No luck, Wifi in the cruise ship available only in the bar and reception, 7:00 am on the 18th September 2018 Michael and I set off to the multipurpose room for TaiChi - slow stretching movements relaxed around 5 minutes then coffee break and then restart again and 5 minutes later a break again. The first 2 TaiChi moves done and dusted. Breakfast at 8:00, everything you could possibly think of on a Buffet except for bacon and cold milk. Cornflakes with hot soya milk for Michael, I have to admit that his palate is so much more varied. I have watched him eat pickled turnip, bean sprouts, Chinese cabbage, bamboo, chicken feet, baby fish. On the boat mealtimes are noisy and not sure if I mentioned, there is so much food consumed by such tiny thin individuals. Yu my new Chinese friend puts it down to green tea. Every day you must drink green tea, in the morning and again before 12:00, be consistent. Not after 12:00 otherwise you will not sleep. Wonderful to meet someone that speaks and teaches Chinese, I hope to see Wolfgang and Yu again as they have a house in Strand.
Onto our included tour, Fengdu the city of Ghosts. Chinese tradition is to worship/ respect their ancestors so there is a whole 7 story temple dedicated to ancestors and death. Walking up in the rain, I became aware that purgatory is alive and well in Buddhist traditions. The scenes depicting life after death show people being punished in horrific ways. Crimes committed in life, result in painful deaths. What are the crimes. Gossip, too much shopping, rudeness....
We walked back down, just in time for lunch, some story - huge buffet. In my view, there are lot as of positives in China, however as a Westerner, the volume of everything, singing, speaking, coughing and spitting is loud, very loud.
We attended the Captains welcome drink and games and Michael won a cap for speaking a Chinese word. They love gambling games and someone got the red jack and upgraded to the presidential suite. Others won Champagne and wine, both are extremely expensive in China.
Dinner at 7:30 in the same style as breakfast and lunch, everyone extremely punctual as queuing is definitely a pastime in which everyone catches up on the days events.
Dressed and onto a bus for the optional tour, in the rain, not really knowing what to expect, we were blown away with a show of multiple stages in which the audience moves as much as the stage, war horses and soldiers, beautiful girls all performing on a water stage. Phenomenal lighting and sound, even though it was all in Chinese we felt every emotion. Suspended trees and suspended worriers, acrobats and dancers. Only criticism is that River Dance timing has not yet made it into this production, everything else, WOW!!!
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