Guo Bin Garden Hotel Yichang

The smoke wafting through the waiting room burns my lungs as the men puff away. Bodies and bags are strewn about; the lucky few have seats, but the rest of us just flop wherever there's floor space. The place feels lethargic and tired, but when the intercom crackles on, before a word is even spoken, the crowd spring to their feet and rush to the gate, luggage and children in tow. It's a false alarm. A collective groan translates the ...

... noises in the rooms below ours so we didn't get much sleep.

Luckily on the day train we'd still had sleepers so we were able to nap to pass the time. My bunk was a lower one this time and I was in a compartment with a Chinese family (father, mother and their daughter who seemed to be in her mid-twenties or so). They spent most of the trip sitting on their lower bunk and watching me, which made me feel a bit self ...

... was cool. I really want to go to High school and get ready for my prom now!! Looking forward to season 2.

We've both lost loads of weight already with all the walking. i have sucessfully dropped a clothes size and now back to a size 6 :( Lots of my clothes don't fit anymore! Will need to alter/re buy when we hit Thailand/Vietnam.

Weather is so hot here - we're both black already.

Snicko - So proud of you ...

... at like 4 and was considerate enough to let me get my beauty sleep. She really is so sweet.) We get ready, eat some breakfast, and put our bags outside our room to be picked up and loaded into the bus. The tour guide, Rene, told us that Beijing was the best place to get the cheap shopping done, so mom was eager to finish up her needs. We were told to go the Hong Chao Market (Pearl Martket) because it was much closer to our hotel than the Silk Market ...

... and then back to the hotel without being arrested. It didn't help that we were at the centre of attraction all the way (there and) back. The centre parts of China have still not seen many westerners and we are still quite a novelty. One of the girls in the group is fairly tall and has long blonde hair and she really causes a stir. We prepared for tomorrow and then went out for another banquet. This was tasty and didn't seem spicy but my digestive system rumbled all night.

... aeroplane and handed our 'in-flight' meal while the aeroplane doors were still open! - A bun and 6 cherry tomatoes...!? On our arrival at Yichang it was raining and according to the local newspaper there were severe flooding with boats capsizing and people drowning! Reassuring then... Collected by private car at the airport we were then transferred onto a large coach and reunited with the Seattle family. At about 10pm, in the middle of absolutely nowhere, our ...

... we couldn't get hold of the boat company on the mobile to say we'd be late and to make matters worse there was only one other taxi left as the others had all gone! To cut a long story short, we agreed on 50 yuan (by threatening to go with the other guy) - we knew it was still a high price but we were between a rock and a hard place. We were a little concerned when we were driven through dark, deserted, winding country roads away from town; it ...

... day we passed through the first gorge. Simon barely dragged himself out of bed to see it. It was quite impressive, but somewhat difficult to appeciate due to the shoulder to shoulder crowds on deck, the incessent high pitched babble through the guide's magaphone and our drooping eyelids. Still, it was quite a sight. At lunch time we docked near a town called Wushan and from this point on things improved dramatically. We switched ...

... thought us how to play Mahjong, a traditional game that resembles my version of gin rummy. We celebrated our leader Vivian's birthday with lots of cake, kareoke and dancing to 2Unlimited...... On the 2nd day, we disembarked and took a smaller boat through the 3 gorges. As it was very early morning, the special mist was not as bad. We saw ancient hanging coffins and Alan befriended a 79 year old chinese man who spoke and wrote english well - he gave ...

... morning. yichang is the town closest to the three gorges dam, and i was tempted to go and visit the dam itself but i decided that i need to get going on my way to tibet if i want to have any amount of time there. there are lots of cruises between chongqing and yichang through the three gorges, but most of them run 3-4 days and i don't think i need that much gorge time. the hydrofoils are quick (11 hours from yichang to chongqing) but not at all tourist oriented. my ...