Dunhuang

I am way too busy to be spending any time catching up with the blog - so much of the summer is unaccounted for in the blog - and because of the camera theft in Barcelona some of it will never be documented. Still, I'm dedicating break time to at least posting individual pictures and very short stories. Here is a picture of the sand dunes in Dunhuang, the infamous location of the donkey wine adventure. As I said, you fly into the oasis that makes up Dunhuang by covering some of the most inhospitable desert you can imagine. We stayed at a very nice, and, sadly, essentially empty hotel on the edge of these massive sand dunes (the hotel folks were very happy to have us there). You could rent a bike and ride over to the edge of the dunes, but it cost something to actually get past the gate - once there you can ride camels and go sled riding down the dunes. It was an absolutely astonishing experience to sit out on the balcony, watch the sun go down, and the dunes slowly disappear - matched only by getting up early to see them reappear over breakfast in the morning. It was a short trip into town for donkey wine, cold noodle soup and a walk around a great traditional market.