Ahh, its tough. It really is. Getting whizzed around in air conditioned people-carriers pretending we're the Corr's on a world tour (Dave is definitely Andrea, the primadonna!). Chongqing, our guide nonchalantly spouted, is THE biggest city in the world, with a population of 33 million.
Gasps and gurgles from the back seats. "Surely not,..surely Mumbai, ..Mexico City, Shanghai..no?!"
I'm not quite sure what she was basing said statistic on..but sure feck it, we all settled that the place was at least bigger than Mullingar.
We boarded the 'Victoria Katerina' at about 7pm after a slap up and beer fuelled 'hot pot'. All teak and shining gold interiors, our good ship VK welcomed us to the sound of a scratchy brass band perched on the dock that squawked its approval at each new group of heaving tourists as they waddled towards her gangplank.
Having settled into our adjacent cabins on the top deck we spent the evening on the upper deck watching the murky river float by as we left the city. The lights and lasers of Chongqing receding into the distance, and I fell into a happy sleep looking forward to the next few days (after watching the news on CNN on our widescreen in the cabin - ahh the luxury haha!)
Over breakfast the next morning (our seats were pre-assigned) we met an Australian couple, and a lovely South African family who were to be our culinary accomplices for the remainder of the journey. We had earlier (7am.. uggggh) been dutifully informed by the matronly German voice beaming through the speakers in our cabin that 'Ze stop today laaydeez and gentlemen is ze City of Ghosts. Pleeze remember to bring comfortable valking shoes, your pacemakers and your cameras'. We hoped that our pacemakers would be supplied en route to the gangerplanker.
Two oul English fella's made my day that morning on the ascent from the boat up to the foothill of 'Ze City of Ghosts'. About ten steps up - bare chested, cigar toting, and 'ever so ever so' one says to the other "By jove I think I'm about to reach my limit".
I look around and cock my eyebrow. His buddy wheezes back "Me too, by jove".
Ten more steps.
Number one looks down, beaten, exasperated, and stops in his tracks. "Ok I've reached my limit. Thats it". Deadpan. Silence. ...Then they both break their shits laughing and continue on up the hill. Grumpy old men. Legends.
'Ze City', which in fact sits on top of where the city of Fengdu once was before it was swamped by the rising river, is some sort of great place of veneration for the local Buddhists. Its altogether Ying and Yang, Devils and Heaven, caf and de-caf, black and white, Johnny Cash and Daniel O'Donnell old boy. The whole works thrown into one big religious hotch potch of sweaty tourist heaven. I found myself being dared to lift a 10 stone piece of metal and rub it around a groove in the ground at one stage by our guide. If I completed the task I would apparently instantaneously win the lotto, and turn into the perfect cross of Morrisey, Elvis, Eric Cantona and Paul O'Connell. Instead I crumpled under the pressure and stood by humiliated as a 4 foot 2 monk appeared from behind a statue of Rod Stewart and completed the trick in a flash.
Buddha you bastard.
We took the cable car back down the hill and scrambled back to the 'real world' of our floating buffet lunch and conversation about South African gold mines.
That was to be our only stop of the day, so I hit the gym for an hour or two in an attempt to break my all time daily sweat record. I got damn close.
After lunch we messed about on the top deck taking in the fantastic scenery. We also attended a Q & A session with the chief tourist looker afterter and quizzed him on all things China, from press restrictions to those sticky questions about where exactly the 1.3m people displaced by the Three Gorges Dam project actually all ended up (were there grannies still submerged down there shaking defiant water clogged fists at the Politburo kind of thing). He dutifully informed us that of course there werent you silly Westerners, and of course all asbestos plants and sewage works and glue factories were properly sanitized before the mighty Yangtze rose and devoured them all.
In all seriousness its just and incredible project and we felt so lucky to be able to see that stretch of the river before it rises the remaining 75 metres odd and the project is brought to completion in late 2008.
We had a few pre-Captain's Dinner beers on our balcony with Martin from Arizona, who turned out to be one of the soundest fellas we've met on the trip so far. Who says Yanks don't do irony? Not us anyway! I donned my white linen suit, sparked a Monte Cristo, and swanned into the dining room like I bleedin' owned the place. Had a few G & T's (wondered aloud to the captain as to who the feck was driving the boat and what in God's name were we paying him for?) and generally behaved like a late 19th century colonial. All in a days work.
