Marriott Chongqing

Elise recovered while on the boat. She was back to herself by the end. We were quite relieved. That bit of R&R was what she needed. However, Henry either got what she had or caught a different bug, because he ended up having diarrhea the entire time we were on the boat. (Too much information probably.) But that is what happens on trips overseas. Everyone else was fine.

We celebrated Charlie's birthday a day early ...

... there.

Kehua is a thirty year-old qualified doctor, now working for a pharmaceutical firm, and recently returned to her hometown after spells in several other Chinese cities. Luckily for me, she is also a Couchsurfing member and so I was able to contact her and arrange for us to meet up. After showing me the old part of the city down by the river, we wandered through the central district, where she pointed out the fairly small ...

... br>universal laws. We earnestly need laws to run this world in a proper
way, in which it is possible to harmoniously get along with
surroundings. Once we grasp something behind rules and disciplines, we
will abide it automatically. But, the real question is how many have
ever spared a thought for method in discipline. Unfortunately, most of
time, we blindly hew to regulations, especially some ones without rhyme
or reasons.

When we got back we immediately needed to transfer to Chongqing which
involved getting into very old little 6 person vans with kamikaze
drivers beeping frantically and playing games of chicken with the
traffic coming the other way. You know how I said their way of driving
isn’t so bad, well I was wrong, and I can’t get used to how impatient
everyone is here they can’t wait 5 seconds for anything or anyone
regardless of ...

... her
inexhaustible hilarious moment during dreadful studying time. She was
absolutely not a hard-working geek; instead, a young heart beat faster
than she thought, longing for releasing the energy. However, she was
unfortunately locked up with a mountain of assignment which was
inevitably imposed on me. Nowara Shnnosuke was her only companion; they
were so best friend and it seemed that nothing could ever separate
them. Every epoch has to meet its end ...

... listening to the neighbouring Chinese conversation, the birds, the frequent sound of some sort of liquid being thrown overboard, smelling the stink that is our room, I am glad we came here. It has been an education, and when I concentrate on ignoring the bad, I feel quite content to glide along looking at the spectacular scenery. The building of the Three Gorges Dam has been likened to the building of the Great Wall. This Dam however has so many implications. I ...

... for the first bit, then and even smaller (and unsafe) wooden boat with what looked like a 60's lawn mower engine strapped precariously to the back. I traveled up the Small Three Gorges (or they like to say in Chinglish, the Lesser Three Gorges) which felt higher then the other gorges as the river was so much narrower. Most people travel in the other direction, where you can normally arrange some sort of English/ tourist guide boat but not many people go this ...

... our lack of chinese meant we spent alot of time trying to find out how to get a bus to some hills out of the city and never actually getting there, although we did see a really nice temple and traditional chinese pagodas. From kunming we headed west to a lovely place called dali, the whole town had traditional old chionese buildings surrounded by snow capped mountains. We got a cable car up one of the mountains which gave amazing views of the town and valley below. This is the ...

... an hour and the weather was fine again. At about 10pm we stopped at a little village that had a temple so we decided to get off and have a look around the stalls. I bought some new potatoes off a lady which were very nice - the chickens feet didn't appeal to me. haha. We met a couple from Australia and some guys from London and Poland who we chatted to on the deck that night.

... s police ought to be commended for maintaining an impressively low national crime rate. Let th**e be no mistake: Xinhua News Agency has reported that th**e w**e twice as many reported criminal cases in 2005 than in 1990, and six times that of 1980. But compared to hyp**-violent icons of the wild West such as Los Angeles and New York, it is no wond** that China is witnessing an increasing numb** of foreign**s residing in its gleaming municipalities. China ...