Beyond The Specs

Day 2 in India was a really long day. We awoke in Jaipur and went up to the roof of the hotel to get some food and the view was truly gorgeous as the sun was rising. Again the ever present air pollution couldn’t be avoided but it offered a sort of feel to the place that was nice and calming. I do feel like my lungs are crying out for a deep clean cold breath. But i guess i will have plenty of that when i head back to Chicago in Jan.

The Sunrise

Jaipur is a muslim city as well and has a few mosques in the area, so at sunrise the call to prayer echoed out across the landscape and it was amazing. Our hotel room had a special area to kneel and face out to pray.

The Window

The plan for the day was to drive from Jaipur to Jodphur. Our driver said we should leave around 8:30am to arrive to Jodphur around 12 noon or so. So we estimated about a 5 hour ride. Well, that was severely underestimated. I don’t have a sense of scale yet for the country and it’s slowing starting to come to focus. This country is freaking huge. Like massively large. Yea i am sure you guys are like “no shit”, but still a fun feeling to take in as you barrel down the highway. We needed to get to Jodphur around 12 noon in order to get checked in and to see my friend, the bride to be! But that wasn’t in the cards. The drive took 8 hours almost 9. It was grueling. Remember my feelings about “flocking” and the ordered sophisticated chaos of the road? No. It’s just plain dangerous. We saw a bus rolled over on the side of the road, all of the windows crushed and smashed, and the crane-like truck there to hoist it up. There were no people on site, but it wasn’t good. We had our share of near misses and now I am certain that driving is dangerous. Will have to contemplate the rest of the trip post this leg of the car.

We stopped for the customary meal in the middle and i really have a hard time processing our driver. In the car, he is very visibly annoyed and stand offish. He doesn’t really talk to us, and generally doesn’t want to be there. But then when we stop at places, he tries to be buddy buddy and talk about his children and how important tipping (us tipping him) is to his family. After the first talk, you take it as a sincere explanation and bit of outreach, but after the 4th time, its like OK. Got it. Maybe he will warm to us, but we really do try and he just doesn’t want to connect. That’s cool. Its going t be an interesting 6 more days with him.

Pulling into the hotel in Jodphur was amazing. This was serious. It is an old palace that had been converted to a hotel, and if Hotel Vivek was at one end, then this place was at the other! Really amazing place and felt serene. After a little scare at check in where they couldn’t find our reservation, we were in! But remember we still don’t have our bag with our nice clothes in them so it was time to go find a tailor.

Shopping for a custom suit is one thing, but doing that in a foreign country and needing the suit with an overnight turn around was something else. Just outside the gates of the hotel, there was a tailor and fabric shop and we just committed to it. We didn’t have any other options. So we went in and got fitted, and I negotiated. I ended up a few hundred lower, but that still makes me feel like I was being gouged from the beginning. Oh well.

“Chuckles” getting fitted

When it came time to pick a style for the suit, it was tough. Do you go traditional Indian Rajastani or do you get a western suit. And if you go indian do you risk showing up to the wedding and looking crazy? We opted to go Indian and didnt even take the first recommendation. Will have to see how that turns out at the wedding.

With us fitted and deal negotiated. We left the shop and headed back to get a nap. There was a dance party later in the night that we were supposed to see the bride to be!! About 11PM the 808 drums were thumping through our room’s walls and so it was time to get dancing!

Walking into the dance room/ bar was intense. I hadn’t yet seen the bride to be, so i was walking into a sub culture with no guide. But the music was right, and a bar is universal, so I settled into the bar and just took in the scene. A few things struck me. One, the crowd was super diverse in age, everyone was up and moving. Two, they were really dancing. People were just dancing and having fun and no one really gave a care, wasn’t stuffy at all. Three, the music WAS universal, and a mix of Hindi to top 30 chart beats. Awesome and fun. I will post up a short video later.

I finally got to see the bride-to-be and dragged Chuckles out to the floor to rep our squad. Was a good night.

Yea i know, not a lot of photos, but remember its been sitting in the back of the car for hours and then sleeping. But i am sure the wedding is going to deliver. I am going to have to limit myself on that post. Just 10 pictures!

