Rhod and Anna's World Adventure

We are now in Xian which is pretty much central China. To get here we had to come on the sleeper train from Beijing. It was the first but not last sleeper train experience for both of us. We paid for soft sleeper beds. This means we have 4 to a cabin that was about 6.5 feet wide and 6.5 feet long. The happy travelling party were myself, Anna and 2 Chinese business men who liked to have a good stare at us but didn't say a word. I'm comfortable with this now as in return I have taken to having a good stare back at them. I'm happy to say that I missed the sight of one of the men getting changed out of his suit and into his pyjamas on the top bunk. I kept my clothes firmly on and pulled the duvet over my head, which was fortunate as I woke to the sound of one of them faffing about centimetres from my head whilst trying to get his washbag from the table next to me. Hmm, can't wait for the 26 hour journey we have coming soon! It was an experience. We whiled away about 3 hours in the buffet car with some other people we knew on the train and also a German tour group in the 40's-50's who liked to drink, sing and dance. I didn't think the Germans had this sort of fun but they certainly kept us entertained.

The good news is we managed to sleep for most of the journey. We arrived at about 8am and we managed to find the hostel no problem. We are obviously getting really good at finding our way around now we are settling in to being travellers. The girl from the hostel who met us at the station, got on the bus with us, paid the fare, told us where to get off the bus and led the way to the reception desk helped a little bit but we easily did the rest on our own! First impressions...less spitting but more homeless/limbless people who seem to work up quite a speed when chasing you for money on their skateboards!

Xian is the home of the self proclaimed 8th wonder of the world, the Army of the Terracotta Warriors. Or the 'Tellacotta Walliols' as they are known to the locals. They are an impressive sight. The scale of the area in which they stand is huge and they are not sure how many more they will find in the surrounding area. They only found them in 1974 but they are over 2000 years old. To get there I wrestled some Chinese in order to get on the bus. If they won't queue, I won't queue! I think I came off pretty well after pushing most of the crowd out of the way and getting on fairly quickly. I then stood guard over the back seats in order that Anna and the other 2 people we were with had a seat. I enjoyed it immensely. I think I will fight my way on to some more buses in future.

The chinese being the shrewd business people that they are, never pass up an opportunity to relieve the tourists of their money. As soon as we left the pits, there they were, mini warriors of all sizes in their hands, begging us to come "looky, looky!" Obviously we were happy to oblige and we now own our own miniature warrior after some impressive bartering! He will be standing guard in the toilet when we get back home.