It has been a long time since my last mail. 

I am now safely back in Seremban. The airplane (a Boeing 777) touched down in KLIA on 8.30 pm Sunday 4.8.2002. Nice to be home. Nice airplane too... there's a little TV screen in front of each seat which you can select your own movie, and even play video games. I watched "Spiderman", while enjoying a glass of Bacardi Coke, to kill the boredom of the 4.5 hours flight. 

Left you off in Kashgar and the Sunday Market (gan3 ji2). We had a great time in the Sunday Market. It's the BIG weekly event in quiet Kashgar. We saw a great variety of things on sale... vegetables, melons, clothes, caps, carpets, knifes, dried products, spices, goats, dogs, exotic food (goat heads, lungs, intestines)... Adding to the scene were heavily laden donkey carts making their way through the crowds with the donkey-man shouting "poish poish" (which means 'make way'). There were so many people everywhere, that before you know it you're already starting to shout "poish poish" too. 

Our greatest finding was... a Japanese girl ! Naoko went on to become our travel partner for the next one week. How did the amazing encounter occur? Well, on our way out of the hotel that morning, we caught a glimpse of this cute and fair girl checking into the room beside ours. Then in the market, we found her being hassled by a knife seller. So, being kind-hearted Malaysians, we instinctively did a "Hero Save Beauty" (ying1 xiong2 jiu4 mei3) act. I told her,"aiyo, this kind of knife very cheap one lah... dun pay so much ah." That really annoyed the knife seller. So we pulled her away. From then on we became great travel partners. A good reward for being busybody eh. 

We left Kashgar and headed back to Urumqi via a 24-hour hard-sitter train journey. Weather was great there too, cool and sunny. Took a 2-hour bus to Turpan on the next day. 

Turpan was totally different from Urumqi. It is reputed as the hottest place in China, with temperature hitting a record of 49.6 Celcius. Rain is scarce. So when we were there, it was %$&!@ hot. Amazingly, Turpan is famous for its grapes and production of wine and sultanas. In the olden days, this piece of oasis was (and still is) watered by underground tunnels and wells dug manually from the ice peaks down to here... a maginificent engineering feat! 

Did a day trip in Turpan, which included visits to ancient buildings, ancient city ruins, ancient graves (with air-dried mummies), cave paintings, vineyard ... We visited the famous Flaming Mountains (huo3 yan4 shan1) mentioned in the <<Journey To The West>> (xi1 you2 ji4). Walking there was really HOT. In the night, went to the Taklamakan desert to see the moon and stars. On the way back, saw people sleeping along the roadside and on top of their houses, to get some cool air. 

From Turpan we made it back to Urumqi, to catch the train to Shanghai. Naoko was still with us. So, on the next day, we took the longest train journey of our lives... 50 hours! We dropped Naoko at Dunhuang, where she went on to visit the Mogao Cave Paintings. Oh, we said our goodbyes in tears. 

Ahh... Shanghai. Big city, tall buildings, bright lights, elevated roads, modern people. Compared to the city of Beijing, Shanghai is much more colorful. What else is there apart from all those modernities? Err... we didn't find much. It was quite amusing to see adults rushing into subways to grab seats though. Kiasu betul. We made a day trip to the water village Xitang... as the Chinese saying goes: little bridge, flowing waters, homes (xiao3 qiao2, liu2 shui3, ren2 jia1). Spent a night watching the Shanghai circus, that was quite nice. Other time was spent window shopping and hanging out in bookshops. Food in Shanghai suited our tastebuds better, but services were worse than in Beijing. Took photoes at THE landmark of Shanghai: the 'Pearl of the East', which is a purple color tall building shaped like an injection needle. 

Finally made our way to Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, to fly back to Malaysia. 

That's all for the Nin Hao Ma series. It has been a great joy for me to share with you my travel experiences, and I hope you too enjoyed those stories. 

A travel to China would be incomplete without a mention of the famous Chinese toilets. Well, here it is. We encountered some of those in Xinjiang. 

Imagine ... from a far distance, you see a dull rectangular construction, with people streaming in and out. You wonder... what kind of tourist attraction is THAT? As the wind blows in your direction, you know unmistakenly what it is. You feel nature calls; and you let your nose lead you to heed the calling. As you enter, you find the interior dark and eerie, the air stagnant and nauseating. You find people squatting in cubicles that are hardly waist-high. Some are concentrating hard to expel their rectal contents, others having a nice chat with their neighbours. With such arrangement, you CAN, literally, do business with one another while doing your own business. You watch your steps carefully, in case some careless souls drop their stuffs along the way. Ah, you finally find your own cubicle in the quiet corner. You look down and see a rectangular hole on the ground, the size of your familiar toilet hole. The difference is... you see it leading down to a little slope, and piled on the slope is everybody else's contribution in assorted colours... brown, yellow, green, black... You dare not look furthur, and hurried on with your business. Then you begin to notice pieces of papers with some brownish stains strewn on the ground. Urgghhh ! You can't wait to get out. Suddenly you realise... hey, where's the tap, or at least some water !!! But there's none to be found. And you make your fastest dash out to gasp some fresh air. The feeling is like you've just got out from hell into heaven. Hehehe... hope this doesn't spoil your meal. Anyway, don't be surprise if you bump upon a LADY doing her business in the MEN's toilet. 

That's all folks. Sorry for the long-winded Nin Hao Ma series. You can view the previous parts of the series in my website. 

And... try not to think too much about the Chinese toilets. Too bad we forgot to take photographs of 'em.

Cheers, 

Michael 
Count your blessings !