今天咱们下午要回去北京了。
We catch an MRT to visit the highly acclaimed AAAA rated
陕西历史博物馆 and the AAAA rated 大雁塔.
Our flight is to depart Xi'an at 5pm so we have quite a bit of time.
So we think.
来到博物馆才知道今天是星期一闭馆了！ 妈妈呀！
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| 大慈恩大雁塔广场 |
R is hiding behind the tree having his "fix"
In the 广场 area ..... Something we see often in China - the older folks know how to make use of their time. They congregate as interest groups to enjoy their favorite pastime. Be it singing, dancing, or performing Chinese opera in this case.
These smoking folks could be good mates of Raymond ....
He is belting out ...... she is belting out
At the 大慈恩大雁塔 fore court, after paying exorbitant entrance fees. 妈的。Little did we know that to gain access to the pagoda we needed to pay another fee. 妈妈的。
There are 2 enclosures in the fore court. One houses a 钟，one houses a 鼓; this makes sense to me.
Such amazing architecture and works of worship
Devotees going about their businesses. The 大慈恩大雁塔 is indeed a great work commissioned hundreds of years ago and it reflects the history and culture of Buddhism in the city of the old Xi'an called Chang An (长安）or Always Peaceful. It is unfortunate that we do not want t pay more money to go up to the Pagoda in protest; because there are some amazing invaluable relics of Buddhism on display.
Onward we move to a nearby lunch spot. Something middle of the road from
what I observe on the menu and what appear on our dining table; to keep
everybody happy - palette wise. Raymond is very good at doing the
ordering since he has lived in China for many years. I trust his
judgement and choices 100%.
After lunch we pack.We make our way to the airport for our flight back to Beijing.
Earlier, R has an argument with the cab driver when we return to DaysInn from 大慈恩大雁. The cabbie takes us one big round instead of taking a direct route. R is infuriated and gets into a heated argument with the cabbie. He loses his cool but he is right about us having been taken for a ride.
Turns out our limo driver 苏明囍 (his name is a strange double 喜) is a 佛教伩徒 devout Buddhist and he has his views on life and living and so it is an interesting ride to the airport in his limo listening to him explain some philosophy (for 1 hour) .... but then I am tired out physically and fall asleep in the limo. By the time I awake we are nearing the Xi'an airport for our China Eastern flight.
We are all smiles because we have familiar food to eat at Dunkin' Donuts & we are heading back to Beijing where more good food await us .....
我们搭的东方航空班机 MU2115晚点到 1810小时出发，结果又再晚点； 妈妈呀！The stupid aeroplane driver shuts the door and keeps the plane connected to the aerobridge without turning on the air cond. This is in summer, "bludder". After 30-40 minutes I "beh tahan" anymore and go to the rear of the plane and 3 poor cabin crew are there fanning themselves and looking down on the floor.
“为什么APU没开呢？” I ask one of the crew. After giving me some excuse she says "对不起，APU 环了”. I am thinking to myself at this point that even if the APU is unserviceable the plane driver can still start the No. 2 engine and give us air cond. It is obvious the driver is saving fuel in compliance with his airline policy. 妈呀！
In the end I duck inside the rear toilet and breathe air from the "eyeball" inside the toilet or else I would go "pingsan" as I have oxygen deficiency issue in confined spaces. But I don't blame the poor cabin crew. There are already many irate passengers yelling 妈妈 to the poor girls 。。。。。
At last we are good to go and are cleared for take off. That, the plane driver does a good job of that.
And the plane driver lands our bird in text book accuracy, in the dark. He is obviously very current in his night landing or else he is trying to impress us. By the time we get back to Raymond's apartment it's already 9.35pm.
R and I are talking on his balcony sipping beer and then it dawns on me to check my wallet ..... Something is telling me I don't know where it it exactly. ALAMAK it is missing from my backpack and my trousers. Instantly my mind goes back to tracing its whereabouts. To cut a long story short, I must have left it in the taxi we came back in from the airport ..... Sharks!
R helps me to ring the cab company with the cab # BK1138 and cab company details on the 发票. No joy. I decide to ring the bank and cancel the credit card I had in the wallet at 12 mid night.
It is not good but not the end of the world. I compose myself and we retire to rest. "Tomorrow is another day and things will look up". I remind myself. "And the good comes with the bad in life".....
(Truth is I was being careless. SM says I have been very forgetful and she's right. Oh well.)
(Truth is I was being careless. SM says I have been very forgetful and she's right. Oh well.)
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