Cruise of 3 Gorges to Wuhan - 11 12 13 February 2008

I am compiling these 3 days of Blogging into 1 entry for a couple of reasons - 1. in India where I am typing this whilst you can find an internet cafe the speed is horrifically slow and 2. the cruise was a bit of a nightmare and still am trying to get over the emotional scares!

So after a few beers on the top deck we set sail and we all retired to bed around 12.30. Well the boat had no heating whatsoever, it was still minus degrees outside and the bunks were all of about 80cms wide and you were given the flimsiest duvet the world has ever seen! So no choice for it but to sleep fully clothed. And when I mean fully clothed I mean it. hat scarf, gloves and 2 pairs of long johns on. Did take my boots off and put on 3 pairs of socks!

That was the good bit...it got worse. If you know the Chinese spit well they do and big time, but before doing so they make a horrendous noise in bringing all the flem and other bits of bile and lung tissue into their mouths before spitting it out in the most noisiest way they can. Wewll old man chinky has strategically placed the bucket/rubbish bin right by his bed and proceeded to fill this up with spit every 5 minutes - ALL NIGHT. Mother wasnt any better and she snored like me and Jay put together!

Result NO SLEEP and feeling pretty pissed off in the morning. I insisted in being moved and was put in with Andy the Aussie guy who was with some other Chinese but much nicer people.

The day was pretty cool though with being on the top deck looking at all the views...was still damn cold though. There was nothing else to do other than drink beer and buy nuts etc from the silly little shop on the boat. there was a restaurant but the food was overpriced and foul looking. Also the boat stopped twice a day for sightseeing and picking up and dropping off passengers and so at each stop we knew there would be food vendors. Everyone else on board had brought on their own tea and pot noodle things and so they knew the food on board was crap too.

So over the 3 days spent our time on deck taking in the freezing air and views and drinking beer and playing cards. It actually was great fun as we were joined part way through by 2 German ladies, about 20 years old, who had left school in germany and before going to college had decided to teach english in China for a year which they had just finished and were having a little holiday before going back to Germany. They were a good additon to the drinking rounds and card school!

Oh no other toliets on board other than 1 communial one whihc was a drop station and smely like the hells of earth. I used it on day 2 with breath holding skills and vowed then not to go again until we got to Wuhan over 60 hours later!

On day 3 for some unknown reason Andy and I were summoned to reception to be told we were moving rooms again! We protested but it made no difference as the boat owners never gave you the keys to the rooms, you could lock them but when you wanted to go in you had to get someone from reception - so they had the upper hand. Well ioff we went in protest only to find they were swapping us with some Chinese and we ended up in the same 6 man room as Erin and Travis and 2 free bunks..still poor accomodation but was a godsend as we could all be together. Its amazing when things are rough, how the slightest improvement feels like a wonderful thing!

Enough of this blogging. And moaning too. The views were tremendous and the food interesting when we opccasionally docked. The company was a great laugh and the beer was drinkable.

I will let the picture speak for themselves if I can ever get to upload them onto this website!

The final bad bit was that the boat didnt actually go to Wuhan, but stopped at the massive Gorges dam. This is not totally finished and so the huge locks that will be used in future were not operating. The outcome of this was a 6 hour round the mountains coach ride to Wuhan where we got in at about 10pm.

We had all made a pact to search out either a KFC or Macdonalds when we got to Wuhan and this is exactly what we did. 5 of us in 2 cabs (poor Travis had taken ill and went to bed in the hostel). Macdonalds has never tasted so good and wont do so ever again.

Oh and to top it all the hostel didnt have european toilets but the drop ones again, but at leasat they were spotlessly clean and so I had to break my vow of 50 hours!!! It wasnt pretty I can tell you. Oh and finally the Hostel had NO hot water as the pipes had froxen 2 weeks before and couldnt get fixed as the city had been hit hard in the big freeze - so No shower - thats day 6!!

Enough of this bloggin and useless keyboard.

Signing off - 1 unhappy Steve