Xi'an Hotels
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The epic journey to Xi'an
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Xi'an,
Shaanxi, China
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Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008 04:26
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Entry 16 of 18 | show all | print this entry |
Sunday 20th April
I woke up at 5.30am so I decided that I'd better get up as the time on my alarm clock was faded, meaning that the batteries were about to run out, and I was afraid that my 6am alarm wouldn't go off! The bus for Panzihuha left at 7am and took 8 hours to reach our destination. It is not actually that far in distance from Lijiang (150km I think), but as there are a hell of a lot of mountains and no tunnels it means that you are constantly winding up and down them. The driver was going like a bat out of hell down some of the hills but strangely I was never worried as he seemed to be in perfect control the entire time. After a quick snack at the bus station I jumped into a taxi to the train station, 30 minutes away, which was painless thanks to Hsiaoping's instructions which I just handed to the taxi driver. I arrived at 3.30 to find that the train to Xi'an wasn't leaving until 11.30pm and there were no sleeper carriages left, only hard seats. On top of that, it would take 29 hours. Sod that! I asked around to find out if anyone knew if there was an airport nearby but everyone just looked at me confused, even after I added some arm actions! I wandered around looking for somewhere to use the internet but I got the same reaction again, even with my typing hand actions! I couldn't even find a telephone to call the Mother to get her to go on the internet for me. After my fruitless search I headed back to the train station ticket hall and sat with my head in my hands debating what to do and cursing my luck. After a couple of minutes I saw a old white couple so I decided to say hello. I struck up a conversation and told them my plight. They suggested that I get on the 6pm train to Chengdu (which is the place that was pretty much at the centre of the massive earthquake today - 13th May), which I knew had an airport from one of my conversations with Hsiaoping. I managed to get the last hard sleeper bed which was pretty lucky. To be honest there much difference between the hard sleeper carriages and the soft sleeper ones. In the soft sleeper carriages you get two bunk beds in a cabin with a door that you can close. In the hard sleeper carriages there are two bunk beds, but they are three beds high and you have no door on your cabin. The hard sleepers were actually a lot more fun than the soft sleepers as they are more sociable. Everyone just sits on the chairs in the corridor eating, drinking and playing cards. I was on the top bed of the three which proved to be a bit of a mission to get up to. The train left at 6.30pm and I sat writing my diary, with an audience most of the time, until 10pm when they turned the lights off and everyone went to bed.
Monday 21st April
The train pulled into Chengdu train station at 6.30am. I slept pretty much the whole time from 10pm. After finding out that the next train to Xi'an wasn't until 11.30am, which would have been the same one that I could have got in Panzihuha, meaning that there would still be 17 hours to go, I jumped into a cab to the airport. After the 30 minute cab ride I had been travelling for 24 hours - the most so far! Of course, nobody had any clue what I was talking about when I was trying to buy a plane ticket. I decided to see if I could buy one from the internet but I had no luck thanks to the crappy airport computers reluctancy to open any of the pages that I wanted. I eventually found a girl that spoke enough English to sell me a ticket to Xi'an leaving at 3pm - 7 hours away, but at least it only involved one hour of sitting down rather than 17. After storing my bag and faffing around for ages I found another internet cafe that gave you unlimited internet (and free green tea) for 2 quid. At 1.30 I was allowed through passport control, which was a lot less traumatic then last time, to wait by my gate. I arrived at the gate at 2.30 to board the plane but when I looked out the window there was no plane by our gate! 50 minutes and three toilet breaks later (it must have been the green tea!) I was sitting on the plane with my eyes closed, gripping the arm rests as tight as I could and bracing myself for take off. We eventually took off at 4pm and an hour later we touched down in Xi'an to find that it was 8 degrees and absolutely slashing it down! I stood in the baggage claim in my shorts and t-shirt freezing my arse off until my backpack came around and I made a quick dash to the toilet to layer up. I jumped on a bus outside the airport that dropped everyone off outside the Melody Hotel in the centre of Downtown Xi'an. As soon as I stepped off the bus an English speaking Chinese lady dragged me into the hotel's tourist information room and before I knew it I had been signed up for 2 nights at a nearby hotel and a tour for the following morning! 30 minutes later I was finally at my destination at the May First Hotel. My first room seemed ok until I realised that it was next to the elavator which rattled the entire room every time it moved! After complaining I was moved to a room along the corridor. By the time I had settled in it was 7pm - 36 hours after I had left Lijiang. I looked like death and smelt even worse! After a well needed shower I set out to search for the appropriately named Bar Street for a well deserved beer. I found it suprisingly easily even without a map. Must be my sixth sense! Bar Street was a small road lined with neon-lit bars with people on the pavements outside hollering at you to go in their bar. I heard live music coming from one so I decided to go in there. I listened to an acoustic guitar playing singer who had the most amazing voice. There were only two other groups of people in there. One was a group of Chinese men who were playing a noisy card game and another group were chatting loudly. I was the only one that clapped at the end of each song and I got an apprecative nod of the head as he walked past at the end. I left soon after.
