day 144: 白水 (baishui) - 平凉 (pingliang) = 43,4km

They had given me the very best room in the little Muslim-owned hotel I was staying at:

It was the office.

Surprisingly enough, even though the owner was of Islamic faith, still he seemed to practice some other traditional customs nonetheless:

I chose not to inquire about this though, because I didn’t want to be impolite.

So I went sightseeing at the Mosque fairly early that day:

What a nice building complex:

This was erected in the 1990s solely through the efforts of the community - just like the church I had visited two weeks ago (March 18th 2008).

Too bad I wasn’t in time for the service, I sure would have liked to see that.

Am I boring? I think for many people this site must be kind of disappointing. There’s just not enough action, is there? Just this bearded guy wandering around ever so slowly…

Well here’s something for ya:

See this river crossing?

Yes, I was forced to make my way through the blustering waves, jumping from stone to stone:

MacGyver-style.

Oh, and did I mention the ever-present plastic bags that were lurking about everywhere, waiting for a chance to snap and pull me into the abyss?

…boy was I happy that the rest of the way was such a breeze:

As you can see on the pylon, I am on highway G312, which is apparently going to take me several thousand km up to 新疆 (Xinjiang province).

WTF, several thousand km??

Time for a good coffee break:

Oh, did I just say coffee? And did I really say good?

What I actually meant to say was…

…Angus MacGyver’s wrath on the filthy scum who is responsible for this outrage!

“How do you like it here?” people often ask me.

Well, this place does have so much potential - with its range of post-modern relics in stunning landscapes:

With its massive ancient trees towering over small houses:

With its beautiful, kind and ever so charming people:

- but alas! there is always more than one side to reality:

Ouch!

Well, even the toughest adventurer needs food, drink and rest:

Two hours of beef noodles and a Jackie-Chan-flick. What could have been better?

…

You remember the white line (January 5th 2008, March 30th 2008) I’ve been talking about?

Here’s what happens to anything on the wrong side of the line:

And here’s something that might possibly be built in its place:

Doesn’t look too bad, huh? Kind of Mediterranean I would say, and so was this hat:

The rest of the way wasn’t so nice, though; too many steps and too many vehicles:

This one kind of reminded me of a work by Christo.

I smiled when I saw this little guy:

Poor me couldn’t hold on to anything, I could just walk walk walk until the street lights got turned on:

And then walk walk walk some more.

- The first hotel had Internet but was renovating.

- A bunch of other hotels I went to didn’t have Internet.

- One place was booked out, and another hotel rejected me because… well, because I am a foreigner (something that very rarely still happens here).

I got very unhappy and said some mean things.

Then I walked another half hour until I found a place to stay for the next couple of days.

A nice hotel with Internet.

Soundtrack: Francesco Geminiani (Krecek) - “Concerto Grosso In D Minor, Opus 7, No.2″

—total: 1904,9km