Another early rising this morning 6:15am. Decided that Nescafe in the cabin was better than getting dressed and going up to the sixth floor for coffee only slightly better. Today after breakfast is a two hour bus ride to some porcelain district so Im not sure Jingdezhen should be todays journal entry, or the port we are stopped at.
Got to love having mimosas every morning. It will be a hard habit to break once we leave the ship. Had them make me an omelet this morning with the lox and onions off the cold bar, a little bit of pork products and a bowl of the muesli which was VERY good think that will be part of the morning routine as well.
Time for the journal before the bus leaves and need to remember to pee since its two hours with no stop for the Happy House. Checked email and there were fifty messages had to do it on the phone since for some reason the chip wouldnt work in the computer. The hardships of travel. Sent a message to Roy Richmond, the real estate agent neighbor to see how the house listing is coming.
After our hour long lecture about the porcelain region that we were traveling through, David got on the microphone and urged us to all get up and say their name, where they were from, and something about why they are on this China trip. It was actually interesting. Lots of retired military and educational people.
The large complex that we went to at Jingdezhen is almost the history center of porcelain manufacture in China, with kilns hundreds of years old.
So, the order of the photos
is making the bisque, painting the design in cobalt, a shot of the chimney of the old kiln, and a huge Chairman Mao piece done all in porcelain unfortunately there wasnt anyone around for me to put them in front of for perspective but the tablet in front of the piece is about three feet tall. It is one of the few pieces that wasnt destroyed during the cultural revolution.
Hot as hell once again and a little time for shopping in the several sites on the grounds of course I found a Y8800 tanka (religious painting) painted on lamb skin whats that US$1100 they said theyd bargain, but thats how I ended up with a beautiful rug so Ive spent my big dollars on this trip, at least as far as I know!
Of course, the favorite piece I saw was the porcelain and cobalt waste basket with the international trash can symbol on it.
Lunch was at a local restaurant was good. Marty, Eric and I ordered an additional bottle of beer to split. After lunch I stayed on the bus and read my book didnt really feel like shopping for more China. The young married couple on the bus came back with a set of dishes, and many people came back with bags of porcelain trinkets.
Tried to watch the movie about the Three Gorges area, but my heart just wasnt in it. Marty and Eric stopped by on their way to try out the Vodka drinks on special from 5-6pm. Im more in the mood to have another scotch, and listen to CNN or BBC, both of which we get on the ships television. I must make one more comment on this shipits beautiful, and the first cruise was this spring so the boat is four months into service.
Dinner was pumpkin soup and peppered beef tried the banana crepes for desert. Came back to the cabin to read the band that starts at 9pm is not very good almost painful. Maybe Ill give them another chance assuming that the young crowd hangs out there if I could just make it to 10pm before crashing.
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