Bopcha Blog

Good afternoon friends and family!



Profound apologies in the lapse of communication -- we've had a

non-stop couple of days! From Shanghai, Nikole and I boarded a local

city bus for the two hour ride out to Xitang, a sort of "canal" town,

along a river whose name we never learned. The village was quietly

preserved in the old Chinese style, for benefit of tourists of all

nationalities (mostly Chinese). Nikole and I (and the others in our

group) are a bit of a tourist attraction in and of ourselves, and

we've all had to pose in other Chinese tourist's pictures. We have no

idea what these travelers do with the photos of random white people,

but they are very intent on getting them!



The canal town was so pretty, and was elbow to elbow with cute shops

and street vendor foods. And across the canal was a short alleyway

called the "bar street" where Nikole and I joined others from our

group for a rambuncious evening out (and yes, there was karaoke

involved... I'll never think of the song Hey Jude the same again)!!!



You'd think after all our hours of shopping and eating, not to mention

a couple of Chinese beers during our "musical" evening out, we had

earned a very good night's sleep! But unfortunately, our room on the

canal in a tiny guesthouse was accurately advertised as traditional

Chinese.... Though we were fortunate to have a western style toilet,

the small bed we shared was just a blank of wood covered with a thin

cotton pad, and a blanket. Tossing and turning was a painful

endeavour! We were awakened in the early morning to the soundtrack of

the nextdoor neighbor brushing her teeth and face washing in the canal

itself, right outside our window. Canal water and spearmint! Mmmmm.



A weary goodbye to Xitang, we returned by city bus to undertake our

first night on the Chinese trains, destination Xi'an, a smallish city

of 8 million. Certainly we could have expected another sleepless

night in bunks described as the "hard sleeper" class, but after our

night on the wooden plank, we actually got some pretty good sleep!



And now we are in Xi'an, and have climbed the city walls with

magnificent views, toured the Muslim quarter (lots of tourists, not so

many Muslims), and today in the early morning we joined our group,

with whom we've become very good friends, for the morning's transport

to the archaeological site of the Terra Cotta warriors! Unfortunately

for our group, today was a very auspicious day for weddings, according

to the moon calendar, so we were pretty cramped in the basic van they

provided (all the good buses were rented for bridal parties), but our

guide was a true delight. His western name (chosen himself) was

Michael Jackson -- easy enough to remember. He was remarkably

forthcoming about all matters Chinese, both social and historical, and

gave tremendous insights into his life and that of his girlfriend, his

mother, and his dreams of the future. Oh yeah, and we got to see the

8th wonder of the world-- the warriors!!! Nikole and I were

awestruck, and they truly are a sight to behold. Though I admit,

during the 20 minute "orientation" film, I got sleepy about 2 minutes

after they turned out the lights and cat napped through the history of

the site, so you'll have to ask Nikole all the details



Tonight we're off on another overnight train. Our guide has warned us

it won't be as "fancy" as our previous hard sleeper train.... Oy vey.

Wish us luck for this most auspicious undertaking!!!



We're sending our love and are thinking of you all every moment. We miss you!!!



Love T