We caught a 2pm sleeper bus out of Hotan to take us across the vast Taklamakan Desert and back to Urumqi. This desert spreads over more than 300,000 square kilometres and in places has sand dunes more than 1,000 feet high. It was once a place of certain death to those who entered it, but with the discovery of oil deep beneath the shifting sands and the construction of a highway across its full north-south axis, it is a much more populated and benign place today, though still not one to be trifled with. A wide row of desert bushes and reeds has been planted along the length of the highway in an attempt to prevent the desert swallowing up the road.From Hotan, it is about a three hour journey further to the east along the southern Silk Road before the desert turnoff is encountered. Here the bus turns to the north to begin the 500 plus kilometre desert crossing. Our sleeper bus had three rows of double-bunks down its length with about 36 beds in total. There was not quite enough height in each berth to sit up or quite enough length to stretch out when lying down. Otherwise it was quite comfortable. Along the centre of the bus, suspended from the roof, were video units from which were screened some very nice Uighur music performances interspersed with a Rambo-style movie that I thought was inappropriate for screening on a public bus. But one of the video units was only 50 cm from my face, so there was no escaping it.
I figured we would reach the desert turnoff at about 6pm, and this would still give several hours of sunlight to admire the desert scenery. But I hadn't counted on the late departure from the Hotan bus station, or the trawling around Hotan for additional passengers, or the stops on the way (this was supposed to be an express bus). In the event we didn't reach the desert road until after 9pm, and unfortunately we passed the high sand dunes in darkness. An opportunity missed as we are unlikely to pass through here again.
Between Hotan and the desert turnoff we stopped at several towns to pick up passengers and freight. At one place we pulled into the yard of a large building. When we saw a woman being carried from the front door on a stretcher, we realized it was the local hospital. A passenger helpfully pointed to where the toilet was located inside the hospital, thinking we might be looking for it. We weren't, but in any case, pointing wasn't necessary as all that was needed to find this particular loo was a slight sense of smell. We went in for a look – there are some wicked toilets in China but this one must surely have been a back door into Hell itself. I retreated quickly, meeting Lee Tuan stumbling ashen-faced and gagging from hers. We returned to the parking area to see the woman on the stretcher being carried up through the door of our bus, and when her relatives moved back and we climbed onto the bus, we saw that the woman had been placed in Lee Tuan's bed! The driver explained that that was the most convenient place for the patient, and we were directed to new berths a little further back. The patient was surrounded by several of her relatives who never left her side during the long trip to Urumqi, continually holding her hand and occasionally rubbing her head and neck and passing to her the breathing tube connected to the several inflated rubber pillows of oxygen brought on board for her. Despite the woman's obvious need for fresh air, and the potential hazards of oxygen, the driver happily fagged on as we glided through the warm desert night. All we could do was sit and admire the patient's family's devotion and reflect on how easy and comfortable our journey was by comparison and on the standards of health care we freely enjoy at home. Fortunately, healthcare standards in the large Chinese cities are now good and the government is making a big effort to redress the large city/rural gap that still exists. But given the vast geographical extent of the country and the huge population, the challenge is daunting.
At around 1pm the following day, 23 hours after boarding the bus in Hotan, we pulled into the yard of the Urumqi long-distance bus station. We collected our back-packs, bought a handful of peaches from a roadside cart and hailed a taxi to our hotel, looking forward to a hot shower and the quiet of our own room for a few hours.
