Asian_Geographic_Issue_4_2017

(John Hannent) #1
IMAGE © MICHAEL LEE

IMAGE © SYLVIA YONG

The next day’s visit to the Mogao

Caves was the definitive highlight of


the trip. From the outside, they look


perfectly ordinary, set in a slab of


drab, brown rock. But upon entering


the dry, cool caves, it’s as though
you’ve been teleported into another
world: It’s a labyrinth of ancient
artwork with 45,000 square metres
of murals and statues, making it the
world’s largest collection of Buddhist
art. Much of the original pink-
coloured paints have turned black due
to oxidisation. Our guide told me that
the painters spent much of their lives
painting in the near-dark, guided only
by shards of natural light and dim oil
lamps, and as such, most went blind.
From the dank darkness of the
caves, we stepped into the blinding
light of the Gobi, with a view of the
Yueyaquan Lake, nestled in the
desert bowl, for an afternoon of
sandboarding and camel rides –
Silk Road style.
Thankfully, the journey back
opted for a more modern mode
of transportation, and we were
all aboard a sleepover train back
to Lanzhou, settling into our
comfortable bunk beds within their
purple and gold Apsara-motif cabins,
and gently rocked to sleep.

We ended our trip by crossing
the Yellow River in rickety rafts made
from sheepskin. I was quite nervous
that I was going to fall in, but I stayed
comfortably dry. In the middle of
the river, I was struck by a sense of
Zen: It was peaceful, stranded in this
limbo between banks. Our boatman
hummed a Mongolian-Chinese
song – Mother in the Dream. It was
a melancholic but fitting ending, as
the Yellow River is also called the
“Mother River of China”.
The expedition saw many firsts
for me: I ate exotic meats such as
camel hooves, stir-fried donkey,
and Lanzhou noodles with yak meat;
I experienced a sandstorm, rode a
camel, and a sheepskin raft, and –
hilariously – had to abandon any
delicate sensibilities when I visited a
ladies’ loo without a bathroom door!
I learned an extraordinary amount
about the Silk Road, but, moreover, I
got to explore this part of China with
a great group of like-minded people.
Ultimately, the people you travel with
make or break an expedition. ag

Clockwise from top left: Explorers Jenny, Chee Tiong,
Sylvia and Serene on the train ride back to Lanzhou

The Expeditions’ group outside the Yumen Pass

For more information on Asian Geographic’s forthcoming Silk Road
expeditions to Uzbekistan and India, visit http://www.asiangeo.com/expeditions
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