So the first day in India was an eventful one. The flight from Frankfurt into Delhi was uneventful but landing in Delhi is when the adventure began. First there is this smell when you hit the airport, its a thin but pungent smell in the air. You try to place it and as you walk the maze of corridors to get to passport control you can see a fine mist in the air. Its almost like the misting they do on hot summer days at amusement parks the way, it sits in the air, but it’s dry. And as you descend the stairs, through passport control and out the door you realize that mist is actually pollution! The air is quite simply filthy with industrial progress. Instantly China flashbacks.

But before we can leave the airport we need our luggage. One bag unceremoniously makes it’s way off the belt, though the pushing and jockeying for position was fun, almost like a rugby scrum. The second one did not make it off. I knew we would lose one bag and quite frankly I was glad it was this one which had the suits and dress clothes, vs. the one with the everyday wear. After finding our way to the baggage office it was time to prepare for Mad Max style line surfing to get some help. The ticket office was a small room about 10 x 8 that surged with people trying to file claims. It seemed like Lufthansa decided to just send half the bags somewhere else. This was my first introduction to line etiquette or the lack there of India. After patiently queueing waiting to be helped. I watched one after another just push forcefully past me to the front to be serviced. That didn’t last long, then it became the full box out and crushing of the little people. Did I mention it was hot? I quickly rose to about 100 degrees F in the room and got steamy. Nice. After a couple of HOURS waiting to sort the bag, I was given 4000 rupees (about 80 bucks) and told “good luck, we will try to contact you”, but man you don’t have my number, shouldn’t I give it to you… Yea so not too optimistic about that bag. With that sorted it was time to be off into the city.

We had planned ahead and had he first night planned for us and they arranged an airport pick up. I didn’t feel like hitting the scam game the first night and thought it smart for us to plan ahead. Most of the time when you pre arrange car service you get nicer and cleaner cars than you would otherwise get at the airport just flagging one. This was not the case for us. Out little van-scooter-car pulls up and the driver grabs our bags and puts them on top of the fuel tank which is literally a tank in the back of the car behind the seats. Nice. And we’re off.

Arriving at our hotel which is in the main bazaar area of Delhi was real. It was about 5am when we arrived and were taken up to our room. We got to look at two rooms, and we took the room with the least amount of stains on the sheets. As you look at the photo below it looks nice. But it wasn’t. And the bathroom, it’s too graphic to show. So officially the lonely planet #failed us. But it was only for a couple of hours sleep because we still needed to leave later to head to Jodphur. After saying the bed bug protection prayer, it was lights out.

Waking up, or rather, getting up 5 hours later we had to sort the transport for the day. We were staying close to the New Delhi train station and knew all the details to get to the ticket office and get our tickets for the overnight train to Jodphur. Of course we didn’t stick to the struck advice of the Lonely Planet, and we took an auto-rickshaw instead of walking to the train station. Mistake #1. While the chap was really nice, we never made it to the train station we went to a travel agency office where they told us to book the tickets. Ugh this is not what we wanted. And of course the train was sold out and he offered to book us flights. No that’s not what we want. Back to rickshaw and demanding to be taken to train station.

The Ride

Ok, to the station we go and of course another fare. Then at this “station” we follow signs and end up in a dusty lot of sorts and of course a very helpful guy comes and Inform us our train leaves from Old Station (which I knew to be true and that we needed to go there to buy), ok back in another autorickshaw. Hmm, as we pull up this doesn’t look like a train station but rather another travel office. Ugh. And again the train is booked full for the day but tomorrow was free. Ugh we have a wedding to go to. Tomorrow is not good enough. So then the game begins. Now given the experience of the day it’s hard to not feel like you are going to be taken. Like a voice isn’t over your shoulder saying “squeal like a little pig”. But tired and needing to get to Jodphur. We let him work it. The end plan he came up with was like $1500. Ouch. So we settled instead for the first leg. We would have a driver and DRIVE to Rajastan, go to wedding, explore region and then double back and train down to Mumbai for New Years. Epic. This still wasn’t cheap but was about the same as the flight and gave us a driver and car for a week. I am sure as my brain does the math now we were taken. But oh well, time to go. After refusing to live a week in a tiny car the size of a geo metro we got underway in a car the size of a Toyota Tercel. Sweet.

