To Xi'an and back again

What an adventure! Lily and Heidi (the Phillipean nurses) , Kelsi, Bingmei (the visiting Chinese nurse from Australia), and I all left at 5:30 am to start our adventures to Xi'an. We started with the semi fast sleeper train to Xi'an. When we got tickets only the sleeper train tickets were left, so we had the sleeper bunks for the two and a half hour trip there. Sleeper trains are interesting and fun! There were little rooms that had four bunks, two on each side. In the middle was a little table, and each bed was equipped with pillow and rumpled bedding. We were warned about the bedding since the frequency of washing is questionable and rare to say the least. Knowing this Kelsi sat precariously on the bottom bunk where she was greeted by the delightfully still damp drool spot left by the previous tenant next to the pillow. While she sat up safely on e bottom bunk Bingmei and I took full advantage of the opportunity to sleep and crawled into the top bunks. My bunk was perfectly delightful(being drool free). While I was in the bunk it made me laugh because Bingmei and I went through the exact same process with our bunks at about the exact same time entirely independent of each other. Every time I looked over at her bunk it was to find her coming to the same conclusion I had reached. We were at first of course hesitant and careful to use as little of the bedding as possible. I had my hoodie on with my hair covered and didn't use the blanket at all. A little later my feet were cold, so I figured it wasn't so bad to cover up my feet a little. Shortly later the blankets inched up a bit more, and then a little bit more, until finally we both gave up and just bundled up completely. I made the executive decision that I was washable and sleep was a much more worthwhile endeavor. 

Picture compliments of Kelsi! This was still very early in the trip with us avoiding the bedding.

After we got off the train we were careful to follow the instructions our friend Polly had written out for us. Step one, arrive! Step two, get off the train. Step three, ignore any offers for taxis as you approach the door. They are probably trying to scam you. Wait till you are outside and find your own. As predicted as soon as we got near the door we had a gentleman offering us taxi service. We dutifully ignored him and walked outside, where chaos immediately commenced! We were instantly surrounded by voices calling and taxi drivers pushing around us, calling out for us to take their cab. It was so crazy!  was sooo glad I was not the one who spoke Chinese and had figure out which one to take. We had five of us and didn't want to take two taxis, so ultimately got in the first taxi that told us they would let us. The first taxi driver said we weren't allowed, but there was another who quickly offered to let us. After we we got a ways out the driver very politely requested that someone hide if the police drove by. 

We made it the hour to the terra cotta warriors and were let off near the entrance. Once there we were told that it was the wrong entrance each different place we tried to approach. I thought we had found the right place when two gentlemen jumped up at our approach. I was wrong. They simply wanted a better look at me because I was white. Bing Mei asked them about the entrance and one was a helpful taxi driver and offered to take us to the actual entrance for 5 quai a piece, since we still had a ways to go. We refused and started to walk away. After he was unable to convince us  with his multiple attempts he finally laughed and revealed the entrance had been right behind him the whole time, just behind a couple of street venders. Apparently that is just the way things are expected to go. You have to be super distrusting and prove you are more stubborn than anyone else if you want to get a fair price or avoid being tricked.

We finally got in and got to see terra cotta warriors, according to the sign often touted the 8th wonder of the world. It was amazing! There are three pits. We walked in and saw rows upon rows warriors. There were so many, so intricately done, and each so different. You could see their faces and how each was completely unique. It was explained to me that the emperor had each person who made the statues fashion them after themselves, and once the emperor died those people were buried with him to be his army for eternity. It was both awe inspiring and really sad to see so many. As the older Brittish gentleman standing in front of me said "each individual little chappie!" ( I hade to share the quote because it made me laugh far more than it should). Here are some pictures I stole from Heidi, Lily, and Kelsi.

Pit 1

 The Third pit had streets and walls built around the warriors and seemed to have some of the more prestigious officers.

The second pit had very few sections that were completely uncovered yet because they had built buildings to house them all. Some of the revealed sections were in much greater disrepair. But you could see armor and faces and parts of chariots if you looked closely. It was kind of sad to see them all lying there in their many parts with a few distinctive pieces that would catch you eye.

They had a couple of soldiers out on display where you could see all of the little details put into each. I couldn't get over their expressions. One looked so serious, and another had an almost smile on his lips  like he was slightly amused the entire time. You could see the personality in their faces. Not to mention the detail in the sculpture down to the crinkles in the corners of the horses mouths or the missing pins in the plated armor. Sorry the pictures didn't transfer well enough to see.

