China Part 4: Yichang
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
23
90
Trip End
Jan 06, 2009
Yichang,
Hubei,
China
Monday, July 28, 2008
Hi everyone
Welcome to our China Trip part 4: Yichang - The Yangtse River Cruise Boat. This, so far, has proved to be the highlight of China.
So, we got to Xi'an airport. First our tour guide confidently strode us to the wrong check-in desk where we unfortunately queued for 20mins! Then our aeroplane was the size of a Bus! with about 50 people to full capacity on it with one stewardess in Levi's and the single pilot who could close his cockpit door over his shoulder while still steering the aeroplane!
After what seemed an eternity of shuffling and muttering we were told by the stewardess that due to bad weather in Yichang we were unable to fly
3 Gorge Dam
. So we all had to retrieve our hand luggage, get off the aeroplane and return to the Gate for further instructions. Our hand luggage by now is stretching the rules to the maximum, it was too big for this plane, but the levi'd stewardess found an empty seat for it...We got chatting to an American couple from Boston and a family of 5 from Seattle. It turned out we were all heading for the same destination: Yangtse River Cruise Boat so we all exchanged "we hope we don't miss the boat" fears. The Seattle family confessed that they'd had some other transport hitches in their travels to China, so we duly blamed them for this - it made everything better being able to blame someone for the weather JTwo hours later, we were back on the aeroplane and handed our 'in-flight' meal while the aeroplane doors were still open! - A bun and 6 cherry tomatoes...!? On our arrival at Yichang it was raining and according to the local newspaper there were severe flooding with boats capsizing and people drowning! Reassuring then... Collected by private car at the airport we were then transferred onto a large coach and reunited with the Seattle family. At about 10pm, in the middle of absolutely nowhere, our coach stopped, a policeman appeared and then the coach's engine got switched off. Never a good sign. There was a road block ahead and the police were NOT letting us through. Loud 'Charley says' debating followed for 20minutes
Yangtse River
. Obviously this was the Seattle families fault again, specifically Kirk, the dad... (sorry Kirk)One U-turn and a 3minute drive later, we stopped at a T-junction and further raucous debating about which way to go. We had to find a new route but which route was the route to our cruise??! 5minutes later was a 2nd road block. More debating but they opened the gate for us and we all cheered! Finally, the port!! We now had to descend into a massive industrial cable car that took us all down a very steep hill to our waiting cruise. What an epic journey!! It had taken us 7 hours instead of the expected 3!!!
Our boat was huge but our cabin was tiny with 2 single beds! There was a beauty salon, worship room (Buddha, with some labour saving mantra drums), restaurant, 3 bars, shops. After a great night's sleep we woke to the sounds of Chinese Romeo and Juliet emanating from the loudspeaker followed by a "..first let's focus on the weather...it will be sunny" announcements! Breakfast was sumptuous. Sharing tables meant "make friends fast!" with other passengers. We told our American friends about our long Honeymoon and they just laughed and said "wow! You guys! That's just so great!" We then told a couple from Yorkshire and they muttered "oh..well, it's finding time isn't it?..." and turned away! Cultural differences abound.
I went to the beauty salon to have my hair washed and blow dried. I had the most beautiful head massage at the sink and then with a towel wrapped around my hair, I got my ears cleaned out with cotton buds!!! They don't do that in Coventry!!! (David: I went on deck and watched the first of the three gorges slip by in spectacular beauty.)
Our first tour off of the boat was a coach trip to the 3 Gorges dam, it's massive, and we were really eager to see it
Yangtse River 2
. The largest hydro-electric power station in the world! Sadly though there was no spectacular discharge that day as it hadn't been raining that much up stream. (won't be fully operational till 2011 apparently) so it was a great view of the concrete and steel structures but no gushing water.That night was a special 'Captain's Drinks' followed by dinner and a Big Show - so dress up smart, we were told. We were slightly late for this so missed shaking the Captain's hand but we made it for a photo session with the Captain!!! After dinner was the show. We were treated to a series of mini-sketches of singing and dancing with stunning costume changes and Chinese music, all very beautiful and then a short silent comedy sketch. Very funny. The entire night was composed of crew. So behind the bar washing up and making cocktails was the boat Doctor! And the musicals composed of Housekeeping, "There's Lisa who we got our extra pillow from...", waitressing "there's Betty from Breakfast..." and the cleaning crew on board! Although the boat was fairly large it was also very intimate so everyone knew the crew and the crew knew everyone by name and it was just like one big happy family.
