Over night bus from Qingdao to Xi'an - My god what an experience!! there were bunks running the length of the bus which all faced forwards, they'd 'spaced' them so that your feet were in a moulded plastic shape thingy that went under the person in fronts head which they then used as a 'pillow' - needless to say I couldn't lie flat let alone Mark! Mark's bunk was above mine and as we started moving he decided to move into the empty one next to me until a bus guy (possibly spare driver?) came and gestured wildly and rambled loudly in chinese at us 'til we eventually understood that there might be more room for us at the back of the bus... we went back to find a bodged flat space that was about 2 3rd's of the width of the bus with thin foam mattresses over it - just enough space for 2 people to lie side by side and long enough for Mark and I to lie flat. We later realised it was directly above the engine and was really warm - Mark got too hot so ended up back in one of the weird cot things while I sprawled out, pretty comfortably, in the warm space. After a couple of trips to places that looked like coach (and possibly our) graveyards to pick up unknown boxes of stuff (possibly smuggling?) we were on our way. When we woke in the morning some of the boxes that had been stacked on the bunks above us had fallen precariously jammed between the bunks about a foot above our heads. We turned up about 2 hours later than scheduled (after dropping off the boxes at another mysterious coach graveyard) at Xi'an bus "station" and made our way round to the hostel.
It was FREEEEEEZING cold - we were wearing trousers, socks, shoes (we've been living in flip flops up until then), t-shirt, hoodie, fleece AND scarf all at one time and we were still so cold it was horrible. It wasn't helped by the fact that the place we were staying was a courtyard style jobbie so that if we wanted to go to the loo or shower or common room we had to run through the rain while trying not to slip on the algae covered tiled floor... it would have been a really nice place to stay if it wasn't such miserable weather.
Unfortunately cause of the weather we were pretty lazy the whole time we were there. we booked ourselves onto a tour provided by the hostel to go see the terracotta army and the Banpo museum (a museum about a 6000 yr old village). Mark and I realised we were the only ones from our hostel going on the tour and a bus with some other people on it picked us up around 9.30am. We found out the other people (6 in total) were an Italian family with 3 daughters and 2 elderly parents and also a chinese guy who was dating one of the daughters. Only the one Italian daughter spoke any english (and chinese - while the chinese guy spoke little english and no Italian) and the rest ignored us or asked questions about us through the daughter while ignoring us... odd. We had an english speaking chinese tour guide which was good so we had someone to talk to at least. The family we soooo stupidly slow that we (incl. tour guide) could walk down some steps across a courtyard and up another set of steps and the family would only just be reaching the middle of the first set of steps! Because of their slowness we missed our booked lunch and they had stopped serving and so we had to go find another place to eat. While in the meal the tour guide left and it was mark and I sat with the family so it felt like we were interrupting their family dinner - in the end we gave up trying to be polite and just helped ourselves to the food as and when cause otherwise they just helped themselves and there would have been very little left for ourselves. After lunch we went to the Banpo museum and the family decided not to go in cause they were too cold so sat in the bus and we were hurried (stupidly fast) around the museum while they waited... GRR. Anyway bar the family we had a good but cold day.
The terracotta warriors were pretty impressive but as someone described them later "they are what they are" which is very true - all the post cards/pictures you've seen of them is exactly all they are! There are less of them than we imagined and they've all been reconstructed from broken pieces because it seems non of them survived the thousands of years crushed beneath the earth :P One thing we never knew 'til now is that when they are first excavated they are all brightly painted and patterned but within 3 days the colour fades to the colour you see today. Because of this they've covered loads up that are still coloured to try to excavate them while keeping the colour.
On our last night in Xi'an we met two girls who were from essex and they invited us out to the "big goose pagoda" to see a musical fountain show - it was the most amazing thing I've seen so far - so beautiful! there was about 100/150m long area of concrete with flat areas that stepped up about 5 steps every 10m or so and lights set in the floor that faded through the colours and a pondy thing at the top - there were crowds of people on the stepped areas across width of the concrete. we found a place and waited - at 9pm it started. water shot about 10/15m, and all heights in between, up into the air from hundreds of spots on the floor on the flat concrete all the way down the length of the area. in the pond section there were fountains spinning water so that it shot up in twisting patterns and at the back individual spurts that squirted water slightly after the squirt in front to that there was a wall of water that rose and fell like a wave - and all this in time to music and the coloured lights (classical and chinese style) it was so amazing i wish i could describe it better! or at least show you some photos :( mark's got a couple but non that came out too well. we couldn't believe that this show only got about 2 lines of text in our guidebook - to both of us it seemed like the REASON to go to Xi'an! with the weather being so cold and the lights and music and magical atmosphere it made everything seem really christmassy or at least like bonfire night! I wish i could describe it all better.
