Day 152

the view from the bell tower
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Caz woke up first this morning.. it appears or roles have changed, it used to be i who would get up first.. at 0530 needing the toilet, the rest of us were woken up at about 0540 when all the lights came on and we were told to get up.

after a cigarette and a face wash, we exchanged the plastic cards we have been given back to our tickets and got  we all got off the train, walked the length of it (we were in carriage 14 i think there was about 20.) and to the exit where after wondering round a little the rep from the hostel turned up and we waited around for another 20 minutes whilst he waited for a couple of other guys who never showed up.

Next we headed out to get some cash...... we seriously got worried for a moment

A performance in the bell tower...with bells...and other traditional instruments
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we followed the rep expecting maybe to get a car and a taxi or maybe even a minibus,  but no, we all hopped on board the number 611 bus to get to the hostel , a short and not entirely unpleasant bus journey later we arrived at the hostel , handed over our passport filled in the paperwork and   got our room, 8 bed dorm, its really nice, big beds and a locker each thats fits both our bags.

\we went into the restaurant i ordered the English breakfast as did Caz and we tucked it heartily.

Next up the drum towers performance...
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we then spent the next four hours on the net doing the blog emails and Banking after which we chilled for a bit and ordered Lunch, Chicken club sandwich and chips.

still without having had a shower we sorted through our washing and passed two bags for laundry.. at 25Yuan a load not cheap.

Next we headed out to get some cash...... we seriously got worried for a momnent, we thought we would have another mongolian no Money, no travelers cheques incident..  without having the back up of some US currency to bail us out. luckily though the 5th ATM we found accepted the cards and we drew out several hundred Yuan.

drummers...drumming
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We had read in the LP that the Bell tower and Drum Tower were worth a visit, and as the name of the hostel would suggest, the Bell tower was right next to us. We walked down into the Subway and bought a combo ticket to see both for 30Yuan each.

Bell tower was first,an impressive building and seriously old... it used to house a big bell.. not so anymore.

we noticed on the way in that there was a sign showing time for performances so we hung around for an hour or so looking at the exhibits of old instrument and craving whilst we waited. Caz got chatted up by some 50 odd year old guy who worked there, he spoke no other words in english than football teams names and players and was actually quite a nice and funny chap.

dancing and playing the symbols...told you women could multi task!
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when the show stared all the seats were taken so Caz and i popped ourselves down on the floor.

I would have paid another  30 Yuan just for the show, 15 minutes long using ancient instruments they played a mix of traditional music (with an impressive fan dance from one girl in costume) and ended up with Auld Lands yme.. or what ever the name of  that song you sing at new year is.

We walked with haste the 200m to the Drum tower where their show was about to start, a similar building in design and age, The Drum in the tower is sounded every evening to signal.. well the evening as opposed to the Bell which is sounded at Dawn. we arrived as the drums were being set up and another 15 minute show showed us how how good value the tickets were, a highly energetic and really well preformed show later with loads of showmanship, we toured found the exhibits of drums and then headed back to the hostel for some dinner.

dancing WITH fans...what more proof do you need?
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Getting back to the Hostel we ordered a spicy cheese pizza for the two of us to share and sat down with a couple of beers to relax, still seriously tired from the train journey we were fighting our eyelids until the pizza arrived. when it did, it didn't really fill us up, but we were too cheap to get another one. we got talking to the Israeli guy and the three of us decided that instead of paying around $265 Yuan each for a tour tomorrow for the three of us would make our own way to the much anticipated Terracotta Warriors of Xi'an.

traffic watching...if your a nervous person, never do this in China!
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We both jumped on the Net for a few hours. (i was ont for two hours when the there was a power cut and i lost everything i had written) and at around 2200 Caz went to bed, after the power cut i refused to pay for the net, which they were really cool about and i played pool with Steven Ledle and a japanese guy we had met in the morning when getting to the hostel, speaking little english he had never played pool before and as we explained the rules and showed him back spin etc on the ball, he ended up being far better than the three of us. i eventually retired to bed at 0030 and fell into a deep sleep.