Xi'an, mushrooms and what happened next
Monday, November 10, 2008
Greetings from Chengdu!
As you can tell from my previous post, things have been a bit weird around here but now we are somewhere close to being back on track. The whole thing was brought about by a feeling we got when we arrived in Xi'an. We got off the train and got a free ride to the hostel. We dumped our bags and went for a little walk up to the bell and drum towers. We basically both looked at each other and thought the same thing: We gotta get out of here now! Neither one of us got a good vibe from Xi'an (something a lot of other travellers also felt). We went back to the hostel and booked a tour to go see the terracotta warriors the next day. The tour ended up being pretty much the same price as if we would have gone at it ourselves and thats why we used the tour... a little less hassle.
The terracotta warriors are definitely something everyone should see! The facility is great and not tacky at all. Our guide was really good and we got to spend all the time we wanted marvelling at the army. The details are incredible and they really do all look different from eachother. We tried to spot two alike as the chinese government offers a "big prize" to anyone who does, but to no avail. The facility is made up of three halls and there is more to come once technology advances. The ones underground are still in full color but excavating them makes the color fade in a matter of days so they are waiting on a technology to preserve the color before excavating anymore of the halls (4 total of which 3 are partially excavated). They have also found "the perfect one", the first fully intact warrior which was on proud display in hall 2. After the tour we also went to a silk museum and saw how silk is made while getting one of the best sales pitches ever from our very funny guide Mr.Fish. He uttered the words: "You no worry" at least 8 times during the 15 minute tour!
Day 3 in Xi'an went to cancelling train tickets and wondering over what to do (see previous post) and on Day 4 we walked on the city walls and left for Chengdu. Luckily we got tickets that same day! While walking back along the park at the base of the wall we found the weirdest thing ever! The entire park was beautiful and brand new however we noticed strange music being played from hidden speakers somewhere in the park. Finally we noticed loads of small mushroom shaped speakers all along the park playing weird techno music including a techno version of backstreet boys - I want it that way. It was by far the funniest and most disturbing thing I have seen in a long time. Of course we had to sing and dance along to the music much to the joy of the locals (Video coming soon). Speaking of weird experiences, the day we left beijing we took a walk around the quiter parts of town to find a place to eat near Hua Hin Lake. I was wearing shorts as it was a nice warm day. All of a sudden a local (age 65) stops us and points out that it is very funny that I am wearing shorts even though it's only 18 C outside. He then begins to stroke my leg pointing out that the hair on my legs is the reason I can do this. He then asked where we were from (while still stroking my leg) and we told him we were from Finland. He smiled and said "Tervetuloa Kiinaan"! Of course we were dumbfounded but he explained, in finnish and english that he had studied at the university of helsinki in the sixties... what are the odds!?!
So now we are in Chengdu on our second day here. Yesterday we went to the panda breeding research base which was really cool. We had to go in the morning as they are only awake between about 8:30 and 11 (feeding time) and then they sleep the rest of the day (and night). They really are the the cutest things ever and I would happily have given up the rest of our trip just to get one of those little furry guys home with me. They are also incredibly human and eat using a "thumb" or sixth finger to hold bamboo like a carrot that they chew with the side of their mouths. Unfortunately we cannot upload any pictures from where we are now but we should be able to fix that soon.
Our dilemma with what to do has been partially resolved, we didn't know what to do in Xi'an but then decided to go to Chengdu. We also booked flights from here to Guilin and also from Hong Kong to Bangkok for the 22nd and with that we thought that everything was under control again but noooooo... Yesterday we got word we could get a 8-10 day tour to Tibet (including an everest base camp trek) for 5ooo yuan each and then everything went pear-shaped! This morning we decided that an oppertunity like this will probably not present itself ever again and we muttered the famous words: All in! Today we have a meeting with some people to set up the group and tomorrow (if all goes well) we will book the tour. We will have to extend our visas and cancel / change flights (if we still can) and it's going to be a nightmare but destiny seems to want us to go there and go we shall... somehow! This means that you probably won't hear from us for a while but we will try to keep you updated!
Best regards
Bobby (and of course the lovely Micki)
Posted byRobbe at 10:09
wau så spännande! Ni verkar hitta på program också mitt i ingenstans... Spännande med Mt Everest, vi är glada att ni får en chans att åka dit! Sköt om er, kramar!
hallo!
ja bara måst säga att ja skratta när ja läste detta inlägg, hur rolit som helst! Väntar då på bilder. peace