So with a planned itinerary in Rajastan of 2100km driving and us fashionably compressed into our car, we’re off.

Let’s talk a but about Indian driving. Holy crap. It’s unreal. The speed and the honking. But the cool thin once you observe it is that there is a nice system
Of driver communication and type of “flocking” almost like birds do when flying in a group. Really fascinating and clearly a lot more going on than just honking and chaos. Strapped in we just took in the countryside.

We saw all manner of people and machines on the road. This triplet of dude went absolutely nuts when they saw me.

The Triplets

I really liked that shot for the energy it captures as it comes closest to the feeling. It was striking to watch tractor, car, donkey, camel, all share the road together. And while India has the highest motor vehicle death rate in the world it was still quite amazing we didn’t see any of it.

Bike + Moto

We stopped to get gas along the way and it was also time to put something in the belly.

This place was awesome and well branded.

Pepsi

Again guide books ruin you, as you fear catching a parasite at every meal. For the rest stop I was fine to indulge in a bag of Lays and a soda. But my adventurous buddy wanted to eat some hot food. Ok. Here we go. The prep station looked impressive enough, and the chef was clearly in command of his kitchen.

Charlie Trotter?

But it’s hard to ignore the surroundings and when the “waiter” brought a pitcher of water to the table even our driver had to intervene and say “not for you”. But um isn’t that the water they clean the plates and spoons with? Nice. The food arrives hot and steamy and looks delicious!

The First Supper

My buddy was grubbing and loving it. I couldn’t resist and dove in for a few nibbles. It really was tasty, not sure what it was but yummy veggie, cheesy stuff.

It’s back on the rode after that. This is when it really started to sink in. Wow, we are in India. The smell and scale of development was amazing. And as the hours wore on and miles passed it was a calming experience to just gaze out the window.

Our driver will certainly get his own section at some point but as he approached Jaipur he really was great at forcing us to take in the place. We stopped and got peanuts and watches some men arc weld pipes.

Infrastructure Projects

As we got into the city walls he got into tour guide mode and taught us about the sites. And he insisted we stop and get a picture of the below. It was truly breath taking under the full moon. The iPad limits my ability to really work this photo but it was truly a magical scene. We got out and walked to the edge of the rail and just took it in. It was amazingly beautiful and peaceful. I took some long exposures and had fun with the camera. Magic.

The Water Palace

Now it was time to head to the hotel. This tome screw lonely planet and it’s all about Tripadvisor (which hated the first hotel we stayed at). Sorry driver, not taking your advice just yet, let’s go to the Pearl Palace, #1 rated hotel in Jaipur and rooms from $7-25.

They had one $20 double left and in we went. Amazingly clean, comfy, and they had towels!! Yes yes yes! Then up to the roof for an amazing rooftop dinner and 4, 30oz beers. Yes yes yes!

Day 1 in India: amazing

Living in Chicago, its a city i take for granted, and don’t explore as much as I should with my camera. The past few weeks, when I have been home, I have ventured out and explored a bit with my camera. Here are some of my favorite shots:

Work took me to New York for a few days and during a bit of downtime, I was able to explore a bit in the city with the M9. One of the stops, though sorry no photos, was at B&H Photo. It was pretty freaking cool. A HUGE warehouse and the products zipped around on a conveyor belt system. Was pretty neat. I won’t do my useful play by play, I will just let the photos be what they are.

 

So despite having just gotten home from China on a Monday. A buddy and I decided to head to South Dakota the following weekend to experience the Badlands and just take in that part of the country. Unlike the China adventure, this is not a day by day entry, as I was too lazy for that…

First up was the uneventful flight from ORD to Rapid City, SD. The plane was TINY and packed, so it made for a shitty knee crushing experience. One request that i have of people on airplanes is that if you seat feels hopelessly jammed forward, thats probably the super tall dude behind you that you spotted when you were boarding the plane’s knees. It’s not very nice to assume that your aggressive pushing and shoving against the bones are going to miraculously compress his legs. Oh and at 5’6″ i think you are going to be ok.

