Give me a beautiful crystal cup and I will fill it with tea. Give me a happy moment and I will carve my face with a smile. Give me a picture and I will write a thousand words to describe it. Give me a good bicycle and I will ride for thousands of kilometers away from home. Give me stunning sceneries and I will write and share my thoughts… my thoughts and ideas, which comes from an unknown source, a mystery to us all the creations. And give me time, strength and good health, and I will fulfill one of my childhood dream, to ride my bicycle in the Karakoram Highway. Riding my bicycle in the Karakoram Highway has long been my wish list for years. And now finally, I get to do it. I finally now managed to turn my dream, that has been long playing in my imagination, to a reality, to the “right here and right now”, to the present time, when the physical body and the soul is connected to the realm of space and time… and feel it with all my 5 senses, when it reach the “now” before it passes like the flowing water in the river, before it becomes history, before it becomes nothing more than a good memory.

my black beast…

Karakoram highway has a long history. It is part of the route of the ancient Silk Road that connects China and Middle East and Europe. And Karakoram Highway, it connects Kashgar on the Chinese side all the way to Islamabad on Pakistani side. The history goes long to a thousand years ago, where caravan always passed by here, crossing into the highest point of Khunjerab Pass, the border of China-Pakistan and in this pass, which sits at 4700m altitude, these caravans usually were robbed by bandits. I wonder how it feels like, been traveling for months and months, carrying spices, silk and so many other goods from Xi’an, China heading towards Baghdad of Babylon (now Iraq) which will take another few more months to reach, and suddenly you get robbed by bandits who are hiding deep in the mountains of Karakoram and the Hindu Kush, and lost everything you carried for months, in only a day. Karakoram Highway is known as the most scenic mountain road in the world. It has been my dream to push the pedal of my bicycle here, flying free like a bird here, watching the magnificent views from the saddle of my bicycle, and camp in the beautiful mountains, sleeping peacefully under the stars. At least this time, I could do half of this road, on the Chinese side, from Tashkorgan to Kashgar. Sadly, the remaining 100km on the Chinese side, from Tashkorgan to Khunjerab Pass (Sost) is forbidden for cyclists at the time of writing. The Pakistani side, from Khunjerab Pass all the way to Islamabad, I will complete that part some other time, since this time I don’t have the visa for Pakistan.

a Tajik man with his yaks in the middle of nowhere

somewhere in the Karakoram Highway, the best mountain road ever

This is the first time on this trip I cycled with someone. The Spanish will ride with me all the way back to Kashgar. But we are all on our own pace, because to keep up with someone else’s pace is tiring. That’s what we are, humans. We all have our own pace. Each of our heart beats at a different rate. Some of us are slow some are fast. We are all unique. There’s nothing wrong with that. We left Tashkorgan quite late since it was cold, we started to push our pedal at around 11 after a good Tajik breakfast in Tashkorgan. The ride was good at first before the headwind started to slow us down. Once the headwind came in, we both were fighting hard to keep going forward. After a few hours, the gravity also joined the wind to slow us down even more, which took us 2 days to reach a mountain pass at over 4000m altitude before the road turned to be easy for us. To me, the wind is harder to fight compared to a big climb. From my experience, fighting the strong headwind in the steppe of Kazakhstan and Mongolia is much harder compared to big climbs in the Lower Himalayas and the southern ring of the Tibetan Plateau.

Susan, the Spanish cyclist

The sun was shining fiercely but the wind is cold. When we camped in the mountains of Pamir on the first night, I was shocked as it was snowing in the middle of summer here. I woke up in the morning and learned that Susan, the Spanish cyclist couldn’t sleep the whole night, struggled in the cold and she felt jealous to hear me snoring happily from my tent the whole night, sleeping so well in the cold. I pity her but I guess she can take it well, shes a traveler. The hardship and pain of today is always the strength of tomorrow. I’m used to it, sleeping inside my tent at around -3 or -4 celcius is okay even with my lousy sleeping bag, which is as thin as a toilet paper. When I went out from my tent, I discovered that my tent was covered with thick ice and the surrounding hills were filled with snow. But it was beautiful under the soft, pale orange colour morning light. We then approached by a Tajik sheepherder who lives nearby, behind those hills while packing up. He offered us breakfast in his home and we accepted. We then had breakfast with the Tajik family and later a few truck drivers joined us. Language is a barrier but I could understand them a bit, speaking with them combining English and some Chinese and Russian was fun. These truckers were heading towards the Qolma Pass, the border crossing that connects China and Tajikistan, a few kilometers from where we were.

