Cycling The Silk Road In China – From Kucha to Aksu

Today we started earlier (9:30 AM) with a visit to the market to buy some fruit for a healthy snack.
It is important to us to snack on good healthy things like nuts or dried and fresh fruit only.
We bought some yellow apricots which are very small here, but packed with flavor.
We also bought some bananas and white apricots.

We cycled 55 KM from Kucha to Baicheng.
The path was mostly flat with some trees growing on both sides of the road, which added some visual interest.

There were also people selling honey.
They raise bees and live in tents next to their bees.
Cycling through fields of swarming bees turned out safe.
Jules and I did not get stung and we stopped and bought some honey which is fragrant and tasty.
We ate it with the large flat bread that we bought in the market, right out of the oven.

We stopped for lunch at a Uygur restaurant in Beicheng.
Lunch was sliced tomatoes sprinkled with sugar, a potato dish and noodles.

We drove to Aksu in the rain.
It was our first real rain of the trip.

In Aksu, we checked into a lovely suite in a new hotel.
We plan to enjoy the next two nights in comfort, with a great living room, a computer desk, king size bed which we padded with extra soft blankets. (they sleep on mattresses that are extremely hard in China, but if you ask, they will pad the bed for you, to make it softer)

We went for a walk late in the evening into town.
We ordered some veggies and a flat bread in a ‘small hot pot’ restaurant, a large beer, mineral water, and two ice creams.
The food was fresh, nicely spiced and cost only 25 Yuan (around $4)