Day 11: Yangtze River Cruise & Goddess Stream
We had a bit of a lie in this morning and given last nights antics, it was probably wise. We didn’t bother with breakfast as we were still full from our 4 course dinner the night before so we didn’t even miss it!
It was so hot and humid on deck that we decided to return to the cabin again knowing it would only be another half hour before we got to the second gorge. This gorge is known as the Qutang gorge and is home to the Goddess statue; a 6 plus metre statue up in the mountains which looks like a woman. If you look really closely (I mean really, really closely!), you will see a tiny sliver of rock beside the 2 jaggy peaks, that’s her!
We passed through various mountain villages before docking where the Goddess Stream flows into the Yangtze. As the stream is much narrower and much shallower, we had to switch to smaller boats.
Our local guide was called Janine and, as appears to be the norm, she was mental! She is part of one of China’s minority groups and lived in the mountains; she told us she would walk for. 2 hours up the mountain to get to her home and 1.5 hours down the mountain to catch the Yangtze ferry (just like catching a bus to the next village!). She also told us about her small, ugly, poor husband so this also seems to be the norm; we hope she was joking though! And, she also learned English watching American shows like Desperate Housewives! We sailed up the Goddess Stream for about 15km before it started to get really narrow. The peaks were stunning and we saw mountain goats climbing along the ridges. At the narrowest point, our boat docked and we all got out to view the local mountain people performing songs and dance. It was quite entertaining albeit rather bizarre; we were all standing on floating plastic containers, listening to Chinese songs while in the middle of a gorge!
After 20 minutes, we headed back to our boat and then onto the ship. We were both knackered and super sweaty, the humidity is terrible, that we needed a shower before happy hour and dinner. It was the Captains leaving night so dinner was being served at 7pm. We had a couple of drinks first before being joined by the others in our group. As I mentioned yesterday, we get to choose our menu for the evening at lunch, here is the one for tonight.
We started dinner, before being interrupted by the captain and his sidekicks, the American Director of the ship and Steven, one of the tour guides who kindly translates everything for the English speakers. We had a toast, and a few of the staff were paraded, before we were personally introduced to the Captain. I mentioned the staff as each member, depending on where they served on the ship, had a token prop. The engineers had their tool boxes, the cleaners had a sweeping brush, reception had clipboards, you get the picture......
We sat on the balcony until 10.30am; the ship wasn’t moving but we could watch locals going about their business on the river.
Tony told us the night before that he would give a “lecture” on where we had been and provide some further information about China. We went to the cinema on deck 5 and listened intently as he is a walking Wikipedia; the lecture lasted until 11.45am and then it was time for lunch. Lunch was served early today as we were going to be sailing through two of the gorges around 12.45pm; we were also due to go on a 2 hour tour down one of the streams of the Yangtze before dinner at 7pm.
We had a reasonably light lunch before heading back to the cabin. We were only back 30 minutes when the tannoy announced that we were approaching the first gorge and to head to the top deck or the front of the ship at level 5. The first one was called the Wu Gorge and it took us around 25-30 minutes to sail through; the scenery was stunning.
It was so hot and humid on deck that we decided to return to the cabin again knowing it would only be another half hour before we got to the second gorge. This gorge is known as the Qutang gorge and is home to the Goddess statue; a 6 plus metre statue up in the mountains which looks like a woman. If you look really closely (I mean really, really closely!), you will see a tiny sliver of rock beside the 2 jaggy peaks, that’s her!
We passed through various mountain villages before docking where the Goddess Stream flows into the Yangtze. As the stream is much narrower and much shallower, we had to switch to smaller boats.
Our local guide was called Janine and, as appears to be the norm, she was mental! She is part of one of China’s minority groups and lived in the mountains; she told us she would walk for. 2 hours up the mountain to get to her home and 1.5 hours down the mountain to catch the Yangtze ferry (just like catching a bus to the next village!). She also told us about her small, ugly, poor husband so this also seems to be the norm; we hope she was joking though! And, she also learned English watching American shows like Desperate Housewives! We sailed up the Goddess Stream for about 15km before it started to get really narrow. The peaks were stunning and we saw mountain goats climbing along the ridges. At the narrowest point, our boat docked and we all got out to view the local mountain people performing songs and dance. It was quite entertaining albeit rather bizarre; we were all standing on floating plastic containers, listening to Chinese songs while in the middle of a gorge!
After 20 minutes, we headed back to our boat and then onto the ship. We were both knackered and super sweaty, the humidity is terrible, that we needed a shower before happy hour and dinner. It was the Captains leaving night so dinner was being served at 7pm. We had a couple of drinks first before being joined by the others in our group. As I mentioned yesterday, we get to choose our menu for the evening at lunch, here is the one for tonight.
We started dinner, before being interrupted by the captain and his sidekicks, the American Director of the ship and Steven, one of the tour guides who kindly translates everything for the English speakers. We had a toast, and a few of the staff were paraded, before we were personally introduced to the Captain. I mentioned the staff as each member, depending on where they served on the ship, had a token prop. The engineers had their tool boxes, the cleaners had a sweeping brush, reception had clipboards, you get the picture......
After dinner, we had to return to our cabin to pack; our suitcases were to be put outside our doors before midnight. It took about 30 minutes then we headed to the bar to watch the end of the evenings entertainment, a cabaret! It was reasonably entertaining, particularly our waiter, Kobe, who was dancing with some of his colleagues to Chinese rap! He is a lovely guy and waves to us all the time. The evening finished with a few songs in English; of course, YMCA came on so everyone of our group who were still there got up to dance; about 12 of us were dancing and the Chinese start filming us! Apparently they don’t know it!
We last another 15 minutes or so before heading to our room; we had a bottle of wine left so decided to put it in the case and finish of the beers in the room. Breakfast is at 6.30am tomorrow.......
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