Hey the seconds are running out at this internet cafe so im gonna keep it short.

We've been in Malaysia for a couple of weeks, touring KL n the Klang valley n doing tropical islandy stuff. Currently in Thailand... heading towards Angkor Wat.

Hope this works...

Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang

Around the newly developed International Bazaar

Urumqi is Xinjiang's capital and a major Central Asian city. Despite being the city with the furthest distance from the sea, Urumqi is anything but isolated. Arriving from the east through the Gobi Desert the city seems to just appear out of the nothingness. This feeling however quickly evaporates once you are drowned by the sea of skyscapers and its millions of inhabitants.

We stumbled upon a Pakistani restaurant and loads of men in shalwar kameez.

It's a thoroughly Chinese Han city and there's little to suggest that this is the capital for the Uighur Autonomous Region. Much has been blamed on the China's policy of "planting" Han Chinese into the region to strengthen its grip on the oil-rich province but despite that there are still pockets of Uighur communities. The city feels just like another Chinese boomtown but with a twist of Central Asian influence and I thought that this a wise move by the government to encourage the traditional Uighur architectural style to dominate in the newer developments. On the facade, Beijing seems to give quite an autonomy to the province. Although this could easily be dismissed as merely token (possibly induced by tourism) but more importantly it's a gesture that acknowledges Xinjiang as a homeland for the Central Asian minorities. Yes there are problems and hostilities from both sides at the moment but maybe a new way forward is slowly forging towards a new Xinjiang one day.

The night before Usman fell ill...

We had an okay time here, there's not much to see but the Central Asian flavours felt here was a welcome change from the previous provinces that we've been to. Usman fell ill for a couple of days so I was left to my own devices most of the time. He was down with a mild fever that rendered him lying on the bed motionless. He recovered after a day but we agreed that he needs an extra day of rest. But it was fun to try and explore the city on my own and have only myself to blame whenever I got lost.

Inside the International Bazaar.

Urumqi's modern city centre was a bore and the touristic Uighur market was too fake but straying from these, I found colourful bazaars in the alleyways which reminded me of Morocco. However several days spent here, I realised that I'm completely bored of hopping from cities to cities and knew that I must get out and see some wilderness.

Wuyi Lu Night Market

Hi everyone. Sorry for the lack of updates recently but we've been really busy for a variety of reasons including ill health and a serious lack of planning. Being spontaneous was cool to begin with, and it took alot of effort to convince Ihsan its ok, but we're still wandering around China and the summer is almost over.

Since the last update we've been travelling further along the silk road which was our original, rather simplistic plan. From the old imperial capital of Xi'an we moved Northwest back to depessing Lanzhou for a second time, and then towards the "New Frontier" of China, Xinjiang, which has more in common with Pakistan and other central Asian countries. We visited Urumqi, Turpan and Kashgar as we crossed the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts and were almost at the border with Pakistan! Lots of updates will follow about our ventures "into the wild" (finally) and some security incidents and stuff.

Suddenly realising how many days we had wasted because of Ihsan having a shit passport and me having a shit immune system we had no choice but to fly out of Urumqi. In hindsight we had been pretty nieve thinking that we could travel a country that is more like a continent by road and rail alone. We're currently in Chengdu, Sichuan province, which was recently devastated by a strong earthquake, and we have been prevented from going to Tibet (a big sarcastic xiexie to Phill Bartell, Tirian Mink, Iain Thom and Lucy Marion for making it difficult for everyone else). With out our planned grande finale of our first leg of this tour, we again have no firm plans and anything is possible. With a target date around 16th August to get to Malaysia, the South East Asia part of the tour is on hiatus. Watch this space for where we'll end up.

-Usman