Refreshed (ish) from a night in the hostel (tho again I couldn't sleep, that might have had something to do with the Israeli guy in the next bunk. We headed out early on our day of adventure.

First stop, the train ticket office where they told us they only did soft sleepers as the hard were sold out and they were more expensive 440yuan. Next to the bus station where the tickets were about 280 but we couldn't leave that day, then to the train station where we ended up booking our tickets wife sleeper for that night. Sorted, we could focus on finding the 306 bus to the terra cotta army!

We found it to the west of the station and for 7yuan it was a bargain. It took about an hour to get there and it was a smooth ride. Once there though we walked through all the restaurants and stalls and people shouting us for our business, stopping only at King Coffee on the way,to get to the entrance gate which was a relief as signage was so bad we weren't sure we were headed in the right direction! We were, but we then found out that we needed to return back to the start to get our ticket!

We walked back, got the tickets and then back again to the gate and got in! We did pit 3 first, the smaller which was still huge, and we walked around the cool dark hanger looking into the pit at the broken remains of. Entities old soldiers. Next was pit 2, also huge with some more intact soldiers, though they felt a bit placed for our convenience.

The main event was pit 1, a cavenous hangar that housed the largest pit and a massive amount of warriors. They stood to attention row after row, all with a different stance and a different facial expression. We walked around and saw terra cotta horses and the like before coming blinking back into the light. It was a great experience, but not quite what I expected.

Time was ticking on and we had a train to catch that night, so we made our way back to the parking lot to get the 306 back to town again walking the tout gauntlet as we did so.

The bus passed quickly and we found ourselves back at the xi'an bus station, where we caught the bus back to the hotel, sat and had a drink, before picking our bags up and heading back out to get the bus to the train station, always awkward when the bus is crammed and you have a rucksack on front and back!

Before getting in the train, Jen wanted to get food. We went to some terrible restaurant that arsed around so much that by the time we got out we had 20 minutes to get on the train before it left. The security (kind of airport style at the Chinese train stations, bags have to go through the scanner) Queue was massive and we trudged closer to the gate as time went on, we were getting worried.

We got through, hurriedly pointed at out rickets to some attendants who in turn pointed the way to our waiting hall which was half empty as our train had boarded. Running with bags we found our way to the platform and onto the train where we discovered we had a berth to ourselves. Bonus! Time for some serious sleepy time, a little chit chat, a snack and a beer later, I was tucked up waiting for sleep to come.