After the show was some audience participation! Kirk, the Seattle father, a Chinese woman and David got pulled up to play Musical Chairs to Tom Jones crooning. Well, actually, David returned from the loo when they were pleading for one more person to participate so I shouted out David's name and a crew member ran over, grabbed him and got him on stage. David whispered to Kirk on stage "what am I supposed to be doing?!" David had half a cheek on a chair but let Kirk take it and then Kirk won!!! Bulldozer bum we called him.
The pea pods
Our next 'off-boat' tour was a boat tour, oddly. We went upstream along the Yangtse River and then we were all grouped off into separate 'pea-pods'. These are long narrow rowing boats that literally look like a pea-pod with 5 of the most athletic Chinese men rowing us down the winding river and then punting with bamboo sticks in the shallower waters. We passed waterfalls and heaven-high sheer rockfaces with Chinese Nancy commentating. When we got to the shallow part of the river, the rowers jumped out and played tug of war with a long piece of bamboo pulling the boat through the water while screaming orders to each other in Chinese. Incredible. There was a small Chinese/English boy sat behind us dying for a bit of drama in his life so every 5 minutes he'd shout "we're all going to die!" I encouraged him!
We learnt how to play Mah Jong on the cruise boat thanks to Jenny, a Chinese/American from California. VERY addictive game. The Seattle family, David and I also had a very rowdy card game of Egyptian Rats tails which is basically Snap. Blood gets shed as fingernails and rings become weapons when you slap your hand down before anyone else! We were told to Shhh by the bar staff because our competitive rowdiness was disrupting the Mah Jong Players!
On our final day, we got to see the real China
Our Pea Pod rowers
. We had just returned from a day trip to find some lame beggars on the path back to our boat. One skeletal man had just one leg. One woman appeared to be blind, kneeling beside her toddler daughter both begging. Another small child sat silently cross legged helplessly holding his hands out in hope for something. They all looked filthy dirty and dressed in rags. It really made our hearts wrench to see it and we just had to rush past. You give to one, you give to them all and where do you stop? This was the advice we were given. However, our moods soon changed when, as we closed the curtains to our cabin for an afternoon snooze, we noticed that the 'lame' beggars were trotting off along the harbour to another packed coach full of tourists! We stood in shock as we watched the once one-legged man miraculously find his missing limb striding along the path. And the once blind mother miraculously found her eyesight. Presumably Buddha had answered all their prayers....they are the lucky ones...! fecking beggars my fecking backside!On our final night, the Captain held a brief farewell speech as we all sat down for dinner. Unfortunately, David and I missed this as we were still exchanging "are you sure I look ok in this?" questions! Later, there was the Talent Show!! I volunteered David as a Talent Show Contestant - being the dutiful wife that I am. There was another passenger who showed us his karate moves...interesting.....and then David was up
Pea Pod rowers playing tug of war with our boat!
. He did an amazing card trick resulting in us Brits and yanks roaring and cheering while the Chinese looked very puzzled - "what just happened?!" Susan our Chinese Host did a quick explanation at the end but I don't think the Chinese got it at all, sadly. No Talent Show prizes were awarded...boo! But Kirk was nice enough to donate a DVD of the cruise since he and his daughter Chrissy had both won one during the trip.On the morning of our departure, we packed up, said goodbye to everyone we had made friends with on the boat exchanging email addresses. Hoping to meet up with them again when we get to the US. Then Daisy our Chinese tour guide gave us a very brief run down to Chong Qing which is a small city with only 31million people living there!!!!!!!!! This does include other districts of Chong Qing though!! It's a very industrial city with towering apartment blocks everywhere you look! and from here we would be flying to our next destination: Shanghai.
Love, us xxx
