Adventurasia Community

(Written by: Candice Lim Hing, around 2002~2003)

I’m still alive after 6 weeks in China. I’ve just gotten back on land after a 4 day criuse of the Yangzi River. Gemma, Audrey and I were fortunate enough to catch one of the last criuses to see the 3 Gorges before the government closes down this section of the river on November 2nd for the completion of the largest hydroelectric dam in the world. The boat that we took was very local, although we were informed that this was the tourist boat. It was definitely an interesting experience from the very first morning where we pushed and shoved (we’re turning local - survival of the fittest) our way through the hordes of people into our 2nd class room.

Our room was the size of a mini-van! There were 4 bunk beds on either side and just enough space in the middle to walk through. How can 4 people live in this space for 4 days? was the question on the top of our minds as we concurrently prayed that the crew wouldn’t stick an unknown person in our room with us. Oh yeah, our en suite bathroom was having some leakage problems as well, thus, there was a funky stench in our room. Think positive! We don’t have to be in our rooms too much ‘coz there’ll be other forms of entertainments in the boat, right? [Editor - well you’d better not stay in the lodges on Mt. Fuji, the rooms are the size of a small hatchback for 6 people!]

Well, the first day was actually pretty good. We sat on the top deck to watch the views. It was very beautiful. Almost all of the other passengers onboard were Chinese. I met and had very interesting conversations with several locals. We discussed everything from food to politics to culture. It was cool to find out what their viewpoints are of the world inside and outside of China. They were all very friendly and nice. I felt like I was experiencing the real China rather than the manufactured tourist version (visit of the Great Wall).

The next day, we had to drag ourselves out of bed at 5:00am to visit the Little 3 Gorges. Half awake, we felt like refugees as we followed the droves of people in front of us into buses which took us to the inner dock. Once there, our guide yelled directions into the loud speaker as we scrambled to find our boat amidst the pushing and shoving of those behind us. The concept of lining up is not known in this country. Finally, we got on our open-air boat for the 8 hour tour. I was praying that the tour would end before we even saw the 1st gorge. The 3 of us were so cold we snuggled together for warmth and tried hard to appreciate the beautiful scenery. It’s a shame that the water level of the dam is going to submerge the many towns and sights forever.

The third day, we didn’t realize that there was a tour at 7:00am so we were still sleeping when our guide came knocking on our door. We were all pretty tired but we forced ourselves out of bed, got ready in 5 minutes, and ran to catch up with the reat of our tour group members. I had fever so I slept for most of the day. Audrey was bored out of her mind - she even made Gemma and I instant noodles with fresh tomatoes and beef jerky [Editor - sounds yummy, not!]. The food on the boat was horrible and the kitchen was only open during certain times of the day so our meals on the boat consisted of instant noodles, man-toh, instant noodles, man-toh, instant noodles, instant noodles, instant noodles. Am so sick of those 2 things!

I had bought a VCD player at the beginning of our trip, which proved to be a saviour. The nightly entertainment of the boat was a karaoke bar, where the daring (many of whom should really save their performances for the bathroom ) crooned out songs at the top of their lungs. We watched the 4 movies that we had with us over and over again. We did venture to join the karaoke fanatics on our last night there, after having built up our confidence by practicing our performance in our room. However, our fellow passengers missed our would-have-been-wonderful performance because after waiting for over an hour for our turn to come, we finally gave up waiting and admitted loss to the karaoke mike-huggers.

The cruise was definitely and experience both good and bad. This e-mail is getting too long so I’m going to end it now. We are still recovering (been on land for a few days but still feel like we’re swaying) but we’re alive and well. I’m off to Tibet in 2 days.

Filed under: China