.... of tranportation on "The Silk Road"

Yours Sincerely ( Y S ) has always been enthralled by the travels of Marco Polo, the Venetian traveler who managed an overland caravan journey from Venice to the courts of the Mongol Emperor in China.

Images of the "ships of the desert" , the hardy, faithful and docile camels never fail to capture one's imagination when talking about "The Silk Road." Y S only wishes to highlight extraordinary, interesting and enthralling aspects of the journey which Y S experienced since factual expositions can be found all over the travel sites of the inter-net, like the Lonely Planet.


A big portion of The Silk Road now is traveled over road like this. Our coach overtook and was overtaken by countless over-laden lorries. The over-taking margin between vehicles is in inches !

Some parts of The Silk Roads are completely covered by the sand of the Gobi Desert.

Btw the the ladies are not mountain trekking but climbing over a ridge to ...............relieve themselves !!! You see, there is no toilet facilities all along the way. Somehow, the coach driver through experience could locate spots where these ladies could be shielded from the passing vechiles. As for the men....we....just........ let go by the road side. Well, in a way, we are helping to water some of the shrubs by the road side. LOL

The Chinese diesel train, disappointingly not the elevated ones that travel to Tibet, is part of the transportation on The Silk Route. The over-night 700km journey from Xi An to Lan Zhou in a cabin has just enough space for 4 travelers and could be quite claustrophobic for some. For those who are prudent and highly polished, they may not even dare to f a r t for it takes some time for the effect to dissipate in such an enclosed area and all the more in such cool and air-thin atmosphere. LOL

Y S and Better Half shared a cabin with another friendly couple. Somehow a small space becomes cozier with good people. Nobody snored, perhaps nobody dared to sleep and snore.

The donkey cart trip is to the noble ruins of Gaochong, the ancient Uyghur capital in the Gobi Desert.

This is the horse ride in the steppe grassland Kelawucheng Mountains. The Kazaks still live here with their herds of sheep, cattle and horses.

This is the cruise on a glacier lake, Heavenly Lake , in the Tianshan Mountains, 115 kilometres of Urumuqi. 1980 meters above sea level and is hemmed in by the towering snow-capped Bagda Peak. The water is emerald and crystal clear. Captivating scenery!

The camel transport is to the oasis at The Crescent Lake, south of Dunhuang city, in the Gobi Desert.

This is an ancient raft made of whole dried sheep skin whose body content has been "excavated" and human lung-blown into shape to float on the Hwang Ho River, "The Sorrow of China,"at Lan Zhuo. They still smell 'sheepy." It can easily take 6 passengers and can traverse white waters.
Without a few internal air transits in China, The Silk Road could be arduous. Of course, one isn't that eager to repeat the return journey so a flight from Urumuqi to Canton is very welcoming - 6 hour flight compared to 4 or 5 day dusty road trip plus 2 or 3 hotel overnights.

The numerous transportation makes The Silk Road interesting.