TravellingFlossy

Well we all got to bed at a reasonable hour last night after making friends with two Chinese guys who actually told us a lot about China, the one child policy and other bits of political information that were really interesting to know, and their English was excellent meaning the conversation was not strained (as it tends to be here with the Chinese!). We were all in bed by 9pm (there is very little fun to be had on a train) and after taking a travelsickness tablet I was out like a light and did not wake up until around 8am which was a huge result for me as I have not been sleeping well on these trains at all. We had breakfast on the train consisting of the fruit we had with us and then ... read more

Our last morning on the boat and it was actually a little bit of a lay in for once, with us not having to be up and to breakfast until 7am. The boat had cleared all of the locks over night and when we looked out of the windows we were actually someway down stream and we could no longer see the dam from the boat. After a quick breakfast we were off the boat by 7.30am and we were driven to see the dam from land. Unfortunately, considering how wonderful the weather has been on the Yangtze, today it was back to the typical Chinese smog and haze, and we could only see part of the dam from the two vantage points we were taken too. Nevertheless the dam was pretty impressive and it ... read more

Liz and I set our alarm for 5am so as we could be up for sunrise on the boat. When the alarm sounded we peaked out of the window to see nothing but darkness. We fell back to sleep and the next thing we knew it was the 6am wake up call for breakfast and we had missed sunrise. We quickly got ready for the day and headed to the dining room where to our surprise a table had been reserved for us and our table had bacon, eggs, omlettes and toast laid out for us instead of the traditional Chinese fare. We were overjoyed with this and it was great to eat some bacon and eggs! As soon as breakfast was finished (they only serve food in half hour slots, so if you miss it ... read more

Today is the day we leave Xi'an and unfortunately I was up unwell in the night, no idea what it was, but I feel sick and the feeling won't leave me. Other than that we all spent the morning packing up and headed to building 6 around 11.30am for our departure orientation. This was to check that things had gone okay in Xi'an and to prepare us with our tickets and stuff for the next leg of our journey. We are very excited to be spliting off from the group and heading to the Yangtze, group touring hasn't sat massively well with me and I am looking forward to not having an official tour guide and having less people around me. The others headed off the South China around 4pm, and they were heading on a ... read more

Another early start and we were straight into things again at the orphanage. I began my day in the yellow room with the sick babies, and I was stunned to learn more about them. Some of them were really sick, there were some with heart conditions and some that had been completely abandoned in the hospital at birth. One of them was seven months old and she looked like she was about two months old, she was a skinny little thing and she couldn't sit up properly or do anything. She had the most gorgeous smile and she was so adorable but I felt desperately sorry for her. After feeding time was over in the baby room I moved between the red and blue rooms and played with the older kids. This continued up until lunchtime ... read more