Travel Day: Xi'an to Bangkok Flight

We caught a bus from a hotel opposite the Drum Tower straight to the airport. It was cheap (26RMB, about $4) and easy and brought us straight there. When we arrived at the airport about two and a half hours before our flight, we learned that we were not allowed to go through security yet. Apparently, they make everyone wait in a holding room until about 90 minutes before your flight, then you go through security and customs all at once with the rest of your plane. It was weird, but whatever.

Once we lined up, we did our best to keep our place in the queue, but other people did their best to push and cut through to the front. We know it's just a culture thing where you look out for number one and you fight for what you can get with little regard for others, so we don't want to hold it against them or say they should have better manners or respect for others. But we are very happy to be out of China. Especially after prices rose so much (Shanghai was cheap and wonderful, Beijing was a little more expensive, and Xi'an was just ridiculously overpriced).

Anyways, it turns out, to nobody's surprise, that our ability to understand Mandarin is horrible. We boarded the plane with first class by mistake. I've never seen a plane so empty. It was cool.

The flight arrived in Bangkok a little after sunset, so we got a nice view from the sky.

We took an express bus (the A1) for 30 baht ($1, now that's more like it) from Don Mueang Airport to the metro station called Mo Chit, then the metro from there to our hotel in Bangkok. We're staying at the Marvin Suites, and our room is nice and spacious and the staff was really nice at the front desk. So far, we're loving Thailand and we're happy to be out of China. (Don't get me wrong, China was amazing and full of awesome adventures and memories. But dealing with the people there just got exhausting.)

Terracotta Warriors Review, Pictures, and Guide

We took the green tourist bus from the main train station in Xi'an straight to the Terracotta Warriors site. It took about 2 hours. The bus kept going, but the lady told us right where we needed to get off. We didn't see any major signs saying we were at the Warriors Museum, but we had learned that we should have listened to the lady on the bus when we went to the Great Wall, so we decided to trust this one. And she was right, too.

We walked through all the shops and restaurants to the ticket booth and found out that ticket prices had skyrocketed. They're up to 150 RMB (about $25 each), which is almost double what we were planning (from what we saw online). It was a difficult blow, but what are you gonna do? This was the only reason we even came to Xi'an, and there's nothing else like it in the world. They have the absolute corner on the market, and they can charge whatever they want and we'll pay it.

Once inside, we had a plan worked out based on a Lonely Planet guide. We were going to start with the movie to give us some background on the warriors and the Emperor, then to the museum, and then see the pits in reverse order. We couldn't find the movie, so we started with the museum.

The museum houses several exhibits that talk about the excavation and restoration work that is still ongoing. It also allows you to get up close to many warriors and other artifacts.

Watch out for Chinese tour groups. They have no manners and no respect for anybody. They especially don't care if you're trying to take a picture or reading an information plaque.

After the museum, we headed for Pit 3, the smallest of the three pits. I think this is a good  representation of the whole place, just on a very small scale. Part of the uncovered section is still in shambles.

They take the shambles and then reassemble them into what they used to be, then replace them where they were.

Then we walked over to Pit 2, which was way bigger than Pit 3.

We could see the benefit of visiting the pits in reverse. Pit 3 was super cool and interesting, but it would have been less impressive had we seen Pit 2 first. As you can see from the picture above, most of this pit is still underground, but they've used x-ray or something to see where and what everything is. There is a map on the side facing Pit 3 that details what is buried here.

In some places, the dirt is just cleared away enough to see a head or a hand or something. It's kinda cool.

In other places, they've cleared lots out so you can see the mess that was left after the place was ransacked (after the emperor's death).

Then we went over to Pit 1. This is actually where it all started about 40 years ago. Some villagers were digging a well and they found some pottery. Further inspection and digging yielded quite the find.

The place is ginormous and exciting. With the exception of the main entrance, it's also relatively uncrowded. You can walk completely around the pit and take pictures from all angles.

Another recent unearthing of two heads.

I thought the horses were so cool.

The detail in their facial features is incredible!

Toward the back of the pit is where a lot of the restoration work takes place. You can see warriors being pieced together like puzzles.

At the far back, rows of warriors are almost complete, just about ready to be replaced in the pit they came from.

After leaving Pit 1, we found the movie theater off to the side. We went in to the unique theater, which has a 360 degree screen. You lean against bars in the middle and watch the history of Emporer Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China, and how the Terracotta Army came to be. It was very interesting, and if you can watch it first before going to the pits, you should, because it gives an excellent history and basis for everything you'll see here.

