Cruising the Yangtze
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2009
1
9
18
Trip End
Nov 27, 2009
Yichang, Hubei, China
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Luckily on the day train we'd still had sleepers so we were able to nap to pass the time. My bunk was a lower one this time and I was in a compartment with a Chinese family (father, mother and their daughter who seemed to be in her mid-twenties or so). They spent most of the trip sitting on their lower bunk and watching me, which made me feel a bit self-conscious and uncomfortable, although they were super nice. The father was very interested in the book I was reading and when I put it down for a moment he picked it up and spent a good 10 minutes looking through it. He said he couldn't read English so I'm not sure what exactly he was looking for... Then he spent another 5 or so minutes with his cell phone searching for the title using his cell phone dictionary. Once I figured out that's what he was up to I had to try to explain that the title was actually a Hindi word and not English at all! Not the easiest message to convey using only hand gestures, let me tell you!
The father also insisted on sharing some dried mutton with our group - luckily as a vegetarian I was able to graciously opt out, but some of my group mates tried it and said it was actually pretty tasty! Right as our train arrived in Yichang 3 am - after I'd been on the train for about 15 hours! - the Chinese family insisted on taking a bunch of pictures with me too.
In Yichang we boarded our "cruise boat" for our 3 days cruise up the Yangtze. We were the only western tourists on board; everyone else was Chinese. We had tiny, cosy little cabins with adjoining bathrooms. Our rooms were on the 4th floor and there was also an outdoor open deck area and some tiny plastic stools - so that's where we spent most of our time while on the boat. The first night we passed through the locks of the Three Gorges Dam. We also drank all of the beer that they had on the boat - I guess Chinese tourists don't drink quite as much while they're on vacation as Westerners do! Also - every morning at 5:30 am they would play REALLY loud Chinese music to wake everyone up. We could kind of turn the speaker in our cabin down (but sadly not off!) but it was really impossible to sleep through the volume. There's really no such thing as peace and quiet in China - even when we were doing a little boat ride on a tiny river with our local guide small boats of Chinese tourists would pass by and their guides would have megaphones and be yelling information to them at a completely unnecessary volume. On the boat their guides also had megaphones and loud speakers - I really don't understand why everything is so LOUD!
The river was beautiful - amazing high rocky cliffs and little tiny farms at what seemed like almost impossible angles and heights. The first morning we switched to a smaller boat to travel up a smaller tributary where we were able to see ancient burial sites of one of the minority tribes. There were caves high up in the cliffs and this tribe would hang the coffins of their elders up in these caves. Our local guide said that their language is oral only so there is no written history that explains how exactly they managed to get the coffins up hundreds of feet in the air and into these caves. The river itself is quite deep - about 160 meters in places.
Our days on the river were quite relaxing - nice scenery and quiet hours spent sitting on deck and just enjoying the view. It was a bit odd because we spent hours out there, but the Chinese tourists preferred to be indoors in their cabins. When we approached a particularly interesting sight they'd announce it over the loud speaker - all the Chinese tourists would rush out on deck for about 10 minutes, take a dozen pictures while their guides explained what we were looking at really loudly with their megaphones and then they'd all go back inside...
Comments
Hi from me & Roni
I saw a documentary once about the people who bury their dead up in the caves. It is sooo cool that you actually got to see that. I hope that you took pictures of this. Looks like your trip is really great. The Yangtze looks beautiful. Take care and keep safe.