Wednesday, June 11, 2008

On the way to Turpan

It's time to bid farewell to Urumqi. The followings were shots taken on the way to Turpan. It was a long and tiring ride on the bumpy road.

Goodbye to the greens.. Entering the rock and sandy area soon.. Say hi to the cow herds :)

Say Hi to the Camels too. I will get to ride on a real Camel soon :)

Entering the Power Station area... Did u notice that the signboard is only written in Chinese language and Jawi? No English words leh...

The biggest Wind Power Station in China

Introducing the gigantic "fan" aka Wind Power Generator :)

Keng leh? I dunno how many of these are available on the road. Thousands? Or Millions?

Now we enter the salt factory region... Ever wonder how's the salt being produced? And the signboard is also written only in Chinese language and jawi :P

Say Hi to the sheeps. Anyone notice the whitish area in the background? Those are crystallised salt at the salt lake surface, which is available abundantly in this area.

More crystallised salt on the way

I kinda like this picture.. The white patch of crystallised salt in between the rock mountains and the greens.

Cemeteries...

Rocks and Sands.. It's time to doze off in the bus... Since there's still a long journey ahead..

Finally we reached the HOT and DRY Turpan (吐魯番).

Btw, most of the shots here were taken using my compact digicam from the moving bus as it was hard to take candid shots using viewfinder with DSLR on the super bumpy road.

24 comments:

moz monster said...

Wow ... this looks like a very, very, interesting journey !

Did you eat any sand ?

day-dreamer said...

Prefer 山水 over 沙石. Haha. But the 风车 very nice. :)

L B said...

OMG!! SO MUCH SALT!!! Beh tahan!!! *throws salt all over the place... rumble tumble roll in salt*
SALT!!! SALT!!! Overdose!! I love those windmills. So sleek. So syiok. Can blow dry hair in split second. Ya? Salt overdose..

Chen said...

moz,
very interesting indeed..
lotsa first time experience :)

But didn't eat any sand though..
Sand is not my staple diet :P

day dreamer,
Me too..
After seeing the sand, the stone, the dessert, the unhealthy tree in Silk Road, i feel so blessed living in Malaysia :D

LB,
Salt always reminds me of your Giordano Shirt in Gurney Plaza. Hahhahaha...

and must take everything with pinch of salt. No worry of insufficient salt over there..

Salt till sot sot sot liao :P

rainbow angeles said...

wah! the windmill reminds me of the movie Contact!! i forgot the title of the movie just now but i knw jodie foster was in it :p abt alien wan..

*laff at LB rolling in salt*
kkkkkk... he must wear the "holey" shirt liao liddat kkkkkk..

Chen said...

R Angeles,
Hehehe, i'm totally blur when u talk about movie, cos as u know lah.. I tarak or hardly tengok wayang wan nor dvd wan :P

Windmill also reminds me of Netherlands leh.. That was so long ago liao when I last visited in.. in 2003. 5 tahun sudah berlalu..

Hhahaha, the holey shirt again..
And I still remember him asking the sales girl.. Do they give salt as free gift when buying Giordano Shirt? And the sales girl was stunted for a while upon listening the question. Hahhahhahaa...

L B said...

I can't remember exactly why we wanted salt for a giordano tshirt... eh? How come?

Daniel Yiek said...

same trip I took. :)

Chen said...

LB,
Piak u for forgetting the salt story :P

According to the sales girl in Giordano, to prevent the colour from coming out from the new clothes when washing time, u need to soak the new clothes earlier on inside the salt water (can't remember whether it's cold or warm salt water liao) :P

Then u sampat asked whether Giordano provide free salt or not. Then someone came up with the suggestion that u can get free salt from Gurney Drive. Hahahha

Daniel,
That's great. I presume u had visited most of the interesting places in Turpan such as Grape Valley, Karez Irrigation, Imin Minaret or Sugong Pagoda, Gaochang Former City and passing by the Flaming Hill too :)

Anonymous said...

wow!! super fun eh! getting more and more interesting.. u didn't mention how long was the bus trip!!

yenjai.net said...

They should invent a mini wind station like this for laptop
Use wind to recharge our laptop / cellphone
LOL

Anonymous said...

*wave to the moos, camels (what sounds does a camel make?) and baaa~~... sheeps*

cemeteries in the middle of nowhere! interesting.

before you pointed us on crystalized salt in the first pic, I seriously thought those white spots were birds! stork or something. but then I wonder, aik, storks on a rocky mountain? lol

love the view, especially the power station :)

Wyn said...

wah...seems like fun wor...like Arab nia...hehe

huh? those are salts?i tot they are birdies ler...

Doreen said...

Wah~~a lot to see leh. Those camels, are they wild or owned by somebody?

Chen said...

ehon,
The trip to Turpan was not that long, and I think it's around 3 plus or 4 hours. Turpan is the town of grapes which produce raisin. Too bad tarak produce wine here :(

The subsequent trip the next day is long. The trip to Hami took us around 7 hours and it's only 400 km. Cos the road condition is really bad and bumpy, hence our sifu (bus driver) cannot drive fast for safety reason.

yenjai,
Hahaha, then u must open your window wide wide liao and cannot use air cond in the room for that purposes ;)

Not forgetting to mention, The wind power station is very windy leh..

Chen said...

butt,
Camel made... err.. camel sounds loh. Hahahha. I also dunno what is the sound it made :P

Yeah, there are lotsa interesting spot to see on the road. But at times I'm just too tired to pay attention what is happening around when on the road, especially if long journey inside the bus :)

Hehehe, the white spot in the first picture are the sheeps :)

Wyn,
Yeah, it gives one the delusion of traveling to Arab Countries. Especially the camel & the dessert later on. LOL

Those white white dots are sheeps. The white patches are crystallised salts. Hope u didn't mix up :)

doreen,
I almost ter-type your name as Camel. Hahahhaha... I dunno about the camels leh. I presume they are owned by someone there kua :P

mistipurple said...

me is camel. wanna ride me? hahah. that is a line for cocka.

the salt patches reminds me of my computer game, set in the vast areas of china where i can build my kingdom. and having salt mines means can sell. eeks, i going off topic liao.
very hot and dry there ah? until your skin break ah i remember you said somewhere.

Chen said...

misti,
Hahhaha, i only remember u as Ostrich woh. Forgotten u were once Camel too :P

i dunno u also play computer games geh? :P

Yeah, it's hot & dry there... till my skin cracks, including my fingers. Luckily my lips didn't crack :P

Wyn said...

hanorr....got camel and sand sumore...really macam sahara desert nia...

eh, i really mix up lor...malu nyerrr....=P

Mr. Goober said...

why the cemeteries look like bunkers one??

chartao said...

whew!

what an interesting road trip!

Redsponge said...

ooo i know tu lu fan! 'x'

so nice ler..go to somewhere different from what we usually see ;p

Pink Cotton said...

wahh...so dessert-ey

wheres the cowboy?

Chen said...

wynn,
got camel & dessert, but didn't see any Arab people leh.. And no Pyramids too :(

Kekeke, I guess so liao when I read the comment earlier on :P

goober,
Wah.. I didn't realise that woh earlier on. Dun tell me this is...
Mmmmmmmmmm........

leonard,
And this is just the beginning of the trip :)

red sponge,
Wah, u very advance woh, know about Turpan. And yeah, this trip is different from the other trips :)

pink cotton,
Ini pink cotton watch too much tv series liao. I only see cows but no "lelaki lembu" there :P