the desert is very hot

*** this is duffy writing, not kate***

hello from turpan, tulufan in chinese.

we arrived here yesterday and are planning on leaving this evening. the plan had been to spend the night here, but the atmosphere, both societal and climatalogical, has changed our plans. turpan is a desert oasis on the northern silk road. it is a small city that has not been an important destination for most of the past 600 years. recently, the city has had a concerted effort to increase tourism, which has been very successful. the city's main street has been covered with grape vines, which makes for very pleasant walking in the day-time heat, and there are numerous ancient ruins and beautiful natural scenery nearby, which makes it a very attractive draw.

that being said, the tourism aspect of the city has proven to be a double-edged sword for us. there is no train station in turpan, so one must take a bus for about one hour to get here from daheyan, the nearest stop. immediately after leaving the train station, a chinese-speaking guide approached us and offered us a bus to turpan. the price was right, so we took it. on the ride out of town, she gave us her tour company's brochure, and the name and number of a hotel in turpan. so far, we were very pleased with how well things were going. outside of turpan, a gentleman who had distinctly un-chinese features flagged down the bus and got on. he started talking to us in english and told us that he had a good hotel at a good price that we could look at in turpan. we agreed, and soon after entering the city, but before the bus reached the final stop, he told us to get off and flagged down a taxi. the hotel was fine, so we agreed to stay for one night, and then the man who met us on the bus introduced us to a tour guide. the tour guide was the first sign of trouble. the usual route for tourists in turpan is to buy seats on a set tour on a bus to 8 sights around turpan. everyone we've talked, including our book, said that only 2 or 3 of these sights are worth seeing, and even those are barely worth the high entry fees. the guide kept expalaining his tour to us, but never told us the cost, even though we repeatedly asked him how much, in both english and chinese. the one sight we did want to see was not on the tour. it was a trip to a salt lake that is about 90 km south of turpan that is the 2nd lowest point on earth. he told us that we could work something out, but, agian, would not say a price. we finally told him that we were very tired, that we did not want anything today, that we didn't know how long we'd be in turpan and that we would call him. he then told us calling him was not possible, even though we'd seen him on a cellphone, and tried to make an appointment for that night. we said that wouldn't work and finally he gave us a card for a tour company with, suprise suprise, his phone number. we went to our rooms to have a nap, and about one hour later, the phone in my room started ringing. sure enough, it was the same guide. once i hung up, he called again. the calls continued until i finally unplugged the phone.

the next morning, on the way to breakfast, he was waiting outside my room. when you travel in china, aggressive guides are normal, but they usually get the hint when someone isn't going to be a big spender and leave, especially in a tourist town, when there are much bigger fish. this time, the pestering was bordering on stalking. he asked again what we were going to do. we told him we'd decided to get bikes and go to the one anicent city that everyone says is worth it, but that we'd be willing to talk about going to the lake. we bargained down to 160 from 180 yuan, which matched the guidebook, but he told us that the road has been washed out and the trip would take 4 to 5 hours. he then told us that we couldn't go that afternoon, even though we could take the same car and the same driver and go on the prepackaged tour that afternoon. we then agreed for the next morning, at which point he asked for a deposit. this is beyond bizarre. no one, ever, asks for a deposit on a car tour. hotels do, but they give you keys in exchange. drivers ask for them, but only halfway through the tour. bike rentals do, but they give you a bike. every traveller here knows that giving a deposit without getting anything in return is just a good way to lose money. we flat out refused, and he began telling us how the people at the hotel knew him, so we should trust him. somehow, that didn't reassure us. he finally agreed to no deposit. he then asked if we were checking out. we said no, since we had previously agreed with the hotel that we could stay one day, then, if we wanted to, stay another. at that point he spoke quickly with the hotel desk clerk, who then told us that there were no room availiable for that night, even though the hotel was deserted the night before and that night was a tuesday, and she then pulled out 100 yuan to return us our deposit. again, quite a shock. we then said that we needed to pack our things before leaving, and that we would be out by the noon check-out time. convinently enough, the guide who was doing a very successful imiataion of my shadow, told us that he had a hotel for us, and that he'd be happy to set us up, but it wasn't as nice and a little more money, since there was a big festival that day. we told him to start looking while we went to pack. on the way back upstairs, we decided that all these coincidences had just been too much and that going 90 km into the desert, where there wasn't even a road, with a guy this desparate for money and clients, in the height of tourist season and during a festival, was probably a good way to get robbed. our visions included some kind of party of bandits hiding behind desert rocks in a canyon. this seems a little weird and paranoid now, but so many things that had never before happened to us had happened with this guide in the bargaining process, and since we'd never been beset by bandits, we thought that this may just be one new experience we were about to have.

I went back and politely told the guide that we did not want to go to the lake, we did not want a hotel and that we were going on to urumqi to meet our friend that afternoon. he told me that he had seen my friend in turpan and that she hadn't left yet, so we didn't need to leave for urumqi. he then preceeded to say 'she is a very fat girl, right? who is also a teaher?' i were about to say 'no, she isn't fat at all,' but then i realized his statement had other flaws, like the fact that my friend was 3000 km away. he agreed that he had made a mistake. finally, as i was walking away, he ended with 'oh, do you want my car to take you to urumqi?'i told him we'd take the bus and that was the last we saw of him. his driver however, we saw 2 more times, once waiting outside as we left the hotel and once at breakfast.

in short, turpan seems to be a tourist town woefully short of torists. we spent the rest of the day renting bikes and riding 5 miles out of town to a really nice ancient city that was a lot of fun. we are about to go on the bus to turpan, so we need to get moving.

while most of china and travelling is a lot of fun, it's nice to have situations where you avoid close calls to remind you to keep on your toes.