from bad to worse to pure ridiculous

The journey (well the 24hours in question) start in Xi'an train station. Being foreign and illiterate I thought it wise to get to the station in plenty of time. The flip side of this being that I had to wait in the stinking waiting hall being gawped at and having my photo taken on mobile phone cameras for which there was absolutely no need.

Then the train starts to board and everyone surges for the gate in what can only be described as a cross between a rugby scrum and the queue for the Harrods sale. I made it onto the train with a little assistance only to discover that it wasn't a train passing through Xi'an, Xi'an was the first stop meaning there was at least 1/2 an hour for boarding and the majority of people had beds booked so quite what the scrum was in aid of I have no idea.

After about 4 hours sleep we rocked up in Lanzhou and I set about reclaiming the velo. The woman in the office tried to send me away until 10am (3 hours hence). I figured if I just sat there they'd get sick of staring at me and relent - it can't possibly take 3 hours to locate a bicycle.

Half an hour later and we were on the road, the only thing was I had no idea if it was the right road as the map the hostel had on the internet was shockingly bad and the map in my book not much better. Luckily I had the address written down and the locals seemed to know the road. When I got to the hostel I walked in to this ridiculous greenhouse atrium thing. It had rooms all off it and was full of plastic flowers and rocks, it even had a little river running through it and a miniature bridge despite the fact that you could step over it in a normal sized step. All these were simply obstacles to the velo...

After much form filling and chat in crap Chinese I had a bed. I decided not to nap, but to venture into town to see if I could book a tour to the Bingling Si caves.

Feeling a little peckish I stopped for some food, which chipped a tooth.

Decided on a taxi as I was not in a good mood at all. The first one couldn't understand me. The second one broke down. I ended up walking most of the way (should have taken the bike, but small issue of a map...).

Bingling Si cave tours weren't running (this was one of the 2 reasons I was in Lanzhou).

Noone could give me a map of Lanzhou - they suggested I go to the bookshop and buy one...not so helpful when you don't know where the bookshop is.

Spent an hour looking for the internet to find out what one does about a broken tooth.

Got another taxi to what is purportedly one of the best museums in China (the second reason for my stop in Lanzhou). It was closed for renovation.

Went back to the hostel. Things started to look up. I met an Israeli couple who had had a similarly frustrating day. Went to the dentist (turned out there was one right next to the hostel) and have had what I hope is a temporary fix.

From here on things just became more and more ridiculous. While the Israeli guy was at the bank some man in the "hostel" bar (see photo above) tried to buy us for 100 yen...which obviuosly just sent me into hysterics. We finally managed to get rid of him and then the Israeli guy was forced to drink shots of beer with the big potato (read big cheese) of the "hostel" (they weren't interested in drinking shots with the ladies thankfully, possibly due to our earlier rebuff...).

This is an abridged version and probably doesn't make that much sense. Suffice it to say it was a memorable day and I was pleased to be back on the road this morning.