It was an interesting morning for Eric today. First, he got up (not woke up) to a flash from his own digital camera, which I was using. See, what I took a picture of, was him on his bed in a fetal position, covers undisturbed, with his jacket covering him, and all of his stuff sprawled all over the bed. Of course he was probably expecting me to hit him so he could hit me back (because he was awake at this time), but I just couldn’t miss a Kodak moment =P.

Well it turn out that Eric didn’t feel all too well once he got up and eventually by the time we got on the boat, he had a fever and his stomach hurt. Therefore, he spent the entire day in his room sleeping. However, since I am supposed to be his roommate, I originally roomed with him when we got on the boat, but since his temperature started to rise, his mom, my mom and myself all switched rooms. Therefore, now I’m rooming with my dad (in room 306), Eric’s with his mom, and my mom is rooming with Ian’s aunt.

Okay, so let’s backtrack. After breakfast, we said goodbye to our guide from Chengdu, and then took a fifteen-minute ride to the dock, where we boarded the Victoria II, our floating hotel on the Yangtze River. There, we said goodbye to our guide in Chongqing, and eventually sailed off towards Wuhan.

Now let’s describe the rest of the day. First there was an orientation type thing in the fourth floor Yangtze Club where the crew was introduced and stuff, and we learned how to use our lifejackets.

Next interesting thing was that the parents began playing Mahjong in the game room (only two tables), and they basically played the entire day (of course I got to play as well =P). After lunch, I went to watch this lecture on the Yangtze River. It’s really sad that after the Three Gorges Dam is built, many of the cities along the river will be drowned and many archaeological sites will never be able to be explored. However, this dam will save many lives (from the floods).

Our only stop of the day was in Fengdu, the City of Ghosts. There, we visited this Temple, which is supposedly where all people go after death in order for their spirit to be tested. There are three tests, the Bridge to Hell, Ghost Gate and some pebble thing. Supposedly, if you wanted to become a rich man in the next life, you crossed the bridge in three steps (of course that’s what I did). Another choice was to walk across the bridge with your partner in 9 steps so that you two will be together in the next life. We then went to this place where a huge Buddha was located, and also where fortunes could be told. All the parents picked pebbles (10 RMB a pebble) out of a box and gave it to this guy to tell one of their children’s fortune. Some of it was pretty accurate, but then again other stuff wasn’t so much. The second test was Ghost Gate where all we had to do was step through a gate, and then walk all the way down this passageway (Grave Road), where we couldn’t look back or else evil spirits would capture us and bring us to Hell. At the end of the road, there was a tower where all the good people could go up and say a final farewell to their friends and family. Then we moved on to the third test, which was to stand on one foot on a stone in the ground (guys left, girls right) for three seconds while staring towards Yama (King of the Underworld). If one can do this, then they are pure, but if they can’t, they must still work on that part of themselves. We then went on to see Yama, his servants, and his wife, and then we went through a hall where we saw the 18 levels of Hell. Finally, we went back down to the buses and boarded the boat.

Oh, one funny thing to note about this excursion is that all these people thought Ian’s aunt was Japanese because she’s small, she was wearing this fisherman’s hat (like many of the Japanese tourists), and added to that, she sometimes did speak Japanese to people…One person thought Terry’s dad was Japanese too…weird.

Shortly after the boat set sail again, the captain had a welcoming cocktail party in the Yangtze Club, and after that there was dinner. Following dinner, the crew put on a fashion show in the Yangtze Club, where they modeled clothes from the various dynasties, modern day, the ship’s clothing line, and from the various minorities of China. Finally, as you can guess, the parents went back to Mahjong (my mistake…the parents and I…). Okay, so well now I’m listening to my dad snore (very loudly I must say) and somehow I have to go to sleep. Tomorrow’s another day.