The hotel is in a Muslim area of the city and therefore despite walking what seems miles the night before I fail to find any bar or night life. Back to the hotel and read the kindle some more. Lost track of the days and kept thinking it was a Saturday night, but even for a Sunday, it was dead.
Up and checked out of the hotel by midday, but I still haven’t got a ticket for the train that leaves at midnight. The ticket eventually arrives a few minutes before 14:00, what a relief.
I go for another wander around the neighbourhood and find the Bazaar that is touted in all the tourist booklets. Go through security to get inside the area and wander around hundreds of stalls trying to find a new backpack. Lots of daggers, spices, handbags, shoes and real furs for sale but no backpacks or suitcases. I give up on this place and return to the hotel to read the kindle.
Nobody in the hotel speaks English and try as I may I just can’t get them to understand that I either want to repair the backpack I have or buy a new one. Even showing them the tear in the backpack just gets them to stare and shrug, then they laugh between themselves at you. I’m not sure this is through embarrassment of not understanding or them taking the piss.
And so at 20:00 local time I ask them to get me a taxi to go to the train station. Gave up, they must be taking the piss not to understand taxi. I wait outside until a metered taxi pulls up and asks where I want to go. Ten minutes later I’m at the station. I try to put the backpack on my back and one of the straps comes off!!
Onto the train at 23:30 and find my compartment and happy that I have a lower berth again. The other person is a Chinese man who doesn’t speak English apart from smiling and saying ‘Hello’. Relief follows when the other four people in the 36 berth carriage get on board. They’re from Korea, a girl, her father and two friends are travelling through Asia for 50 days and this is their last few days. The girl and one of the friends speak really good English.
Storage is under the bed, but then the train staff start to load their gear under each bed as well.
I think this man worked on the train, he acted and sounded drunk and demanded he has to have a selfie with me. He then gets the Chinese fella to take the photos before insisting I have a photo on my phone. He then staggers off and we don’t see him again.
The train leaves Urumqi just before midnight and we’re on our way! Time to sleep. Awaken as the train stops at 05:08, we sit in the same place until just after 08:00, when we move about 5km to the Chinese border. All off the train and go to the building, passports out at the ready and the Chinese just stand and look at us as if we’re all stupid. Back to the train were the carriage attendant says ‘Toilet’.
Back on the train and we sit at the border until almost 09:00 when the customs and immigration board the train. Bags out, unpack everything, repack everything, unpack the next bag, repack. The customs bloke never really looked. They don’t check the Chinese fella’s baggage.
Next they take your passport and disappear. Then another official comes in and asks for your phone and laptop. Boot the laptop and they check the photos of Helsinki in 2012 and say OK. The iphone is then connected to a gadget that must download all the info from the phone, or maybe just the photos. All photos of the border post and the building have been erased from the phone.
One of the Koreans is having an argument with the officials who demand to take his copy of Lonely Planet China. He’s not allowed to take it out of China as it has a map that shows Taiwan as separate from China. The argument continues for about 30 minutes and he loses his guide book.
Dawn over the Chinese Steppes. Not much to see really.
About 10:30 we have our passports back, the train has been searched by about 5 different officials and we set off for Kazakhstan. It can’t be as bad or long winded getting into Kazakhstan as getting out of China?
Oh Yes It Can!! We go through all the searches, customs, sniffer dogs and questions as we did at the Chinese border. Customs decide they won’t bother with my bags this time and ask the Chinese fella to open his bags. All the customs official did was open a carrier bag of shoes and ask how much they were. Then asked to look at the Chinese fella’s wallet. He never asked for money and wasn’t offered any by the Chinese fella. But he did come back another two times and think about asking for money, I got the impression if I wasn’t there watching he would have demanded some form of payment.
At almost 12:25 we are now clear of the border crossings and on our way. Oh NO We’re Not! The Army are still on board and as the only person in the carriage with any understanding of Russian I’m told to translate that the train will now stop for 15 minutes so the wheels can be changed. The gauges in Kazakhstan are a different width to the width in China. An hour later we do get on our way to Almaty. Over 8 hours from the first time we stopped and we had covered a grand total of about 15 km.
The Chinese trains all have restaurant cars on board, the Kazakhstan train doesn’t. Some people know this before getting on the train, I didn’t!! SO when we stopped at the station to change the wheels everyone else went to the restaurants to eat. I went to the restaurant but only had Yuan in cash and there weren’t any currency exchanges or ATM’s in the area. It was a long day and long night into Almaty as I survived on two bottles of water and 3 in 1 coffee sachets.
Kazakh kids playing somewhere in Kazakhstan.
And so into Almaty station 2, don’t get off at Almaty station 1 as I won’t be met by the hotel owner. I wasn’t met by the hotel owner as I hadn’t received the email sent the previous day as no wifi or 3G. I manage to exchange my Yuan and find an ATM and then walk, stagger, struggle under the load of my baggage to a cafe for something to eat.
They have wifi and I get to reply to the message from the previous day but almost an hour later I give up and get a taxi to the hotel. The hotel owner has sent his son but his son can’t find the restaurant and they have been trying to get in contact with me again.
And so after another 2 nights with virtually no sleep, I shave, shower and go to sleep.