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Published: August 31st 2014
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We were met in Xian by our new guide Sacha who has been living there for 7 years and is originally from Kazakstan. We had a short walk to the bus stop and piled on up to the top deck of the double decker bus, ride 5 stops and then got off.
She pointed out the location of convenience,stores, subway and other eateries and ATM before heading to the hostel. We checked in and headed to our dorms. I'm sharing with Tim, Nitzan & John and two other guys we have not met.
We all showered, changed, put in laundry whilst we have the opportunity and had some food before meeting at 3.15pm to head to the old city for a bike round the city walls.
We headed via the underpass to one of the entrances to the walls, paid our entrance fee and climbed the steps to admire the views. We then headed to one if the many bike rental places located on the walls and all hired bikes. Nitzan and I opted for a tandem as neither of us had ridden one before and it was the perfect opportunity to
give it a go. Kirsty and Bhavisha also hired one, but after a test run opted for two single bikes.
It was a very odd feeling being on the bike and not being able to steer. We were a bit wobbly at first and it took us a little while to find our rhythm, so after lots of laugher and squeals from me we finally got into it and started off on our 13.7km ride around the city walks.
It was pretty flat but a bumpy ride as the rods was made of large cobble stones some of which had eroded away. There were other cyclists, pedestrians and electric cars but no other traffics so it was very quiet and safe to cycle round with no car horns or crazy drivers. The walls were very wide so there was plenty of room to cycle around. We stopped from time to time to take photos of the views and group photo. Nitzan and I were the first back as we got separated from the others, but it's not like you can get lost lol. You are allotted 2 hours bike hire time to complete the
route and we were back in about an hour and a half even after stopping twice to see if the others caught up. It took them a little longer as Kirsty's chain kept coming off.
After the bike ride 8 of our group opted to visit and volunteer to work in the soup kitchens for a while. As I had done something similar in India I opted out to allow someone else to go. Whilst they headed off to the kitchens the remaining 4 of us had. Walk down calligraphy street where lots of stalls selling the paint brushes etc used in calligraphy nestled amongst others selling semi precious stones and tourist items. We had a wander around and then headed for Walmart to buy supplies. I picked up bananas and tangerines but when I got to the checkout to pay realised that they needed to be weighed and priced beforehand so I left them and came out to wait for the others. We stopped off at dunkin doughnuts first fir a western sugar fix and then headed back to the hostel.
I had a quick shower after the hot sweaty bike ride and
then we all met again at 8pm to hear how the soup kitchen visit had gone. We walked for about 10 minutes to a local restaurant where you choose the ingredients you want from shelf where ingredients were on sticks e.g. Tofu, mushrooms, potatoes, dumplings, pork, bamboo shoots, broccoli and cauliflower etc. you put them in a little basket and pay choose if you want it spicy or not, add garlic and beef, get a drink and then sit down. Our food was with us within 10 minutes and was quite tasty. I had rice with mine and added the left over soup to the rice. I left my pork as it looked like it was very under cooked.
We headed back to the hostel and ordered breakfast for the next morning to speed things up as we had to leave at 8.15am to head out to see the Terracotta Army. Some of the group stayed up and I think came in during the wee hours of the morning whilst I headed to bed for an early night.
Xxx
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