I checked out and was given back far more money than I’d expected from my deposit, which meant the room had cost me little more than a hostel. I headed across to the train station and found that the train to Changsha wasn’t until the late afternoon, so I headed across the road to grab an early lunch. I was given a table for four to myself and was quickly joined by a couple as the restaurant filled up. The guy was in his mid 20’s and immediately started pra...

We awoke to find football highlights on the TV in the room and caught the whole second half of an impressive win by England. Then it was time for the tearful goodbyes as Dave headed off for his bus. He was heading to Wuhan to fly down and meet his girlfriend in Bangkok. I consoled myself by watching an awful American B movie about superhero kids before packing my bag and heading for the train station. I arrived and found that, despite the Lonely Planet’s claims...

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...