I had a fun three-day boat trip through the Three Gorges on the Yangzi River. We had a few stops and excursions along the way. In the evenings, we stretched the contents of our backpacks to try to look a little more glamorous than usual as we partied on our balconies or on the top deck!

As a consequence of the earthquake in Sichuan in May, we were unable to do some of the activities that were originally planned for the tour around China so the company I was travelling with put the money they would have spent on those activities towards upgrading us to a five star cruise ship instead (normally they use a very basic boat) - it was a very pleasant surprise! Also, the boat wasn't full so we were able to get the best cabins by paying a little extra money and we arranged to have cabins all along the same corridor so that we could go between the various rooms through the balconies.

When we arrived on the boat, we got dressed up, cracked open the drinks and snacks that we had picked up at the supermarket in Chongqing and had a little party. Vicki and I were inventing cocktails and after a few of those, we decided to don our life jackets for the remainder of the party (it made sense at the time...). Everyone was being silly and we had a lot of fun. The session finished about 5am and at 7:30am I was on the roof - attempting to follow a tai chi class! Not very successfully...

It was a blistering hot day and we all lay out on loungers on the top deck sunning ourselves. Tom and Brad learned the hard way not to trust Chinese sunscreen - their 'Factor 28' left them painfully red raw with sunburn, ouch!

Our first stop was at Fengdu Ghost City - a complex of Buddhist and Taoist temples that are supposed to represent Chinese Hell. On entering the Underworld there are trials to determine whether a person has been good or bad and there are statues depicting the punishments for various different crimes.

In the evening we had Captain's dinner, with the ship's Captain attending in his full uniform. Afterwards we chilled out on the top deck with some Chongqing beer and then went back down to watch the crew show, in which the crew put on several performances of singing and dancing. Neil was roped into a silly game in which he won a free cocktail. Later it turned into a disco and everyone was up dancing.

There were also lots of things happening on the boat during the daytime - I saw a demonstration all about pearls, which culminated in the opening of a farmed oyster that had 18 pearls inside! Naturally they persuaded us all to buy some pearl jewellery - I got black pearl earrings and a necklace. There was also a demonstration of traditional bottle painting - where intricate pictures are painstakingly painted on the inside of small bottles with tiny brushes.

We went for an excursion on the 'Little Three Gorges' along the Shennong River in the pouring rain. There we saw how the 'boat trackers' drag their boats over rocky sections of the river - it's a strange practice which I think nowadays is more about maintaining tradition than serving the practical purpose of freeing stranded boats.

The Three Gorges landscape is beautiful - we sailed along the river, occasionally passing a tiny little fishing boat, as the cliffs and caves rose up on either side and were reflected in the water - we were surrounded by layer after layer of mountains disappearing into the mist. Hidden in the cliffs were some strange 'hanging coffins' - ancient coffins inexplicably secured halfway up the cliff-face, a long way down from the peak and a long way up from the water level - no-one knows quite how they got there.

We went to see the controversial Three Gorges Dam which was in the final stages of construction - it is over 2km long and is the largest dam in the world. There had been a lot of hype about it but it really wasn't particularly interesting to visit - just a big wall of concrete. A visitor centre has been built nearby with pretty gardens and sculptures. The project has been heavily criticised for many reasons, including that it will result in a rise in the river level - jeopardising the landscape of the Yangzi River as well as forcing the relocation of many small villages and destroying some archaeological sites.

We disembarked from the boat in the town of Yichang. It is not a touristy place - there isn't much to see. Catherine and I went looking for an internet cafe that was marked on our map; after much fruitless searching we found a man that was able to give us directions and so we set off to try again. Ten minutes later, we found this man was following us on his scooter because I had accidentally left my pen behind and he wanted to return it - I was surprised he had gone to such effort over a pen! Still, after three hours of walking around, we ended up back where we started and there was no internet cafe there! At least we got to see lots of the town in the mean time! We gave up and went for coffee. On the way back we actually stumbled upon an internet cafe and went inside for a while - it was full of adolescent gamers, some of who would spit on the floor inside - yuk!