Anyway, arriving in Rapid City, it was time to explore. We didn’t have much time on the weekend, and we had an aggressive sight seeing goal; Mt. Rushmore, Badlands, Crazy Horse, Missle Silos, Cave, and newly added… Wall Drug.

Picking up at Avis, the sky felt BIG

With car packed. We were on our way to explore. We headed first down toward the Badlands national park. But along the way we couldn’t help but keep seeing signs for “Wall Drug”. From free donuts for military men, to $.99 pie. It was shaping up to be an Oasis. Like mice following a trail of cheese we made our way to the town of “Wall”.

The Town of Wall

This little town was AWESOME, but also bizzare. It had a strange mix of tourist, but also locals at the random restaurants and shops. We made our way into Wall Drug to explore…

We Found it

So Wall Drug is really not just a drug store, but more of a Drug-store, restaurant, hardware store, gift shop. It was awesome. We were starving so we were pumped for the famous donuts, but before we could indulge, a special warning.

I never see signs like this in Chicago.

With the warning fresh in our minds, we made it to the Donut Factory but they had made the donuts for the day and they were available at the counter.

My buddy in a sugary donut induced stupor.

Feeling full and grateful that we heeded the signs, we made our way to see some missles.

Looks like a trailer park to me…

Well looks were deceiving. When we made our way inside, we say about 3 other tourists watching a dorky video talking about the Minutemen missles. Um, maybe its not so dorky, because it turned out to be pretty darn interesting. Missles placed in the ground, ready to deploy to end the world, and all of this in fields with Bison. Pretty cool. The one fact that struck me the most was the 5000+ mile journey to Moscow the missles were ready to make in THIRTY, 3-0, minutes. Why did it take me 14 hours to china??

30 minutes to impact…

Now the only part of this, beyond the trailer park housing, that was a bust is that the actual missle sight is NOT there. What? yep, you got it. This information “center” was no where near where the actual missle was. The best part was that “Butch” was going to be closing the missle site in 30 minutes, but if we hurried and made the 15 mile drive quickly, we might beat him. Oh and they were closed the rest of the weekend, so it was to be today or never. Armed with our map we hit the road, and found the random field, and no Butch!

This was pretty damn cool.

The Dome

The Missle

It was interesting that it was just sitting in the middle of a field. The glass top had been installed for us tourist to peer in. The thing that struck me was that there was just an open gate to walk right in, and no one in sight for days. More than anything I was thinking about some teenagers pulling a prank to collect souvenirs. I guess south dakota kids have better things to do. Remember the sign from Wall Drug…

Leaving the missle, it was on to the Badlands! having heard all of the hype about it looking like the moon (like anyone has really been there…), and being out of this world, the hype was high.

We’re there…Badlands National Park

The park truly is an experience, and AWESOME. the landscape suddenly struts up from the prairie and it really is unique. But the coolest feature of the park is the fact that you can drive all around it. Having coming back recently from Denali, it was a stark contrast to feel free to drive around and see more of the park, and stop and explore. We wanted to drive every mile of the road to explore, and hike around.

The moon?

The rest of the landscape was truly stunning and unique. We spent a total of about 3-4 hours exploring the park, including a late night run in with a bison.

Prairie & Rock

Sky

Controlled Burn

The Road

Not THIS is the moon

Sunset

Bison in the way… (Bad photo but good memory)

Exhausted we made camp that night and explored some more the next morning. The one watchout with the Badlands is that it isn’t really hiking terrain. Sure there are trails here and there, but there aren’t many true long hikes to make, as it’s mainly prairie.

Feeling good with the Badlands we headed out to simply drive some of the small towns and roads of South Dakota, and we came across this awesome car in the middle of a cattle pasture.

Protected

Stalled

That’s the awesome thing about travel. Just being able to stop and explore and then keep going. We were cautious of rattlesnakes though. The day was filled with more sights like the car, but we just took it in over good conversation and tunes.

Next up, were the monuments; Mt. Rushmore & Crazy Horse. Growing up I never heard of Crazy Horse and never had any desire to see Mt. Rushmore, but now, hey, we’re in SD, why not. So while the previous day was ugly and rainy, this day was brilliantly clear. Mt. Rushmore was filled with old couples and friends, seemingly completing their bucket list activities, interspersed with a young family or two. We were definitely the only two buddies there under 60. Was funny.

