Destination: Xi'An (China)
Duration: 8 days 9 to 16 Nov 2019
Mode of travel: Celebrity tour with CTC Travels
Damage: $1419/pax + RMB200 (fee for guides) + RMB600 (cable car and performance)
Flight: Scoot, we had 20kg baggage and 7kg hand carry, 1 dinner
Accommodation: We have 4 accommodations, details will be in the post
Weather: -2 to 18 degrees
Currency: approx. SGD1 = RMB5
Time difference: same as Singapore
Date: 16/11/2019
Itinerary:
Da Ci En Temple （大慈恩寺遗址公园）
Dayan Pagoda （大雁塔）
Dayan Pagoda （大雁塔）
Hui Ethnic Cultural Street (回民街)
Xi'An Museum (西安博物院)
Stayed too long at home, lost momentum, took forever to churn out this post.
This is going to my last travel post till I travel again. Nobody knows how long we have to wait and my heart literally aches at the thought of my cancelled Tokyo trip.
The 8th and last day at Xi'An started with breakfast. I went to the noodles counter, then went to the ang mo section for toppings.
I almost forgotten my own face after staying at home for so long.
I looked quite cute for my age, heehee..... shameless self declare.
Walking to see 唐三藏.
Da Ci En Temple （大慈恩寺遗址公园）
唐三藏 or 玄奘 was in "Journey to the West", a fiction story which we grew up with. He did went to the west by foot but without Monkey King and all those demons.
唐三藏 stopped by at Xi'An and left some handwritten buddha scripts here.
Temples aside, the surrounding was clean and green, with the cooling weather, should be very nice to stroll and spend the day. Unfortunately, we didn't have a day to enjoy the place garden.
The whole world flood to 财神殿 (Money God Temple).
I went for a short prayer for health and safety for my family in Guan Yin Temple.
My late mom liked GuanYin whom represents kindness and benevolence.
This time I clever, never follow the tour guide and explore Xuan Zang museum myself.
It's a replica of Xuan Zhang's handwritting.
Seriously, how can handwriting but so neat with brush?? I can't even do it with a pen or pencil lolxx...
Upon closer look, it's a plastic door.
The beauty of ancient architecture.
There must be a purpose for the bell but I have no idea.
My beloved lao uncle.
If only I can have pics like that for myself, haiz.... it's not going to happen.
When can we travel again...
Ashes of monks with high attains in these pagodas.
The golden yellow leaves were really pretty, by my photo skills wasn't up to bring it justice.
Does this look like Japan instead of China?
I was hoping to take a photo with myself in it but he went farther than I could scream.
He was desperate for a smoke break.
While I am trying to be understanding and accommodating, I have to say smoking waste a lot of time especially during travelling. He has very little time to go toilet or grab a drink, so he is always in a mess and I have to babysit him here and there.
Some good efforts made for recycling.
A traditional puppet show was arranged, nice leg rest time.
Followed by a craft work session.
I choose a big and complicating piece, kiasu.
It's a dragon with clouds on a granite.
Tap tap and imprinted on a tissue paper. Reminded me of coral printing in Okinawa, with the same concept.
Leaving the temple vicinity, lined with a row of souvenir shops along the broad walkway.
I was the odd one out wearing only a long sleeve t-shirt while the rest wore jackets.
Hubby said I am too thickly cushioned with fats to feel cold.
We were exiting through the entrance lolxx...
Opposite the small road was another park, parks in China are so nice and spacious.
Over in Singapore it's difficult to walking leisurely in a park, you can either be knocked down by a bicycle or bumped over by running children. Everywhere is cramp here.
Back onto our coach again. It's nice and clean though not much greens on road.
We were on the way to lunch with much distractions walking through Hui Ethnic Cultural Street (回民街).
Half way, the tour guide had no choice but to lead us to walk through housing estates so that we could walk faster lolxx...
So here, another boring restaurant.
A few types of dumplings were served, all tasted about the same and really not our likings.
We tried to reserve stomach space for some street food.
They shouldn't have included lunch, else we could had more than 1.5hrs at the Cultural Street.
It's very touristy, but we had no other options to explore freely.
The place was bustling with locals and tourists. Big bright sign boards everywhere, so much was going on and many many new exciting looking food at stalls.
The most popular street food got to be pulled lamb in buns.
There were a couple of stalls with queues, looked so good and tempting but we didn't have time to queue.
