On Travel

Thursday, March 22

On Travel

Along the Yangtze

By now, the brain was becoming numb as it tried to assimilate all in the information flowing in from the trip. We have covered Shanghai, Beijing and Xian and were on our way to a ” rest” period as we cruise the Yangtze River.

We took a Hainan Airlines (another China internal airline) plane bound for Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province. Ever heard of Wuhan at all? Not I but here we were at one of the largest cities in central China and in the top ten largest cities in the world with a population topping five million. Wuhan also is the 3700 year old home of the Han Dynasty.

 I’ll just insert here that I feel like I know a bit about world geography and I am amazed how little I know about China or probably southeast Asia in general. Mostly I know about the Yangtze, third longest river in the world, from an old children’s book, The Story of Ping….la,la, la, la li. In any case, the city of Wuhan lies at the intersection of the Yangtze and Han Rivers and it was where we began our “road trip” to Yichang where we boarded the Victoria Cruise Line “Lianna” for our cruise.

At anchor

Lianna

The road trip was mostly a blur for me as I slept through the majority of it but did wake to see the dreary cruise terminal and go down the picturesque (read ‘rusty and dilapidated’) tram that deposited us at the ship. The ship itself was pleasant and adequately appointed with, surprise, an American cruise director from New York. Our  air-conditioned room had twin beds, a decent bath and a balcony-all the requisite amenities. Also there were demonstrations and lectures scheduled for the trip plus crew-entertainment. Only quirk, the carpet was “wavy” and we learned later that was because of something to do with the aging of the structure. Truth or fiction?

In the dining room, we had a sumptuous lunch featuring welcomed western food along with international foods of many types. Additionally, we learned we were on the maiden voyage of the season and, while us Smart People were the only passengers at the moment, more passengers were expected as the day progressed.

The afternoon was spent exploring the ship, catching up on email and sampling the drink of the day in the bar. The crew was helpful and friendly and there was finally time to talk with others on our tour and make some new friends. We found there were lovely and interesting people among our group.

Greeted with "Happiness"

Our cabin

The bar

Corridor

After another Western tour group and a large Iranian family group boarded, we had a nice dinner and cast off late in evening so we could be at Sandouping, the home of the world’s largest hydroelectric power project, by the next morning.

Delicious food was served