'I love the smell of faeces in the morning'

Trip Start Mar 10, 2007
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16
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Trip End ??? ??, 2007


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Thursday, March 29, 2007

So in the evening of our first day in Xi'an we had the priviledge of being invited to Dragons house， where he cooked dinner for us， and for those of you who are reading these you'll have realised that food is very important on my list of make or break activities on any day。 Was rather strange as we were invited to Dragons house at about 6 and we were all sat in his living room on a tiny sofa with absolutely nothing to do except talk to his Chinese daughter nu nu （who speaks very little Chinese） for about 2 hours while he cooked。 Bless him though，he was really lost as he didn't have a clue what to do for us and clearly felt awkward about entertaining。 His daughter is possibly the sweetest child i have ever met and could even convince me that children are a good idea （i hate the little things generally）When the food did arrive we were truly spoiled， he cooked about 10 amazing dishes and there was simply too much food）I had to 'take one for the team' and force feed myself more food than my stomach could physically handle so it looked as though we had eaten enough） Was all very tasty， though the bus ride home wasn't too fun。We also saw the big wild goose pagoda here today, where they hold a rather impressive water show for about 20 mins in front of it at midday (no wonder china had\s a water shortage!)
      On day 2 i braved my first bit of independent street food buying， i saw a woman who several people seemed to be buying food from and thought this would be a safe bet， as the place i had wanted to go had been closed。 It was basically a noodle and veg filled pita， very tasty though， and for 1 yuan you cant go wrong。 The afternoon was taken up by us renting bikes and riding around the 14km xi'an perimeter walls， a fantastic way to spend any afternoon， though the saddle sores from the bumpy wall will hopefully go soon！
      In the evening me， Giz and Sarah wandered around the Muslim quarter where i was amazed by the hawker stalls selling all kinds of strange concoctions， as i have never experienced street food before。I really wanted to go and try a Mongolian barbecue but just wasn't hungry enough for it。
        In the end i did eat in a food court in the top floor of a shopping mall， which turned out to be a bizarre kids hangout type place， complete with an arcade （you'd have loved it Sam， time crisis 3 and 4 and a new gun-blade！）。 My food was good though i didn't catch on until half way through devouring it that it had actually been reheated and from that point on i was paranoid i would get food poisoning （i haven't that i know of）。
Day 3 in the morning was taken up by a stunning visit to see the terracotta warriors， which didn't disappoint。 However Dragon did feel we wouldn't appreciate it without a little knowledge of the history， so on the coach there he began to give his word for word memorised speech about the history of it， lasting over 45 mins， just what you need after a bad nights sleep and when you have a splitting headache。 Quite funny though as he puts the phrase 'you may wonder' inappropriately into his speeches about 10 times， and you can tell everyone else is also thinking' no thats the last thing I'm wondering， I'm wondering how long this bloody lecture is gonna last'。 It ，made some of my maths lectures seem like a breeze in terms of tolerance of boredom。
     Anyway，the warriors have to be seen to be believed， even with the ，massive crowds of annoying tourists， and i would strongly recommend seeing the temporary exhibition when it comes to London soon。
          The evening overnight train was our last and ，just to make it memorable， had to be one without air con didn't it。 And we also had to have the bunks right next to the toilets didn't we？ And it had to be the dirtiest train we've been on so far didn't it。Glad thats the last one over with now。
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