KALA BHAIRAVA: Xi'An in one day

One day is a bit less but one can squeeze all the tourist spots.
8:15 AM. Reached Terracotta museum. It was already crowded.
Bought tickets and hired a guide for 200RMB. The musuem is quite over rated.
All it has is pits of warriors. Although it is an amazing scene and museum structure is huge, the only artefacts are
the soldiers and two chariots. Once you take the pictures in the dome with warriors, there is nothing else to do.
The pits are off limits as they should be. We completed the tour in 1.5 hours.
DO NOT BUY anything in the museum store. They are marked up by 300%.
I bought a warriro for 300. At the airport i saw the same one for 99.
DO NOT go for the signature of the farmer. Its a classic tourist trap.
I was disappointed that our guide took us there and since I read about it, I told her she was wasting our time.
All in all it took about 2 hours, which is plenty.

The complex is huge.

This is all there is to it. Once you have seen this you are pretty much done

11 AM : We reached Huaqing Palace - Hotsprings. Spent about an hour at this place.
I would not go in as there is nothing very interesting on the inside. It was nice and pleasant outside the palace.

Outside the palace

Outside its quite nice. Inside nothing special

It is a nice garden with some pools. It was waste of 110 RMB per person. Its worth 20 RMB.

12:30: We stopped at the wholesale place that makes "terracotta warriors". It was shopping stop.
Here stuff is cheaper and you can bargain 50% for anything and they will be glad to sell.

Near whole sale shop. Bargain at least 50%.

2:00PM: Xi'An Banpo Museum: 65RMB Its worthless to visit especially with just one day. Blame the driver for wasting our time by taking here.
3:30PM: Xi'An city wall 45RMB. This is the place to be. Lot of people around and some street food available.
It had a marathon the day before I went, hence it was nicely decorated.
Rented a bicycle and went around the wall for an hour in a relaxed manner. Did not want to bike all the way as was too tired hiking Mt.Hua the day before. The wall is 14.1 kms and one can complete the circle in 1.5 to 2 hours.
We could see different parts of the city. Weather co-operated with us.

Xi'An city wall. Nice place to kill a lot of time

Backdrop one can see traditional roofs

Rent a bike on east side of the wall as there are more watch towers on east

City wall, lot of people on Sunday evening.

530 PM: Muslim quarters. It is a street full of street side vendors. Reminded me of "Sultan bazaar" in Hyderabad.
Plenty of food including dry fruits, juices, Sheek kebabs, hot and spicy noodles and sweets. Stuff here was cheap and to our surprise fixed pricing. End of lane is Drum Tower and to left side is Bell Tower. Couple of blocks from here is Big Pagoda. Had noodles and sugarcane juice and bought some sweets.

Start of Muslim street

Had to take the picture. Don't know what they are

Lot of good food. After biking on wall it was really good to be here

The Drum Tower

Snapped as it was beautiful

Drum tower in background

Super hot spicy noodles.

Had sugar cane juice

Spent about 3 hours before leaving to airport.
Reached airport hotel at 830 PM to fly out early.
I hired a driver to be with me for entire day and take us to places. He can communicate very well in English and very knowledgeable.
I am sharing his contact as I had trouble finding a good English speaking driver.