V and I woke up feeling exhausted this morning – no idea why. After updating more of our galleries (the Saint Petersburg section is sorted and tagged now) we took a stroll to find some pastries we had seen the other day and have a look at the Muslim quater. That idea didn’t last long. Although quaint, the streets are lined with vendors selling more of the same, it was nothing special and the ever-present wiff of sewage was more than we felt like dealing with.

We’ll spend the rest of the afternoon on the couch at the hostel waiting for our train this evening (not looking forward to it). It’s very muggy and hot today, but the good news is that Chengdu is 5 degrees cooler (31 ish) albeit with rain forecast.

Yesterday was a ball but we did get a fair bit of sun. We walked down to the South Gate of the city wall and rented a bike to cycle around it. First time either of us had tried a tandem. Great fun but V was not feeling too confident 🙂 The rental was for 100mins and the wall is ~14km so you need a reasonably constant pace if you want to stop and take in the views occasionally. At the halfway mark V let me take the front seat – big mistake. For someone who eats black run for breakfast she doesn’t half panic when I take my hands off the bars 🙂 I got into quite a bit of trouble, but no accidents (thankfully) and it was fun to monkey about on top of Xi’an’s historic city wall.

It wasn’t long before we started discussing the energy efficiency of a tandem vs two single bikes and the physics involved. Wish we knew more but we reckon it’s definately more efficient on a tandem (as long as you don’t crash) if you look at reduced mass, wind resitance, friction etc). That being said I suspect next time it will be two single bikes.

After that roasting in the sun we headed along some of the old streets full of art and art supplies and into the Forest of Steles Museum. A collection of more than 3000 inscribed stone tablets and sculptures of varying sizes. After an hour we lost interest and took the long walk back to the hostel.

Found the hostels table tennis table at the rooftop courtyard. I have to admit, V is much better with a ping pong paddle than a boat paddle 🙂 and I don’t play too well after one beer!

[Pictures: V on our tandem – back seat driver, me at the stone forest – had enough, cute kitties at the rooftop courtyard (for Jacks)]

– Posted from my iPhone via Wifi