Silk Road Expedition, Sept. 2, Day 2 – Dunhuang

Our wake-up call that day came a little after 4:30 AM, with not a trace of light in the sky save the stars. Feeling quite glad about my decision to move the tent the night before, I helped my roommate pick up camp along with everyone else, and then we all piled into the bus for another bumpy, jolty ride down the dirt road to the Singing Sand Dunes, named after the sound made by the winds when they sweep through the dunes, or so claimed our guide.

It was there that we were to partake in possibly the most widely-anticipated moment of the whole two-week trip (Warning: The following is not for those who despise the sight of two-humped animals)–

 

That’s correct; climbing aboard none-too-pleasant-smelling stubborn camels and riding them up atop a large dune to enjoy a desert sunrise. Along with everyone else, I was quite excited…but then that sense of excitement quickly gave way to feelings of worry and anxiety once I realized that I had never ridden any animal at all in my entire life, much less a camel. Well, when I was small enough I used to try and ride the family’s golden retriever, Ginger, but I'm pretty sure that counts for squat.

(Whaaaat?)

 So needless to say, I had a flock of butterflies in my stomach when one of the guides of the company that organized all the camel rides suddenly pointed to me and then to a particular two-humped creature. Unfortunately, it didn’t help at all when my camel hastily got to his feet almost the very moment I had settled myself.

 Luckily, this wasn’t a case where it was everyone on their own in a mad scramble to try and get one’s beast of burden up onto the towering dune nearby. All TBC students were divided up into a group of four, who would then be paired in turn with a mini-caravan of four camels tied up to one another in a line, who would all be led by a guide up front through a well-worn path. Also, my anxious grimace soon vanished, and was rapidly replaced by a toothy smile once the realization of what I was actually doing finally sunk in.

The ride up the dunes was a... unique experience. Although the camels had no problem making the trek, their passengers were jolted around quite a bit by all the tramping through uneven sands. Also, my own camel (who I just had to give a name – Earl in this case, though now I wished I had dubbed him Humphrey) seemed to have a bit of an inferiority complex, as if he was dissatisfied with the fact that he could only be second from the front. Whenever I got clambered back on board him he was always the first one up to his feet, as if trying to prove himself (well, except for in the photograph below). And whenever the mini-caravan was moving along, he never wanted to remain directly behind the lead camel. Instead, he always seemed to be trying to walk alongside the lead camel, despite the fact that the line tying them all together deliberately prevented him for doing so, no matter how many times he tried.

 

Despite the quirks of the camels, we all made it to our destination atop the tallest nearby dune, where I enjoyed my first desert sunrise, and took as many photos as I could of it and the surrounding landscape… and thus, I went COMPLETELY overboard with my camera.

 

(The dune from which we enjoyed the view)

That's all for now; I've uploaded so pictures in this entry that Blogspot's getting kind of slow, even though I have plenty more. Stay tuned for part 2!