Started off today with a very nice breakfast buffet overlooking the desert bluffs in the background.
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A nice breakfast spot!
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I approve of the breakfast
Desert Amusement Park
After breakfast we headed to the Cresent Moon Lake (月牙泉) which was in the desert bluffs. The area turned out to be like an amusement park, camel rides, ATV rides, sliding down the dunes, just about anything you want. We paid to get in, just to find out later that you could walk through a town onto the bluffs without paying. Once we got in they convinced us that we needed orange booties to help walk in the sand, they worked for Charlotte, but kept falling off for me. After we got our booties we decided to ride some camels. Charlotte and I got separated until the first stop when Charlotte screamed at one of the guides until he let us go on camels near each other. The camel rides were fun, but I would not do it again after watching how they treated the animals. A lot of time they would just pull the camel that didn't want to go or kick the camel that refused to sit down or get up.
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Driving to the desert
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Arriving at the dunes
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Charlotte on a camel
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Matthias on a camel
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The good thing about getting separated is I got this picture, the front camel is Charlotte
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At the first camel stop we had to hike. Charlotte died.
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I found jumping long distances was an easy way to get down and amuse the Chinese at the same time
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Camel shadow
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Charlotte again
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One more time on the camel
Exploring the Desert
After we got off the camels we explored on our own and went to the Cresent Moon Lake. Then we hiked up the dunes for a better view.
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Crescent Moon Lake (月牙泉)
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On the top of the dunes
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Charlotte died again!
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Hiking away from everyone
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Really no one is around
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Queen of the sand dunes
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I call this one "Charlotte of Arabia"
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Crescent Moon Lake
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A much easier way down is sliding
Mogao Caves (莫高窟)
Around noon it was getting too hot for the desert; we headed to the most famous Buddhist caves, the Mogao Caves (莫高窟). There was also supposed to be a museum here, but it was closed the day we went. The caves were similar to those we saw yesterday and also were created between 366 AD and ~1366, but preserved much better and the murals/statues were more impressive. At the caves we had to pay extra for the English tour. At first Charlotte was upset she had to pay extra, but then she realized she normally would have to go on a tour with 100 Chinese in each cave listening to the tour guide, but now she was on our English tour that had only 3 other people. The English guide had a very strong accent, but I was able to understand some of what she said. Unfortunately 2 older Germans had a hard time understanding her. She explained they normally have a German guide but they had more important things to do today, then in Chinese (not knowing Charlotte understands Chinese) complained to a Chinese interpreter about how "the Germans weren't able to speak English and why did they even come?" There was another German on our tour who was in his mid 20's and she also complained that he was taking too long looking at the caves. At this point I thought I was at least behaving myself that is until we got to one cave where a statue was missing and another where a part of the mural was missing and both times she said in a very angry tone how some American came in 1924 and stole those pieces and you would have to go to Harvard to see them on display. Both times she was looking at me when she said it. Charlotte later asked her how they took the pieces and she immediately corrected her that they stole them. It seems from Wikipedia that the Chinese governments view on this has changed numerous times, but according to Bostons museum, "The Museum's position is that since they have a bill of sale indicating that Langdon Warner legitimately purchased the artwork they have no obligation to return them." and "Warner had found evidence that the caves were the object of vandalism by Russian soldiers and reached an agreement with the local people to purchase the frescoes and remove them in order to save them for posterity". At the time we joked with the German on our tour that he must have been like Indiana Jones "This belongs in a museum!", little did I know until reading the wiki that he actually was a model for the character. Unfortunately no photography was allowed, but we did get some shots from outside
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Inside this building was the 3rd largest Buddha in China
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Each of these doors leads to a cave of murals
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The entrance to the caves
Sunset
After the caves we went into town and had a drink before heading back to our hotel for sunset. We ended up running into an American mother and son, which has been rare (most tourists here are European) and sat down with them and watched the sunset and got some food.
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| From 77 Days in China |
Sunset at the hotel
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