Thursday, April 20- On cruise. It's cloudy and drizzling. Ron and I are up at 6 to go to a 6:30 session on Qigong. (a type of Chinese exercise). It's on the dance floor and there are about 15-20 of us. It's run by a young man who doesn't speak English so we really have to watch his every move. It is very methodical and slow so not too difficult. We are going to start going through a set of locks so we go outside to see how it's done.

Beginning of the locks. We have more pictures the second time around.

Breakfast is served so at 7:30 we go down. There's a very good variety and even 3-4 types of fruits.

There is a demonstration this morning by the ship's doctor, Dr. Liu. He sets up on the dance floor and asks if anyone has an injury (muscular, ligaments, etc..). Our friend Butch volunteers and is chosen. He has major problems with a rotator cuff on his left arm. The pictures show the process of the examination.

Dr Liu discussing the injury and what he'll do.

It starts with acupuncture.

Then he does cupping.

Then he does scrapping.

Ends with a massage. Butch felt great after the session and purchased 3 more. That is what the Dr. counts on. He tells all of his patients that it will take 3 sessions to take care of the issues. Ron got taken in as well and had some stuff done to his knee. We'll leave it at that. The doctor also gave general advice for headaches/migraines, high blood pressure, and losing weight.

 

Views of the shoreline. Lots of fishermen.

More fishermen.

Entering the gorges

Lots of homes in the mountains.

We are getting off the boat to visit "A water village" this morning.

Where we dock the ship.

The first part of the village.

These ladies will board our ship and become our guides.

Our wonderful guide.

Some junks beside the village.

Inside the water village. (set up for the tourists)

Flutist

Walkway for the tourists. It had breathtaking views and it was misty.

A fishing net.

Woman pretending to wash clothes in the river.

Macaw

Beautiful falls

In the Water village, they have set up a makeshift wedding ceremony. The old tradition had the bride, her wedding party and her family crying for three days before the wedding to show the sadness of leaving her family. Then a random tourist was chosen as the groom. It was a young man from New Zealand. He was on our cruise ship.

The wedding platform

The father

The bridal party

The bride, crying

Maids of honour, crying

Parents, crying.

Bride and groom

When we return to the ship, it is lunch time. We have about 15-20 minutes to prepare to leave for our afternoon outing to the three gorges dam. It will last the rest of the afternoon.

Where they take us to overlook the Three Gorges Dam

A look at the dam. It was a rainy day.

Different views of the Dam

We return to the ship, shower and go to the bar for Happy Hour. I have a Pina Colada and Ron has a Rum and coke. Neither drink has much liquor so I mention it to the barman, and he puts a bit more liquor in our drinks. It's $12 per drink, crazy. This will be the only one I order. Not very good.

Smaller fishing boat on the Yangtze river

My Pina Colada

Coming toward the lock

The lock is already full so we will have to wait.

Doors are closing.

It takes a while to seal the lock. We are waiting for quite some time.

It was meet the crew night. The Captain doesn't speak English so there are two females who translate to English and French. There are quite a few Quebecers there so everything is translated into 3 languages every time there is an announcement.

During the cruise

Other sites while cruising