Just went and ate a steam boat and j had to leave
early to go back to use the hotel facilities. I feel
better after a couple of days of 'muscle spasms' and
vomiting on our river cruise down the yangtze. Good
thing there are 3 med students + 1 nurse on tour.

I had in my mind that our river cruise was going to be
similar to a house boat hire on the murray, but
actually, suprisingly enough it was nothing like it.
We were on a 3 story, old rickety boat that had uneven
floors and passages that were'nt straight. The
restaurant had plastic sheets on the tables that
collect all the muck. There were a lot of chinese
tourists on the boat, we were the only foreigners, and
they seemed to think it was pretty funny when we were
playing majong. A guy who looked like johnny chan kept
trying to help, but he was playing different rules,
and it didnt work out to well for me. There was also a
massive storm with lots of sheet lightning, if the
boat had sunk, i think we would have died.

We got off once at this town that has been flooded
because of the 3 gorges dam project. There is a lake
now where the town square used to be. We took a
smaller boat around the town with the chinese tourist
and they took a lot of photos of us, rather than the
sights. Then we got on an even smaller boat that was
powered by six men in Y-fronts with very inefficient
oars. I asked Victor, our guide, why they didn't use
more efficient oars and he asked our local guide and
she asked the vice captain of the boat and he said
that's what they have always used. When we got to a
really shallow bit, all the rowing men in Y-fronts got
out and hitched ropes around themsleves and pulled us
through while singing a kind of chant. We got to some
weird kind of market, had a look, all still wearing
bright orange life jackets, and then got back in the
boat and went back to the town square (lake). On the
way back our local guide sang us songs and in bits we
joined in.

Now we are in Chengdu and off to see the panda's
tomorrow. J thinks that it is wrong to hold a baby
panda, i think im going to do it though, cause babies
love to be held by anyone, and i dont think the panda
would know the difference??? i wanna hold one..

¶ 8:53 AM