Daniel Dumbrill
Jiangbulake wasn’t even on our itinerary. While at a gym in Hami, a local recommended it to us. He said it’s where the locals go to escape the heat, and that if we went there we wouldn’t even need to bother with Altay. We still went to Altay later, but I’m really glad we took his advice. The scenery was epic, in places it didn’t even look real. It looked like something dreamed up by AI. This was also the first place I used the scooter we had strapped to the back of the RV. The massive spruce and pine forests in the distance were incredibly inviting, but completely inaccessible by car. So my wife and I found some small trails through the nearby villages and rode down. Up until this point I’d been wondering if bringing the scooter was a waste of space. This spot alone made it completely worthwhile.
Daniel Dumbrill
We continued west from Hami to Barkol Lake, a hypersaline lake with no outlet - the water leaves only through evaporation. The town itself is a lovely little Kazakh-majority place of single-story bungalows and narrow alleyways. I really wish I’d taken more photos of it. A couple of funny things happened while we were there. First, two Uyghur girls on holiday from Ürümqi kept following my eldest son around. They finally worked up the courage to ask for a photo with him, but insisted his two younger brothers join in - probably so it looked a bit less conspicuous. Second, we found a nice little Kazakh diner. The owner looked distractingly similar to a certain overseas American-asset Uyghur who used to work at Guantanamo (most of you will know who I mean). She was a spitting image and it was genuinely hard not to stare. She was incredibly sweet though — she played with and looked after our daughter the whole time we were eating. Still felt completely bizarre. 😅