camping at nearly 4000m in the Pamir

beautiful morning light shining through clouds in the Pamir

Tajik gang!!

a Tajik family

a happy Tajik boy

everybody is happy out here

a Tajik trucker

Once we reached the mountainpass which sits at over 4000m, I felt like Im back in Tibet. The air is thin here and I felt that my lungs need more space and my body needs more oxygen. I told Susan that if she snap a photo here, share it with her friends and tell them that shes in Tibet, everybody will believe her. The landscape is exactly the same, the sand, the colours, the altitude, everything. But to me this is more beautiful. To me, Karakoram and Tian Shan Mountains are more beautiful compared to the Himalayas. Himalayas is overrated and filled with tourists, everybody wants to trek the Himalayas. These mountain range on the other hand, is mostly untouched and definitely less traveled. After the mountain pass, it was a good ride down from 4200m all the way to about 2500m altitude, constantly overlooking the beautiful peak of Muztagh Ata in front of us. We reached Karakul Lake, a small high altitude lake that sits at 2500m altitude with a beautiful view of the surrounding snow mountains of the Pamir.

beautiful view of Karakul Lake. Those are Kyrgyz yurts near the lake

traditional Tajik wedding in the beautiful Karakul Lake

It was amazing to see so many cultures here in Xinjiang, just a few hours before, we have been surrounded by Tajik people, but once we reached the lake, we are surrounded by the Kyrgyz. We had a good lunch and dinner here with the Kyrgyz, who welcomed us with their smiles, tea and bread. I think I understand the Kyrgyz more since I visit this place. These people who live in the surroundings are the real Kyrgyz, more real than those in Kyrgyzstan itself. They speak pure Kyrgyz, they never consumed alcohol since it is prohibited for the Muslims. They don’t understand a word of Russian. It is so different here compared to Kyrgyzstan. In Kyrgyzstan, even deep inside the village, they still mix Russian and Kyrgyz words in their everyday communication. Some of them consumed alcohol and the lifestyle is a lot Russian. Now I finally understand how the real Kyrgyz life is, without being influenced by the old Soviet of Mother Russia. We then found the best place to put our tent, closed to the water overlooking the Muztagh Ata and other surrounding peaks of the Pamir behind those fresh water. Susan camped a bit far from me, wanted to feel alone like I usually do. She finally went to sleep early since she didn’t sleep the night before struggling in the cold. Day is long here in summer, sunset is almost midnight and the sun rises only 6 hours later.

Kyrgyz woman preparing our food

the last light in Karakul Lake

Susan setting up her tent at the other side of the lake

I watched the sunset in awed, the light of sunset is often magical especially with this kind of breathtaking sceneries. I slept well after the sun was hiding behind the Pamir Mountains. I woke up in the middle of the cold night at around 3am. When I unzipped my tent, I saw something heavenly, my eyes turned wide and the feeling of sleepy has gone once I saw the majestic, vast and heavenly ring of milky way in the night sky, standing proud above the peak of Muztagh Ata. I decided not to continue my sleep, but took my camera out to film it instead while enjoying my hot tea watching this great view. “Heaven must be somewhere out there”, I told myself. Watching this kind of view always reminds me of “Asma ul Husna” a word in Arabic which basically means the attributes of the creator/source of the universe.

