Got a decent sleep on the train (just like the one in ‘Nam!) and arrived in rainy Chongqing at about 7am. We had no hotel cause we were going to try to catch a boat down the river, so I dragged the boys off to the Hilton for breakfast. Decided to golocal 2nd class cause according to the LP, the only difference between first and second class was the number of beds and the three of us wanted to share a room. We were kind of dirty and really tired and I remembered Vietnam and how great it was to arrive at a high-end establishment in that condition. Had a beautiful breakfast, got the concierge to store our bags, used the travel agent and went out to see the city. First thing we ran into was a stage erected in the middle of downtown with a group of girls performing dance routines. It seemed pretty normal until I realized that they were selling Amway products! Seriously! They were even holding cleaning products as they danced! It was too much. Walked around a bit more and decided to eat some Chongqing hotpot. Famous for being spicy, this kind of hotpot is basically a pot full of spiced oil. And probably not new oil. Ugh. But delicious. We sissied out a bit and got a pot with two kinds, oil and broth. It was a great restaurant - we sat in inside and ordered, then the food arrived through the front door, straight from the alley....ew. I was a little worried that the food would make us sick on the boat… and in hindsight, good on me for being worried! Back to the Hilton for afternoon tea and lounging before our boat ride. Spent the afternoon dreaming about the Loveboat style adventure to come over the next couple of days. Private bathroom, TV, air con…. Luxury! We were so proud of how well we used all of the hotel’s services without actually being guests. When we left, the manager happened to be out front and thanked us for our patronage. Gotta say – next time you are in Chongqing, try the Hilton! The Hilton is the Hilton everywhere you go.
Made it down to the docks and started to get a bit suspicious about the boat ride. Rodrigo’s excitement was fading fast. The only boats that we could see looked pretty scary and the only people in the terminal were farmers. We crossed the street and stocked up on biscuits and cup noodles and finally tourists started to arrive. And as it was China, they even charged us extra to take the cable car thingy down to board the ship. Not much extra, just a little kick in the teeth.
The boat… oh, the boat… what can I say about the boat? As we boarded, I noticed a peculiar odour and some well-worn carpeting. By the time we found our room, disillusionment was sinking in. The smell in the room was stronger than in the hallway and I can only describe it as old upholstery combined with the sweat of the 1.3 billion people who rode the boat before us. Sick. I thought Dennis was gonna go overboard when he peeked into our private bathroom. Yeah, it was private, but when we ran the tap, the water came out of the pipes where they met the floor. Same with the toilet. The shower was the whole bathroom – but the floor was disgusting… oh my god. I tried so hard to keep it together – had to act like things weren’t so bad, like it was all gonna be funny after the fact. In reality, I was ready to lose it. Dennis went out to buy some beer and returned with a whole new attitude and three pairs of bathroom slippers. Then we discovered that the air-con was in fact only air-con and there was no heat on the boat. December. No heat. Not even an electric heater. And we could only get hot water in the shower once the boat had been running for an hour and a half. Not that we really wanted to shower cause it was so cold. And the TV really only played variety shows. Turns out when the Hilton man suggests International class, 5-star…. He means business. No wonder he looked so sad when we told him that we wanted to go local.
At this point I need to thank Dennis. Once he realized that we were stuck on the boat for three days, he really sucked it up and became the defacto leader of our ragtag crew. He figured out how to get up on the roof – for a mere 55 yuen, we could join the VIP club… he figured out where the restaurant was…. We could eat something other than cup noodles. Although, I must say that meals of cup noodle and instant coffee eaten huddled behind the exhaust pipe on the roof of the boat were some of the best times. I’m not sure we would have survived with our sanity intact without him. Tension between the three of us wasn’t too bad. I lost my temper once with Dennis and he told Rodrigo on me and then the whole episode quickly turned into a laughing fit. We spent a lot of time breaking down diplomatic relations between Chile and Canada and anticipating the locations of various fictional Starbucks outlets. Spent a good amount of time hitting the ceiling to ward off the rat we kept hearing inside the walls too. amazing.
