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Day 33 (...cont)
We arrived at the port for the Yangtze Cruise and were disappointed to find that the Alaskan couple, Ben and Faye, that we'd met in the tour office would be on a different boat. We boarded the boat and were shown to our first class cabin - check us out! We had decided to go 'luxury' having taken various pieces of advice. However, you should remember that first class only means better than the other cabins on the boat and not what we might normally consider to be first class! We explored the boat, met a couple of Russian guys, Alex and Yury, and then relaxed in our cabin and watched out of the window as we left Chonqing at around midnight.
Day 34
Having been told by our tour guide (who spoke very limited English but was very smiley) that we needed to be ready at 6.30am we got up early and sat out on deck (in the rain sadly!) waiting to arrive at our first port of call. Over an hour later we were told we'd soon be arriving - oh to be able to understand the Chinese announcements!
Disembarking, we
climbed up the bank and were allocated our tour guide who spoke no English, this was going to be interesting. We were told to get on a golf cart (which we reluctantly paid 20 Yuan for despite the fact that this trip was suposed to be included in the price) rather than walking the "20 min walk" to the entrance gate. The equivalent of a 5 min walk later we were there! Locating our guide we approached her to get our ticket and were met with what can only be described as a Kevin and Perry style Chinese tantrum every time we tried to ask a question - amusing but annoying. Deciding enough Chinese / English relations had gone on, we ditched the tour and went out alone.
The temple we were visiting was called FengDu or the Ghost Town and was very different to anything we had visited before. We started by going up though a freaky market to a couple of temples exhibiting both comical and grotesque devils. It was one of those places where you were quite glad that you were there in daylight! Through here we climbed a huge set of stairs and entererd a
gateway shaped like a devil's mouth - picking up a pic of Chrissie giving a classsic Smith lean on the devil's tooth. Here there was a walk through ghost train taking tourists through some of the more wierd and wonderful legends about the temple and its occupants. It was amusing rather than scary and really the only word that comes to mind to truly decribe it is .... well ... unique!
We then climbed the hill to see the actual temples which had a spooky and strange feel to them. On the way back down the hill we met a monk who taught Mark how to put a candle out by pushing the air into the flame, Mark reciprocated by showing him that it was much easier to blow it out!
Back on the boat and we were able to have a catch up wih Ben and Faye across ships. We then proceeded to have a relaxing day doing what we both love best - Mark sleeping and Chrissie reading untll we went for a wander and met two other Brits on the boat, Twan and Alastair. Revelling in the possibility of a conversation with some fellow travellers,
Up on deck
Making full use of our wet weather gearwe invited them for a beer, starting the ball rolling for an evening of beer, Great Wall wine, Poker and Kareoke - very unexpected but a great night! The all Chinese kareoke bar even dug out and dusted off the only two CD's of songs in English and proceeded to put a couple on and hand the microphone to Mark!
With night closing in and with another stop planned for the day, we were wondering if this had been axed off the itinerary - until 4 hours later than planned (11:00pm) we stopped for the tour. Chrissie with a bit of a cold decided to give it a miss, Mark however wanted to get his money's worth and jumped back onto dry land to check it out. It was bobbins, but he picked up another couple of safety beers - just in case we ran out at any point in time. Back in the warmth of the boat we called it a night.
Day 35
There was an early morning tour of the White King Town not included in the price of the ticket and which it was voted (by an overwhelming majority of 2) that we
not bother with. Chatting to Alex and Yury after the event this was a wise move.
We then went on deck to see the the boat cruise through the first of the spectacular (big) Three Gorges. It was incredible with the banks of the river rising and making any of the other craft we could see on the water look quite insignificant. It was quite misty and drizzled on occasions, but this did not dampen spirits or make the scenery any less impressive.
2 hours later than expected (we had pretty much thrown the itinerary out of the window by this point) we arrived at Wushan to transfer to smaller boats for the tour of the Little Three Gorges. These were stunning, with the banks of the river that much closer, the views were even more breathtaking. We were lucky enough to get the same boat as Alastair and Twan where we immediately had a disagreement with one of the officials on the boat who wanted us to pay to go onto the top deck area - which amused us greatly! We then headed through gorges interspersed with random stops for food and souvenirs. At one of the
She might be a Hayward now...
...but she can still do the Smith lean! stops, Mark decided to get a snack of 'Chick on a stick'.We are not sure exactly what it was but it didn't actually have much meat on and it tasted a bit gamey.
At the end of the thrid small gorge everyone transfered to even smaller boats. We made sure we had found Twan and Alastare to go on the same boat as them, but we were stunned with the bedlam that ensued! It was amazing - you would have thought we were on a sinking ship with the panic; elbows flying here, people barging and pushing. It was hilarious. To my knowledge there were fatalities but there must have been a number of bruises! We were soon to discover that this is not limited to boats, but that there is an every person for themselves policy for any queuing in China!
The small boats took us through the mini three gorges which were even narrower. It was superb to be right at the bottom of the towering gorges and really gave a good sense of the scale of the surroundings. To celebrate our trip through the mini three gorges everyone on board was given a medal by
the singing boat man, who promptly came back around asking for money to pay for it - we gave the medal back!
We returned back thorugh the mini and the small three gorges braving the rain on the decks so we could savour every moment of the views around us. This part of the tour had been fantastic and we'd highly recommend the cruise to anybody visiting china as the scenery truly takes your breath away.
When we arrived back in Wushan we gathered that we were being given a bus ride to town to see a show. After the, now familiar, barging to get aboard the bus we arrived in town and went for a quick but delicious dinner (ordered for us by Twan and Alastair's Chinese room mates) and then went to see the show. This was an extremely bizarre, Butlins-style cabaret which we didn't understand at all but clapped loudly anyway!
We returned to our main ship for the rest of the night and had a few beers and sang a few songs on the kareoke - most of which came on screen without any words - not quite the kareoke we're used to!
Day 36
Our last cruising day! Sadly we missed the second of the three larger gorges as we passed through it extremely early and we were asleep! Waking to a bright and sunny day we went straight out on deck to enjoy the last gorge and catch some rays.
At the end of the cruise we passed the massive Yangtze Dam. We have felt very lucky to be able to experience the Yangztze the way it is today as by 2009, when the dam opens, the water levels will have risen substantially and the scenery completely altered.
We caught the bus from the end of the cruise to Yichang were we transferred to a bus to Wuhan. This was supposed to take 3 hours, but not surprisingly, took 6! Arriving at around 11pm and not sure where we were, but sure we weren't where we were supposed to be, we got a taxi to our hostel. After a couple of much needed beers and some fabulous noodles we went to bed.
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K.Valentine
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Herro
Herro there guys - your day 35 sounds like a far more exotic day of hecticness than our technical run!!! U are looking fab in da pictures and missing ya both loads. Oh got tabard into the show as a tribute. K xxxxxxxxx