Day 306 - What do you do with 8 hours in Wazou?

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The morning started with no one manning the front desk of the hotel, so we were not able to get the deposit back for the key. Not the start we wanted. Our taxi ride then took us to the Hydrofoil port, which was nowhere near the water. This did not bode well, and we were ushered onto a bus and driven an hour up the river, driving past the dam, the very dam we were assured we would go through by our guidebook (the repeatedly poor Rough Guide) and by the ticket office. Finding a seat on the hydrofoil, we then set off on the 5 hour journey upstream. The scenery we went through this morning was awesome, sheer lush green cliffs rising out of the water which used to be much taller than they are at the moment before the water level rose due to the dam, and the water is still rising. We are not too sure which of the gorges were the 3 Gorges but we were impressed with what we saw.

Arriving at Wazou, we decided not to continue with our intended journey to Chongqing, which would take 4 hours on a bus and then the hope of getting there in time to connect with an overnight train. Instead we thought we’d see if we could get a direct bus to Chengdu. A taxi driver tries to rip us off but picks on the wrong people: after 10 months of travelling we are wise to most of their tricks and then have the argument once he’s reluctantly turned on his meter and delivered us to our destination. He gets angry. At the bus station we find out at 1pm that the only bus leaves at 8pm. We go for it and set ourselves for a long wait. So what do you do with 8 hours in Wazou, a city of similar size to Portsmouth that gets a single sentence in our 1000+ page guidebook (that tells its own tale about China’s immense scale)? Well Ed got a haircut, and a very thorough one at that, with a double rinse afterwards and even his hair blow dried, all for 60p.

We then go in search of some food, and we find comfort under some golden arches. A small child with a McDonalds bag prompted a madman-like ‘Where did you get that?’ to her and her bemused mother. We have tried eating the Chinese food we would like to think more than most, and we are fans, to a point. But recently as we have made our way west the dishes have got more, well, weirder. With a recent serving of cold and very odd chicken and something we could not even identify, we have recently been feeling a little hungry. We did a Big Mac proud.

We also found a nice hotel that allowed us to sit on the internet and do some planning and arranging for what is coming up. It was a great afternoon, not rushed, and had as a highlight a Western-style toilet; details of the more typical variety we’ll spare you.

Arriving back at the bus terminal we locate our bus and notice that the seats have been replaced by beds. A first for us, but something we highly recommend - 36 proper lie-down beds on a coach. Lights were out at 8.15 and we were left to our dreams, or rather nightmares of coaches racing around bends.

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