Tuesday was a travel day. We were going by train from Hamgzhou back to Shanghai to catch a 12:45 flight to Yichang. Trudy picked us up to take us to the railway station at 7:30. While the train trip back to Shanghai wouldn't take long, I was concerned about the wait we'd had the previous day. Graham was much more relaxed about our chances of buying a ticket.
After being dropped off, we queued in a line of approx 20 people. Suddenly they all sighed and moved to other queues. The ticket window had closed. I was surprised that nobody complained but Graham tells me that it happens all the time. We found another queue, that was moving really well, until we got to 5 people from the front. Then it just stalled. And stalled. It took us quite a while to work out that the person at the front of the queue was buying multiple tickets. He was buying them one at a time. We have no idea why, but that's what was happening. There was also no indication that he was going to buy 50 tickets this way. We had effectively ended up in a queue of 70 people instead of in a queue of 20 people. Fortunately, we still managed to get a train at 9:30. I was fairly stressed that we might miss our flight when we first got there, but Graham reminded me that we could always change our flight as our Yangtze cruise didn't start until the following day.
Once we had the train ticket everything flowed like clockwork. We arrived in Shanghai in plenty of time, we didn't have to wait to check in for our flight, we found a comfortable coffee shop where we were able to wait once we were through security, we had good seats on the plane, the flight to Yichang was uneventful and we had no trouble getting to our hotel.
Graham booked the Ramada, because he recognised the chain, as he didn't have much idea of what would be a good hotel or location in Yichang. You can't go by stars, as they can be self-allocated here. Anyway, it turned out to be an excellent choice. The location was great, the hotel was one of the classier ones we've stayed in, the staff were well-trained, the room was excellent, the bed was extremely comfortable, there was a lovely deep bath, breakfast was delicious - he definitely did well with his selection.
We didn't have to get to the boat until the following afternoon, so we had time to explore. We found a street market, complete with street food. That's always fun. Graham had snacks. I tried some of his potato, had a sort of sausage on a stick and a taste of what we'd thought was an egg dish but ended up being a type of filled bread. On the way back to the hotel we ventured into some streets with really old apartments and public toilets, similar to the hutongs in Beijing but not quite as old. I would never have had the courage to go there on my own but I feel safe with Graham.
As we wandered around we were looking for t-shirts for Graham. He didn't bring any with him from home, as he planned to buy them here. That sounds easy in a country where there are so many places selling men's shirts, but not only do we have to find the right size, and the right style, the shirts have to meet the Graham test - they can't be too expensive. It doesn't matter whether or not the shirt is a bargain. If Graham wouldn't spend that much in Australia, it's too much here too. After thinking that all we were going to find in the area was expensive trendy gear or shirts with slogans that weren't quite right in English, we found three t-shirts for him that ticked all the boxes. I was pleased, as all the clothes shopping so far has been for me. Not that three t-shirts comes close to levelling the shopping playing field, but it was good to know that he had bought something for himself.
For dinner, we picked a direction and found a restaurant. We ended up having a delicious meal. It was very spicy. We think we may have been eating Sichuan style food. Obviously westerners don't eat there often as all the kitchen staff came out to look at us. Funnily enough, there was another Westerner in the restaurant. We don't know if he got the same attention on arrival or not. When we left, Graham used his iPad to tell our waitress that the meal was lovely, which also caused a lot of interest.
The next day we were boarding the ship after 5 pm. We didn't have to check out until 12 so we headed off to explore after breakfast. It was raining, so we bought umbrellas at the nearby supermarket then picked a direction. We found a market district and a children's playground on our travels, then went back to the hotel to pack and check out.
We left our bags with the concierge, who offered to arrange a taxi for us later that afternoon. I should have waited until we were ready to leave to make the booking, as the taxi time became earlier and earlier. Graham shrugged it off as we would be able to board and then wander around the passenger terminal before having dinner in a waterfront restaurant. Not knowing any better, it sounded like a reasonable assumption. We went back to the market district and ventured into the shops.
What fun! Graham found some lovely t-shirts at a great price. It's always the way ... You struggle to find something and then, when you have bought them you find more at a better price. I bought some belts and some warm leggings. I was really getting into it! It was great practice for Yiwu. We also stopped for some street food. I wasn't hungry but Graham had a chicken drum stick. He said it didn't really taste of chicken any more as it was covered with spice, but he still enjoyed it.
We then went looking for coffee. Easier said than done. We noticed that many of the shops where you would expect to find a seated area were counter service only. We decided to head back to the hotel for coffee at the 3.3 Fashion Pub. It was a comedy, getting served, and Graham's cappuccino was mainly cold froth, but the chairs were comfortable, we were out of the rain, and we didn't have that long to wait. The venue's toilet was actually outside in the foyer of the hotel. The concierge spotted us, and the next thing we knew our taxi was there, more than an hour earlier than the early time the concierge had booked it for. Tempting as it was to send the taxi away for an hour, we decided that it was as convenient to wait in the passenger terminal as it was at the 3.3 Fashion Pub.
The taxi ride was fine but there was no passenger terminal. New Century Port ended up being a pontoon along the river front, with a wooden shack that sold drinks, and a couple of benches. We were able to board the boat but we were there at 3:30, more than an hour and a half before we were supposed to arrive. Everyone on board was excruciatingly polite, but there was nowhere to put us. We ended up having to wait until 5:30 to check in. Fortunately, there was a sofa where we could sit for the two hours, and a bathroom. Dinner that night wasn't included. We figured that we would drop our bags, get a taxi back into town, have dinner and then return before 10 pm, when check in time ended. Apart from the waiting, it wasn't going to be a problem.
At 5:30 we were shown to our cabin. We were told to leave the bags. We didn't know why, until they took us to see the presidential suite. We were being offered an upgrade for 2000 yuan (~$320 for four nights). The suite was magnificent, maybe 5 times as big as our room with a large forward facing balcony, but our room was pretty good, so we turned it down. The price dropped straight to 800 yuan. Tempting as it was, we still didn't take the room. I found out later that the people who did take the two suites paid 1200 yuan for them.
We overheard someone else asking about dinner and discovered that we could have dinner on board for 100 yuan each. The taxi into town was going to cost us 100 yuan each way, so we figured dining on board was a good option. We ended up having a very pleasant Chinese meal. Fairly westernized, but you would expect that on a cruise boat. We also booked the two optional guided tours for 960 yuan, bought President Cruise windbreakers for 150 yuan each, took the laundry package for 128 yuan and bought the restaurant drinks package for 200 yuan each. We'd spent 2000 yuan and we hadn't even set sail! There were plenty of other opportunities to spend money - I guess the cruise company has a narrow window of opportunity to market to you and they were taking every advantage of it.
The windbreakers have been a great investment. We have been able to spend more time out on the balcony because of them, they are light and easy to carry, and they made a huge difference on a couple of our tours. The laundry package meant that we got all our laundry done for the entire cruise, including the dirty laundry we'd brought with us, for a terrific price. The restaurant drinks package has worked out to be good value for both of us. One of the optional tours turned out to be the best tour of the whole trip and the other one was quite pleasant. All in all, we are pleased with our purchases.
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