9 mountains - 27.5.11 (Day 10 - Stop-over at Xi'an)

Had a great sleep and woke up at 8am after a nice 7 hours rest. Not too much and not too less. I read an article before that this was the optimal hours for health reason!

Turned on the TV and the NBA Eastern Conference final game 5 between the Bulls and the Heat was showing lived! Yeh!! I quickly walked to the McD next door for my breakfast.

I ordered a pancake set 2 and an extra Egg McMuffin. And I got a big breakfast and a Sausage McMuffin!! Didn't know my Chinese was that bad!! I asked if I could changed but the staff was so defensive and got agitated. She probably had her point since I didn't really hear her clearly when she repeated my order. But her manager was more professional and polite to give me my Egg McMuffin at least.

After my breakie, I walked back to my room to enjoy the NBA game. Heat were leading 3-1 in the series. It was a good game. Pity to see the Bulls lost in the last 2minutes with 12points lead!

It was around 11:30am and just nice to pop by the Internet cafe for a couple of hours. Around 2, I checked out and thought of keeping my stuff there if I go for their hourly rate room later. But their charges for 2 hours was almost half the full day rate!! Can't keep my stuff there, I walked over to leave my luggage with the train station instead. They charged rmb3 for each side of my shoes!!

What a heavy lunch!

I walked to the department store and picked up a couple of hotels with the rate of rmb80 for 4 hours rest instead. Still early to check in, I window shopped around in the department store looking for food. Found a nice Chinese restaurant. The menu were all pictured!! With a whole fish and a plate of vegetable, I knew I over-ordered again! I had a feast!! The sweet and sour fish was delicious and cheap. After the heavy lunch, I walked down to the supermarket to get my breakfast in the train tomorrow.

Bell Tower at Xi'an

Passed by a CD section and bought one compilation by Steve Zhou. I bet you don't know his English name is Steve. He is Zhou Chuan Xiong.

Muslim district street!

Having settled everything, I headed to Starbucks for my latte and wifi access. Spent about two hours there catching up with friends and downloading my latest emails and the train schedules.

Around 5:45pm, I walked to the hotel as planned, stopping along the way to withdraw some money. As I walked, I thought I had just taken shower this morning and still felt fresh since I was in the air conditioning all day. So, I decided not to check in for the hourly rest but to go for a foot massage instead.

After that, I walked to the same Muslim district I went last night and tried the famous local yang rou pau mo (flour rice with mutton in soup) and 3 skewers of barbecued lamb.

And I was expecting English!

Flour rice with mutton in soup!

There were many such food stall, but I went to one with lesser people. The mutton was great but the soup was too oily. And the skewers were the biggest disappointment. I was surprised that they were pre-barbecued!!
It was a quick meal. I took the bus backed to the train station! Collected my luggage and went to the waiting room. I just realized they had a separate air-conditioned waiting area for soft-seater ticket holders (those in 4-berth sleeping coach)!! And the attendants were prettier too!!

I met two Sichuan guys heading back home. One of them was in the oil industry and the other in research. The one in oil industry, around 40+, came with a 4-year old daughter and his father. He reminded me of the Chinese actor in the famous movie Fei Chen Mi Rao! We chatted for hours. About travel in Sichuan, about living standard, about the government, about the plight of many Chinese people. One of them slept earlier. The two of us continued at our upper berth until almost 1am!