Taking It Easy

After a difficult overnight train from Pingyao on to Xi'an Thursday night, with the person in the bunk below me snoring and the music blasting from the train speakers from 6AM on, I have been feeling under the weather, with a stuffy nose and a slight sore throat. With the excitement of being in a new place, I ignored my sickness and S and I explored the city on our first day here, visiting the city's Great Mosque and eating in the Muslim Quarter. We have been eating lots of noodles, as they are the staple in this province. While we have been ordering spicy food, the taste here has been different from anywhere else we have been so far. It is more hot than spicy, with the heat leaving a numbing sensation in your mouth. The heat, I think, is closer to what you would get in a hot Indian curry. We are staying at a youth hostel and, at night, the restaurant area turns into a lively bar full of locals pounding down beers, smoking lots of cigarettes and playing drinking games. It also seems to be where some people from the immigrant African community come to play pool and drink also. It makes for an interesting scene and everyone here seems to know each other. Yesterday, we ventured outside the city and visited the Army of the Terracotta Soldiers, which is a 2200 year old tomb that houses over 8,000 terracotta soldiers, horses and chariots in army formation. It was built by the first unifier of China and is just about 2km from his tomb. The tomb took several decades to prepare by hundreds of laborers in 3rd Century BC and was built to protect the Chinese leader in his death. Interestingly enough, there were no historical documents of this tomb's construction or its existence so it was accidentally discovered by farmers building a well in the mid 1970's. There are 3 pits that have been excavated, with work still being done on the 2nd largest tomb. The largest tomb is quite remarkable, with rows and rows of soldiers in army stance protecting the tomb's entrance, followed by elaborate horse chariots. All the soldiers, horses and weapons are quite life-like and many of the soldiers have different facial expressions. Worth a look to check out images online. Today, I am enjoying doing absolutely nothing. I have spent considerable time on the internet and am thinking of renting a movie and doing some reading. I need to listen to my body and take it easy so I can get over this cold. I am sad not to be out exploring but I think this is what my body needs. S has been bringing me food in the room and being a good caretaker. This afternoon he is off to the Shaanxi History Museum, one of China's best museums, and then taking care of our train reservations for tomorrow. We continue to run into the same travelers at every place we stop and are getting a little tired of feeling like we are on the tourist trail. Tomorrow, en route to Luoyang, we will spend the day and night at a city that is not recommended in the guide book, Sanmexia. There aren't any sights there but we want to just check out a city that is not used to getting tourists and see what happens. If all goes well, we are going to try to do a lot more of this.

Xi'an