Number 102

I am number 102, Dave is 101.

No names, no pack-drill.

The 120 or so Australians on this tour have all been assigned numbers. We are roll called regularly, are divided into groups according to our numbers and even line up for airport check-in in order!

Dave and I don’t really ‘do’ tours, we would rather just travel together and work it all out on our own. Neither of us are very compliant, and the prospect of making new friends with strangers on holidays is not that appealing.

Dave says this group of people remind him of the cast of a ‘carry on’ movie. When the hotel staff had to come onto the bus and call out the numbers (yes they used our assigned numbers not names) of the people who needed to return hotel owned items, for example a laundry bag and a towel, I wanted to crawl under the seat with embarrassment.

We sat at the front of the bus to avoid the compulsory getting-to-know-you banter. “I’m from Toowoomba and I’m retired” and “We travel a lot and have worked out that if you take some fruit from the breakfast buffet you don’t need to have lunch” another proudly declared!

Competitive discussions about how many trips they have each been on seem to be covered a lot and re-hashing bad holiday experiences is common conversation.

The flight from Chengdu to Yichang on Sichuan Airlines was good. We had a spare seat beside us and the flight only took an hour, 30 minutes less than expected. Security at the airport was extremely tight, which is fine by me. We were fed a hot meal although I’m not really sure what the meat in it was. The attendant said it was chicken fish! They are very strict about phones being turned completely off so no pictures sorry! Flight = 8/10.

Were were bussed from Yichang airport to the river port past some wonderful local sites and then boarded ‘Yangtze Gold 6’ a 170 cabin river cruise ship.

Getting our room allocated was all a bit of a disaster!Two hours, manic pressure over extra excursions and an argument over upgraded dining options. We had prepaid but they didn’t have it recorded. Dave had to remind me of the need for low expectations ? We eventually got to our room which is very lovely. By cruising standards the room is quite large, has a decent size bathroom with great shower and a small verandah with an amazing view of the river.

The bed… well I did actually sleep quite well but it felt like we were sleeping on a dining table it was so hard. Quilt/Duvet was thick and soft, I might sleep on it rather than under it tonight ? Pillows thin but soft.

Saturday Meals

1. Breakfast – Hotel buffet. Dave had cake, toast and scrambled eggs; I had rice noodles with spicy beef broth and cold pickled Sichuan vegetables.