Advertisement
Hello to you all back home, thanks for the messages and keep them coming!!!
Ok so we arrived in Xi-an shortly before our last blog and it is another busy city, the smog was really bad there and we both found it difficult to walk about with the heat and air so bad. On the first day we went out and headed up one of the main streets, mostly the same type of thing we saw in Beijing. After a short walk the air was getting to us so we headed inside to a shopping centre for something to eat. It was massive with about 7 floors that went al the way round an open middle bit so you caould see down to the bottom. Each floor only sold one or two things so you had the biggest shoe shop i have ever seen and loads of little jewelers right next to each other. THe shops here are so over staffed too. I dont know what their pay is like but i hate to think what the unemployment rate would be like if it was like Britain.
The hostel we stayed in was really good and there were
loads of english speaking people to chat with so we spent most of the first night in there. With big bottles of lager for about 35p and a free pool table its hard not to. Once we were a bit merry we decided to go round the corner down a street that the lonely planet book said was good for bars and clubs. We found a place called MGM club and went in there. Free entry and Funky house. It was mad. All the chinese in the club would come up to us and try talking to us and drag us on the dancefloor with them. Very friendly. It was quite late by the time we got there i think it closed about 4 so we went to McDonalds and then back home again.
The next day we did not get up till about 12, so we just had some breakfast then went back to sleep for a while. When we got up again after a couple of hours we went for a walk. We came across a market street that was really busy and sold all different kinds of fruit and vegetables and was known as muslim street.
The street was really pretty as it was getting dark and all the lights came on and all the locals were out on the street just playing cards and eating and chatting to each other. We were hungry again at this point so went into a little restaraunt that had an english menu and it was the most unusual one we have seen so far. On offer there was trotters, spinal cord, lips, tongue and intestines, basically every part of an animal is used. We just stuck to chicken and beef and it was very nice.
On Thursday we went to see the terracotta warriors and this time instead of booking the trip through the hostel, we decided to make our own way there which ended up being much cheaper. Laurie wrote down the places we needed to be in chinese so it was easy enough to get there. Firstly we got a taxi to the train station then got the bus to the warriors which took around an hour. The Warriors were founded by farmers in 1974 whilst they were digging for a well and came across them. The emperor about 2000 years ago wanted the warriors to
be made to protect his empire and he never wanted anyone to find them so he buried them all underground, made a roof over them and filled it with soil. You can see on the pictures the row of packed soil in between the rows of statues. You can also see the rotten wood that was used to form the roof. Most of the statues are smashed when they are first uncovered and have to be rebuilt piece by piece as they come across them. At the far end of one of the pits they had the unfinished ones lined up and piles of broken pieces that hadn't been matched up yet. Like an enormous 3d Jigsaw puzzle where you have to dig to find your pieces.
The museum that they have built on the site is really nice and would have been good to spend more time outside if it wasnt raining. That was the only rain we have had so far it actually made a welcome change as the air was much better that night. When we got back we went to the hostel bar and met up with 3 Aussie pilots who we had met the
night before. We had a drink inside and then one of the girls who worked at the hostel showed us down to Xi-an bar street. It was good to have a chinese speaker with us as she could order everything for us but she went home when we went to MGM again. The aussies had been there before as well and showed us the supermarket that is actually IN the club. I dont know how we missed it the first time but anyway you can buy bottles of spirit or lager and take it in to club where they give you glasses and a bucket of ice to go with it. We got a big bottle of Bacardi and five cans of coke for just over a tenner! and thats in the club! As you can imagine we cant really remember much after that. Except another late night trip to McDonalds!
So that was the last of Xi-an. Next day brings a new city and we caught a 6 hour train ride to Luoyang. We came here mainly as a stoppng off point on our way to Shaolin Si. When we first walked out of the train station we
were almost mobbed by taxi drivers who all wanted to drive the white folk to their hotel. Because they were not in their cars we didnt realise at first and thought they were offering us a lift in their own cars or something!! Again we had the name and address of the hostel written down in chinese and showed the driver. he nods his head and sets off. About 2 minutes later he pulls up (after picking up another passenger along the way) and points across the road to a hotel. The sign was only in chinese so we didnt suspect anything and walked in and up to the desk. This place doesnt look much like a hostel and when we told them we had booked a room they didnt seem to be able to find our booking. I showed them the name and address that we had written down and she said yes but only after a moment, very suspicious face on her. But we decided to stay anyway! Its definitely not the hostel we were supposed to be at but its only for a couple of days.
Today we hopped on another bus and went to the
Longmen Caves. Again the bus was really cheap and took us straight there. The scenery there was really nice and its Buddas which have been carved into the sides of the mountains. Each of the caves had plaques that were in English so we could read about the history of the place. All in all there was around 100,000 Buddas carved and over 2000 caves. Today it was really hot again 25 degrees at 11 this morning and we are both burnt again!!!
Tomorrow we are setting off to Dengfeng which is very close to the Shaolin Monastry. We will be catching a bus which will take around 2 hours and hopefully we will be able to find a place either there or at Shaolin Si itself.
Anyway hope everyone is well and we will tell you all about dengfeng in a couple of days.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.064s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 56; dbt: 0.0339s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
me an thee
laurie an donns
mmm spinal cord
yes were having fun we have actually just got to a place in the country side Shaolin Si. Very basic but well update you later on, let us know how we can contact you once you get to ibiza. love laurie and donna