Foreign places Famous Faces All that digging in the sand at the beach when i was a little girl paid off and i finally reached China.

Would you like some cheese with your Whine ? Its not always roses when you are travelling, and sometimes you just have to say what you really think because that’s when the true essence of the holiday shows through. When the question “So how was your holiday ?” is asked, I have so often heard the response “Oh yeah, it was great”. I know that not all parts could have been great. There is no such thing as a perfect holiday. This hotel had only opened in Spring this year. The chinese or people that are guests in China really are filthy buggers cos it looks like the carpet in this brand new hotel needs a steam clean already. The room we were given was a “couple’s room”. Let me explain its weirdness. The bathroom has a big glass window so you can not only see your partner shower, but you can watch them while they sit on the toilet. Ok, watching them take a shower isn’t too bad, but watching them take a dump ? Could they not leave any privacy or what ? But get this….you might be thinking its all a bit kinky until you see the beds. Twin beds ??? What the ??? It doesn’t add up. We had to take the twin beds as there was no king size room. By this stage of the trip, we kind of needed some time apart. Not really, but we were exhausted from the train ride so it was nice just to have my own bed. Comfy and cosy. So far, no hard beds which is a miracle in China. I sleep on a very hard bed back at school, so if we are paying to stay somewhere, it has to have a comfy bed. The room faced into the middle of the building where there is an atrium. Cool if you want to spy on people having breakfast or lunch. Not ideal if you are sleeping and can hear people outside your window having a chat. There was also some horrendous banging we heard that sounded like construction.One side of the room also backs on to a stairwell so we regularly heard people walking up and down it. All in all, we can’t really complain because it is a nice hotel. They have a buffet breakfast that as included in the price of our room and its superb. Thursday 9th. We slept through from about 10am to 4pm – you literally need one day to recover from the travel. Then went on a search for the atm so we could give John his cash payment for the hotel. It was still pouring rain as it had been when we arrived. Set out in search of the restaurant which had a good write up from the Lonely Planet called Lao Sun Jia. Although it had been raining, it was quite “muggy” and we had walked quite a long way. The restaurant didn’t really have an adequate air conditioner so it was hot inside. It wasn’t really a clean place, the waitresses were a little rude and ignored any requests we made. We ordered the dishes not really knowing what they would be, even though the menu was in English. For example– vegetable jewellery was a vegie dish was covered in oil and had that interesting Chinese oil taste. We were sat next to other foreigners too ! I don’t know why that bugged me but it did. We also ordered a mutton dish which tasted just like Mum’s lamb roast with a bit of gravy, and a beef curry which was the crappiest curry ever. China only knows one kind of flavour of curry and its not recommended.. All in all, I don’t know what the Lonely Planet was raving about this place for. They had big glasses – like a half litre jug that you’d normally see someone chug a giant beer out of. IT had flower tea in it and you pick which one you wanted and they filled it up with water. I think this may just have been a budget restaurant for those Lonely Planet back packers. Not impressive but we created our own fun and made a move sting on other foreigners. Views of the bell and drum tower in the centre of the city were gorgeous at night. FIRST TOUR OF XI'AN.... The first real tour we had taken in Xi’an. Late wake up was followed by a rush to squeeze in some brekkie and race to the bus that was awaiting us. Pick up was 8.30, but we arrived at 9am and found other foreigners already crammed into the buss. Oops. At least the bus waited for us. This tour took us to the Terracotta Warriors, a silk factory, and Banpo Neolithic Village, and it also included llunch. From the time we entered the bus, the Dragon Master had started to rev up the passengers. After we had been to our first tourist spot – Banpo Neolithic Villiage, the dragon Master had turned into the tour guide. Much to the dismay of the Chinese tour guide who really couldn’t get a word in. Yes, he had done his reading and knew what it was all about. That photographic memory always comes in handy. Our tour was only a small mini bus of 6 people plus the driver and the English speaking guide named Sally. Germany, Spain and Australia were all represented amount the group. It was a fun group. Banpo Neolithic Village is the remains of a village that existed 6000 years ago. It was amazing to see. They built their houses half underground. They buried their children in pottery jars. The women could only be buried with other women when they died and the men were buried together with other men. We saw the remains of 4 women’s bodies, and some men. It was a little creepy and also hard to believe these skeletons were from 6000 years ago. That’s 4000 BC. They had a mote that surrounded their village. We noticed that the skeletons from this age were actually taller than the Asians. They were stockier and bulkier men, as depicted in the clay models of the villages which showed us the pottery kilns and how they made their pottery. Next stop was the Silk Factory. I knew it was not the place to buy silk from our previous jade factory experience. I knew the prices would be sky high and they were. I even took a photo of their price list as they were so outrageous. Dragon Master was out to play once again . It was the first time we filmed the karate chopper in action. He bought a new grey silk jacket with a yellow dragon on it. Very sexy. The only real way to understand, is to see the video clip. We had a typical Chinese lunch – the big thick noodles were the best. The restaurant made noodles in front of us but then wanted to charge an extra 10 yuan. Always asked for extra money when we had paid 400 yuan each already to do the tour. So we didn’t try those hand made noodles. The biggest highlight in Xi’an was the Terracotta Warriors. I’m not really into history much, but after this, I had a new found respect for history. This place was huge. There are 3 enormous pits which have been dug up. I only realised just how significant this archaeological excavation had been. And their work still continues. The first one contained all the warriors standing upright. The sheer amount of soldiers they have uncovered is sensational. I think what impressed me the most was that these pottery figures are life size and it was a real representation of Emperor Qin’s army. This tour was well worth it.