Monday, 27 May 2019

China Day 17, 22nd May 2019, Yangzte Cruise


Woke after a slightly unsettled sleep this morning and not sure if it was the boat or not. Anyway no time to dally, it was prepare and up to the Dining room on level 6 ( I booked the extra food package to get away from the buffet) and our table for cabin 338 was awaiting. This table stayed the same for the whole cruise, breakfast, lunch and dinner. A very nice spread I must say and attended too by the ever smiling Jenny. Once finished it was down to level 2 to swap our prebooked tickets for a lanyard for the ‘Jade Emperor’ shore tour. The boat had docked at Fengdu ( a new town after the flooding of the 3 gorges) so it was a steep hike up the stairs to the waiting bus that wound its way up a narrow road to the Jade Temple. Another Buddhist temple, rebuilt, which we spent a bit of time at before Jane and I, plus another Australian from WA elected to take the 940m marble slide down to the bottom and avoid the stairs. It was great fun and didn’t last long enough, but the wet gloves we had to put on did ensure a massive hand sanitizing at the end of the ride. It was then on the bus and back to the boat in time for lunch. Once again an excellent meal.
As there was no afternoon tour I decided to put my head down as still not feeling brilliant while Jane went to the Captains Welcome reception. Had a brilliant nap until almost 5 pm and woke feeling a hell of a lot better. It was then time for a pre-dinner cocktail and beer with a couple of Australians (avoiding the LOUD yanks) before sitting down for an excellent meal. I am now starting to understand the concept of a cruise, eat, drink, eat, drink.......
After dinner we had booked the optional live evening show, offshore, so once again off we go, on a bus and arrive in the hills somewhere in Zhongxian where we are shuffled into a large arena with seating and water in front. The performance for 90 minutes was superb, it included every special effect possible, plus horses, water, fire and apparently was designed by the guy who did the Beijing Olympics ceremonies. At one stage we both thought there was amild earthquake until we realized the seating was moving to reveal another stage. It was a great night and finally went back to the boat around 10 pm to find everyone had gone to bed, wowsers. We had one drink with an American/Mexican couple who also went to the show before retiring for the evening.
































No comments:

Post a Comment