We got up at 4am the following morning to get a 16 hour train to Chengdu where we are at the moment. We managed to get hard sleepers which are not hard - 6 beds stacked 3 on top of each other in one open room. We were in rooms next to each other so we were side by side but with a wall in between. When I first walked in and saw what I thought was my bed i was shocked cause someone was in it... then I looked upwards and there, near the ceiling, was my bed. there was about 2ft maybe less between the bed and the ceiling. and about the same or less between my bed and the one next to it. eek. There were little tables and fold out chairs in the corridor where Mark and I ate noodles we brought with us, while entire families in the bunk rooms next to us sat and watched like they were at the zoo. They must have had a great journey with us to watch! We arrived at 10.30pm to THE busiest train station I've ever seen (two 20+ carriage trains unloading people at the same time) and spent half an hour or so trying to get a taxi who only seemed to pick up people they liked the look of or were going far enough for it to be worth their trouble - many driving out without people in them!
We're now in a pretty nice hostel and it's warmish and not raining but Mark and I are full of colds after the past few days of wet weather and feeling pretty rough so taking it easy for the moment, recuperating and stroling around. Last night we went for hotpot after an unsucessful attempt the previous night where we went to a restaurant where no one spoke English, we didn't speak Chinese, and there were no pictures to point at, so we ran out without ordering anything! This time we went (to a different restaurant) prepared with a piece of paper that had prepared Chinese phrases of 'Only a little spice' and 'No fish' which we proudly presented to the waitress, as we don't trust fish being so far from the coast, which she ignored and beckoned over an English speaking waitress who talked us through the whole process. We were given a bowl of sesame oil which she added corriander, salt, sugar, vinegar, oyster sauce and MSG to, and told to use it to dip our ingredients in once cooked. A large pot split into an outer and inner ring with two different sauces in is placed on a ring burner in the middle of the table. You order a few different plates of stuff that are brought out raw, which you then cook in the hotpot. We had ordered a pot with a mushroomy/goji berry soup in the middle and what seemed like sauce made from concentrated volcano magma on the outside, our plates that came out included beef, mutton, bamboo, mushroom and pork dumplings. It worked out well as I preferred the dumplings and bamboo while Mark was happier with the mushrooms and meat. We enjoyed the meal and the experience and have worked out our menu choices for next time.
We attempted to visit the Giant Panda Research Centre today, but gave up after waiting 40 minutes for a bus for it to drive past us full! Instead we headed into central Chengdu and saw a large Mao statue saluting over Tian Fu square. On the way we tried some of the local street food after a recommendation from some people in Xi'an who had just come from Chengdu. A couple of days before we tried baked sweet potato, which was very tasty, so decided to be a bit more daring. We got what looked like curly fries with a little bit of chilli on, and some (possibly soba) noodles, which the vendor then proceeded to add various spices and chemicals to, and we wandered over to the square to enjoy our tasty treats. The 'fries' turned out to be some weird seemingly raw vegetables that gave us pins and needles in our tougues! The noodles were cold and tasted a little like the minty stuff dentists squirt into your mouth. After eating about half of each we gave up and dumped them both and got a couple of buns stuffed with what we thought was thin strips of potato that we are both very fond of, unfortunately it turned out to be the weird raw vegetable again so we gave up and went to KFC! We then explored the people's park which was nice, but a lot busier than other parks we've visited so no where near as peaceful. On our way back past Tian Fu square there was a large fountain display, but it didn't hold a patch on the one we saw in Xi'an! We kept going and explored the shopping district as Mark was hoping to pick up a couple of cheap t-shirts but all the tops are now long sleeve as they are in their Autumn/Winter season (we're still in shorts and flip-flops).
Tomorrow we hope to make it out to the Panda centre followed by a visit to a 71ft buddha carved into a cliff face at Leshan on Sunday.
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