Xi'an - mastering the art of not falling down toilets (but falling off bikes instead).

We have come to quite like Xi’an. Aside from the Whitsundays, this is the longest time I have spent in one place during any of my travels. At first, it was a little daunting - it’s very busy, the traffic never seems to let up and the city is a surging mass of bodies and push bikes whichever way you turn - but we are relaxed into it now. We have learned to cross the roads as the locals do, i.e. just forget everything you ever learned about the green cross code and just go for it! The smog here can be horrendous too, it set in yesterday and it is unbelievably thick, but you get used to not being able to see the sun pretty fast. I think I am just finally used to being in China in general. It’s a wonderful country to travel, but there are many moments of standing on street corners feeling utterly lost and helpless and in complete frustration that you cannot communicate with anyone. Fortunately, that is one of my favorite parts of traveling, and even Mark seems to have relaxed into the challenge. Like I have said in previous blogs, if I wanted an easy life, I would sit round a pool in Spain for two weeks. It’s all about relaxing into it and knowing that you will find your own way in the end.

For all the great things about Xi’an, it is also known as the ‘city of thieves’, and we have seen our fair share of pick pocketing incidents, although thankfully, not personally. We have been followed numerous times, but I am always on the lookout for it, and I find turning round and giving a quick smile and wave to your would be pickpocket usually results in a shocked look and a red face from them, and they quickly disappear into the crowd. Just a little thing we picked up while traveling Morocco! It also helps that both Mark and I are together, and I always walk a little behind him in crowded places so I can see little gits who eye up his pocket or backpack and shout a warning to him.

I am feeling a little deflated at the moment actually. We head off to Beijing in a couple of days, and while I am looking forward to it (especially the two day trek on the Great Wall and camping out on it for two nights) I am so sad that it’s the final stop of this fantastic journey we have been on since February. I think our experiences here will have gone some way to help ease us into travel in India and South America, when we eventually plan those trips. For all the language barrier problems, the incredibly annoying touts, and general stress of independent travel in China, I am going to miss this country. At first, especially those first couple of days in Guangzhou when the ‘oh my God, what the hell was I thinking, lets just fly back to Australia for a month!’ thoughts were creeping in to my head, I thought China would have been at the bottom of my list of countries I would like to travel more of, but actually, its nearer the top of the list. For the most part, the people here have been great. Friendly and interested, and much less aggressive in their interest in Buddy than the people in rural Morocco were. While navigation of this vast country has been a huge challenge in places, we have managed it without a hitch. I don’t even mind the toilets now, if you resign yourself to the fact that they will always be filthy, it’s not so much of a nasty surprise and much easier to cope with! Also, I have mastered the art of opening toilet cubical doors without falling down the loo, and I am even managing to wee without getting any on my trousers, so score for me!

This trip has just not been long enough. I really do not want to go home, I want to continue on and never stop. It’s the freedom of traveling that I love. Not having a plan and just going with the flow wherever you fancy. I am free at home to, I don’t have work or schools to tie me, but it’s not the same as being out in the world. The thought of going back to that bloody village is just filling me with dread. I want to go home, to see my dad, my pets, my friends, but I want to delay it a little longer before we are stuck in that house day in, day out once again. Still, at least we have been doing something with out lives while the ignorant idiots who live in Occold there have spent the past two months indulging in their usual hobby of gossiping. When I am traveling, I feel like I can breathe, when I am there, I am just in a constant state of limbo. I am already planning the next escape now, how lame is that? Anyway, enough self indulgent whining, I am painfully aware that nobody wants to hear it, I made my bed etc etc. Back to Xi’an……

Weekends in Xi’an are something else. Saturday in particular was a very busy day for the city. If the Muslim Quarter seemed busy in the week, Saturday, it was heaving. More people, more food stalls, more fun. We visited the Great Mosque, which is just so old, its crazy. The gardens are lovely and there is some amazing architecture. We must have walked for miles around the city on Saturday; we were walking for five hours solid. We stopped to visit the City Wall, which encircles a huge part of the city and is 14km in total, and extremely well maintained. Our only experience so far with City walls have been ones in Marrakech and Taroudant; narrow, crumbling and in varying sates of disrepair, but Xi’ans’ city wall is fantastic. It is so wide, as wide as a main road. We hired bikes, with Mark and Buddy riding a tandem, but they were the most uncomfortable bikes in the world with very ropey brakes - mine didn’t seem to have any at all! Oh, and of course I fell off my bike, buggering up my ankle in the process! I should have learned by now that I am just too clumsy to do certain things.

Slightly fed up of Chinese food (however good it may be, sometimes you need a change) we opted for the European buffet restaurant at the Sofitel hotel. It was so nice to have stew with mashed potatoes and boiled veg for lunch! However, after a couple of weeks of eating very light small meals of noodles, sushi or dumplings, it did feel a little strange and heavy on the old stomach, hence the need to walk for five hours afterwards, in an attempt to walk it all off and feel normal again!

Xi’an by night is utterly fabulous. The Bell and Drum towers look amazing all lit up, and the streets are even more jammed than the daytime. The Muslim quarter really comes to life, with even more food and merchandise stalls and music. The kite flyers/sellers come out in force, and the sky around the Drum Tower if full of kites. It’s an amazing sight to see. The roads are even more dangerous than in the daytime though, it’s complete madness. For the first time, we opted for a taxi into the centre rather than walking, we didn’t want to take the risk crossing the roads!

One more day in Xi’an for us, and then we are catching the sleeper train to Beijing. I just hope we get lucky and get the cabin to ourselves this time, our cabin mates seem to get worse every time!

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