the majestic milky way standing proudly over the peak of Muztagh Ata

after about an hour, the milky way moved away from the frame of my camera, slowly disappearing

and the milky way disappeared when the sky is brighter…

the night is about to end, and the sun will soon come to replace the stars

and the morning light appeared…

While watching the milky way for hours, I remember having a good discussion about the universe with a Polish traveler not so long ago while I was on the road. He believed that the universe has not been created, yet it was always exists, back to the infinity. The universe was always there. There was no beginning. I told him that the infinity doesn’t exist in the realm we live now. Its only a concept. If the universe doesn’t have a starting point, which has infinite history, we would never exist by now. Imagine you are a soldier who is about to fire a shot. But before you pull the trigger, the soldier behind you has to fire the shot first. And he has to wait for another soldier behind him to do the same before he could do it. If this goes back to the infinity, you will never pull the trigger. The same goes that the 21^st century has to happen after the 20^th century has gone. And 20^th century can only happen after the 19^th century passed. If it goes back to the infinity, then the 21^st century will never happen, and all of us will never exist. The universe has to have a starting point. And some suggested me that the universe was being created by itself, which is again out of logic. If it wants to create itself, it must have the intention first. And to have that intention, it first must exist, so that it can have the intention to create itself. The universe does have a starting and ending point, and only something eternal that has no starting or ending point can have the power to create. The creator can never be compared with its creation. Not even like comparing the land and sky. Understanding the creator is out of the capabilities of the human mind. Many tried to really understand the secret of the universe and its creator but failed. They soon realized that the whole universe is too big to fit inside our human brain. Only our human brain can fit inside the vast universe…

a quick afternoon nap at the roadside

view of the Pamir…

After hours watching the heavenly milky way, the sky slowly turned bright. Some parts of the sky has been lit by the sun, yet the sun was still physically hiding behind the Pamir Mountains, giving very special colours to the surroundings. This is a very special time of a day. This is the time where healthy people wake up, since the frequency, the energy from the universe at this time can only be absorbed when the body and the soul is connected. And the light from the sun has different wavelength at this time, scattered, since it has to go through almost 30% more area of atmosphere and larger particles in the air before it reaches our eyes, giving very special colours, and most photographers/cinematographers will go out and dream to get great footages at this time… and this is also the time where Muslims perform their first prayer of the day… I kept sitting outside my tent, enjoying the transformation of night to day, while slurping my hot coffee slowly, without rush. Watching both the sunrise and sunset in the same day, is always a complete day for me.

the best view from the window of my hotel early morning

amazing morning light at Karakul Lake and the surrounding mountains.. so peaceful

Kyrgyz with his yaks under the peak of Muztagh Ata

the life in the Pamir Mountains

the Pamir version of bad traffic

Camping in this lake is the highlight of the ride from Tashkorgan to Kashgar for me. After we packed up, we then rode back fast towards Kashgar, riding easily about 100km a day since the road is mostly going downhill from 2500m altitude all the way to 1100m altitude in Kashgar. Going slowly towards the lower altitude, the land changed into brown again, we slowly get ourselves back into the Taklamakan Desert. It gets hotter and hotter the more we rode towards Kashgar in the north. But we saw more people, more cars and trucks, more fruit stalls at the roadside selling delicious melons, apples, grapes and even ice creams. I felt satisfied once I reached Kashgar again. Not only I can celebrate it with good food, but also I’ve done 2 of my wishlist, pitching my tent on the shore of Karakul Lake watching the peak of Muztagh Ata and cycle the Karakoram Highway, even though I only cycled on the Chinese side.

through the huge pile of stones in the Kunlun Mountains

towering rocks at the lower altitude of Kunlun Mountains

bad weather, towards the Taklamakan Desert, almost back to Kashgar

the beauty in the sky

Staying long in the hostel in Kashgar, I met a very strong heart, solo woman cyclist from Spain. From the look of her eyes, I could sense that she’s a tough and strong-hearted woman. She’s probably around my age and must have so much experience living on the road. All the information is kept in her eyes and I could read them. Shes heading the same way as I am, towards the Irkeshtam Pass, to cross into Kyrgyzstan. Ironically, shes heading to Spain as well, to her home. But shes kinda rushing, since she plans to get back home to Spain by Christmas this year. She traveled from Thailand with the combination of bicycle, bus and train, been traveling for some 2 years, working a while in Australia to fund her travels. She told me about her horrible experience camping alone in the wild in South China. She felt paranoid since sometimes people have been disturbing her while camping alone at night. Bad experience sometimes can give us 2 things, it can make us even weaker and more afraid about our surroundings, or it can make us bolder, tougher and even more badass. Its all up for us to choose, its all in the mind… its all in the internal, not the surroundings… not the external. The surrounding is the external universe that can be sensed with our 5 senses, nothing more. Its just like watching a movie in a cinema, which we can sense it with 2 senses, sight and hearing… but this physical world, is with extra 3 more senses. The real one is the internal, all inside our mind, inside us. After our 5 senses get the information from the external, it got into our mind, and the real processing happens there, and its up to us to decide whats good and bad, its up to decide on how to react, its up to decide on how to take these information to shape our character… we humans, are in full control. That’s the beauty of us humans. We are the best of creations…

