history is a thing i know of as a course in high school, a chore of memorization and a topic of AP exams. despite my parents' attempts to show me the world all these years, i've admittedly turned a bit of a cold shoulder to history. living in metropolitan, better-if-built-within-last-10-years cultures has made that easy - but peeled back behind these questionably built high rises and expansive shopping malls lies history hard to ignore. thanks to my mother's background at the penn museum of archaeology and anthropology and my dad's fascination with all things written in text, i was motivated to take the trip to xi'an, ultimate attraction for historian buff and tourist alike. the start of the silk road and the home to the world renowned terra cotta warriors were two main reasons for our short trip, but the well-made, interactive museums/dig sites, knowledgable tour guide and cheap pomegranate turned a check off the bucket list into this very cool, historic trip.
while the food was not the focus of this trip (hard to believe), we had some really fun adventures. hao joined us and took some great photos since i'm lazy and my parents probably won't post the pics for a few months. (jk love you guys!)
let's get the staples out of the way:
1. terracotta warriors: impressive on-site housing/dig site of the warriors near qin shi wang emperor's tomb
apparently the story is that the emperor was asked when he was about 12 what he wanted his tomb to look like. "why yes mommy, i would like 12,000 different warriors, a few horses, some cool swords and...a dinosaur" boom. what up.
this fine fellow is now sitting in my parent's living room. i mean, the replica, of course.
2. goose pagoda
3. the city wall. aka a chance for my parents to show me and hao up on their tandem biking skillz. dang. this also resulted in several days of sore bums...
and a much needed popsicle break afterward
4. the muslim street - many muslim influences, including lots of naan type deliciousness and abundance of goat!
the cool, dry, sunny days allowed for optimal picture posing at all times. even while casually waiting for the driver under this chic parasol.
5. the silk road. many of you might recall my mom's obsession with silk rugs. several years ago, my parents came close to buying one in china and could not haggle it to a satisfactory price. this trip seemed like the serendipitous timing to revisit the obsession - how much cooler is it to get a silk rug but at the very place it all started once upon a time. well here's the master piece laying in my living room in good ol' jersey. beauty!
6. obviously hao and i couldn't get away without trying some local fare, so we coerced our tour guide to take us to a more 'local' joint before heading the airport.
hand drawn and cut noodles
7. wouldn't be a deshmukh vacation without a little dinner show. so off we went to a dumplings+dancing soiree at the grand theatre of xi'an. luckily the beer and wine were free flow because we needed to fill our bellies with some sort of antibacterial agent after the abundance of meh jiaozi. unlike the food, the show was a superb line up of traditional costumes, dancing and beauty - well choreographed and performed.
8. when it all comes down to it though, it really is all about the bathroom experiences. as you might have noticed either from spending 20 minutes with me and any one of my family members and/or reading previous posts regarding my travels, we are slightly obsessed with bathroom experiences. i call it 'bathroom experiences' because that really is the broadest and all-encompassing way of describing said obsession. needless to say, we had some great memories in this section, two of which are captured quite nicely in below photos. as for the others, well, we have a saying, "what happens on deshmukh vacation, stays on deshmukh vacation." thank goodness for all of us.
other highlights included super cheap pomegranate (like 50 cents each), sweet sweet sweet persimmons that just grow in abundance street side, huge rooms in the sofitel, amazing weather, a very very helpful, nice and knowledgable tour guide (hit me up if you need her info!) and on time flights (say what spring air!). all-in-all a fabulous little get-away. followed up by massive shopping and eating in shanghai. photos to come from my parents.
here's a short list of the good places in shanghai to take the rents:
1. massages
2. grandma's kitchen (waipo jia) - 818 nanjing xi lu
3. din tai fung (duh)
4. hai di lao (the baofang is totally worth it for extra 120 kuai)
5. shouzhua bing - i mean what's not to like but i find all my friends from the states love this
6. lynn's - weekend dim sum deal 88 rmb all you can eat
7. massages
8. taobao market
9. somewhere on the bund (mr. and mrs. for weekday lunch, m on the bund for brunch outside)
10. di shui dong - spicy fish is delish
11. yang's soup dumplings
12. local wet markets
13. if my dad has any influence on other tourists with his feedback: don't take the hop on/hop off bus!
i might have coerced sophia to order the duck confit salad - mixed greens, onions, caramel pecans, apples, etc etc etc with a beet sherry vinagrette. but i think eventually she was into it :)
finally after complimentary pours of our glass o vino, our miso black cod arrived. it tasted much different than it looked...rich, miso-y and buttery. unfortunately we wanted to die from how much we already devoured so this was a tough swallow...literally. but so delicious if i had that empty stomach. any day now...
