We received yet another wake up call at 7:30 and dressed for warm weather. We had fried egg sandwiches for breakfast with strawberry jam and toast. I think it was the best breakfast of the trip. We got on the bus with all our bags and headed for the dunes. When we arrived our tour guide told us to take off our shoes if we wanted to because the sand was cool enough for our feet. It felt so good. It was like a multiple hour massage. We all rode sleds down the dunes on little bamboo sleds as well. It was fun but I only rode it once because I wanted to go climb the dunes and walk along the top. We could either ride a camel or explore on our own and Selina and I decided to explore on our own. On the way up the dunes, it was slow going because our feet kept sinking, we saw Ryan and Bill completely wipe out on their sleds on the next dune over. It was very entertaining. We finally made it to the top and the view of the dunes on the other side was incredible. There were no feet prints, just miles of unmarked sand and the sunrise. We'd been sitting up there for about half an hour when a man came up with a Spurs t-shirt on. We asked him if he was from Texas and he said he was from Austin. We both kind of just sat there in shock and then we told him we were from Austin as well. His and his family live in Shanghai and he's working for Dell. That world keeps shrinking by the minute. After a few more minutes Mitch came trudging up the Dunes with Ben and we walked along the top with them on our way back to the bottom. Once again, some Chinese people on the top of the dunes asked to take their pictures with us. They seemed very excited to see up on top of a dune in the Go-bi Desert.
After the people who rode camels finished their rides we went back to the night market for lunch and then headed over to the Mogao Caves. They weren't underground but were carved out of the side of a mountain. We weren't allowed to bring cameras because the light would ruin the colors and everything inside the caves. They are Buddhist caves originally done by monks over 1,300 years ago in the Tang, Song, and Qing Dynasties. One of the caves housed a Buddha that was 115 ft tall, the 3rd largest sitting Buddha in the world. The largest sitting Buddha was twice that size but it was destroyed by the Taliban in Afghanistan. It amazed me how well preserved each cave was, the murals on the walls and the sculptures still maintained color and shape. It felt strange to be standing there with so much history surrounding you.
After the caves we ate dinner and then got on another train to take us to Turpan. We were all disgustingly dirty from climbing the dunes all day but we couldn't take a shower so we were smelly and gross together. We got on the train at 8 pm and had hard sleepers once again but this time my compartment had all Alliance students. It was only an overnight train so we went to bed right away to get as much rest as possible.
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