16 October 2023. Today was another major step in our journey, entering China. We had our visas, but due to Covid international trains from Kazakhstan across the border are still suspended.
We had a plan, catch the early 06.50 train from Almaty to the end of the Kazakhstan line, get a taxi to the border, walk across, and then take another taxi to a train station just inside China and finally catch our ore-booked sleeper night train to Urumqi. This is our first base in China before heading east.
The train from Almaty was classified as a "commuter train", and we expected some sort of shuttle taking people to work. It was actually a poor translation and was a "workers" train, meaning the only people on board the one coach train were railway workers heading to and from placements along the line.
The line is really now only for freight and in our seven hour journey all we saw were immense Chinese freight trains delivering your ebay and Amazon purchases and railway workers sleeping, clearly anticipating some sort of gruelling shift ahead. The stations on route were Portakabins each staffed by a single man and a dog (not a joke, this is a fact). When we arrived at the terminus where we needed to alignt there was nothing, no platform just a goods sidings. We heaved our heavy bags down onto onto the ballast and lumbered between the freight wagons to the rough ground near the obligatory Portakabin. We spotted two men who were loading some tools into the boot of an old car, and we negotiated (begged) a lift to the Chinese border, we were happy and on our way. Surely it couldn't be this easy.
No! We were then told by the "friendly" border guards it is impossible to cross the border on foot. You must go away. We asked cars, minibuses and anyone who would listen, but each time received the same reply; No you must have "Zharkent, ticket". So the only way to cross was to go back into Kazakhstan and purchase a ticket for a bus to come back and cross the border. Zhakent was 40KM back the way we had just come
. More lifts were negotiated (begged) and we got to Zharkent, avoiding the usual rush hour traffic of supersonic taxis and donkeys pulling carts, purchased our precious ticket and boarded the bus. We had a rookie driver who seemed to take forever to get to the exit border. We had a poor old lady on board with severe mobility issues, and with us all having to get off and on the bus twice this added about five minutes each time. The second time, my idea of her going in the luggage hold to save time fell on deaf ears.
The bus driver then had an issue with lining up for the automatic gates on the chinese entry, meaning the bus undertaking a performance of the hokey kokey and us going "in/out for ten minutes. Then the Chinese immigration team took ages to process us, with questions on questions. I think they now know more about our personal history and travel plans than we do.
Anyway, no matter we arrived in China with almost an hour to go for the short taxi ride to the station for our sleeper train. The chaos that ensued with the crowds surrounding us "gullible tourists" was astounding. Eventually after some ridiculous shananigans an extremely kind Chinese young lady who spoke English reprimanded the taxi driver and insisted he took us for a price which was slightly less than the mortgage outstanding on our house, and she even chucked in a few notes to make up the difference with us not yet being able to access local currency. He told us "ten minutes" and we had 40 to go so no problem. After a tour of the city we got to the station just in time to see the train leave, and the next one is tomorrow evening...
So, we needed a hotel. Found a guest house available online and the super friendly station staff dropped us just a few minutes walk from our digs so we could take out cash from an ATM. None of the ATMs worked and we gave up on food and set off walking to the guest house. After about ten minutes and heading down darker and darker alleys with rutted roads full of potholes and puddles we saw a welcoming light and knocked on the door. The people who lived there were genuinely shocked to see us on their doorstep and asking if we could sleep in their home. Once they'd explained that we were in the wrong place and they wouldn't tuck us into bed, we headed back to the well lit street and saw another hotel, Jo went in asking for help but no English spoken (as everywhere), we decided to throw more money on the already raging fire of overspend and asked if they had rooms, but they were full up. After much time and everyone in the hotel putting in their twopenneth we eventually managed to get someone to speak to our guest house and they came and collected us. When we arrived at their home it was 30 minutes walk away from where it was shown on the hotel map app
17 October 2023 Well what an interesting day in China. Last night we stayed in Horgos which is a small city in the far west of China right on the Kazakhstan border.
We'd managed to find a very nice B&B with a lovely lady who made us an unbelievable Chinese breakfast. She also spent over two hours scouring the small town to help Jo try and secure a SIM card. Although esims work great, a physical sim gives you a local phone number and therefore access to online apps that can be invaluable.
We then wandered off on our own exploring a strange nationalistic sing along in a park, we saw fermented eggs, durian fruit and many other strange delicacies, we also met some lovey friendly people. We were then "interviewed" by the police on our plans in China, three policemen for about 30 minutes. They were very interested and promised to help us if we ever needed them. When we returned to our digs the nice lady explained she was sorry but we could not stay tonight. There are strict rules about where foreigners can stay in China and so we had to leave, we did not understand the sudden change. It was already late afternoon and hotels are sparse in Horgos so we decided to press on to Urumqi tonight. Only seats were left on the 12 hour train so we paid up and walked to the station for another session of security checks. We met a very kind man who spoke English well and he helped us pay for an upgrade on the train, organsied chaos on board would be a kind description. So we now have a basic bunk for the night. Our helping hand's name is Fu Xin and he is a hero, a bed on a night train makes a massive difference. So tomorrow we'll be in Urumqi.