May Holidays

Awesome!

If you are "doing the China thing", and you haven't done the "Three Gorges thing" - because maybe you are not sure if its worth it - then

DO IT!

Its well worth seeing.

The mountains are spectacular, the gorges are awesome, the river is relaxing, and the whole dam thing is mind boggling. Its a place where the Chinese are very proud of themselves, and with good reason.

We took a Chinese 4-Star Cruise. We saw other tourists on the 5-Star foreign cruises ... and sometimes felt a little jealous (our cruise was booked on our behalf and we probably would have gone for one of those if we had been making the choice) ... but really when you come to see China it makes sense to be surrounded by Chinese people rather than a bunch of overbearing "foreigners" - ay?

We had wondered whether we would be able to understand the tour guides - sometimes its better (more relaxing!) if you can't! - but at every place we were provided with a bilingual guide. Here (with the microphone) is "Dexter" who was the "River Guide" on board the ship, and when we went on shore excursions we had a "Local Guide" who had some English.

And everywhere we turned there were the Chinglish signs explaining things and keeping us safe.

(that says: Climbing the Cloud lader can exercise your body but Please care security)

We weren't really sure what boat we would be on - we had a printed itinerary but it was in Chinese - we just knew we had to meet our guide at Hongqiao airport and show our letter and we would be taken care of. Except they weren't there, so we just got on the plane and went to Yichang. There we met our guide and our group - mostly Chinese, including a family from Wuxi, and two Japanese women - and we were taken to a restaurant and a small tour of Yichang before heading to our ship.

When we finally arrived at the dock about dusk there were several ships tied up. There was a very exciting looking ship shaped like a huge dragon, and another quite high class ship, but we were told ours was not visible as it was moored on the other side of these. So we were led onto a pontoon and through the lower deck of another ship and then onto ours, so we didn't get to even see the outside of it until the next day.

The following day I was standing at the rail watching a whole lot of foreigners stepping off our ship onto the shore, and wondered why I hadn't noticed them on board before - then I realised they were coming from their ship which was moored next to ours, walking through our lower decks to reach the shore.

The Oriental Emperor is not a very big ship, but comfortable enough. We had a nice little cabin,

with all we needed, including TV (and CCTV 9, just in case we were missing those exciting programs while we were away from 'home'). No fridge, just a flask of hot water twice a day.

And our own ensuite.

There was a nice big bar / ballroom where onboard activities took place.

And the dining room was like a fancy Chinese restaurant with tables for ten or eleven and a 'lazy susan' in the middle of each.

These are our new friends from Wuxi. Its funny, no one seemed to have names ...

And the food. All Chinese, but good quality. Only about one spicy dish at each meal. Breakfast ... the meal that most causes contention between east and west ... was buffet style and had at least some concessions to the 20 or so foreigners aboard: There was toast, and coffee, and 'orange juice' (well, "Tang" really).