After there was the exhibition hall where I anticipated a more detailed exhibition on the warriors, maybe more information on them or some of the sculptures on display. Instead we were greeted by an exhibit on Ancient Rome. It was fascinating of course, but I found it completely random and unexpected in the setting. 

After we finished we walked through some of the touristy booths and such and took some random pictures with the decorations there.

We then started the adventure of trying to find a taxi back to the city. We had been told we payed too much the first time, so we decided to insist on a cheaper price or take the bus. The group of taxis inside the establishment were all working together, so when one gave us a price, none of the others would accept any lower. One driver hadn't heard and offered us 50 quai less, but took it back when one of the others enlightened him of the earlier price. We tried the taxis outside thinking they would be cheaper and easier to bargain with. They were slightly, but refused to meet our price. We didn't think it was a big deal since we were planning on taking the bus anyway, so we stopped arguing and looked for the bus. Once we found it it seemed perfect. We would have to switch buses, but we could get where we needed to go for much cheaper. We remembered to ask how long it would take and found out that our beautiful had met with a hitch. it would be at least an hour before we even got on the bus we needed to be on. The taxis didn't seem so bad anymore, even paying a but more than we should. We walked out and waved one down. We asked him for our slightly raised price with everything included. He refused at first but quickly accepted when we insisted. We all piled in and after we had pulled away he jovially explained to us that we would actually be paying a bit more since our price was so cheap we would have to pay the toll tickets as well. We almost got at at that point when exclaimed that he had promised an all inclusive price and he was trying to cheat us. We gave in after a couple of minutes of arguing because it just wasn't worth it any more at that point. Thinking the matter over with we were surprised to have him spend the entire hour long trip explaining in great detail how he was completely justified and we must have misunderstood all along. His voice was something exceptional as well. While all Chinese has a way of sometimes sounding angry or loud to those who are unfamiliar with it, his voice brought this to new levels and helped me to come to the conclusion that getting out when he offered would not have been an altogether bad decision. Poor Bing Mei had the pleasure of sitting beside him and understanding all of his tirade. It didn't help that his driving was just as assertive as his personality. I took to praying for the pedestrians to pass the time.

Once we finally made it there the "finding the Starbucks" portion of our trip commenced. I will try to abbreviate the next portion of our trip because putting into detail running back and forth and up and down and looking for various places, buses, and people makes for a long read and an even longer day. It was crazy and tiring,but I enjoyed it. It was all certainly an adventure. We were to meet Kelsi's friend David from America who had just come over to teach English at the Starbucks, but that was more of a chore than expected to find. There was a huge intersection and they had built an under pass beneath it for the many many pedestrians to cross with different entrances for each of the streets. We became extremely well aquianted with all of them, multiple times until we finally found the Starbucks, and the other Starbucks because apparently there were two. Dear Bing Mei was a master of stopping strangers to ask where to go. It was interesting because there are distinct groups you see. They are mostly in twos and it is couples, two women/girls, or mothers and daughters and they are all usually holding hands. Sometimes you will see to guys walking together or some men walking alone, but the majority were paired off. Being an American I dont usually hold hands with someone other than a child or a boyfriend, but when Bing Mei grabbed my hand I decided it was a delightful custom that involved me not getting lost in the crowd. 

After we finally found her friend 

we checked out the Muslim district which had a bunch of street venders selling touristy knick nacks and tons of street food. On the way there Bing Mei stopped and helped a lady who was passing out from low blood sugar, just to add another little side adventure to our day. in the Muslim district I loved the finger painting I saw! I really wish I had gotten some there instead of deciding to wait now. It is amazing to see. They have the most minuscule and delicate land scrapes and designs all made by finger painting in ink. You can watch them make these tiny master pieces with simply a large bulky finger. Looking at them you would have sworn they had to have been made by the tiniest of brushes. They had other art venders as well, but that was the one I had not seen before. I have found they have a lot of street venders and stores where they make and sell traditional Chinese paintings. There is an art district where I am that you can go and see all of these beautiful intricate paintings being made everyday. They food looked extremely interesting, and I wasn't sure what most of it was. They had little snack bars of dried peas that looked and were sold like bricks of fudge. I did try one with peanuts and found it...interesting. It is kind of dry and powdery and pea tasting. It wasn't entirely distasteful, but I think I prefer fudge. Here is a picture of the street.

Next we spent forever trying to get to the right bus so we could meet one of David's more local friends to figure out how to eat. That was another adventure and took forever. By the time we got there we only had time to grab the famous Xi'an Chinese hamburger to go before heading out to the wild geese pagoda and the water show. The hamburger was finely chopped beef (we chose the not fatty option) mixed with broth, fried and put into a salty flat bread bun. I enjoyed it! But most everyone else found it really salty.

