Onesies are so last year (an extract from Jo)

After settling into our hotel & adjusting to China time on Monday, we visited a shopping mall, just one of many in the area. Just to give you some idea of the size, think 4 times the size of Meadowhall. With a purse full of Yen let the shopping commence!, 5 hours later we hadn’t even seen half of it so had to admit defeat & head back to the hotel proudly carrying my new purchases. I really wanted to buy a “twosie” (onesies are so last year) but Tudd wouldn’t let me (might sneak back later to get one so watch this space!)

Which twosie to choose...

My new purchases

Fuggs - fake UGG's

 As Ellis would be tutoring that evening that meant we had to entertain ourselves, ha ha we had spotted an Irish Pub earlier that day, so later that evening off we ventured to Captain Jacks. Most Irish bars are run by Irish people but we entered to be greeted by a Chinese barman who seemed quite pleased to see us as the bar was empty. 1 cocktail and 1 beer later we decided to sample the “Monday Special”: 1 bottle of rum, 6 cans of coke and a dish of peanuts – bargain at 240 yen (£24). As the bar was still empty, we had the peanuts replenished. We had quite a good evening listening to 80’s music, the pub only had four more customers and we still didn’t see anyone Irish.

Half a bottle of Rum later we decided after being in China for a couple of days that we would attempt to buy some street food so off we went clutching a carrier bag with our remaining rum. First stall we purchased a “bread thingy for 10p, had a taste and decided it wasn’t bad and a bargain so with new found confidence we ventured further. We saw a man selling spring rolls and after lots of gesturing and pointing, a young girl came to our rescue and told us we had to buy a sequence of them in other words 8 for 50p – job done but we then decided that perhaps we could have done with Ellis after all to translate. However, we spotted a KFC and decided to end the night with some chips, again lots of pointing and off we trotted with two portions of chips & about 20 sachets of ketchup – result!

We were just eating our “supper” when a group of 10 Chinese students walked past, they said hello and we replied back then suddenly found ourselves surrounded by them all wanting to have photos taken individually & as a group, this went on for quite some time all changing places with each other. One young lad just stood there saying “this is my dream”... still not sure what he meant but if his dream was to have his picture taken with two rather drunk Brits stuffing their faces with chips then I was more than happy to oblige.

We have also spent 3 days in Xi’an this week visiting the Terracotta Warriors, something I have always wanted to see and was not disappointed. It is very impressive even Tudd ( not exactly a culture vulture ) was impressed. Ellis had already prepared us for people staring and we tend to just ignore them but going down an escalator one girl was turning round and so busy staring that she didn’t realise the escalator was coming to the end. This resulted in her falling flat on her face and sending other people flying. We thought it hilarious (she didn’t!) then she picked herself up and stomped off looking very embarrassed (her mum obviously hadn’t told her its rude to stare).... it was definitely one of those you had to be there moments.

Terracotta army

Thousands of warriors

We travelled to Xi’an on the high-speed train, 5 hours travelling at 195 mph, reclining seats – amazing certainly puts British Rail to shame and in every carriage there is an area to get hot water so everyone takes a Chinese pot noodle (choodle) so you can make up your own food – brilliant. Also, on the train two little girls got bored and decided to run up and down the aisle. After being told twice by the attendant to sit down a rather official looking man came and spoke rather sternly to the mother and girls. I don’t know what he said but the girls spent the remainder of the journey hiding under the table – marvellous, a lovely quiet train journey. Couldn’t imagine that happening in the UK (well the children running riot I could but no one brave enough to tell someone else’s children to behave)

Fast train

Settled on the train

Cant believe we have been here in China for a week already and so far I have been impressed with the Malls e.g. how cheap they are and how good Ellis is at speaking the lingo. However, I am not too keen on the pollution I can understand why everyone wears facemasks as every day seems like its foggy and I still haven’t found anything good to eat (poor Tudd’s staple diet is Pringles and cuppa soups). So that’s about all for this week, Bye for now, Jo.