Thursday, June 28, 2007

Conference excursion

July 27, 2007 Wednesday

Took my constitutional around the town. It’s still the same. There was a farmers’ market this morning. All 4 stalls of it. They were selling potatoes, onions, cucumbers, cabbages, cauliflower, pale green peppers carrots, tomatoes and watermelon.

There was also a sweet baby.

There are a few stores around the square. It is quite strange - their windows look OK, but inside every one looks like a thrift store.

After lunch was the conference excursion. We all loaded onto two buses and set off for the Pieniny national forest for a river raft trip.

We were merrily on our way when there was a loud crash. It sounded like someone’s computer had fallen out of the overhead shelf. No – the driver had taken off his side mirror on a tree. After a short distance we stopped. We all assumed that the mirror had somehow caused a problem, but no – the engine was overheating. The 2nd bus stopped with us. The driver changed some belts and we all loaded on again. A short time later our bus stopped. We couldn’t continue. Bus 2 waved as they went by. We waited for a replacement. We all went to a field across the street and took a group picture to commemorate this event.

Another bus arrived and off we went again. It was beginning to be a little late but always troupers we all loaded onto the rafts. They are 4 long skinny boats tied together. The boatmen put a plank across the back and seat 4 people – a plank is put in front of them and 4 more people get on, and so forth. It was important to them to have Chuck in the middle.

The raft that you see on the river had started from the Polish side, further upstream.


Our boatman had a line of patter somewhat reminiscent of Disneyland. It was translated by one of the conference organizers. Originally, these people took logs down the river to the black sea. When this became a national park they had to switch to tourists.

We had a fine time boating along. This is a very gentle raft ride with lots of lovely scenery. We saw 3 of the 6 black storks that nest in the park.


You could volunteer to help pole the boat. (During a particularly calm stretch.)


At the end of the ride we had a picnic at a pavilion in the woods.


First, they honored the best student talk with induction into the local group.


He was given a scroll and a hat like the boatmen wear.

Dinner started with “Slovakian caviar” (smaltz with lots of paprika), cheeses and bread. Next we had dumplings with sheep’s cheese and bacon renderings. The main course was goulash. We all had a glass of local white lightning while on the boat (with larger portions to the ones who said that they were “very afraid.” We then started the dinner with a toast of the white lightning and then switched to draft beer that had been cooled in the river.

Back on the bus for the ride home. Chuck slept the whole way. (Even snored.) We got back at 11 and went straight to bed. He says that he was up working on the computer, but I slept through it.

The ladies take a tour

July 26, 2007 Tuesday

Today is the Ladies’ trip. We all gathered after breakfast in the front of the hotel. There are 6 of us on the trip. Julie – an American from Boston, Vonda – a Pole from Boston, Rilla – a Belgian from South Africa, Eleanora and Dunna – both Hungarians from Budapest. Do you get the idea that these meetings are a great variety of nationalities?

1st we went to the the Belianska cave in the High Tatras. This involved a 20 minute hike straight uphill to the entrance. I am really impressed with Vonda. She talked nonstop all the way up. The rest of us were gasping for breath.

We all took the opportunity to visit the ladies room while Ondrej (pronounced Andre) bought the tickets. We had a short wait, because it was a very crowded day and they only allow so many people in at a time.

Ondrej explained that there were 826 steps in the cave (that’s 33 flights by my recent reckoning method!) But he hastened to assure us, it took 70 minutes and there were rest stops along the way. What he didn’t explain very well is that the 826 steps were both up and down. There were many more down steps because that route was steeper. The up route had a lot of switch back paths.

What can I say? It was a cave with all of the cave things. Pools (with coins including some floating ones), stalactites, stalagmites, rocks in the form of imaginary things – if you have been on a cave tour, you know what I’m talking about. This cave had several kinds of bats, but we didn’t see any. As far as I can tell, every cave has one large room that is referred to as a music room. This one didn’t disappoint. The music is provided by drops of water falling into a pool. The guide invited people to sing. Vonda did.

Then we walked straight down hill to the parking lot.

Next on the agenda was a drive to a farmer’s yard where we were to get the carriage ride. This being a group of women, we all used the bathroom in the farmhouse.

