I touched down in Xi'an at about 8.30 after about 23 hours flying with no sleep. I wont lie, all I wanted was to get to my hostel and go to sleep. Despite my conviction to only get busses so that I was able to challenge my Chinese language skills as often as possible I decided to get a taxi. This is my second major mistake.

After successfully driving down my potential driver down from 200 yuan to 70 I was feeling pretty good but that quickly changed. Driving in China seems to only be possible if you really don't mind dying and have no regard for anyone else on the road. It was exciting to say the least.

My driver told me again and again that he knew where he was going but it was clear after about 30 mins he didnt. The first hotel he tried to drop me off at looked flash, but in a very tacky, Chinese way. We then engaged in negotiation about whether I was right when I told him he wasn't. Begrudgingly he drove on and we discussed the address again. Now I wont lie, by this point I was getting stressed and angry. When we pulled up at yet another hotel, this one looking, quite frankly like a large brothel, and the driver told me to get out, I lost it. During the ensuing argument, of which I understood almost none of what he yelled at me, im sure I made up some brand new swear words. Im actually quite proud of that! Suddenly he whipped out his phone and made a call. I began to wonder if I was about to be robbed by a syndicate of Chinese taxi drivers. It was all quite surreal and despite the adrenaline I was aware of the jet lag setting in. It was all in my mind. My driver now had fire in his eyes, I'd like to think brought on by my amazing linguistic ability to curse at him, but more likely brought on my his desire to get rid of me. After two phone calls he sped off and ten mins later I was outside my hostel. I got out, picked up my stuff and while thanking him, quickly got inside the hostel before he could try and demand more money off me for the hour and twenty odd mins he had been driving me around. Quite frankly I was out of swear words at this point.

The hostel was amazing and picked up my flagging spirit instantly. Next door to the hostel is a small shop where I was able to get two big bottles of beer for about 3 yuan each (30p!!!!) and sat in the common area of the hostel drinking them in the company of two English girls who teach English out here. By about one in the morning, suitably relaxed by the beer, jet lag kicked back in and I retired to my room.