We spent our last night in Xi’an having a few Belgian beers with a couple of Irish lads we met on the Terracotta Warriors tour. David is a dairy farmer on his way back to Ireland after 6 months on a farm in Oz. Noel works for an unnamed US defence contractor. Starved of techie-talk, I unwisely engaged him in conversation about the IT issues of the day only to be thoroughly out-geeked. After showing me his personally customised Android 4.0 build he cheerfully explained how to circumvent the Great Firewall by masking your packets as Skype traffic. I tried gamely to keep up, but I was a bit out my depth.
Last thoughts on Xi’an? Well, despite reports to the contrary, there’s more to the city than just the Terracotta Warriors. I thoroughly enjoyed pootling around the Muslim quarter and after 4 days there, found the place to have a really pleasant vibe. The people are friendly, the food was good and the beer was excellent (damn you Westmalle Tripel).
Soft sleeper, then Shanghai!
No comments:
Post a Comment