Saturday April 16th

This morning I was feeling fine – until I ate breakfast!  Light-headed, I went back to the hotel room and ended up feeling more nauseous.  I decided to take a “Resolve” to settle my stomach and it seemed to do the trick.

We checked out at 9:45am and went outside to the garden behind the hotel which had a tea tasting place.  Thankful for the rest, we all tasted Jasmine, Ginkgo Biloba and Lychee tea.  We didn’t buy any more tea as we had already bought quite a bit, but I found some wafer-thin chocolate biscuits which I had been nibbling between the tea, and my stomach seemed to appreciate the combination.  I had also been nibbling on my own fruit and nut mix which seemed to be okay.

Afterwards, we got onto the bus and went for lunch.  I was feeling very light headed and unwell again, but I managed a bowl of rice, two bowls of soup and an orange segment and I felt much better.  We were now going back on the bus to Dazu, about a 2 hour drive out to the west of Chongqing.  Eventually, we arrived but before checking into our hotel, we went 2km further outside of Dazu centre to Bei Shan, where there are some rock carvings and sculptures in caves which were quite impressive – carved into sandstone, most are very weathered, but a roof has been constructed over them.  Even so, they are all quite weathered but some traces of paint remain in a few areas.  I bet it would have been quite spectacular to see them all in full colour!   It was originally a military camp, where the carvings were commissioned by general Wei Junjing in AD 892.

On the way down, I bought 3 (for me, Mathew and Mum) water buffalo sculptures carved out of a soft stone, I think it may have been some sort of soap stone.  I had to haggle hard for these, she wanted 360 Yuan for 3 and I got her down to 280 Yuan.  I’m sure I could have got her down to 250 Yuan if Mathew hadn’t nodded at 280!  Next time I haggle, Mathew isn’t coming with me haha!

We headed to our hotel which Jane told us was an upgrade – we were staying in the Ramada Plaza 5 star hotel!  Our room was HUGE!  With a MASSIVE bathroom and a very impressive shower.  We went out to dinner, by which time I wasn’t feeling hungry any more, and I only managed one bowl of rice.  After dinner, we passed by a small supermarket and I decided to buy some sprite and some chocolate.  If my body didn’t want any proper food, at least I could try and keep my energy and sugar levels high.

Back at the hotel, we were on the lookout for mosquitos as we had seen one in the lobby before dinner but it was pretty dopey.  Mathew and I were on floor 6 so we hoped they wouldn’t get that high.  I thought if anywhere, we might get bitten on the two overnight trains.