Xi'an


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November 14th 2012
Published: November 14th 2012
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We made it Xi'an, and onto blog number 3! Think I have managed to add some photos to this blog- hope they show up. 😊

8/11

So after a better sleep than expected, we woke up by 7 and waited to arrive in Xi'an. It was so nice having our little private cabin with bathroom, meant we could change and freshen up in the morning. We arrived at Xi'an station around 9.20am and headed outside to get a taxi to our hotel. We immediately got approached by lots of men, swining their car keys asking if we needed 'taxii?' We ignored them all, of course and got into the official taxi queue. After a little wait we got into a taxi and handed the driver the address (written in Chinese thanks to last hotel) of our hotel. Didn't take too long to get there and it costs a huge ¥15 (£1.50). We were there by 10, expecting to leave our luggage and come back for the 2pm check in, but we were given our key and allowed to go straight to our room, which was much appreciated after the train trip. This hotel was a Citadines, the chain that we stayed in in kyoto that we liked- an apartment hotel. It was great to have our space and kitchen area again, but the standard definitely wasn't as high as the one in Japan! Leaking sink outside the bathroom was spotted as soon as we walked in and there was a lingering damp smell, but aside from that, all seemed good! We used the wifi to finish booking the rest of our China trip, and then headed out to find a supermarket to get some food to cook for dinner and keep us going for our stay! Managed to get some fresh noodles and veggies for dinner plus lots of other little bits to have for our first proper home cooked (by us) dinner since went came anyway! We also managed to do our washing as there was thankfully laundry facilities in the hotel! Hurrah! We had an early night to catch up in our sleep.

9/11

We had a lazy morning and had breakfast in our room- raisin bread toasted and English toaster muffins, yay- English breakfast! We headed out to find the post office and then went to go into the Bell Tower from the underground passage (it is situated on a huge roundabout). Unfortunately it was closed- we think it was closed up for the season. The Drum Tower was also closed and was obviously having restoration work done. We headed into what looked like a local market. It was full of local crafts and foods and was really interesting to look around, seeing the different things on sale and how they differed form Beijing. The main difference was that we could actually look at things, pick them up and put them down and walk off without being stared at, talked to, hassled or chased! They were happy for us to just look which was very refreshing! It seemed a lot more relaxed here in Xi'an, and no one seemed to stare at us either, which made a pleasant change! We unfortaunelty heade off down what turned out to be the meat section of the market- uh oh! We walked past one stall that had our stomachs turning and our gag reflexes tested..! It was a pig stall that had every piece of pig imaginable on sale...plus a lot more besides. We ran out of there as fast as possible and left the market there! We found a Watsons and managed to stock up on our bathroom essentials. Headed back to the hotel and had dinner in the hotel restaurant there. We had some tasty Chinese disses plus a sweet and sour 'pork' (fat- we found no evidence of pork!) it left my stomach feeling rather delicate and I went to bed with horrible stomach pains 😞

10/11

Today was the day in Xi'an we'd most been looking forward to...our trip to the Terracotta Warriors. We booked a tour through our hotel for £28 each, which included a private guide and driver and entrance into the Musuem and a local Chinese lunch..(uh oh?!) We left the hotel around 8.45 and had to stop at the boring factory where they make replica warriors. A lady there told us briefly about how they make them and paint them etc and then we were left to look around and see if we wanted to buy anything...no thanks, we're done!! Our guide was surprised to see us out so quickly! We then headed off to the museum...yay! Our guide asked of we wanted to walk to the museum from the ticket point or get the electric car. Seeing as it was freezing and raining we chose the car option so had to pay another ¥5 (50p) for the ticket for the car. In hindsight it was probably better to walk as the queue for the car was so long we probably got colder and wetter standing in the queue anyway! We went into Pit 1 first- by far the most impressive pit of them all (I think they should take you here last as it is the best!). It was extremely busy and we had a quick glimpse of the amazing Terracotta Army...we managed to squeeze into a gap to take some photos and get a good look at the figures. It was an incredible sight. After we had taken some front on photos the guide gave us some informatithen the history. I hadn't realised that they had only been discovered in 1974 by a farmer looking to build a water well. It was good to see the Warriors in the restored state, how they would have looked when they were first built, but I also enjoyed seeing all the fragments as they were found and trying to imagine how they pieced all the figures back together. What a feat! Unfortaunelty none of them had any paint remaining as in the atmosphere today, the paint flakes off within minutes of being exposed. There were several large areas in this pit with lots of unearthed figures underneath, as they are trying to improve technology to help preserve the paint work. We moved onto pit 3, which was laid out like a military formation, as soldiers would have stood at the time, to protect the tomb of the Emperor Qin Shihuang, including horses and Calvary men. The last pit we went in was pit 2, which was bigger than pit 3, but a lot less excavated, in order to preserve the figures. They have used x-ray techniques to work out which figures lie below the earth in each section. It was very interesting to see all the different ranks of soldiers, including the best preserved of each, which were in glass cabinets. After we had finished at the museum, we went to have our Chinese lunch. We were brought out 2 dishes, plus a brothy soup and rice. They were both quite tasty but a little spicy, we had to avoid the chillies! Our guide also let us have some of her bread, which wasn't included in our package, so that was nice of her! After this we headed back to the hotel and feeling quite tired we didn't venture out again until dinner time, we went for an easy option of McDonalds after the past 2 Chinese meals we had eaten!

