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Published: April 24th 2009
Well.. things seem to be progressing more smoothly these days. For the most part.
After we arrived in Xi'an... on Sunday.. after rolling out the last few bank troubles we headed to the Muslim quarter of the city. I'm not going to lie, I haven't been enjoying Chinese food ALL that much so far... but Chinese Muslims are a different story. The Muslim Quarter has a lot of character. The streets are lined with vendors selling dried fruits, kebabs, and many other very interesting things. This part of town is known for the food, and we happened to arrive around lunch time. The only problem was that all of the "restaurants" food stalls were outside... selling meat. So we searched and finally found one that wasn't selling meat on the sidewalk (convincing ourselves that the meat at this ONE location was sure to come from some magical refrigerator and not from the same exact sidewalk stalls 😊) So, we sat down.. it was a cafeteria style place with no english menus. Many of the people around us were eating huge plates of rice so we just started pointing to things. We quickly realized that the waiters just walk around with trays of food and you just choose whatever you want. We ordered two huge plates of rice and some kebabs (I think they were lamb). SO GOOD! The rice was super spicy with all kinds of chilis and vegetables and the kebabs had an amazing spice blend in them. Megan got a little nervous half way through the meal so Jake and I polished off the entire two plates of rice. (we are still alive and kicking... with normal bowels.. haha) Wandering along the alleyways we also happened upon many butcher shops.. one of which was selling cow livers. Cow livers are bigger than my head, and maybe one of the smelliest things (besides stinky tofu.. more later) that I have ever encountered. I wanted to take a picture but they wouldn't let me.
After lunch we headed back to our hostel. Not our favorite. The lobby was a very happening bar with insanely loud techno music and there was the loudest construction site I have ever heard across from our window. Needless to say, we didn't sleep well that night and ended up switching hostels the next day. Our new hostel was much quieter with BEAUTIFUL courtyards, free internet, free coffee, and free water. I loved it there except for one small problem... Oh yes... Bed Bugs. My new nemesis. I woke up on Tuesday morning with an odd feeling. Basically, my entire right foot and ankle, right hand, and right shoulder ... well basically my whole body really, is covered in bug bites. I also happened to be one of the itchiest people alive naturally so this is quite torturous. Ah well. Moving on.. On monday we rode bicycles along the city wall. Xi'an's city center is surrounded by a huge wall (originally to keep out intruders) that is about 14 km around. We spent about 2-3 hours riding around on the most rickety bicycles I have ever seen. I was shocked every time I hit a bump that I was still upright and hadn't been thrown to the ground.
Riding bicycles made us quite hungry (I sure am talking about food a lot). We wandered down a street near our hostel with lots of art supplies and souvenirs, and found a small restaurant that had no english menus but did have pictures! And to my delight this was another Muslim restaurant. The coolest part of this meal was that our noodles were made fresh in front of us. In the corner there was a man who started out with a huge pile of flour and water. After 25 (at least) minutes of kneading the dough he began to roll it into long thick rope-like strands. He would throw these up in the air and then bang them down on the counter making a long braid. All of a sudden (literally out of nowhere) the thick dough turned into very thin noodles. It was magical. We watched him repeat this process several more times, trying not to blink so we could see how it worked, and by the end we still had no idea. These magical noodles went straight into boiling water and 5 minutes later were on our plates. Another delicious meal with the best chili sauce I have ever eaten!
On Tuesday we took a tour. Oh tours. My other nemesis. I thought I'd give it a chance, it was relatively cheap and seemed like it might be fun. The day only reaffirmed my hatred for tours. (Sorry Dad). We started off the morning at 10am and were supposed to be headed to see the Terra Cotta Warriors. First however, we visited what they call the "Warrior Workshop" i.e. an emporium. For those of you who aren't familiar with emporiums (shout out to C3 here..who are VERY familiar.. jake and i made up a rap about emporiums to the tune of Notorious... try it. its pretty amazing).. Emporiums are overpriced tourist traps who sell the same souvenirs you can buy on the street for at least 5 times the price. I thought that after this emporium we would be on our merry way to the real purpose of the day. No no. We first had to stop for lunch at a huge banquet center. The entrance AND exit to this meal were through two more emporiums. Not to mention that the lunch was what I like to call.. Chinese food for white people. It was disgusting. When we FINALLY made it to the site of the warriors it was 130pm and we were all too burnt out from our emporium hopping to really enjoy it. BUT I did learn some new things about the Emperor who created the warriors (the same one who is responsible for the great wall). The warriors faces are actually the faces of all the workers who contructed them. Two people would work together and copy eachothers faces. And after they were finished, the Emperor had them all (8000+) killed, along with 4000 concubines, so that they could protect him in the afterlife. Cool huh?
Wednesday it rained... a lot! We didn't do much, just wandered around and ate some dumplings. Jake and I also found a really amazing park that lines the Xi'an city wall. China is very into public exercise, so the entire park is equipped with exercise machines. Its like an outdoor gym in the park! It was pretty fun trying out all the equipment (I have videos), and with the trees, the rain, and the views of the wall's gates, it was a really beautiful scene.
Wednesday night we hopped a 37 hour train to Kunming in the South of China. This train was not nearly as fun as our first train. People weren't very friendly, my backpack fell off the cieling rack onto a womans toe causing everyone to hate us for several hours, and our two bunkmates had a seriously creepy staring problem. On a brighter note, there were some really amazing views of small villages, mountains, and rivers, and we made it here in one piece.
I like Kunming a lot so far. Its a lot more hustle and bustle, and less westernized then our previous two locations. The entire street outside of our hostel in converted into a MaJong tournament during the day, and people don't drive in lanes (just how i like it). I have to admit though, I did something quite out of character today. I went to walmart. (I know my dad is gleaming with pride at this moment). We needed to buy towels, the hostel ones were expensive, and we were directed to Walmart. A very Chinese Walmart, but walmart nonetheless. It was actually quite an interesting experience. Insanely crowded, NOT cheap, had several infomercial-like demonstrations taking place every 2 feet, and has a Chinese grocery store in the basement. We ate lunch at a delicious little joing called mamafu's and then went exploring. We found the coolest park (China pretty much wins the gold medal of cool parks). The park is called Green Lake Park. The entire park was filled with groups of people gathered together singing, playing instruments, and dancing! It was amazing. Megan and I did join in a few dances... and didn't get as many stares as I would have thought! By the time we were finished admiring the park and its activities were were all hungry. We decided to try one of Kunmings famous dishes. Across the bridge noodles. Now heres where I get to the stinky tofu.... (I apologize if I'm offending anyone with this term..I don't know the real name). Many street vendors in China sell fried, fermented tofu. It smells REALLY bad (again, i apologize for offending anyone). The smell is quite pungent. We arrived at the noodle restaurant and ordered (not knowing what or how to order)...They bring you several plates of raw meats, vegetables, and noodles. The waitress very kindly showed us how to assemble our food. The broth, however, smelled exactly like the fermented tofu. I was honestly not sure if I would be able to eat it. But, after putting in all the ingredients it smelled slightly better. I did eat it! It actually tasted really good, unfortunately, I couldn't really get past the smell and started to feel a little sick at the end of the meal.
Well this has been another novel. I hope you all enjoy. We are going to try and go hiking tomorrow. We'll be here until Sunday night when we are flying to Kolkata. I may not write again before then, but I am trying to post pictures as I type. I hope everyone is doing well!
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Evelyn
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I do love these little novels that you write :) They make me able to picture everything, which is so great!