On the Rocky Mountaineer-

After 3 amazing days with Marion in Vancouver, we got up at 4:45AM to catch the train from downtown Vancouver to Banff. The train is very comfortable, a doubledecked carriage with clear plastic ceilings for viewing the gorgeous countryside. We were served a tasty breakfast and settled on in for the 10 hour trip over to Kamloops.

The landscape we are traveling through is green, lush and full of wildlife. We have seen osprey, eagles, marmots, and promised the possibility of a glimpse of grizzly bear. But the overwhelming impression is that of clean, clear water. Lakes and rivers have wound along the entire route, reminiscent of New Zealand. We have learned all about the rough life of the local salmon, and seen huge protected habitats of the seabirds that live in the area.

After a night in Kamloops, we reboarded the train for the 12 hour jaunt into Banff. More of the same stunning scenery with all of the food and drink we could ever want. We had just left the relative flatlands of BC with an increasing climb up the mountains towards Banff, when we came to a stop. We have now been sitting here on the RM tracks for 90 minutes, and were just informed that our secondary engine is malfunctioning. Because of the steepness of the track, we can’t make it without the second engine, and so here we sit. They are sending another engine, and in the meantime we are enjoying the summer rain, the green environs and the free alcohol. I just hope that the Avis rental car agency will still be open when we do finally limp into town. But we are staying at the Fairmont Banff Springs so if we can’t get the car tonight- we’ll get it tomorrow! No worries, as they all say.

Chongqing.

So we left the river, and took the bus to the Chongqing Zoo. We knew we only had a short time there and that our reason to make the stop on the way to the airport was, of course, the Giant Pandas. So we got our tickets and headed off to the Panda Enclosure. OMG. There they were, waiting for us. And they are so cute, even though from what everyone says they are a bit nasty tempered. One of them sitting in a special chair, obviously designed for easy viewing and at the same time easy munching of eucalyptus. A real photo op. We all took about a million pictures, then it was off to the Zoo Museum. We weren't really looking to buy anything,especially in a museum inside a zoo, but there was a guy there who was carving a unique type of jade so ......

As a result of our purchase, we were last on the bus- but everyone waited for us (smile)and we were off to the airport for our short flight to Xi'an and another Chinese treasure- the Terra Cotta soldiers. Remember that part- we were late for the ride to the airport but the bus waited for us.

In Xi'an we had had an opportunity to pay extra for a Tang Dynasty dinner/show but we had opted not to do so in order to go out and see some of Xi'an on our own. We had remembered what our friend on the Shanghai flight had said about Xi'an being China's past and we aimed to see some of it, especially since the trip to the soldiers wasn't until the next morning. But when we arrived at the very impressive Xi'an Kempinski hotel (Viking did put us up in some very nice 5 star hotels!) we discovered that we were out in the middle of nothing. Built way out of town, designed to be a self sufficient resort (but not there yet), we were stuck. Luckily there was a beautiful pool so we enjoyed the facilities and wondered how the rest of the group was doing (we were 2 of 8 who didn't go. Our excuse, and we still think it was a good one- was that THEY had all just STARTED their trip and we had been traveling for a month by then. We needed a break.) And we had been told by Tom, our very efficient guide, that those of us who hadn't dropped an additional $40 each on the Tang Thing would be provided with the tasty, convenient, included meal- right there in the sumptuous Kempinski dining room. No bus- no boat-no flight. Cool. Count us in. And some people we had met and made friends with had also opted not to go, so we agreed to meet in the beautiful, new bar at 7Pm for a drink before dinner.

At 7 we found a table- (not too hard since there were about 100 people in the entire hotel- and we made up about 75 of of that number) and waited for our friends while listening to a young girl sing American songs. When Jan and Mary Ann arrived they said that they had tried to order a drink already- had we had a chance to do so? No- but we were game. We headed for the dining room, ready for a new experience. Oh yeah.

