Sleeper Bus

There are several flights a day from Kashgar to the provincial capitol of Urumqi in the North. The flight is about 1 hour long and costs about $100. Looking back, it all seems so reasonable.

But, at the time, I had just finished reading two interesting books about crazy Westerners traveling around China by road (China Road by Rob Gifford and Country Driving by Peter Hessler). And after meeting all the other travelers in Kashgar, I was really gung ho about "traveling the Silk Road by land", whatever that means.

The first leg of my Silk Road journey would be a 26 hour bus ride to Urumqi.

I guess one week in Kashgar was long enough to make me forget how much I hated being cramped up in that stupid Land Cruiser.

In China, long distance bus routes are often serviced by "sleeper buses". Instead of seats, the buses are equipped with three rows of bunk beds. Each passenger is given a bunk to lay on for the duration of the trip.


I boarded in the afternoon and would be arriving in Urumqi the following afternoon. The other passengers were mostly Uygurs with a few Han Chinese mixed in. I was the only foreigner.


Part of the allure of bus travel in China, is that you are traveling among the common working class people, as opposed to an airplane full of Chinese yuppies. You get to see things you don't normally see back home... A big Chinese guy taking his shirt off and making himself comfortable in the bunk one over from you... Another Chinese guy asking to swap bunks with you for a bit, so he could smoke a cigarette by the bus window... Uygur children comfortably napping on the bus floor aisles...

One Uygur woman would periodically kneel up on her bed for her daily prayers.


We drove for many hours. Traveling along the northern edge of the Taklamakan Desert, one of the most inhospitable regions in the world, we passed through a variety of desert landscapes. Reddish mountains, desert sands, rocky crags...

Towns were few and far between, the only other vehicles on the road were trucks transporting goods to and from Kashgar. Every so often, we would stop in the middle of nowhere for a bathroom break or to grab a bite to eat.



Perhaps I was spoiled by the scenery in Tibet, but the scenery grew old after a few hours. I tried to pass the time by reading books on my Ipad and taking naps. The bed was comfortable enough and I got a full night's sleep. But even after 8 hours of sleep, there are still eighteen more hours of travel time to account for!

Before I knew it, my Ipad battery was drained and I lay on my bed listlessly staring out the window. At least I wasn't on a camel.

As afternoon approached, we passed oil refineries and vast wind farms. Soon we would be in the western metropolis of Urumqi, a Chinese boom town in the middle of the desert.