Jakey Jake

Saturday 22nd May
This morning i was up early for a jog. it still amazes me how funnily they react. there was a group of military all serious standing around yellling orders at each other, until i ran past when they all stopped and stared and then giggled like they were 8 year old little girls. Anyway everyone was up for breakfast by 8.30, unfortunately the highfly pizza place wasnt open until 9 and the staff were sleeping on the seats of the restraunt. We got them up early…. oops… and we took seats while they scurried around trynig to get ready. we ordered at 9.15am, slowly one by one the meals came out. we were supposed to be ready for the warriors by 9.30, but my breakfast didnt arrive until 10.20…. arrrrrgh. eventually we were all done and on our way about an hours drive out of xian to the warriors. there are 3 main pits. pit 1 is the only one to be fairly extensively excavated, there are around 1000 warriors that have been realised rom the earth. pit 2 is still basically unexcavated and is pretty much a big hall looking down onto mounds of earth… interesting i hear you say… thats what i thought too. pit 3 was the smallest pit but apparently because the warriors were found facing each other, this was central command. As you can probably tell i wasnt THAT impressed with the discovery. dont get me wrong, its ok, and its pretty amazing that there aer around 7 thousand terracotta warriors each individually different, with different faces, shoes, clothes, armour, hairdos etc. but really at the end of the day, its one mans hommage to himself (read another omnipotent king) and he forced many people to work for his tomb. I guess each to their own though, and i am glad i went to see it, but we certainly didnt need 3 hours there…. you cant really even get close enough to the warriors to make out their individual styles, and you will certainly get harrassed near the entrance to purchase some warriors of your own (though if your into that you will certainly be able to get an excellent bargain – the supply is FAR more than is being demanded) anyway we went back to the nearby town for luch which was a massive banquet of pretty crap food. afterwards we were back to the train station for yet another overnighter to beijing, and the great wall…. oooh exciting.