Our arrival at the table was matched by the appearance of 3 very young, very smiley Chinese employees. Unsuspecting, we ordered a bottle of white wine from a Chilean winery. What a global world we live in! We could get a Chilean wine in Communist China! 15 minutes later all 3 Chinese kids (don't they have to be older than 21 to serve alcohol? Maybe not.) showed back up with a bottle held proudly on a tray. Right winery- but a red wine. Foolish as we are, we explained the mistake and actually let the 3 kids AND our wine disappear back out of sight. By this time we had been served our soup, and our salad, but no sign of the wine. We were joined in our laughter about the situation by the other 4 people from Viking, seated at tables around us. One of the women asked if we had been wise to send the bottle back because "who knew when another might show up?" No, we were sure it was about to be presented for our consumption.......but when it DIDN'T appear, we assured the few employees still around (most of them were otherwise engaged in going to Chile for the wine) that we would happily take the previously offered bottle- as long as it was on our table, in our glasses and in our hands before dinner was over....so off they scurried helpful, as always. While we were pondering this development, a new person came up to us. She leaned over Judy and said- "Madam- rare, medium or well?" After a moment's thought Judy asked "What kind of steak is it?" A stricken look came over the waitress, who paused to compose herself and then said...."Madam- rare, medium or well?" They were the only 4 words in English that she knew. Still, we could hardly be critical since we could barely manage "good morning" in Chinese so we took it all in stride. And just about then, almost as a reward- our bottle of wine (the original one) showed back up! Good- we were on a roll. Unfortunately, we are pretty sure that the waitress had never before attempted to open a wine bottle (or maybe even have seen one) and she gallantly tried for some time to get it open. Finally, to the amusement of all of the rest of the Viking travelers, we indicated with our best sign language to bring the bottle, AND the opener, to the table and we would do it ourselves......ah, the pleasures of travel. And we hadn't even gotten to the Terra Cotta soldiers yet. Tomorrow- another 5:30AM wakeup call and another intra China flight.

Farming: Chinese-style

We did see a lot of the different valleys and gorges, and we were glad we did. I mentioned the unique style of farming used by the local inhabitants. When you realize just how steep the valley gorges are, and the lack of what we Westerners would consider to be arable land, the answer (I guess) is obvious. Up the slope. This is really thinking outside the box, since there is nothing easy about this process. First off, the land they were moved to was a different makeup of soil altogether. Remember- this new “crop land” was located on the sides of mountains, over 600 feet higher than the old farm land. So the dirt available there didn’t consist so much of top soil as- rocks. Rocks that were hard enough to have withstood centuries of weather. And now a group of about 13,000 farming families were going to plant their livelihood there.

I took many pictures of the various fields, just because they were so amazing. In addition, “Susan” told us that the soil is all worked by hand. All of the rocks that had to be removed, all of the plowing, etc- by hand. And the reason why? Because the pitch of the sloped fields is such that the animals (horses and cattle, for example) would lose their footing and slide down the mountainside. While that seems funny in retrospect…….

After our little outing we again returned to the Century Sun and prepared for sailing. Next stop- Chongquin. This was even more exciting than the Three Gorges Dam because everyone knows that Chongquin=Pandas. And we couldn’t wait. (Unfortunately, lurking at the other end of our visit to the Panda enclosure was another intra-China fight, but you do what you have to do. More about the intra-China flights later)

We cruised throughout the night, enjoyed the on board entertainment such as Bingo, and got the official word about disembarking, paying our bills and understanding the process of getting all 400 of us (and our luggage) to the airport for the flight to Xi’an. Good night- see you tomorrow! Pandas- here we come.

Three Gorges Dam

Having missed the first excursion of the cruise, we gleefully took advantage of the fact that the 4 desktop computers on board “YOU CANNOT USE LAPTOPS OR WIRELESS INTERNET ON BOARD THE CENTURY SUN” (sheesh!) were available. So I sat down and wrote all of you who were wondering what part of the flat ocean/earth we had fallen off of…..email after email. The joke, of course, was on me, since China had installed some very effective filters on those available computers, so our faithful missals home were either lying dead on the floor or bouncing around in cyber-space somewhere. Still, I felt better about it. Ignorance is bliss.

The next day we really entered “Gorge Country” and it was, well, gorgeous. We made an excursion to the actual Three Gorges Dam site, had a tour and everything, while they explained the need for the dam that had displaced the entire population of the valley. The design, technology and scope of the project is overwhelming and a testament to Chinese determination. Determination on the part of the government, of course. And in return, as the Scientific American reported “the government ordered some 1.2 million people in two cities and 116 towns clustered on the banks of the Yangtze to be evacuated to other areas before construction, promising them plots of land and small stipends—in some cases as little as 50 yuan, or $7 a month—as compensation”.

