Silk Road, the after thought.

Silk Road is one of those journeys, I believe you are thinking of taking, but always afraid to take!

Like others who had taken it, I said, you should have taken it because it is nothing like it!

I remembered when I was thinking about it, there was no doubt!  I guess that is those moments in life you know you have hit your passion and no stopping.  I wanted more, but I was given maximum 3 weeks away from work.  I have always wanted to go back and finish the journey to Cairo with stops at Hotan, Tashkorgan, Samarkand, Mary, Tehran, Damascus, then Cairo.  Well, that will be another journey.

Silk Road, somehow, has all these elements that a "traveling nut" like me got all centimental, but excited.  The history, the historical sites, the religion, the desert, the oasis, the food, the culture, and of course the people.  For all the journeys I had taken, only Egypt would have those same elements, minus off that I can speak mandarin, but can't spaek Arabic.
 

There was a famous story. A renounced chinese cultural folk song composer WangLuoBin王洛宾 came to Xinjiang as an army and stay there ever since.  When he was asked the reason, he said, my songs sing it all. For those who know him, most of his songs described the beauty of the Uyghur ladies such as 在那遥远的地方, 达坂城的姑娘, 掀起你的盖头来, 
康定情歌, etc. I can see why.

I have heard about the violence and riot before and after my trip.  But whenever people ask me, is it dangerous?  I will tell them that Uyghur I met are honest, friendly and helpful.  I can only tell from my experience.  I had not been conned, I had not been bullied, I had not been dis-regarded, which these are the norm when we travel. In fact, Uyghur was so humble that I felt shameful to bargain with them.

 

If you notice through my journey, the photos of Uyghur always holding each other shoulders when we ask them to post for us.
Most time, we got all these news in the media.  I really question whether any media really know what had happened there?  Who are we to judge a completely different culture?  Who are we to put them on our standard? Who are we to believe that someone else should live a life the way we live, not the way they want to live?