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Michael and Nicola's Travels!
Hi, been very busy since we left Shanghai.
Met up with our tour group of 12 people on Friday, all very nice so we've been lucky! Went out for some Bejing duck with them all that night and managed to successfully order what we wanted that time with the help of our tour leader!
Food has been gorgeous throughout so far, probably the best meal we've had was last night in Xian at a small rustic restaraunt in the muslim area where we had the traditional hot pot which involved us being given a little cage type tray which we took downstairs and filled with hundreds of skewers of all different meat, fish and veg for everyone and then took back up to put in the boiling hotpot which was in the middle of the table. Same type of thing as we had in Beijing earlier on but much more basic and miles more tasty. Really spicy.
Also went to a KungFu show in Beijing which was really good and saw lots more temples etc before we got a bus to do our trecking on the Great Wall on Sunday.
Did 2 days of hiking on the Great Wall on Monday and Tuesday. I think we only did about 20km total but the terrain was what took it out of you, constantly up and down over the hills following the wall. The huge steps were the killers, it was pretty tough going for most of it but definitely worth it. The views were amazing. I think we established that i am fitter than Michael by the end of it and as he is not writing this then it will take for him to actually write an entry for him to say any different!
We got an overnight train on Tuesday to Xian. The train was much nicer than i was expecting. Had 6 birth cabins with 3 level bunk beds. I slept very well on the middle bunk (with the aid of earplugs and an eye mask which i acquired from the flight!)
Got into Xian early yesterday and had a full day to explore. The best thing we did was hiring bikes to ride on top of the city walls which go round what would have been the original city. It was 14km i think, flat the whole way round but very bumpy and the bikes felt like they were going to fall apart so not very comforatable but good fun.
After the meal we had last night (above) we all went into a club for what was supposed to be one drink but as we have such a lively group everyone was dancing as soon as we got in there to weird chinese pop music and it turned into more like 4 drinks and what felt like hours for stone cold sober me! It's ok for the blokes cause they can all drink beer but any spirits have to be bought by the bottle so the girls didn't have much choice! Michael thoroughly enjoyed himself anyway as i'm sure you can imagine!
So much so that he didn't set the alarm for today (despite me asking him twice if he had!) so we had the group waiting for 15 minutes downstairs for us this morning to get the bus to see the Terracotta Warriors. Woops!
Anyway, the warriors were a good sight. We hadn't realised that all the statues were actually destroyed soon after the tomb was completed by the next emporer so only one out of thousands remained fully intact. They have put back together loads but there is still a hell of a lot to do there. Very impressive none the less.
Going for an all you can eat buffet tonight which our tour leader says is really good. Drinks (beer for the men, soft drinks for everyone else of course) are included so Michael's very excited... It's weird (and annoying) that beer is the same price as water here so i can't even moan about the money to him!
Off on another overnight train to Shanghai tomorrow where we have 2 nights. Hopefully going to see an acrobatics show which i am really looking forward to.
Will try to put some pics on now but if it takes too long then i'll have to give up.
Nicola (and Michael)
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