LEAVING CENTRAL ASIA - WELCOME TO CHINA

Off the 3 'Stans' I visited, (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan) Kyrgyzstan would definitely be my favourite. If you love mountains, come to Kyrgyzstan. The people are wonderful without that 'over the top in your face' kinda friendly. And the Kyrgyz visa is the least complicated of all the 'Stans'. Its a shame therefore that it ended on a bit of sour note. As I approached the Irkeshtam border crossing between Kyrgyzstan and China, I came upon a 'STOP-POLICE CHECK' sign. I could see a police man sitting on a nearby bench. He looked like I couldn't care less if I stopped or otherwise. But a police car pulled up and an officer got out and signalled for me to come over. First thing he did was grab the hat from my head and put in on his own head. The smell of drink off him was over powering. He could barely stand. He was complaining about something or other, but I explained how I didn't understand Kyrgyz and only knew very basic Russian. He then grabbed the bike from me and made an attempt to cycle it. But he was too drunk to get his leg over the cross bar. The then dropped the bike, causing the mirror to break. I was furious. He then asked for my passport. In broken Russian and sign language I told him,'He was too drunk and to go sleep it off'. He didn't take kindly to being told what to do, but I walked past him to the other officer who witnessed all what happened. As I showed the other officer my passport, (using broken Russian and sign language), I said to him, with enough volume so that the drunk officer could hear me; ' I loved Kyrgyzstan. All the people have been great. Surly he's not from Kyrgyzstan. Is he from Uzbekistan?' It had the desired effect. The drunk was furious but I was pedalling down towards customs control before he knew it. Incidentally, all the customs control officer wanted to know was if I had a spare cigarette? I was stamped out of Kyrgyzstan and pedalling across no-mans-land to China. Everything here was handled with a lot more military precision. The first thing that struck me was that everyone was huge. I don't think I've ever seen a tall Chinese man and now I was surrounded by them. It was about 5.15pm and the border was closing in 15 minutes. I had deliberately left it late in getting across this border in the hope that the search of my bags would not be too thorough. I was carrying two guidebooks on Tibet and a detailed map of Tibet. I'd ripped the covers off my books. Even Lonely Planet China can be confiscated at the border,as it shows Taiwan in a different colour to mainland China. At one stage a border official had Kym McConnell's 'Route and planning guide for mountain bikers across Tibet' in his hand. This book contains exact locations of police checkpoints across Tibet. (In fact I just noticed the forward is from the Dalai Lama). I had answers prepared if I was caught with these books, but thankfully I got my entry stamp into China and the border closed on time. It took 5 solid days of cycling from sunrise to sunset to make it from Osh, Kyrgyzstan to Kashgar, China. It was a particularly difficult ride. Dust was my main enemy. Convoys of trucks brought Chinese goods across this rocky dirt track and each rig showered me in dust. The mountains in this region are pretty much the tail end of the Himalayas. The highest pass we crossed was 3615M which makes it the second highest of the trip to date. A boy travelling on horseback offered to swap a ride on his horse for a ride on my bike. It was a 12% incline. I was happy to oblige. It got cold up here but the scenery was just extraordinary. Sunset was a particular treat as it cast shadows across the mountains. I've always been pretty handy at budgeting on long trips but in the last 3 days in China I've only spent €0.40. But this is not due to careful financial planning. Its due to the fact that north western China is predominantly Muslim (I think) and its presently Ramada. This means restaurants close from sunrise to sunset. I had completely overlooked this fact but I knew this part of the trip would be particularly desolate so thankfully I was carrying many days food. I'm after getting another big surprise since arriving in Kashgar. Its well publicised that the People's Republic of China is a very restrictive regime on its people. I expected my blog to be blocked. But since the riots in Urumqi in which the police killed 158 people according to BBC reports, all internet communication has been blocked, including hotmail. International calls are banned. My overriding impression of Kashgar is not the multitude of tower cranes spread across the city sky line. Its not the 50ft high statute of Mao or even the wonderful old town with all its chaotic trading. The over riding impression of Kashgar is the convoys of trucks that go round and round the city centre with approximately 45 riot police clearly visible on each convoy. I've never seen anything like it. They cruise at about 10mph while the traffic buzzes around them. The army trucks are pretty much the same as home, but where the soldiers would be seated in the back, here they are standing behind a presumably bullet proof glass. The only time I've ever seen someone paraded around in a glass boxed vehicle, it was the Pope in the Phoenix park in 1979. But these guys have a whole different objective. Its pure intimidation. You see school children playing on their way home from school, loved up couples-holding hands and strolling by the lake and round and round these convoys go. Soldiers march the streets in full riot gear as if the public parks were a military training ground. I saw this consisteny during my 2 days in Kashgar, but I did not take a photo. I didn't dare take a photo.