Hi all!

I think we have just made the biggest mistake in the world! The hard sleeper down to Chongqing on the cheapy cheapy was an absolute nightmare! We were rammed into these tiny beds like cattle and there wasn't enough room to sit up, turn over or anything! Alistair had it worse trying to crawl his 6.4 body onto a tiny top bunk! For some reason they also didn't put us in the same cabin so we were on our own. I cheered up after a while though because these really cute children were trying to speak english to us. They could only say 'i love you' and 'do you like apples' which they found really funny and left us in fits of laughter! The next moring after 12 hours of hardly any sleep, some guy did a massive spit bomb onto the carpet. I actually think i cried a little bit at that point and vowed to stop being tight in the future and travel at least second class!

We got picked up at the train station at Chongqing by our hostel which was nice. When they took us there we had originally booked a dorm, but because we were so tired after no sleep, we upgraded to a private room. We got a room overlooking the Yangzi River with big windows so you could see everything. It was such a relief after having an awful journey down here. The hostel also had a balcony overlooking the river where you could sit and have a drink. The staff at the hostel were also really nice. This one girl gave us chinese massages and mini white russians that she had made. She also took Alistair to the doctors when he wasn't feeling well and translated all the medication for him. He had to take 33 tablets twice a day but she told us quite a lot were herbal so it was ok. It seemed to do the trick anyway.

Chongqing seems to be in the middle of nowhere. There was some really quaint streets with markets (we hardly got hassled which was nice for a change), but apart from that there wasn't really anything else to do or see. We tried to find an ATM and only managed it after doing a lot of hand signals to a police officer. He ended up taking us there, which was probably easier than trying to explain the directions to us. However we managed to understand that waving your hands in a big circle means roundabout!

Yangzi River Cruise

The main reason for us coming to Chingqing was the Yangzi river cruise to see the Three Gorges. I was a bit sceptical about going on this trip and the Lonely Planet guide stated that the chinese passenger ships are cramped and unprofessional, which wasn't far wrong. We booked a second class room which meant we had to share with two other people in the cabin, but we also had some stop off trips included. One trip was to a temple at midnight on the first night. It was raining heavily and no one spoke any english so we didn't know what any of it was about. It was beautiful though so we ditched the tour group and went off to take some pics. The next stop off was a 5.30am wake up call to go and see another temple that we didn't have a clue what it was about. We also got harrassed on the way off comb sellers (which were 'geniune combs' they told us!). We have never seen so many combs in one place before but the chinese people were loving them. We were baffled because men were buying them and they didn't even have any hair!

We got charged £85 for this pleasure and they also decided to throw it in that we have to pay an extra £3 if we wanted to go onto the top deck to see the Gorges. I'm sure no one else paid either and they just charged us, but when no one understands what you're saying it's difficult to argue.

The last trip was to see the Three Gorges Dam which is due to be finished this year. Its good that we have seen all this now because when they finish the dam, a lot of this we can see will be flooded. There is a town we passed called Fengdu (city of ghosts) which will be submerged. The government is currently relocating people and the town, but it is estimated that they will only save 10% of the ancient relics that are found there. Also there is a possibility that not all the people relocated will be looked after and found new employment.

The cruise would have been worth the money if someone had spoke english so we knew what was going on, but half the time we were just following other people around. The Three Gorges were beautiful and the photos don't really do them justice, however i don't think it was worth the money.

Our next stop is Guangzhou which is near Hong Kong. We reach the dock at 6pm and have to get to the train station and on a train by 7:20pm, so fingers crossed the boat wont be late, otherwise we'll be stranded in the train station all night!