The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us

Being a weekend in Urumqi that I was not snowed in due to roads being shut down by a blizzard, and considering that for the first time in my life being in an area relatively easier to pick up winter sports, I decided to learn snowboarding at the ripe young age of 30. Hopped in a bus and headed over to Nanshan (Baiyang gou) at the base of the Tianshan mountains about 75km away. I was expecting to spend a lot of time on my butt in full embrace of gravity, but I wasn't expecting the slopes to be covered in ice. After about 3 hours of non-stop falling on hard ice and being slammed into by mainlanders who had no control of their skiis, decided that if I was going to be sore I might as well get sore doing something more productive. Switched plans, and agreed with a local Kazakh to rent horses for 2 hours into the hills. Much better... it's still a bit trippy to be in mountains with completely different vegetation as you overlook the desert. Also quite thrilled to be finally somewhere near nature, for the first time since living in SFO.

As this is the last weekend this month I have in Urumqi, I'm glad I spent it productively. In a few hours I'll be doing a "working road trip" to visit the border crossing points with Kazakhstan; namely Dzungarian and Korgas gates, plus a visit to Illi before back to Urumqi. The +3000km trip (according to my colleague, but that doesn't sound right to me) will take about 5 days cross the country over primitive roads. Although much slower, would probably be better off on a horse, the cold is a minor detail which needs to be considered though.



Who would've known that I'd still be doing road trips, and longer than any I did in college, at this day and age. I may be a little while.