Yangtse Cruise Day 3: The long day
Trip Start
Sep 17, 2007
1
114
272
Trip End
Oct 08, 2008
Wuhan,
Hubei,
China
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Travis and I enjoyed the gorges together in the cold morning. The overall effect of the gorge was dramatic and beautiful, and because of the half light it was all in shades of gray-green, which was very pretty
through the gorges in the early morning
. When life got less interesting we sat down for breakfast and hot instant mocha coffee. We were shortly joined by the rest of our posse, but the most exciting part of the day was pretty much over. We spent the vast majority of the boat ride attempting to conquer medium and difficult sudoku puzzles. Some of us were better at it than others, but no one gave up, which was quite impressive. Andy opted out of the sudoku and disappeared, and Travis never does sudoku puzzles, but he stayed with us and scolded me for making everyone else addicted. He also ate a massive amount of peanuts. Although we were being low-key, the Chinese tourists were being really loud. This is because Chinese is apparently very loud, as I have said, but that doesn't mean you don't get a headache after a while. Also, the children were huddled in front of the TV watching a movie that had way too many explosions and fight scenes to be child-appropriate. Travis watched part of the movie and was vastly appreciative of the fact that the main character was a little kid with super-human kung-fu powers, but only when he was within 500 meters of his mom or something like that. It was still early in the day when the ship landed at Mao Ping, which is the last place a ship can go before it falls over the Three Gorges Dam. We were told we wouldn't see the dam. This is not true. But the photo from the lakeside is boring and we were in a moving car when we saw the other side
goddess peak
. Nevertheless, the dam is quite impressive, even if you don't approve of it. Everyone was supposedly divided into "those that are touring the dam" and "those that aren't," but I think we all piled into the same buses. The first bus we tried to get onto was a bust. We took the time to put our bags in the undercarriage (which we were instructed to do by finger pointing), but by the time we got on the bus there were no seats, although we think that two of the seats were being held for no one by greedy men who wanted more space to themselves. We were then told to get on a different bus, which wasn't open, so we got on a completely different bus without actually knowing if it went to Yichang, which was where we were supposed catch our bus to Wuhan. It was quite an adventure, and not in the good way, because by this time all six of us were tired and double tired of the language barrier and being stared at for being white. I tried to ask if the bus was going to Yichang by saying the name and everyone looked at me like I was stupid. Not crazy. Stupid. Finally Travis espied the only English-speaking guide from our boat and asked him to check if the bus was what we wanted. It was. We set in for a wait, since the bus wasn't even half full. Bets were made as to when we would leave. Marilen was right and therefore the winner of 5 beers, but she never took us up on it.
An hour and a half later we landed in Yichang
pointy mountain
. There were two stops here, and we weren't sure where to get off, so we just sat tight and waited for something to happen. I fed everyone PB and J, which apparently is not an English or German construction. We were all happy for the snack. The bus to Wuhan magically worked (as does everything in China), but Steve, Andy, Travis and I were separated from Christin and Marilen. After a four hour drive we arrived in a dark Wuhan. As is becoming more and more typical, the bus stopped in some random spot. This time outside a hotel. We had to get taxis to the only youth hostel in Wuhan, Pathfinder, which split our group up yet again. Trav's and my driver almost knew where we were going, but ended up dropping us next to what turned out to be the art school, leaving us clueless as to where we were meant to go. During a completely useless discussion conducted in English on our side and Chinese on the driver and the school guard's, we were told to walk the rest of the way, and the meter kept running. I looked at it one moment and it was 29, and told Trav to pay, and a moment later the driver was demanding more money because while we were debating the meter hopped up another step. Cheap shot, honestly. So just get out of a cab and go if this ever happens to you. Or pay the driver before you get out of the car.
I wondered to Travis how likely it was that any of the others would actually make it to the hostel
nice view
. We walked in the door to find Christin and Marilen already there, and as Trav and I checked in Steve and Andy walked in. Woot! The team was still together. After checking in we decided to go on a food hunt, specifically McDonald's. Travis opted out because he wasn't feeling well, which was probably good because when I told him what we all ate the next day he was completely appalled. Our hostess wrote us up a card to give to the cab driver, who apparently couldn't read it because he kept taking us to KFC, which a) we didn't want and b) closed at 11. It was 11:30. By the second KFC Andy moaned, "No, McDonald's, man." We ended up crossing the river, and all five of us spotted a McDonald's at the same time. Our excitement led the driver to stop and we finally managed to get into the restaurant, only to discover that there were no french fries. We all made up for it in some fashion. I ate two Big Macs, which my mates laughed at, but honestly they weren't any better. They just ate several different things. Except Marilen, who ate three cheesburgers. It really was disgustingly unhealthy, but it tasted oh so good, especially after three days of instant noodles and peanut butter sandwiches.
We all returned to the hostel fed and happy with life.
Erin
