DUNHUANG, CHINA: RIDING CAMELS IN THE GOBI DESERT

After our two-day pre-tour tour in Xi'an, we boarded a plane with the other members of our tour group and flew to Dunhuang, a distance of about 1,070 miles, or just a little farther than it is from where I live in Redlands, California, to Portland, Oregon. 

The Dunhuang Airport definitely looks like it belongs in China

The airport had one of those "think happy thoughts" signs like the ones we saw in Xi'an. This one advises, "Create a national civilized city, establish Dunhuang's new image."

There is always plenty to see out the bus window. Nope. We don't have these three-wheelers in California:

These fields of flowers were a wonderful contrast to the rather brown landscape:

Our bus took us straight from the airport to the edge of the Gobi Desert for what would be one of the more bizarre travel experiences we have had--camel riding.

It wasn't our first time on camels. We have ridden them in Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco. However, this camel experience was very unlike the other three.

When you are in the desert, you need a good hat, and there were plenty for sale. I was tempted, but I already had a hat (albeit a boring tan-colored one).

Before we could meet the camels, we were given a pair of fluorescent orange cloth moon boots to put on over our shoes. 

They looked ridiculous, but in the end we were so grateful that we had them. They kept the fine sand out of our shoes.

It was quite a sight to see hundreds--even thousands--of people walking around in these boots:

As we approached the dunes, we could see long strings of camels winding lazily into the hills:

Here they are, our trusty steeds waiting to take us on an adventure into the Gobi Desert:

There were SO  MANY of them! We were told that they keep 10,000 camels here for tourist treks. 

They have a bizarre nose ring that fits in their nostril. I assume this is something similar to branding, but I don't know that for sure:

We were impressed by how quickly they got our large group seated on camels:

Disneyland could learn a thing or two from this place about how to move a line along more efficiently:

The camels are roped together in groups of four or five. We had five in our group. John was on the front camel, which was led by a walking camel . . . master? driver? expert?

Then came Bob,

. . . followed by Colleen, our 82-year-old traveling companion,

. . . followed by me:


. . . and then by Susan:

We made a pretty handsome caravan:

It was our first time riding two-hump (Bactrian) camels, and we found them to be MUCH more comfortable than dromedaries.

The Great Gobi Desert awaited our team . . . 

. . . along with a thousand other teams ahead of us and a thousand behind:

Camels and riders could be seen in every direction:

You would think the tourists were all Americans, or at least Europeans, but as far as we could tell, we were among the very few foreigners there. Almost everyone appeared to be Chinese. I wonder if this is Disneyland/amusement park-style entertainment for this area of the world. There were lots of families with kids, even toddlers and babies on their laps, and there were lots of young people in their late teens and early 20s. Is this a hot date venue?

In any case, there was something about these lengthy lines of camels with their orange-booted passengers that was both surreal and hilarious. I found myself riding along with a goofy grin and even laughing out loud several times during the hour-long ride.

All too soon we came to the end of the ride:

Bob and our trusty camel master (who was not wearing orange boots):

We kept those boots on for the next part of this Gobi Desert adventure: playing in the dunes and seeing the surrounding sights.