Gallery Cafe, Kashgar

The artistic juices flowed and the imaginations bubbled forth. The result? A fresh new look to the Gallery Cafe in Kashgar. Want western food? Can't find a western restaurant while touring Kashgar? Visit our new western cafe! We serve pizza, coffee and cold drinks. During the summer we also offer various summer drinks.

We put in a bar table with stools, that sit on a bookshelf filled with books for those who want to do a book exchange. And we built two little semi-booths with comfy seats for those who just want to watch all the activities on the street go by. Here are photos to the new look of the Gallery Cafe in Kashgar.

So here we are, in the desert. Kashgar is a small city right in the desert. The weather is hot and dry, really dry...or so it should be.

This summer has brought strange weather with it. Usually residents of Kashgar are begging mercy from the scorching sun by now. Instead Kashgarians have already adapted to the tropical style rain. Every few days, a downpour covers all of Kashgar. The buckets of rain usually start falling around evening when everyone is getting off work, or shortly there after. The strange weather has been a non-stop topic for discussion.

Everything costs.  For some it's not the price, it's the principle.  Rather than signing up with expensive and elite tours, they'd rather see the place, the real place.  So how?  Here's a short guide of free or low budget things to do while you're in Kashgar.  Whether you're a budget traveler or you are just against the principle of joining a tour here's a nice list of things to do in Kashgar compiled by The Gallery Cafe.

Today I received an email from my sister-in-law. She just returned to the States. It seemed to me that she left less than 24 hours ago. She flew from Shanghai to Detroit and even managed to clean out her attic when I received the email. I was shocked at how quickly she arrived. She had a direct flight, and obviously everything went smoothly. Immediately I was reminded of our recent 36 hour ordeal. The Gallery Cafe Kashgar had to go to Urumqi and we took, not one, not two, not even three but four sleeper buses.

After much thought and more thought The Gallery Cafe has made a bold decision. We rented out the upstairs and we're renovating the downstairs. Two days ago a man walked in from the streets of Kashgar and wanted to rent out our basement. We told him it wasn't available but if he was interested in the upstairs, we could rent it out.

A frequent question that never grows old is: "Should I fly or or is the train really worth it?"  If this was 6 years ago, I would not have hesitated to say "YES! Take the train!  It's absolutely necessary otherwise you won't get the real feel of things.  If you want to travel and soak in the culture and the people, you MUST take the train."  There would be nothing you could say to argue my points. Nowadays, I have a much more balanced view.  I would begin my answer with:

What meets your eye is absolutely stunning. The immense mountain ranges are snow-capped and are reflected majestically by the lake. The bright array of colours that meets you suddenly is breath-taking. We are looking at Karakul Lake. Sitting along the road to Tashkorgan from Kashgar is the highest lake in the Pamir mountains.

What? Salt in coffee? Yes say the experts. The salt brings out and mellows its flavour. Okay....but does it taste good? Our customers think so.

It's taken a while for the little city of Kashgar to appreciate the Gallery Cafe's salt coffee. But the adventurous tourists visiting Kashgar are not afraid to taste it. One visitor started out apprehensive and claimed to be a 'coffee snob'. After a few visits we finally coaxed her into trying out our salt coffee. The result? She was addicted and came back for one everyday she was in Kashgar.

We set out early in the morning from Kashgar and enjoyed a smooth ride all the way to Tashkorgan (also spelled Tashkurgan).  The best way to get there is to take a private car or van, depending on how many people.  Our Kashgar driver was very experienced, he made sure that we were awake and ready to admire all the beautiful mountain peaks, camels and yaks.  We were struck by the stunning colours of the mountain cliffs along the way.  Mines were scattered and Kygrgiz nomads had their tents set up along the way.  To say we were dwarfed by the magnificent mountains doesn't even begin to paint their magnanimity.  

Once, a few months ago a local Kashgar visitor came to our cafe. He wanted real coffee. However, he took one step into our cafe, saw our grinders and expressed his utter disgust "you use those pathetic lowly grinders? how can you make coffee with those grinders? There is no way you can make real coffee with those grinders." He then refused to even taste any of our coffees and ordered hot chocolate instead.
The contrast was the tourists that visit Kashgar, who generally walk into our cafe, take one sniff of the coffee aroma and say "ohhh...real coffee, we'll take two of those"
When we met a tourist on the street he inquired "do you guys have real coffee? is there real coffee in Kashgar?"
we hesitated to answer "well, i mean, our grinders...well..."

After days and days of rain and clouds, the sun has finally shone on Kashgar. Know to have hot, dry and sunny weather beginning at the end of May, Kashgar has felt very strange this year. Last year, this time we were being scorched by the very intense heat of the Kashgar sun. We walked in the shade when we could and were careful to limit how much time we spent in the sun. Yogurt and ice cream breaks helped us to get through each desert weathered day.

The Gallery Cafe Kashgar is now placed on Google maps!

Recently, thanks to one very observant visitor, we discovered the mystery to our spaghetti bolognese dilemma. Our cafe serves authentic western food, the ultimate favorite among Kashgar residents is our pizza. Next to pizza, people in Kashgar like to order our spaghetti bolognese. It didn't really come as a surprise to us, since tomatoes are readily found in Kashgar. In the very common local dish, lagman, tomatoes and peppers are often stir-fried with other veggies and served on top of noodles. So spaghetti bolognese somewhat resembles what they're used to. And as we have found residents of Kashgar are most comfortable with what they're used too.

Yesterday was just the greatest holiday in Kashgar. Thousands of residents of Kashgar flooded the streets to celebrate Children's Day. All primary school students got the day off school. Most parents took the day off work as well to celebrate the most lively holiday so far in Kashgar.