Another day in paradise

07/25/09
Day 355 Week 51

1. Just noticed that I have been out of job for 1 year, gosh time is fast!

2. The second day in Gilgit is not that bad, today I went out with veil covering my face, others can still recognized me as a foreigners with my small eyes and awkward glasses, still stared at me but much better than yesterday.

3. Avoid eating in restaurant by buying yogurt and biscuits and settled in the guesthouse.

4. There are Efes, the Turkish beer sold in the store, in this Muslim country.

5. Sunni and Shi'te are attending different mosque! But what's different between the mosque?...

6. Got an expired Pakistan LP from a guy in the dormitory.. yaahoo!.. I hate LP but need one desperately. It was a total blank to me on Pakistan as China don't sell books on Pakistan and no internet for the time I was in XinJiang. I know nothing about the country except not to go Peshawar and Swat, there are Talibans.

7. 2 guys from my room said they went to Peshawar for the weapon market and it was life risking. Crazy.

8. I guess the women in Pakistan have a good life. They seldom come out, all the tailors, barbers, whoever you see in restaurants, hotels, petrol stations, shops, markets, are men.

9. Leaving for Passu tomorrow. Will be out of internet until I get from Passu to Karimabad. Take care :)

By the way, start to update the upper right corner of my blogspot again for the current and next destination. Still prefer blogspot to spaces.

In Pakistan
Crossing the Khunjerab Pass through Karakoram Highway into Pakistan, arrived at Gilgit last night.
Pakistan is so different from the rest of the places I have been visited, with the smell of middle east, even though it is still in Asia, and there are rarely women on the street, and I am yet to get myself a local dress, so I got to bear with the strange stares from the Pakistani men.. =|

The Karakoram Highway is nice, after all it is where the Himalayas, Karakoram, Pamis and Hindu Kush converged. The scenery in Pakistan side after entering Sust is just stunning, it can't be described by any word, not to say I have a poor vocabularies :)
Even for one that crossed the highlands in Tibet, these mountains take your breath away, and can't be compared.

Gilgit is a small town. It is the capital of the Northern area but still, a small town with a few streets, and of course, a lot of Pakistani men. I was thinking of stocking up a few books before moving north to the mountain areas but seems like the hope is slim. Will try to look for long sleeves again later today (currently I only have 1 long sleeves), can't imagine what happened if you are the only alien wearing short sleeves in this part of the world.

Time in MARS
We were thrown to outer space after the 7.5 incident of Urumqi. I was thinking of going Carrefour that night to get a scarf but change my mind to sleep early. (Carrefour is exactly where the area that the incident happened) Before that a Japanese in my room told me there are demonstrations on the streets in the evening, but no one pay much attention on it.

With the whole night sirens, I woke up the next day morning and they told me what had happened. I was eager enough to know more and found out that the internet access of the whole XinJiang province had been cut. I send an sms home telling my mum people died in the unrest but I am okay. A lot of people trying to call home but it was an empty tone reply. The TVs in the youth hostel are not working so we dont know what happened outside even t hrough we are 15 minutes away from where the incident happened, except rumours.

Everyone live in horror the second day. I was just outside the clinic when a nurse shouted 'they are here, run!!' I ran fast into the clinic and it turned out that she is too phobia after the incident. Most of the chinese in the hostel cancelled their XinJiang trip and heading home; most foreigners flew out of the province or country. Most of the citizens in the town start to carry weapon when they are on the streets. And of course, curfew.

I was still there on the 3rd day. Finally 1 TV is working and we sat in front of the TV watching repeating news from China station. Repeating shots, repeating sentences, repeating video records and repeating facial expression. Some Hans (chinese)  gone crazy on the 3rd day, they started their demonstration from the train station and shouted 'Uighur, kill!' all the way to where the incident happened. They carried whatever weapon they can find - big knive, wood, stick, L-bars, saw, shovel.. anything you can think of, to kill but not to self-protect.

I was out for food that evening not knowing that there is curfew, and took a long way back because the road was closed later when I got my dinner with me. And that's when I saw the demonstations, which Hans breaking Uighurs windows and shouting loud along the streets, with army following the line without stopping them. It is at that moment that I am totally disappointed with Chinese government and decided to leave.

It is not much to my concern when it is a terrorist issue, which I believe it was on the 7.5. But on the 7.7, I witnessed that it turned into a racial issue, and if it is a racial issue, I am a Han and I might have problem. And you will be surprised that most chinese in China know that Hans is beating Uighur on the 7.7 and they dont think that is a problem. 'We cant just let people bully us.', they said, among them are educated. And that's the message the government indirectly gave them by allowing the demonstration on the 7.7.

I left Urumqi on the 7.8, that's the start of the day when all the msg from mobile phone are prohibited. And the first time ever I felt so much of being thrown into the outer space. Can you imagine how we live without accessing information in this modern world?!! and China is doing this, of course with the reason behind, but too much backwards, of course ridiculous to a foreigners; and this is the only way to keep them in control, they always say.

But still I traveled to southern XinJiang, just because I wanted to cross overland to Pakistan. Along the way people telling me to leave, and along the way I met a lot of kind hearted Uighur who helps me without asking for price. I see how Han looks down at Uighur, and see how they treat Uighur when others need a hand.

Well, after reading this a chinese from inner land will definitely comment: how dare you made judgement, you are not reciding in China and what do you know about us. Oh well really I dont know anything in depth, but I know the brain-washing education, information filtring system. But for sure, I admired your patriotism.