Today, the second day of the trip, was supposed to be the most scenic of all, with the river winding thro’ 4 steep gorges. We entered the first one early, so I dragged myself, a little reluctantly, from my bunk. The decks were crowded with people, pointing up at the cliffs which towered above us, + at first I thought that once again they were indicating rock formations which looked like birds, beasts or men, but perhaps on this occasion I was being unfair. I soon tired of the view + the crush, + returned to my bunk, but in so doing missed out on a sight which attracted loads of attention – a body floating downstream. Val did see it, + wished she hadn’t.
After lunch, took John on again at chess + beat him 2 games to 1. Very satisfying, because we are of a similar standard. And then it was just about time for us to disembark at Yichang – the other 3 were all going on as far as Wuhan, another 24 hr trip. I was pleased we had arranged things the way we had, staying on board for just about the right amount of time, so that we were able to rest + recuperate without boredom taking over. The scenery had been pleasant (+ we had seen the best), the company good, the food acceptable, + we were glad to be getting off.
From the wharf we took a bus direct to the railway stn, where, with the help of a couple of HK Chinese, we were able to obtain a certain amount of info. However, since the booking office was not open, there was nothing to be done straight away, so we went off to find a hotel. We had the sketchiest of instructions on how to get there, but found the place (or, as we later discovered, a different place) fairly easily. There was no problem, tho’ as the receptionist didn’t speak English we had to do all our negotiations over the phone with an unseen voice. The receptionist was in a furious temper however when we paid in RMBs, pretending not to understand her demand for FECs. Luckily for us, she soon seemed to forget the incident, especially when we asked our room attendant about food (we showed him the line in our phrasebook which translates as “I am hungry”) + he referred us to her. This provoked a bit of running around, but after ten mins, we were shown to what was almost a private dining-room. There were just 2 tables in it – a man was just finishing his meal at one, while we were shown to the other. It appeared we were to be served a set meal, + when it came (by stages, I should add) it turned out to be very good indeed, with hors d’oeuvres, cold dishes, hot rice, soup, + even a beer. What slightly spoilt our enjoyment of it all was a degree of apprehension as to how much it would cost, but that too was a more than pleasant surprise, at just Y5 for the 2 of us – I think they must have forgotten all about the beer.
We went out then to search for dessert – we ended up with sponge, of course, + an ice lolly, + incidentally strolled down to the waterfront, where an attractive park has just been opened. Afterwards, we walked back to the stn, where we wanted to buy a thro’ ticket all the way to Xining – this would have a validity of about 6 days, so we would be able to stop off in several places, but would work out cheaper than a segmented ticket. As usual, it was Val who was the brave one who went in to try to buy it – we thought it better for me to stay out of the way so that, if she failed, I would still be able to give it a go, perhaps using our HK documentation. I sat on the wall outside waiting, + it was about half an hour. She’d had quite a tough time of it with the counter clerk, who refused to accept our student cards, but by persisting she had been taken out to a rear office, where a girl who spoke English gave the cards a once-over (+ a twice-over, + a thrice-over) before, reluctantly, approving it. The girl in the ticket office then wrote out our ticket, but she was furious about it. Still, it was done, even if the whole business had given Val the shakes, + getting it at student rates meant a saving of 50%. The annoying thing was that, as it had been dated to start from today, + with only a 6-day validity, it didn’t give us so much time. We didn’t have the nerve to go back + try to change it tho’ – enough is enough.
The majority of the day, or so it would seem, taken up with a familiar battle with bureaucracy, but it does appear that ultimately we were more or less successful in obtaining what we wanted, which does at least make the struggle seem worthwhile.
