adventure in the middle kingdom

Wednesday started out cool and damp. i got up and got ready to go on the tour that the LuDao hostel i was staying in arranged every day. i was to head out on the eastern tour to see the terracotta warriors and stuff. our tour left at 9:00. There were 6 of us. Three brits, two germans, and me. our tour guide, candy, spoke pretty good english and took every opportunity to prove it. first we went to the terracotta warrior reproduction facility where they showed us how they made the reproduction terracotta warriors. the place was a tourist trap. there were tons of foreigners and Chinese alike. my camera ran out of batteries right at the beginning so i had to run to the end to get some more batteries. charged out the rear too, 20 yuan for two little AA batteries. after the terracotta warrior production area there were about five rooms full of crap that you had to filter through to get to the exit. [read on]

The hard seat train ride from zhengzou to xian was hell. 8 hours of sitting cramped on a seat with so many chinese packed in that even the hallways are packed with people. to make it worse the only thing i had eaten monday was mcdonalds at 8 that morning and the train didn’t get to xian till after 9:30 that night. all that time on the train hungry as hell watching the chinese who were smart enough to bring food munching down. if it had only been the hunger i’d have been ok but my empty stomach was filling up intestins with gas which was very painful and wouldn’t go away for the whole ride. i kept farting it out but luckily it didn’t really stink. finaly the train ride was over. i grabbed my pack and jumped off the train, instantly my stomach felt better. i felt exited free and a bit nervous but nothing could really touch my elation at just being off that train and in the city. [read on]

i'm out of the school!! well i got into zhengzou yesterday a bit before noon. sifu had given me a sword as a going away present which was nice but what the fuck was i supposed to do with ... [Continue reading this entry]