Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Hello,
We have been unable to get to a computer in nearly a week so its been a while since last update. We arrived in Yichang after a 15 hour train ride, slightly better this time as we had sleepers so slept most of the way which was great. It was about 12pm when we arrived and the train station was packed with taxi/bus drivers trying to get your business. We ended up with a taxi driver who had no idea of our hotel destination and spent roughly 40minutes running us around everywhere. He ended up taking us to a hotel that had been recently demolished and swore that that was our hotel, being at this point nearly 1am we were not to happy. Though eventually, after several stops and asking several people we arrived. Reception area of our hotel seemed nice, but room was not to great - but we were pleased with having our own room. Yichang itself was pretty dull, as its a port there wasnt much there - a small mall and a supermarket, and a macdonalds which we ate in a lot!!! Very cheap too!
The day of our cruise we had arranged a very nice taxi driver to take us to the boat and he showed us around Yichang. We were very early for the cruise so we dropped our bags off and visited the popular Yichang Caves. He tried to persuade us to try the bungee jump, but thought it would be better left to New Zealand!
We went back to the boat which was very impressive, we were first there so were shown around by the guides, all staff spoke very good english and made us feel very welcome. We were offered a very good price to upgrade to the deluxe suite which we accepted. The room was amazing, huge bed, sofa, big flat screen tv, bar, a hairdryer!!!! and most importantly a massive bath!! We were in desperate need!! There was also a big private balcony, but it did rain a lot!! The restaurant was brilliant, served loads of delicious foods which was a great way of encouraging us to taste chinese foods a bit more. We were sat with, and spent most the time with, some lovely people from america and australia and the sweetest chinese couple who were so thrilled to meet us. Our group really made it an enjoyable journey.
The crew had made huge effort, always putting customers first, they had thought of everything. We had trips to the biggest dam in the world on the three gorges, a ghost city, and took a small boat down the Shenning River, were we met the local tribal people. The cruise ship had a gym, massage parlour, hair salon etc (though all very pricey). They put on great evening entertainment, with dancing and singing. Martin won the male game, where he had to hit a box of matches across the floor with a potato attached to his waist!! He won a nice cocktail for me!!! And I won the musical chairs game the following night, again a lovely cocktail! I never expected that I would also be doing the macarena and the chicken dance with all the staff in the middle of china!! It was all great fun, and all the chinese people were lovely and very friendly. We were sad to see it end. Mainly for the luxury of the room, as we have now arrived in Chongqing and are back to the hostels. Not very clean!! Outside is a fantastic market, and everyone is very friendly here which makes a huge difference.
The cruise has been a real highlight so far and really reccommend people doing it, particualrly the cruise we were on. There are some amazing views on the Yangtze River, so much to take in on one journey. We are now going to spend the next few days organising our route into Kunming and then onto Laos which we are really looking forward too.
We are missing our comforts of home, but loving every minute here. Hope everyone is well and we will do our best to upload our photos, the computers arent great out here! Thanks for all your lovely messages, we are receiving them all. xx
- comments
Mum and Dad Oh some pictures at last Danielle. Have you tried a bike yet? And where are the shorts -or is the long trousers an attempt at keeping the bugs at bay. Keep them coming.