Warriors and Bullfrogs

Xi'an was a pretty quiet place with not much to do apart from a daytrip to see the Terracotta Warriors- or so we thought. We did a little sight seeing on our second day but it was nothing really to rave about. That night we had an early one as we had to be up early to go on our tour to see the warriors and the Tomb of Qin Shi Huang- who built the Terracotta Warriors in 210BC to protect him in his afterlife. The warriors are a real sight- it is wonderful, but it is the history behind them that make them so special. 8,000 have been found and are still being put together but there are believed to be many more undiscovered. The emperor positioned his 'pits' following rules of feng shui. His slaves that made them copied their own faces on the warriors and when he was done he killed them all- as he wanted the army to remain a secret.

There were 4 main kinds of warrior. This is the most famous as it was the only one to be found complete- the rest are broken and have to be put back together again. At the back you can see a little bit of original colour. The warriors were very colourful but the colour went after half an hour due to oxidisation. According to the guide.

Just one of the pits (the biggest one of the three found so far).

This is Mike with our tour guide called Lady JaJa. She took a particular fancy to Mike and kept picking him for things. Note the uneasy look on his face.

After the warriors we were taken for a traditional Chinese lunch which was delicious and cheap. Then we proceeded to go and see the tomb of Qin Shi Huang. It sounds a lot more appealing than it was. What they don't tell you until the tour is that you can't go inside. No one can due to suspicion that is filled with mercury traps. So all we can do is look at the hill. Ok- so we accepted this and then as we got there- it was so thick with smog you couldn't even see the hill. It was quite funny though. On the tour we met a couple of Irish lads called Paddy and Alan, who were really funny.

We headed back to our hostel and chilled for a bit before going to dinner in the hostel as we thought we would get an early night due to an early flight the next morning. Well- that was the plan and as they say, the best laid plans often go to waste. Paddy and Alan were down there and we ended up drinking, followed by a drinking game which proved to be lethal- especially on poor Paddy and Mike who had to neck their beers and our Swede friend (who unfortunately I can't spell the name of). The more we drank the more it seemed like a good idea to head to Bar Street. We arrived and it was like a ghost town but we heard some warblings and screeches of a kareoke bar which drew us in. The lads went crazy on the singing. We had Alan and Mike wanting to sing Elton John and Kiki Dee but they gave them Black Eyed Peas instead, we had The Kinks, Eye of the Tiger and a few others. All the while our Swede friend was trying to chat up the local barmaid using a translator on his phone as his weapon. It ma have been a tad awkward on her when he tried to sing-a-long to a Chinese song with her. He was hilarious. It was such an amazing night- it is always the unexpected ones which are the best. We left at 2am giving Mike and I about 4-5 hours sleep.

From left to right: Alan, Paddy, Mike and our Swedish friend.

We are now in Shanghai for 4 nights and as I am writing this it is our 2nd night. We are in a hotel with a room to ourselves which seems like a massive luxury. It is Mike's birthday on the 12th so we thought we would treat ourselves. So far we have done a bit of shopping, we found a dvd shop and got about 30 dvds (including a few box sets) for about £40. Win. Lets just hope they work as it is quite hit and miss. We went for lunch at a well known restaurant for being spicy- it certainly was that. I ordered a chicken dish that came on the bone and stone cold. I wanted to cry. Mike ordered a dish which was bullfrog. Yes....BULLFROG!!! I tried a bit and shocked even myself that I had a couple bites more. It tasted a little like chicken with the texture of fish. It was a tad off putting having to pull bits away from the spine. The bits of meat were tinay and I don't know how many bones a bullfrog has but every tiny bit of mat seemed to have loads of bone in so it was one of those dishes which is just a chore to eat so we admitted defeat and left after a while. We managed to go to the cinema to watch 'Taken 2' which was really great- I haven't seen the first one but I really enjoyed it. It was strange to do something that we would do at home. It was nice to do something we would consider the norm. Gutted the sweetie and popcorn counter was closed down though- that makes a cinema!!! Tomorrow we are hoping to visit some gardens as I love Chinese gardens- well, the ones I have been to in the past. You learn to expect the unexpected and to just go with the flow in China. Think of Forrest Gump but with China being the box of chocolates.