Over the river (on a washboard kidney rattling bridge)

And through the woods (at a pretty good clip)
To the mountain meadow we go


We saw the wooden houses which are typical of the region



When we reached the meadow, we were able to get down and take some pictures of our transport (the carriage was really a farm wagon with benches. Nice warm sheepskin to sit on (Vonda mourned the poor sheep) and a blanket which we spread over our laps because it was damn cold.) We have seen the High Tatras, the Low Tatras, the White Tatras and the Polka dotted Tatras as far as I can tell. The guides are very explict about which ones are which, but they all look the same to me.


Our estimated 4 hour tour took 6 ½ hours. I do not know why – no where on this trip were we wasting time. We did stop at a small market in the farmer’s town to buy snacks since we missed lunch.

Chuck and I went to the 3 Apostles for dinner. This is the “high end” restaurant in Levoca. I had sauerkraut soup and beef stew in a potato crepe with potato rosettes, Chuck had garlic soup and 3 meats with roasted potatoes. All plates come with the small cabbage salad. We shared a crepe with Schlag. (aka whipped cream.)

Back to the room. Chuck falls asleep immediately, because he is so tired – but still wakes up in the middle of the night.

Another day in the Back End of Beyond

July 25, 2007 Monday

We had our “companions” meeting in the morning to see the available tours. There was only one that was reasonable for our group. It was a trip to a cave and then a horse drawn carriage ride through the forest. The rest took 8 to 10 hours each and weren’t good for people that were attached to others that weren’t on the trip.

The schedule here is: Get up at 7. Breakfast from 8 to 9. Chuck goes to conference and I wander, blog, read, knit, etc. Lunch is from about 12:45 to 2 and everyone eats together. Chuck goes back to the conference till about 6:30 and I wander, blog, read, knit, etc. Most nights we are on our own for dinner. There are about 5 restaurants in the town – most of them serving the same type of Eastern European food – meat, potatoes, garlic soup.

Since the conference is the biggest event in the town, we keep running into each other, so have dinner or sit and talk etc. after dinner.

Bedtime. 3am Chuck wakes up, gets up, turns on computer and lights and wanders around for an hour or so.

Lunch today was Broccoli soup, pork cutlets with sauerkraut, potatoes “American”, cabbage salad, cake.

I visited 2 of the museums in town. The first is billed as the “Creative culture in the Spis region”. What it is is a bunch of really bad paintings and a few jugs and plates. I went in and paid my entrance fee. The girl unlocked the door to the “museum” and turned on the lights. It was on several floors, so I wandered slowly, perusing each piece, just in case there was a hidden gem. I guess that she thought that I was taking too much time, because after awhile she came and started turning off the lights. As she was relocking the door, she asked if I wanted to visit the House of Master Paval? Yes, I was planning on that. I needed to buy the ticket from her and someone would escort me across the square. Master Paval is a BIG deal in this town. He is really their only claim to fame. I bought, was escorted and as we walked across the street, my guide asked if I had enough time to see the short film about the town and Master Paval? I told her that I had all the time in the world.

The film was quite good, but at the end the sound cuts out, so the girl came in and said that’s it. Then I again looked very carefully at all of the exhibits and read all of the explanations. Master Paval carved all of the statues and altar pieces in the cathedral in the town. His house had copies of the things. Since it was hard to see them in the dim church, and because some of them were far away, it was good to see what he had been doing. She started to turn off the lights, too.

I went back to the room for a nap. Chuck’s night time wanderings have been disturbing my sleep.

We had dinner at the hotel again: Cucumber salad, turkey with bacon & onions, potato croquettes and cabbage salad.

We walked around the square for ice cream and sat and watched the town drunks stagger down the street. It was a couple. The woman was quite loud. The man gave up and passed out on the grass right across the street from us.

We went back to the hotel and chatted with some guys in the atrium.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Day 1 Levoca

July 24, 2007 Sunday

Breakfast buffet at the hotel. Eastern European breakfasts are great. Meats, cheeses, eggs, hot meat, yoghurt, incredibly great breads & rolls.

After breakfast, Chuck went off to the conference (out a door in the dining room and into the conference hall.) I walked around ½ of the town, following the walls.