the Spanish cyclist

So I asked if she wants to join me to cycle at some kilometers between Kashgar and Tashkorgan. So after some research, we then decided to take a bus to Tashkorgan from Kashgar, and ride our bikes back to Kashgar. Kashgar’s altitude is about 1000m and Tashkorgan sits at 3200m, which is about 2000 meters higher. So riding from Tashkorgan to Kashgar, the gravity will be with us, will become our ally. But we had to fight the strong headwind, cyclist’s worst enemy, coming from the north! We then took 6 hours of tedious bus journey from Kashgar to Tashkorgan. There were countless of police checkpoints on the road. In the bus, the road looks flat, only one big climb in a mountainpass near the end. But most of the time, I was asleep during the bus journey, so that I don’t see the road and the cycling journey back to Kashgar would be a surprise. The road looks bad most of the time, but I felt relieve that I’m using a good thick tyres on my bicycle, so that I could fly through the almost 300km of bad gravel roads here. Once we reached Tashkorgan, we stayed in a cheap hostel next to the bus station in the small town.

the street of Tashkorgan

Pamir mountains in the background

Tashkorgan is the last town of China before entering Pakistan, via Khunjerab Pass, the highest border crossing in the world, which sits at 4700m altitude. Once I was in Tashkorgan, I wondered why people here are wearing winter clothes. It is summer and it was so hot when I was in Kashgar. Me and the Spanish had a tea in one of the shop near the hostel. And only after a few minutes, I felt weird, I felt that the cold air got into my bones. At first I thought I was sick. I then realized, that I now sit at 3200m altitude, the air is always cold up in this attitude, doesn’t matter whats the season. Hehe, so ignorant of me. No wonder the local people here were looking at me too, puzzled with the way I wear. Probably just like the Inuit people will puzzle to look at me wearing only tshirt and short pants in the Alaskan Arctic. I still remember the Norwegians were laughing at me while I was wearing only tshirt and short pants, walking around town when it was -8c in Northern Norway. I told them I felt hot at -8c, since I was sleeping in the forest inside my tent at -30c almost every night for the past one month, and that time, at -8c, I really felt nothing. They said I’m a crazy Malaysian. The weather is cold here in Tashkorgan, it could freeze at night and early morning. I was surprised, since Kashgar is about 45c and only 300km away, it can be subzero temperature at night. I spent most of the time indoor on the first day, since it was cold and the weather was quite bad, so I took the opportunity to write my travel journal. In beautiful places, I often get fresh ideas to do my writings…

spotted some Kyrgyz too here, with his Kyrgyz kolpak

The next morning, the clouds came in, dominating the sky, but the sun was still able to shine. I then went out to a small Tajik village in a vast grassland to the east of the town, which is only some 15 minutes walk, near the base of the Kunlun mountains. People here are very friendly, living a slow paced of life. They walk slower, they talk slower, they take their time to smile and laugh, no rush no stress, since there are no job interviews to prepare, there are no important meetings to attend. All they care is to protect their herds and prepare themselves for the cold long winter here in the mountains. Only the blowing wind is rushing here. The rest is slower. They felt happy when I snapped their photos, followed by laughters when seeing themselves inside the screen of my camera.

hehe… me with my Tajik mama!

