Had a good nap today, but need to get up now as I don't have any deodorant, so i'll have to sort that now. I walk down to the two main shopping centres to see what I can get. Now, these shopping centres are set up more like House of Fraser rather than a conventional shopping centre, unfortunately they also carry massive price tags as well. I eventually find a supermarket on the bottom floor, but when I look round I can't see any deodorant at all, al sorts of cosmetic stuff, just not what I am after, weird. I ask the woman in the shop, using the international sign of lifting my arms and motioning that I have a can. She understands and takes me over to a shelf where there is one can, Literally one! Not the best choice I have ever had but give the situation I am in i buy it anyway. I'll have to find where the rest of the deodorant are hiding later in the week, or perhaps Chinese just don't wear any, the smells I have experienced since being here would tend to confirm that theory.
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The plan for the rest of the day is just to relax and maybe update the blog. Nothing to stressful as I am still feeling wrecked, I will have to have a look at what I am going to do while I am here so that I make the most of my time. As evening approaches I am sitting in the bar area of the hostel just doing some research when these two Chinese girls come over to me and ask me if I have some time that I could afford them to practice their English, I say of course, not like I have any plans. So we get to chatting, Yolanda and Catherine and they are from Xi'an, so proper locals, their English isn't the best, they can understand what I say but are not sure how to respond, but we can get by. We chat about my travels and I show them some photos, and then I ask them about what type of things I should do in Xi'an while I am here. I haven't had dinner yet and they offer to take me out and show me some of the places to eat, the local treats. This sounds great as my food experiences in China have maybe not been the best to date. We jump in to one of these 3 wheeled taxi things, kind of like a tuk tuk, because I am with Chinese it means that we pay the right price, it cost us 7 to get in to town, instead of the 20 it would probably have cost me on my own. We walk down the Muslim Quarter street and they take me in to a dumpling place. We pick some dumplings and they show me how best to eat them. Apparently this place is famous in Xi'an for dumplings and famous Chinese people come here for the dumplings. When I try them, I must say they are fantastic. A little dough parcel with beef and onion inside, dipped in the sauce and then down the hatch. Delightful. So the plan is that we just go to a couple of places and try a bit of everything. Next we hit up some sweet rice. It was a lump of rice on a stick, with flavoured jam on it, I had blackberry and chocolate on mine. Not being the greatest fan of sweet things, this was great. After this it is on to some BBQ place where we get beef, chicken and some spicy bread, all washed down with a wee sneaky beer. Up until this point the girls had paid for everything, which I thought was a bit ridiculous, so I made sure that I paid for this one, though I came up against fierce opposition. We walk back to the hostel after this and the girls get a taxi home. What a great surprise, I had some really good food and got given the tour experience of Xi'an, I tell the girls I was looking to get a bag for day trips but I wasn't able to find one at a good price. They offer to take me to a good market street where we can bargain, so maybe i'll get my bag yet. Perhaps do that later on in the week.
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I come home to a couple of emails from Martin and Linda telling me that they are doing Hua Shan Mountain tomorrow and asking if I wanted to come. I have a quick look on the web to see what sort of mountain this is. It is quite the beast, also looks scary. I reply. I'm in, meeting at the train station just before 8.