Xi an and the route to Lhasa

Well After leaving Beijing and settling into a nice little Hostel of sorts in Xian. I was ready to see the biggest Army of clay unearthed to date. The first day I walked around Xian to see some of the sights. I went through this place known as the Muslim Quarter and up the hutongs, or alleyways, which seem to intertwine the city and offer a endless possibilities. You can find all sorts of stuff throughout the alleys to include toys, silk covered books, silk clothing, cigarettes, food, drinks, and all the tourist knick knack that you find walking through any city with tourism. Most if it is literally crap which you don't really need, but it is big fun to walk through and barter your way into some beads, or food and drink....I didn't buy much other than to try some of the stall food as I seem to be losing the space in my duffel I had when I first arrived and don't know where it is going.

As I walked around for seemingly endless hours, I ran into two English couples doing the same. We agreed it was a safe assumption the customer buys it, walks it home and prepares it for dinner. They were cordial and I told them it was nice change of pace to have a conversation in English. They laughed, agreed and continued to walk and talk for a while. We discussed the various routes which brought us to that point and street at that time. They were traveling together and seeing Xian and Beijing. I told them the trip thus far and relayed the rest of the plan as it stands. Both couples seem to brighten up when I spoke of my trip, telling me to do it while I can, they too had done a bit of traveling. (Travelers always seem to discuss stories from various places and how they relate to another and similar experiences. It is a great feeling to discuss something with someone who shared the same experiences!) We continued walking down streets with no real plan and ended up at this restaurant to have a beer. The gentleman wanted a bite to eat, I did not as I had eaten my way down the the street from the various vendors (when in Rome right???). You all know me and I was definitely willing to share a beer. The guys ordered food which quickly spiraled into a lunch of hotpot for 5. For those of you who don't know what hotpot is, it is a bowl of broth (I think) and they put it in the middle of your table in a hole with a burner underneath. They bring it to a boil and essentially dump, meat, vegetables, among other things in there. You fish out what you want to eat!! Sort of like a combination of bobbing for apples, fishing and fondu. It turned into one of the funniest meals I have had in a while. We were laughing and trying to fish out what we wanted, or thought we wanted to eat! We parted ways and said we would probably see each other the next day as we were both taking trips to see the Terracotta Warriors.

The next day arrived and I was off to see the Warriors. Along the way, as with most organized group day trips, they take you to some random place which has nothing but crap for tourists. If you didn't go there on a trip, you wouldn't go there at al. Anyways the same people you see at one place, are then herded up into their buses and taken to the next place to get off and walk around for a bit. We went to some old location, I think Bompo, which was inhabited 6000 years ago, a re-creation of a tomb of some Emporer, to lunch and finally to the Soldiers. Upon arriving at the soldiers, there were people everywhere, but once you actually got into the pits, it seemed to be spread out enough, people weren't on top of one another. We went in reverse order (highly recommended in most travel media....I also made a suggestion for the group and all were happy with it in the end) from pit two, three and back to one. They are all impressive once you get in there, however I thought there was going to be more soldiers in the second pit. It seemed to be mostly a number of broken soldiers in heaps around the places already excavated. We went through pit three where we were able to see a number of soldiers standing in formation with a number of horses, pretty damn cool but not all that impressive. Then we get to pit number one, the grand mother of them all! This is the one you see in movies and books, with rows and rows of soldiers. The airplane hanger-esqe building is massive and the front half has row after row of soldiers intact for viewing pleasure. This is where you want to see! It was utterly awesome to see the faces, all of which are different and the variety of warriors, archers, officers, generals, etc.......AWESOME!!

So, right now I am in an airport in Chengdu, China, on my way to Lhasa or Mt Everest. I have also read something about a helicopter trip to see Mt Everest though, so I am still looking into that as a chance to see it. I will let you know how things go!

For more information, please visit Xi’an travel guide.