The Walkway

I feel obligated to also give you the beauty shot

The Men

It really was a perfect day. Next up was ice cream… So the entire time we are there i am noticing the most delicious looking ice cream with grandma and grandpa. I did chuckle as one grandma went to share her ice cream with another grandma and that grandma knocked the scoop off the cone. They both sort of watched as it went tumbling to the concrete, and the look was pure horror. I wanted to get up and get them another, but when I got there I decided I wanted one.

The Ice Cream Shop. These two guys reminded me of me and my buddy.

Post ice cream it was time for Crazy Horse. The story of this mountain is fascinating, and if you ever visit, please do sit and watch the informational video about how the project started. I rarely link out, but this is worth it. (http://www.crazyhorsememorial.org/monument/) The cliff notes are that a powerful Native American chief, asked a sculptor (who was an apprentice on Mt. Rushmore) to build a monument to “the Red Man”. What’s amazing about this project is the sheer scale. Mt. Rushmore is Child’s play to this thing. The heads of Mt. Rushmore would fit on the side of his head, and then that leaves his body and horse. It’s amazing. Check it out. And the project doesn’t accept state or federal funding on principle.

The Vision and The Current State

In the foreground you see a model of the sculpture to be completed and then in the background you see the current status and progress. Yes, its going to take a while to be complete.

A Mt. Rushmore matching beauty shot

Again this monument is huge and amazing. Its a must see. I feel like it should get much more love in the press than it does… But we won’t get too political.

We spent the rest of the trip exploring and just enjoying South Dakota. Overall a big thumbs up to SD and the sights. It’s truly a very special part of the U.S.

So day 8 was a big day in China! Post the panda bust, we got back into our car and headed 200km to the largest buddha on the planet. It promised to be epic but we took it with a grain of salt because the panda center was supposed to be amazing as well.

On the way, we had to stop for gas. And apparently our up close and personal look at the gas pump is not normal. Our driver asked us to get out of the car at the entrance to the station, and we noted others were doing the same. While waiting, both the cutesy and ugliest dog came strolling by. He literally was strolling, he had a plan of where he was going, walked inches past us and never slowed down.

Lomo

Post gas it was back on the highway and I have to say our driver kinda sucked. He wasn’t pleasant at all and even when we would say please and thankyou for stuff, he wouldn’t say anything back. You could tell he was not happy to be driving all day. Poor service I am sadd to say has been pretty prominent this trip, at least by western standards.

Anyway, once we pulled up to the Big Buddha park, the one thing that struck is was the humidity. The air was sopping wet. Crazy crazy wet. It immediately brought back flashes of the Bangkok horror.

The Entrance

Immediately we were drenched in sweat and it promised to be a hike up a huge staircase to get to the buddha. Ugh.

Stairway to Buddha, level 1 of 150

On the way up, there was a “Little Buddha Cave”, so we decided to hop in.

The Cave entrance

Oh cool, there IS a little buddha in there. Well he wasn’t little. More like the size of a d lineman.

Cave Buddha

Post the mini break we got back to the climb. It wasn’t as tiring as sweat inducing. Sweat was literally pouring off us and into our eyes. Gross and it burns.

We did get a few cool views of the surrounding city on the way up.

View of Le Shan

Just about when were ready to call it quits and have a little google images and Photoshop fun, we saw the upper gate.

Final stairway

Ok, this was cool and well worth the hike up. Buddha was HUGE, and it’s impressive to think he was carved into the hillside hundreds of years ago!

First up his “corn rows”, each twist was the size of a head

Corn Rows

Alright let me just show you how big we are talking.

His head is almost as big as my friend Tony’s. Check out the people against the railing for a sense of scale.

Big Buddha

He has an awesome view out onto the world.

Buddha’s POV

Now, this is a full body buddha and his body is carved into the cliff side to the scale of his head. If you look at the picture above you can see the stairway leading you down. I’m sorry to say we just couldn’t do it. It was too hot and the line down was taking an hour minimum. If you have never experienced a packed chinese stairway in the heat, then you don’t get it but we got some awesome views down, but no good photos

What’s really cool about the entire place is that it’s still a working temple, and along the way at all of the Buddha people were praying and showing respect. We found this courtyard with all of these prayer candles and lamps. And of course you could pay and get one, but what was cool is that it was dirt cheap. Not at all priced to make a profit. Very cool.

