Masochism(My trip out of Lhasa)

So I decided to continue traveling with the Norwegians and we boarded a bus from Lhasa to 1100km (660miles) away Golmud. This was a 24 hour bus ride, and my bed was in the back again, surrounded by smoking Chinese men and metal bars forming the beds. I doubt the blankets were ever cleaned, there were bits of sunflower seeds all over mine. The bed was designed for somebody under 5'6", and it tilted up 45 degrees in the middle, underneath of that was the other person's feet. It got real cold at night since we were going through mountain passes around 5000m (15000ft.) The smoking was the worst part, my nose stuffed up quickly and my boogers were amazing when I blew them out when we arrived. But it wasn't that bad, I just will never take that trip again. And I won't have to because they are finishing the only train to Lhasa in less than 2 months. It follows the same route we took. But that means that there will be tons more Chinese tourists. Oh well.

Upon arriving we quickly looked for a ride to our destination, the city of DunHuang, 550km(330miles) north. We found a bunch of guys with cars and after a long frustrating discussion, we arranged a spacious, black, Lexus sedan for the ride for 600RMB ($75US). We were quite upset when they told us 500RMB, but that the Lexus wouldn't leave until the next day, so we agreed to ride in the VW. But as we (3 of us) loaded our bags into the back, a woman got into the front seat, and it turns out she was going to freeload, not pay anything, take the front seat and we would have to sit 3 men in the back, with some bags in our lap. So we said no thats not cool, we can take the bus. She got mad and said why can't 4 passengers sit in a 4 passenger car. We said we could get the same comfort from a cheaper bus and started walking to the bus station. Then our Chinese friend who was helping us bargain said they agreed to have the Lexus leave now for 100 extra RMB, no woman.

In Dunhuang we went and visited some caves that were made by Silk Road travelers, so there was tons of Buddhist statues and in the old days there were tons of artifacts, like scripts in many languages, I saw a bible in some random language, etc. All the goodies were taken by British and French expeditions in the early 1900s. There were a bunch of white people there with tour groups, and they looked pretty wealthy. They probably saw us and assumed we were doing things on our own, compared to their fancy tour. So I thought it was very funny when they were sitting around waiting for their tour bus and the 3 of us jobless backpackers hopped into our black tinted Lexus and sped off.

Tomorrow we are going to visit the western outpost of the Great Wall, and then travel on to Xi An.