This is a pilgrimage church built on the neighboring hill.

Steps down to the moat.

The moat is now vegetable gardens.

The style of houses in this area includes the wonderful paintings on the outside.




One of the important things about this town is that it had a cage for “wanton women” outside of the town hall.


I keep finding out more about this cage. Sometimes many women were crammed into it. Saturday was a favorite day for this public humiliation because it was market day. There was a list of offenses, among which were screaming at husbands, and walking after dark. I think that I would have probably been in the cage – uppity women for sure would have been there.

We met up for the conference lunch, chicken soup, chicken cutlets, rice, salad and ice cream for dessert.

After lunch, Chuck went back to the meeting (he is chairing the afternoon conference) and Han Georg and I had a coffee at a table in front of the hotel. Just as he was deciding to take a nap instead of going to the afternoon meeting, Vonda and Vic (I don’t know their last name, as I had never met them before) came running over and invited us to go with them for a tour of some of the sites in the area. They have a car. Give us 2 minutes and we were ready.

Vonda loves to visit UNESCO sites and there were 3 nearby in close proximity. When we got in the car (Hans G and I in the back) Vic asked if either of us could navigate. It seems that Vonda isn’t very good. Hans replied that he usually drove so wasn’t sure about the navigating. Since I am the navigator for all of our trips, I said that I could do it. First Vonda had to explain where she wanted to go. She couldn’t find it on the map – but was sure it was there somewhere. Yes, it was and I found it.

Vonda loves the fact that Slovakia is so “unspoiled” without a lot of tourists. One side effect of this is that the signs aren’t very good. Half the time, I was directing by the seat of my pants. We stopped to take a picture of the castle from a distance and discovered that we were directly in front of the town and church that she also wanted to see. (They thought that I was a bloody genius!! I didn’t correct their impression.)

The town consisted on the clock tower and one street. At the top of the street was the church.


We bought tickets so that we could have the tour inside. The guide unlocked the church and gave us a booklet in English for us to read while she gave the tour in Slovakian. We could wander at will and this was really good. Unfortunately, just as we were about to leave, she came over to give us some tour in English, so we had to look at everything again. It turned out that we couldn’t have left anyway, because she had to unlock the door to let us all out. (I wondered why the others were sitting on the pews waiting.)

Finding the castle was quite easy – it was the highest thing around and visible for miles.

We drove as close as we could and then hiked up the hill. Here I am with Vonda and Vic:


We had a grand time exploring the castle, but had to get back by 5:30. There was a tour of the cathedral in Levoca and then a welcome reception.

In this town, there was a master carver named Master Pavel of Levoca. He carved an altar which is 88 meters high. He also seems to have carved everything in the town.

The reception was in the old town hall.

They had a whole roasted pig:


This is something that I had read about a lot, but had never tasted. I expected the skin to be crispy and tasty, instead it was hard and bland, but the meat was very good. They also had a lot of Slovakian wines to taste.

We all went home to bed in a happy mood.

Chuck is suffering from jet lag. He wakes up at 3am and turns on the computer, so I am awakened by the windows welcome chime. Why did I ever teach him how to use my computer?

Monday, June 25, 2007

On our way to Prague and Slovakia

June 21, 22, & 23, 2007 Thursday

Again, it was a relief to go to the airport. I have been so busy getting ready for this trip, making the arrangements for the Paris trip in August, and filling out forms for a money thing that I was quite exhausted. I think that Slovakia will be restful also. We are going to a really small town.

Chuck and I were assigned separate seating areas again. This time it was because the plane was absolutely jam packed and a lot of groups had pre seating. He had a window and I had a bulkhead aisle seat. This was a short space bulkhead though. It was fine for me, but the tall guy sitting next to me wanted to switch. No way! He managed to get switched with a college student who was happy to be able to sleep with her feet braced on the wall.

Our plane change in Frankfurt was chaos. Our plane was late and the gate had been switched to another building. They collected all of us who were going on to Prague, put us on a bus and escorted us to the security check point where they just dropped us in a huge scrum. It turned out that our plane was going to be late taking off, but there were a lot of very nervous people, as we waited in a line that didn’t seem to move.

