Arrived in Xian after a night on a "soft sleeper" this time...realised what we had been missing out on..namely, a door, curtains, and air conditioning. Much better, and much better sleep!
Bit underwhelmed by Xian to begin with, particularly as taxi drivers actively turn us down for a lift so we have to trek across town complete with rucksacks, having spent two nights now sleeping on trains...fairly desperate to get to our hotel, but we made it eventually. Passed a square on our early-morning walk packed with locals (mainly elderly) doing their early-morning tai chi classes...not as peaceful as had imagined because the music was slightly more bangra than Chill out. They all look pretty nimble though!
Went out to explore xian, and when we eventually did have a stroke of luck and get a cab we head to the Great Goose Pagoda. Think we're a little temple-spoiled as it is again a little underwhelming...massive flights of stairs (7, in total), and it's smoggy so you can't see over the city anywhere. We both decided its definitely not up to its world-famous reputation.
And then it starts to tip and we cant buy a lovely plastic poncho anywhere...seems thats a Beijing-only thing!! So we decided to head off to the Muslim Quarter to look round an ancient mosque (beautiful), and to do a bit more shopping. Lots and lots and lots of stalls, but what's amazing is that they all sell exactly the same thing! Bit easier to bargain here. Did have a successful purchase of a hilarious iPhone cover and some Christmas decorations but sadly no more ridiculous headgear today. Had a lovely potter down the road full of outdoor stalls where everybody eats outside and you can see the street sellers cooking noodles, frying dumplings and roasting walnuts. Didn't really fancy getting ill, particularly havig walked past rows of whole shrivelled livers, so headed for another lonely planet recommended restaurant- "first noodle under the sun".
Felt we had to try lonely planets recommendation of the 4m long noodle..."as soft as paper and as smooth as muscle", served with two bowls of some unknown 'health' soup. Other delectables on the menu include
Health soups A bacterium soup Bullfrog Sizzling crystal powder Manual twist same tasty dish Yam fried fungus Bad fragrant pumpkin dumpling soup
We were happy with our noodles (which the nice Chinese waitress ha to show us how to eat...im still not exactly adept with chopsticks and liquid type meals, so this was quite a challenge), and our desert of "caremelised sweet potato"...delicious example of diabetes and cva on a plate.
Grabbed another motorcycle rickshaw over to the city walls after lunch. The ride, withbour female driver, was somewhat rapid: beeping and shouting at anyone who dared hover their foot over the edge of the pavement and driving into anything in the way. All the time with her fringe vertical and her elbows out as far as possible. We fondly nicknamed her tingtong On account of her ability to get whatever she wanted through any means necessary. The ride ended particularly spectacularly when she cut across a zebra crossing and 10 lanes of traffic. Out knuckles were white holding onto our rucksacks, but we were alive and at our destination in record time.
Climbed yet more stairs onto the city walls, hired some bikes and cycled the 14+km round the walls. Lovely contrast of wall, traditional buildings and skyscrapers, shame about the smog. After more papparazzing (dispite more white people being on the wall than we have seen so far) we headed home on a tuk tuk slowly, more sensible driver through the now torrential rain, back or our pseudo-hostel (it's so amazing its almost a hotel!) and a well earnt sleep in our twin queen beds.