Tuesday 22nd April
As I was being picked up for my tour at 9am I got up early to find somewhere to do my laundry as my hotel was charging extortionate prices to get it done there. After breakfast I headed back to my room to wait for my phonecall to tell me to come downstairs. The pick-up time on my ticket said 9-9.30 so when it got to 9.30 I went downstairs to check if anyone had come to look for me. They hadn't. At 9.50 our English speaking guide turned up and drove me to a nearby hostel to wait for the other people from my group. After a short wait we were taken outside where some people were put on a minibus and I was put in a car with two really nice ladies who were friends from work in England, English Nina, who was in her 60's and Polish Nina, who was in her 50's, and our guide. I wasn't expecting to be in a car as I had opted for the 45yuan tour, where you had to pay for the food and entry fees, rather than the 320yuan tour, where everything is included. The first stop was the Banpo Museum I think. It was basically a couple of thousand years old village that was discovered in 1973 and then unearthed between 1974-1977. In 1978 they built a roof over it and turned it into a museum. The next stop was not on the itinerary. It was a workshop that made replicas of the Terracotta Army. The tour company must get commission for taking people there as just after the workshop was an almighty gift shop selling warriors of all sizes! There was a full-size replica outside with a missing head so you could stand behind it and have your picture taken so it looks like you are a warrior! That thoroughly amused me, especially the one I had taken whilst posing with a wooden sword that looked like I had decapitated it! From there we went to Qin Shi Huang's Mausoleum. He was the Emporer that ordered the construction of the mausoleum and the Terracotta Army which he believed would help protect him in the afterlife. It wasn't actually the proper mausoleum - it was a replica of the coffin chamber but on a smaller scale. It was here that we found out that the 700,000 people that it took to build the 2.3 square kilometre mausoleum were forcibly removed from their families to construct it. It was completed just in time for the Emporers death in 210 BC and the labourers that were still alive when the Emporer died were then buried alive with him so that they wouldn't be able to reveal the Emporer's secrets. After being dragged around in about 15 minutes we were crammed back into the car and driven down the road to the Terracotta Warriors complex. We went to an amazing buffet restaurant and inside the driver of our car, also the owner of the tour company, tried to get me to pay 40yuan for the entrance of the previous place. I had seen the prices when we were there and it only cost 15yuan so I argued it. He told me that I was paying extra because of the guide. I had asked the lady when I booked the tour what I had to pay for and she said entrance fees and food. After 10 minutes of arguing with this guy and refusing to pay extra I found out that I wasn't even supposed to be on this tour. The woman who sold me the ticket had written the pick up time as 9-9:30 when it was actually supposed to be 8-8:30 At that time I was out getting my laundry done. After the guy realised that it was his company's fault he agreed to let me pay only the entrance fees. After the meal we met our guide for the Warriors, Bruce. He didn't really guide us at all actually. He walked us along the path to the entrance and then told us to meet him back there in only an hours time. There were three buildings containing the Terracotta Warriors. The first was absolutely massive and was an awe-inspiring sight. The second building was smaller but still contained a lot of Warriors and the third was left as it was originally found with some of the statues partially destroyed but most completely annihilated when the original roof collapsed on them. After we had finished looking around we went to watch a film about them in the circular theatre but Bruce came in and told us that we had to leave as he had to meet another group. We told him that we could quite easily follow the exit signs by ourselves in 5 minutes time, after the film had finished, and then meet him outside. He said that he needed to show us where to go and made us leave. He stormed off staight away and just outside the exit he jumped on an motorised cart and sped off leaving us to find our own way anyway. None of us could believe it! When we finally found him I was absolutely furious and he didn't speak to me for the rest of the day because I swore at him! We then went to the Hot Springs Palace which some of the old Communist Party leaders used to stay at. It had three natural hot springs within it which were used for baths and to heat the rooms. I was back at my