Three Gorges
Trip Start
Jan 04, 2008
1
113
130
Trip End
Dec 17, 2008
Yichang,
Hubei,
China
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
After a full days traveling and another set meal dinner, we finally made it to the port to get on board the boat at about 8 pm. The port was very quiet with hardly anybody around, a bit creepy to be honest with you. As we walked down to the boat I could see people privately praying to themselves that we wouldn't be on any of the boats to the left as they looked disgusting, so there were sighs of relief as we boarded the nicest looking boat on the right hand dock, but not before we had gone across a couple of really bad boats to get through to ours. After boarding we were shown to our rooms, ours being quite nice really. It had a bit of a weird smell, but a hard double bed (we'd had singles up to then) and an en-suite with finally windows all to the front of the boat to enjoy the views. We met up with the rest of the group and went to the top floor to have a few beers while we waited for the boat to depart. It ended up being quite a good night with a few beers drunk and Keith ending up dancing with the massage girl though the strange thing was no one else on the boat was in the bar.
After a good night previously the next morning wasn't the best start to the day.
Three Gorges
Firstly Melissa walked into the restaurant with her Intrepid bag which had been gnawed by rats to get to the food inside, then Maedi confirmed she had seen a rat face to face that night and had to move into Keith's room to get away from them in her room. Suddenly the breakfast didn't look that appealing, not that porridge and weird soup was so in the first place. We didn't really have time to vent our anger and disgust to the ships management as we had a trip through the gorges to a smaller river and boat trip with the trackers people, but obviously the whole morning was spent discussing the rat problem and how if possible we could get off the boat. Obviously Frank wasn't full of alternatives at that time so we got on a smaller tourist boat and made our way down some smaller river to rendezvous with the boat tracker people. As we sailed up river it was astonishing to see half submerged houses and bridges from the original villages. These have now been replaced by concrete boxes either side of the river, the new apartments of those people displaced by the project and the water level rising 175 metres. If only they could have done it a bit more tastefully and with some heritage in mind. I'm not really sure what the official title for this group of people are but they pull boats upstream in teams of four using rope made from bamboo. They used to do it naked but now they wear skimpy underwear or shorts and sandals made from twine, they are the Boat Tracker People of the Yhangtzi river.
Three Gorges
In effect 20 of us got into this long narrow boat and watched four men in underwear and sports jackets row us to a smaller stream and then haul us up a small set of rapids just for us to go back down the rapids again, all in the name of tourism. It was quite a pleasant way to spend the morning though, with both them and our female guide singing songs as we went up the river, their muscles popping out of their legs hauling 1 tonne of tourists up the river, I'm just glad they don't do this naked anymore. After the boat tracker experience it was time for lunch, but for obvious reasons no-one in the group was feeling very hungry, we were on the rice diet. Attempts were made to try and get Frank to get us off the boat that evening, but apparently it wasn't possible and another night on the Good Ship Ratty was in store. Apparently we sailed through one of the three gorges that afternoon, but I don't think anyone noticed as we were all trying to catch up on lost sleep during daylight hours. Obviously at dinner not much food was consumed, and the evening was spent watching a very bad cabaret show whilst trying to consume as much alcohol to get us to sleep without worrying about the visitors at night.
The next morning there was obvious relief on every ones faces as we disembarked from the boat, the last two nights had be an ordeal to say the least, which was a shame because the area was very scenic in parts and the whole experience had been ruined by a few rodents.
All in the past now and next up on the itinerary was to see the 3 gorges dam itself, apparently the largest dam in the world in terms of volume of water that can pass through it.
Three Gorges
We had high exepectations of something like the Hoover Dam but this was nowhere near as spectacular as this is a wide dam (2,000m) rather than tall, plus the Chinese don't seem to do anything aesthetically, rather more functionality. Don't get me wrong, this is an impressive feat of engineering, but it just looks plain ugly and the fact they had to displace 20 million people in order to do the project would make you think they may make it look half decent at the end. We spent a couple of hours wandering around the site, checking out the boat locks and boat elevator as well as the communist sculptures and propaganda on how good the project was for the people of China. I just couldn't help thinking it was a hell of a lot of sacrifice by both people and nature, plus $20 billion to only provide 5% of the nations energy, why not just build another nuclear power plant ? Time for lunch and there were a few groans as Frank confirmed it would be another set meal. Thankfully though after the experience of the last few days the lunch was very good indeed and everyone seemed a lot more cheery as we made our way for the overnight train to Xian and the terracotta soldiers. Most people in the group were quite anxious about the overnight train especially after two restless nights on the boat, but the soft sleeper cabins were quite nice and I think most people had a good nights sleep. Even myself and Keith who were sharing with a woman and baby and her mother got some reasonable shut eye to arrive in good spirits in Xian the next morning.
Comments
You jammy buggers...
Definately a place for a Busman's holiday for me but you can definately keep the rats.
Some excellent comment re Chinese engineering practices. They don't do Art Deco and they certainly aren't up to western standards when it comes to protecting archaeological sites. Sadly the 3 Gorges scheme would need 22 UK nuclear power stations to replace it in capacity terms - the Chinese would just build 22 coal stations instead. Nerrr... spod moment over...
Looks like a fantastic series of valleys - few hundred miles long aren't they? I think you got spoiled on your first leg visiting all those first world places ...and Australia.
Keep up the good, er, work!
Gareth