Walking around the grassland, it feels a bit like in Kyrgyzstan, except that these people are no Kyrgyz, theyre Tajiks. They look a bit like Afghans, darker skin, bigger eyes and sharper nose but they yurt looks the same like the Kyrgyz. The grass is so green and fresh since its summer and the flowing water in the river is so cold and fresh, it looks untouched. For nearly an hour, I was lucky to be able to witness a beautiful scenery when the sun is giving its magical light in the grassland, making this place looks so magical like a fantasy movie. The ray of light that managed to shine through the thick clouds made me feel like as in I’m walking in heaven. Sometimes I closed my eyes, letting only 4 of my senses to sense this peaceful place. Concentrating only on the fresh air, the cold and the sound of the surroundings, without looking at anything. Then sometimes, I opened back my eyes, concentrating only on my sight, ignoring the rest of the senses. “It’s a beautiful world”, I told myself, smiling, satisfied…

After an hour walking around here, the thick clouds started to cover the sun, and suddenly, I felt like I’m in another different realm. Only in seconds, everything turned dark and blue. It was amazing. Raindrops started to hit my face but I kept walking slowly, trying to keep my pace here with the locals, tried to walk as slow as them, tried to talk and smile as slow as them. No rush even when smiling, even when speaking out word by word, really living the now… really in control… really feeling the world and the universe with all my five senses that is borrowed temporarily to me by the creator of the universe. Its amazing to see how the environment here shaped their lives… how they depend so much of their herds, the mountains, the grass, the flowing water on the river…. Its amazing to witness both worlds. In our world, I see 8 years old kids walking around town holding an iPad and know how to use it well, but here in this world, I see small kids walking with their donkeys, totally in control and know how to handle their herds well.

they walked slower…

the life of the mountain people

a Tajik woman who has survived so many winters in the Pamir mountains

dia tengah kira duit… kot.. haha

the small boy and his donkey

a potential Tajik notorious gangster :p

a very serious looking Tajik mama!

After half a day of walking around the village under the mountain, I walked back to the town, searching for good Tajik food in Tashkorgan. According to the locals, this is the only place where the real Tajik live and practice and keep their culture. In Tajikistan, the culture has been Russianized. They are more Russians compared to Tajiks there, except maybe deep in the Pamir Mountains. Here in Tashkorgan, they speak pure Tajik language, living the pure ancient Tajik life, and their culture is still very strong here compared to anywhere else even in Tajikistan. I could see they still wear their traditional clothes here everywhere in the town. This town is really desolated. The nearest town is Kashgar, some 300km in the north. 100km to the south is the Khunjerab Pass, the gate into Gilgit-Baltisan of Pakistan. People here are really isolated. There is a border crossing into Tajikistan not so far from here, many truck drivers are passing that road to get into the Tajik land. But as far as I know, the border is closed for foreigners, only the locals can pass through. Weather here keeps changing, it will rain for 5 minutes, and the sun will shine for another 15 minutes, before another 5 minutes of rain comes. Maybe because this place is sandwiched between 3 great mountain ranges of the world, The Pamir, Karakoram and Kunlun.

I see my source of calories here!

mmmm sexy Tajik mamacota!!

a Tajik yurt, not much different than the Kyrgyz one, or even the Kazakh

Reaching Kashgar from the vast desert is like you just enter the gate of heaven after crossing into 500km of hell. There were police roadblocks everywhere just before Kashgar, making me thinks like you are passing through angels guarding the gate of heaven from the realm of hell. By the time I reached Kashgar, I was weak and exhausted, since it was too hot, the headwind never gave up slowing me down and cars and trucks were honking at me non stop whenever they passed by me, my ears were so painful by it. But good thing was, I smell the aroma of all kinds of food all over the street of Kashgar and my empty stomach was making all kind of sounds… cheering.. celebrating. I tasted the best melon in Kashgar for a start, before drinking water like a thirsty camel before finally found a good hostel to stay for a few days. “I have reached the heaven!”, I told myself.

Finally I got myself under a shade, got myself a nice clean room and took a good shower, which is like a ritual for me, the first thing I will do whenever I get myself in a hostel. I stayed in a nice cheap youth hostel inside the old town of Kashgar. Walking around the old town to find food feels like walking in Damascus or even Baghdad rather than any other town in China. The surroundings here… the smell, the sound of people talking, the buildings, it feels like Middle East. Looking at the map, Kashgar is so closed to Tashkent, Bukhara, Kabul, Peshawar, Dushanbe and even Tehran compared to Beijing. The population here is not only Uighurs, but I also seen some Tajiks, men wearing Kyrgyz kolpak, some Afghan with their turban and even Uzbeks. While I was riding finding the hostel in the old town, these people were watching me while talking among themselves, probably discussing trying to guess where Im coming from, since I look so weird with my brown skin, that might suggests that Im from the southeast Asia, but the way I wrapped my turban is North African style, the Tuareg style of wrapping that I learned from the Libyans.

