Next stop - chongqing

A four hour bus ride and we arrive in Chongqing. It's pretty grimy and the roads are being dredged up. We hate carrying our rucksacks....maybe we packed too much, maybe it's just too much like exercise but we definitely don't appreciate it and plan to get some wheels for our next trip! We go in search of a hostel - there aren't any in Chongqing, hotels all the way. So we find one across the road and book into a room.

The hotel is quite nice and even boasts a swimming pool...when me and Amy go in search of the pool it looks more like a stagnant pond - all thoughts of swimming are out the window. We have two days to kill here before we get on our cruise and after reading up on Chongqing in the lonely planet, i don't think it's going to be the easiest thing to do. We eat, wander the streets, have our nails done (who wouldn't if it was 1.5 pounds!), look at the river, find the pet cemetary (i mean pet market) to see such sights as a dead rat, cages full of birds, boxes full of puppies, green poodles, pink poodles...we left fairly abruptly!

One thing about this place was the taxi rank, which wouldn't take you anywhere...you had to walk up the road in order to be able to pick up a cab...which defeats the object of a taxi (to take you where you want to go) - if we wanted to walk there we wouldnt have been looking for a taxi to take us in the first place! All that's left to do is wait for AMY to come and pick us (gem and AMY) to take us to the cruise where we will be met by AMY who is the tour guide on the boat!