The Yangtze Cruise and Wuhan

The Yangtze 

After two nights wandering through the winding streets of Lijiang, admiring the many tiny dogs and their lovely dresses (yes all the dogs wear dresses) we headed off to Chonqing for a night to prepare for our trip through the three gorges along the Yangtze river.

We arrived in Chonqing and the city seemed to go on forever as the taxi man drove us through all the skyscrapers, there are seven million people living in the downtown area of the city alone so you can imagine the traffic! We enjoyed one night in the rainy city waking early for our pickup to the boat. 

On our way to the boat we were brought to none other than....a temple!!!! Mad for their temples in Asia! It was very templely : ) and then finally to the boat! It was nothing at all like the pictures we had been shown, a nice rusting decor and a large plank for a matress! Home for the next two nights : ) the cruise itself was great, buzzing down the yangzte through the gorges, the scenery was pretty awesome. 

We made friends with the many Chinese tourists on board and winced as we drank the questionable alcohol they insisted on sharing with us. They were great craic though and the phrasebook was out for most of the trip! 

All our meals were included and each day we sat around our shared table poking at dishes wondering what we were eating and always delighted to spot a few onions or if we were really lucky a tomato! Not the best, we were glad to have bought some pot noodles and Oreos before boarding! 

On the second day we all got off the ship to board small little wooden boats to be taken down a scenic stream and then onto medium sized boats to visit the 'three little gorges'. It was a fun trip around the impressive gorges and at one point we could all hear this random flute music, there was a man perched in a cave halfway up one of the mountains playing an instrument....as you do. (see said man in a cave above)

It was fun, scenic and the people were great but we would be lying if we said we weren't really glad to be off that boat!!!!!

We stopped off in a city called Wuhan for two nights on our way to Shanghai. Wuhan is a big city which seemed to be mostly a business spot for the Chinese. We don't think they get too many foreigners there...we looked online and there werent really any hostels so we used this Chinese discount hotel website and booked a cheap 4 star hotel haha.

Well when we arrived in the hotel the girls at the reception desk just stared at us with their mouths open. We eventually checked in and all was good but for some reason they decided our prescence meant that the manager should be called down. So out comes the manager and she is way too excited and has verrrrry little english (but surprised she had any as nobody ever does!) and she immediately brings us to their restaurant and gets us a free meal and has the chef come out and do all these mad tricks involving noodles and a unicycle (do not ask!) we still havent even been to our room at this point! So anyway after dinner we head to our room and think all is good. Next thing there is a knock on the door and its the manager lady again and she's there saying 'come to my office' so off we go following her through the hotel until we get to this hotel room......turns out her and her family live in her office....her office is a hotel room. So we meet and greet the kids and husband all in this hotel room and then she brings us into her bedroom/office and sits us at her computer where she has found a translator site so wants us to have a conversation with her on the computer bahahaha I was trying so hard no to laugh at Roy sitting there on the stool typing away things like 'you're hotel is so lovely' baha!!!!! Clearly it was something special for them to have us arrive in?!

To Shanghai!

Xxx Sarz