When I was walking around the food market, I was smiling and tried almost everything. There was one day I overeat, I got a plate of lamb beriani rice, 9 kebabs and 5 ice creams, put all of it inside my mouth. The result… I spent the whole night inside the toilet, I guess I went to the toilet like every 20 minutes from midnight all the way to dawn. I got sick the following day, couldn’t get up from my bed like a zombie, didn’t eat anything and continue spending my precious time inside the heavenly toilet. After the horrible day passed, I finally felt better and started to eat again, but I was afraid to eat a lot, so I ate very little and kept feeling hungry. So I decided to stay longer in Kashgar until Im back to normal before hitting the road again.

tell me, how to resist all these kind of food after being hungry for days crossing the desert?

Saw a few cyclists who stopped by at the same hostel, mostly Chinese citizens cycling towards Tibet, some French, Spanish and Italian. It was good to have some cyclist friends here in Kashgar. I also went to Id Kah Mosque, the biggest attraction here in Kashgar. There was a counter at the entrance door and the guy behind the counter shouted at me when I entered, asking me to pay. He then let me go after I told him I’m going in for prayer. It feels funny whenever I gave them the Islamic greeting but they never reply it, since they doubt that Im a Muslim since Im a foreign man, making me think that there must be something wrong with this as well. Overall people here are friendly, and so far this is the only town since I was in China, that people never ask me anything about the missing Malaysian Airlines plane when they know that Im a Malaysian. Once they know Im a Malaysian, they will offer me to buy the Malaysian made energy drink again as usual. And they will spent some 20 minutes discussing among themselves, and I always hear they kept repeating the word Malaysia in the discussion, must be discussing about me and my home country.

an Uighur groom on his big day

Uighur musicians playing their traditional music celebrating the wedding

cute Uighur kids during the wedding

I have received news that the Irkeshtam border crossing, which is the gate into Kyrgyzstan from China is closed at the moment due to some political problem that is happening in Kyrgyzstan now. And crossing Kyrgyzstan via Torugart Pass is a hassle and expensive, so I guess I will wait. I will cycle some parts of the Karakoram Highway on China side between Kashgar and Tashkorgan. So its either I cycle from Kashgar to Tashkorgan and take the bus back to Kashgar, or take the bus to Tashkorgan and cycle back to Kashgar. The wind seems to blow from the north, but the difference of altitude between Kashgar and Tashkorgan is 2000 meters. Tashkorgan sits at 3200m and Kashgar is only about 1000m. So I might take the bus to Tashkorgan and cycle back to Kashgar the enjoy the beautiful road of the Karakoram. Since I can stay in China until July, I might be riding slowly, try not to concentrate too much on the road, but rather enjoy the mountains here in China for the last time, before I leave this country.

Leaving Aksu was easy for me since I don’t really like the town. So I got up early in the morning, get a good breakfast before getting back on the road. I missed riding my bicycle so much, and missed being on the road again, my home and my master. After 2 weeks stucked in Xi’an, after the 50 hours of bus ride, I couldn’t actually wait to see the road again… to be alone on the road, not talking to anyone, just let my mind to fly away into another realm and think about something deep, something that is always interesting to me, about our existence, about the universe, the realm of space and time, about the concept of infinity. I couldn’t wait to live the now, not letting the past to bother me, nor the future. Can’t believe that I couldn’t wait for all that, after so many years I have learned to be patience… being patience by repairing punctures under the extreme heat and the extreme cold, which comes after punctures, which comes after another punctures…

