Day 93 Kashgar
A bus came for us to take us back to Ulugqat customs compound. Kashgar is a huge city choked with traffic despite the four-lane major roads running through it and, last night, it was a blaze of neon advertising lights flashing away in different colours. The coutryside between Kashgar and Ulugqat is cultivated with different crops and long rows of cypress trees to create windbreaks.
We spent a day in the compound with nothing happening. Very frustrating. The explanation was that special permission had to be obtained from Urumchi, the capital of Xinjiang Region, and the computers had crashed. So back to Kashgar where Jim, Mathieu, Melody, me and our lovely Chinese guide Green Zhang, who had come specially from Chengdu to help us, had an excellent meal at a restaurant in the hotel compound. I had a bowl of chicken soup which Mathieu had ordered but rejected because it didn’t look like the picture in the menu, and three strips of shish kebabs.
Day 94 Kashgar
A very frustrating day. Eventually we got clearance from the customs authorities and then drove to the vehicle testing testing station on the outskirts of Kashgar. Eventually we drove onto the weighbridge so that the weight of the vehicle according to the chassis number could be compared with its actual weight. Mine was 300 kgs over, basically because the chassis number was stamped when the chassis was intended to be a VW Transporter while the California has 300 kgs of extra stuff such as seats, the bed, the cooker, sink and fridge. Went back to the hotel at Kashgar and had a meal at a nearby restaurant.
Day 95 Kashgar
Yet another frustrating day. We emptied all three vehicles of everything moveable to reduce the weight but to no avail. My vehicle was still 270 kgs over. Eventually a way was found to reduce the weight which I shall explain later. We then drove a short distance to another vehicle testing station for the Chinese number plates to be fitted.
Google isn’t available in China so I can’t show a map
