China

Sometimes it is nice…

Most of the time Jason is quite nice, but we also have to get used to have someone on the back seat trying to help us all the time. Okay, we have our language difficulties if we want to find the way. Every sign is in Chinese or in Arabic here in the west.

Nobody in this area speaks english and Jason is eager to jump out of the car to ask the way. Sometimes we have the feeling we can better ask it using our hands and feet. Maybe its because jason has never been here before and also has a different dialect (he is from beijing). We guess it comes down to a lot of things why we get stressed out every now and then.

After hobbling on a very bad road for hours alongside the Ghobi Desert from Asku to Kuche we are tired and worrried about the car. Will it hold? We decide to have dinner in a restaurant nearby. Jason tells us he has to get used to travelling on these bad roads and thinks the government should do something about it. We laugh and ask him to write the president. We can use some support to reach beijing! We can use a good meal and head to.. guess what… a chinese restaurant. We let Jason order as english menu¡¯s in the west are non-existing.

We have quite some experience with Asian food and Jason seems to have more problems with finding the right choice. He told us that he had wandered around the center of Kashgar for hours some days earlier to find a nice restaurant. We can eat evwerywhere after India but yes.. we do skip the boiled goat heads. But, although picky, Jason finds a nice meal for the three of us. But then he orders raw garlic.

Euhhh Jason, whats happening with the garlic?

Eat it, ofcourse!

Raw?

Yeah… why not… very healthy?

all five chunks?

Yeah why not.. it takes away the breath…

Yeah we know!

We are happy not to drive tomorrow and look at jason nibbling on the fresh garlic. All these differences, although sometimes stressful, make us respect Jason a lot more. He is a nice and honest guy and while having dinner (we skipped the garlic) he tells us lots about China and all the rituals. For every piece of food he has a theory. Why its good and why its not good. We guess we will be very rich after travelling for 5 weeks with Jason!