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Published: October 4th 2007
Pingyao - Xi'an - Chengdu 9/5/07-9/19/07 This part of the trip was a bit of a whirlwind. We only spent a few nights in each place...except for chengdu, which I will explain why later.
Pingyao So lets see...Pingyao was a pretty cool little old city. The city itself has a huge stone wall surrounding it and the traditional chinese style buildings with the upturned corners. It seriously looks like the setting for a Bruce Lee movie. We popped into a local restaurant for a nice bowl of noodles and yak meat...mmmm...yak meat. Actually the meat was pretty good...a bit gamey but good. After a bit of chirades (I'm quite good at it after 2 months of confused faces when I try speaking English), we ordered a bowl of noodles with meat each. The cook jumped into action and pulled out a hunk of dough and began hand making the noodles right there on the spot. (I think I put in a pic). It was pretty cool how he did it actually. He held on to the ends and flung the middle up into the air. Then, he slammed the middle down on to the flour covered table. Then
he separated the dough into noodles by spreading his fingers apart. Cool thing to watch..hard to explain. Anyway, after we ordered I had a funny feeling that something had gone wrong in the ordering process (as it usually does). The waiter proceeded to bring out two bowls of piping hot noodles accompanied by a fatty plate of nothing but yak meat. I'm talking piles of it. Confused faces....Then we realized that we had ordered two of everything and another entire yak was on the way...oops. We were a bit full after that meal.
Xi'an The Terra Cotta Warriors were the highlight of Xi'an. That and seeing Slocombe stumble into the hostel wasted. First the warriors. So, this is the last time that we booked into a guided tour for awhile. We left our hostel at 9:30 am to have a nice tour of the warriors. We were told they were only and hour away, which they were, but we didn't end up seeing them until 2:30 pm. First they took us to the Bampo Civilization, which looked like nothing more than squares and holes cut into the ground. I know I sound a bit ignorant but seriously this
was no different from any of the other neolithic museums I've seen growing up. So, that was a bit of a bore. After that we were like, "ok....we put up with that, but now comes the cool part" Not so much. Our guide announced that we would now be going to visit the Terra Cotta Warrior Factory. Wait..weren't the warriors created and completed thousands of years ago (246 BC actually)? Yes, that is correct. She took us to the largest terra cotta souvenir shop in town. That was fun. Sales people yelling at you to try and sell you a mini warrior (which were pretty ugly) or perhaps a rolex? Yes we just happen to have rolex watches at the terra cotta factory along with all the other crappy souvenirs the country has to offer. Anyway after that we were on our way to the warriors....with just a quick detour for a pre-planned lunch that we were not aware of. Are we ever going to see the warriors? The lunch ended up being a feast. It was a bit of a factory itself though. We were arriving just as another tour group was leaving and then as we were leaving,
another group was just showing up. I guess we gotta eat sometime. Anyway, FINALLY we made it to the site of the warriors. The problem was that by the time we arrived we only had about 2 hours to check out the entire museum, which consisted of four different buildings. At this point we had left our hostel five hours prior. And, as everywhere in China is, there were swarms of chinese tourists. Every time you went to get a look or a pic of something, someone was bumping into you or jumping in front of your camera. Anyway, I know I'm complaining a lot, but the warriors were cool. A brief history: It took several hundred thousand workers to build the site under Emperor Qin Shi Huang. It took over 36 years to complete. Apparently the warriors were constructed to protect the tomb of ther emperor against invading armies It was discovered by a group of peasants digging a well out in a small village in the middle of nowhere back in the early 70's. Thats would be a bit of a suprise! Anyway, I guess under different circumstances I may have enjoyed it a bit more. So, word
of advice: If you go to see the Warriors, tell the tour guides to piss off and go yourself.