After returning to the ship, we started the job of passing through the area. The site consists of 5 locks. It took us 4 hours to navigate the locks, allowing us to pass through into the “Lessor Gorge” area. By this time the river was bordered on both sides by huge, steep walls of granite, trees, and amazingly- crop fields. Many farmers had their lands taken from them, with promises of payment and help in moving. Allegedly, funds for relocating the 13,000 farmers around Gaoyang disappeared after being sent to the local government, leaving residents without compensation. Crop fields- more on that later.

By this time we were rather “locked” out, and most of us had retired to the bar for some liquid refreshment that wasn’t muddy and flowing past the bow of our ship. Tomorrow was another big day- a transfer to a smaller boat that would take us up into the valleys flooded by the dam, and the opportunity to float over all of those homes, schools and such lying 600 feet below the current water level.

As promised, the next day we met a local tour guide and started up the valley. “Susan” was about 28 years old, and she and her parents were among the people displaced by the flooding of the region. She pointed out the beautiful, new, tall, high-rises along the (new) riverbank, and was happy to share with us the exact condo that she and her husband now own. She said that the old people are still bitter about the loss of their homeland, but that the young people are happy to have the new, modern apartments. And there are many. When you move 1 ¼ million people, something has to give. And this is a hilly region, so obviously the only way to go is….up. Just like in the cities, buildings are skyscrapers. And densely packed together. I guess they have to be thankful for all of the kilowatts that the dam is providing because you seriously would not want to have a power outage and have to use the stairs in these buildings. Damn. Dam.

The Yangtze

OK. We settled in, enjoyed a nice dinner (we were so late arriving that the kitchen and dining room staff had had to wait for us- always a warm welcome when you have crew that already work 14 hour days), had our welcome glass of champagne- all was good. Tomorrow we would (sadly) say goodbye to Shanghai and sail off to see for ourselves the wonder and the woes wrought by the controversial Three Gorges Dam.

Here would be a good time to talk about locks. Never in our lives had either of us ever been, or even seen, a real lock. Which was why, while we were in Paris and not doing the regular Louvre/Orsay/Eiffel Tower thing, we had gone out of our way to experience the St Martin Canal river boat ride, complete with- you guessed it- several locks. What were we thinking? Everyone knows that the Three Gorges Dam…..and also the Volga River…..locks, locks, locks. If we had been able to include Panama in this trip we could have really knocked them dead, but as it were we only had to
chance to traverse, hmm, let’s see:

St Martin: 3 locks
The Volga: 19 locks
The Yangtze: 7 locks

That’s a total of 29 locks. We are now experts in locks and we really don’t need to see any others, so I guess that means we can scratch the Panama Canal off our list….. I dutifully took multiple pictures of the first 7 or 8 locks we passed through and I would be happy to show them to whomever might want to see them. Instead, I printed about 3 to put in the official scrapbook of the trip and that will have to suffice. Still- the technology is pretty amazing and although I still don’t understand why they’re called “locks”, I’m glad we have been introduced.

Back to the cruise. We hit the river with a bang, as the Program Director announced at dinner that our first excursion would be the next morning at 8:30, to the “Viking School”. We had encountered this sort of thing on the Pandaw cruise through the Mekong Delta- the river companies adopt a school or two and then schedule stops there. This is remarkably clever- they take the whole cruise ship there to meet the children and then offer to accept donations. In other words- the riverboat company gets the credit and the passengers foot the bill. Judy and I didn’t go, actually, but we were just about the only ones not to, thereby losing a shot at major footage on the cruise video. Darn. Well, we still have the vodka party from Russia to admire.

After the morning’s bus ride out to the school (actually, people said it was really a heartwarming experience), we pulled up the anchor and sailed the Xiling Gorge. A prelude to the Three Gorges, some of the scenery was beautiful, some not so. Tomorrow: the real thing.

Boarding the boat

So, by this time we are feeling pretty comfortable with the whole river cruising thing. We were looking forward to a leisurely boarding, especially since we had been told by all of our new friends on the Russian cruise that “in China- there isn’t all of this carryyourownluggage business- on the China cruise, it’s all done for you”. So even after the 3 ½ bus ride from the Wuhan airport to the port site, we were still OK. Even after the one and only pit stop (sorry- “happy room stop”) at a low rent roadside “Public Toilet”. Ouch. For those of you women not yet acquainted with the phenomena known as the “eastern toilet”- this would have been a nice intro to the hole in a floor loved by us all. Actually- there was ONE Western toilet, but it was out of order and when a toilet in Asia is out of order it is really not a good thing. Picture: contents flowing across the floor. So most of us decided we could easily wait another 90 minutes and off we went.

