Day 3, Warriors, Come Out and Play

Warriors, Come Out and Play
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

On our second full night in Beijing I was doomed not to get any sleep at all. We had to catch a 7 a.m flight the next day which meant needing to walk out the door at 5. Our room didn't have a clock that lit up so it was very difficult to tell what time it was without getting up and finding enough light to read a clock. I woke up at 3 and only dozed for the next hour. It wasn't fun, but it was far from the most painful part of the day. We rushed like crazy to get everyone downstairs to the 3 cabs we had ordered, and arrived at the airport and got ourselves checked in pretty smoothly. The hard part would be the security line. We stood in this huge mass of people with everyone growing more and more nervous about actually making their flight. Standing in line is not something built into the Chinese culture like it is into ours, so at every conceivable opportunity someone would try to push past you as if you weren't standing there or cut under the rope that made the line orderly. We knew we were cutting it close and ran through the terminal after having our bags picked apart and having each and every liquid or gel sniffed by a security person. We got to our gate just in time to find out it had been changed, and had to backtrack to a different gate. We then waited on a bus for 15 minutes to gather all the flight's stragglers and got on in the very back rows of the plane. (That'll learn you to make your reservation 2 days before you want to go). The flight was short and they served a bad breakfast (you could opt for the Chinese style breakfast of porridge, or the even less appetizing egg and sausage western style breakfast). The good news was the seats were actually quite comfortable equivalent to W's employers upgraded seats, and was far less scary than you might think. The flight attendants were quite helpful, and all spoke at least some English, and in typical Asian style went through a couple of wardrobe changes even for such a short flight. We went to the information booth and scored a van big enough for all of us for something like $10 per person for as much time and mileage as we needed. We went straight to the Terra Cotta Warriors museum and and began to take in the sights. Under the massive domes you can shove your way up into the picture taking throng and struggle to hold your camera steady enough to get good pictures. (Flashes and Tripods are forbidden D'OH!!!) It's hard to imagine that the Soldiers are over 2000 years old. The compound itself is huge, and makes for a solid 3 hours of walking around snapping pictures and taking in the history. When we got done we stopped by the little cafe to have a Vienetta on a stick. It was awesome!!!! We had an hour ride to the hotel, and ran right back out to eat our first real meal of the day. Needless to say most of our party was cranky and hungry by that point and patience with wait staff and each other was wearing a little thin. We ended up at a hot pot and seafood place, but didn't eat either, settling on some non-threatening typical Chinese food. About half the group had bailed to the KFC, and actually missed out on a very tasty soup and a nice fried rice dish. In the process we learned that the hand signal for 8 is not what you'd expect it to be. Your instinct tells you to hold up 8 fingers, when in fact you should just make an L shape with your thumb and index finger, if you want to be understood that is.

The South Gate
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

Use of the walkies reconnected us with the group on top of the city walls, where we really wanted to rent a bike and ride the 9 mile trek around the city, but we'll have to save that for next time. Most of the group went to the Xi'an branch of their favorite massage place, but I went back to the room at the Sheraton Xi'an and promptly fell into a ridiculously deep sleep. W even brought me a dessert home that I had to eat for breakfast the next morning. Which was good, because I had to face another early flight and boring Chinese Porridge again for breakfast the next day.

Here's almost the whole crew hamming it up on the ancient wall of Xi'an From Left to right you've got Millie, Francie, Shin, Heather, Betty, Madhura, W and Me. The Tripod and Camera are managing themselves and Jen stayed back in Beijing since she'd already been to Xian Before