Rise and Shine everyone, the announcement in the room begins at 6:45 am.  In our stylish room we have a stand that has many dials on it and a loud speaker inside.  We were told not to touch the middle buttons, these control the loud speaker and the cruise director makes announcements for everyone.   I think we are back in the 1930’s when the war broke out. Our stand certainly resembles something from that era.

Sharon and I are wondering how people are fitting in the shower, bathroom overall is so small you can barely get thru the door.  We get to breakfast, not so wonderful today, but toast and watermelon will do.  We are told we have a choice; we can stay on our ship or go to Fengdu, the ghost city. This is not really a city but a group of temples.  On our agenda we received with the day’s events there was a tip or should I say a “warm tip”.  One would think it related to the weather but no it was to warn us that there are 400 steps to the temple.  We decide to go because the alternative to stay on the ship was not so appealing.  We walk the plank one more time to get to the other side, I would have thought somebody would fall in but they are prepared for this.  They had a person every 8 feet or so lining the plank, helping you maneuver to get to the other end.  We climbed about 30 steps and walked about 10 minutes.  We arrived at a place where they had electric cars (sort of like a ten person golf cart) we thought to ourselves that it was not so bad….Wait, there is more….the cars take us to the base of a mountain, here is where we are to take 400 steps….We begin to walk up, and up and up and up, the day is hot and we are already wondering why we were doing this.  But we continue on….we get to a spot and there is a large rock formation carved into a head.  We are told it is Paradise and that he is the king of heaven… but we are not at the top yet….so now we reach stairs and we climb, and climb and climb….I thought it was supposed to be 400 steps.  At each plateau there are temples.  These temples are all graveyards for Taoism.  Tao believe that when people die their spirits will gather here.  So there are 72 of these all together.  We take pictures, see some people praying and continue on to the top.  We climb and climb and climb and climb….eventually we get there.  It is quite beautiful at the top, many people, and much history…quite amazing.  There is an 80+ year old man selling hats, many people can’t resist him, he just has a smile about him, Sharon and I did not buy hats.  After a brief rest at the top, it is now time to go down the mountain.  Going down was not stairs but a street (I’m thinking why didn’t we come up this way?).  The street was steep but it was a mountain after all.  Sharon and I are feeling very proud that we made it all the way to the top but it is just as hot coming back down.  Then when we get back to the bottom it is back on the electric cars to the ship and again we have to walk the planks.  Do you remember the warm tip?  Well we had a pedometer in the group instead of 400 steps it was 5000…just a bit different don’t you think?

Once we get on board we reserve a time for the free foot message and get ready for lunch.  After lunch we attend two demonstrations.  The first is by a Chinese woman who does hand embroidery with silk thread on silk fabric.  Her work is exquisite; she even does some that are reversible.  Some of the reversible ones are even different on both sides.  We were all fascinated by her art.  Some of the women from our group were looking for kits so they could make them for themselves.  She explains that it is something passed down through families and takes many years to practice to learn the art.  The second demo is done by Sharon Pederson one of our leaders.  She is a quilt author and educator from Vancouver Island.  I told her I am also Canadian and she and I get along great.  So in her demo she shows us her method of reversible quilting.  I think it is quite interesting.  After the demo she does some drawings for door prizes and guess what; I won a DVD that she made!

After the demo we go down to the front of the ship in an area they call “Sunday Club”.  No one is sure why it is called that as they are open every day.  We sit down and I order some rose tea.  When the tea arrives I can’t drink it.  Well it had about 5 or 6 rose buds floating on top of the water.  How am I supposed to drink it without the roses getting in my mouth?  So I look at it…I look at Sharon…I look at the two other ladies that are sitting with me and I still don’t know how to drink it.  Vicky suggests I just use my teeth to hold the rose buds back from my mouth.  Sharon was no help; she thinks that using my teeth sounds plausible.  Well, let me tell you…that is not going to happen.  So I asked the little Chinese girl at the serving station how to drink it without getting the roses in my mouth.  She comes over and brings a cup and saucer like the one she gave to me and showed me how to hold back the roses with the cover of the cup while drinking the tea. 

So then it is time for our foot massage and we start climbing stairs all over again, as if we haven’t climbed enough of them today already.  The massage room is on the 5^th floor and our young ladies don’t want us to be late so they came and got us and brought us up to the room.  So with some fear after the last massage we prepare ourselves for the massage.  Luckily this one is mostly gentle other than the knots they need to work out.  And again, just like the last massage; the girl tells me to relax, and I’m thinking I am relaxed!

After the massage we go down to the room and get ready for the Captain’s Welcome Dinner.  The captain comes into the dining room and speaks to the room, welcoming everyone, yada, yada, and most people just keep on talking like he is not even there!  These people are so rude, it really upsets me.  Sharon and I go to our room and open up the wine we bought on the way to the ship.  Tonight we will skip the crew singing and dancing and just relax with a book.  We will see you again tomorrow….