I hopped onto the bus to Xi’an. I felt a great relief and the entire bus felt gentle. People were nice and civil. I sat next to a guy named Yang who ran out of credits on his phone and borrowed my phone to load up. As a thank you he helped me with the transition off the bus.
When I landed in Xi’an bus-train station there were massive crowds everywhere. I was glad to have Yang with me. Right away as we exited off the bus, people noticed I was with him, a local so they all backed away from us. It’s really not a big deal to face the crowd and fight through schools of sharks in massive chaos through time with practice. It’s just that I was very tired and haven’t slept in awhile. I do get tired of feeling vulnerable, in fear, and also tired of fatigue.
Yang met up with his girlfriend at the station and together we went looking for a youth hostel near by the station. We walked and walked and just didn’t see it. We even walked back and forth on the same street three times. It may have closed down or it just wasn’t meant to be for me to stay there this time. He called 114 to locate another youth hostel at the South Gate called Shu Yuen Men. He put me on a bus to South Gate and we parted.
On the way to South Gate I did see the hostel we were looking for but it didn’t have the International Youth Hostel sign, it was called a Youth Hostel. I headed for Shu Yuen Men Youth Hostel and approached the lady at the reception who had poor attitude. She refused to offer me a bed because I didn’t have a reservation. I told her I would just go to another hostel instead. At this point a bed all of a sudden opened up for 60yuan and I was shown to a room on the roof with many vacancies. After all that work of negotiating at the reception I smelled mildew on the walls which were grey, the raw color of concrete and mildew. The facility did not offer air conditioning and it was very run down. I had to keep walking in search for a better place to stay. This place didn’t uphold the international youth hostel standards.
I headed for the nearby calligraphy ancient street. This is where people come to buy tourist goods. It was a fun street full of calligraphy supplies and art work. There were lots of fun handy crafts too. I came across a group of 4 French tourists and one of them spoke English. He told he was staying at the Bell Tower Youth Hostel at the Bell Tower above the post office. Since they had just arrived too and just hopped onto a cab after check in they didn’t know their way around. So I had to ask the locals on how to get the hostel.
Locals told me it was only one bus stop away and that I shouldn’t waste my coin on the bus that I should just walk. Well, I was very tired, I haven’t rested in 36hours and I had my packs on me, I really would prefer to spend the coin on the bus to ride one bus stop distance in a new town that I was not familiar with. But I didn’t, I decided to keep walking by the method that was recommended to me.
Bell Tower Hostel located in the busy town square in the heart of the city. It was noisy but had much better facilities than the other one. The reception also ran me through the same drill of no reservations, no bed. But something in my communication of language or body gave way that I was not a main land local traveling during the national holiday. I told them I didn’t know I could make reservations online and that I didn’t know what the area code was to dial as a prefix to make the reservation. The guy asked for my passport and validated that I was a foreign tourist, a bed of 40yuan with air conditioning and no mildew was then available for me after that.
My roommates were mostly girls on teaching English in China from Oz, America, and England on vacation during school holiday with one exception, Corey from Shanghai who does office work in the financial department of a big company. All the western girls gathered up and complained about the spitting and did life imitational sounds of it. We were a loud bunch. It was fun to room with them. They shared their horrifying experiences as western females socializing in China. Locals learned the worst misinterpretation from films they’ve seen. It is their understanding that western girls are all loose, and readily available at all times.
One of the girls 19, blond from Oz said she went with another western teacher to a night out with other local staff from the school. They were new and didn’t know their way around. Their guide and fellow worker got drunk and passed out. They were approached by everyone else and they didn’t feel safe, they wanted to run. But they didn’t know how to get back to where they lived, they didn’t have their own address written down etc…They didn’t tell me how they got out of the situation but they left unharmed somehow. Having learned this lesson, they were a lot more careful and had their addresses written down.
Corey, a.k.a Wang Ying and I decided to pair up for the rest of our stay here in Xi’an. She showed me all her research of places she would like to visit, details were planned down to which food to eat. It was great to pair up with her because she spoke Mandarin and also English fluently. We both loved the show Friends. I really enjoy making friends and look forward to our time together.
