18 Aug 2008, 精河, 6256km

It was awfully windy in the afternoon. The wind blew obliquely from front and killed the speed of my bike to less than 10km/h.
Blown sand looked like steam from ground in distance. Fine sand came into my mouth, eyes, and one of my ears. I had to cover those with swimming goggles and thin muffler like a robber.

It finally finished in the evening, then changed to rain. I'd just arrived in a small city, found a two star hotel and checked in. The woman at the front desk was nice and friendly. But her female boss was not so. She came after I checked in, found mistakes on the certification form of foreigner which the other woman filled in, called me to bring my passport again, and checked every detail. She herself made some mistakes though, mixed up available dates of my visa and my passport.
She told me with a cynical smile that authority would come to see me later. Indeed police came later to check on me, as I just came back from dinner. They told me I shouldn't go out again and sleep in the room. I don't know what the restriction was for. There were only ordinary shops or restaurants, and a small food market around which would close soon. And there seemed to be no internet cafe. Anyway, I just agreed. I didn't want to walk around in rain, was tired, and it was the kind woman who was alone at the front desk.