Cloud Geography

Tsetsege trimming skins in warehouse. Emeelt 20 km outside Ulan bator

Tsetsege loading truck with skins to take to warehouse.

Tsetsege’s surrounds. She runs a skin trade in Emeelt outside Ulan Bator

The trek to the water station

Ger District Ulan Bator. Checking water supply

Ulan Bator Ger District where there is no running water. Washing dishes.

A year ago we put a mechanism on the water pipe that filters all the water coming into our loft.The filters need to be changed every three months. Con Edison spent a couple of weeks tearing up the block and suddenly we had no water pressure. We checked the filter though we had changed it two weeks earlier, it was full of sludge. We replaced it. two weeks later no water pressure We replaced it again.Less than two weeks later same story. I dialed 311, they transferred me to the loft board. The answer  was remove the filter. When I mentioned quality of water he said “we don’t deal with water quality". New York City is supposed to have the best potable water. I called the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). They don’t deal with it either. I suppose I have it easy. In Ulan Bator where we filmed last summer the hilly ger (yurt) district has dirt roads, no running water and the coupon allotment is one litre per person per day after which one buys the water.Meaning at least half a days work for a family of four.Often children are charged with this task.

A day that went from the sublime to the ridiculous. The morning at Subashi Lost City an ancient Buddhist site near Kuqa in the middle of nowhere with noone there but us and the site attendant. Evening near the Urumqi airport in an excessive hotel with whirlpool and waterfall waiting for our early morning takeoff to Beijing. 

Landscape around Kuqa China, hiking in Tian Shan Mountains. This part of China had very few tourists who weren’t Asian. We saw a handful in Kashgar and none after that.

Night market, Kuqa China close to the Kizil Caves, a Buddhist site along the silk road

Billboard in Hotan China

Hotan. Tomb of four Imams. Pilgrimage site 

Weaver. Hotan Silk Factory China

Weaver at Hotan Silk Factory, China

Ahmet Carpet Factory Hotan China. Women’s fingers move fast, they’re paid by the piece not by the hour.

Ahmet Carpet Factory Hotan China

Jade River, Hotan