Xi'an - Saturday, 02.03.2007

Today Starr and I were woken up early by this French-speaking Swiss girl who wanted to go on the Panda tour that our hostel offers. Starr had told me earlier that she wanted to do it, but the tour requires at least 4 people, so I thought I was safe. We told the desk if anyone else asked about it, send them up to our room, 411, and we'd hire a tour guide. I was shocked that this girl and her robotic boyfriend were up for it, but Starr was so excited that I couldn't say no. And what I did instead, was be a real asshole the whole day and refuse to talk to anyone. I think I made the right choice.

The zoo/panda rehabilitation center was kind of a dump. Granted, Starr was able to get her hand and face licked by a panda, but I felt sad for the animals like anyone who has ever visited a zoo has felt. The golden eagles were cool because one of them got confused and tried to fly through the chain-link fence, WHACK, before returning to his perch. After he landed, a vulture in the next cage over started laughing its ass off and then all the eagles got mad and started flapping their wings and cawing back at it. I imagine thats a scene thats been repeated often and I was glad that I was there for it.

After the zoo we got lunch at this Chinese restaurant, which in itself isn't worth mentioning, but after a huge lunch on an empty stomach I fell asleep in the car and snored so loudly that I woke myself up. Everyone else in the car was laughing at me but they all can eat my ass.

After that we walked around the city for a minute or two and then booked our tickets to Shanghai at the train station. We get to most places by taking the public bus, which is a reasonably priced 1 yuan (13 cents) to any point in the city. It takes about half an hour to get anywhere though as this city, one you probably have never heard of, had more than 2 million people in it even 1,000 years ago.

We got back to our hostel, rested for a minute, and then walked around the Muslim quarter nearby. I bought this awesome fung-fu shirt (don't picture a Bruce Lee t-shirt, but a black linen shirt with silk lining and those cool looking Chinese straps down the front with a tight collar), and we wandered down some of the darkest and scariest alleyways in China looking for the Grand Mosque. Didn't find it by the way.

Now, I'm trying once again to upload my pictures from China and as long as no one stops my Flickr thing they should go online tonight.

Miss you all.