I woke up and said hello to a fine day:

I limped outside and bought some water, some dried fruit…

…and a massive hami melon:

I laid out the tools to treat my feet:

And then… I made the cuts:

Guess I’ll have to stay here a bit longer.

Soundtrack: GWAR – “The Private Pain Of Techno Destructo”

—total: 4680,4km

2010-08-30.kmz on larger map

So…

I guess some of you already knew what was going to happen, with the Caboose and all…

I was going to take a few days off this summer to pick up where I left off and add a tiny bit of length to the long red line. ;)

Well, this morning my 申叔叔 (Uncle Shen) picked me up at the hotel, we loaded everything on the caboose, he got on his bike and I got on my feet – and off we were, into the unknown!

…

WALKING

…

It felt weird and nice and exciting to be back on the road, and this time I was even able to decipher some of the many Russian signs that cover this city:

We steered through some pretty bad traffic, then we got on the road leading West, in my original direction:

Airplanes were thundering across our way as we made it past the airport, and I pondered once more about the difference in traveling speed that humans meet today:

…well, to be honest I pondered for like five minutes, then I thought, fuck it.

…

We had lunch in a small place on the roadside. I ordered a plate of noodles that were so spicy I could barely look at them, let alone eat them.

“What’s this foreigner doing?” 申叔叔 got asked by the locals.
“He is walking to Germany!” he said and smiled, and I wondered if this was the right answer.

Was there even a right answer at all?

…

I was surprised by two things today, the first of which was the heat:

Now you can say something along the lines of: “Chris you old fool, you went to the Gobi desert in late August – just what did you expect??”

And of course you are right. But actually, it had been fairly cool during the past few days in the city. Like, sweater-type cool. Maybe even put-on-a-jacket-type cool.

Anyways, 申叔叔 and me eventually found a nice spot for a cool rest under the highway:

Then we went back out into the afternoon heat:

It was merciless.

…and the second thing that surprised me? Well, I had gotten this presumably superb idea to be wearing sandals on this year’s summer walking trip. They are more comfortable and a lot cooler than my heavy hiking boots, so why the hell not wear them?

Well, let me tell you why not: first of all, your feet slide around in them, at least mine did. And second, you always get little rocks and pebbles in them, which is even more annoying.

Now you can say something like: “But Chris, what kind of idiot would try to walk around in the Gobi desert wearing sandals? Didn’t you know better??”

Well, you’re obviously right again. I know now. ;)

…

We finally made it to 昌吉 (Changji) in the early evening, by the time of which I was seriously suffering.

I was happy to see this miserable river bed announcing the proximity of the city:

…and when we made the last turn onto a street that was lined with cooling trees, I almost forgot how much my feet hurt:

Almost.

申叔叔 dropped me off at the central square, where I was going to find a hotel to cure my footpains:

Then we said good-bye, because he had to go home. This came as a sad surprise, because I thought he was going to accompany me for a few more days. But he said he had to take his dog to the doctor. (Apparently a few kids from the neighborhood had tried to milk the poor thing, causing an infection on the teats. WTF??)

Good-bye my dear 申叔叔, and thank you for everything!

…

Here’s a short video of some of the mighty walking we did today:

Never mind my big fat ass! ;)

…

Now I am in my room, and my feet hurt. They really hurt like hell.

Was it this that I had come out here for?

There’s a simple answer to this question:

YES.

Soundtrack: Britney Spears – “Oops… I did It Again”

—total: 4680,4km

Not quite?

Well, how about now:

That’s right. “Hey, you’re the German guy with the long hair and the beard – the walking dude!” they said when I came in, smiling like a Cheshire cat.

Then they gave me another haircut.

…

Well this was nice and very nostalgic, but it was going to get even better, because later today, 申叔叔 (Uncle Shen) was going to take me to his neighborhood to meet a special friend:

Here she is:

Oh I can’t even tell you just how much I have missed her.

My dear dear beloved Caboose…

She looked fine as ever, only some parts had gotten a bit rusty:

But besides that, she was exactly the way I had left her almost two years ago:

We taped over some parts:

Then we took her to a friend’s bike repair shop to have him look over her tires:

What a brave vehicle she is.

