Culture Shock and a 5 star Hotel.

Well, I'm writing this from an internet Cafe in Xi'an. Following my last blog entry we have visited The Summer Palace in Beijing, which is located on the shores of a lake. As the winter chill has now set in in Beijing the lake was froken, so we were able to safely walk across, all except Nick who nearly fell in.

As a gift, James who had been looking after us in Beijing surprised us with a night in the Swissotel, a 5 Star hotel in the East of the City. Whilst the others all made the most of the facilites such as gym, pool and sauna, I elected to have a lie in, in true luxurious surroundings. We made quite an impression on the staff who were rather taken aback at our apperance complete with 75 litre rucksacks. The breakfast the next morning most surely deserve a mention. We ate our way through stacks of bacon, toast, sausages, hash browns, and beans. Again quite a sight for the regulars at the hotel.

One check out later and we were at a sacred Buddist temple, where the essence was embraced by us all as we lit some scented sticks and made wishes. The spirit of the place was very unique. The jewel in the crown of the temple was a 26 metre high statue carved from a single Sandwood tree. It left us all in awe.

We went for out final Beijing meal, an Indian curry with James and his work colleagues.

Up at 5am this morning, we just made our flight to Xi'an. After spending nearly 3 hours looking for our hotel we found it, or so we thought. It turned out we had been directed to the wrong hotel with the same name. Finally we checked in and could relax. The rooms are very nice and clean and for a very reasonable price. We decided to take a stroll through the city and sampled some tentacles and caramelised strawberrys.

One taxi ride would get us too the Railway station and the tourist information centre. Firstly we couldn't hail a taxi for love nor money and secondly on arrival, we discovered half the poplulation of Xi'an trying to buy train tickets. This included many beggars and one local who decided to rather offensively poke us with his stick.

After getting the information we needed, we successfully managed to get a taxi back. The taxi driver was very horn happy, and seemed prepared to run over any one or thing that dared get in his way. After 15 minutes of constant horn blowing, rather amusingly, smoke starting billowing from under the hood. We decided to walk the short distance to our hotel. And so here I am in an internet cafe in Xi'an.

Xi'an is very different from Beijing, we seem to be the only white people in the City and certainley the peoples reaction to us is more curious than in the Capital.


Jx

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