I'm on Cloud 9

Shanghai is awesome! They say its the city where east meets west and judging by the amount of Westerners and FTSE company owned SkyScrapers dominating the skyline, I wouldn't disagree.

Our time here is limited so after dropping our bags off we head out for dinner and a leisurely walk along the Bund and a view of the city skyline at night. The next day we jump on an open top tour bus and head to Shanghai old town, Yu Yuan gardens, City Temple and have a gander around the Tea Shops.

Then we head over to the financial district and suddenly feel like little tiny ants in a skyscraper filled town. A few good malls saw us kill a few hours before heading to the Grand Hyatt for Afternoon tea which then turned into dinner and then cocktails in the infamous Cloud 9 bar.

We tried desperately to spend all of our money but everything is too cheap here in china, even at the Grand Hyatt!

Funny taxi ride home with robocop taxi driver who didnt find Luke's jokes funny. Then off to bed and 5am get up time. Rode the first subway of the day to the airport, 70p for an hour long journey and I am now jotting this blog from the comfort of Zurich airport. I am happy to report a return to the free world where Facebook and twitter works again.

Dad you better say a prayer that your whiskey makes it home. Hitler confiscated it only for Luke to take it back off him and check in his rucksack into the hold. If it doesn't make it he'll be sucking his rucksack dry :)

Signing out after an epic trip xxx

You're gorge ous!

We have had a delightful time on the Yangtze River. Our ship, the century emerald is lurvely and feels like a proper pamper after all our exertions.

The 3 gorges area is beautiful and the excursions are centred around each gorge and its particular beauty and pagoda/temple/inaccessible by anything other than water village etc etc. The gorges are dramatic in their current form so goodness knows how incredible it would have been before the water level was raised by 100 metres. That said, the river is very clean, slow running (whereas before it would have been a lot shallower but treacherous) and a lovely colour turquoise so has in no way detracted from the beauty of anything. It's hard to know what to say about the whole project really. Westerners are very fuelled by half truths but seeing the conservation and rehousing project and speaking with locals gives you a totally different outlook on the whole thing. It's quite funny to see where a village has basically been moved 150 meters further up the hill, moving all the temples and pagodas with them, but having new houses in the process.

The dam produces enough energy to power 5 vegas's all day every day at a cost of 5 cents a mega watt. It is cheap and it's clean. There are funny Eco stories about how the sturgeon were repopulated on both sides of the dam and ginko and herbal trees also moved and replanted. In 13 years much of what was disrupted has now resettled and has a new place to call home.

Crew cabaret and karaoke nights were extremely entertaining and took cheesiness to another level. Dani and I took advantage of the on board salon and had our hair coiffed. The lady gave the best hair wash and head massage ever. I went to Chinese calligraphy and dumpling making lessons.

Feeling thoroughly relaxed after our time on board. Lots of naps, films, gym and good food in between excursions.

Navigated Chongqing megatropolis (population 33million) this morning and headed to Jangbei airport where we are currently awaiting our flight to Shanghai where we finish our trip!

Dam you

So our train journey was ummm Interesting!

We were stacked 3 high and stuffed in a cabin full of chain smoking spitting china men and screaming babies. Luke had man flu for the day and thought he was going to die. After fashioning a screen of scarves and jumpers around his bunk he managed to get some sleep, albeit that he sounded like darth Vadar for most of it. Brad slept the whole time, Dani and I read a lot and napped fitfully.

When we got to YiChang the taxi took us to the dock and much to our surprise there was no boat. After 50 phone calls by the taxi driver we were driven through what can only be described as a ghetto rubbish dump and into the town centre where we were promptly ejected outside a 5* hotel without an explanation. We soon discovered that the cruise itinerary had changed and we were to spend a night in The hotel and get on board the following day. All included in the price and didn't put our hand in our pocket for anything. We literally went from hell to heaven in an hour and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the end of 2012 and start of 2013 from our luxurious abode on dry land.

The following morning we were picked up and spent the entire morning on the 3 gorges dam which quite frankly is a man made wonder beyond description and my geeky brain is so full of useless but interesting facts, I think I may explode. I have run out of adjectives which could adequately describe what I have seen these past few weeks. After a tour of the dam, ship elevator (for baby boat - under 10000 tonnes!) and ship locks, of which there are 5, we headed over to our boat for lunch and boarding. Much to our relief it was there, fully staffed and good to go. Brad says this kind of thing is pretty common in china so it's best to just not panic and go with the flow, and we certainly ended up doing alright out of it.

We didn't bother with the optional tour, rather choosing to go to the gym and have a wander around the boat and getting ourselves settled in for the next 4 days.