Yangtze River Cruise "Tour"

Trip Start Feb 25, 2006
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Trip End Jun 24, 2009


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Flag of China  ,
Wednesday, September 5, 2007

I hadn't really considered cruising down the Yangtze River because I needed to go SE and the river went NE away from my exit point from China, Shenzhen. But considering my health and the alternative plan that took me on a "drive by tour" of China in a more "direct" route to Shenzhen was insanity at best, I chose Plan B. Of course, the places I wanted to directly visit were a bit off the beaten track and there were only more expensive hotels as no backpacker places have been built. The idea was to take a 5 hour bus to Dazu to see the Grottoes and Rock Carvings then catch the last bus for Chongqing to catch an overnight train to Guiyang (19 hours) then immediately catch a bus to Anshun (2hours) to go see the Huangguoshu Falls, then catch a train to Kaili 4(hours) stay the night there after 2 straight days of travel and sight seeing. Then catch a train to Canton on my way to Shenzhen. Fortunately, I met a Dutch couple that had just gotten off a 5 star cruise on the Yangtze and really enjoyed it Chongqing by Cable Car
Chongqing by Cable Car
 . A 5 Star cruise was out of the question for me so I decided to take the easy route and book a "tour" from the Travel Agency. Of course, they didn't tell me that the "tour" started with a 7am bus to Chongqing even though the boat didn't leave until 11pm that night. We arrived in Chongqing around noon so we had 11 hours to kill in the fastest growing city in China. Billions of RMB are being poured into developing this city and to help spread the prosperity to central China instead of only the coastal and border cities. An Austrian couple (No Kangaroos) that were staying at Sims got shanghaied on the same tour, but paid an extra 250Y each for what, we never figured out. (same bus, same boat, same room, same tours...) The tour guide in Chongqing that was supposed to meet us at the bus was late so we stood around until someone noticed a couple whiteys and figured out we were waiting for John and called him for us. We dropped off our bags in his office and set out around the town. Basically, that was the extent of the "tour". We had about 8 hours to kill before boarding the boat. I was exhausted as I didn't sleep the night before and barely caught a wink on the bus down. I don't know how I made it through the day. Everywhere we looked there was construction going on and dust in the air. Buildings seemed to be sprouting out of the ground like it was spring time in concrete land. When we got to the other side of the river, we decided to head towards a bar from The Book, but never made it that far Old West Chongqing
Old West Chongqing
 . We stopped at a river side cafe and had beers alfresco instead. We had heard the food on the ship wasn't very good and was quite expensive so we stopped at Carrefour to stock up on alcohol and snacks for the trip. We managed to time it just about perfectly and got back to the office about 5 minutes before boarding. Once we got on the ship, I could see that Chongqing looked far better at night than in the day when you can see the thickness of the air pollution hanging in the mid day sun. I couldn't wait to get going. Fortunately for me, I shared my cabin with the 2 Austrians and an Australian(Have Kangaroos) that were kewl and the only non-smokers on the boat. I literally would have died if I had to share my room with chain smoking Chinese people. There were very few Lao Wais on the boat. The cruise was mostly local Chinese tourists. I was so tired from the day, I musta been asleep before the boat started moving. The next morning came far too early. At 6am, our tour guide came knocking at our door to rouse us for the tour of the Ghost City of Fengdu and Temple. I was in no mood for anything at this time of the morning so I slept in and skipped it.

My lungs were so thrashed by this time I couldn't even sit in an outdoor deck with people smoking around me. So necessity helped me to find the best spot on the boat where there were no people and had a great view of the river Male Fashion
Male Fashion
 . There was a small section on either side of the bow that was outside and separated by a smoke proof door. But since there were no seats, no one else was in this uninviting spot. I had a vision of 4 chairs and a table in a smoke free zone. I subscribe to the theory that it's OK to do something until someone tells me that I can't. I took a chair from the smokers deck and brought it up to the bow and told my roomies to follow if no one stopped me. Well someone stopped me, but I asked him wei shen ma (Why) it was not possible as he dragged my chair all the way back to the stern. Then I flashed him my 60Y all access pass and he relented when he couldn't come up with an ing wei (because). From this point on, this little haven of smoke free deck was ours and I wasn't giving it up for anything or anybody! We took turns guarding the spot day and night (alright maybe not at night). But with the help of most Chinese people being scared of Lao Wais and the fact they might speak English at them, we were able to keep the area to ourselves pretty much for the entire rest of the cruise. Thank GOD! On one of the land excursions, the American from 3rd class steerage saw me talking to the Aussie and came up to us all excited and said, "you speak English... Where have you been hiding?" I said, "well yes, I've been practicing for many years, thank you". He turned out to be a pretty kewl kid scarily less than half my age. I had to admire that he had already made it out of the country before his 20th birthday and was wandering around China. I guess that it helps that he was studying Chinese in Uni. This post is dragging even for me so I'm gonna end it now.
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