Whilst we were waiting for the time to board the cruise we wandered around Chongqing town. We tried to find a restaurant in the guide book but failing that we stumbled into a goodish looking (or rather close) one that had the plus points of having people eating inside. Above is what we ordered. They didn’t have an English menu. We’d worked out it was a hotpot restaurant (famous dish in the region) by looking at the other tables. Plus the fact the waitress had flamed the table and put a silver dish with liquids over the fire. We pointed at random things and asked an old man standing watching us for advice. We think everything not weird we got were his options. Mind you before ordering we had to pose with everyone in the place for about 20 photos. They were very very amazed and amused we were there. Don’t think it was a tourist hotspot. Was delicious food though. And so fun teat. Basically you dip everything into the broth in the middle to cook and then dip it in the chilli outer ring, and then add crushed garlic garnish and then eat.
Onwards to the fancy cruise! We went to pick up our bags from the ticket office and got escorted onto our boat where they fussed around for a bit deciding what to do as we had no actual ticket just a reciept saying we’d paid.
Here is the President No1. Our boat:
We then got taken on a tour of the boat with the sole intention of getting us to agree to upgrade. For a fee of course. We got very briefly shown the room we’d paid for then whisked through a series of far fancier rooms starting with the suites and ending with room with a kingsize bed. We gave in and took the kingsize. Mainly because it was on a higer deck, partly because we just wanted to sit in our room and not have people try to sell us things. Also in a final desperate attempt to get up to upgrade ‘Tina’ told a fabulous lie. She originally said 80 pounds was the price to upgrade. I said 40. She went to her manager, came back said 50. We said no. She went to manager THEN came back and said that our travel agency had ‘just phoned’ and offered to cover us for the extra ten. Lol.
Here was our room (It also had a very lovely balcony):
This cruise along the Yangse was apparently 5*. We got 3 meals a day. Breakfast was buffet style and lunch and dinner consisted of about 10 delicious dishes. And we also got an excursion a day and to sail through the three gorges. It was very fancy. For the meals we were assigned a table with the only other people who weren’t on a tour and middle aged. These were a British couple and a Canadian couple.
Excursion number one:
Ghost City. When we all die we will have to make our way here to be judged. This picture is a ghost who was lining the way to the gate of hell.
A Gorge:
Excursion Number Two:
We were moved to a separate ferry, sailed for an hour and a half and then went in wooden boats rowed by local boatmen for an hour and then back in the ferry for another hour and a half.
At one point the boatmen launched out of the boat to pull it along a shallow rough part by rope! The guy at the front with the stick was supposed to use it to push us away from the rocks. He was working SO hard! At one point we got stuck and he got yelled at a lot. A boatman on the boat behind us (who was pulling the hardest!) was 69 years old! He was definitely fitter than me!
Excursion number 3 was to see the Dam. But I was ill so I stayed in bed. C said it was very dam-like.
Fantastic