Ok...so we made a few friends with some of the travelers at the Shuyan Hostel and decided it was a good idea to go out for a bit of boozing. We made it out to the Yo-Yo Bar on yes, you guessed it "Bar Street." Bar Street is a little street slammed with tons of bars just waiting to usher you inside. We were swayed by the promise of a free round of beer, which ended up being a free round of Chinese brandy. The shots were passed out and after a few moments of " shit..I really don't want to take this" we gathered some strength and took 'em down. Mmmm....Chinese brandy tastes like rubbing alcohol and gives you a killer hangover the next day. After some live chinese music, which was complete with the Titanic song (they love that song here), and a few more beers, we were off to the disco. We were greeted with loud techno and fog machines. I decided to head over to the bar and make friends with the locals. For some reason
Mmm..noodles
A cook in Pingyao making noodles as we order them.they took a liking to me and kept sending down cans of Coors Light of all things. I was soon joined by Slocombe, who I left a bit after to go and bounce around on the dance floor. After throwing down some moves with a local girl, Heather (the Aussie girl we've been traveling with for a few cities) came over and gave me the " We're all going home" sign. So, everyone left, and after a lap around the bar to check for Slocombe, I soon followed. On the way home, a wasted chinese girl stumbled over and began ranting that she loved western boys. She said (in drunken slurred speech)," Western boys are beautiful! I loooove western boys! She then turned to one of the guys from our crew I was walking back with, who is cleary white, and asked him if he was Indian. Wow. Unfortunatly, she was with her boyfirend, who was trying to pull her away and shooting me looks of death at the same time. Hey man...she came up to us. Anyway, we arrived back at the hostel and I began chatting with Heather about the events of the night. Then mid-way through the
conversation, I said, "So, did Slocombe go off to bed?" She gave me a puzzled look and said, "I thought he was with you". Uh-oh. With perfect timing Slocombe burst through the doors, tripped and fell on the ground, got up and said pointing at us, " You F*'ers left me!!!" Heather and I hit the floor laughing. Apparently, he also made friends with the locals and proceeded to play dice for a few hours. He got up to leave and realized that I, along with the rest of our crew, were no where to be found. He made his way out of the disco and had no idea how to get home. Oops. After a bit of drunken reasoning, he started off in a direction that ended up getting him back to the hostel. While I thought it was hilarious, he was raging pissed. We made a pact never to assume the other had left without
explicitly informing the other. I'll forever have that image in my head....(I'm laughing right now writing this).
Chengdu Sorry this entry is long, but just bear with me...theres not a lot to tell about this city. On the 18 hour overnight
train ride to Chengdu, Slocombe had an extremely bad case of the runs and spent the majority of the ride sipping water and dashing for the train toilet (which was covered in you don't want to know...everything). Poor guy. He got left at the bar and now this. Anyway, we told ourselves that if either one of us came into this type of predicament, we would check in to a nice hotel with our own throne and chill out for a bit. We checked in, got situated, and then it hit me. After a sprint to the pot, I yelled to Slocombe through the bathroom door, " I think I'm in trouble too, man" The rest is history. After 4 days of "what the hell do we have" and frantic searches on the internet for the worst case scenario of what was brewing inside, we decided to breakdown and take our emergency anti-biotics to kill the beast. Why didn't we take them earlier? Because spending the night on the throne is sooo much fun. Every time one of us would come out of the bathroom we would just burst out laughing....at least for the first few days. After that it
was just sad. I started to feel better, but it took poor Slocombe weeks to recover completely. In five days, we didn't venture more than a quick dash away from our hotel with a back-up supply of TP in tow just in case. After that, we were feeling a bit brave and went to check out the Panda park. The grounds were awesome. I was quite impressed with the habitats that they had to live in. Very spacious and much better than those we have back home. The panda's were very cute. The adults weren't too keen on coming out to say hello, but the toddlers had no qualms. They bounced around, climbing trees and play fighting. One of the little one's was getting a bath when we arrived. I dare you to show me something cuter than a wet baby panda! A set of twin babies had been born weeks earlier and they were bitty (they fit in the palm of your hand when they're first born). It was the first time in history that two babies from the same litter had survived in captivity. They were both in a little play pen napping away dreaming of delicious bamboo
Acrobatic Kids in Xi'an
After I took this pic, she spun herself in a circle while holding onto a post with her teeth...crazy shoots.
Other than this trip, we went out to Leshan to see the world's largest buddha statue. It was actually pretty cool..and huge. A monk went through great lengths to get the construction approved by the country including blinding himself...talk about dedication. The statue is carved into the rockface itself and took 90 years to complete. The statue is 71 meters from top to bottom, has a head 10 meters wide, a nose 5.6 meters high, ears 7 meters long, and legs 28 meters from knee to foot. Thats a big buddha! (I'll try and put up pics of this later)
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Noah
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great bar night recap!...I was busting up
whatup from da sea