China vs Google

It was an early wake-up call…7:30am to be precise. We hadn’t been disturbed throughout our entire trip, apart from clunking into the occasional train station, but we were getting used to that by now. We would be arriving at just after 8am so we collected our things and readied ourselves for another cold morning start.

Jumping off the train and beginning to arrange the straps on my luggage to clamp it to my back I thought to myself how nice it was now to get off a train and not have a taxi driver rush up to my face and ask if we needed a taxi, as per Thailand. No sooner had I thought it someone came up to me and did that exact same thing, but I managed to pass him off explaining that we were walking it to our already-booked hotel.

We have been able to use a combination of media to track down our accommodation when we first arrive in a new city, but due to China vs Google my Maps application just wouldn’t function. In addition to that we hadn’t been able to use Google Maps in Beijing to see where it was anyway due to the same problem so we were almost working in the dark. Thankfully the hotel was on the main drag so it shouldn’t be a problem finding it.

As usual, whenever I utter those immortal words we had trouble finding it. It turns out that we had walkd right past it without noticing, but in our defence the only indication was some small writing on the handles of the doors. And a gigantic sign up on the side of the building, but as we were walking under it we couldn’t see it. Anyway, we entered and were pretty pleased with our choice. 4 stars no less……a slight step up from a cold, smelly fish-pond-containing, putting-your-waste-paper-in-the-bin farce of Beijing. The room was just what we needed when we got in, and rivalled the LVH in Las Vegas and the Angkor Pearl in Cambodia for Best Hotel Of Our Trip……so far. In dire need of some extra sleep and a shower I flaked out on the bed for an hour or so and then jumped in the shower. A hot shower. A shower that didn’t mean that the entire floor of the bathroom was wet. A shower that was powerful enough to rinse the shampoo out of your hair. A shower that did not pulse freezing cold/scolding hot water onto you every 10 seconds. It was bliss.

4 star luxury...?

And then we needed a wander. Xi’An was at our mercy so we headed out and south towards the Bell Tower. This stands proudly in the centre of the city and has a smaller, similar tower (The Drum Tower) nearby, but that was under lots of scaffolding getting repairs done. We were essentially heading towards the Tourist Information centre so that we could get a better map than the one the hotel gave us and then have a snoop round the place proper.

The glorious Bell Tower

We found the information centre and got the map. Then we found a small market street and had a snoop. There was one item I was searching for, a three-legged toad, but nobody had any small wooden ones, just huge brass ones that weighed a ton! The search would continue. Before we knew it we were lost with no idea where the heck we were and how to get back to the main road. After a wander through the maze of tiny roads we managed to find the main road through the city and made it back to the hotel.

Very nice, but how about a road sign guys?

It was late by the time we made it back out, mainly because we had tried to identify somewhere good to go and eat, as the first night in a new place is always a little troublesome. And without Google Maps we were struggling. We never found it in the end, but we had a contingency plan; we always have a contingency plan. But we couldn’t find that one either. So by the time we stumbled into a shopping centre that had a Pizza Hut it was gone 8:00pm and James’s belly was starting to overpower him. After one look at the menu we turned away in disgust and found a traditional Chinese place just down the way. With no apparent English spoken we were a little wary at first but then they ushered us in and sat us at the swanky table at the head of the restaurant, the one that was closed off and no lighting in until we were shown inside. We felt like kings! But then the ordering process was a little tricky as the young waitress spoke very little English, but we managed to get the message across as to what we wanted and we sat back and waited for our grub to arrive.

Living the good life! Kinda....

Thankfully the order was bang on, but my chicken dish came on-the-bone which I cannot stand. It’s just such a pain to have to pick your way around the bones and gristle. And that’s not even mentioning the salty coating and the chillis! My gosh were there a lot of chillis. It was OK for a first attempt in Xi’An but we couldn’t help feel that the First Night syndrome had hit once again.

Can I have some chicken with my bowl of chillis, please?