Well, at least the train was better than a root canal.

Hi All,

 

I have to say I am quite happy that I get to do this blog. That way I can describe the train ride to you all.

 

Our train was scheduled to depart from Xian at 10pm on 19th. Made our way over there after a small scare that Bob lost his ATM card. The train station was a mess. Thousands of people all clamoring away trying to get to their terminal to catch their train. All the lonely planets say that you get stared at in China, but the train station took on a whole new meaning for that one. We walked in with our very large backpacks and seeing that we are bigger then the average Chinese person and the fact that we have 50lbs backpacks on our back, they were loving us. Lots of points and laughs and close up stares. Made us feel really awkward and out of place. The average Westerner travels by plane and I don't think that they are used to Westerners traveling by train with them. The price was good only 109 Yuan for the ride (15 dollars).

 

Anyway, our train was called and we suddenly became apart of the world's largest cattle drive. Millions of people pushing and shoving (a Chinese pastime) in fear that the train would depart without them. We, finally, made it to our "hard sleeper." This entails just as it sounds a hard thin mattress with a towel for a blanket and a pillow that I was frankly too frighten to actually sleep on. We had the top bunk of a three tiered bunk in great 'ol train car 9. Initially, we settled in and pulled out our Uno cards to play on a small table. This was the cause of great interest and we quickly had a big group of people surrounding us watching us play. We attempted to include them, but they got quickly frustrated and left to do more entertaining things with their evening. The lights went out at midnight and we got into bed. I am sad to say that my initial reaction that this train wasn't so bad quickly went away. There was this repugnant smell of urine floating in the air. Now, spitting is a major problem here and there was a great bit of hawking up a loogy right on the cabin floor, as well. We were so high on the top bunk that you could almost kiss the ceiling and I think that the bad foot smell, the urine and the cigarette smoke traveled up so we ended up with the brunt of the aromas in the stagnant air.  We arose early the next morning, after  basically no sleep to find everyone up and alive at the early hour of 6am. After, 17hours (suppose to be 14hr) the train ride was over! Thank God. That concludes our train riding experiences for awhile.

 

We made it to Chongqing and boarded a boat on the Yangtze river. We boarded a great 5 star cruise liner. Just what we needed after a dirty train ride. Spend the first night in port and was startlingly awoken to an over head classical music selection. We thought our alarm had gone off so we are whacking every button we could think to hit. Till we realized it was our wake up call informing us that breakfast was coming soon. We decided that we would skip breakfast and sleep in and catch up on our sleep we missed from the night before. Yeah no! We promptly got a phone call at 8:15am letting us know that we needed to go to breakfast that we were missing it. Big Brother seems to be watching us!

 

In a way, it was kinda nice to be told when to eat, when to sleep and when you needed to go to your activities. It was effortless. Just do what big brother told you and everything would be fine.

 

The Three Gorges dam, for those of you who don't already know, is one of the world's largest hydroelectric dams, on the Yangtze river. The opening of the dam will displace 1.3 million people and wildlife. The Yangtze river that exists now will not exists by 2009. They have already lost a species of dolphin and most of the fish due to the project. The water levels will rise 175 meters by the time the project is over. Obviously, very controversial. The water is also extremely polluted. There were dead pigs just floating down the river along with trash and various styles of styles of shoes and sandals.

 

We really enjoyed the cruise. The gorges were beautiful. There is this beautiful mist that covers all of the mountains because it can't escape due to the steepness .  Just spent a lazy 3 days cruising along the Yangtze, meeting different people and learning all about the dam project.  We got to do some neat excursions, such as a Buddhist temple/tourist trap, and ride in a boat on a tributary, pulled by boatmen from the shore.  (These guys traditionally play their trade buck naked, but apparently they wear clothes for the tourists' benefit.  Phew.)

 

We landed in Yichang and disembarked. We are currently here and are leaving on the next flight out tonight to Beijing. We are the only westerners here (really, the ONLY ones) although it boasts itself as a tourist city.

 

Every day has been an adventure and the reason we started this project to begin with. We have come to appreciate all we have in life and have just been rolling with the punches as they seem to fly at us. Most of the time they are funny and have given us a good chuckle.

 

Hope everyone is continuing to have a restful summer!

 

---Gina