Day 254 - Flying high over China

We woke up today (well, we would have woken up had we managed to get any sleep) at 6.30am in Kunming. Our first priority for the day was getting some Chinese Yuan, as we couldn't go far without it! However this task was more difficult than it had initially seemed as all the banks' ATMs are inside secure rooms early in the morning. After wandering around for an hour or so with our packs on (something we were no longer accustomed to after the ease of tourist travelling in Vietnam) we eventually found a machine and as Ethan would saying we were "TAKING THE MONEY!".

We headed first to the train station and took our place amongst the hordes of people attempting to make it home at the tail end of the Chinese New Year. Without even trying to play the 'foreigner's card' we were approached by a couple of police officers and told we could skip to the front of the line (that was continuously growing outside the building)! We really should have known that trying to get a sleeper ticket to one of the biggest and most popular destinations in China would be a joke, and were told that we couldn't get a ticket for at least 3 more days. Without this time up our sleeves (with work looming) we had to do what the adlibers had not done willingly before - go to the airport! Although the price was quadruple what we'd pay on the train, we saved 35 hours plus 3 days waiting time by catching a plane!

We were soon flying high on our way to the Ancient City of Xi'an and capital of Shaanxi Province. Xian is most famous for the Terracotta Warriors and other amazing archeological sites, and was once the capital of China over 6 dynasties. Shaanxi is also the province were Chairman Mao's Long March come to an end in 1935, 9500km away from its beginnings in Guangxi Province

When we arrived at Xi'an we checked into a very cool youth hostel and went straight to sleep! We woke in the evening and summoned the energy to find the nearest restaurant possible for our first real Chinese feed in a month, which was 1: cheap; 2: full of flavour; and 3: served by smiling Chinese locals happy to hear foriegners (trying to) use their language!

Adlibing it by air.