The 3 gorges were amazing though. Huge cliffs tumbling right into the clean river, farms lining the banks where it wasn’t so steep. Fall colours. And all of it coloured by the knowledge that in 2 years, it will not exist in the same way. Once they finish the 3 Gorges Dam project and close the diversions, the water level will rise upwards of 20 metres along the river. The loss of agricultural land and displacement of 1.5 million people will change the area significantly. All along the river, there are white signs showing where the water level is expected to reach. In one especially poignant case, the sign was painted on the wall of a house. The water has already risen considerably, and there are trees with only the tops visible above the water and rods leading straight down into the river. We went on a few tours along the way – saw a ghost temple in Fengdu, a couple of tourist “malls” where I ate potatoes and noodles from sketchier places than I have ever been before and traveled up a tributary to see the Lesser Three Gorges. Almost worth the trip.
Another highlight of the boat trip had to be the grumpy couple. On the first morning, when we left the boat at 7am to go see the ghost temple, a man walked up to me and asked me about the boat. I tried to be upbeat, but all he could say was “It’s fucking dirty”. Later, when we saw him and his wife again, on the roof of the boat, Dennis was enlisted as a translator because the boat staff wanted them to pony up the 55 yuen VIP fee. (we gave up and paid, just so that we could leave our room!) The guy actually tried to get Dennis to translate “Fuck off”. I was kind of surprised that they survived the ordeal, but we saw them later on in the Wuhan airport, and they were in good spirits and off to Xi’an.
When we finally arrived near Yi Chang, we expected to have time to see the dam, and then go into town to catch our flights. Due to fog, terrible scheduling and our bad luck, just as we approached the dam, the boat turned, docked and we we shuffled immediately onto a bus into town. For the hour-long bus ride, Dennis slept, I thanked my lucky stars to have survived and Rodrigo shook his head sadly, repeating over and over "Damn the dam. I never saw the dam." At the Yi Chang bus station, we got a taxi driver who spoke English. He wasn’t super confident that we’d get off the ground, cause the place was completely fogged in. In fact, most of our journey down the river was foggy. We took the chance though, and discovered that all flights were cancelled other than ours and another to Chengdu. Spent a few hours on the internet, emailing our sorrows and looking at photos from the MBA gala. We also covered Pinochet’s funeral, having sort of learned of his death while on board the boat. At 7pm, they cancelled the flight to Chengdu. At 730pm, they delayed our flight. We were soooo mad! We knew it was only a matter of time before they cancelled it, but had to stay in the airport until then! When our flight finally got cancelled, we commandeered an English-speaking airport employee, as Dennis was figuring out how to get our money back for the plane tickets. The guy full-out told us that the weather would be bad again tomorrow and that we’d be better off hopping on an early bus to Wuhan and trying to fly out of there. He also booked us a hotel for the night and tried to help us with a taxi. Turns out the taxi drivers in that town understand supply and demand reeeeallly well. They all knew we needed to get into town and they all refused to drive us anywhere unless we paid 100 yuen. Dammit. But the hotel was good – had heat!!! And we managed to get on an 8am bus the next morning. By this time, Rodrigo had developed some skill at cell phone golf and I was no longer able to beat him down. Dammit.
As we were purchasing our tickets back, the grumpy couple walked into the airport. They looked so much happier than we’d ever seen them. Rodrigo almost caught a flight out within ten minutes of being there, but check-in was too slow. We had time for one last meal – beside the now not-so-grumpy couple, and then Dennis and I boarded a flight down South. I like Shenzhen, but I gotta say, I have never been happier to be there. When we arrived, it was rainy and getting dark and I just wanted to get out of China. Originally, I was going to stay in Shenzhen one night before crossing over to HK, but I gave up. Crossed over with Dennis, found a hotel in Kowloon with giant soft beds, English TV and a clean bathroom and called it a night. It was so good to be back.
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