Xian and Terracotta Warriors

We arrived in Xian after a long days driving. Jimmy had arranged to spend a few days at his cousins who lives in Xian. On the first day we got on the mountain bikes and went out exploring. As expected the city was massive, spotlessly clean and full of historical gems. We stopped at the largest water fountain display in Asia. It was pretty impressive. Then we continued on the bikes towards the town wall. Its a 16km long defensive wall surrounding the old city. The next stop was the Muslim quarter, bright lights, vibrant colours and amazing street food. After eating our way through the narrow streets, tasting everything that took our fancy, we decided to head back to the van, which was parked on the outskirts of the city....somewhere. It was Friday night and the city nightlife was beckoning. On our way back to the van we got lost, 'I could of sworn it was that way...' we stopped and asked some police for directions. They replied with 'follow us'. We followed the car full of 5 policemen the few km back to the van. It was getting on a bit so we decided to give the night out a miss promising a big one the following night.

We woke up excited because we were going to see the terracotta warriors. One of the big things we were looking forward to seeing on the whole trip. The warriors were discovered by a local farmer in 1974 when he was digging for a well in his field. The site consists of a whole army made from terracotta entombed in three pits by the first emperor of China. The army consists of 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses spread over three aircraft hanger sized pits. No two soldiers or horses are the same, each with their own facial features. The detail on them was intricate enough to identify different hair styles which can be used to distinguish different ranks. The warriors were situated next to the emperors tomb and were said to be protecting him in his afterlife. They were built in 210BC and took 700,000 workers to complete. It was a pretty impressive sight.

Up until now we had been driving on fast but expensive toll roads. One days toll had totaled £120 on one of the big driving days. Jimmy had assured us they were the only option. On our way to the warriors we ended up on a Chinese national road, similar to our A roads in England. It was virtually toll free and allowed us to see so much more of 'real China'. We made the decision to only use the national roads from that point onwards.

On the drive back to Xian the two non drivers bought a couple of beers, we were ready for a big one. We parked the van up and had some pre drinks.  A few Cass Reds and fire waters later we were ready to hit the town. We rode our bikes into town stopping for supplies and also at the fountains again but for the night music/light show. We rode to the central bar street and locked the bikes up. We went to a few bars then ended up meeting some other travelers. After some karaoke we hit a club. A group of Chinese beckoned us over and offered us a drink, and another, and another. I thought something a bit fishy was going on so I stopped drinking and offered my drink to Dunny. He drank it but noticed something hard in the drink so spat it back into the glass. Out came a little black pill. That was our que to leave, we rounded up the group and headed to a different club. After some research the following day we discovered the black pill was most likely opium. Luckily everybody was OK. Our next task was to find the bikes, which proved much more difficult than anticipated. After walking around Xian for two ours we gave up and returned to the van in a taxi, without the bikes. We woke up and went on a search for the bikes. After an hour we found them locked up to the same lamppost, pretty lucky!

We spent the rest of Sunday recovering from our big night out and eating our body weight in Pizza Hut. We really enjoyed Xian, it was on a par with Beijing and Shanghai for our favourite city in China.

Rob.

Delhi

We arrived back to Delhi and dropped my bike off at the shop for them to begin work on the paint job. I swapped it for one of their hire bikes for a few days whilst mine was being painted.

We had about three days until dad's flight back to the UK. We researched things to do in Delhi and started ticking them off. The red fort - an old walled royal settlement and fort, Qutab Minar - an ancient temple and tomb settlement, India gate -  a huge archway war memorial, Janter Manter - an old site used for observing stars and time keeping and a park area. We weren't too bothered about seeing each sight but it was more of an excuse to ride the bikes and gave us a purpose and a route. The ride to the red fort took us down Chandni Chowk, the oldest and busiest market road in Old Delhi, and we ended up going down the wrong side of the road!

On the roads you have to avoid tuk tuks, cows, scooters, cows pulling carts, camels pulling carts, horses pulling carts and the occasional pig. There's no concept of queuing to wait your turn, everyone just fights their way through carving each other up. Considering the amount of chaos and the occasional bump there is very little road rage, people just accept that's how it is and get on with it. Out on the roads there is a big range of potent smells. Rotting garbage, amazing spices from street restaurants, human excrement from open sewers and nice smelling incense.

There are some sad and thought provoking sights whilst walking around at night. You see whole families with young children bedding down for the night on a pavement under a bridge, all huddling under one blanket. You see a significant number of people begging who have extremely bad health, missing or deformed limbs and skin conditions. It makes you really appreciate the healthcare and welfare systems at home. It makes you feel pretty shit after spending a reasonable amount of money on a motorbike which would of been enough to fund a basic shelter for a family. But that money has gone into the Indian economy one way or another which is better then not spending the money at all.

Each night me and dad did the same routine. Walk under the bridge and go to what we named the bridge cafe. Each night we ate the same food, two stuffed naans, a chilli paneer and large chi. The naans are cooked in charcoal fired ovens, they are stuck to the inside of the barrel. We got to know the staff quite well. Each night after food we walked about a mile to Conaught Place, three contra direction roundabouts inside each other. The centre one is about a mile long lined with nice shops and Western takeaways. We had a mcflurry most nights. MacDonalds only sell chicken and make it clear on signs that not pork or beef is sold there. But still tuk tuk drivers, who are normally fighting for our custom, would refuse to take us to MacDonalds because they disagreed with the company due to religious regions.

We went to check on the work being done to my bike. They had stripped the whole thing down to the frame which was also getting painted. It looked like they were doing a through job.

I said my farewell to dad. We had a good week together and I enjoyed seeing what I had heard so many stories about from my childhood.

The lads arrive in Delhi. It was good to meet up with them after 3 weeks apart.

I collected my bike from the shop and it looks lovely, very pleased with it.

Rob