day 324: 哈密 (hami) – 吐哈油田 (tuha oil city) = 12,6km

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The tires I had bought didn’t stand a chance out there.

After investing a considerate amount of time and energy in the futile attempts to fix the damn problem ourselves (my friend Abduweli and me, that is), we finally hauled the whole thing over to a bike repair shop and had him readjust the spokes:

That’s right: every single one.

No wonder it was almost teatime when I finally crossed the railway line, thus leaving the city and starting my venture out into the west:

Well, this venture didn’t last long. When I passed by a place called “吐哈油田” (tuha oil city), I spontaneously decided to look for a place to stay in there and call it a day:

Mysterious oil city… I hadn’t seen a single oil rigg anywhere around. “Are there oil springs in the 哈密 (hami) region?” I asked someone, and I got a surprising answer: “no, the workers commute to 吐鲁番 (turpan) to drill for oil!”

Hint: 吐鲁番 is 400km away from here.

Well what do I know – anyways the place was pretty interesting:

Large clean spaces, not very many people, sprinkler systems taking care of large patches of green…

The whole oil city smelled of money:

Trivia: All of the workers here are from other parts of China, not one is from 哈密. The only people who actually are from here are the service personnel.

…

So here I am, it is quarter past eight at night, and I have just taken a hot shower. My pictures and words are about to be on-line in only a matter of minutes. and then I’m going to lean back, watch some TV and order a good serving of 回锅肉 (double-fried pork) or something. I also have some potato chips, some M&Ms and two cans of that beautiful “Zamzam” cola the Uyghurs like to drink. Maybe I should take a picture of the can?

Na, I’d rather I lean back and do nothing.

I didn’t feel like dancing today anyway.

Soundtrack: Farin Urlaub – “Phänomenal Egal”

—total: 3996,5km