people here. Everywhere we turned, there was a cart of melons for sale, not to mention the Naan-like bread we had the previous night. The street was littered with interesting items; from knick-knacks to useful items where their function was so elusive we did not know what they were for.  We spotted a tobacco pipe-like item, which turned out to be a tool to help babies pee into the right vessels. Imagine if you bought that back to smoke it with. How embarrassing!

Watermelon for sale!

 

One worthy place to mention was this Uyghur musical instrument shop. It was passed down three generations, with a picture of the owner’s grandfather proudly hanging in the middle of the shop. Their products are hand-made using snakeskin covering the base of the string instruments. While browsing, the shop owner had a short impromptu concert, captivating our attentions for a while before turning to admire the workmanship of his hands.

Entertaining his customers with some tunes

Uyghur musical instruments

The highlight of the day was yet to come. Facing the modern infrastructure of the bustling Kashgar city was the uniquely situated old building which till this day is still housing many occupants within its ancient bellies. It’s amazing how a building like this has stood test of time. I’m not sure if I heard right, but according to our Xinjiang tour guide, Benny, it was thousands of years old.

The Old Kashgar

We were treated to a meal at a local household within the towering structure. It was fascinating to walk into the maze of walls made solely out of bricks, hay and clay to get to our destination. If it weren’t for the pretty local girl who guided us, we would be hopelessly lost within these walls. And of course, no meal would be complete here without ending it with slices of melon and a dance performance.

All in all, it had been a good day.