With 1.5hrs, we either shop or eat, I decided to feed myself further lolxx...
Cos buying from TaBao is probably cheaper.
Mutton soup here.
It's a pity we didn't try biang biang noodles.
Local pastries that we never seen before.
Dessert saw in china drama series appeared!
It vacuum packed, so I bought one back.
Smelly tofu which PapaVoo wouldn't let go.
They had normal tofu and black ones.
We had a bowl with both black and white with chilli sauce. The black ones were more crunchy, not too smelly, was yummy and we were so happy.
Lot's of BBQ stalls with large skewers.
Upon closer look, I realized they used plum flower stalks.
Nice right?
Not a fan of yogurt but the bottles looked so cute.
Didn't have the courage to try mutton trotters.
Tempting but we were careful at buying tibits, brought back home couldn't eat finish very wasteful.
These traditional candy lollipops were so nice to look at but way too sweet for our likings.
Bread drink that tasted a bit like malt drink. Reminds us of our trip at Harbin where we had bread beer.
Mutton everywhere.
So pretty looking but no idea how it tasted.
Amazing looking pastries.
Gave this lamb skewers a try.
Taste not as good as those we had in Harbin.
Felt happy and exciting looking at the stalls though it was impossible for us to try everything.
Everything was so different from what we have.
I bought a piece of cake to try from this lovely granny.
It's too gummy and sticky for my liking, made of glutinous rice I guess.
A lot to see with a lot of tourists, but I really like how clean and orderly this place is.
We bought pulled lamb bun from here and it's very disappointing. They didn't put in veg and chilli like other stalls.
Then mutton was not as flavorful as we expected but luckily it was tender enough to bite.
A gaming shop stood alone in the food street.
China's technology is more advance than Singapore but most Singaporeans still yaya papaya thinking we are the best in everything.
We headed to the entrance of the cultural food at the time given. We always seemed to exit attractions at their entrances lolxx...
Didn't had enough but unfortunately we wouldn't be coming back. China is really big, we wanted to see new places.
Bid good bye at the entrance gate.
I am normally interested in museums but this time was an exception. I can't review on this since I wasn't even in a mood to explore.
Xi'An Museum (西安博物院)
I stayed in for a brief 10mins for a few photos and left.
Gilded Statue of Buddha Wei Dynasty year 386-534AD
Gilded Statue of Goddess Guan Yin found in Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644)
Took a thousand selfie to kill time while waiting for others.
Could see Dayan Pagoda （大雁塔）from the museum. So tourists attractions are strategically located close to each other.
There we went again, exiting from the entrance, waahaaahaaahaa.....
At Xi'An but had a peking duck dinner.
The people at my table showed no mercy though I believed it's not their first time having peking duck.
I will have my revenge on better food some other time ba...
This restaurant probably holds many wedding banquets.
There's a "bridge" walkway leading to the stage IMAO.
After dinner we had a couple of spare hours before our mid night flight back to Singapore.
The tour guides arrange feet massage while others went for shopping. I was torn between both, ultimately my tired feet won.
It wasn't cheap (I can't remember how much liao) but the ambiance and service was very impressive. It was said Jack Ma is a frequent customer here but we didn't see him when we were there lolxx...
We had a room with 4 couches which we shared with another pair of elderly couple.
Drinks and fruits were served.
Comfortable lounge wear was provided.
Hubby kept talking and talking, and I couldn't find a discreet way to shut him up. I forgotten to give him a stern warning before the feet massage began, my fault, omg..... He talked talked talked to the other couple, I couldn't rest or sleep. Then he continued to talk and talk to his masseur and I could see the lady gotten quite distracted and wasn't able to her job properly.
This is the foot massage we went, you can google for the address if interested.
Xi'an Airport from far.
The 8D trip coming to an end.
The airport was clean but not much shopping, many shops were closed in the mid night.
SIM card vending machine, very convenient. But so far AirSim worked the best for our family.
We slept through the midnight flight without food. Reached home, slept some more, then ta bao mee pok from coffee shop, missed our food so much.
Unpacked slowly, here were some stuffs I bought, all food cos other things I buy from TaBao cheaper.
These peanut candies bought from Cultural Street were really nice, we wished we had bought more.
These were framed paper cuttings given to us as souvenirs from the tour guide.
That ended my last travel trip before COVID came.
Won't be able to travel again any soon but life goes on, please swing over to my daily diary at
