Urumqi

I'm sitting in a very nice but extremely cold hotel room in Urumqi, I woke up with a head cold. Two engineers in red boiler suits are draining black water from a vent in the ceiling in the hope of getting me some heat. It's about -2C degrees outside and snowing but it's not as cold as Kazakhstan, a place which has yet to win me over. We only spent one day there, walking around the park and eating something which called itself pizza in an empty restaurant. I didn't go for the salami version which looked like slices of foot sole but mine had mushrooms, onions and cheese that tasted like Chanel No.5.

We boarded the plane for Urumqi last night and endured the torture of piped versions of the theme from Titanic, something by the Carpenters and 'Auld Lang Syne' on a loop until take off. Dinner was a box of assorted bread rolls and a pocket sized cucumber. After some turbulence we prepared to land and everyone promptly switched on their mobile phones, (the guy next to me had two) the whole cabin lights up like a Christmas tree and sounds like an experimental orchestra. On Chinese flights, the second the wheels hit the runway everyone flings off their safety belts and starts opening the overhead lockers to retrieve their luggage even though the plane is still travelling at around 120mph. Then everyone has to stand in the aisles listening to 'Auld Lang Syne' etc. for about 30 minutes while you wait for the immigration officials to get ready before the cabin crew are allowed to open the doors.

The hotel here is really nice and the staff are lovely, they even made us some food at about 1am last night (beef noodles in soup – delicious). Breakfast was cabbage buns (which are a lot nicer than they sound), hard-boiled eggs and instant coffee accompanied by 'Auld Lang Syne'. I've skipped going to the museum today so I can sit in my pyjamas and parka, chainsmoke and recover from jet lag before we set off on the road tomorrow. We're going to have a forage at the local Carrefore (supermarket) later for Snickers bars and pop but I can probably pick up a humidifier, machete and nylon Chinese New Year pants while I'm there. 

The boiler suits have left now and they haven't made much of a difference so I'm going to have to break out the baby blue blanket that I pinched from the London to Almaty flight. I don't usually steal things but as soon as we landed and I saw the snow banks I couldn't help myself and right now I don't feel any remorse, so I will deal with the credit crunch in my karma bank tomorrow.

Not sure how much internet access I'm going to get over the next few days but I'll save all my meal descriptions, musical musings and karmic expenditures/savings etc. until I can upload. TTFN.