We took the same bus back, which picked us up right where we were dropped off this morning, and it was dark by the time we got back to Xi'an, so we went and took nighttime pictures of the Bell Tower...

...and the Drum Tower.

Xi'an Muslim Quarter and City Wall

It took forever to find our hotel, because neither Google Maps nor Hotels.com put the pin in the right place. The address turned out to be correct, but even locals had trouble pointing us in the right direction. We eventually went into a bank that was near where one of the pins told us to be, and they called the hotel for us and gave us directions. Thank goodness.

Turns out our hotel is in one of the easiest places to find, we just didn't know it. The Bell Tower is in the center of the city (both geographically and popularity-wise, it's like Times Square) and the roads going out in each direction from there are North Street, South Street, East and West Streets. Our hotel is one block up from the Bell Tower on North Street. And somehow, nobody knew where it was. Oh well.

Our first stop was the Muslim Quarter, just west of the Bell Tower, next to the Drum Tower. This is a lively street with stalls of food, souvenirs, and other random stuff.

We picked up some new food there. We shared something like a pita stuffed with beef. Very yummy. And Isa got a fried persimmon stuffed with a random concoction of veggies and beans. She liked it.

We decided against the rainbow of churros.

Then we headed south to the City Wall. This was way more expensive than we had planned (53 RMB each, which is only $9 each but it's more than the Great Wall and we didn't think that's right). But you have to hand it to them, the wall is giant and complete, which is more than you can say for the Great Wall.

Upon entering, a ceremony was starting in the courtyard of the South Gate where we were. It was a changing of the guard in old traditional costumes. I stayed down below, Isa went up on the wall for some aerial shots.

Most people rent bikes to see the whole thing, but as we're trying to save money, we decided to walk and see what we see. From the south gate, we headed west and then ended up going all the way around to the North Gate, a distance of about 4 or 5 miles.

We moseyed the whole time, so we spent a few hours up there. We watched the sun set, the sky turn black, and the wall light up. We goofed off at open platforms along the way and stayed almost to (if not past) closing time. Here are some pics along the way.

All in all, it's definitely worth it to see. The bikes would be fun if you don't mind spending the money. But it's just as fun without them. We didn't have anything else planned (there's nothing much else to do in Xi'an now that high season is over), so it was nice to kill the whole afternoon up there.

Sleeper Train Beijing to Xi'an

I'm going to make a video about this with a lot more detail, but I wanted to post here with some pictures too.

We took a sleeper train from Beijing to Xi'an. The trip took about 11 hours. We left at a little before 9pm and arrived in Xi'an around 8am this morning.

Beijing West was a confusing madhouse. There were so many people sitting around in what we thought was our waiting room. Announcements were made in Chinese, it seemed like platforms were being switched, and we started just looking for other tourists to follow. But nobody really knew what was going on. In the end, we were in the right place all along, and we came down the stairs to our waiting train.

We boarded the train and found our room. We booked a z-class train soft sleeper. Z-class trains are direct, with no stops in between. This is nice because there are no interruptions or announcements that wake you up in the middle of the night.

A soft sleeper room has four beds and a lockable door. It's semi private, perfect for a group traveling together. We shared our room with two nice ladies that gave us some fruit to try. It was yummy once I knew you're supposed to take the skin off it before you eat it.

The train car has a long hallway down one side and the rooms line up down the other side.

The room is decent sized. Isa and I paid a little more for the bottom bunks, but when we got to the room, we switched with the ladies because we're younger and could get up top easier, and we liked the top bunks better anyways. There's enough room to sit up, and there's a platform over the door for your bags.

There's a lady that went around with a cart full of food Hogwarts Express style but mostly packaged foods with no pictures on them so we had no clue what they were. Most people brought ramen or fruit for dinner. There's a faucet with boiling hot water which I'm pretty sure is specifically for ramen because I didn't see anybody use it for drinks or anything else. We just ate Pringles and other snacks we picked up at 7-11 earlier tonight.

The beds are comfy and they give you pillows and a nice thick blanket that kept us nice and toasty. The ride was fine. Mostly smooth with very few noises or bumps. Isa slept well, but I didn't. I'm a little paranoid about overnight trains after some people in our Europe group had some bad experiences. But the trip was completely uneventful and there were no issues at all.

I woke up around sunrise and watched the foggy countryside blur by the window.

Around 7:15/7:30 everyone started waking up and getting their stuff together, brushing teeth and whatnot. We rolled into Xi'an early a little after 8am and walked to our hotel, which is a story in itself.