Blogs from Yangtze River, China, Asia - page 6

And so, waving our little red passports, we set off once more to escape the winter blues... But we didn't check the weather. Who would check the weather before heading off on holiday? Tsk, what a preposterous notion. Why check the weather before heading to an enourmous landmass in the middle of winter...? It all started off swimmingly and Hong Kong was lovely and warm. We caught up with Rob and Charlotte, our friends who have recently moved there, and before you could say 'Factor 30', we were on a beach enjoying the sun and tossing a ball about in the sea with all the smugness of some very smug people indeed. We drank too much, we pranced about in shorts and flip flops and acted like winter was but a fictitious flicker in the mind's ... read more

Today we sailed across the boarder from Chongqing to Wushan. We didn't get up as early this morning, deciding to skip the early morning tea but were woken by a ship announcement over loud speaker at 7am to say we were entering into the first gorge, the 'Qutang Gorge'. It is 8km long and took 20-30 minutes to pass through. Tam and I jumped out of bed and raced up the stairs to the deck area to watch and take photo's. It was freezing, especially as we were not prepared and put on minimal clothing. We then headed straight to breakfast! After breaky, a quick shower and we were off to another shore excursion. We got onto a smaller cruise boat and cruised through the 'Lesser Gorge' along the Daning River. It was beautiful and along ... read more

This blog covers 11th October to 14th October, which is the dates that we did a river cruise along the Yangtze River, the biggest river in China and the third biggest in the world. We didn’t have the Internet while on the ship, hence the reason I am so far behind in this blog. 11th October Not much happened today, it was a day dedicated to transit. We flew from Xi’an in the morning to Wuhan before taking a 4.5 hour bus ride to Yichang where the cruise started. We had dinner in Yichang, so by the time we got on the boat it was around the 9pm mark. On the ship there is no cash flow, everything is done by signing a chit sheet, which can be kind of scary! 12 October The cruise ship ... read more

Chinese Cruising - The Transfer On our last day in CQ we continued planning the next few legs of our trip and awaited our transfer to our Yangtze River cruise. As I mentioned, we almost booked a tour of China, to make things easier, but instead decided to fly solo. Our 3 night river cruise was the closest thing we have come to a tour since our one night on Halong Bay and our one night on Frasier Island. Let’s just say, it started with a bang and made us glad we did not book a longer tour. Our guide, John, was due at the hotel at 5pm, so we had tea and read in the lobby lounge waiting for him. He arrived a half hour early and said we were waiting for the driver. ... read more

We left 'The Johns' air conditioned apartment into the near 40 degree heat of Chongqing along with the other Irish couple and a couple from Quebec. Accompanied by our Chinese guide we headed to the ferry terminal all a little exicted and nervous to see the 'cruise ship' that would be our home for the next while. On arrival at the terminal we were greeted ,surprisingly, with sight of two familiar faces in the form of Mark and Emily; the Montreal couple who we met in Xi'an. We had a few reunion hugs and introduced them to the other couples. Just before boarding the ship we noticed a few officials taking tempretures to test for swine flu (not an ideal situation to be in after lugging your backpack in near 40 degree heat). However, after the ... read more