This morning we left at 8am to beat the heat and drove towards Flaming Mountain. This is one of the hottest places in China and there is a story about how a spirit is captured there who was attacking local villages. Its not actually one mountain peak but a whole range of mountains and valleys stretching for many kms.

Video : Driving thru Flaming Mountain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4XVS1AQ l7Y

Along the way some fake tourist villages have been built which were fun to stop and snap photos. We stopped in one scenic spot, almost like the grand canyon, but a river flowed down the bottom creating a fertile valley with some greenery.

Video : Flaming Mountain Fake Tourist Village
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu8cXcKX oj8

I tried climbing up the side of the mountain. Near the base it was baked clay in a cracked formation. As soon as you step on it the pieces crumble. A few steps up it was baked *********e so no sand along the mountains. A few scooters and cars drove by, which you could hear arriving from the distance and reminded me of frontier border crossings I had seen on tv in northern pakistan.

After that we went to the Bezeklik 1000 Buddhas Caves for 40Y ($6). No photos were allowed but I did sneak some in. Many of the faces were scratched out from when Islam arrived. However there were too many so I guess they gave up and just went for the largest statues. It was only 10am but the heat was already very bad.

Next we went to the Astana Ancient Tombs for 20Y ($3). These are mostly sand mounds but you are allowed to go into three of the pits. No photos were allowed but in one there were skeletal remains of a husband and wife. In another was artwork showing animals painted on the wall. You can climb up a platform to view the site and they had the 12 chinese zodiac figures in a garden at the base.

Then we went to the Idkut Gaochang Ancient City. This was actually a very large area and they were offering donkey cart rides to take you around. I preferred to walk so I could get better shots than from a moving object.

Video : Driving to Gaochang Ancient City
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGopf6DB mAU

The site is so large as they built perimiter city walls with houses around the edge. The centre is all farmland so the city is actually a thin ring stretching around the several acres of farmland in the middle. Again this was reminiscent of an alien landscape from Star Wars and even had the donkey whines like the animals from the movie. It was quite hot so we didnt venture too far as a lot of it just looks the same.

For lunch we headed to the Tuyuk village where we were to spend the afternoon and stay the night. After a 20Y entrance fee ($3) these were very traditional 1 story mud homes with farm animals. They had no running water but took pails from a drum of water. The kitchen was a wood fired stove which they put sticks in the base to get the flame going.

The courtyard area had some vegetables growing and grape vines for shade. There was a raised seating area with pillows, what we call palang and tukyas in urdu. This reminded me of my grandmothers house the first time we went to pakistan when we were kids as they had no running water, or tv at that time either. Three years later they had an indoor pump, and a tv but no phone.

To me the village wasnt that much of a culture shock as it reminded me of things I had seen in my childhood but my guide said many europeans were in a bit of a shock. The hole in the ground bathroom was after navigating a cattle pen, which I didnt want to try, and would be even more difficult in darkness. I used the public bathroom by the entrance but again no running water so you pour from a jug back in the family home to wash your hands.

For lunch the mother and her daughter in law made fresh pilow, a form of rice and meat with tea. I've been drinking quite a lot of tea, its not strong like back home so quite nice. Then I had to rest in the family home till 4pm when it would get cooler, while my guide went back to visit his home in his village.

I heard some music playing and said it sounded like bollywood which you wouldnt expect in rural china. So we went inside to the room across the vegetable courtyard and sure enough there was a tv and dvd setup playing bollywood songs. They may not have running water but they certainly have their bollywood entertainment setup!

After a while I got tired so I switched DVD for something local. This time it was Uyghar karaoke, but the background video was still a bollywood song, which didnt seem quite natural so I had to switch it off. The third was a more traditional singer with musicians.

Later we went for a walk around the village now it had cooled down. They were all mud houses. Towards the end of the valley was a dam with kids swimming in the open water. On one side of the valley were mazhaars (tombs) and a kavarstan (graveyard). Actually, Uyghar uses a lot of common words with Urdu which I'll list later, but we still cant talk to each other.

There is a prominent mosque in the village, and when it was time for prayer, as they dont have electricity and speakers in all homes, what they did was first bang a pot for a few minutes so it echoed in the valley, they do the azaan (prayer call) by voice.

Video : Tuyuk Village Rooftop Panaroma
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqE_hMmN WIs

We then went back to the house where the owner had put back on his bollywood dvd. I had to explain who all the people were, the three khans who rule bollywood (shah rukh, salman, amir), the 4th khan (saif ali), the kapoor family from the three brothers, son rishi, and two daughters who appear in some of the modern songs, as well as a pakistani actor Javed Sheikh who was in Om Shanti Om, all who are muslim (except kapoors)

They seemed to know the stories of all the movies and some I didnt know as they them dubbed in Uyghar. Again there are some common words like dil (heart), duniya (world), aasman (sky), so I was translating the songs for them.

When it was time to sleep they said I could sleep in the room with the dvd, out in the family courtyard, or out in the terrace which was the village entrance and parking lot. It seemed I was the only tourist staying overnight and I didnt feel safe sleeping in the complete outdoors as I didnt know if there were animals that come out at night. There was also some blowing dust again so better to stay indoors.

Also the room had a raised two foot seating area a few steps in with rugs and pillows. I'm told in winter they light fires underneath and stay indoors to keep warm. Winters are long so I've seen playing cards everywhere and other amusements such as the dvds to pass the time.

For dinner they made beef vegetable noodles which I had the day before. They also offered lots of watermelon which is common here. After it became dark I did see mice running around the family garden so I decided to sleep in the room. I pushed the room door shut to stop anything from getting in and turned of the light. Twenty minutes later I hear a rustling sound so turn on the light. There was a mouse inside the room!!

I pushed the door slightly open so it could get out but it ran under the tv cabinet. So I sat there with the light on unable to sleep. After 40 mins it got used to the light and decided to come out slightly, and eventually darted out the door. I pushed it back shut again but didnt feel comfortable, as I just had a bad experience with a mouse visiting my apartment in Korea nightly just before I left.

I kept the light on and sort of rested with my hat over my face till we were supposed to leave at 5am. The driver had stayed overnight in the village so he could drive me back to Turpan the next morning for my flight to Kashgar.

The next day I was supposed to be on a 23 hour train from Turpan to Kashgar. But that is way too long and with two consectutive nights in the village then the train when would I be able to shower or sleep properly? Instead I paid extra for the 2 hour flight to Kashgar.

In september I am coming again to china to Inner Mongolia and will be sleeping overnight in a mongolian yurt (tent). Now I am questioning the wisdom of that if there are mice and other creatures running around at night. That time will be in the wilderness away from any towns so will have to wait and see how that goes.

I couldnt see the village at night as there was no electricity, just a couple of lamps in homes, so it was pitch black. The house I was staying did have electricity probably because it is the guest home for tourists.

This was also the last day with my guide for this part of the tour and I was figuring how much to tip. I was told $10/day plus the same for driver, which seemed a bit high, plus I didnt budget for all the entrance fees. Expensive meals in restaurants cost 15Y ($2.25) so I figured 30Y/day ($4.50) is reasonable based on the cost of living, and I gave him 150Y ($22.50) for four days work. Hopefully he was happy and I didnt just insult the guy after all the long hours in the heat he put in.

Tomorrow I fly to Kashgar, the most exciting part of the trip for me and the place I most wanted to see, on the Pakistan border, and where the movie The Kite Runner was filmed.