Blizzardboy | A Kiwi in Australia

Back to Baluntai.

Our boss, Mr. Tao came round to pick us up around 10:30 Saturday morning to take us out to Baluntai. From our place we went to the Camila, Kerryn, Carrie et al apartment (which will soon be vacated – we have to find a chainsaw for the farewell party) where we picked up Brandon, a recent arrival in Korla hailing from the good old USA, who was thoughtfully munching on some naan.

We picked up some more naan before heading on the highway looking for adventure and all that. There are two ways to get to Baluntai from Korla. First is the new highway that runs through to Urumqi and second, the old highway. We decided to take the slower route on the way there as it passes through a number of ancient cities and on certain days a farmers market.

Our first port of call was literally almost in the middle of nowhere not too far out of Korla. Mr Tao and David (our English boss) had discovered this spot a couple of years ago. What looked liked some regular little mounds of earth turned out to be 2000 year old graves. Amazing to see coming from a country like New Zealand, but there they were, just by the side of the road and not even protected or anything. In fact they have been stripped since they were discovered, with only the bones left behind as these are unable to be sold.

There were shards of pottery, as well as a reasonably intact castle like structure, as well as small “caves” running into the burials mounds. I was surprised I didn’t feel at all creepy when I saw my first skull. Most of the holes were caved in, the sand here was very soft and light due to the very dry atmosphere. I imagine digging there would be easy work.

After we had looked around for a bit we drove onto “Chikishin” (not sure of the spelling, but that is the pronunciation in romanji of the Mongolian name), an ancient city dating back to the time when this region was Buddhist. We didn’t explore the city – we didn’t have time. But it looked in good repair – more so than similar ruined silk road cities in Turpan or Kucha. We also passed near the site of a visa station come tollgate on the Silk Road, where merchants and travellers exchanged goods or money for a kind of pass they would need to show at the next waypoint.

We had a little trouble though a little while after passing the Shangdu wine companies vineyards. Mr. Tao got pulled over for apparently speeding a few kilometers back – although we didn’t see any speed camera and he didn’t appear to have been travelling at an unsafe speed. There were two policemen – one Uighyr waving cars off the road, and a Han in a patrol car taking the money. The car was parked outside the police station in a small village.

It seemed like they had a good thing going, with a number of cars, trucks and taxis pulled off the road, and a haggle of men around the patrol car. The Uighur policeman took Mr. Tao’s license and car registration and directed him to the patrol car. They told him the fine was 200 RMB and when Mr. Tao protested, they raised the fine to 2000 RMB! (An average months salary here being around 1000RMB), and told him to head to a nearby town (about 50kms away) to pay the fine at the bank.

Mr. Tao, of course didn’t appreciate this very much and made a few phone calls. After about 40 he got through to someone who could smooth things out. He told us later that in Korla it wouldn’t have been a problem, but because this was a different administrative are it wasn’t as simple to resolve the problem. So after sitting there for a while we were able to get back on the road – without Mr. Taos license or registration, but also without paying the fine.

We had lunch in a beautiful little valley close to the monastry. Even though the sky was a beautiful blue the river was still frozen in places. Grass and the trees were just showing the beginnings of spring and it reminded me of the high country up around Arthurs Pass. This was Mongolian land, where the nomads drive their sheep on their way to market.

It was a quick drive up the valley to the Temple complex itself. Although only rebuilt in the late 1980′s, the 3 temples are gorgeous displays of colour. For me, with us not planning to visit Tibet on this trip it was a very intriguing glimpse of another branch of Buddhism, one much more gregarious than the Japanese counterpart. The temple area is much older, and the original temples were, as far as I know, destroyed during the cultural revolution.

All in all a most wonderful Saturday afternoon. It is often what is close by us, even though we are far away, that inspires us.