Xian

October 27

I checked out of the hotel early in the morning to catch the fast train to Xi'an. The ride is about 5 hours and went by alright. I was quite tired since I barely slept the night before. I made friends with these four girls from England who are also backpacking across Asia. Always good to find other travelers when you are abroad. Safety in numbers! We made plans to go check out the Terra-cotta warriors tomorrow.  I had dinner and called it an early night.

October 28

Since I slept so early, I woke up early as well. I decided to explore Xi'an by foot. I checked out the historic Bell and Drum Towers. Both seemed pretty neat but I didn't feel like paying admission to go inside. 

The air quality in Xi'an looked and felt worse than Beijing. I had to put on my mask most days. The center of Xi'an is walled off on four sides with openings at the south, east, north and west gates. The bell tower is right in the center.

I also found the Muslim Quarter, which is an area filled with street vendors and merchants. The food that they sell differ from Beijing and you can find Goat meat everywhere.

After some walking, I caught the 603 bus to meet the girls at the railway station. Only I didn't know that there was a 603 bus that went oh inside the city walls and one outside. As you can predict, I went in the wrong one. It took me a while to realize that. I got off and luckily saw a subway station so I quickly figured out the transfer to the railway station. By this time I was late and I was thinking oh no this is a repeat of Japan when I couldn't find Eka in Janine. So I hauled ass and sprinted to our meeting spot Deco's only they weren't there. I decided to walk and find a place with Wi-Fi and as luck would have it, there was another Demo's and yep they were there!

it took a few tries before we found the right bus to Terra-cotta, which is about 40km from Xi'an. Honestly I did not know too much of the history behind the Terra-cotta warriors. After seeing the site with all the different warriors, chariots and horses, I went back home later to Wikipedia more about the history. Apparently there are really more buried statues that have not been unearthed.

October 29

the girls and I met up to go atop the city walls where you can hire bicycles. Within 90 minutes one can easily ride along the city walls. The view from above w as pretty cool and the ride was quite pleasant. With the exception of some meetup confusion at the end, the day went pretty smoothly.

After a quick nap in the afternoon, I went back to the Muslim quarter in the evening with this guy who I am sharing a dorm room with. I tried some steamed rice cake coated in rose jelly that was pretty delicious. We also split a bowl of some rich soup with tofu, mushrooms and some green leafy vegetable too.

Went to sleep early since I had to check out in the morning to leave Xi'an.

October 30

im still having trouble adapting to the squat toilets in China. Just feels awkward and a bit uncomfortable. I've been making the 15 minute walk to Starbucks every morning because they have a western toilet.

I checked out of the Shuyuan Hostel, advertised as the only warrior themed hostel in Xi'an, early to catch an 8:50 am train to XiangYang. The 12 hour train ride felt quite long! I tried to entertain myself and pass the time by napping, writing in this journal, listening to my iPod, and reading Super Fudge on my tablet. I must have read that book 30 times since childhood. 3 more hours to go. I'm going to XiangYang to see Fred and return his phone and key.