Volume 11: The Silk Road Home

Hello all,

We are in Beijing, China right now, the final stop of our journey. We have done the entire trip from Almaty across China by train, which has made for some long stints on the tracks. Leaving Central Asia was a bit sad actually, I was really starting to get a feel for the place. A few last observations about Kazakhstan:

-we asked a few people about Borat. It was about an even split between those who hadn't heard of him and those who despised him. One girl we met on the train emphasized that he was a 'bad man' doing 'dirty business' through making fun of the Kazakh people. On the whole trip, we only met one guy (a Kyrgyz in Kyrgyzstan), who said that Borat was the best movie he had ever seen in his life.

-the sweeping regimes in Almaty (and Tashkent as well) are the most highly organized and efficient (though efficiency is all relative when you are in Central Asia and you are sweeping leaves in the fall) we have encountered. They had bright orange vests (which led us to believe that they might be paid), massive brooms which could clear entire widths of sidewalks in a single sweep, and people following behind with bags to collect the leaves. It was a beautiful system to watch in action. I really wish I had a chance to see what these places did with the first snow fall. I will do a comparison with Chinese sweeping below.

-we got stopped by police again one night in Almaty while walking through one of the central parks with a beer (as was every other Kazakh person around us). The guy took our passports and said that we had broken law 753 and that we needed to go to the police station. We held our ground and pretended not to understand. Then they asked to search us, which we didn't allow. They then said we were carrying narcotics. 'no' we said, 'no narcotics'. 'GUNS! You have guns!' came the reply, which we laughed at. A crowd of several police surrounded us, giving the 'money money money' motion, which we ignored. We then asked to see all their identification and badge numbers, which is supposed to scare them off, but the head guy pulled out his ID and didn't balk when we took his number. He then said that because we had broked law 255 we needed to pay him, which we refused. We finally told him to just take us to the police station (this was our last resort, these were the most steadfast policemen yet). Its a long walk, they told us, we'll need to pay for taxis (most police don't get cars). 'No way' we said, 'we're walking'. So the guy gets on his radio, farts around for about 5 minutes, and then gives us our passports back, saying that we can go.

-I was at the stage where I could read Cyrillic (not understand it necessarily, but at least read it), and now we are in a country where I don't have a hope in hell at reading the characters.

-The 36 hour train ride from Almaty to Urumqi in western China was relatively painless, save for 6 hours of border customs, during which time the toilet is locked (the shitter just opens out onto the tracks, so they don't want piles of crap pooling at the stations). We had no problems with our Visas, which we were half expecting, since we had possibly overstayed our Kazakh transit visa. We shared a room on the train with a Chinese fellow who had come to Almaty to find work but he had fallen down an uncovered manhole and shattered his arm, so he had to return to China. He also told us how many Chinese were going to Kazakhstan to find work, and that there were so many there that the Chinese consulate cannot keep track of them all, so the Kazakh police know that they can ding them hard. He says that lots of Chinese get taken to the police station and 'disappear', which we found a little disconcerting, since only 2 nights before we had offered to go to the police station as a strategy to get the police to give up. We would be fine, however, he said, since there are so few Westerners in Central Asia, and if something happened to us it would be bad news for Kazakhstan. He also reassured us that the police in China were friendly and that we could trust them and ask them for help. After over 2 months where the police were the most dangerous people we could encounter, this was a foreign notion.

-We had about 24 hours in Urumqi before we caught our next train to Xian. Urumqi is the capital of Xinjiang, the westernmost province of China. It used to be part of Central Asia, called East Turkistan, and has a large group of Muslim Chinese, the Uyghurs, who are a Turkic ethnic group closely related to the Kazakhs and the Kyrgyz (although a Kazakh woman on the train told us not to trust the Uyghurs, because they are not trustworthy and they do not have a motherland). For years the Uyghurs have been rallying to be a nation independent from China, which the Chinese government hasn't taken too kindly to, and has responded by sending large populations of Han Chinese over there to dilute the population (and to extract oil). Urumqi was cool because it still felt a little Central Asian (there was still Cyrillic on many signs), but it was also blatantly Chinese. This entire trip I have found it very interesting how political borders have really actually divided nations that are strongly distinct from each other (when a lot of the time the physical environment is very similar).

-One of the most interesting experiences I have had on entering China is a sort of culture shock related not to the unfamiliarity with Chinese culture, but moreso with the change out of Central Asian culture. If you remember my last few e-mails I wrote that Tashkent and Almaty were very modern cities that felt like Vancouver... well I think that in reality I had forgotten what Vancouver was like. When we first arrived in Central Asia, Miles and I commented on how amazing the amount of basic things that we take for granted at home that just don't exist or are difficult to access in Central Asia. Throughout our time there I became used to this, and started to take for granted the fact that we DON'T necessarily have these things. Then, when we jump into China, which in past 15 years has undergone a MASSIVE transformation and is very much a flashy modern state, I kind of realized 'oh ya, THIS is more what the west is like.' Its kind of difficult to explain, but maybe you can get a sense of what I mean.

China is also very easy to travel in. Its almost like there is an invisible Chinaman holding our hand along the way. There is reliable public transit, things have schedules, things follow the schedules, there are other tourists, lots of people speak english... To be honest, it feels TOO easy. Its not that I don't like China, its a spectacular place, but it just feels a little less adventurous after what we have been through. A lot of it feels packaged for tourists. That said, its kind of a nice holiday after our journey.

After Urumqi, we went to Xian, the old eastern hub of the Silk Road, meaning, that with the exception of some of the middle east, we have travelled nearly the entirety of the ancient world's most important trade route. From Xian to Anyang, where Jing, one of my professors from UBC is co-director of the second largest archaeological dig in China, which we got a personal tour of. From Xian we took the fast train to Beijing where we are enjoying the last few days of our trip before heading home. We are spending time with Jing and several of my friends that I graduated with that are going to school to learn Chinese here.

I fly to Vancouver on the 17th, which will be very strange I think, but I am looking forward to seeing friends and seeing some snow and having Christmas with the family. It has been one hell of a journey. I realize that I have just glossed over 2 weeks in China, this is partly because I have breakfast waiting for me --- not because China isn't super cool. The food is expecially glorious, particularly after 2 months of eating mutton fat. If I never see another sheep again in my life I would be a content man. I will probably write one last time when I get home with some final reflections, and I can talk about China then if anyone is interested. Of course I'd much rather see you all in person and catch up. So, I am looking forward to the holiday season, and I am REALLY looking forward to see you all very soon. Thanks so much for keeping in touch over these past few months,

All my love,
Bryn