Today was the start of the cruise down the Yangtze. First, we had to get from Chengdu to Chongqing - a city about 350 kms away. As we had booked the cruise as a tour, they threw in the ride to Chongqing (on the bus though). We were picked up at 9:30, and taken to the bus station (well more of a back street really). We were last on so were up the back. He took off after 5 minutes (even though the bus wasn't full) and drove to the outskirts of town. We parked here,...

Fran got her own back for taking her round Leshan when she was suffering from a cold - she gave me the cold (except mine is obviously Avian bird flu from last nights chicken!). It was fortunate that we had planned an easy day today - catching up on chores and seeing a bit of the city.The first stop was a haircut for me - Fran is fed up with me looking like some nutty professor. We found a barbers and I asked for a haircut (in sign language). I was told to lie dow...

Fran had been suffering from a cold and we were in 2 minds whether to have a day relaxing. We decided instead to go to Leshan - famed for having the world's largest Buddha (after the Taliban blew up the 2 in Afghanistan). The journey was by bus and took 2 hours (once we had found the bus station and bought tickets) and then it was a taxi ride where the driver dropped us at the Buddha park.. This is a large park on a side of a hill with various large Buddha statue...

The day started obscenely early - we were on the way to Chengdu on the 5:57 train. We managed to get out of the hotel after we had woken the night staff so that we could pay. When we got to the station and found the right waiting room, we discovered that the train was 20 minutes late - frustrating.After a couple of hours sleep on the train, we looked out and saw that the scenery had become quite mountainous. It continued like that for most of the day with a spect...

We arrived in Xi'an about 7:45 am after a reasonable nights sleep on the train.. We navigated our way to our hotel and dropped our bags there pending our room being ready. We treated ourselves to breakfast in Starbucks - good coffee and a chocolate muffin. (the cost being offset by the fact they had free WiFi). Next it was to the advanced train ticket office to book our ticket out. We located it by the large queue - including people we had met on the train from R...