Uighur restaurant where I stopped by for lunch outside Aksu

local Uighur man who kept snapping my photos with his smartphone

While riding out of Aksu, I saw so many men in uniform on duty, both the police and soldiers guarding the town. Guess it’s the bombing that took many lives in a train station in Urumqi a few weeks earlier. Not really sure on what actually happened there, but I guess there is a tense between ethnic Uighur and the Han Chinese there. The event also took place a few weeks after some knife attack that happened in Kunming, southern part of China so maybe its related. I kept thinking about it while I was pedaling out of Aksu, kept asking myself why all these are happening. Why are we humans are hating and eliminating each other because of our differences? I came across many of these on the road, I still remember there was a big fight between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in the southern part of Kyrgyzstan. And now, its between Uighur and Han Chinese. We just continue to hate and kill someone else who has different skin colour than us. I will kill you because you look different and speak different language than me. And what next, so that there will be only one race that exists in this whole planet? This kiddish attitude really has to go. I will stop traveling if there is only Malay race exists in the whole world because it will be boring, no more differences and no more new things. If I travel in Russia or Africa or South America, I will meet only my own people who speak the same language and eat the same food as the one in my neighbourhood back home.

My mind kept going deeper about all these things. Sometimes I worry things gonna get worst in this world… and my kids and the rest of my descendants will never see the peaceful world anymore during their time. We humans also hate and eliminate each other because of our different belief… which is also very childish from my eyes, from the eyes of a nomad. Put a cup of water in middle of the two of us and we have to guess what is inside the cup. I believe that it is coffee and you might believe that it is tea inside the cup. And we start to hate and even try to kill each other because we both believe differently. This example is almost the same thing that is happening now in this planet. Im no expert but I did try to read other scripture of other belief system besides Islam and found out that there are so many similarities rather than differences in major religions of the world. Instead of eliminating each other, why cant experts from each religions of the world, Muslims Sufis Christians Jewish Buddhists Hindus etc… and also scientists, physicists and mathematicians, philosophers, thinkers etc, all come together, sit in a table and discuss, work as a team to find out about the real truth about the universe, not debating, not telling who’s right and who’s wrong, but discuss to find out about the real truth. We are fighting because everyone thinks that they are on the right side, but aren’t we all seeking the real truth? Or do we let ego to stop us from seeking the real truth, to keep blinding us from the real truth? Deep in each of our heart, we are eager to find out the truth, spending a lifetime to find the secret of the universe is never a waste of life.

Well, my mind was flying far into another realm thinking about all these… without realizing that my physical body here on earth has been working so hard and I already cycled some 140km from Aksu for hours and hours on the first day without feeling much tired, thanks to the wind for not slowing me down this time and the road was good since Aksu. The sun was about to touch the horizon, giving special colours to the surroundings and I scouted for a nice and peaceful place to pitch my tent. After a few minutes of scouting, I finally found a place where I can hide my tent and my bicycle, a few hundred kilometers from the road. It was really nice and peaceful watching the sun slowly sunk into the horizon while enjoying my bread and hot coffee. But when the darkness approached after the sun went away, the wind started to blow fiercely. It was normal to me so I just took a rest inside my tent, trying to sleep to recharge my energy for another hard work of the following day crossing this vast desert. But somewhere during midnight, the wind was blowing way too strong almost blowing away my tent together with me and all my stuffs inside it! Then the rain came down pouring so heavily with scary thunder all over. I became panic when the lighting strikes were so close to where I was camping. I was in the middle of the desert and was afraid that the lighting will strike me. And if anything happen, it will take days for people here to find me out since I was quite far away from the road. But I was too tired to deal with my fear, so I ignored everything and went to sleep instead, taking myself into another realm…

watching the magical light in the desert

thunder started to strike from the sky

I woke up very early the next morning, I was still quite sleepy but I wanted to see the night slowly change into day so much. So I quickly prepared my usual breakfast with coffee, and enjoyed it while watching the birth of the sun. The sun was so lovely when it is just born at the horizon behind those Kunlun mountains that extend all the way to the Pamir mountains of Tajikistan. But as the sun grows higher, it became fierce. Crossing this vast desolated desert of Taklamakan during summer is not an easy task. The extreme heat and the usual sandstorm will put travelers into test. Taklamakan means go in and you will never go out safely. This desert has taken many lives in the past, mostly caravans who were passing this road which connects Asia and Europe. I still remember crossing this same desert 4 years ago, I was sick many times while crossing it, my body couldn’t take the extreme heat, scorching heat at 52 celcius on July 2010, with no shade to hide. This time, it was about 45 celcius on June when the sky is blue, hotter between 2-5pm and much better when there were thick clouds guarding me from the fierce sun. So usually I will take 1-2 hour rest somewhere between 3-5pm whenever I could find shades since it was way too hot.

