June 2014 (by Pat)     Related Itinerary    continuing from part (1)

WUHAN

We were up early anyway. We had breakfast at the hotel and then went looking for a railway ticket office we knew to be nearby. According to the hotel clerk, it opened at 8. We explored the area for a while and came to the ticket office at 8. There was a woman waiting there, so we knew we had the time more or less right. Nonetheless, by 8:15, the office had still not opened and we had to head back to the hotel to catch our bus. We would have to get our train tickets for the post-cruise trip in Chongqing.

Wuhan is a city of 10 million and is, I believe, the largest city in central China. A local tour guide talked about the city as the bus took us to the Wuhan museum, which was big and modern and boring.

After an hour or so, we were taken to lunch and then to our ship.

THE YANGTZE RIVER

The Yangtze is the third longest river in the world. The Nile and the Amazon, however, flow for much of their length through uninhabited areas. The Yangtze River Valley, on the other hand, is home to over 350 million people, one-third of China’s population. It has long been responsible for periodic devastating floods and flood control was of the three reasons given for the construction of the Three Gorges Dam.

THE THREE GORGES DAM

The dam was first proposed by Sun Yat Sen at the turn of the twentieth century. It was completed in 2012 and is the largest hydroelectric facility in the world. The construction of the dam was quite controversial as it resulted in the flooding of many villages and potential historical archeological sites. More than one million people were relocated.

The ship locks:

THE CRUISE

The cruise was upstream from Wuhan to Chongqing. It was as promised, but a bit odd. It was sort of like an imitation cruise, the Chinese idea of what a cruise should be. There was the captain’s champagne reception. The captain was a tiny man who had been sailing the Yangtze for over 30 years and seemed puzzled that he now had passengers. There was a “specialty restaurant” offering, for $50, a two course “western style” meal. I don’t know of anyone who tried it. There was entertainment. One night the crew performed. Another night, theoretically, the passengers were to perform, but only one act volunteered.

The room was quite comfortable with a balcony. The food was buffet style and not particularly good. YK commented that for once we wouldn’t have to worry about overeating on a cruise.

We had a “shore excursion each of the four full days of the cruise. We toured Youyang, a city of 5 million, took small boats up the “Goddess Stream,” a small tributary, toured the Three Gorges Dam and visited a 12 story wooden pagoda. We stood on deck as the ship entered the first of the five locks used to move ships between the upstream and downstream water levels.

The Goddess Stream:

There was beautiful scenery, especially when sailing through the gorges. It was always somewhat foggy, however, a condition common to the Yangtze River Valley. This condition persisted for most of the trip, even after leaving the river proper.

The Shibaozhai Pagoda:

On the last night, as our tour guide Maggie was explaining the logistics of our 8AM flight from Chongqing to Beijing, we took her aside and told her that we would not be going back to Beijing but would stay in central China. When she realized we were staying in Chongqing, she invited us to join the Chongqing tour and lunch that another group was going on the next morning. It was very nice of her.

 The Local Guides:

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June 2014 (by Pat)     Related Itinerary

 

INTRODUCTION

Back in February, a trip to China was not on the horizon. Our visas had expired and we no longer had business contacts there. Then, a Travelzoo email arrived. The offer was a seven-night trip to China, including a five day Yangtze River cruise, for $1000 including airfare, transfers, hotels, and meals. This was a “too good to pass up” deal. We couldn’t book the $1000 dates due to other plans, but we did pay $1100 each for a June 5 departure. It still seemed like a deal. The tour ended with a night in Beijing and I looked into delaying our return flight a few days, but the company wouldn’t agree to that without significant extra cost. We decided to do just the base seven-day trip.

Then, In April, we went to Korea and learned that some friends of ours were going to be in Xi’an from the 17^th to the 22^nd. This created interesting possibilities as we would already be in that general part of China and Xi’an is the location of the famous Terra-Cotta Warriors. We decided we would simply skip the return part of our package and meet our friends in Xi’an. But our cruise ended in Chongqing on the 12^th. What to do from the 12^th to the 17^th?

YK spent hours researching possibilities and devised a somewhat haphazard trip to various interesting locations in central China. It proved to be quite an adventure.

THE TRIP OVER

The cruise began in Wuhan on June 7. The agency booked us to Beijing on Air Canada, through Vancouver, leaving June 5. We would then catch a China Eastern flight to Wuhan and spend the night of the sixth in a hotel there. It didn’t work quite as planned.

In the last two hours of the flight to Beijing, we encountered some of the worst air turbulence I’ve ever experienced. The second meal service, lunch, was cancelled and the crew was confined to their jump seats.

When we landed, we learned that a series of thunderstorms had passed through Beijing, disrupting air traffic for several hours. Flights had not been able to leave, so there was no gate for us. We deplaned, in the rain, on the tarmac and were bused to the terminal.

After immigration and customs, we met a representative of the tour agency who was trying to assemble the group continuing to Wuhan. She asked us to wait 15 minutes. When an hour had passed, we decided to go to the domestic terminal ourselves so we could get our boarding passes and something to eat. This proved to be a mistake.

The terminal was a madhouse. I had forgotten, flights had been canceled or delayed and everyone was trying to find out what to do. Unlike us, most of the passengers, at least, spoke the language.

The Chinese concept of a line is somewhat fluid. Most places where long lines might occur have barricades or line markers to try to force people into a single file. The ribbon line markers at the ticket counters were set too far apart, somewhat defeating their purpose. Eventually, we got to the window, but could not get a boarding pass. We weren’t sure but thought it was considered too soon to check in. At that point I wanted to turn everything back to the tour group, but we hadn’t seen them enter the terminal.

YK eventually located the group by a group check-in window. Nothing was happening. Our flight hadn’t been canceled, but it wasn’t scheduled either. Apparently the plane we were supposed to take hadn’t been able to reach Beijing. We obviously weren’t going anywhere soon.

There were no seats in the check-in area, so everyone was sitting on the floor. At one point, I was so tired that I lay down and fell asleep on the floor. It had already been a long day.

Several hours later, we got our boarding passes and flew to Wuhan. We had left our house at 5AM Thursday LA time. We arrived at our hotel in Wuhan at 2AM Saturday local time. The bus was coming for us at 8:30.

— continue to part (2)

November 2017

Lisbon to Cascais. Sea, river, and tiles – and port wine.

Most of the trans-Atlantic cruise ships make a stop at Lisbon, and we’d been there several times already. Each time we try to do something different, and this time, we decided to go to Cascais. The ship arrived at the new Apolonia Cruise Terminal. It’s about 15-20 minute walk west along the river to the Cais do Sodre Station where we got on the train to Cascais. 40 minutes later, we arrived at this beach town & followed the crowd to the walking street(Rua Frederico Arouca) in the historic old town area near the water.

There were lots of restaurants, bars, and stores in the area selling seafood and ocean themed items. Our lunch was at Taberna Economica de Cascais where we had clams and grilled fish that were fresh and delicious. Yes, the name says it: it WAS economical, indeed, without compromising quality.

We ventured further out along the shoreline a bit, but, getting off of a ship that sailed big waters, we thought we did not need to see more of the sea-view. I looked at some sale racks with Euro 5 pajamas, but the image of my small suitcase appeared in front of my eyes. Well, let’s get back, I said.

If we ever go back to Cascais, we might try to rent a bike & explore the area. There seems to be a free service provided by the City. Rental shops do not seem to over-charge, either.