Today, we travelled all day; we went by coach, plane, train, coach again & eventually arrived in Yichang to board our cruise ship to go up the Yangtze River.

Shanghai to Yichang.

Coach.

We boarded our coach this morning for our last look at Shanghai on our way to the airport. The smog still prevented us from seeing the tops of the skyscrapers.

Plane.

We boarded our plane & took our short flight to Wuhan.

Train.

I had been looking forward to this train journey as we would be using the Chinese bullet train for this leg of our journey. We waited at the station in a small area before being herded aboard the train by unorganised train employees. We thought we were all going to be sat together, but we find ourselves separated in twos, threes or, like me, on my own, split from the others.

On boarding the train, I was very disappointed. I was expecting luxury & something special, but it was just the same as any rush-hour train in England: overcrowded & dirty. Being separated from the rest of our party, I decided it was time to serenade Tracy. Knowing what a lousy singer I am, I took out my laptop & sorted out some music for her. I was soon singing at the top of my voice. Lionel Richie's My Endless Love could soon be heard by everyone on the train. Chinese train customers wondered what Lionel was doing on the train & why they couldn't see him; the rest of my party all smiled & Tracy looked back & laughed.

The train journey lasted just over two hours & we all disembarked at Yichang for the next part of our journey.

Coach again.

At Yichang, we were met by another coach & boarded it to set off on our trip to meet our cruise ship. Before getting to the ship, our driver took us to a small local store where we could purchase emergency rations for the cruise. I bought some Melon flavour mints, & Mel bought me some beer. We then reboarded the coach for the remainder of our journey to our cruise ship.

Cruise Ship.

We arrived at our cruise ship, & were met by a band who played to us as we boarded the ship. We were made to feel welcome straight away & were led across a couple of other ships to get to The Victoria Selina. We were soon in our rooms relaxing before going downstairs for a buffet dinner. At the time, we were the only people on board the ship. Before retiring for the night, I joined Mike & Ewen for a cocktail at the bar. The ship seemed very quiet, but this changed overnight.