Today it was my turn to get up at 4:30 and wait for everyone else to wake up. Jet lag is a never a dull moment. Julie and Blaize woke around 7:15 and with nothing solid on the docket for the day, we took our time in getting ready to go downstairs. Breakfast was more of the same though I tacked the noodle bowl again and put more hot sauce on it which was nice. We made plans with the family from Maine to go to the Muslim Quarter together this morning, finished eating and went upstairs to get ready.
We met them in the lobby and walked to the metro station to take our first Xi'an subway rides. It was very easy to get tickets and the subway was clean, well marked in both Chinese and English and not as crazy as I thought it might be. We had to make a transfer from one line to another, but that was easy as well. We all emerged from the metro near the Bell Tower in the center of the city and then moved West to the Drum Tower and the Muslim Quarter just beyond it. We walked down the main shopping street and browsed the various stalls. Many of the vendors spoke some English and when we stopped for a bit while the Maine family got some calligraphy done, the lady in the stall across from where we were sitting chatted us up. She has a 2 year old daughter and was impressed we had 5 kids. She talked with us for a bit and translated our story to another vendor who laughed at the idea of 5 kids. We also got quite a few thumbs up and smiles from people of all ages as they passed us by. It was good to see the positive reactions for sure.
We continued our walk and eventually reached the end of the shopping area and intersected with the food street. The sights and smells are hard to describe as there was everything from beads, to nougats, colored rice balls in dry ice, octopus on a stick and more. We took it all in as best we could and weaved in and out of the masses of people. We came early in the day to avoid the crowds. I can't imagine what this street is like at night! The carcasses of goats hanging in some of the stalls certainly speaks to the freshness of the food. LOL. We bought some candied kiwi, pomegranate and persimmon to try out. I've read too many tales of people having trips messed up by eating street food and don't want to join their ranks. It very well could have been safe, but this isn't a trip to gamble on food sickness.
We reached the end of the road and were back at the Drum Tower, more or less making a big loop. We sat for a bit and enjoyed people watching and apparently we were also being watched as we were approached and asked if we would take selfies with some of the people. Why not? I'm sure there are posts on Weibo (Facebook for China) with our pictures. Haha. The kids were winding down and we wanted to get Blaize back to the hotel for a nap so made our way back to the subway. While buying the fare cards, we were a big hit with some more locals. It never hurts to smile, wave, and say Hello. Both on the way there and back, the locals were kind enough to clear a seat for Julie and Blaize as well as the Maine mother and daughter. Nice to see such kind behavior as we rarely see it back home in the metros we've been on. Well done, Xi'an! We made it back to the hotel and Blaize took a nap after eating some food. Julie and I enjoyed some oatmeal and applesauce from home for lunch.
While Blaize was sleeping, Julie and I researched Indian restaurants. It's been too long since our last curry top-off and we needed to resolve that. It seems Indian isn't a popular cuisine in Xi'an but where there is a will, there is a way. We found one that we thought might deliver and even saw we could order online, so that would resolve the language barrier. We picked out what we'd order and waited until about 5PM to try to place an order. Lo and behold, they don't take online orders here, just in their Beijing restaurants. I figured I'd call and ask but the number on the website just rang. Only one way to solve this, hop in a cab and go there! We stopped by the front desk to make sure we had the hotel's address in Chinese to help get back. The ride over there was a treat as traffic was, well, probably normal for around here, we were just lower in a car and not a bus. We wound our way through the city until we reached the area where the restaurant is. The area is close to the Great Wild Goose Pagoda and has recently been developed into a nice tourist area. There are hotels, tons of restaurants and a Starbucks.
We wandered around for a bit before we smelled the curry and knew we were close! We found the restaurant and enjoyed some vindaloo, chole batura, naan, samosas and basmati rice. Blaize loves naan and even liked some of the potatoes from the samosas. We ate our fill and then walked to a Westin hotel to get some help hailing a taxi. We didn't want to flag one down ourselves for fear of getting an illegal cab or worse. Having the hotel's address helped and it wasn't too long and we were back. This was our last full day in Xi'an as we check out tomorrow and fly to Guangzhou in the evening. We've enjoyed our time here but are ready to move on to the next steps in the process
No comments:
Post a Comment