Not your typical truck stop
Open-air cooking in a small town in China. These two were having a great time cooking. While we were there, they took delivery of the carcass hanging in the background
Lagman—a really common dish in western China.
The other day I wrote about the great meal we had at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Kashgar in western China.
After Kashgar, we spent the next eight days on the road, driving to Lhasa in Tibet. We camped at night and had our dinners and breakfasts made in the truck ‘kitchen’.
Lunches were more ad hoc. This part of China sometimes seems deserted. It’s a long way between inhabited places, and it makes you wonder where everyone lives.
Only once during that entire time, did we have lunch in a real town (Golmud with a population of just over 200,000). Other days, we’d roll into a small town that seemed to exist principally for travellers. I thought of them as China’s answer to a truck stop. Most had a hotel of sorts and a few small general stores selling snacks, drinks, basic staples and other necessities. Of course, there were plenty of mechanics and other vehicle-related shops. It was also quite common to see the local ‘medical service’ set up on the side of the road.
All the restaurants (and there were usually several) had the same menu with lagman (a beef noodle dish) being the most common item. In one town, our meal of lagman was made by two women (probably sisters) who had just taken delivery of a fat-tail sheep carcass, which they hung a few feet from our table. Even that didn’t put us off our lagman. It was delish.
Road-side medical services. We saw dentists too.
Where to next? 
Goodness Peggy! How unusual. And I wonder, as you say, where everyone lives. What’s Lhasa like? And, speaking of roadside medical services, how are you? Or do I have the timing wrong? In any case, I hope your bumps, bruises and other sore bits are feeling much better by now.
Take care.
Louise
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I am on the mend—slowly. My black eye makes me look like a cross between a pirate and a one-eyed raccoon.
As for Lhasa, I have posted some items in the Tibet category and will be doing more.
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