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I'm writing this on a bus heading away from the beautiful Three Gorges. The bus takes another three hours to get to a train station where we are destined to take a thirteen-hour night train to another bus. I get the feeling I'll have a long time to write this...
So, we started in Yichang and were told to stock up for a day and a half on the boat on the Yangtse river. I went a bit overboard (no pun intended) and bought ten quid's worth of food and drink, including a bottle of red wine from the infamous Great Wall winery. We then waited for taxis to take us to the public bus station.
Actually I should elaborate on the taxis here. They're crazy. Last night we got off the train and were swamped with taxi drivers offering us a lift - a far cry from the sluggishness of Xi'an. They loaded our bags into a boot that wouldn't shut and then seemed to race each other through the streets of Yichang to get us there. One taxi actually overtook us as some traffic lights by using the old "turn right then turn left" trick, before turning across six lanes of traffic to drop us at the hotel door. Like I said, crazy. I'd like to thank Max keeping an eye on my bag as it teetered on the packed boot, so it didn't get lost in Yichang's midnight streets.
Our journey to the bus station was similar, but with the added luxury of a boot that closed. And then we waited nearly two hours for the bus, which had very little storage space for 15 backpackers' giant bags, so we ended up packing them into aisles and on laps etc. Lots of fun. The next fun bit was waiting for a load of Chinese tourists and their tour guide who insisted on talking through the loudspeaker THE ENTIRE WAY to the boat, pausing only to breathe and probably eat to keep herself going. That's nearly two hours of incessant, foreign noise. My iPod struggled to drown it out.
"Waiting" seemed to be the day's watchword, as we had to do for a further year on the boat. More Chinese tourists eventually poured on and we chose to pass the hours in dock by eating our instant noodles and drinking cheap beer from the shop where I accidentally destroyed the loudspeaker that was inches from my head as yet another Chinese monologue drove me to temporary insanity. I tried to fix it and in the process I think I was banished from the boat's shop before we'd even left dock. A good start. In other news, the boat finally got started at around 10pm.
The following morning was spent looking around the White King temple next to the river. The water has actually risen about 60m since the dam was built and the temple, which was at the top of a hill, now needs a bridge to get to. It seems there was a village there before the rising water swamped all the houses. Still, it's all for the "greater good". The temple is impressive, and equally impressive were the beer prices in the market on the way back to the boat. It's getting a bit boozy, this trip.
We spent the rest of the day relaxing and taking in the beautiful scenery as we made our way back down the river. Sunglasses on, beer in hand, camera snapping. Bliss. The evening was spent with my red wine and watching the Chinese folks fight over the karaoke machine. There was even a hilarious trance/hokey-kokey dance moment. I only wish we could have joined in more! The selection of only six English songs, only two of which I'd actually heard of (and one of them was "Happy Birthday") and the 20 yuan price tag put paid to that.
The night ended with us realising we were already back at dock. The Chinese tour group with us had to leave at 4am and hadn't told anyone til they'd got on the boat, hence a hastily rearranged itinerary and and early return. Thanks. Getting up to watch the sun rise over "s*** creek" as I had named the dock didn't sound quite as nice.
Well, I'm still on the bus, which is bouncing around like a five year old after a packet of Haribo and doesn't even have enough legroom for me to sit straight, and we have a mere two hours left until we are treated to the wonder and comfort of another night train. That is if the bus isn't late, which is like saying "if Alan Carr isn't gay". Many thanks to Helen and Pippa for lending me their book, "One Day" by David Nicholls. I'm going to need every page of it.
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