Arrival at the slip was an interesting experience. After all, this was not the usual docking site, but one chosen because it was the nearest one up river that was useable (Read this: not under 10 feet of water). So we were taken through the back streets of China, and this view does NOT look like the 5 star Grand Hyatt in Shanghai. (Have I mentioned our room there was easily the nicest I have ever been in? Ever?) Finally, we pushed past the slums and people and pulled up in front of the Century Sun- civilization, at last! (And Western toilets). So we unload from the bus (and yes, we could leave our luggage to be brought asap by the Viking staff), start across the gangplank…….and realize that the muddy waters of the mighty Yangtze are full of…..bathers. Local bathers.

Up to their knees in icky river water. We stared at them, they stared back….and we went on in to take care of our business while they took care of theirs.

OK- so a small setback on our enlightened road (or bus trip) to fabulosity, but we took it in stride, especially after a trip to the “happy room”. In my next life I’m coming back as a male of the species. Women were NOT built to pee over their dangling pant legs into a nasty hole in the ground….anyway, we covered that already.

But- as we entered the ship (ship, boat, whatever- we used the terms interchangeably) we noticed a strange odor. Mildew, to be exact. Seems that the recent heavy rains and flooding had soaked more than just the surrounding flatlands. In fact, our cabin was so nicely damp and warm that had we added a few rocks we could have sub-rented it out as a steam room. And for the next 5 nights we lived and breathed in that environment. The price paid when we finally disembarked? A suitcase full of very wet clothes and a slight lung infection for Judy. But we won’t dwell on our living conditions- we were about to set sail up the Yangtze- and over the tops of entire villages flooded by the Chinese government when the 3 Gorges Dam was built. Now that’s wet.

Can we get to China from here?

Well, we left our Viking home for the airport,and without a hitch caught the flight to Frankfurt. This was the travel day we had been dreading since we planned the trip last July. 3 hours to Frankfurt, a 2 hour layover then board another flight to Hong Kong- basically just retracing our route from Moscow. Well, after waiting an hour it became obvious that the flight was very full- too full. So when they asked for volunteers to stay over and fly the next day, we jumped at the chance. 600 euros each, a night in the hotel and 3 free meals. Only catch- we couldn't claim our luggage as it was already booked through. We had our meds and our toothbrushes so we were OK with that. We settled into the hotel and waited for the next day.

When we arrived at the airport the next day we were again told that the flight was overbooked, so.......we came out of the deal 2400 euros richer and a bit rested after the hectic pace of the Russia cruise. We cancelled our hotel in HK, and rebooked our flight directly into Shanghai for the beginning of the China cruise. In addition, as further thanks for being so accommodating, they upgraded us (for free) to business. This, after we had begged to be able to use miles or dollars or both..... anyway- off to China.

On the flight we sat next to a German woman who has lived in the greater Shanghai area for 6 years, working for Bosch. She told us we would love Shanghai and that the saying is "Beijing is the present, Xi'an is the past, and Shanghai is the future". What an amazing city! The Huangpo River runs through it, and on one side of the river the buildings are almost a thousand years old- on the other side, everything was built since 1991. We walked the famous Bund; along side the river, between the old and the new.

China has, we have been told (many times) 1.4 billion people. And so the rapid construction is racing ahead, in order to be able to house everyone. Since 1991, people have been leaving the countrysides to go to the cities, and the infrastructure and housing has to keep up. And up is the operative word- apartment buildings have upwards of 70 floors. With all of the skyscrapers, it has a New-York-City kind of feel.Even the shops, restaurants and shopping malls feel familiar- just super packed with people, rather like a subway at rush hour.

We were booked into the Shanghai Grand Hyatt (thanks Viking!) so we dropped our suitcases and wandered out into the heat (and smog). After passing Louis Vuitton, Dior and the like we found a mall more to our liking, and sat down to watch the people while enjoying a Haagen Daz ice cream. The hordes of young people was almost scary it was so forceful and nonstop. How do you survive in a country that is so over run with people?

After 2 very pleasant nights at the luxurious Hyatt, we met our tour guide, Tom, for the flight to Wuhan, where we were supposed to start the river portion of the trip. But there had been so much flooding that we couldn't board there, so we were bussed 4 hours upriver. There, we found our cabin and unpacked for the next 5 nights on the Yangtze.

next- life back on the river........