Thursday, April 27th, we woke up to the first morning on the boat. What a wonderful night’s sleep in Cabin #8369 ~ the last cabin on the 3rd floor on the port side.  The bed rumbled all through the night since we were above the engines of the boat.  Just like always being in the back of the bus when we were driving, we love the back of any cruise boat, as well.

Sinorama Holidays organizes their groups very well, especially considering that all 400 passengers on the boat were on some sort of Sinorama Holiday.  Our group, “Mary’s Group”, consisted of 28 people who all traveled together on the same bus.  And then we were broken down by tables of 10.  Here we are with “Mary the Dictator” (standing next to me in the middle of the picture).  This is the name our travel guide gave to herself.  She took very good care of us, spoke very understandable English, and kept us all out of trouble!

WE HAD A WONDERFUL GROUP of mates at our table! 

On this first morning, our group was scheduled for the Buffet Breakfast at 7:30 am.  The food was actually quite good and somewhat varied, but mostly all Chinese food.  Thank goodness for yogurt and fruit, and some excellent fruit juices.  On the evening before, we were given the schedule for the day.  Here’s what’s on tap for today ~

We had a nice time to relax on our balcony before the 10:30 Lecture on Traditional Chinese Medicine.  And this is where we were introduced to Dr. Ryan, his Assistant, and Tai Chi ~

It was after the lecture that we decided to schedule our Free Consultation with Dr. Ryan and start our exposure to Chinese medicine (see previous blog post entitled “Opening a New Meridian Window in China”).

We had the entire afternoon to relax even more, which felt really good after all of the touring we had done to date.  One of our travel mates used a FitBit  during the tour, and she told us that we EASILY did over 10,000 steps everyday, with one day being 18,000 steps.  No wonder the nap in our cabin felt so good!

But out we went again at 5:00 pm for a walking tour of Shibaozhai (Precious Stone Fortress) and the Red Pagoda.  And yes ~ we disembarked by groups but also en masse, or “organized chaos” as Dennis liked to call it.

And what a beautiful site the Pagoda was, after we crossed the suspension bridge, nicknamed the Drunken Bridge.

The stairs used to climb to the top of the Pagoda were quite steep, but still manageable. Below is a slideshow of some of our images from the Pagoda and the Buddhist Temple at the top of the hill:

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Do remember that all of the villages above the Three Gorges Dam had to be relocated due to the flooding caused by the dam.  As of June 2008, the Chinese government relocated 1.24 million residences as 13 cities, 140 towns, 1350 villages either flooded or were partially flooded by the reservoir.  It is truly mind-boggling.

By the time we got back to the ship, we realized that since we were the first to dock, all of the ships that arrived after us simply moored one next to the other.  When we got back to our room, this was the view through our balcony opening into the next ship’s balcony opening ~ 4 guys playing poker in their room!

The Captain’s Welcome Party was well, like any cruise Captain’s Welcome Party.  Except this one had BAD champagne!  So we purchased our own bottle of “Great Wall” red wine.

The best part, and the biggest surprise, was the dancing after the Captain’s toast.  Three guesses who got up and danced with the crew/entertainers … me and my new buddy Hermina!  If I had known THIS was going to happen, I never would have worn my flip-flops.  It’s a miracle I didn’t fall down!

Hot and sweaty after this mini dance-a-thon, we enjoyed our buffet dinner, a shower, and then off to see Dr. Ryan for our first acupuncture, cupping, and acupressure treatment at 9:40 pm.

Yes, the Dragon and the Horse did sleep well that night!