My lamp for my one wish…

We also spotted this bad ass monk protecting the entrance.

Be Careful

Speaking of pimps, this guy made it look easy

Balance

So it was back to the car and beside the parking lot we spotted her.

Sleeping Beauty

She was in this room of lawn chair, and i initially thought it was some type of cooling room, but then realized it had no door. So maybe it was just a place to catch a rest while waiting for family or friends to come out of the park??

Now it was back in the car and on the way to the airport. The driver was grumpier than ever and the traffic home was tough. We saw a total of 5 accidents to and fro and it made us want to use the seat belts, but of course they didn’t work. Doh!

We made it to the airport and checked into the first class lounge. Not bad. Next up, the final day in Beijing.

This morning saw an early start to the day. We once again hired a driver for the day to take us on our ambitious trek. We have over 400km journey today! First up was a visit to the Chendu Giant Panda research facility, which is the largest captive breeding programs for pandas in the world.

At college we had an awesome chinese restaurant called “Panda House”

When you arrive you pay about $10 to get in, and then have the option to pay another few bucks to take a ride up the hill to the nursery or you can walk for about 20 minutes. Um, ride please. At the nursery you get to see the baby pandas in the incubators and man they were so cute, but no photos then exiting that, its kinda just a bust and here is where the hustle comes again. So they advertise that you can get up close and personal with the pandas and feed and touch them. The Stig was pumped to pet and coddle the panda, hence our flight here in the first place. What they don’t tell you is that it’s like $200 to take a picture with a panda. Yes $200, and. You can’t even go in and see them up close unless you pay that. We’d been lured by promises of pandas up close and personal and we got a massive door and hands outstretched for the dough. Bust. Somehow all the guide books and the locals forgot to tell us this. Grrr.

The queue of rich folk who were willing to pay

So given that we were cheap, and while the soft fur of the panda was appealing to the Stig, we still decided to pass. So we walked around to see what we could get for the price of admission, and what it amounts to is a basic zoo. Ugh. And because it’s pandas they freaking just sit there and sleep, even though this was feeing time. But we did manage to get a couple of pics

“Jill” sitting

But we did learn where baby pandas come from, and it was traumatizing.

There isn’t a panda stork?

So after seeing Jill, panda sex, and another Panda in a concrete box, we bounced. On our way back to the car, we found the second largest breeding program!! It was amazing luck, and again not in our guide book! And at this center, they let us have run of the place, and you could even “adopt” a panda for cheap too!

Second Largest Breeding Center

Cute pandas, tied up.

They love tourists so much they even scarified one panda to make a hat!

So with two panda centers under our belt, it’s back to the car, and a long drive to the next leg of the adventure.

This morning we awoke in Xi’an, China!! After a bit of a rough night, it was nice to wake up in a nice hotel and feel well rested for the day. We were staying at the Sofitel and this place was pimp. Our “double” bedding situation was pretty funny.

“Double” Room

We had a taxi and driver arranged for us to take us to the Terra Cotta soliders. Of course before we got there, he had to take us into a “museum factory” where they also made Terra cotta figurines; for sale of course. This place turned out to be actually cool, and interesting to see how they made figurines today. But definitely makes you wonder how much of the soldiers we later see in the museum are indeed real.

Factory Floor

Artisan at work

Of course at the end of the tour, there is a “sell” for us to buy figurines or other items at a great discount because this is the sale month. Of course it is. How lucky we are! I resisted the temptation, because this wasn’t the actual Terra Cotta warrior museum, this was the little hustle that the driver wanted us to go by first. But again, it was cool to see.

On the way out we saw a glass locker on the side of the alley with everything we needed to start a revolution.

Bento revolution

When we arrived at the official museum, we were greeted by a potential guide. She spoke great English! Normally i am not a fan of guides, but for 100 yuan, and she spoke excellent English it was worth it.

