... Bye bye Shanghai... Tuesday, May 9th, I m taking the train for Ulumuqi. 1 day and 21 hours later, Xinjiang, here I am.... Ouigur, naan bred, mutton, that s more or less what you can expect in this part of China.

The city itself as nothing special and the only reason for me to stay here is to get my visa for the Kyrgystan.

First thing, applying for the Kyrgyz visa... I have four days to spend here before the visa is ready and I really have no idea how I m gonna spend this time here as the town as nothing special to be seen, except maybe the big bazaar.

Anyway, my plan was to go to the TianChi lake or maybe Tulufan, the two places I have been last year during my previous trip to Xinjiang.

I have to say that I have been veeery lazy and decided just to stay in Ulumuqi and hang around with the people I met in the Youth Hotel. Dan, Damien, on the way back to England. David and four of his friends who are going from Beijing to England by bike, and a few others as the crazy little chinese Zhao on his cheap bike who is planning a 25000km trip around China.

.. just relax and nothing more. I have to say it s little bit to early for a a trip break as mine is just starting but anyway.

Once my visa is ready I jump on a 24h ride bus down to Kashgar, one of the most famous silk road city.

Bad, very baaaad, the chinese governement is working well on his project of culture eradication and the old town I have seen last year is slowly beeng destroyed to be (I think) replaced by thoses ugly buildings chinese do so well. Been quite surprised to see young Ouigur speaking mandarin together and not their mother language anymore.

Snif...it you haven t been there, it s time to go cause in a few years it won t worth it anymore.

So just an afternoon in Kashgar and I jump on a bus the next morning for the Irkeshtam pass to cross the border and finally arrive in Kyrgystan.... visiting central asia beeing the main target of the trip and beeing there last year, I won t spend more time in Xinjiang and China....which is I have to say a beautifull province I highly recommend.

The road to the border is amazing, throught the mountains, the more we drive and the less signs of civilization I see... really look forward to cross the border to arrive in Kyrgystan

....

....

....

...to be continued