Chinese tour that are not directly run by a Hostel. Every Hostel has
been great, every tour run by them excellent. Always well organised
and with fluent English speaking guides. For our three gorges trip we
accediently got booked onto a Chinese tour. No one spoke fluent
English and they kept trying to add extra charges on.
So it all began hostel in Xian where the staff informed us of tour
company that did a cruise along the Yangtze River which was 3 days
long and included sight seeing tours. It seemed like a reasonable
price and the hostel and the workers were lovely and seemed trust
worthy (also Gareth had really wanted to do the cruise and we both
wanted to travel via boat for some of the way) so we parted with our
150 pounds happily. The hostel also assured us that the tour company
arranging the cruise could also get us a bus from Yinchang to Wuhan
where we could catch a train direct to Guilin (our next destination)
they said they would book the bus and the train - this sounded
brillent so we agreed (STUPID!!!!!) ......
So anyway in our minds the Yangtze cruise and train to Gulin was all
sorted so we continued to Chengdu we had a really nice time there as
the blog states and got to cuddle a pand which was awesome!!! we then
left and got a train to Chonging (only a 2hour journey) we were
getting really excited about our cruise!!! We were meet fom the
station and taken to the tour place - This is where is started to go
down hill!!!!
Part I THE CRUISE FROM HELL!!!!!
So the 'office' we were taken to was a room the size of a front room
with a few desks, one phone and one printer!!! shabby looking and full
of smoke, already we were getting nervous! we then found out that they
had NOT booked a train for us! they booked one there and then however
(as was booked so late) it was a day later (and a really poor quaility
and slow one) so now we were stuck in Wuhan for a night and had to
move our hostel booking at Gulin which lucky Gareth could do using
their (VERY SLOW) computer and book a hotel for the night in Wuhan, it
cost us 25 quid! (which is expensive here!) Then there was extra costs
comming from everywhere, including the taxi he made us take to the
coach station!
Soooo we get to the station and the guy speaks in chinese to another
lady and then leaves! We find out slowly that we have been placed on a
chinese tour of the river and no one not the guests or the tour guides
speaks English! Then after waiting for 3 hours we got on a bus for 4
hours to see a temple (it was dark by this time) for 20minutes then
another bus journey for 2hours to the boat (which was not the pictures
we were shown!!!!!! it was shabby!!!) Anyway the next morning we set
sail and went through the first gorge, which was beautiful, but again
they tried to make us pay 4pound to view from the top deck (the only
place you could view from!!)
We then did a side excurision, which cost more again, and again had to
pay to sit on top deck!!!! We then got back to our boat when it was
dark and passed the other 2 gorges so no idea how beautiful they
were!!! next morning we were told to be downstars to leave at 9am to
see the Three Gorges Dam and then leave for the bus to Yinchang where
someone would pick us up to take us to Wuhan and give us our train
tickets. However at 10am no-one had come downstairs so we went looking
for someone we finaly (via a badly written pice of paper) got an
answer that due to bad weather there was no visit to the dam!!!!! But
we would be laeving at 11am for Yinchang and they would get us from
our room! so at 11.30am we went looking again (as no-one had come) and
then were told it would be 12.30pm - finaly at 1.30pm we left the boat
- nearly died carring our stuff up steps (the hight of the gorge) and
we told to get on a bus. - we thought we were reaching the end of this
terror but no!!!!!
Part II THE BUS FROM HELL!!!!
After 2 hours the bus suddenly stoped and people started getting off
confused we joined them, people started getting on 3 diffrent busses
one accross a very busy dangrous road we looked for our guides but
they had vanashed!!! we crosed the road but wernt allowed on the bus
we crossed back and finally managed to get on another bus with no idea
where it was going or where we were! THEN....that bus stoped!!! and
they tried to tell us we could not be on it (we were in the middle of
nowhere!!!) we just got back on and refused to move! We had gathered
they were going to a station and guessed in might be Yingchang station
feeling that would be our best chance to work out what do do we stayed
on the bus. When we got to the station we managed to find a tour
angency which VERY helpfuly wrote down in chinese where we need to go
and gareth was able to get the tickets from the station.
PART III YINGCHANG STATION :D
We are now at the station it was 3pm when we got here and our train
leaves at 3.30am this morning LONG 12.5 HOURS WAIT!!! We get into
another station at 10.30am then get another train at 1.30pm to arrive
in Guilin at 11pm FINALLY 30 HOURS LATER!! We are very tired, very
hungry and very annoyed.
We hope to laugh about this soon!!! but I fear it will not be untill
we are sitting in a front room with a cup of tea having just eaten
some amazing british cooking! or maybe laying on a beach in Thiland I
do hope it is by the time we arrive in Gulin though as so far we had
loved China and we dont want this experence to ruin it but at the
moment it is to raw!
One positive thing to take away from this is that even when things go
very wrong we are not completly helpless and with some small acts of
kindness from strangers we can manage.
On a more positive note the view of the Gorge were spectacular. I have
attached just a few phone photos to try and show a little what its
like. When we get to some wifi and can use Gareth's laptop (currently
in an internet cafe) we will post some more photos of this amazing
landscape.
