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Chongqing, China
29° 33' N 106° 33' E
Sep 18, 2005 05:47
Distance 479km

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John the con and the three gorges dam

Text written in: English

We boarded the boat from Yichang towards Chongqing at 10.30am for the start of three days and nights on the boat.  On first impressions we werent terribly impressed, as the boat looked absolutely nothing like the pictures we saw, but at least we got a cabin to ourselves anyway.

Day 1:

The first day was spent mainly reading, and playing cards with the occasional break to look at some scenery, but even then it was rediculously smoggy, so you couldnt see that much anyway.  The one highlight of the day was passing through the huge three gorges dam, via no less than five massive locks.  This dam is a scene of huge controversy in China, as it will provide the country with lots of cheap hydro-electric power, but it will also flood thousands of kilometres of farmland and cities!!  It is due for completion in 2009.

On the night, we decided we couldnt hack pot noodles or crisp sandwiches any longer, so we decided to go down to the third class dining room for a spot of food.  We were pleasantly surprised, as we stuffed our faces for next to no money and then headed upstairs for more cards and a few beers before hitting the sack.

Day 2:

We were woken at 6am by knocking on the door for the cleaners to empty the bin.  How fucking annoying is that?!?!  Alex and Ackroyd refused to budge from their slumber as well, so i had to open the door to them as well, not best pleased as you can imagine!

Today, we saw the first effects that the new dam is having on the surrounding areas, with many ghost towns that have been deserted as they will inevitably end up under water.  It is a shame that the water will cover a number of temples and pagodas, and also hide huge chunks of the three gorges.  We also started to get glimpses of big brand new cities high up on the hillsides that had been built from scratch to relocate all of the people losing their homes to the project.

The second day was much the same as the first apart from it was clearer.  We were starting to get pretty bored of playing cards, so we decided to amuse ourselves by mooneying most of the boats floating past or in the oppostie direction.  We then resorted to pissing off th back of the boat, cos the communal toilets were hangin' and we couldnt be bothered to walk back to the room.

Ackroyd also got ripped off by the woman in the store downstairs as she gave him a fake fifty yuan note and then refused to take it back later.  It didnt matter all that much anyway, we just used it in the bar upstairs instead to buy three cans of the most revolting beer i think i have ever tasted.  And to make matters worse, the bar was full of Chinese people singing karaoke, badly.

Day 3:

Once again we were woken by the cleaning ladies at 6am, but this morning i was in an especially bad mood as i had horrendous stomach cramps.  The woman knocked on about 5 different occasions, to all of which i shouted 'come in' and 'yes', but no-one came in.  They then went away until 10 minutes later they knocked again when i had just got back to sleep.  Needless to say i weas less than pleased, so i stormed over to the door, swung it open and virtually shouted 'what?' in her face!!  She said 'oh sorry' and then got the door slammed in her face.  Maybe a bit over the top, but when you are woken constantly at 6am by knocking, you have got stomach cramps and you feel like you are going to shit yourself any moment, i think it was wholely appropriate.

Once again, we didnt do alot today, apart from me visiting the toilets about 20 times.  I finished my book, and the lads got ripped off by the shop lady again, but that was about it!!  How interesting...i will be glad to get off this boat!

We arrived in Chongqing fairly early in the morning and as we departed the boat, we were handed our tickets back.  The price showed 150yuan, so why the hell did we pay a company 500yuan for them.  I think we have been conned here somehow, seeing as we were the only white people on our boat and we saw shit loads of boats floating past us full of westerners!!  We waited at the port for one and a half hours for John from the tour company (now John the Con) to pick us up.  What a professional operation he is running.

After we picked up our train tickets for later that day, we had a potter around the city of Chongqing as there was nothing else to do.  Most of you wouldnt have heard of Chongqing, but it is now one of the largest cities in China, and is home to nearly 6 million people!!!  You get the impression that it is a fairly new city as the skyline is dominated by high rise metal office towers as you would expect from Hong Kong or Shanghai, just not on the same scale.  One thing you immediately noticed when you are waling around is how much cleaner the city is than the other cities we have been to.  The people still spit, but here they do it in the bins.  Another welcoming part of the city is that much of the centre is pedestrianised so you dont feel like you are going to get run over all the time in other cities.

Also, after spending almost three weeks in China, you get used to the constant drone of car horns all the time, well, not so much here as the government outlawed the use of the car horn in an attempt to reduce noise pollution, and it seems to have had an effect.

I got the feeling they dont see a huge deal of westerners over here, as absolutely everyone stares at you intently as you are walking down the street, which is a bit unnerving to say the leastwhen you have a fairly expensive camera hanging around your neck.

We got bored with walking around, so we found a bowling alley.  Now, i will admit, i am one of the worlds worst bowlers, but i dont know what happened.  I started the game with 3 strikes and then a spare, but it went woefully downhill after that and i finished on 136.  Still enough to win the game with Al finishing on 125 after a late surge and Ack finishing on 74!!!  Thanks for coming Ackroyd!

After my triumph in the bowling, we had a slow walk back to John the Cons office and then caught a taxi to the train station as it was out of town.  On the walk back however, i saw the most harrowing sight of the trip to date, a severely malnourished man lying in the road begging.  He looked as if he was days away from death and no-one looked twice at him - it was genuinely upsetting.  There dont seem to be any rules with regards to queueing in China, as eveeryone tries to barge past you, but i have got use to this now and regularly send old woman flying with a swift swing of the old rucksack.  On this occasion though, Ack was a bit stressed out and when a guy barged infront of him, he nearly had a fit, much to mine and Alex's amusement!  He was goign crazy behind this guy, but managed to restrain himself sufficiently as to not knock his little head off.

We boarded the train and it was a pleasant surprise after our last train.  I managed to bagsy the bottom bunk as i was still suffering from leaky ass syndrome.  It was nearly almost empty as well which meant we could spread out a bit more than usual as the beds are made for chinese people (they are about 5ft long).  We passed some nice scenery and pissed about playing with some little chinese kid who was next door to us ( he was loopy, so he got on well with Al).