So the Cruise. The Boat looked a little bit ghetto to me...however it was really nice, anmd bonus all meals included. Sweet. The weather this day was really really really hot...baking. So we checked into our rooms. And headed for an exploration. A bar, a top deck, two floors of rooms, pretty basic but thats all we needed really. Here the relaxing started. We had to sail through 4 locks...these are huge I mean locks that store 20 ships at a time. The reason for the locks...well the water level is controlled and up stream was much higher than where we started from. It took 2 hours to get through these. And then out into the upper Yanksee and towards the 3 Gorges. Having no expectations at all I sat and sunned myself on the top deck before going into the bar for some airconditioning...nice and relaxing. The first day was all about relaxing. Vimo had a long sleep due to his train antics...and missed the first Gorge... I think something is going on between him and Mimi...mainly because they havent left one anothers side for a couple of days.....I shall report more. Vimo is hilarious, very quick witted, and very social, he has christened me as honery Asian. Great to be around, because there is always comedy. The Gorges are literally wherew the river runs through the mountains...and the views are stunning (see pictures). Dinner was good, a mixture of fish, noodles, and many other Chinese dishes... The Cruise was smooth, I as you know do not fair well on boats...but this was elegant and smoooooth. An earlyish night followed, for an early transfer to a smaller ship for sightseeing the next day. A bright and early 7am start....and the Ipod on...this boat was great....we saw so much of the Yanksee the liner could not reach....due to shallow water. Interesting fact...The river has already, due to the dam destroyed thousands of homes and risen the northern end of the river....It is due in 2008 to do the same again....making it 150metres deep. It will swallow thousands of farms and life styles...including many graves....which I found interesting. This little cruise, brang the weather with it...ooooh it was great sun shining....worked on my tan for a while...We saw monkeys playing in the forests...and generally chilled out. Also saw many of the cliff coffens. Placed in caves on the mountains...hundreds of years back...it would be impossible to do these days...Chilled with Jules, Paul, Sarah, Jason, Shinade and Marie most of the way...joking and laughing. Jules really likes her sunbathing.....and was begginning to look a little lobster like. The mini cruise as I like to call it showed us some more rural life around the river...locals waving to us...and the weather made the Yanksee seem swimmable...It was so tranquel and utterly beautiful This cruise ended and we returned to our ship for lunch.... Then another night of chilling....well until the night came that is...I chatted with sarah for a long while...mainly about life...where I am going etc....was a really nice afternoon. The whole group is cool, absolutely everyone is friendly, hospitable, and open minded. Claire and Matt are ausome, probably the one of the best couples I have met...really great people who hopefully I will meet up with in Australia. Since they are the only travellers here with me....they all are on two week holidays. And everyone else I thik I will try to keep in contact with...hopefully anyhow But its funny, the group just seems to merge so well. I had problems with names to begin with so I have nicknamed everyone except Matt whos name I have no difficultly with at all... Vimo - Vimto, Eddie (Murphy), Jay.....amoung others Sarah is Jameson and Jason is Peahead Armal is .... Silent Bob as in Jay and.... Paul is (Tall Paul) and Marie Ann is Maid marian. We have little john and Superted. Faceache...that would be Jules. Paul is obviuously Yoda. Pastie and Snicks...Shinade and Marie. And the Yanks are the Yanks....easy ... although Erica is now known as the ice queen! Bret is knows as the beard of Knowledge.... Beer flowing and Bret being in a particluarly mischievious mood...we all headed to the night party in our life jackets....strang i know...but hey I am on Holiday. We nearly drowned Marie/Pasty as I shall now call her (refering not to the pie, but the colour of her skin...white as), in life jackets...she is only 5ft and i think she was wearng 5....and it all went down hill from there. A Group drinking game, some cards, a lot of alcohol....Bret and I sang "you've lost that loving feeling" to Pasty when she walked onto the balcony...completely inpromptly though...and we has bad voices i tell no lie. Was really funny though, Patsty is quite shy so we embaressed her a bit....she found the funny side after a while. We just had a really good night...again the group made it great. The next day we headed to the Ghost City...The Chinese believe all Ghosts from all over the world come here, to be judged for the afterlife...Kind of freaky - it was up a huge amount of steps on a mountain. And is being preserved when the river rises. To be honest I thought it was very meadioca..Plastic statues...however when we got to the top the Pagoda architecture and dragon symbols were cool....Back to the Boat for lunch, sunbathing...my tan is coming on well, a sleep and some reading. This night Bret decided to dress up as the Bearded Lady....again...this guy is so funny, he is very responsible in the day and a great tour leader and at night he loves to make people laugh. We had the finals of cards...Yanksee open...I came third out of 7 Yoda / Paul won being crowned the champ....We were lucky because we had a lightening storm that night, which was amazing, from the boat...tipping it down with rain...The lightening was spell binding. ooooh and Tall Paul told us the funniest joke ever...he and Marie-Ann are great...about Ten Pence...but believe me it was hilarious something i'll never forget. Armal had a private meeting with one of our waitresses "Raining" , a lovely little Chinese lady...very pretty. He came up with the line...Come to england with me...I'm a doctor...I can make it Happen" Priceless.... So it was off the Cruise boat for some Ti-Chi in the Square, American Dave run out of the Town Hall and did Kung Fu outside...really memorable sight...since he didnt know anyone was watching....and onto a plane to Yangshou....Where I am now with Man Flu unfortunately...but hey its just a cold... All in all the ruise was amazing...one of the best times so far...the views, people, and time to chill was great. Its between this and The Wall so far.