Golden Week Travels 6 - Back to Kashgar

We got back to Kashgar on Saturday night, ate at John's Cafe and then got into bed delighted at the sheer comfort of it. However, my comfort didn't last long as I woke up several times in the night with diarrhea and vomiting. Damn. I don't know what got me, but it was definitely the old food poisoning, once again. I have lost count of the amount of times I've had food poisoning on Chinese soil now, but I think I was on the fourth or fifth time by this point. I find that when I have food poisoning if I imagine eating the food that I've had in the last day or two I can usually pinpoint the culprit because it makes me retch more than the other foods. If that's the case, then it was the decidedly dodgy (even I couldn't finish it!) cheesy pasta from John's. That said, it could well have been the lake water, but Liam and Frankie were fine and I was rather violently ill.
I was very annoyed because to all accounts Kashgar is best on Sundays, when the livestock bazaar comes to town. People from the small towns all around travel into Kashgar to trade their animals, and it's apparently an incredible sight. Added to that, the actual everyday bazaar is busier and better. But I wasn't going anywhere! So I sat in the room with a bucket and tried to sleep, and the others went off to see Sunday Kashgar.
They came back down in the dumps: it was raining and miserable, the bazaar was dull, and the livestock bazaar had been cancelled that week. It was still Ramadan so a lot of the stallholders and farmers were not trading as usual. They went to a museum of old-style housing which was the most interesting thing for them that day (beats my day by miles though). The museum was apparently clearly tourist-oriented and therefore not really reflective of the truth of living conditions in the old houses, some areas of which look like Brazilian shanty towns. But the day was not wasted, oh no. Liam won a can of Sprite from his museum ticket!
I was feeling pretty rubbish by this point, and I didn't think I was going to be able to cope with the bus journey to Hotan, and Liam said he didn't really care whether he went or not and said he'd fly back with me. While I lay vomiting he went on a search for some decently priced plane tickets home, and finally obtained them from our hero Mahmud, who owned a tourism shop in the hotel's reception. Catherine and Frankie left on Monday morning, Hotan-bound. I was a bit upset that I was missing out on any travelling experience, but they came home days later and told us that Hotan was not worth a visit: there's nothing to see and the people were apparently quite hostile towards them. I may still find a way to go see for myself though! Then the only way out of Hotan is by bus, either back the way they came, or a direct route through the seemingly endless Taklamakan desert. They chose the latter, and said it was pretty horrible. Taklamakan means 'of no return' ie. once you're in, you sure ain't coming back out! It is also called various other names, including the desert of hell. Lovely jubbly. They certainly seemed glad to be home!
On Monday, still in Kashgar, I was feeling much better, and even ventured out to buy some maps and guidebooks on China from the Xinhua Educational Bookstore down the road. We also noticed a Quanjude Beijing Duck restaurant and I was totally gutted that I was feeling so ill because that duck is sent direct from heaven. On Monday evening Liam and I flew back Kashgar to Urumqi. We flew for the first time with Hainan Air. We will always be loyal to China Southern because of their cheap Urumqi-Beijing route, but Hainan Air hold a place in our hearts for pure comedy value. The announcements, which by international air law must also be done in English, were completely incomprehensible. It really made us laugh. A lot. Brightened up my mood no end. And so, back to Urumqi.
On a note, before I went I had not been very enthusiastic about going to the south of Xinjiang because I thought it would be like Erdaoqiao and I wasn't a fan. And yeah, it was like Erdaoqiao. And yeah, I loved every second of it! And since coming back, I have now been to Erdaoqiao countless times and it is without a shadow of a doubt my favouritist part of town. I don't know how it was I didn't like it! Maybe I was imagining the hostility the first time round? I'm getting deja vu, I feel I've already written this somewhere? Maybe in a future post that I have written but not posted yet? Well, sorry for any repeats!