B&B

We're back and we're bad. But where have we been?

First we went to look at a giant buddha in Leshan. He rises 71 metres from the ground and looks pretty content. Then, moving from the holy man to this holy mountain we planned to climb, we were poisoned by food and Chinese drinking (fast and furious). So we laid in wait at the foot of the mountain, launching our attack on the third day. The attack became a campaign and lasted two days. At the end of the first day, growing desperate at the steep path and failing light, we were guided to a mountainside monastery, where we stayed a night in rest. The monks woke us at dawn with their morning drumming, and we set off into the upwards cloud and reached the summit after lunch (biscuits again). At 3077 metres, it was fresh. Victorious and pressed for time, we bussed back into town; and in the morning, we set off seven hours east to Chongqing, city of thirty million (it seems). The seven became eleven when our bus broke down. So we leapt without pause from bus to boat and sailed three days down the Yangze, pausing only not to buy trinkets. This too was pretty fresh. Finally, we took a long and hard look through the mist at the Three Gorges Damn, a full 2km across, before moving to Wuhan. Mr Murdoch, my old French class deskmate lives here. He has been showing us around and about with indulgence since Friday night. So we would have loved to ship you jokes and eye catchings before now, see, but we hardly had a moment before a screen. We'll make amends, I'm sure.