11/11

Today we headed off to visit the Ancient walls of Xi'an. We walked to the South gate as it was closest to our hotel. It cost ¥40 to get onto the Wall. There was a bicycle rental place so we decided to hire out a bike each (¥40 for 100 minutes). It was great to do something different- a mode of transport we were yet to use, and much better here than on the roads!! It meant we got to see the whole of the wall and the inner city, and the weather was beautiful. We got around the 13.74km Wall in about 80 mins after a couple of stops. We had rather an achey behind by the time we were done! We headed back to the hotel and had a late lunch of some soup- a dry packet mix we bought in the supermarket that cost a whole 28p, but it was so yummy, definite bargain! We decided to head to the massage salon next door for the "Chinese foot massage" they advertised- ¥88 for 80 minutes (just a foot massage, really?!!) Two men came and brought us in each a bowl of water for our feet. We plunged them in and I immediately retreated mine- it was boiling- the men left the room giggling, the buggers! They came back in ready to start our massage (weird that it was men- never had a massage done by a man before!). It soon became clear that it was not just a foot massage as they clambered behind us and started torturing- I mean massaging- our necks, shoulders etc. Ouch, this isn't relaxing! We had all our clothes in too which added to the uncomfort! They made us lie down and tortured our arms and hands next. I was worried for my poor feet...! They moved on and we agreed to pay the little extra for the pedicure. This bit was quite nice but then they started kneading our feet which became painful quite quickly! We thought we were finished later our feet were done so were just putting our shoes on when the men re-entered and told us to lie down, to which they attacked our backs. All the wind was knocked out of me, literally- he pushed it out of me. God this wasn't enjoyable. They also seemed to be groping our bums which I can't say I've every experienced during a massage at home. The men also seemed to be talking about us and sniggering to each other the whole time. All in all, not the most relaxing experience ever, but hey we had soft feet and it was good to try it out! Maybe Thai massages will be a little better....??!!

12/11

We had a very lazy morning and didn't even leave the apartment until 2pm today! We headed back to the market to have another look around and see what bargains we might be able to pick up. We had a quick lunch at KFC (well I only had a teeny burger as not a fan). Our mini chicken burgers had carrots, peas and corn in- very random! We headed to Starbucks after this and had a Christmas peppermint hot chocolate- yum! We headed back to the apartment for our final night, using up our last bits of food and doing a last load of washing ready to move on again!

13/11

We had our last bits of breakfast in our room and re-packed our cases ready to check out and move on to Chengdu. Hmm, 6 hours to kill until our sleeper train! We headed to the post office and then got on the metro to head to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. We of course walked the wrong way...bathrown the metro to where we had just walked from and went the right way in the road (we blame the exit signs- the one we needed was signposted but didn't even exist as an exit so that's why we went the wrong way!!) We managed to find the pagoda, but couldn't get up that close to it but it was a nice sight with all the fountains in front of it. We had some lunch and then heade back to the hotfor and sat in the business corner until it was time to leave for the station. We couldn't get a taxi from the hotel so we ended up attempting to get the metro, we managed to go one stop, planning on changing to the other line and oho one stop in that one and walk the rest of the way to the station...we soon found out the other line doesn't exist yet...not that this is advertised, it'thin the city map!! We ended up walking about 35 mins with extremely heavy rucksacks to the station. We made it in time and could get straight onto our train- once we'd found it- the entry was of course, upstairs- no sign for this, luckily we asked women's who pointed us in the right direction. We got onto our carriage to find our (shared) sleeper. There was a little old man in there already who was being sorted out by what looked like his grandaughter. She left him and we clambers up to our top bunks, somehow managing to lift our bags up there too. We got as comfy as possible and waited to leave Xi'an. The last bottom bunk was empty and we were hoping we were going to be lucky...oh how wrong we were!! At the next station stop a mother and her screaming daughter graced us with their presence. Hmm, this was going to be a long 16 hour journey...! The little girl finally settled, only to woken up at 10 to go to the toilet- in the bin in our carriage- oh yes...even though we were right next to the bloody toilet! The mother just lifted her above the bin and off she went...both numbers in case you we were wondering. We were gobsmacked and I think we actually laughed in the end as there was nothing else we could do...! So the pattern of the night continued- crying child...mother smacks crying child, to which child cries louder, more smacking and then sleeping child. Mother hocking up her spit and spitting in the bin, child woken to use the toiler- well, bin, child cries- you get the picture! In the meantime the little old man somehow seemed to sleep the entire journey, whilst we were cursing China for all it was worth...! We just do not get it!! We braved 1 trip to the toilet (on a 16 hour journey, I think that is impressive- especially for me!!) We had our earphones shoved into our ears to attempt to drown out the noises from the cabin...which sort of worked until our various devices ran out of battery! Got a bit of sleep between the noise and worst train driver in the world. I was surprised to still be on the bunk when I woke up! Thankfully we were left alone for the last 2.5 hours of our journey! We were feeling rather exasperated by the time we arrived in Chengdu- not to mention dirty and tired! We could not wait to get to our hotel...fingers crossed!!

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14th November 2012

This made me laugh
Oh dear Sarah, they are right dirty gits aren't they! We were very lucky going by your blog, when we had to share they were very civilised, Had a bit of a fright when we first got to our 4 berth cabin and there were already 3 adults in there sitting on our beds eating their bleeding noodles!! They offered us to sit down with them, nice of them! Once the train started moving one buggered off, the other 2 went to their top bunks and we never heard from them for the whole journey. Your blog did bring back memories and make me laugh though.
14th November 2012

Missing u, all sounds amazing xxxxxx
14th November 2012

omg
This is the funniest part of your blog so far. We have been screaming with laughter!!! See you Dec 23rd xxxx
16th November 2012

China sounds so charming!
Hi Sarah, Keep the blog entries coming; they're great! I had a good chuckle at your Beijing entry, especially the bit about the tourist trying to push you out of the way. I really want to see that photo! I could also really clearly imagine your suffering in the train cabin with the mother and child - there's nout stranger than folk eh! But it sounds like you are managing to follow up each bad sleeping situation with a good one. Fingers crossed for your next destination!

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