Sickness and travels

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The last few days have been eventful. The Yangtze river cruise was really nice and relaxed. The scenery was amazing. We did a morning trip off the main boat up one of the tributeries (the Shenlong Stream). We got on the small boat at 7.30am and it was packed with a mass of people and so no seats. We therefore had to get stolls and sit on deck. This was fine, until we started moving and realised it was FREEZING cold. The wind made it feel very cold and I had sandles on (as we'd been told it would be 25 degrees - and my feet are still a little sunburnt).

We were taken to a smaller wooden boat, which the group all jumped in and promptly handed life jackets (which wouldn't really have worked but hey, the thought was there). On this boat we had a bunch of guys who then pulled the boat up the river. The water was freezing cold and it must of been hard work. In days gone by this was done by the boat catchers in the nude as everything else would have rubbed in the water. So thankfully we were spared that delight. After about an hour of this we were then taken along to watch a delightful show 😉 which involved lots of screeching and a fake marriage ceremoney, but hey the Chineese seemed to love it even though we didn't understand a word of it.

The afternoon after the boat trip was spent chilling and watching the amazing spendour of the Yangtze river. It is a stunning place, with lots of towns along it. There are many relocation towns which look like concrete monstrosities, but they liked it. We also were then taught Marjong by Jackie (much to the amusement of some Chinese onlookers). Marjong is a complicated version of dominos and cards mixed together, which involved matching pictures and numbers. In the evening I then recipricated the teaching and got everyone involved in a game of Uno, which was then taught to another strange Chinese man who spoke little English, but wanted to marry a British girl (in his dreams!).

After the boat cruise it was on to Chongqing. This is like Hong Kong with all the lights, but lots of smog and less developed. It is however a city of over 10 million people, so lots going on. It was then an early start to get a train. This time we had hard seats, which are not hard, but could become so if you sat on them too long. It was a 6 hour train ride to Chengdu. This was interesting to see how the locals travel and again we got out the Uno to pass the time.

Chengdu is a great city. On arrival I was very excited as the next day we were going to see the Giant Panda's in the reserve. However, the stomach was ruling and we went in hunt of food. A few of the group wanted some western food, so we walked for 50 mins (didn't look so far on the map!) to an Irish restaurant, which was closed on arrival, so we went to another place called Carol Too's which I then had a Chinese burger in. The food, was probably some of the worst I have eaten and it took 2 hours for the food to come out. But it didn't all come out at the same time, it was as if they cooked one dish and then cleaned up and cooked another and just worked down the order list. Very odd. By this time it was quite late and after getting lost on the way back to the hotel to meet for dinner, I wasn't really hungry (and nor was anyone else). So a little retail therapy was in order before bed.

However, that evening I had a little accident. I fainted in the bathroom and thought I had broken my nose (but its just very swollen), and have cut my gums on the floor. I lost quite a bit of blood on the floor. This was not good, and mean't that I was unable to go to the panda's. I was VERY upset as I was really looking forward to it, so the whole group took loads of photo's with my camera, but its not the same. Late in the afternoon I went to the People's Park, which was packed with people doing dancing, drinking tea and wandering around. It was soooo busy though, so I gave up and went back to the hotel.

In the evening it was time to go to the Sichuan Opera. This is not like a normal opera, its like lots of variety performances. It was really good, we had music, dancing, acrobatics, and scetches. Very good to watch and much better than the odd light show I had watched.

It was then off to see Leshan (the Big Budda) and to Emei Shan (the holy mountain).

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