We embarked on our non sleeper train to Loyang...I was with Marie...who I have nicknamed Pasty...she is the smallest white Irish girl I have ever met, fiesty and fun, Shinade her friend who reminds me of Erin, great girl though...really intellegent. Amarl and Jules who are just funny full stop and Paul (yoda). This includes the Indestructable sock lady....the funniest thing...She claimed they were indestructable. So we had to destroy them...It was like a show...one of the funniiest moments ever on a train...all of us sober. 8 Hours later we were ready to disembark So we arrived in Luyang late...and well, everyone wanted a beer. So we unpacked...actually thats a lie, I havent unpacked once yet....and headed down to the bar..Jules, Me, Paul, Sarah, Jason, Matt, Claire, Vimo and Marie Ann and Paul (Tall Paul). Vimo and I were keen to explore and quite hungry...so we head into town with Paul and Marie Ann (the married couple). We walked for a while and stumbled accoss a marketplace...selling all sorts of strange foods...feeling brave and in the mood for a beer, since we had been on a train for ages! we head into a kitchen restaurant at midnight. Vimo and I felt adventous so we went for numerous dishes that included snake, eel, Kidney, noodles etc.....Snake so we halfed it, Vimo taking a crunchy bite set a scream from Marie Ann. ooooh the whole kitchen stopped and looked it was so funny. Snake....its like eating a rubber band...to be honest but I will try more. A couple of beers later, the seal was broken and I needed the Toilet....bad idea. This was my first local toilet...in the back of the kitchen I had to hod a lighter for well light and it had a lovely dead rat in it.....nice! Anyhow the food was ausome....and they were really friendly cooking the fod on a bbq in front of us all freshly prepared. Brilliant night. Feeling a bit drunk we headed back, and I accidently stumbled into Matt and Claires room....funny sight before Paul let me in. So a l was bright and breesy for the next day...and luckally a 1pm start...we had breakfast which was the greatest....Pitta bread with diced lamb...gorgeous, we also took some local bread with us for the day...Off to the Longmen Grottoes. No idea what these are at all..... They ended up being Holes in the caves that back in the Dynasty days the Buddhist followers has carved statues of Buddha in the rocks. These were amazing, mainly because I have never seen them before. See the pictures, breathtaking I assure you. The White Horse Temple was the first Buddhist temple in China and looked great. was feeling a little bit Templed out by this point though...so back to the bus and a special treat....A cave home. This is a socity who are dying fast, They live in a hole in the ground, see the pictures. It was built over 200 years ago and houses 4 age groups of a family. The kid was a bit of a bully and continuously hit me and Jules. Howver Jules being a Nursery teacher...soon sorted him out. The lasy who you see is 95 and has lived there all her life. In her day the women of China had bound feet, so they couldnt walk. She has less than a size 1 feet. Horiible to see, but Interesting none the less. We then had dinner at an all you can eat Chinese on the revolving restaurant - top floor. Reminded me of the Stratosphere in Vegas. Food wast really that nice, except the fresh Meat...Grilled while you wait. Yummy. And all ready for our departure..... Ok where was I....arhh yes I believe I was about to embark for the 1 am train...another hard sleeper for 8 hours. Since it was so late it wasnt that hard to get to sleep, enroute to the cruise boat. But a lot of the guys on the tour had Chinese people already sleeping in their beds...we made short work of that kicking them out...Its quite natural for this to occur, andf some of the girls...had problems with it. But hey I had the top bunk again and shot to sleep, no chinese men in my bed....(leaving that one for Bangkok...heehee) Anyhow this wasnt the nicest train with the lights on at 8am and the toilets well...they have squat toilets in China...for all of you toilet fanatics out there, and they are not pleasent...especially the one in our cabin...Jason had the experience of one leg on the door and the other on a wall just to go.....not nice. Anyhow Vimo went on another bender...drinking with Mimi and Mat until 5am in the bar cart. Drinking the traditional crap they call beer...actually the beer hasnt been bad...just on the train it was like water....I just went straight to sleep. Woke up to some groovy chinese music...that is one thing they cant do at all. Music!!!! Paul will agree with me there. We arrived at our destination onto another bus to the 3 Gorges dam. Very tired at this point. The dam itself is well pretty unexciting...however we did catch the end of a kids theatre production about the biggest sturgon in the world...see pictures. Julie couldnt stop laughing! The guide also told us that if you hit the dam with a missile it will not crack...if you hit it with an atomic war head however everyone would drown.....adding on to the obvious nuclear radiation....these guides are really funny. They are so indoctrinated with things they are told by the government they will believe anything......The dam is a project that supports a lot of Chinas power, the Yanksee obviously running through the dam creating Electricity. The update end with a arrival at our cruise ship the Victoria 5 and another chapter begins ....