Shanqi Hotel Xi'an

... etre parce que j'ai refuse de payer le 10 kuai pour rentrer
dedans, il faut des principes dans la vie. C'est quand meme 4 bieres. Marc
y est aller par contre, et pendant ce temps je suis aller farfouiller
autour, et j'ai trouver la seule colonne du temple (Car la pagode siege
dans un monastere) que je pouvais comprendre.



一佛生出 ;九龙吐水Ӎ 0;

Xi'an, Shaanxi, China feilipu

Today was a fun day. I came down to the lobby of the hotel to use the wireless internet. In the room it is 60 Yuan which is nearly 10 USD. There was a few of my group sitting waiting. They asked me if I wanted to go to the wall that surrounds the city of Xi'an. I told them I wanted to use skype. After I spoke to my wife I went with them. We walked on top of the wall. We came upon a bike rental. It cost 20 Yuan for 100 minutes. The wall is ...

... and totally worth the visit to the Arctic Circle! I spent the rest of the day lazily wondering around the streets before heading home around eight for a short rest before heading across to the Youth Hostel to try their chicken salad. I can't say it is worth the money but it surprised the staff when I ordered something other than my normal Club Steak Sandwich with two Jim Beams ...

... a bit dubious about loading our bags on... then in front of the bus an argument was breaking out and we just didn't have a clue what was going on... one guy who had been on the first bus put his bags on, so we decided to follow suit... we were then ushered past the arguing and onto the bus... We sat there for an hour and a half, listening to the arguing at the front getting more and more heated, people on the bus sometimes joining in, and at other ...

... coffee that Frank makes me every morning! We are not sad to leave LongMai, but while we were there we could find other native speakers of English, and we had Don Peters (the tour arranger) to fall back on. Going to Xian, we are on our own. We are a little nervous about that, but excited, too. We took the first cab in line at the resort (they are all the same), and established with the driver that ...

Hey Hey and a Big G'Day toya Today was sadly to be my last day in Xian and my last day with my beautiful Luo Wei. I was to continue on to Shanxi Province and she was to head home to Kaifeng City to spend time with her mother. Even though it was to be my last day in Xian I thought it best to head down stairs and see if I could strike up a deal for ...

... out that because of the earthquake we are no longer travelling to the sechuan province (chengdu etc) so the itinerarys been changed and that means no pandas (not too heartbroken really.) but you will NEVER guess where we are going isntead? yep you guessed it - henan province = shaolin temple, home of kung fu (those of you who know me will understand the brilliance of this for me.) we're spending 2 nights staying INSIDE the temple the grounds, we've the chance to do ...

... at 5am for the sunrise. The hostel itself is one of several perched on the peaks and ridges of Hua Shan. These buildings actually add to the beauty of the mountain as they're made from the local stone and are built perilously close to the cliff faces. The chinese are obsessed with sunrises and in fairness it was quite pretty. But the true benefit of getting up so early is having the mountains to yourself (almost) before the hoards arrive on ...

... too, and I'm now eating noodles and even some rice (when its abit stick or got some sauce) and not causing too much chaos. To begin with I would cover the table in rice and sauce, but I'm much tidier now!! A quick wander around town, a few more drinks at the hostel and then a quick shower (nice and hot!! yum!!) and then off to bed. Got up for breakfast and repacked and then it was straight off to head on to Chengdu!

After our sleep we had something to eat in the Hostel as it is Utels and most utels do really nice food ( We were staying in the Xi'an Bell Tower YH.) We then went out and looked around the shopping mall - trying to find a cash machine as Tom is having problems with his card. We then went and saw the huge kites people were lfying - some must ...