CHOO CHOO BABY!

Laying in my middle bunk on what is finally my last overnight train for awhile! Have done about ten in the past five weeks or so and will not be sad to have a bit of a respite from the rails.

Actually tonight's train heading into Hong Kong is the newest and nicest since Mongolia.

Anyway...what have I been up to since last I wrote....

The boat tour through the Three Gorges was rather relaxing and offered some terrific scenery that maybe I wouldn't have previously expected to find in China. Out boat was hardly palatial, but it did the trick. I foolishly sunburned my legs on day 2...something I'd avoided for eight months. Speaking of which...today is the eight month mark from when I set out from Washington DC. It's gone REALLY fast.

After the boat tour, we ended up in Yichang for a night. Wasn't too, too much to do there, but Sally from the Trans-Siberian tour was staying at the same hotel, so it was good to catch up with her again.....at dinner at Pizza Hut.

From Yichang we headed off to Yangshuo for three days, two nights. Lots and lots of folks had told me I'd like it there and they were right. The main streets are a bit obnoxious in their overwhelming tourist shops/bars/restaurants, but there's a reason they all exist: lots and lots of fun stuff to do in town to draw the tourists in. The landscape is just plain beautiful too.

Among our activities:

-evening "Light Show" which was among the most incredible performances I've ever seen. Imagine a huge Super Bowl half-time show with hundreds of performers....but they're doing it in the dark and on bamboo boats in a mountainside lagoon. I have to find some YouTube clips of this to post.

-bike riding through the countryside followed by a hot, sweaty hike

-cooking class where I learned to make braised string beans with garlic and chili sauce, steamed meat dumplings and grilled beef with vegetables (needless to say I took this class because the rest of the group wanted to)

-two-person bamboo rafting trip

-two Relaxation massages at Dr. Lilly's

-ate the local "Beer Fish"

-spoke to a South African girl at Bar 98 who, by way of introduction, said, "My name's Claire....but everyone calls me FOXY!"

-had my laundry done twice

-bought two new pairs of shorts

-went out drinking with the my group and Sally's group the final night and avoided having to do anything silly in our drinking games (see pics)

-watched cormorant fishing...without question among the oddest and unsettling things I've seen on my travel.

So here's how it works:

*solo guy on a long, thin bamboo river raft

*large, bright spotlight on front of raft facing into the water

*8 cormorants (birds that swim like ducks) with thin wire tied on one end to the raft and one end around their necks

-"fisherman" tosses cormorants into the water and they swim downstream with the raft, diving for fish which they are unable to swallow due to the wire tied around their neck. Once a fish is in the mouth, the fisherman snags the bird with his oar, drags him upon the boat and empties the fish into a wicker basket...and back into the water goes the cormorant

Not exactly something PETA would endorse.

So tomorrow will really be my final day with this tour group. Spending four nights in Hong Kong which I'm looking forward to. Hoping to not lose too much at the Macau casinos on Monday!

On Tuesday I fly to Hanoi, Vietnam to continue the "Communist Leg" of my trip.

All and all, after almost a month in China, I'd say I enjoyed it. Not sure I could live here, but many good spots to visit.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry