Kashgar, China

We got up at the crack of dawn in a bid to cross the dreaded Chinese border in less than 12 hours. The border is 80km from 1st to last check point so we got prepared with our snacks and our patience as we got on and off the truck with passports and bags. In the end it wasn't as bad as anyone thought as they didn't rip the truck apart and we were stamped into China about 11 hours after being stamped out of Kyrgystan. The only loss being the truck's supply of cooked meats and Lesley's bar of chocolate for no reason at all!

Kashgar (where I am now) is a pretty big city with not a lot but shops in it. Everyone's quite thankful of the hotel and the warmer weather and we are here for 4 nights as the truck goes through the Chinese MOT. Food is amazing but there's not much in English so its been a lot of pointing at the local's food and picking blind off the menu and a lot of stares as I struggled with the chop sticks. I'm not quite sure what I ate the other night but we think it was either liver or brain of a mystery animal! It was tasty though! The big problem here is clothing sizes. The clothes are plentiful and cheap but they are tiny so nothing bought. At least I'm saving money though! Kashgar isn't the China I expected as locals are very Mongolian looking. It should be interesting to see the change as we head to the East and South.

Coming up in the next week we have a long slog through the desert and it's going to be hot hot hot! Mike and Alice have headed on their own road trip to Beijing and Xian for 10 days to avoid desert monotony. They assure us they will be back and I'm taking over as Ned's guardian so I hope I wont lose him!