Quiet, The dead are tryig to slep!

Thursday 21st October

Its been a few days since my last post and this is mostly down to laziness on my part as opposed to not having anything to write about so I apologise.

We are currently in Chongqing waiting to embark on a Yangtze river cruise later this evening. This in tiself has been a bit of a mission as we spent the majority of yesterday trying to find the tour office for our tickets only to be told they had moved premesis (in fact we were told to wait in reception for 30 minutes first before we were told that they had moved).

We eventually found them after asking practically all of the local residents, only to be told that we have to go back there at 17:30 today to get everything, however that means trapsing the hectic streets of Chongqing with our luggage which is definately not ideal.

Also as we hadnt originally considered a cruise we hadnt looked into where it was going to drop us off, which as it turns out is a pit called Yichang with very little to do and next to no transport links.

Still hopefully everything will sort itself out!

Before we left Chengdu we paid a visit to the Happy Valley amusement park, we were told to jump on a bus to get there and although this statement was almost correct it turns out that "there" is about 2 miles from the park in the middle of an industrial estate.

After searching high and low for a taxi we jumped into one of the many tuk tuks that were lining the streets outside the bus station and paid 4 times the bus fare for a 10th of the journey.

Still we made it in one bit and the park was fun. Tyler had to pay half price although the only thing he could really go on were the toilets and a little train rollercoaster, but he seemed to enjoy himself as he was getting the usual attention from the locals.

They were also celebrating Halloween and around ever corner there was some random corpse hanging from a tree or stuck to a pole with its entrails swinging in the wind. One street we went down had corpses lining each side with brand new t-shirts on, so not only were they better dressed than us but they didnt smell as bad either.

We went onto the river rapids and looked on in amusement as all of the people diligently brought their little ponchos and spent ages tying them around themselves, when we reached the front we were instructed to put some on too (luckily i had a couple in my backpack for just such an occasion).

We couldnt understand why they were going to these extremes, that is until we were actually on it, ohh my god, it turns out the ponchos I had were a lot smaller and a lot less water proof than theirs. The finale of the ride unceremoniously dumps the equivalent volume of the atlantic ocean onto your heads in 4 unrelentless rounds, and so it was that we spent the remainder of the day leaving giant soggy wet patches on whatever we touched or sat on.

So a tip for anyone that ever goes there, the poncho's are worth their weight in gold, dont lul yourself into a false sense of security by noting, as i did, that everyone that comes off of the ride is bone dry!
Whilst Pauline was on the rollercoaster, Tyler and I took a wander down the shopping street and outside in one of the gardens there was a giant gravestone which proudly announced "Quiet: The dead are tryig to slep" which made both of us chuckle.

We have seen some great phrases since we have been in China such as "Electronic dirt", "Beef Tenderloins with Acid Trips" and one of my personal favorites "You can enjoy the fresh air after civilised urinating" which was on a toilet cubicle at the giant Buddah park.