Day two's itinerary came booming through the foggy haze of the night before at some ungodly hour the following morning. Off our vessel we waddled onto a smaller boat for a trip into the Lesser Gorges (there are three in total, culminating in the 'least gorge' of course.) Again the views were stunning. We passed by a hanging coffin - there are a series of these death defying burial sites carved into the side of the gorge faces - and some wild monkeys en route. At one point we spotted a girl standing up to her ankles at the base of what seemed like an impossibly steep section of gorge wall. Our guide informed us that she was waiting for a water bus, and that she had probably walked about 3 hours from her home to get there. Without doubt the strangest bus stop I've ever come across.
Barely visible on sections of the walls you can still see a narrow pathway that served as a trading artery for centuries. It cuts it's way along at such ridiculous angles, and is so high up in points (or at least it was until the flooding started) that I just couldn't imagine even walking along it, never mind carrying a load!
To get into the smallest of the three lesser gorges we hopped onto an even smaller boat (Sampan) and whizzed upstream for about 45 minutes past boats of singing Chinese ladies. I struggle to describe just how amazing the views were here so I will try to post a few photos soon.
On arrival back to our floating air conditioned box, we were informed that the 'Captain's Farewell Dinner' was to commence at 7. By jaysus did captain like to make a deal of himself! Sarah decided to attend a fashion show with a few of her new girly friends, so the lads and I had a few bevvies and contemplated another day of hardcore tourism. We docked just beside the culmination of the great project - the dam itself. I took the opportunity to tell my funniest joke (what did the fish say when it swam into the wall? - you guessed it) to resounding silence.
Day three - our last on the boat - we took a bus for the 45 minute journey to the dam itself and the visitors centre there. Had a good look around in the blistering heat before hopping back on the bus and heading for Yichang where we were scheduled to catch a flight to Shanghai.
All in all the three days were breath-taking. The early rises (6am) near killed us at points but we quickly learned all tourism needs to be done before midday heat. The heat was really oppressive. Also extremely humid. The brown colour of the mighty Yangzte, the lush green scenery surrounding it and in the gorges and the blue skies will be forever etched in my memory. It was truly phenomenal.
Gasps and gurgles from the back seats. "Surely not,..surely Mumbai, ..Mexico City, Shanghai..no?!"
I'm not quite sure what she was basing said statistic on..but sure feck it, we all settled that the place was at least bigger than Mullingar.
We boarded the 'Victoria Katerina' at about 7pm after a slap up and beer fuelled 'hot pot'. All teak and shining gold interiors, our good ship VK welcomed us to the sound of a scratchy brass band perched on the dock that squawked its approval at each new group of heaving tourists as they waddled towards her gangplank.
Having settled into our adjacent cabins on the top deck we spent the evening on the upper deck watching the murky river float by as we left the city. The lights and lasers of Chongqing receding into the distance, and I fell into a happy sleep looking forward to the next few days (after watching the news on CNN on our widescreen in the cabin - ahh the luxury haha!)
Over breakfast the next morning (our seats were pre-assigned) we met an Australian couple, and a lovely South African family who were to be our culinary accomplices for the remainder of the journey. We had earlier (7am.. uggggh) been dutifully informed by the matronly German voice beaming through the speakers in our cabin that 'Ze stop today laaydeez and gentlemen is ze City of Ghosts. Pleeze remember to bring comfortable valking shoes, your pacemakers and your cameras'. We hoped that our pacemakers would be supplied en route to the gangerplanker.
Two oul English fella's made my day that morning on the ascent from the boat up to the foothill of 'Ze City of Ghosts'. About ten steps up - bare chested, cigar toting, and 'ever so ever so' one says to the other "By jove I think I'm about to reach my limit".
I look around and cock my eyebrow. His buddy wheezes back "Me too, by jove".
Ten more steps.
Number one looks down, beaten, exasperated, and stops in his tracks. "Ok I've reached my limit. Thats it". Deadpan. Silence. ...Then they both break their shits laughing and continue on up the hill. Grumpy old men. Legends.