…

I figured, the only way to end such a romantic day, was to invite my 申叔叔 to a meal in a fancy Uighur place:

Happiness was in the air.

Soundtrack: Black Uhuru – “Sponji Reggae”

Well, I think it’s okay. There is some military patrolling the streets:

But apart from that, everything seems nice and normal.

I hope it stays this way.

Soundtrack: Wyclef Jean – “Peace God”

They told me to come back another day…

…

So I went and had some 烤包子 (kaobaozi – baked lamb meat bun):

And some 面 (mian – noodles):

And some 馕 (nang – bread):

Me and the little Uighur waitress at the place got along very well:

So we decided to produce another classic TLW-video together:

She was the director of our feature, while I was only responsible for the cinematography.

…

Later that night, 申叔叔 (Uncle Shen) invited me and some photographer friends to a great meal of 火锅 (huoguo – hot pot) and vodka:

This one is called Beluga. It’s a premium vodka I had brought from Russia as a present for my dear 申叔叔, and damn this tasted so good!! The aftertaste was perfect, a 9/10 at the least.
Maybe even a 10.

This is 于老师 (Master Yu):

And this is 田老师 (Master Tian):

I guess you can tell from the pictures that the drinks were totally awesome.

Soundtrack: Raggasonic – “Alcoolo”

First things first though: I took a cab to the airport this morning, because I was going to fly out to 乌鲁木齐 (Ürümqi):

Little did I know that my flight was going to land in 太原 (Taiyuan), a place very close to my original route through 山西 (Shanxi):

Anyways, I made it to my destination in the early afternoon:

This was a bit weird. Last time I was here, I didn’t exactly feel very happy.

…

…

…

Today it was different though – I was excited to be back:

申叔叔 (Uncle Shen) and 辉辉 (Huihui) were there:

“Dude, you gained weight!!” they said.

“Well, I have about one month to lose some of it!” I answered.

We all laughed.

Then we went out to drink:

Imperia. This brand under the label of Русский Стандарт (Russian Standard) is supposed to be one of the best there is. I gave the bottle to 辉辉 as a present, and he shared it with the two of us. The vodka isn’t bad at all, in fact it’s very good, only I thought it didn’t really taste special enough to be excellent. I’d give it a 7/10.

Soundtrack: Etta James – “Don’t Cry Baby”

The smile is fake, I felt sad to leave them.

Besides that, I didn’t really enjoy the idea of having to sit on a bus for the next 15 hours:

I hate bus rides, I hate bus rides, I hate bus rides:

We rumbled along, and Russia just flew by:

There was a stop once, and as I staggered out of the bus, I noticed something terrible:

I hadn’t visited a single one of the great orthodox churches during my month in Russia:

Damn!

…

Then we reached the border:

I was told not to take any pictures, but hey: fuck ‘em, right?

You see, the custom inspection went really smooth for everyone, except for me of course. I figured this was either because they had never seen a German here before, or because I had adopted that certain fuck ‘em attitude.

Will we ever know?

So I ended up staring at this note on the wall for quite a long time, while some important people were looking over my documents:

Mesmerizing.

…

And then suddenly, like a cherry stone being spit into the summer air, I landed in China:

…

I was the last one to get back on the bus, and it was only then that I realized that the bus driver dudes had added a couple of more passengers, so that I didn’t have a seat anymore:

Great.

When we stopped at our next destination, I wandered around for a little while…

…and when I returned, we suddenly decided that almost all passengers were back on board, so we might as well get going again.

ALMOST all passengers.

There had been a Chinese lady and her little child who were missing. We just drove off with their stuff, leaving them there:

That leopard bag sat there for the rest of the way, while I was wondering about what the lady and the child would do when they came back only to realize that the bus was gone. Would they say fuck ‘em, too?

But hey, at least now I had a seat.

…

When I got to 哈尔滨 (Harbin) in the evening, my connecting train to 长春 (Changchun) was already gone. I had missed it by 20 minutes and was pretty mad.

