A Tour in Koh Samui

On our second day in Koh Samui, we decided to book a tour, because the weather forecast wasn't that good. We opted for one that took use to some sights, a coconut plantation, an elephant conservatory and some kayaking. We got picked up at the hotel and were asigned to the pick-up truck number 4. As predicted, it was raining.

The first stop was the Wat Plai Laem, a Buddha temple at the top of the island, close to our hotel at Chaweng beach. We weren't dressed appropriatly, so we couldn't go very close to the Buddha statues but it was still close enough for some pictures. These Buddhas are very colorful and modern. There is a Chinese-style Buddha with 18 arms. My favorite statue was the laughing Buddha.

Next, we drove along Chaweng and Lamai Beach to the Grandmother and Grandfahter Rocks (Hin Yai & Hin Ta). The rocks showed the "manly body part", explained our tour guide. And the grandmother rock looks like the female one. The legend behind it is not really interesting. Those two wanted to find a wife for their son and on the journey to meet the potential wife, they drownded and were turned into those rocks, showing their intention. The sight was free of charge and there are many souvenir shops around.

Luckily, at this point it stopped raining and we drove out to a coconut plantation where they among other things produce coconut oil. They explained to us that monkeys get trained to climb up the palm trees to get the coconuts. You can buy those monekys already trained. It is the only way for them to reach those coconuts, because the trees are extremly high. The green coconuts are supposed to be good for drinking, because they taste sweet. The workers take the coconut and peel it on a fixed knive. This part is used for furniture and similar things. The coconut inside is white (turns brown after some time probably, then it's better to eat). We drank the water from one coconut and then ate the inside part which was still good.

On the way to the next stop, a rubber plantation, they asked us if we wanted to sit on the roof of the car. Of course. They drove like crazy and we had to go through mud, water and country roads. You really needed and off-road car for this route. We were glad they had seat belts and we held on tight with both hands. I still managed to take some pictures though. :) We took turns in ridding up there and it was one of the best things to do on the tour.

Next to the rubber plantation there was a pineapple field with many small pineapples. According to the guide it is not enough for the farmers to only produce rubber, often they also have a pineapple field or some coconut trees. They collect the rubber in the middle of the night, then add some chemicals, and leave it for 1.5h hours, during which time they go to sleep. After that they roll the rubber flat and put it through a press and let it dry it in the sun.

Then, we drove to the elephant plantation. This ride was quite adventurous because I was again on the roof of the car. On the conservatory we were able to ride the elephant for about 15 minutes. The mahout of my elephant couldn't speak that well English but he told me that my elephant was 25 years old. It was a very nice experience and they had someone taking pictures with your phone. Of course, they expected a tip for this extra service.

Afterwards, we drove to a waterfall in the tropical forrest but it wasn't as spectacular as expected. After 30 mintutes we went back and had lunch, a Thai buffet with steamed rice, red curry with chicken, fried vegetables, chicken with garlic sauce, noodles, pineapple, watermelon.

After lunch we watched a baby elephant taking a bath. He was 7 years old and seemed to enjoy being in the water and being brushed. They ask you if you want to sit on it but then at the same time they ask you to pay extra for it. We also watched a monkey show: They showed us how a money gets the coconut from the tree and again what they do with the coconut.

Our last stop was at a river for doing some kayaking. Although the kajak was for only 2 people, me and my two friends took one togehter. When we wanted to pass someone, we ended up in trees or got stuck in the mud. The second attempt was usually more successful. We locked our stuff in one of the lockers, because we didn't want them to get wet. When we wanted to take our things out, my friend broke the key. 5 people tried to open the locker with us laughing in the background. Luckily, they managed to open it in the end.

We went home for a nap, because the whole day exhausted us. Then we had curry, satay sticks and cocktails (raspberry mojito) while watching the first period of the IT - SWE soccer match.
We walked around and had another drink at the Aussie Bar which showed the match on a big screen. (Italy won 1:0)

Terracotta Warriors Tour in Xi'an

I had to be ready for the tour at 9AM. I got up early enough, so I had time to have breakfast. I ordered a müsli and a cappuccino, unfortunately, at that time there were many other tourists ordering breakfast and I think there were only 2 guys serving the breakfast. At 5 to 9, I went up to the guy to ask for my money back, because I hadn't gotten my breakfast yet and I needed to go.

The tour guide brought us from the hostel to a bus where other Western tourists were waiting. Chelsea was our enthusiastic tour guide and on the way to the terracotta warrior factory, she told us a little bit about the history of this very famous sight:

The Terracotta Army was created by the first emperor named Qin to accompany him in his tomb. He started the construction as soon as he ascended the throne. Qin believed that statues will became alive in the afterlife and he wanted an army at his side when he entered it. The construction of the tomb lasted from 246 to 206 BC. The army consists of thousands of warriors, horses and chariots in original man size (6,000 pieces), and many other treasures were buried with him. They were covered by a wooden roof.

It was discovered in 1974 by a farmer and archaeologists are still working on this amazing archaeological site. Two years later, another two parts were discovered. Many statues though are destroyed. A big area in each room is still uncovered, because they discovered that the statues were colored and when they uncovered them, the colors faded. This is why all of the statues that can be seen now (around 2,000), are plain. They haven't discovered the technology yet to keep this from happening, this is why they left a big part buried. It has been selected as a World Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The first stop was at the factory of the terracotta warriors. They showed us how they make those clay statues of different heights. You could also have one with your face, there was an example of Obama. They told us that on the market, they sold fake ones, made out of a material that breaks easily. This was in one room and then 4 rooms followed filled with different products they sold, from statues to furniture and paintings. I grabbed a coffee which finally woke me up.

