China – more cruising down the river
The boat was great, our room was awesome and we were very excited about being “looked after”. No speaking the bastardized Mandarin, no more ordering veggies and getting meat dishes. We had our own comfy bathroom, our own deck and our well stocked beer fridge than should be enough for the journey and any small party we may host while on board! So much more luxurious than what we’re used to , but for this kind of cruise, why the hell not!!?
The first evening was just getting out of the harbour, saftey stuff, blah, blah, blah – but how exciting to have enough life jackets that people didn’t have to share!! This was so different from our travel in Thailand where it was 3 people to one life vest!
Day 1 was pretty relaxing as we cruised down the river enjoying what limited sun came through the haze/pollution. Our first morning we woke up to classical music on the bedside speakers….how weird! There were various presentations WITH volunteers that took place in the morning about reflexology and acupuncture. In the afternoon we visited Fengdu – The Ghost city where we were equipped with our own English speaking guide. No thinking on our own, we just got to turn our brains off and let someone lead us along like sheep! It was nice for a change! Temples, more temples and pagodas everywhere….there are 400 steps to climb that we used as a means of exercise….yippee, we know….pretty sad. The coolest part were the torture scenes depicted on either side of the main temple.
That evening we had a Captain’s Welcome Banquet….fancy, smancy! I finally got to wear a couple of items that I had been dragging along with me for the last 6 months! Whohoo! The captain came to every table and toasted something in Chinese “gambei” is all we understood (it means, “bottoms-up/cheers!”). We were wondering who was steering the boat at this time……or whether the captain was actually one of the chefs dressed up in disguise!!
The evening “entertainment” consisted of, you guessed it, karaokee! And the poor souls who work on board had to perform for us….there were also musical chairs and the bird dance – everything you come to expect from a cruise, but can’t believe you’re actually witnessing it! We WILL remember this for tomorrow evening! We had our one VERY expensive drink ($7 each) and promptly left for our beer fridge.
Day 2, after breakfast we spent the morning on the upper deck as we entered both the first and second gorges …and breakfast was AMAZING – Eggs, bacon, sausauges, oh my!! It was extremely windy and most people, actually everyone except us, went back inside. It was our own private cruise at that point. The most amazing part was the jasmine aroma on the wind. It was an area where they grow jasmine tea and the smell was fantastic! And it lasted, on and off, for the better part of 2 hours. We thought it was someone’s perfume at first, but realized this wasn’t so once everyone had gone inside. We skipped lunch and stayed on the upper deck to watch the scenery……the lunches weren’t that great anyhow, but everyone thought that we were crazy to have skipped a meal……what did we come here for in the first place!!??? Besides we weren’t hungry. We hadn’t done anything between breakfast and lunch to work up an appetite!
After lunch time we had a shore excursion up the Shennong Stream where we saw the hanging coffins. Apparently they are 2000 year old coffins buried in cliff-side caves way, way up the cliff face. The more important you were, the higher up you were buried. There’s only a few remaining sites since the other coffins at lower levels have been put into museums as the rising water level from the dam will have destroyed them. The water level here used to only be 1 meter deep and now, one year later it is already 35 meters deep. The stream is also famous for the “boat trekkers” as seen on Travel shows back home.
The second part of the day we were pulled up stream by the boat trekkers. This used to be a main transport method used by the locals but has now become the toursit attraction for the area. But as the water levels increase, this way of life will no longer be around since boats will be able to navigate up the stream by themselves. Already half of the journey was done by boat and many of the villagers houses are underwater. As toursity as it was to have been pulled upstream just to be pulled back down again, we were fortunate to see this as by next year this way of life will be gone.
Along the way we also saw many roads which seem to lead to nowhere but used to join one village to another, billages which are now underwater. New roads are being cut into the hills at higher elevations but some smaller villages are completely cut off now. We saw the remains of Qin Dynasty era foot path that was cut into the rockface along the gorge and is now mostly underwater. There were sites along the river where boats were being constructed and are completely useless until the after the water rises – as Andre termed earlier – a natural dry-dock. If their schedule is a little off, they’ll either be successful or the boats will sink!
That evening there was another Captain’s banquet – The Farewell banquet. And there he was again, our captain making the rounds for cheering every table. And it was the same guy as the night before…hmmm….who IS steering of the boat? But this night, only the captain can take us through the lock system so we were really watching what he was drinking. 🙂
Our entry into the lock system was delayed from the original 10pm and was now scheduled for 2 am……we waited around for another couple of hours before going to bed. At 2am we got up and set up the camera on the upper deck as we passed through the second lock. The first lock isn’t used yet since the water level isn’t high enough at this point in time. The locks closed, the water level and our boat dropped about 30meters, the locks at the other end opened and we went to bed. It takes about 4 hours to pass through all locks and one was enough at 3:30 in the morning especially since we had to get up at 6am to go on the dam site tour.
Day 3 – 6am and the crappy music starts playing in the bedside speakers – where is the off switch! We skipped breakfast since sleeping was more important at this point. It’s also raining and we drag our butts onto a bus to tour the Three Gorges Dam Site. Whohoo! Heavy construction, the dam is huge, it’s big, we’re cold, we’re tired and I want more sleep……The construction site wasn’t as nearly up close and personal as preferred for Andre’s taste, of course. But it was fine with me…….did I say I was cold and tired already? It was soon time to return and we get back to the boat, enter the 3rd gorge and have lunch. Then it was time to leave……and we have to depend on us again 🙁
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