We were afforded a relative lie-in for the third morning of the trip when the loudspeaker only started at 7. The wake up this time was for the entry to the second gorge. Sadly it was even less impressive than the first and the droning girl on the loudhailer continued to grate. Thankfully, she’d talked herself out within 20 minutes and we were left in peace, as soon as she finished the crowd dispersed. We alternated between the deck and free tea in the bar as th...

The entire boat rose once again at 6, this time for a trip round ‘White King Town’. The town was built when an old Emperor saw ‘white smoke’ rising from a pond and declared it a good omen for his reign. He immediately built a small palace on the site. Within the historical building there were also some interesting burial stones, excavated before the rising waters could consume them, and a selection of ‘hanging coffins’ within which the local people we...

After being worried that our personal wake-up call would disturb the Swedes (they weren’t doing the morning trip, apparently they were ‘templed out’) we discovered that in fact the entire boat was awoken by announcements over the loudspeaker at 6am. This was tourism Chinese style, collective and controlled! We headed off the creaky, cramped vessel and were paraded past two luxury cruises on our way to the jetty as if to confirm our social status on the riv...