second time around

Well the tour has taken a little change in flavor. Our small group (the Chinese Gang of Nine) is to hook up with another group and have a national guide to travel with us. We flew down out of Tibet into a rainy day in Chongqing where we were to board the cruise ship for the three day trip down the Yangtze River. Unfortunately they had just had a monumental rainfall and the river rose almost 50 feet in the past couple of days. So the river was running too fast to bring the ship all the way up to Chongqing and we got to ride the bus for a couple of hours to get to the boat. But first we had the chance to walk in the rain through the “old town” of Chongqing. Since it was completely bombed out in the second world war (“war of Japanese Aggression”) the old town is a fifty year old slum which is squalid and about to be torn down. Not so very historic and definitely not so scenic. The local meat shops did have quite the selection of pig snout on display though. Then on to the restaurant for dinner. Mediocre food with about 200 tourists and poor service. The Gang of Nine was not having much fun. Onto the bus and since now every seat is filled I got the back row which was fine until the woman in front of me slammed her seat back which made the space about 2 inches shorter than my thigh. She would have put it back up, but it got stuck like that so I had a fun ride. When we got to the boarding point I was amazed, they took all these elderly (and some infirm) passengers down about 100 steps of broken, slippery concrete steps in the rain and the dark with one flashlight at the top because they wanted us to see the cables across the path there. Then over the floating walkways for 30 yards or so to the boat. Norb and I immediately went up to the bar to capture a seat, and were almost the only ones there all night, which was fine as the drinks were reasonable and well made.

On the up side the boat was only 5 months old and very nicely fitted out. The food was excellent and plentiful, although a little too western, but still quite good. The weather was not bad, but not good either. Mostly cloudy and misty with not so great visibility. The excursions were a mixed bag, some better than others, but all were herding the cattle out and back. I am just not so comfortable being in large groups. I got a bad impression from the start, because the first one was to the “Ghost City”. Actually it is a 500 year old temple in a town associated with the underworld in Chinese mythology for almost 2000 years. Taoist and Buddhist statues and temples. Unfortunately they are building brand new “antique” temples with it for the tourists, and telling lots of cutesy stories and having the tourists do all the “tests” of the underworld and the final stray is at the end of the walk, entering the 500 year old temple is the table where they have the pictures for sale that they took of you crossing the bridge. Just a little too Disney for my taste. Of interest was the gauntlet of tourist shops had a lot fewer trinkets and everyone sold beer, wine and spirits. I guess they know the cruise ship crowd. The gorges were very nice to see go by, and it was worth the rest of the stuff to enjoy them. We saw the hanging coffin where they don’t really know how the people put the coffin 120 feet up this cliff. I saw some guys building a stone wall at the harbor moving the stones old-school, four of them with each stone being easily 5-600 pounds. They would sing a chant to keep their steps in time and not get the stone swinging. They just kept hauling stone all morning, one after the other.

We went through the locks of the Three Gorges Dam and the final morning had a short trip to the viewpoint over the dam. Mercifully the national guide never found us while on the ship, so we pretty well went our own way. The final morning we called the tour company and she found us and said hello.

On we flew to Shanghai. We got in late and found it to be a very upscale hotel. The next day we did the usual: stroll on the Bund, go up the Jin Mao tower for the view, and the Shanghai Museum. They were all fine. They had clusters of 8 story apartment buildings with different colored roofs. Lunch was fun, we hit a “hot pot” restaurant. Basically Chinese style fondue. A split pot (yin/yang shape) on a burner with mild and spicy side and lots of raw meat, fish and veggies to cook yourself. This was where we found that our group eats all the food on the table and the rest of the tables eat about half. We started getting their extra food (and especially beer) at the meals. The “Gang of Nine” held together pretty well and took it as a compliment when one of the other folks in our larger group mentioned to us, “you all don’t follow the rules much and just go where you want don’t you.” We went to the Chinese Acrobats show in Shanghai and it was impressive. The acrobatics, contortionists, jugglers, jumpers, plate spinners and even the five motorcycles in the cage of death at the same time were at least as good as the Cirque du Soleil. In Shanghai they have lots of buildings with the entire side being a light show screen with patterns at night. We are talking 40-50 story high buildings.

Our tour excursion was to a couple of gardens where you can enjoy the feng shui and find some peace and tranquility. After the extensive talk, talk, talk about the place we were given ten minutes to explore on our own so that we could “experience the peace.” It was just me and the garden and 400 or so of my closest travel companions. Then we went to the silk factory which was very interesting to see how they actually get the silk and reel it and weave it. Then surprisingly there was the opportunity to buy silk quilts and such. After that we had a trip to Tongli a small town called “the Venice of the East.” too much touristy for me.

Up at 0-dark-thirty to catch the plane to Hong Kong and meet our final guide for the rest of that day. “Erik” (all the guides pick an american name for the tourists to be able to call them something they can pronounce) was running on too many espressos. He flew us all around the Kowloon Peninsula and Hong Kong Island for the day and left our heads spinning. But I did get to see Jackie Chan’s hilltop estate on Hong Kong Island. Erik pointed it out about five times with a very loud “JACKIE CHAN” each time.

Today is the final day in China and five of us wandered around on our own. We checked out the flower market, bird gallery street and navigated the subway to the wharf where we hopped the ferry to Hong Kong Island for 30 cents. At 8 PM every night they have a laser symphony light show from the buildings on the harbor. It was great. Now we have all said our goodbyes and are off on our own paths again. I am flying to Tokyo and then to see the son.

Tags: Travel

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