Hey Hey and a Big 'Little Goose Pagoda' to you all

Yes, today was Little Goose Pagoda day (Xiayoan Ta) and what ever else we could fit in.

Headed to our 'usual' eatery for breakfast and we then caught Bus No: 610 out the south gate and got off on Youyi Xilu near the Pagoda. At first we tried to enter through a car driving school which didn't work out so we headed back around the corner to the ticket booth and paid the thirty Yuan entry fee.

The entry fee was actually twenty Yuan but if you want to climb the pagoda you have to pay an extra ten Yuan. I of course wanted to climb and forked out the extra. Poor Judy, I was walking her into the ground so she decided against the stairs. The pagoda with around 43 meters high and when you get to the top you are rewarded with some great views of Xian. I visited this pagoda for the first time six years ago but never actually climbed it to save money.

Ten freaking Yuan, you'd think I would have more sense.
I bet I would have paid for a ten Yuan beer though!

I stayed on top for about ten minutes, mainly because four beautiful Chinese girls arrived and wanted photos taken with me. Why of course my dear! We then spent the next hour or so walking around the grounds of Jianfu Si. Just beautiful. The strange little concrete pole things were great too.

Next stop was to be the Big Goose Pagoda.

On the way there was another Train Ticket Reservation window, this time at CITS. CITS is on the right hand side of Chang'an Lu (the main road that goes out of the south gate) on your way to the Museum or the Big Goose Pagoda. On the other side is CTS (not CITS). CTS CAN NOT book your train ticket, they only do plane bookings.

When I finally reached the counter I found out that there was only Soft Sleeper available which is usually more expensive than good old Hard Sleeper. I hummed and harred and decided to check the airfare one more time. So we crossed to CTS where Judy booked her airfare to Shanghai. My airfare was double the train fare so I thought bugger it, why pay so much and have it over in an hour when I can pay half the amount and get two nights worth out of it!

Hey, it's a great way to think about it!

So it was back to the CITS ticket counter to wait in line again! When the lady saw me she printed the ticket and I handed over my six hundred Yuan. From there we continued up Chang'an Lu and turned left into Xiaozhai Donglu and made our way to the Shaanxi History Museum. I was also here six years ago with little Ha Ha whom is now nearly eighteen years old and will be in his last year of High School next year. What a trip!

The Good Book doesn't tell a lie about this one. It really is the greatest museum I've ever been to. We spent many hours walking from floor to floor, section to section. It was just amazing and I'd recommend everyone spend at least an afternoon there. From the museum we headed up towards the city square and the big goose pagoda. We passed a Kodak shop and decided it was time for a memory Card burn so we spent the next hour or so having our Happy Snaps put on to disk.

AS usual, ALWAYS I got two copies done, NOT one.

HINT: Please, for everyone who reads this, when you get your happy snaps burnt get two copies made. I've meet two many travelers who have some how lost, scratched or broken a disk when packing or what ever. Keep one in your big pack and one in your day pack! Once they are deleted from your memory card they are GONE forever!

We then headed up to the square and around to the ticket office for the Big Goose Pagoda. Too late. The gates close at 6:30pm and it was nearing 7pm. Now that was a real bugger for us! We ended up walking around the square taking photos for awhile and then walked back down to Chang'an Lu.

In Xi'an most of the buses stop around 7:30pm and the new bus numbers come into action. So we had to catch bus No: 32 back into Xi'an. We got off just inside the walls and slowly made our way home. Xi'an is awesome at night time. All the neon's and flashy this N that's going off and on. I hope to visit Xi'an several times in the near future. I really want to catch up with Ha Ha and family.

It's been six years man, how cool will it be to catch up with them!

Beers N Noodles to ya...shane