Today was our first full day on the boat. We slept on the cruise ship overnight even though we had not set sail yet. Once Rich woke up, I watched a bit of The Incredible Hulk until the ship was off. The breakfasts here were not too impressive this morning.

After breakfast we got off the boat just east of Yichang to tour the three gorges dam. This dam was started in the early 1990's and will be completed in 2009; after which the landscape East of it will be forever changed. The main purpose of it is to prevent flooding of the Yangtze West of the dam and another benefit of it is the power source. It will be the largest dam in the world. The rising of the river caused 1.1 million people to have to relocate; many of the older generations not liking this idea.

Docking the boat there was a huge frenzy of people trying to sell very crappy products and poorly made junk souvenirs. They horded all of the people on the cruise and were super aggressive. I just smiled and made . . . Read More..

Today I woke up, had some morning tea and went for a 4 mile run on the treadmill. I have to stay in shape so I can run the great lakes relay a few weeks after I get back. I was sweating up a storm and was a bit late to breakfast. Some of my friends commented on me as I ran.

Breakfast was bad as usual, a combination of crappy American and some Chinese. I tried this very hot pickled stuff and it totally reminded me of Korean food.

We arrived at our destination port to get off for our excursion and found that we were unable to dock due to a large size fire that had occurred on a passenger ship. It was pretty crazy and it delayed our excursion into the narrow canals to see the . . . Read More..

Today I woke up a bit late because it was quiet and very dark. I checked my email and had my morning tea as well as headed downstairs to have breakfast. This morning at breakfast, Clare, my waitress taught me how to make a crown out of a paper napkin. Now I can make a crown for the kids, the bra for some laughs and the rose for my girlfriend (sorry I haven't created one for you yet). All in all... Good origami skill learning this morning.

Our morning excursion consisted of a small village which had a huge pagoda that we could climb. The foggy setting set a mystical and spiritual ambience appropriate for this location. This was the first day of bad weather and I certainly couldn't complain. I am glad I didn't take a shower this morning because climbing up this pagoda caused me to sweat up a storm.

Once again while getting off the boat, the tourists were bombarded by sellers mostly yelling "You like?" and "1 dollar!" There was a Buddhist band playing some music and dressed up in . . . Read More..