The Prague Holiday Inn was lovely. First we made a quick trip by metro to the train station to buy our tickets for Poprad. I think that is quite impressive – to be in a city about 15 minutes, in a state of total exhaustion, and already taking metro trips.

We went back to the room and Chuck napped for an hour until dinner time. I knew that if I fell asleep, I would not want to get up again, so just toughed it out. We ate in the hotel dining room which had been designed by Phillip Stark.

Our table overlooked the garden:


Chuck had smoked salmon and I had asparagus soup for starters and then we both had the asparagus main course. (It is asparagus season.)

For dessert we shared an apple strudel.


The presentation was lovely and everything was quite yummy.

Fell into bed about 7:30 and slept until 6 am. Had the breakfast buffet and got on our train at 8:07.

It was a 7 hour trip. (This was a Sunday drive on tracks.) Chuck loved it and kept track of the time of every stop so that he could see if we were “on time”. Even he is a little worried that the trip back will be a “little” boring. I knitted while looking out the window. A young man in our compartment (6 seats facing each other in a compartment that can be closed – just like the movies show European trains.) slept most of the way. Every chance he got he sprawled out a little more. When he woke up we asked him why he was so tired. He had finished his exams, celebrated until very late and then had to pack up all of this stuff to go home for the summer holiday.

The organizers of this conference (who weren’t very organized) had emailed us (after many emails from us) that transportation would be arranged when we arrived at the station in Poprad. Normally, this means that someone will be standing there with a sign with the conference name on it.

When we arrived at the station, we first looked on the platform – no one. Then we went into the station – no one. I guarded the luggage while Chuck looked at all of the entrances to the station – no one. I was getting ready to start dialing every number that we had. Chuck wanted me to just start making arrangements with a taxi – “because you’re better with that kind of thing.” I went to the ATM so that we would have some money to pay a taxi.

Just then, a man comes wandering in with a paper at his side. We were only able to see that it was the SQM sign because he moved his arms when he walked. Strange Quark Matter we exclaimed with glee. He had been waiting in a van outside and didn’t seem to understand that the van was parked in a place that we were not going to check.

There was a young Polish guy already in the van. He had arrived from Vienna earlier. He had stumbled across the van when he came out to try to take a taxi after giving up on the promised transportation. He said that he had made the guy come into the station with the sign to look for us. Now that the driver saw how successful that was, he was willing to go in again for a couple coming from another direction. By this time we were all in hysterics.

Next we went to the airport, to collect the people coming from London on “Cheapairline.com”. Getting to the airport was like being a salmon swimming upstream. There had been an air show of old airplanes and everyone in Poprad was there. Whole families were walking down the middle of the road on their way back to town. The police didn’t want to let us drive into the terminal, but we had to pick up 10 people. Another van was on its way. We were sure that the runway was grass. Our driver parked in an illegal spot and we waited. Another car parked in front of us, thus blocking us in, and got out – leaving a small baby in the car.

When some more of the air show traffic cleared out, the car person came back a moved his car by backing it into a hedge (he parallel parks even more poorly than I do) and left the baby again. This time the sun was shinning directly on it and it was waving its little fist. It looked about 3 months old. It was also in the front seat! We were all horrified, but the Polish guy said that without airbags the front was OK, but everything else was still wrong. The plane landed and our driver went in to pick up the group. The second van still wasn’t there. Suddenly, I noticed that I couldn’t see the baby waving any more. Chuck and 2 guys immediately got out of the van to go check. No baby! Then we saw that someone must have picked it up without our noticing, because they came back with the baby and a grandmother dressed in native costume (complete with head scarf).

Managed to squeeze everyone into the 2 vans. They had had to change airports in London, so were really exhausted.

Off we went to Lovača. We would never have been able to get there on our own, because we had been pronouncing it as Lovaka instead of Lovasha. Now we know why no one seemed to know where we were going. Luckily, Poprad was pronounced just like it looked to us.

Our hotel is from the 16th century, but completely redone. It is really nice. Our room is huge:



There is a sign on the wall that says that the President of Italy stayed in this room.

It has a third bed, an entrance hall way, and a nice bathroom. (With lots of toilet paper, towels and soap.)

