Xian, food, warriors and Guilin.

Ah the beauty of having a guide!  It was very late when we arrived in Xian and lovely to be met by Sharon who picked us up and brought us to the hotel.

The Terracotta Warriors did not disappoint.  Pictures fail to show the full majesty of it all and I’m not sure what is more impressive, the building of the warriors initially or the work involved getting them back to their full state.

  Each warrior has a totally different expression, age, facial features etc and one of them you could swear is wearing Nike shoes.

Outside there’s a bit of a market and sure enough there was a stall where they were selling scorpion, live in the cage and then deep dried.  Fortunately an Australian girl came by and obliged to eat one so we got our photos.  She said it was quite nice.

The only thing I noted was that Sharon was also horrified at the sight of them.  It got me thinking.  Could he just be setting this up to see if he could fool the tourists into eating anything.    I’ve heard from both Sharon and Ian that they will eat anything that flies except an airplane and anything with four legs except a table.

Speaking of food it has been a bit of a trial ordering dinner.  On our the last night in Xian I’m pretty sure (from my nursing experience ) that we had small intestine and lung with meat balls,

Thank god for the enormous breakfasts.  Ian has been helping us order in Guilin.  We met a couple from Sheffield and the wife said ‘I don’t ever want to eat a Chinese meal again in my life).  The GOOD meals are very good but today when I had bamboo rice,  (This is rice cooked in Bamboo with bacon and corn).  I thought Oh gawd. I hope there are no wee maggots or insects in this.  Nevertheless it was tasty.

While we were still in Xian we browsed around a park with terrific statues of local Chinese and of course areas where people were dancing. Totally uninhibited. And exercising and singing in a choir together.  Still being asked for photos.  The women taking a photo with Pat was so warm when she hugged both Pat and I.  Not so sure that I’m keen on him stealing my thunder.

We took a bicycle ride around the City Wall of Xian.  Pat won’t tell me how long its been since he’s been on a bike… but I think its a while.  He was walking funny for a while after and referring to the different padding he and I have.

Terrific Fountain display and then up the Big Goose Pagoda with incense burning and people praying.  We then went on to the Moslem Mosque and wandered down the market.

The food market sellers smoking as they’re cooking and scooters shooting along with husband wife and baby on board.  It was a real cacophony.

  The man in the monkey suit was idly chatting to the woman and gave me a big wave when he saw the camera.

Next stop Guilin