Unesco World Heritage Site

We started our tour in reverse of what was typical, so we would start by seeing the smaller excavations and work our way up to the larger more impressive ones. This was a great idea, because had we seen the big site first, the rest of the walk would have been a yawn. You can read a ton of sites about the story of the warriors and their emperor. But as a site, it was indeed worth it to see. The warriors have been unearthed in different “pits” of varying sizes and various levels of excavation. You stand up high and look down into the pits. I had dreams of walking through warriors, but that only happens for folks like Bill Clinton and stuff.

A Smaller pit

In addition to the pit view, they have also pulled figurines out of the pits for inspection. The guy below is an archer nicknamed “Lucky”, because he is the only statue that was 100 percent intact, and he also still retains some of the color painted in his armor on his back.

Lucky

After the smaller pits we went on to hit the mother pit, pit 1, with over 6,000 figures. It was huge and impressive to think about the labor that went into it.

Pit 1

Ready for battle

In addition to the warriors, we also checked out a few other items from the excavation. First up was this weird lucky dragon. While our guide spoke great English, the story she told us of this dragon made absolutely no sense. But we did gather that this is some type of lucky dragon and when you go to Macao to gamble, if you have it in your pocket as a charm they make you leave it at the door and get it on your way out.

Lucky Dragon

Post checking out the pits, we went to have a spot of tea in the teahouse on the campus. It was empty. I had a great cup of goo long tea which was delicious. And our tea hostess taught us a lot.

Tea was beautiful

Our hostess hard at work

Post tea it was time to head back to the driver and get back to the hotel to check out. But of course its china, and everyone has a side hustle. The guide noted our disdain for walking and instead of taking us the forced 25 minute walk back past the gift shops, she offered a “taxi” for 20 yuan each. Um, I don’t see where taxis would pull up. Well remember its china. We cut down a side access lane, a guy jumps the barricade (miraculously it’s the only checkpoint with no guard??), presses the button, and let’s us out. Hmmm. Taxi? More like friend, wasn’t a meter in sight. But it was nice not to walk. So we rode down a dirt road and circled back to the entrance where our driver was waiting, it was $5 well spent.

At the hotel, we had an awesome lunch which i didn’t take any photos of. Sorry. We had a traditional japanese shabu shabu! Freaking awesome.

After checking out, we had a title time to kill, so the bellhop asked the driver to take us to the muslim quarter of the city. This was really interesting, and reminded me a lot of the markets in thailand and cambodia. Very packed and narrow thoroughfare and lots of action. I was bummed we didn’t get a chance to spend more time there.

The main walking street

Quail eggs for sale!

Nuts, breads, and baked yummies

My favorite family on a bike

A great conversation

On the walk back out, we passed this woman and her friends, she was making her own broom to sweep the sidewalk.

DIY

Post muslim quarter it was off to the airport, but first we needed gas. We pulled into the gas station, and our driver insisted I get out so his friends could see me.

Gas time

Oh yea, the tank is in the front

Post gas it was onward to the airport and now where i am drafting this from; the China Southern Airlines VIP lounge/ my first class seat (had to finish it on the plane). Yea, no more coach travel. More from Chengdu later

In the back of a cab now in Xi’an china and furious with this cab driver. I am fearing a Man on Fire moment. At the airport there is a 25RMB bus to town or taxis. Taxis are much more expensive in the 150 range but after a bad flight and such we wanted it easy. Well it’s not easy. After a 1 hour cab ride I realize we are being taken on a ride. Pulling up the GPS we were traveling in the opposite direction of where we needed to go! And 30km out from it. Furious I hold up the phone and he’s like “ooohhhh, you no want mountain?”. Um no mother fucker you heard me the first time when I told you the hotel name and you repeated it to your friends. What the fuck am I going to do at a mountain at 1am? I call the hotel and tell her to translate for me. Now he wants to negotiate, 260 for the ride. It should cost 150-175. Are you freaking serious?? This is getting old. I think the bars in the back of the cab are fitting.

The Cell

The Warden

On the way to the airport! Full post coming later today. Hopefully we can make this flight. Traffic is unbelievable. But the fingers are crosses and optimistic that it might just work. I really don’t want another night in Beijing!