The wild geese pagoda water show was really neat! I had so much fun there. They had the pagoda in the back with a huge pool in front of it filled with tiny fountains that shot up water along with the music they had playing. They would have different streams intersecting and spouting and spaing and over all it made for a beautiful display. I loved it because when you would stand and watch it would spray over you leaving you soaked making it an extremely advanced form of playing in the rain. We couldn't stop laughing and got a lot of stares, but it was totally worth it because they would have stared anyway :P The fact that I get stared at no matter what I do has kind of made it pointless to try not to be ridiculous. 

It made for a lovely end of trip, so we grabbed ice cream from KFC before heading out to try to get to the train station and back home. We had thought we had left with plenty of time and wouldn't have a problem. We were obviously overly optimistic. We then proceeded to try and wave down taxis from various streets and found the, either full or unable to stop where we were. We tried over and over again before finding a place where they were stopping. We couldn't find any empty ones or get them in time! One gentleman in a regular car offered to taxi us in his unregistered taxi, but we decided that probably wasn't our best option, but time was starting to get very limited and we were starting to get very worried. This is the point that a little rickshaw pulled up and offered to take us to the metro for 15 quai. We didn't have many options, and we did all fit, so we said, why not! We proceeded to have all 5 of us pile in this tiny three wheeled doorless motorized vehicle driven by what looked like a 15 year old boy and pull into the 6 lane traffic jammed highway

This is our vehicle 

He pulled straight into traffic and proceeded to weave in and out of the partially stopped traffic, pulling out in front of bikes, buses, cars alike. I have never felt so close to and personally involved with the vehicles around us! Apparently as we pulled away they saw a lot of the traffic was from a bus hitting rickshaw very much like our own. We continued to go p,aces no car could ever go pulling up close to the side where the wall beside the road could have easily removed my fingers if I had let move even an inch outside of the vehicle. We are all laughing hysterically the entire time with many exclamations of, "we are going to die!" As our driver proceeds to drive off the road onto the sidewalk, or I should say attempt to since it was too much weight for the tiny vehicle to pull over the lip forcing him to back up back into traffic and pull around to a shorter portion of sidewalk. He then continued merrily along the sidewalk as pedestrians jumped out of the way and squeezed between the concrete sidewalk blocks I was under the impression we couldn't possibly fit through. I learned I was mistaken. After that we made it back onto the road, but instead of going with traffic this time we went head on the opposite way on the highway TOWARDS the on coming vehicles. Until he pulled off to start driving through the cars parked at the red light now going perpendicularly to the flow of traffic. We finally turned around to go the opposite way with traffic, something that apparently you shouldn't take for granted. He then took us off of that road down a side lane (again opposite traffic flow) at the end there was a motorcycle stopped with traffic since it flowed into another road. We all were becoming more and more nervous as he is flying down this road with no signs of stopping and the motorcycle is getting closer and closer. You could see the motorcyclist becoming more and more nervous as well as he starts looking around and trying to walk his motorcycle backwards before realizing he is completely trapped by traffic. We finally pull to a stop inches away, sliding so the tires touch. We were utterly confused until the driver calmly said, you're here! Apparently the building off to the side was our destination. We piled out and he pulled onto the sidewalk to turn around. Bing Mei explained that though she had lived in China for 16 years that was the most dangerous thing she had ever done in her life. 

We then quickly ran down into the metro to try and get our tickets (after I made Kelsi risk life and limb to get the picture of our cart. I am such a good roommate!). Bing Mei's friend who was a local and had been helping us over the phone the entire day met us at the metro and helped us get all the right tickets. Even so we had to run to make it on, but we did! 

We got to the train station (there were of course more people staring at me on the train. We almost tried to make a music video to "dancing on the train" but were discouraged by Bing Mei who assured us we would become an instant Internet sensation in china.) at the train station we had to check in and pick up our return tickets since you are not allowed to get them ahead of time. You pay for them, but have to pick the up there in case you don't show and they can resell your ticket. We at first couldn't find the place to get them, but abing Mei's dear friend took off running to find it for us. When we finally got in line time was very short and her friend was saying the entire time that we were never going to make it. He wasn't opposed to the idea since he wanted us to stay and go clubbing with him in Xi'an. Bing Mei on the other hand had an early morning ticket home and was not so much a fan. We got our tickets just in time, waved good bye  through security, and ran onto the train with the already boarding passengers. 

Overall to made for a crazy, exciting, adventure filled, exhausting day! Fun times, but we were certainly glad to have Mariah waiting with the van at the train station so we didn't have to find another taxi home.