Today we awoke early as we were uncertain what time we had to meet our tour group. After some basic detective work our departure time was 10 o'clock. I also found out that the jelly like cubes I consumed last night were rice noodles moulded into cubes, which did make me slightly relieved. We headed to Xi'an train station and again had to face the massive crowds queuing up for their trains. We boarded onto the train and after some negotiations managed to sit together.

As time passed some young Chinese girls seemed to be loitering around us and one eventually approached and spoke to us in English ( later found out she was studying a major in English). She was asking for a photo of Laura initially and was saying how beautiful she was. After that Laura said to me she wanted a picture with myself and was blushing and giggling. Apparently she called me sooooo handsome and although awkward I obliged. I did get more awkward as the girl pulled me close and linked arms with me. I do hate being in these situations but naturally Laura and Blair found it hilarious. Laura then asked the girl to sit next to me to practice her English which in return I gave my disapproving eyes. So the next hour or so was again pretty awkward but I got through it. After that episode it was blatant that Glen was not feeling too good and shivering which instantly made you think of fever. Laura got straight into nurse mode and dosed him up with ibuprofen and paracetamol.... Which helped heaps! I thought to pass time and keep his mind occupied we would unleash the card games. The next two hours consisted of rummy and crazy eights which even lead to forfeit shots of rice wine (46% strong) for the unfortunate loser. The spirit was actually nice and minded me of tequila and gave you a warm feeling inside, although Laura and Blair didn't share that sentiment.

Eventually after feeling like an age, the train pulled into Luoyang which would act as our stopover before the Shaolin Temple. By this point we were famished and Tommy took us to a near by restaurant. We firstly had spicy lamb accompanied with a Chinese bun and seasoned mange-tout. This was followed by fried grass fish (freshly killed in the restaurant) in a divine spicy broth which made me sweat profusely and nice wilted cabbage in soy. After the meal and the bill was settled we headed back to the hotel. We made use of the scarce wifi connection and managed to contact my parents for a chinwag. This followed swiftly by tucking into bed after a hot shower and curling up into the warm duvet.