So after consuming some scorpions and grasshoppers, skewered and deep fried (they taste like nothing by the way and pictures coming soon) we said our good byes to the Red Lantern Inn and headed for the train station. This being our first train trip in China we got to the station about 3 hours early and proceeded to wait for 2.5 of those. Once the train showed up we packed into our little room and locked the door. The room was actually fairly nice, 2 beds and a private bathroom (we splurged). Other than hearing the guy in the room next to ours snoring the ride was not bad at all. The only weird part was when we stopped entirely about 20 minutes after we started and sat on the tracks for a good 30 minutes before moving. After that it was lights out and sleeping until 9 the next morning when the attendant woke us to collect our trash. Overall it was not a bad first train trip experience. 12 hours, of which we slept about 10 or so. The only bad part was the lack of food or at least our lack of adventuring spirit to find the dining car. So we broke bread and split a loaf I had bought at the convenience store before leaving. Not the most fulfilling dinner but it worked.
Once we arrived in Xi'an we walked out of the train station hoping to grab a taxi to the Hyatt. Instead we found Petter (that is not a typo, at least not one I made). He was a local guy who worked for a site seeing tour company it seemed. He kept assuring us he was legit and even showed us a book of past customer comments. He tried to get us to go to the Terra Cotta warriors today but having just arrived we wanted to get checked in first. Surprisingly he did not charge us for the ride to the hotel.
In the Hyatt they let us check in early (9:30 am) and informed us we had been upgraded to a junior suite. The suite consist of 2 rooms, one a sitting room and the other a bedroom with 2 beds, and 2 bathrooms. It is pretty damn nice and it seems our VIP treatment continues. We lounged around for a while, took showers and went to use the internet. Unfortunately the Hyatt assumes everyone staying there is rich and wanted 2.5RMB per minute for using their computers. We checked email real quick, then signed off and booked our Terra Cotta trip with the Hyatt people for tomorrow. Having the rest of the day off we went walking around downtown Xi'an looking for a cheaper internet cafe. Some how we stumbled upon a huge mall being built and half open near the Bell Tower. We walked around it for a while, marveling at how much nicer Xi'an seems to be over Beijing. Not nearly as many people, a little bit nicer buildings at least on the street we walked down, and I could actually see blue in the sky. Eventually we stumbled into an internet cafe, which is like a warehouse of computer terminals, with huge fans running and 100 degrees. Not quite as nice as the Hyatt but at 20RMB for 2 hours for 2 people the price makes it much more appealing.
Tomorrow is Terra Cotta warriors and some other sites around Xi'an. Sunday is another train ride down to Shanghai for 2 nights. That ride is a bit longer so I may have to pack 2 loaves of bread.