The walls are two feet thick which meant that when we first looked for a wifi place – the best reception was the windowsill in the bathroom. This was a little inconvenient – it was impossible to use the bathroom while Chuck was checking his email. He is also a very very slow typist – so if he answered anything, he was going to be there all day. I have now, after much experimenting, found a better spot in the room.

We ate in the atrium of the hotel. Tomato salad for both of us, then Chuck had trout with mixed vegetables and I had pork “tolers” (cutlets) with latkes. Slovakia has fabulous beer. We were joined by Hans Georg (from Berkley) and Sylwester (guy from Poland). For dessert we had crepes.

After dinner we went for a walk. We may have seen the whole town.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

The end

June 5, 6 & 7, 2007 Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday

At 7 am a university car and student came to take us to the airport. There was the same shit in the trunk, because they had asked for a large car, but neglected to add that the trunk had to be empty. 2 suitcases had to be in the front seat. The driver said that we had too much stuff. The student came to the airport with us and made sure that we got checked in. (They do worry about us. Feng had bought the tickets and he thought we might have to exchange them for something else before the check in. We didn’t and it was very fast.) The student said that perhaps we would have to pay for excess baggage, but surprise, surprise, we didn’t.

The plane boarded early, pulled away from the gate early and was in the air at the time that they said it would take off.

Back at the Holiday Inn Express. We are really getting familiar with this place. Went to Yu Yuan for the famous dumplings: (2 flights)



Went to the tea house to buy the tea to fill all of my orders. And then walked a bit and back to the room.

For dinner we went back to the Hunan restaurant that Chuck had found in the fall. (1 flight) The book that I had bought him (50 Best restaurants in Shanghai) has been very good.

Love the beds in this hotel – the only ones that don’t make my back spasm when I move.

Only 3 flights today

Met Douglas to exchange our stuff. He has things for Heidi and Thomas, I had his sim card. He took us to Julie’s pearls. She has moved yet again – but this time to the Hong Qiao International Pearl City. There were 3 floors of stuff to look at and be tempted by. I chose 2 things and they strung them to order while we waited. We had to pick the pearl strands. Luckily Douglas is good at this – it took about 15 minutes, examining each strand to pick the best ones. Chuck found a comfy chair out in the aisle and rested.

We went to a dim sum restaurant nearby for lunch. (1 flight) After lunch we found an ATM because we needed more money. Always cautious, remembering the horrible story of the machine that ate the card, we found a bank with international symbols.

Walked along Nanjing road. That is the famous pedestrian shopping street and went home for a rest before dinner.

Chuck had chosen another from his book. I actually made reservations! We walked out to a main street to catch a cab. This hotel is off the beaten path for taxis. The book said that the restaurant was hard to find and it wasn’t just whistling Dixie – the cab turned off his meter, because he had to go back to find it.

Fabulous dinner. The book gives the specialties and they do chose good ones.

When we asked for the bill, the waiter asked if we needed a taxi, they called one for us and told us when it came.

1 flight – I will be out of shape by the time I get home.

Today we go home. Douglas’ wife’s brother-in-law is picking us up. Unless the trip is even more exciting than the trip here (half naked seat partner), you won’t be hearing from me again until we go to Slovakia in 2 weeks.

The answer to the things that I will be happiest to see when I get home. (not counting the grandchildren)

It is a tie between: My bed which doesn’t make my back spasm, and drinkable water out of the tap. Having to boil or buy all water means that you are always planning to make sure that you are going to have enough. The luxury of clean water has really been brought home to me.

I managed not to have to use the Chinese toilets too many times. So toilets weren’t as high on my list. I was careful about my fluid intake during the day, so I was probably a little dehydrated all the time.

I think that this is the first time that I have completed the blog of a trip.

China has been wonderful. The people have been friendly and helpful. The children are adorable.


Last day in Wuhan

June 4, 2007 Monday

Our last day in Wuhan. In the morning we went to the Yellow Crane Temple. This was in a very large park with many buildings. After climbing the requisite 10 flights, we arrived at the main pagoda. It had a lovely tile painting with the yellow crane:

How did they get the old guy in the wheelchair up to this? Chuck wasn’t going to climb any higher! THEY HAD AN ELEVATOR!!! We took it to the top and had this lovely view:


Went back to the department store near the campus (I was very proud of myself. I gave the driver the card to get back to the campus and then managed to get him to stop and let us out when we got to this store.) We had dumplings for lunch at the food court and then went back to the shoe store so that I could get another pair of sandals.

