Woke this morning to great swaths of mist hiding the rolling hills along the river. The air was cooler and quite damp. The almost dry underwear I had laid out on the balcony was no drier so I lined it up on the TV.
After our last session of Qigong with Zhong and another great breakfast we wandered up to the sun deck on the sixth level. That seems to be the only place to get the intermittent wifi. If you are lucky you may see some emails come in. I tried uploading yesterday’s post to my blog but it just wouldn’t go. There’s no way pictures will make it.
Dawne was persuaded by my glowing description to toddle off for a massage. She did not regret it.
Sometime after lunch we docked at the Ghost City of Fengdu. When they flooded the area with the Three Gorges dam the Buddhist temple section on the hills of Fengdu were surrounded by water. The rest of the town was moved higher up the mountain. We disembarked from our ship and were taken to the base of the ghost city where you can climb a set of more than 400 steps to view the temples and statues dedicated to the afterlife. If you don’t want to do the climb there is an overhead cable car that can take you up. Many of us chose to do the trek and were “glowing” by the time we reached the top.
Most of the buildings are reconstructions because the originals were destroyed during the cultural revolution but the topmost one dedicated to the god of the underworld himself is original and is about 1400 years old. It has some pretty gruesome dioramas on either side that puts you in mind of the Spanish Inquisition. The view from the top was spectacular though.
Back down the mountain we were loaded onto a bus and taken back to the ship. Being the last night we had to settle bills and then tidy up for a special farewell banquet. Dinner was not buffet style this time but they kept bringing dishes to the table. There must have been a dozen or more different dishes – way too much food. Actually I preferred the buffet meals but we did get a glass of champagne each and a very short visit from the captain.
There was a guest talent show but Jan and I decided to forego that. We have an early morning tomorrow.