Oh, the Xinjiang sun.  Even with sunglasses on I was squinting to keep from going blind.  My forehead, which during fair weather tends to drip small beads of sweat, now felt like a small waterfall was running down my face.  For ten full minutes I hadn't moved from this very spot arguing with a bearded man who was missing a tooth and looked like he hadn't bathed for weeks.  I've bargained for quite a few things during my time here in China - heck, I'd even bartered for the shirt and sunglasses I was wearing at the time - but I had never run into a man as stubborn as this camel herder.  Yet here I was in the middle of the Taklamakan Desert, the largest desert in China, making a fuss over five dollars to ride a camel.  And it was hot.

Even so, Mr. Stubborn Camel Herder felt his camels were worth a lot more than I was willing to pay.  So there I was, standing in the blistering heat for over 10 minutes bickering and yelling until we finally agreed on a price that didn't make me feel like I was being robbed.

The problem - at least as I see it - is that you can't just walk into a desert.  Well, technically you can, but everybody's going to look at your pictures and say "So...where are all the camels?"  It's like going to to Disneyland without getting a picture hugging Mickey or one of his friends.  It's sheer insanity to even consider such a thing.  Equipped with this knowledge herders easily take advantage of tourists like us, you just have to accept that fact going in.

Thankfully my adventure into the desert between the two humps of a camel was well worth the money.  For 20 minutes my unhappy animal slowly followed our guide through desert vegetation until...poof!...we emerged into an endless panorama of sand dunes.  It was beautiful yet at the same time somehow terrifying.  For about 20 minutes I got off my camel and sprinted like a little kid up and down the sand dunes, quickly coming to the realization that it takes a lot of energy to run in sand.  I couldn't imagine making any sort of lengthy trek along terrain like this.

 My camel, who was looking at me as if holding a grudge because I had forced him out here, reluctantly stood up and provided my transportation back to civilization.  Next time, I decided, I'll take a dune buggy or a small aircraft to enjoy the scenery but at least now I can say that I have ridden a camel in the desert.