Day 218 (China): km marker 2552 on G315 - 10km after Lop (not liking Hotan)

daily distance: 102km
total distance: 12,252km
riding time: 5-6h

In the room with my bike and a motorcyle I slept like a baby, had breakfast with Mehmet and his wife and some visitors and set out.

It was a nice morning, and it was supposed to be a short day. It wasn’t after all … I meant to stay in Hotan.

But that didn’t work out. The area was much busier than I had anticipated, but I was in Hotan before noon and looked for a hotel. Well … the Happy Hotel is not so happy. Described as a great place in the guidebook, it really isn’t. The owners were awful and so I decided to leave the place altogether after finding out that none of the internet cafes would let me on the net. Hotan is a busy and hectic place, so I left again. It has interesting statements in the form of statues.

I arrived in Lop soon thereafter and found an internet cafe without a problem, the place was not nearly as hectic and busy as Hotan.

As darkness approached I left Lop and found a place about 10km away from the town - a place where local workers were staying and was shown a room … and that was really it for the day.