Sept. adventure trip in Xinjiang, anyone to join?


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newdonkey

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I am looking for 2-3 travel mates to go Northern Xinjiang on 14 – 27 Sept 2007. Plan to rent 4WD vehicle, and the whole journey will cover 3,200KM, the route deliberately designed for photographers::

D1: Take flight to Urumqi (transit in Shanghai or Chengdu)
D2: Urumqi- Bayinbuluk grassland (巴音布鲁克草原): shooting the sunset at Jiuqu River (九曲十八湾)
D3: Bayinbuluk grassland to Nalat grassland （那拉提草原）, Bayinbuluk grassland is the second largest grassland in China.
D4: to Ining City (伊宁) and Sayram Lake (赛里木湖): shooting the sunset at Sayram Lake;
D5: to Moguicheng(魔鬼城): shooting the sunrise at Sayram lake and sunset at Moguicheng.
D6: to Buiqin (布尔津), shooting the sunset at五彩滩
D7-D10:
Option 1:
D7-D9: horse back riding from Jiadengyu to Kanas (喀纳斯),
D10: shoot in Kanas in the morning and drive to Bahaba (白哈巴)

Option 2:
D7: horse back riding from Jiadengyu to Hemu (禾木);
D8: Hemu (禾木)- Kanas (喀纳斯)
D9: Kanas (喀纳斯) to Bahaba (白哈巴)
D10: visit Baishahu白沙湖, 白沙湖 is the hidden land from tourists, it is not well known so far.. To get there, we need 4WD + trekking in dessert for 1 hour. 白沙湖 is basically a lake surrounded by dessert, here you can see nobody and you can hear nothing, but peace.

D11: Back to Buiqin (布尔津)
D12:Back to Urumqi via road No. 216, you can spot some wild animals on the road. If we got time, we can visit 五彩城 and shoot the sunset at 五彩城 (Muti-colored Bay).
D13: to Heavenly lake,
D14: back to Singapore.

Budget is about S$2,000 (including airfare):

Airfare: S$800+
Car rental+ experienced local driver S$400 /person (AA share)
Accommodation: S$250 (twin sharing), sometimes may need to sleep in tent,.
Meal: S$250
Others: S$200

Note: The persons who want to join must not be fussy with living conditions and willing to help others. This is adventure trip at your own risk, it was highly suggested to purchase travel insurance before setting off.

If interested, please send PM or email to me at davidlzq@yahoo.com, you are very welcome to post any suggestion here. Seats will only be reserved to those confirmed persons.
 

May look a tad rush for photographers trip...
Remember to check with the driver abt the road conditions. Else, you may not be able to reach certain places for sunset etc...
 

May look a tad rush for photographers trip...
Remember to check with the driver abt the road conditions. Else, you may not be able to reach certain places for sunset etc...
Click to expand...

Urm, thanks for your concern. That's why I choose 4WD, small group, and we will definitely have enough time for sunset at the most beautiful places. Of course, there always have something unpredictable happen on the road, but we can adjust our itinerary anytime, since we only rent the car and charged by days.
 

Hi , can you share some of your travel photos.. would be glad to know what you go for during travel photography.cheers:)
 

Bro,
Last year, I did a very similar route as yours - except that we went in the reverse direction.
In two weeks, it was a mad rush. We would spend almost the entire day on the road - distances are huge in Xinjiang. And we didn't even have time to go to Heavenly lake and Yining.
I made a few mistakes during that trip.
1. Chose a wrong time to go (June/July). Aug/Sep is the best time if you want to photograph the autumn in Kanas. The only good thing was that because of summer, we got very long days - sunrise at 5 am, sunset around 930-945 pm. There would be light even at 1030 PM.
2. We were too ambitious in trying to cover as many places as possible.
3. We were a group of 8 and had hired a van with a driver. Too big a group. Its a good thing you are restricting yourself to 4.

If you fly via Chengdu, you will spend a long time in transit at Chengdu and will waste one whole day.
If you fly via Shanghai, you will have to transit from Pudong International airport to the HongQiao airport. You will waste a lot of time in commute as these two airports are in two different ends of Shanghai.
I flew Air China via Beijing. You can take a night flight from Singapore to Beijing. There is a morning flight at 815am or so from Beijing to Urumuqi. This way you will reach Urumuqi around noon.

Good luck for your trip. You are going at just the right time. Just be a bit more conservative in your planning. I am sure you will enjoy the trip.
"Nuts" is a veteran. You should check out his thread on Xinjiang in the Travel section. He has got some fabulous photos.
Cheers
 

Eh, asterixsg, not a veteran - just been there once only!!

But since I also went in Sep, I can tell you that Sep is a popular month. And not just distances is great, but some place you have to reach there & fight for tripod space........ ;)

Btw, I remember Urumqi is served by quite a no. of flights by China Southern to Guangzhou, so thats an alternative...

All the best!
 

Last time i flied from S'pore to Guangzhou, then transfer to Urumqi. Pretty smooth :)
 

Thanks for viewing, full seat liao. For all the adventure lover, maybe you will be interested in my next trip to Tibet via Chuan-Zang Xian.
 

newdonkey said:
China has lot of outdoor clubs, the famous one I know is 磨房, http://www.doyouhike.net/forum/,
just think why Singapore dun have this kind of club.
Click to expand...

there is a club that i know that include a forum section for discussion.

http://www.sac.org/index.asp

some more adventure clubs/companies below...


http://www.adventuregearpost.com/index.asp

http://www.aceadventure.com.sg/

http://www.x-trekkers.com/

http://www.safra.sg/interest.aspx?pageid=77

http://www.camperscorner.com.sg/main/index.php

there of cos may be others that i am yet to get to know of.
 

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