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| 20 YUAN FOR THE BAGGAGE |
Happy to finally relax in luxury we boarded a beautiful ship laced with gold colored trimmings, large private balconies for every room and a grand stairway multiple stories high.
We had big smiles on our faces greeting NI HAO (HELLO) to everyone.
And then the crew escorted us right through the 5 star cruise liner and onto the 1 star Pearl Yangtze Boat.
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| LOOK CLOSE FOR THE PIECE OF PEARL! |
As we were lead to our room, I must had been in some form of shock. The only word that came out of my mouth was B A L C O N Y ? :(
I sat there wondering what was missed in our communication to see the Yangtze. The Internet showed every boat had a balcony.
I recalled we did say we don't care about the boat, we want to see the views.
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| LOCKS!! |
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| THE BEAUTIFUL THREE GORGES |
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| HANGING COFFINS ALONG YANGTZE RIVER |
Mom said "Don't sit around and sulk. Do something about it!" So I headed off the shit, straight over to the nice one and tried to buy a room. They were all sold out :(
I talked to our reservation desk on our ship and asked to purchase a room with a balcony.
"No balconies" was the answer I received.
I wasn't very happy at this point and showed them the picture on their wall and the layout of their ship.
"Balcony" I said and pointed to the Presidential Suite with a half-ass smile.
I sat in the pleather torn couch at the only entrance & exit to this hole contemplating should i stay or should i go... now!
Archie came over and talked to me. "This isn't our problem" she said.
I explained, I was just disappointed because I expected more.
10 minutes later she came back with a head honcho and offered me the Presidential suite for an upgrade fee. And I took it. Wow, Presidential suite. Even if it is a hole, we will have the biggest hole to ourselves!
DAY 3
Caught the RIVER RAT in the middle of the night. I awoke to the RIVER RATS version of "HELP ME!!!" YUCK!!! I took an early morning photo shoot of the poor struggling critter. The Buddhist in me felt sorry to have it disposed. But I know we will sleep better and the crew will finally believe us CRAZY AMERICANS who hear nothing in the night.
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| RIVER RAT BESIDE OUR BED |
We'd look crazy for sure!
One roommate down and who knows how many more to go, including mother! We didn't know it at the time, but she wasn't far behind! She didn't even say help me, she said "just let me die."
She felt about herself the same way she felt about the dead animal in Agra. :)
DAY 4
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| FULL BOAT OF PUKERS AND POOPERS! |
There weren't too many of us (foreigners) roaming the local ship. Half our table was gone. The table beside us? Gone! Anyone who spoke English, well gone! Except mom, me and one other table goer. Strange??
By afternoon, I felt dizzy and I couldn't stand. I laid on our Devan and then it happened.
"Puker" shot a nasty load across the couch and into a bucket. Lucky for me,
mom head to find Archie and the boat doctor.
The word was out and nearly 20 of us foreigners had food poisoning.
DAY 5
After a rough night of the EXORCIST vomit and MUD PIE MANIA. I survived and mother was carted off to the hospital in CHONGQING.
Again, she was a good trooper. And this time, too much of a "pooper"!
The porter wanted 20 yuan for the baggage and 200 for the old bag.
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| 200 YUAN FOR THE OLD BAG |
After negotiating a fare labor rate to get mother carted off the River Rat cruise ship on a rickety old stretcher, our new found friend and Chongqing guide, Peter, checked me into a hotel and CLADLA into the hospital.
For some reason people here can not pronounce her name.
Everything is simplified, Mr. and Mrs Mini. Yes, Mini. I smile and recall my good old days of when my mail came as Mini Deal instead of Mimi Beal.
Anyways, back to what is important.
CLADLA needed potassium and got her own local China medical card. No more translation issues. She is on computer country wide and in Chinese Characters. IV fluids are now entering the Queen Bee :)
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| TROOPER!!!! |
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| STABILIZED |
Pearl Cruise ship... NEVER!!! Well, MAYBE :) But I wouldn't recommend it to North Americans.
Even if it is the Presidential Suite. Which by the way, was an apartment that had a private terrace of 82 meters, with a perfect view of the damn locks and three gorgeous gorges as we sailed down the Yangtze River.
Our pictures, I'm sure must look better than the real thing; when it comes to our suite. If one could do a photo shoot of smells, our musty old, rat infested apartment with cockeyed tilted furnishings, damp floors (from leaking pipes) and a two unsealed doors that allow rodents to roam freely, well, You'd say NEVER!
They tried so hard to please us, but there are some things you cant buy in China.
THINGS WE ENJOYED ABOUT OUR BOAT:
We woke up to beautiful music every morning. It was so relaxing we fell back to sleep.
Our daily shore excursion were included if we wanted to attend.
The 82 meter deck was awesome! We sat outside and enjoyed our chilled China Tsing tao beers daily.
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| US! ON OUR PRIVATE 82 METER TERRACE :) |
The staff was great and the food was really good until we got sick.
Our facials were complete with head and shoulder massages.
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| DOUBLE DUTY FOOT MASSAGE \ |
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| RELAXING FACIAL |
The bar/tea girls - Lily, Annie, Sherry and Amy (teaching us Chinese and their beautiful smiles)
Our English speaking guide gal- Archie (who learned the word Diarrhea)and her sign language for diarrhea we still use today. It is something we just have to show you. We laughed mostly with Archie. She really took care of us and translated between the boat doctor and myself or mother.
Our waiter - Jackie (who was attentive and was one of the 6 scrawny guys who helped carried mom from the room, down 3 flights of stairs and off the ship to the to the hired porter. (He wasn't one of the originals but he took over when he saw who it was. "Mama" he said.)
The Gondola was closed. And the hired porters, I bargained with finally accepted 100 Yuan.
(try pretending you don't really care if you get the deal of not under these circumstances.)
They took turns; mom so far, baggage so far, mom so far, baggage so far.
Eventually, everything and everyone was in the vehicle transported to their own destinations.
The best thing about the boat: After we were poisoned, they refunded part of our upgrade money :) At least it paid for the tips and carting the old bag :0
Flashback of China 10/19-26/2010
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