Back on the bus, we headed to the Terracotta Warriors Museum. There are 3 different displays of which Pit 1 was the biggest one and the most complete one. The Terracotta Army is staged in a battle formation and each figure faces east and every single statue has a different facial expression, clothing and hair. The structure of the pits is always the same: the figures were placed in the corridors, 5 meters below the ground, and covered by a wooden roof which was covered by fiber mats and earth fill.

Then we went to Pit No. 2 and No. 3 which contains more soldiers on chariots of which most were burned and destroyed.

After lunch, the bus drove us to the Mausoleum of Emperor Qin. His tomb is supposed to be a huge underground palace but it hasn't been uncovered yet, the appropriate technology hasn't been discovered yet and there is some toxic material inside. People have known of its existence for a long time thanks to written documents but the Terracotta Army wasn't mentioned anywhere.

In the end, it is a beautiful park with a head stone. No wonder that many tourists skip this place...

Xi'an – an Ancient Chinese City

On Sunday, May 22^nd, I left Zhuhai and started my adventure through China and Southeast Asia. My first stop was Xi'an, the capital of the Shaanxi Province. It is an ancient city with a history of over 3,000 years. It used to be the capital of China for several dynasties, especially during the Tang Dynasty (618AD – 908AD). It was important, because it represented the eastern end of the Silk Road. The historical city center was surrounded by a city wall which is still accessible. Nowadays, the city is mostly know for the Terracotta Warriors

I was picked up from the airport by my friend Tina. She came by car which was very convenient, because the airport was very far from the city. As soon as we were in the car, we took the first selfie, the Chinese style with a 45-degree angle (I was really tired from the flight and the past few days but could still smile :)).

First, she took me to Muslim Street for eating and I got to see the Bell and Drum Tower. I was amazed by the energy and liveliness of the street. There was smoke in the air from all the bbq stands. A lot of different smells filled the air. 

Tina invited me to try different things, starting with a Jing Gao which is sticky rice a kind of syrup and sugar on a stick. It was delicious. Then I tried the Chinese burger, a type of bread that is cut open and filled with chopped meat, in this case with beef and a spicy sauce. That was definitely better than a fast food burger. After more than 3 months in China, I got used to seeing fresh meat in its original form lying or hanging around. Very interesting to see was the way they made the candy. There were two kinds, one was a hard dough which they hammered apart if that makes any sense...a second one was a really long dough that they twisted around several times. The whole thing attracted many visitors.

Then, we went to a restaurant on this street to try more food. Tina ordered food for at least 4 people: cold noodles with a spicy peanut sauce (cold noodles are a specialty in Xi'an, I would have preferred them warm), beans with ginger (weirdly also cold), steamed stuffed buns with beef or lamb (the lamb one was too smelly for me), some fried pork and a kind of green vegetable (which I had before). I was completely full after this, and still I tried a sweet tomato-rice dessert back on the street. On this street I found the best Chinese food that I've had so far.

We headed back to the car and Tina took me to the hostel, so I could do check-in. At this point I need to mention that driving in China is crazy, and I was really impressed with the driving skills of Tina. She has been driving for only a year but this crazy traffic does not make her nervous.

My hostel, See Tang Hostel, was located in a pedestrian street called Ancient Cultural Street of Shuyuanmen. During the day, there is a market with craft and souvenir stands. It is a really nice and peaceful street. The staff of the hotel was really nice and helpful from the beginning on. I shared my room with 4 other people, and it was the tiniest room I've ever slept in. Two beds were already taken. I dropped off my stuff and then we went to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda which is located outside of the ancient City Wall.

It is the symbol for Buddhism in Xi'an and it was originally built in 652 during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty. It was used to collect the Buddhism material from India by emperor Xuanzang. The height is 64.5 meters, but it used to be two stories shorter. Around the Pagoda there are gardens and a big fountain which does a fountain-music spectacle. This attracts as many tourists as the pagoda.

For the next day I booked a tour to the Terracotta Warriors at the hostel. Take a look at a separate post about the tour to the Terracotta Warriors.

On my third day in Xi'an I took my time with getting up and enjoyed a good breakfast on the beautiful terrace of the hostel. The weather was absolutely perfect, blue sky without any clouds. Today I was planning to ride a bike on the city wall. In many recommendations it said that the best time to do so, is at dust, so basically I had the entire day for doing something else. I walked towards Muslim Street again and took a nice picture of the Bell Tower, just because I liked it that much. On my way back to the hostel, I stopped at Starbucks and had a coffee outside in the sun. I was the only person sitting in the sun. :)

The weather was too nice for going to a museum, so I opted for a nearby park. I took the bus outside of the South Gate until the Xingqinggong Park. I walked around and enjoyed the nice weather. The interesting thing about Chinese Parks is that although they provide a place to relax, they are never completely silent. You can hear noise from every corner: a group of elderly people who talk or play games, a group of dancers that exercise to music or the park itself plays quiet, relaxing songs. I took the bus back and decided to get off a little earlier, because between the City Wall and the river, there was another nice pedestrian walk.

Around 5pm, my roommate and I headed to the City Wall. The City Wall was constructed as a square and it is about 14km long. It was built in the 14^th century during the Ming Dynasty. Each gate (south, north, east and west) is surrounded by 3 towers, and in the corners of the square, there are the watchtowers. When we wanted to buy tickets at the South Gate, they told us that due to some kind of celebration, the South Gate is closed (they couldn't tell us, because they didn't know English but there was a sign in English). They directed us to the next gate, about 1km from the South Gate. We almost gave up, because we couldn't find it, when finally I saw an entrance. There weren't any people, so no wonder, we couldn't find it. We got the tickets and had to walk to the next gate to rent some bikes. We drove all around, at least as far as we could, stopped for pictures and enjoyed a wonderful sunset over the city of Xi'an.