14/11 - After catching a local bus we arrived at the industrial city of Chongqing - City Population 7.2m. gateway to the Yangzi River. The bus ride took 8.5 hours and was through some of the worst roads we've seen and experienced so far. As it was public bus the locals were bringing all sorts of birds and animals on it, and the spitting...lets just say its pretty disgusting even on board the bus!! We boarded the boat at 7pm, setting sail at 8pm. The cabin was not luxurious but it was clean, although couldn't co-ordinate stepping up and ducking down at the same time to get into the bathroom...had a couple of nasty knocks on the head, one of them I actually saw tweety birds, seriously!!

15/11 - Early start the next morning for me...George couldn't face it...myself, Fiona, John and Tom headed off to Ghost City with Amy, our local guide. I'm so glad I did this as it a pretty creepy but interesting place...my fav pic of the day was our Abba impression with the pagoda behind us...oh and the pics of the gods, the wine and naughty gods in particular!

That night we all partook in some classy Karoke...can it ever be classy?! Was particularly impressed with John's rendition of a Britney Spears hit...think you've sung that before John?!

16/11 - The early mornings were a killer but didn't want to miss the gorges as thats what we were there for...quite impressive. We visited the Misty Gorge (10km), the Emerald Gorge (20km) and the Dragon Gate Gorge (3km)...also travelled along the lesser of the 3 gorges in Wushan county of Chongqing which makes up of above 3 separate valleys of Daning River. Then onto the Mini 3 gorges of Madu River...after fighting with the Chinese tourist crowds to get a boat...crazy, they have no concept of queuing or being polite!!

17/11 - 8.30am start to make our way to the 3 Gorges Dam Project. This hydro-electric dam will eventually form the world's largest storage reservoir, providing at least 10% of China's power needs. When the dam is finished in 2009 it will be 2kms wide and 185 tall. Whilst travelling the gorges, you can see what effect the rising of the water is having on the countryside and livelihood of the locals, but they say there will be better living conditions for the millions of people who will be relocated. The water level is now 135m. There will also be the worlds longest shipping locks some now operational. A pretty interesting place to go and I am glad this was part of the itinerary.