room by 6pm so I decided to head to the train station to book my ticket to Beijing for the following evening. It should have been a simple task but I somehow managed to get completely lost on the simple journey. I wasn't helped by the fact that I forgot my map! After 2 hours of wandering around I finally found the station, got my ticket with the help of a Chinese girl who could speak English and headed back to get changed for my last night of partying in Xi'an. I had spent almost all of my money buying the ticket so I stopped to get some money out on the way back. The problem that I have had in Asia however, is that hardly any of the ATMs accept Maestro cards so you need to go to the right one. After trying 8 different ones I temporarily abandoned the search to spend my last 20yuan on a McDonalds. Inside I got chatting to a French guy who told me that there was an HSBC bank about 20 minutes down the road. I headed down there but even my own bank's ATM wouldn't let me take money out. I used the phone inside to call the customer service number but the lady couldn't help me as I wasn't a Chinese account holder and she wouldn't transfer me to the UK as I wasn't a f***ing Premium account holder, which pissed me off even more. I went back to the hotel and explained my situation to the receptionists who wouldn't let me use their internet or phone! I managed to scrape together 2yuan from my room which was enough for an hour on the internet at a place down the road. I tried to find a freephone overseas number but I had no luck. With the help of Hannah (cheers!) I managed to get the Mother on messenger and got her to ring the bank for me. After about 40 minutes they finally agreed to accept a reverse charge call - all I needed to do was call the International Operator of China. I went back to the hotel to see if the receptionist would let me use their phone now that it wouldn't cost them anything. They still wouldn't, but said that I could use the phone in my room to call them which completely contradicted the sticker on the phone saying: "No outside calls"! The moron of a receptionist had no idea what what I was talking about when I asked for the number of the operator so I had to pay for the call anyway. After getting the helpdesk to call me back they told me that they had put a block on my card as there had been a lot of activity on my card in China, mostly failed transactions. I said: "That's because i'm in bloody China and nowhere takes your stupid card"! By the time I had got it unblocked it was 1:30am and I had been fannying around trying to get money for 5 hours covering about 10km in the process! My last night was pretty much ruined so I went to bed.
Wednesday 23rd April
I woke up at 11:30 to find I had slept through both my alarm clocks so I had a frantic 30 minutes to pack my bag and check out of the hotel. It all went in suprisingly easily which was when I realised that almost all of my clothes were still at the laundry! By the time I had collected it, repacked in the hotel lobby, stored my bag and went for food it was 2pm. I realised that I didn't have enough time to do anything that I wanted to do that day, such as renting a bicycle to ride along the city walls, as my train left at 6pm. I wandered around for a couple of hours before heading to Starbucks to sit outside in the sun with my coffee. After a couple of minutes a Chinese girl, Lisa, who had been living in Canada for the last 6 years started chatting to me. It was handy having someone around who could speak Chinese when I was being harrassed by beggars and street sellers as she could tell them to go away! We were chatting for ages and when I checked my watch it was already 5:10pm so I had to make a quick dash back to the hotel to collect my bag before trying to hail a cab. Why is it that you can never find one when you urgently need one?! Luckily a guy on a motorbike offered to take me for 20yuan. The train left on time and this time I got the bottom bunk which meant that I actually had enough headroom to sit up at the table to write my diary. After a couple of hours I had drunk the cans of beer that I had bought at the station so I had to mission through 10 packed carriages to get to the bar and then back again. The lights went off at 10pm and I was nowhere near ready for sleep as i'd only been awake for 10.5 hours so I headed back to the restaurant carriage for a few hours to write my diary until I was suitably merry and ready for bed.
Phew, that was a long one! Hope it wasn't too boring. They are going to start to get a bit boring after the next one (Beijing) as I am in Australia now and all I have been doing is chilling on the beach getting lovely tan. There will be a bit of entertainment in there as well though.
Hope everyone is well.
Love Matt
xxx
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