Chechen to Hotan

9 may 2012

Last night there was a huge sand storm in the town and everything is covered in a layer of it this morning.

You can't see much and it feels quite hard to breathe. Today I have been travelling to Hotan along the southern edge of the Takiamakan desert. Out of the window of the bus you can only see km after km of open desert. I saw my first sighting of a group of camels today. They strolled across the road in front of the bus. The journey is another long one for me - 9hours, but on the bus are families, young children and older couples who all take this in their stride. We stopped at the few oasis towns along the way for short breaks. One was Keriya, a place that had a brilliant market with the most wonderful yoghurt desert - a speciality in the area. It was here that I saw huge pieces of unrefined jade brought up from the river. It looked like great lumps of smoked cheese. Many men were selling the polished jade stones on one of the streets. It was a relief to eventually arrive in Hotan and enjoy the evening air.