Urumqi

The first couple of days in Urumqi we just wandered around. We were in a completely new situation. We couldn’t access internet, we couldn’t find anyone who spoke English and we couldn’t find a map of China. We just walked around, thinking of possible solutions. Rain and frost had hit Urumqi, turning all the roads into ice. The news reported that “19 people dead, millions inconvenienced”. Peters taxi got hit by a bus on the icy roads, pushing it to the side. After a quarrel the bus driver had to pay for the damages, it was a steeping 50 NOK. Finally, we got in touch with Steven Zhang and Jamey (Jimmy) He from “Xinjiang western international travel service Co.” While Steven sat in his office and tried to figure out a way to get our car into China, Jimmy went out on the town with us. He insisted on showing us some of the great things the region has to offer, but we always convinced him that the best thing to do was staying in town drinking. After 4-5 days he finally got his will, and we went to the museum, visited a 4000 years old mummy, and of course ended the night with a couple or more beers. (Local beer, served warm, just the way the Chinese like it.)

Steven had finally found a solution, but it cost 2 000 dollars, and we had to go straight through the region and into Mongolia. As we thought about this, he discovered that Mongolia had closed their borders, so there was now no chance of bringing the car. We took a couple of beers.

After a whole week with Jimmy we met him and Steven to thank them and pay whatever we owed for their efforts. “I do nice thing for you”, Steven said, and refused to accept money. As a small gesture from us, we took them out for dinner. We finally got to show off our tremendous chopstick skills, leaving only half of the food on the floor. They were impressed! We also tried to order some cold beers in the restaurant, but they only had warm. Steven solved this by sending Jimmy out to the nearest shop; buy a box of cold local brew (Too cold, according to Steven) and refusing us to pay for it. We left Urumqi and headed for Kazakhstan, to our beloved and greatly missed Mercedes. Jimmy found us an experienced driver that wasn’t sleepy like the last one.

We hit the border during their lunch break for the third time. 2 hours later we crossed over and found our car. We were eager to see if it was in the same condition. It was, starting on the first turn of the key. Rosa, the car hotel owner, had taken good care of it.

Thank you Steven and Jamey, and sorry for calling you Jimmy all the time.

Check out their site: http://www.silkroadadventure.com/