countless tornadoes in the desert

not only cyclists, Taklamakan Desert is dangerous for truck drivers too!

hiding myself under inside a tunnel from the extreme heat

my black horse needs some rest too…

Since I rode about 140km on the first day, I then decided to take it slower on the following days. I’m not in a rush and I still can stay inside China until July. So I moved slower on the days ahead, trying not to exceed 80km daily. I wanted to get connected more to the surroundings rather than concentrating on the road. Once in a while, I was caught by sandstorms, its not so strong… but strong enough to make me weaker. I sometimes ate the sand of the Taklamakan. For every 100km on the road, I see petrol stations and some Uighur food stalls. In less than a week being in Xinjiang, the Uighurs now become brothers with me. We first shook hands and exchange the smiles of our faces, then we started talking, some were in English, some in Chinese. Once they know that Im from Malaysia, they will recommend me an energy drink that they say its made in Malaysia. When I looked at it, yes the address was in Shah Alam but honestly, I never heard of the brand… hehe. Maybe its just for export. And being here on the desert, truck drivers became my friends too. Sometimes truck drivers offer me drinks and bread and some fruit sellers give me fruits for free. I have nothing to give them in return, so I told them I’m a musafir (traveler) and will pray for them. They smiled back… I also came across a Chinese cyclist from Urumqi about 180km away from Aksu, who are currently doing a big trip cycling from Urumqi to Chengdu through Lhasa.

the Chinese cyclist from Urumqi

I wake up early everyday, as early as 5am each day at the desert and it feels good. I never want to miss every sunrise and sunset, and to me, witnessing both sunrise and sunset in a day, is a complete day. Somehow, the feelings when the sun is at the horizon is magic. Maybe because it only happens in only a few minutes in a day, so it feels very special. I wake up early also because I love the lighting in early morning, for photography. And I love doing photography because of traveling. It all started back in 2008 when I saw a nice sunset from west Thailand overlooking the sky of Myanmar. The colours were amazing but sadly I couldn’t capture it with my compact camera. That was when I decided to get myself deep into photography, because I want the pictures to look exactly like how I see it with my own 2 eyes. And I never stop doing travel photography since then, always visiting Indonesia to capture the beauty of their mountains.

preparing to camp

now, make some coffee

enjoying the sunrise

My ride crossing the Taklamakan Desert was around 500km in distance, which is from Aksu to Kashgar, the last big town for me in China before entering Central Asia again. Somewhere halfway in the desert, I saw like a small mosque, a room for prayer for Muslims, a surau in the middle of nowhere. It was quite weird, since I saw no settlements anywhere around it and it was quite far from the road. And it was hiding behind hills too, I was lucky to be able to spot it from afar. When I went near, it was abandoned. So after some 10 minutes of rest there, I got back on the road. Luckily I don’t receive so many headwinds here in the Taklamakan Desert, like the one I had in the Mongolian steppe. If I have to fight to strong headwind here under the extreme heat of the desert, I guess I will never be able to cross this desert successfully.

the surau spotted from afar

and i got nearer

in the middle of nowhere

abandoned…

Since the desert is so desolated, sometimes it can be scary crossing it. It can be scary especially when camping behind hills and rocky mountains, far from any humans if we are not used to it. But somehow after years of doing this, I find it actually safer to do that, rather than to camp near the road where we are on sight of passerby. Sometimes, I do feel humans are more dangerous than wolves. And about 40km away from Kashgar, I finally saw a small town from afar again. I then quickly rode towards towards it in search for food and water, as I was so thirsty and hungry. In a food stall, since there were language barrier, I just told the waiter to serve me any food since I was too hungry. Then everyone watched me feasting the food like a lion. After my body finally received enough food and water, I then rode the remaining 40km towards Kashgar easily again. And again… before reaching Kashgar, I saw police everywhere and roadblocks just before entering the town. The road was busy again with cars and trucks. I finally reached Kashgar, which now put me close to the border of Pakistan.

taking a rest under the shade

scouting for a place to camp

in search for a place to sleep

constructing my hotel in the desert

my luxury hotel for the night