9. 上海 薩莉亞again 磁浮列車 西安 大香港 爛房間 (21st)
9th day in China:
TRIP TO XI’AN
How interesting, that it’s not Xi-An, but Xi’an, must be the way the Xi’an ppl speak that makes it sound so one-worded.
Our plane was to leave at 1pm-ish, so we decided the coolest idea is that we go to Sayriya, that really nice Italian restaurant, for brunch. It was nice, except we sort of had some breakfast only at 9am, so 11am wasn’t exactly hungry-time, but we ordered 4 dishes in the end anyway, and amazingly finished most of it, with one taken away and finished at the airport.
WAY TO AIRPORT
We planned to take the taxi, the train, then another taxi, from our hotel to the airport that’s around 1 1/2 hours away, but when we got on our first taxi, the driver said that since we’re there, it’ll be faster and closer and more convenient to just take the bullet train. This is the kind that floats by magnet, and claims to be the fastest in the world, with speed over 400km/hr, so ideally we had to give it a try. He took us to the station, and we apparently got a discount with an airticket, so we got onto the train. The entire trip was recorded on our camcord, which lasted just over 7min, and the speed went up to 430km/hr, but it was pretty much in mid-air so it didn’t seem as fast as it would have been if it had been on the floor/road.
XI’AN
After arriving in Xi’an, we had nothing to worry about until the day we leave China, as our neighbour from NZ who’s from China organised everything for us - where to stay, what to see, where to eat, and a driver to take us around everyday - all paid-for.
THE XI’AN HOTEL
So-called 4-star hotel, they claimed that this is among the best hotels in Xi’an, so they have arranged 2 rooms for us, except the rooms are around 10m apart. We were booked 2 standard rooms, 2 single beds, and scary deco. Unable to complain, the floor wasn’t as bad as the one we cancelled few days ago, but you can see obvious stains on the carpet, with the showerheads rusted and there are definitely obvious holes and peeled paint on the wall. What we discovered later, was that the internet would cost us money, and also it’s 56k, and needs to be connect to the phone, AND we have to call the reception before we can make a call outside of the hotel, AND we waited for a good hour before that was set up, which by then was too late, as we were planning to call the travel agency to rearrange our flight plan.
Oh, did I mention that the internet couldn’t be set up as there’s no telephone hole, and they had to send in this guy to set it up for us for an hour?! Man it was disappointing, if that’s what they call a hotel where more than 76 internationally important guests stayed at, they seriously didn’t think much of China.
DINNER
As it was almost dinner time, they called their driver around to pick us all up, in a really cool Benz, might I add, to a restaurant they’ve booked for a big feast to welcome us.
It was probably one of the better places we’ve eaten at in China. It’s called ”Big Hong Kong”, and as you can guess, it’s in Dim-Sum style, except compared to NZ’s normal HK place where you either order or see a trolly coming along and you pick what you want, they also have around 10 booths for you to go around and see what you want. All the booths are different, there’s a roasted-meat booth (duck, chicken, goose, pork, beef, you name it), a soup booth (Chinese styled ”soup” come in 2 categories: One is a big bowl for everyone, it’s usually savoury; and single bowls for ppl are usually sweet, and are usually taken as dessert or for afternoon tea times.), dim sum booth, noodles and rice booth, all sorts of cool ones, and you just go around and a lady will follow you to take your orders.
Their food, I must say, are really good, we all ate lots, and sort of gave us the expectations that all the restaurants we go to in Xi’an will be equally good.
BACK TO HOTEL
After a huge meal, we were taken back to our this-can’t-be-4-stars hotel, and through phone father found out that with $80 more, we can have a so-called ”business room”, which has pretty much the same stuff as a standard room except it has free broadband internet. Considering we will be staying at this hotel for the next 3 nights (originally 2 but they said there’s too much to see), we might as well change it to a room with free internet, besides, we’re actually saving them money, by using one business room than 2 standard rooms.
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