Cruise

The flight from Xian was delayed by an hour or so, so there was less time to see Chongqing than planned, that said the guide managed to pull together a quick tour of the old town - full of facts about this small city of c 33 million people. Boarded around 6pm and boat left around 10pm.

Next few days are spent cruising down Yangtze, with some included and some optional excursions. This is the relaxing part of the trip. The boat holds around 300 passengers and has normal range of services, and plenty of additional sales opportunities. Within 30 mins of getting on, i was offered opportunity to:

- upgrade cabin
- upgrade restaurant
- buy the 3 day wifi package
- opt for the cheap laundry option
- opt for the "all you can drink" package
- sign up for the optional tours

Passengers appear to be c 75% overseas tourists, with a significant level of American accents to pick from.

Travel to Chongqing

Today consists of a short flight to Chongqing, followed by a short town tour ahead of picking up the boat.
Wait time at airport was shorter, so the shuffle list is similarly more limited:

Wiseman - James Blunt

The whole point of no return- The Style Council

Shoplifters of the world - The Smiths

Drowning Man - U2

New Year's Boy - U2 (so much for random shuffle)

I am still remembering - The Cranberries (i forgot how great a voice the lead singer has)

Once upon a lifetime - Ronan Keating (oh god, Blunt and Keating in the same list how embarrassing)

Intermission - Kathyrn Williams

For Tomorrow - Blur

Stone on the water - Badly Drawn Boy

Smith of Bristol - The Dubliners

Friday Night - Lily Allen

Your nobody till somebody loves you - Dean Martin (ok now we are buzzing)

Sunny afternoon - Tom Jones with Space

Little Bird - Annie Lennox

The joy of a random shuffle, as to be honest i don't think i have heard some of these before, being random album tracks for artists that i either thought i should buy a greatest hits or one of their "well known albums". With downloads being so easy these days, people forget that sometimes you bought an album with little knowledge of what was on it, often on the back of one single released. Sometimes you found out its the only track you liked:). I once bought an All About Eve album on the back of one track i heard in a friend's car - crikey that was a mistake.

ps with some of these i struggled to name the artist in five, let alone name that tune.