Darfo and the Three Gorges

Trip Start Aug 18, 2008
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Trip End Aug 16, 2009


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Flag of China  , Sichuan,
Saturday, January 3, 2009

Chengdu, We jumped off the train here as we wanted to visited a giant Buddha called Dafo in a nearby town that we had been told about, Again after some messing about we finally got the bus we wanted and a few hours later we were drop of amongst a thriving crowed of taxi drivers .   Dafo is a 75 m high Buddha cut out of rock over looking a river and dates back to the seventh century. He´s not doing to bad for his age too. We had a great day wondering the town and looking up to dafo´s massif size. We even climb up to his head to look in his seven meter ears ( just a bit bigger than mine ).  

We finally manage to extend our visa too ( though they only gave me 10 days while Maja got thirty) after the fifth attempt, so a good day all round .  

Whilst staying in Chengdu we booked a 3 day cruise down the Yangtze river through the three gorges for new year. We had heard mixed reviews about it so was not sure what to expect. As it turn out despite a long buss journey (obviously they didn't tell us about that! ) it was excellent. the boat was like an old worn out huckleberry fin river boat and we had to change room due to too many coach roaches, but the scenery was fantastic  it reminded me a lot of Scotland or the fiord's in Norway.   We met up with some Germans and had some good banter over new year.On the last day we ended up at the Yangtze dam. Its the biggest in the world and the most ugliest. But the Chinese are very proud of it so we said what a great engineering project.
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