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The wheels 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 Abdu and me, that is), we finally hauled the whole thing over to a bike repair shop and had him readjust the spokes:

These gentlemen helped me fix the Caboose (again)

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:

traign sign

One time, I passed something burning:

no idea what is burning there

I never found out what it was. Oil maybe. I just kept on walking.

The whole venture didn’t last long, though. When I passed by a place called Tuha Oil City, I spontaneously decided to look for a place to stay in there and call it a day:

welcome to Tuha Oil City

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

Hint: Turpan is 400km away from here.

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

eccentric building

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

The whole oil city smelled of money, and it looked a bit weird:

Mickey Mouse

Trivia: All of the workers here are from other parts of China, not one is from Hami. 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 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.



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