As promised the story continues
Yesterday I lazied out on covering the night train...
At about 6 pm Chris and I hopped aboard our coach to Xian, a 12 hour night train that would pass over 1200 kilometers of dark China. We took a soft sleeper with Chris in the middle bunk and me up top. Around 10 it was lights out but I was feeling a little antsy and claustrophobic on the top bunk with only about two thirds of a meter above me to move about in. Chris was asleep in minutes and I decided to watch a movie on my PSP. 2001: A space Odyssey. Stanley Kubrick? WHAT THE FUCK?! In the first 30 minutes of the movie there is not a single word of dialogue not one!
This did however, help me fall asleep. Unfortunately I was woken up by a Pakistan fellow from further down the train crawling into the empty top bunk opposite of mine. After his various grumbles woke me up it was his pleasure to keep me awake by snoring loud enough to drown on out the train. I've never wanted so badly and so irrationally to pummel somone, feelings that increased exponentially as 2 turned to 3 to 4 to 5 and finally 6 when I gave up any hope of getting any sleep on the night train that was about to end.
We arrived early into Xian, were greeted by a friendly fellow and showed to a nice hostel. We dropped off our bags, showered up and sussed out the local bus to the Terractoa Warriors. While were limited in how close we could get to the artificats the views we did see of them were spectacular, the pure scale of the site was amazing. Our guide told us that it was 56 square kilometers! Much of them had been damaged by the intervening years since 210BCE. However, the detail work on the faces, bodies and horses was truly impressive. We spent a few hours and many photographs at the park before returning on a bus to the City.
Tired from the night train I grabbed and an hours shuteye while Chris explored a little. Later that night we set off to try to find a fun bar and explore the city a little further. We found some very tasty street food in the muslim quarter of the city which was abuzz with activity. However, the hunt for the bar proved to be a bit of a waste as everywhere we went was limited to dice playing isolated tables. Apparently the economic slow down + chilly night + tourist low season resulted in a very quiet night out.
Today we wandered around town without much of a purpose. We looked in on Pagodas and antique markets, however, we were simply cultured out. In a couple of hours we are going to head back out and try to find a place to catch a movie.
Tomorrow morning it is an early flight down to Shenzhen to explore the old stomping grounds.
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