Chungqing (Chung King)

What can I say about this city? It's HOT! I am on board the luxurious Victoria Cruiser which we will be riding the next few days -in style!-thanks to a mix up and subsequent upgrade that has landed us on a fourth floor suite. Sweet!

We got in at the crack of dawn today to a city full of buildings and skyscrapers, far larger than anything I had imagined. We were immediately struck by how hot and humid it was (isn't that a recurring theme!?) and were bused to the local zoo where we saw one panting, totally overheated panda doing that sprawled-on-a-cool-floor maneuver favored by many dogs in the California heat, and a tiger similarly seeking a shady refuge, and I felt so at home amongst mi gente-the shade hunters! (I am notorious for parking in whatever sliver of shade I can find and will drive way out of the way to find it...) We also saw a hippo out of the water, the biggest, ugliest animal I have ever seen! It was pretty cool.

Next lunch followed by a trip to a big city center and then to the supermarket where we saw chip flavors we had never imagined-Cucumber, Italian Beef, Melon, Braised Pork...we went with International and Hot and Spicy. There were lots of other things there whch were pretty much indescribable, and the names hardly helped translating, so we stuck to the familiars. I am chewing blueberry Extra which is, well, fruity!

Like I said our digs on the cruise are very nice, so we are planning to spend the next few days relaxing, sipping drinks (dying to try the Slow Boat To China) on our balconies and watching the Chinese scenery pass by.

At night Dad, Ian and I went to dinner with our guide, Jamie, and had what was probably the best meal of the trip. The place we went was so fancy! The other ladies were too full or sick of Chinese food, but that meant we got to try some really hot dishes recommended by our guide. It was cool. We also got to see Chunqing at night, which is really spectacular. The whole city is in the mountains and overlooking these different rivers, so the place lit up was really magnificent. Then that night as the boat sailed away we got to see the whole city from the water. It was awesome.