I was looking forward to this part of the trip but many weren't. We'd be travelling non stop for about 4 days and wouldn't see a hotel till then. Our accommodation would be boats and trains but I really wanted to get out into the country as we'd been in the cities up till now. Because of all the travelling I didn't even have a clue what day it was most of the time so I can't guarantee that my days are going to be in order I'm afraid!

Day 1

We'd be on the train from Xi'an for what felt like days and eventually got off in Yichang. Yichang wasn't pretty at all! The only thing to do there was go to The Three Gorges Dam. Someone I'd met along the way told me not to bother going and that it was a waste of money - but it claims to be the biggest dam in the world so we couldn't not go!

We went - we saw - and yes it was a big concrete dam. Not even any attempt to look nice like the Hoover Dam, it was just a big eyesore. Haha it was so funny eveyone was quite disappointed (apart from the boys who loved it because it was a massive structure made out of concrete!) Our guide (we nicknamed him smiley because thats all he did!) didn't tell us anything really about the dam. He just told us when to get off the bus, when to get back on and where the toilets were. We knew there must be loads to say because we could hear all the chinese guides around us babbling on. Very annoying. Anyway we were happy to leave the dam and move onto the boat trip.

That night we got a bus to the boat - I was pleasently surprised. I was expecting some rickety old raft and cages of chickens. They even had chodka (chinese vodka - you must know this by now) so we all got very merry that night. Our tour guide joined us for once (it was very rare that he drank with us) and told us that there were rats on the boat. Obviously we were all then paranoid thinking we could hear them. But I was almost too drunk to care by the time I went to bed.

That night I couldn't sleep because there was a rat in my room scratching around my backpacks. I also had a huge gaping hole next to my head in the wall and was convinced a rat would crawl out of it. I put a plastic bag in there so at least I could hear it if it came through. But I was wide awake anyway listening to the scratching and too scared to even reach for my phone on the floor and see what time it was. After an hour or so of lying there, I heard Joelle and Sam in the room opposite screaming their heads off. They were running up and down the corridor and I let them in our room because I knew they'd seen a rat!

Sam said that she heard scratching on the table next to her, then saw the rat on Joelles bed! Luckily Joelle had gone to the toilet. She said it was just staring at her and not even frightened - rats in China are hard! Then another one ran down the corridor and we were so scared that we stayed up all night. We had to be up at half 6 anyway but Joelle kept us entertained screaming and joking that she should have been upgraded to the comfort tour and she was going to complain to Gap Adventures. I said 'yeah but we're backpacking' to which she replied 'Do I look like a f***ing backpacker to you?!!!' it was true - she brought a suitcase with her! Was so so funny!

Day 2

We were still on the river and obviously had not slept - but we get off this boat and transfer onto another that would take us down a quiet part of the river. We had a cute little tour guide who told us all about the river and the fact that there were coffins buried in the moutain walls and no one knows why they're there. The view was amazing and we almost forgot about the rats the night before. Although everyone wanted to hear our stories and were scred about spending another night on that boat!

We went to see 'The Boat Men' who would take us on canoes and row us down a narrow part of the river. Some of them were really old but really muscley from pulling and rowing tourists all day. I felt a bit guilty because their ores were rubbish - just planks of wood held together with string! They had to pull us through a shallow part of the water and we felt even worse - we must have been heavy because it looked like they really struggled. Then on the way back they sang us traditional chinese songs - and we repaid the favour by singing Lady in Red down the river!

We docked and got some lunch at a port town and then took a look around the dodgiest market ever. All we could see were chickens feet, pigs heads and lambs tounges again - what is wrong with the breast of a chicken or a leg or pork or a nice lamb chop???

We really wanted to leave and we were getting odd looks so we got back on our rat boat which was supposed to leave at 6pm. It got to 9pm and we were still sitting outside (it was soooo hot inside - no air con till the engines started.) Beacuse we were on the river we were getting bitten to shreds and we were starting to get really bored. Can you guess what we did next? Due to boredom and fear of rats we decided to get really steaming drunk. At least then we would sleep better!

We bought some more chodka and played music and had a really good night - eventually the boat started moving and we were actually having a good time on the rat boat! I passed out with not even a second thougt about the rat as I was so tired - I'd missed a nights sleep!

Day 3

We were up stupid early again for a 6 hour bus trip (our tour guide said it would be 3!) and then had lunch in the hottest city in China called Wohan. It was like an oven when we got off the bus - I felt like I was cooking! Our guide decided that it might be nice to take us to a 5 star hotel for lunch. We hadn't had showers in 3 days and I slept in my clothes and we all looked and smelled MINGING! Plus we were all sweating from the heat. We sat around in the poshest restaurant I had ever been in and everyone was looking at us wondering why we were there. Was quite embarrassing but funny too. We were all so tired we were almost hysterical!

After the posh lunch we got on a train which would take all day and night to get to Yangshou. It was the worst train yet - the food was minging, it was busy and the journey would be sooooo long. We were really bored and still minging - I couldn't even muster up the strength to change clothes so I just sat in my own filth in my bed and read a whole book covere to cover! I couldn't wait to get to Yangshou - I knew it was where we'd do loads of activities and the countryside was supposed to be amazing - so the next day couldn't come quick enough!!