Footloose at the Big Goose

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Had a brilliant day today just doing our own thing again and basically ignoring much of the tourist trail.

We started out with a long walk to the Big Goose Pagoda. Most people catch the bus there and I guess just a month ago, the thought of walking more than a mile would have made me reach for my car keys but not any more! :-) We had a leisurely walk and browsed in curious little shops on the way, veering off briefly to explore what turned out to be a fish market full of live fish, carbs, eels, toads and turtles about to meet their makers. Not the most pleasant of places for anyone to see, nevermind a vegetarian so it only served to reinforce the reasons I made the choice I did to give up meat and fish. It was another scorcher of a day but we really enjoyed our walk.

As we arrived at the Big Goose Pagoda, we were greeted by the sight of the most staggeringly big water fountain show. It seemed like half of Xi'an had turned out to see the show which was accompanied by a warbling Chinese operatic soundtrack. It was just spectactular - 5 or 6 levels of water jets programmed to follow the music. We watched in awe, wondering why no-one had mentioned this to us before we left. When we reached the front of the pagoda, we found out why. It seems that the majority of tourists only come to the Big Goose Pagoda as part of their Terracotta Army tour and so they only see the front entrance. The fountains are round the back of the pagoda in a huge park area that you wouldn't know were there unless your timing was right. I guess we just timed it right!

The pagoda itself wasn't much to write home about. A simple, 5-storey temple, we paid the obligatory entrance fee and were allowed to climb up to the top. By the time we made it down again, we had just enough time to make it back round to the fountain for the next show (it happens every 2 hours). The day was still really hot so Glynn found himself a spot in the fountain where you could run around among the water jets and got involved in a water fight with a sweet-looking Chinese girl who definitely had a wild streak! Once Glynn had got himself soaked, we swapped places as camerman and I ran in for my share of the fun. It was just fab - we wanna go back again tomorrow! Even Jish got in on the act with a bit of water jet surfing. I guess bears need to cool down too!

We caught the bus back to the hostel which cost a staggering 1 Yuan each (that's less than 7p each) and then went and grabbed some local grub. We spotted some food counters last night that served weird looking pancakes, dumplings and bits of miscellaneous fried animal on a stick. Tonight we tried out the crispy pancakes (very nice), some vegetable pancake things (tasty) and some sesame coated balls which contained a red bean paste (not so good). 2 out of 3 isn't bad I guess! The night is still young so we're gonna try and explore the night market in a bit. See you tomorrow :-))

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