Xi'an Hotels
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Day 26
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From 5pm to 7am I think I had about 20 mins sleep and rarely did 5 minutes pass without me checking my watch. So when we arrived at Xi'an station it was good to know that the hostel had sent people to pick us up. The two hostel staff led us through the hordes of people to a public bus stop - not quite the pick up I had in mind but hey-ho. We knew the Welsh guys were in our hostel already so it was good to meet up. I got to my bunk at about 9am and slept till 2pm.
Steve and I went out in the afternoon and happened apon a wine convention in a huge hotel. Prompted by the thought of free tastings we wandered in and scouted for flowing wine, sadly it wasn't forthcoming and all we left with were heaps of carrier bags and leaflet hand-outs. We had hoped to pose as rich western hotel owners out here to procure wine for our new hotel - but I think our shorts and flip-flops meant we didn't get taken very seriously.
Xi'an is a nice change from Beijing. It's a large city (6 million population) but it's more affluent. The streets are clean and there are fewer beggars. The beggars here also try to entertain, but it's usually in a way that's pretty humiliating for them. Two examples - a girl I walked past earlier who couldn't have been more than 7 years old. She had learned to take all of her weight with her jaw and balance on a pole with her feet at the very top. Second was a guy who had lost both arms, doing tricks like squeezing himself through a very small hoop using, well just using his armless body to do it. I'd read of a decent sounding student area, so in the evening Kasja, the Welsh trio and I went out clubbing. The area was nice enough but a little quite but we found a cool club back on the main road. It was the first night club I'd been to since I started travelling and it was a hoot. The only downer was the astronomical drinks prices - 35 yuan (2 pounds - still cheaper than home but pricey for these parts). The night was spent at the bar accepting drinks from strangers and watching the dancers on stage behind the bar. Everyone seemed to be getting very drunk including the bar staff!
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