Yangtse River Cruise

Sunday, June 29, 2008 (Continued)-Tuesday, July 1, 2008

I was escorted to the bus from the office where I bought my ticket. There were many people there for the same cruise. I put my luggage on the bus and got on. It was obvious there were already too many people, but many of the men started leaving. I went toward the back only to discover that there was no other seat after everyone in front of me sat down. But a young man stood up and told me to take his seat. I declined, but he insisted saying that he could sit on the step in the aisle. I already had my name tag around my neck for the tour, so it was like being a man from an old folks home on an outing--my ID around my neck and a young man giving up his seat for me! His name was Daniel, and he had traveled here overland from his home country of Poland. But he speaks Chinese and has been working in Shanghai for a couple of years with Delphi Corporation. He was touring China on his way to his home there. A seat opened up in front, so he got it and everyone was happy that way.

It was a miserable bus ride of 3 1/2 hours. The road was rough even though it is an expressway. For me, it was just too much of a repeat of the trip I had coming to Chongqing. But we did eventually reach the boat. What a relief.

Daniel had only bought a passage ticket and planned to sleep in a sleeping bag and/or hammock he had with him. I offered him the use of my room, since I had a room with two beds all to myself. He insisted on sleeping on the roof of the boat, however. He did take showers in my room and stored his luggage there throughout the trip, however.

The whole trip was much better than I expected. My room and its accompanying bath were larger and nicer than I thought they would be. The stops along the way were really nice. The food was reasonable in price and quite good. And there were many people who became friends during the voyage. We had 3 days of good companionship and activities!!

The people I met and got to know well in addition to Daniel from Poland were:

1. Two young women from the U.S. who have finished their junior year majoring in Chinese at Middlebury College and have been in China for a 6-month on-site language experience. (Once they found out about around-the-world tickets, I think they have decided to take a one-year trip after they graduate next year.)

2. Two American law professors from Spokane, Washington. They are traveling together on their way to Nepal to visit the village where one of them grew up and still has family.

3. Two Chinese professors--a dean and a vice-dean. They are both in computer sciences and one of them specializes in robots.

4. A Chinese-American who owns a restaurant and lives on Long Island and who speaks no Chinese. (He's had some interesting experiences, since everyone here expects him to understand them and to be able to talk to them.)

5. Two young Australian men, one of whom had quite a sense of humor.

6. An Irish man and his Malaysian fiance (of Chinese descent).

By the time the tour came to an end, I hated to say good-bye to these people. They were all interesting and good people. Dan, the Chinese American who speaks no Chinese said, however, that he might take a Southwest Airlines flight to San Antonio in the fall to explore the city since he had heard so many good things about it.

We went through the Three Gorges. But we also went through the Three Little Gorges and the Three Mini Gorges on a side trip. So there was plenty of scenery. All were just beautiful. The weather cooperated with sunshine most of the time and with light foggy haze in the mornings. I didn't realize how lucky we were with our view until I was told by one of the Chinese professors that the lake will rise to its full height in September (apparently the government is waiting until after the Olympics visitors have had a chance for a tour). That will be 30 more meters higher than the lake was during our tour. That will make a big difference in the view. The mountains won't seem so high nor as dramatic. The only thing to mar the pleasure was the amount of trash floating in the lake. Chinese throw everything out or over whenever they are finished with it, so all kinds of matter can be seen floating on the surface of the lake. The side trips to the little and mini gorges were nice because there was much less trash there. That was probably due to the fact that the large ships don't sail that way. (We took small boats for those tours.)

We stopped at two temples and had entertainment twice on the visit. I didn't go to the first temple. It was the first night only an hour after we had left, and I just didn't want to see a temple. The second one, I saw, but I could have done without it. It was the entertainment that I especially enjoyed. One night, there were local people singing, dancing, playing drums and horns, and reciting poetry for us. It was a big crowd pleaser. It was by the temple I visited which is known for being the temple of a poet that UNESCO has listed as one of the greatest 10 poets to have ever lived. That's why we heard the poetry. In fact, China has just established a 3-day holiday in honor of this poet starting this year and continuing every year in the future.

The other excursion/show was the highlight of the trip (besides seeing the scenery) for me. We left our ship on dragon boats and had a dragon boat race. My boat won first place!! Then we continued to a small gorge where we hiked back inside a smaller gorge and then climbed up stairs to the top of the gorge and walked back up there and then down again. When we were returning, there was high-wire entertainment. A bicycist was going over a wire across the wider gorge. Soon he was joined by a unicyclist going across on the same wire. Then came a person attached at the waist and spinning his/her way across the wire. And finally, a motorcyclist came across, picked up the spinner, and took him/her back. All these people were on that wire and moving at the same time. It was fantastic.

After the high-wire act, there was a stage act. The stage was on the edge of the water and was open-air. There were banners blowing in the breeze along the sides, and huge butterflies were fluttering in and around the audiance. Again, we had singing and dancing, but we also had a short play.

When we got to the dam, we had a tour of it. But that was a waste of time and money. There really was nothing of importance to see other than a view of the dam. I would have preferred skipping it and going on into town. But we spent about 2 1/2 hours being taken from place to place to see it from different angles. The only view I appreciated was the one when we saw the ships going through the locks to get past the dam.

Unfortunately, I got separated from my friends during the tour of the dam, because they were going elsewhere afterwards and I was staying in town for the night. It was sad not to be able to say a final good-bye to all of them. But they all took my e-mail address, and I hope to hear from them.

I had booked a hotel with the guide from my group on the boat. She had said that it would be near the train station, but it was about 2 km (over a mile) away. Anyway, I checked into the hotel and went to the train station to buy a ticket for tomorrow. I returned to a cyber cafe across the street from the hotel only to find that I could not post to the blog. I tried and tried. Finally, I gave up and went to a nearby restaurant to have a plate of beef and mushrooms with rice. Then I was so tired that I went to bed at 8:30 and slept for 11 hours!!

July 2, 2008--Yichang to Jishou

My train was at 13:30, so I decided to go to the cyber cafe again and try to write in the blog. Again, however, I could not access it. Then I talked to another tourist at the hotel who told me that he understood that government bans on websites were done regionally. Apparently Hubei Province or the area around Yichang has banned Blogger.

The rail trip was longer than I expected. It took me 7 hours to get to Jishou, so it was 20:30 when I got off the train. It was dark and I was tired. But the trip went as well as it could. Everyone around me was nice and was looking after me. They were also enjoying watching me. They thought it was so much fun to watch me eat my dinner with chopsticks on the train. The guy across from me kept trying to show me how to scoop rapidly from the box into my mouth. A young boy nearby sat beside me and rubbed the hair on my arm for a while. A baby across from me kept wanting me to hold her.

I don't know if I am staying in the hotel recommended by the guidebook or not, since there are only Chinese symbols on the signage. But I got a good place to stay. It is equivalent to the 3-star places I have been on this trip, but the price is only 100 yuan ($14.30 U.S.) per night. I'm looking forward to going back there to sleep as soon as I finish this post. I knew there was a 24-hour cyber cafe by the train station, and I saw it as I went to the hotel. So I returned to see if I could post or not. This is now Hunan Province, so I guess I have moved away from the area of the ban!!