'Ze City', which in fact sits on top of where the city of Fengdu once was before it was swamped by the rising river, is some sort of great place of veneration for the local Buddhists. Its altogether Ying and Yang, Devils and Heaven, caf and de-caf, black and white, Johnny Cash and Daniel O'Donnell old boy. The whole works thrown into one big religious hotch potch of sweaty tourist heaven. I found myself being dared to lift a 10 stone piece of metal and rub it around a groove in the ground at one stage by our guide. If I completed the task I would apparently instantaneously win the lotto, and turn into the perfect cross of Morrisey, Elvis, Eric Cantona and Paul O'Connell. Instead I crumpled under the pressure and stood by humiliated as a 4 foot 2 monk appeared from behind a statue of Rod Stewart and completed the trick in a flash.
Buddha you bastard.
We took the cable car back down the hill and scrambled back to the 'real world' of our floating buffet lunch and conversation about South African gold mines.
That was to be our only stop of the day, so I hit the gym for an hour or two in an attempt to break my all time daily sweat record. I got damn close.
After lunch we messed about on the top deck taking in the fantastic scenery. We also attended a Q & A session with the chief tourist looker afterter and quizzed him on all things China, from press restrictions to those sticky questions about where exactly the 1.3m people displaced by the Three Gorges Dam project actually all ended up (were there grannies still submerged down there shaking defiant water clogged fists at the Politburo kind of thing). He dutifully informed us that of course there werent you silly Westerners, and of course all asbestos plants and sewage works and glue factories were properly sanitized before the mighty Yangtze rose and devoured them all.
In all seriousness its just and incredible project and we felt so lucky to be able to see that stretch of the river before it rises the remaining 75 metres odd and the project is brought to completion in late 2008.
We had a few pre-Captain's Dinner beers on our balcony with Martin from Arizona, who turned out to be one of the soundest fellas we've met on the trip so far. Who says Yanks don't do irony? Not us anyway! I donned my white linen suit, sparked a Monte Cristo, and swanned into the dining room like I bleedin' owned the place. Had a few G & T's (wondered aloud to the captain as to who the feck was driving the boat and what in God's name were we paying him for?) and generally behaved like a late 19th century colonial. All in a days work.
Day two's itinerary came booming through the foggy haze of the night before at some ungodly hour the following morning. Off our vessel we waddled onto a smaller boat for a trip into the Lesser Gorges (there are three in total, culminating in the 'least gorge' of course.) Again the views were stunning. We passed by a hanging coffin - there are a series of these death defying burial sites carved into the side of the gorge faces - and some wild monkeys en route. At one point we spotted a girl standing up to her ankles at the base of what seemed like an impossibly steep section of gorge wall. Our guide informed us that she was waiting for a water bus, and that she had probably walked about 3 hours from her home to get there. Without doubt the strangest bus stop I've ever come across.
Barely visible on sections of the walls you can still see a narrow pathway that served as a trading artery for centuries. It cuts it's way along at such ridiculous angles, and is so high up in points (or at least it was until the flooding started) that I just couldn't imagine even walking along it, never mind carrying a load!
To get into the smallest of the three lesser gorges we hopped onto an even smaller boat (Sampan) and whizzed upstream for about 45 minutes past boats of singing Chinese ladies. I struggle to describe just how amazing the views were here so I will try to post a few photos soon.
On arrival back to our floating air conditioned box, we were informed that the 'Captain's Farewell Dinner' was to commence at 7. By jaysus did captain like to make a deal of himself! Sarah decided to attend a fashion show with a few of her new girly friends, so the lads and I had a few bevvies and contemplated another day of hardcore tourism. We docked just beside the culmination of the great project - the dam itself. I took the opportunity to tell my funniest joke (what did the fish say when it swam into the wall? - you guessed it) to resounding silence.
Day three - our last on the boat - we took a bus for the 45 minute journey to the dam itself and the visitors centre there. Had a good look around in the blistering heat before hopping back on the bus and heading for Yichang where we were scheduled to catch a flight to Shanghai.
All in all the three days were breath-taking. The early rises (6am) near killed us at points but we quickly learned all tourism needs to be done before midday heat. The heat was really oppressive. Also extremely humid. The brown colour of the mighty Yangzte, the lush green scenery surrounding it and in the gorges and the blue skies will be forever etched in my memory. It was truly phenomenal.
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