4th Jan

Overnighttrain from Beijiing to Xian, 11 hours, top bunk of a 6 bunk haard-sleeper. Compartment meseasures about 2x2x2.5 meters. Verytight on the top bunk, can hardly sit up and the bed is very narrow about 65cm, started the night being very cold, woke up boiling hot and trying to takesome layers off was not so easy. Met Micky, Chinese guy, who kept commenting on my handsomeness I am worriedabout him. Rough night didn’t sleep too well.

There was apickup service by one of the hostels I had heard of, so I  made it easy on myself by jumping on theirminibus and checked in for 2 nights. I went out and did the city wall the sameafternoon. very impressive from ground level but less so when you get on top,it is basically a wide road and some of the scenery you see is dilapidatedbuildings etc. it is about 15.30 when I set off and you need 3-4 hours tocomplete, timing is not good and not terribly warm either. Head back to rent abicycle and meet up with Nancy who I manage to talk into sharing a tandem bikewith me, she actually pays for it too! She is a tourist for a couple of daysstaying with family. The ride which we did quite quickly took an hour,including taking a few photos.

I found myway to the Muslim quarter at night, food superb (will load some photos). Ididn’t feel harassed so much as I have done in some places. The specialityconsists of you sitting and breaking up a piece of bread into tiny piecesinto  a bowl, this takes about 10 minutes(I finished my meal by the time the girl opposite finished her preparation),then you get it topped up with stewed meat and veg, tasty. I got away by justpointing at the board and get the ready-made dish!  I have had to do this a lot, the languageremains quite impenetrable.  After 2weeks here I can barely understand 10 words. Pronunciation is very difficultand if you are not careful when trying to thank someone you may call their mothera horse! Because of the different tones any word could have multiple meaningsand so far I have said maybe 1-2 words that people have understood the firsttime, Nihao! Doshao (how much, important question).

In muslinquarter if anything can be skewered they will do it, including eggs! I wantedto take a photo of this and had to buy one, the guy was quite good natured butdid try to charge me 2 y for taking my photo with the skewer.

Day 2 inXian, late rising. Sat in the café, cups of coffee and chat with othertaravellers. Most foreigners teach here and do quite well, lots of demand andqualifications not always necessary. I have even met people who travel theworld like this. Unfortunately I don’t fancy formal teaching.

I met Nishan and Louise , his girl friend, teachers and spent some time in the barwith them, beer and various shots.  Wasstupid enough to have a few Chinese cigarettes, pretty awful and good reasonnot to smoke at all. Nish is successfully pissing off louise with his lowself-esteem and I am trying not to get drawn into this game.  The next night got really badly smoked in thebar too and I want even smoking! Bad night, 2 new guys in the room, someone wastalking in sleep, snoring badly and sometimes chumping, I thought someone hadbrought a dog into the room, really strange. The next day I met the 2 newroom-mates (Australians) on the way back from the Big Goose Pagoda, it wasn’tthem snoring, it was David, another teacher I had met at the bar.

I checkedout in the morning anyway, nowhere to sit and relax without being a passivesmoker. Hostel 50 yards up the road, cheaper, clean and a very quiet room-mate,slippers and tea-making facilities too. Stayed 2 nights and hooked up withDanny and Fab who have booked into another hostel.

I amconstantly eating specially when I am outside, I think it is the cold. But thevariety of the coulourful food is also amazing. 

Had hotpoton my own couple of nights ago, the broth comes ready seasoned and you justcook the meat and veg in the juice and eat it fresh, great, tried some kind ofa rice wine too, different to sake but ok.  The speciality of the restaurant was fish andI said yet to that first, but when they showed me the live fish twisting andturning in a tray, I changed my mind even though I had had a hotpot in Beijingalready. This one was much better though because everything was fresh exceptthe chilled wafer thin beef, very tasty and spicey. First time in my life Ihave felt my sinuses burning!