Terracotta: Warriors and Weirdos
So after a less than wonderful flight I made it down to Xi’An which I’ve been excited about since I started planning my trip to China; I’ve wanted to see them for a long long time now.
However there was no time for that on the night I arrived, so I settled for delicious food in the Muslim Quarter, a Blizzard from Dairy Queen (don’t know what the whole turning it upside down thing is all about but its cool all the same and a good nights sleep.)
I had made arrangements to catch up with two Canadian guys (Sam and Brendan) to do the Warriors in Beijing but I hadn’t got hold of them so I made arrangements with a couple of people from the hostel, one of whom was rather weird.
Thankfully Sam and Brendan saved me from this reality and I met up with them long before I was due to meet up with the weirdo (who we’ll get back to later).
So after a bit of a carry on finding the Canadians and the bus stop we did eventually get on the bus to the Terracotta Warriors, at a cost of 7 Yuan each way, rather than 110 return with the hostel “organised tour”.
Getting there we went with the order of the pits where the warriors as 3, 2, 1 which was a great decision, pits 2 and 3 are cool but nothing earth shattering but pit 1 is just amazing. The sheer amount of warriors, the detail, how well preserved they are, that every single one is different. Simply stunning.
Took some really excellent photos as well, and just really enjoyed being there. Also picked up a neat 8 inch tall Terracotta Warrior to go alongside my Ganesh that I picked up in Cambodia. Should look awesome together on my shelf back home. Oh yeah and I managed to negotiate the lady down from 80 yuan (8 quid) to 15 yuan (One pound fifty pence) and probably still got ripped off!
After the bus journey back we met up later that night at the “Big Goose Pagoda” for what I’m told is the largest fountain show in Asia. After some excellent noodles it was certainly impressive, especially with the big pagoda in the background giving a wonderful setting.
I had a small nightmare getting back to the city, the bus I’d came on decided it didn’t do the same route on the return journey and I found myself in the opposite corner of the city to where I wanted to be. A 10 Yuan electric scooter ride with a driver who was quite possibly drunk later and I was back where I needed to be.
The next day I spent a lot of time cursing my credit card and Air Asia as they wouldn’t allow me to buy my flights for coming back to Vietnam for three weeks in May. Then our friend Mr. Weirdo asked me if I wanted to cycle the city walls. I lied through my teeth and said I wasn’t planning on it but did split a taxi to the airport with him for the following morning. I mean hey if you can save 8 quid while backpacking you do it, but the guy was weird and I didn’t want to spend 3 hours cycling with him. Yes I like cheap more than I dislike weirdos.
From there I met up with Sam and Brendan again to cycle the city walls which was a fun experience all around, aside from the pedal falling off Brendan’s bike. We did manage to get the pedal back on well enough to get the deposit back but apologise in advance to the next rider for it will come off again.
Cycling the city walls was awesome, nice to get some exercise and simply a cool experience. Not something you can do in many places around the world so rather enjoyable. The less said about the crappy bikes the better however. One gear? One freaking gear? This is not the 1930s!!!
From there it was back to the Muslim Quarter for delicious street food. Mmm kebabs. Then came bag packing (bleh), a couple of hours sleep (bleh), the taxi to the airport with Mr. Weirdo (bleh) and the flight to Shenzhen (bleh). Bleh.
Here in Shenzhen I’m staying with a friend from my hometown who is teaching out here, Alex Schofield. Yesterday involved a delicious hot pot cooked by his girlfriend, Fei, and some excellent duck and sweet and sour pork later on. That was sandwiched around a trip to the arcades where I spent rather too much time on the basketball shooting game. Can’t wait to get back to VN and try my new Jordans out!
All travel related news aside I have to give some brief thoughts on the NFL draft; I like what the Bengals did with A.J. Green and Andy Dalton in the first two rounds and thought we had a pretty damn good draft! Have to say the Bills are idiots, get a freaking QB for your fans sake. As always the usual suspects made great picks and the Patriots got a first rounder for next year. If the players and owners could kindly pull their finger out and sort out a labour deal that would be lovely. Oh and I need to get me a Green Bay Packers Randall Cobb jersey ASAP!
How about them Grizzlies. Damn.
Love and Terracotta.
J.Xx
