I am flying from Hongqiao to Urumqi. The people behind me are playing cards and always shouting and it was so annoying! I think that's what you get on a Chinese domestic flight?

In the Urumqi airport, there are 3 languages on the signs: Chinese, English, and Uyghur, written in Arabic. But you only hear Chinese in the airport. There is a big banner "Ethnic Unity of the Chinese Nation". 2 police are standing there motionless like statues. There are many photos showing the nature of Xinjiang on the walls. At each gate there are about 10 female Uyghur staff assisting you. There are just too many police and staffs here.

The flight to Belarus is predominantly Chinese. There are like two couples of a Chinese man and a Belarussian woman, one with a kid, and they speak Russian. Most Chinese here are confused, filthy, and dressed like low-level laborers - unlike the ones you see on a plane to America. They are playing mobile videos aloud and they keep invading your personal space and touching you.

Customs are much stricter in Xinjiang than in Shanghai. They check you from head to toe.

An officer approached me. He was holding my passport and plane ticket. "You were just there, why go again?" "I just traveled in Russia, and now it's Belarus." "Why? Your wife there?" "It's summer holiday." "Didn't you just came back? Where? Alone? Speak Russian? Parents?" Anyway after intense questioning from the officer who doesn't understand what is backpacking, I was finally free to go.

The customs officer at Belarus didn't ask me anything. He just handed my passport back and let me go. He didn't even give me a migration card.

Привет, Минск.

I am no Internet. MTS Russia doesn't work here and it's midnight now. But the Mir payment worked perfectly. 1.5 L water, 1.8 Rubles. There are a lot of taxi drivers walking around, saying, "Хотите такси?" I am taking the bus.

01:10. Minsk. It's raining. I am free, I am confident, and I am not afraid of anything. I am calm.

At the Minsk airport the signs read "Мінск".

I'm on a bus. 7.3 Rubles.

I am at the station "Марина Горка".

I went off the bus. The salary on the hiring ad is around 2000 Rubles.

It's very quiet here, just me and my suitcase. Who walks for an hour at 2 am in Minsk? There are no one around.

Here is the beautiful hotel. Both my phones still have battery. The hotel is open at 3 am, and the receptionist asked for my passport, nothing else.

And I feel like I am not traveling, I am not in a foreign country, I am returning home. How strange. There are still 9 hours to 12:00.

Доброе утро.

Сегодня:

1. Сбербанк
2. МТС
3. Go to the hostel 9 этаже

There are Ozon and WB here. Clean, quiet, beautiful, вот Минск.

Yandex Eda

I can't put money in Sberbank because it's a Russian card.

I went to MTS and I got a working SIM card.

It feels like a country frozen in time if you walk down the street.

This hostel is on the 9th floor of a Krushchevka. I could not get in so I called via WhatsApp, and they told me to ring apartment 135. And I was able to get in.

The hostel is 35 Rubles/night. There is one shower and one toilet. There is one room for man and one room for woman, and only one staff who also live here. There are free slippers and laundry service, though they put your clothes in the same washing machine as other people.

I am going to the supermarket.

The Europit salary is 1500 Rubles.

I returned from the supermarket, and they already hung my clothes.

I want to get a registration. The staff told me I should go somewhere where I'd be staying longer. Then he said we could do it here, but I need a bank card. Basically it's just very confusing, and I don't know if I need a registration.

People here are very tall, and I think the average for men on the street is over 6 feet.

There are a lot of children playing here. Someone said, "Nihao." The playground below my hostel is quite crowded.

The hostel is close to the train station, around 1.3 km walk there.

There is a man and woman in the room. But when I went in, they became quiet. They were quietly singing, "Электроклуб - Полчаса."

There is no hot water, so I am washing myself with cold water.

The staff is very concerned about electricity - he always turns off the light in the restroom after you use it.

And it's raining heavily outside.

The cheap hostel actually gets quite full in the evenings, and there are some older people in the room. No one uses a laptop except me writing my blogs. People don't usually talk much to each other here. Young people, old people, everyone is here, and people fall asleep quickly.

I fell asleep at 0 and woke up at 6:30. Everyone else was still asleep.

Добрый утро.

Everyone is making breakfast. I am the only person with a laptop.

I went outside. Most people here pay with cash. 5.91 Rubles, вода, 2 кефира, пенка. I gave her a 10-Ruble, and she asked, "есть сдача?" I froze and I gave all my changes, and she counted it for me. And I regained the ability to count coins I'd lost after not using cash for years.

Yesterday's receipt: йогурт, вода, пастила, макароны, 6 Rubles.

I went to the VTB Bank to get a bank card. I need a notarized passport, but I had one in Moscow. The clerk is called Yekaterina. She is very patient. Then suddenly she started clicking the mouse 10 times per second.

You can open a bank card easily, even without an official registration. You need 200 Rubles. And now I have a Belarussian bank card!

If you put coins into the machine to deposit into your card, they disappear.

I put 735 Rubles into my card. I still have 120 Rubles in cash. 70 Rubles for 2 nights in the hostel, 40 Rubles for sim card, 200 Rubles for activation, and I spent 20 Rubles on other things so far.

I went to the Отдел по гражданству и миграции because I thought I might need a registration. This is the only place you see a lot of black people and people from other countries here, and there are also locals. I don't know if it's necessary, but here I am.

You get yourself a number here. I got a number, and 14 people were ahead of me. I waited for over 40 minutes. I got a different number, and 30 people are ahead of this number now. Every now and then a number is called, but I do not know which number is next. The numbers do not follow an order and seems to be picked at random, and there is no waiting list on the screens.

There are two separate lines, one for foreigners, and one for Belarussians. I think 3 rooms are for Belarussians and one is for foreigners. I got a ticket for the Belarussian line, and there are 7 people in front. This is an absolutely hell here. I have waited over an hour.

The other foreigners aren't leaving either. It's been 70 minutes, and none of my numbers have been called.

90 minutes. Nothing. To hell with this place. Anyway, let's go somewhere tomorrow and just ignore it.

I walked around a lovely park. It's just small and quiet.

I booked a tour on Sputnik and we are heading there now. And I went on a bus with a bunch of Russians. It's 60 Rubles. I slept on the bus.

And they are still talking about ВОВ. It's annoying.

Then we stopped at Bogdanovich museum but we didn't go in.

It's "Масква" in Belarus.

The tour ends in a downpour.

I ate nothing but one bread. It's 18:30, and I went to KFC and got a burger, fries, and a coke. Then I got a kebab.

I am feeling really dizzy right now. But at least I have hot water to shower today. The staff walked in. "Гей?" I said, "Что?" Then he said "ключи" and I understood he meant "key". He asked if I am going out any more tonight, and whether I could give him the keys now as I am leaving tomorrow morning. I said, "Ну, может быть, я куплю воды завтра утром." He said he could unlock the door for me tomorrow. So I returned him the keys.

I was looking for my clothes. They hadn't been hung, but they were scattered across the couch and under it because more than a day had passed. Finally I found my clothes. I was feeling really unwell and dizzy. I regret not leaving this hostel sooner.

Then there is some light snoring. I put my Linux laptop into my suitcase.