Food usually helps against my bad temper, so I went and got some fries at the KFC:

When I got on the next train a few hours later, I was quite surprised though – there I was, surrounded by some of the nicest people ever! We chatted away for the next three hours, talking about totally meaningful stuff and making ridiculously meaningless jokes, and then we finally gathered for a group picture to immortalize this epic train ride:

It was good, very good.

When I got to 长春, I was pretty exhausted though:

I was going to stay at a friend’s house there, and we had originally made great dinner plans, but since it was already so late we just got a burger at Macky D, I took a half-assed picture of a nameless lake by the road, and then we finally crashed at his apartment:

Do I really remember myself whispering the words fuck ‘em when I finally fell asleep in my friend’s living room that night?

There was more traveling to come in the morning.

Soundtrack: Angry Samoans – “Ballad Of Jerry Curlan”

I am going to miss Russia – and most of all her lovely people:

This is my friend Андрей (Andrej):

He used to be a skydiver and has made over 1.000 jumps. Apart from that, he is one of the funniest guys ever. Much respect!

We drank Парламент (Parliament):

This is a relatively young and affordable brand, which has already built a solid reputation. I thought the bottle looked fucking ugly, but the taste was pretty good – nothing out of the ordinary, a good and reliable vodka. I’d give it a 7/10.

There seemed to be this weird halo around the moon. I saw it before I went to bed:

Maybe it was because of my vodka tasting spree?

Soundtrack: Brazzaville & Minerva – “The Clouds In Camarillo”

See, those guys might not be very much fun to hang out with, but it’s good to know they are trying to keep the nazis in check.

I’d hate to see more places drift to the extreme right like Hungary did.

…

Anyway, I was going to enjoy my last two days in this beautiful country, so we met up with some friends and a bottle of vodka.

This guy is a talented DJ…

…and this bottle is a Императорская Коллекция (Imperatorskaya Kollektsiya):

Apparently this is supposed to be a premium brand of vodka, but I didn’t really like it that much. There was no gentleness in its taste. A 4/10, maximum.

Then we went home and had some assorted nuts dipped in honey, which was totally awesome:

…and of course there was more vodka:

This brand is called Русица (Russitsa), and at first I couldn’t really appreciate it either.

…but then I realized it had a very subtle and mild aftertaste. 6/10.

Life is good, guys. Life is good.

Soundtrack: Cee Lo Green – “FUCK YOU”

Russian Island on larger map

This island has apparently been chosen by the central government to be transformed into a major tourist destination, so we figured it might be an interesting place to visit.

A bridge from the city to the island was already under construction, but it wasn’t completed yet, so we had to take the ferry:

…but when we finally got there, we realized that it just wasn’t as much fun as we had thought.

There were construction sites everywhere:

Containers:

Abandoned buildings:

Abandoned cars:

Abandoned bunkers:

…the most interesting place seemed to be a playground in front of a few inhabited buildings:

…and there was a small strip of coastline that could well qualify as one of the worst beaches ever:

A bunch of cows were hanging out next to that beach…

…and we suddenly figured it was about time for us to go…

…

That’s when we ran into Алекса́ндр (Alexander), a truck driver who had been delivering cement to a construction site and was waiting for his ferry back to the mainland:

He lives close to the Тайга (Taiga) and loves to go hunting there, but lately he has been spending most of his time in his truck, or on the island waiting for the ferry.

“Why don’t you just hop in one of our trucks and let our ferry take you back to the city?” he asked us, when we told him that we wanted to leave this boring place as soon as possible.

We figured this was a good idea…

…so we said hello to the other trucker dudes…

…and got in the trucks:

Here’s a video of the ferry back to the city (at 2000% speed):

…and a picture of some dudes in the harbor:

We walked around town for a while after that, and I ran into two little ones sharing their sticker albums next to one of the high-rises in the hills:

They don’t have an easy life up here: each window in the building means a one-room apartment, and apparently the percentage of the poor, the drunk and the unemployed is pretty substantial.

…

The day ended on a good note though, because I had an epic moment of LOL when I noticed these posters:

Epic. Just epic.

Soundtrack: Modern Talking – “You’re My Heart, You’re My Soul”