Kuqa

We headed to our Airbnb as soon as we reached and we passed out on the hard bed. Felt more like a table lined by thick cloth. Fun fact: There is only one Airbnb in this town.

This is a small town with its very own old city where the architecture is pretty much ancient. Hence, we decided to go there first. We went to the Kuqa Mosque where a few kids were playing in front. One hungry kid was even eyeing the samsa (Uyghur fried dumpling) I was holding so it quickly became his. Entrance to this mosque is ¥15. Turns out this place was bulit in 1559 and was renovated and repaired multiple times thereafter due to multiple disasters like fires and earthquakes. It still stands strong till today and locals still go there to pray. It has earned the title of 2nd largest mosque in Xinjiang after the mosque in Kashgar.

Since we were running short of time as we have a train to Kashgar to catch tonight, we decided to hire a taxi to take us to Tianshan "Mysterious" Grand Canyon. We managed to get a taxi to take us to and fro for ¥400, which is pretty affordable in my opinion as the place was 2 hours away.

After multiple security checks along the highway, we finally reached our destination, and let me tell you, it was worth it. The huge rock formations stand like giants all around us. The light from the sun makes it look like the canyon is gleaming. We spent around almost 2 hours here walking to the end of the canyon and taking pictures from multiple angles.

We reached back to Kuqa at around 7pm and our driver brought us to a fancy dining place where the waiters fill up your glass even after you have just taken one sip. It wasn't our ideal as we wanted to eat at the old city but due to communication breakdown we thought we just give in and eat whatever we could get our hands on. Besides, we were quite famished as we been eating biscuits and grapes the whole day.

We headed back to our Airbnb and packed up and left for the train station by 10pm. Don't want to get caught up in all the security checks and end up being late. Surprisingly we were done by 10.30pm and so we just sat there waiting for 2 hours.

We got a hard sleeper and I fell sound asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. We were bound to reach Kasgar @ Kashi at 9am tomorrow.Read more