Walked over to the Physics building to say goodbye to Xiaoyan. We wanted to visit the zoo. (Our first choice had been Mao’s villa, but no one seemed to know what to write for the taxi driver.) Luckily Xiaoyan was with us when we flagged down the first taxi, because we would never have known what was going on. He was an odd number license plate. Because it was the 4th, only even numbers could go across the bridge. Spotted an even and were on our way.

This was a terribly sad zoo. It had a lovely location on a big lake. It had several small lakes within the grounds. The animals were in teeny tiny cages with so many bars that you could barely see them.


They had no space and nothing to do. The panda was sick. Its keeper came out to look at it while we were there and then came to talk to us. He said, “She is ill.”

She was laying there making ou, ou sounds.


They did have two cute baby camels. But they didn't have much space either, so they only ate and didn't run around like the one in Hefei.


We went for dinner to a place that has special crab dumplings. (2 flights) Xiaoyan had written down the crab dumplings for us. We managed to order fish and vegetable from a menu with only words.

Tired out we found an even number cab to go back to our room. On the way we saw a police car with a bust of Mao on the dashboard. Both Xiaoyan and Feng had gone to Beijing. They needed to get their visas for Slovakia and the only consulate was in Beijing and only open 2 days a week. We will see them there.

12 flights

Yangtze 3 Gorges trip

June 1-3, 2007 Friday - Sunday

Met Hongfeng at breakfast. She translated the schedule for our boat trip. She and I went to the little store for snacks for the bus ride. (1 flight) On our way we spotted some students in their graduation robes taking each other’s pictures. It is the same scene which is found in every American university at this time of the year.

At 10:20 a university car came to pick us up. We had 3 people with 1 large suitcase (ours) and 2 small backpacks (ours and Hongfeng’s). The driver had his 7 year old son and a full trunk of his stuff. Chuck sat in the front with a very large gift box of sesame oil on his lap. This was dropped off at the university parking lot.

We went to a central meeting point to get the tour’s bus to YiCheng. This bus was filled to the gills with people. We think that the tour company figures out how many people are going for the boat, and then sells the extra seats to people who want to go to YiCheng or someplace on the way. A few people were dropped off. When the bus came, there was a stampede for the seats. Hongfeng was expecting this and scurried to get us some. The bus left at 11:30 and got to YiCheng at about 4:30. We were met by the rep. from our tour who told us that we should get some dinner before boarding the boat. He actually took the 3 of us to a nearby place. (1 flight) We had 2 mushroom dishes, a soup with a potato like vegetable and some rice. At 6:00 we boarded the boat.

This consisted of hauling our stuff down these steps, across several boarding ramps and up a flight of stairs.

The important thing about these steps is that at the end of the trip, we will need to go back up them.

These boats have a star system just like hotels in China. 5 is the best. Our boat was a 2. We did have a “first class cabin”. That entitled us to a 2 person room with our own bathroom. We also could go onto the special front deck with small plastic stools and the enclosed front room with chairs. (We had cards that we gave the guard at the door when we entered this privileged area and then the cards were returned when we went out. The girl also had a large tea brewer and we could get cups of tea.) We were the only westerners on the boat.

It did not include meals. Some of the other tour groups on the boat had meals included – but ours did not. We could buy breakfast for 5¥ and lunch and dinner for 10¥. But we didn’t have a place in the eating room, so we were given take out. Breakfast consisted of a bowl of rice gruel, some legumes, a spicy vegetable, a steamed bun with meat filling and steamed bread. Lunch and dinner was rice and a variety of veggie dishes and meat/fish with vegetables. We picnicked in our rooms, because during meal time the viewing rooms were locked. This is an example of lunch and dinner.

Some of the lower class passengers had cup noodle which they reconstituted with the hot water from the boiler. There was a mahjong room which immediately had games started. I think that these people played night and day for the whole trip. The lower class rooms had 4 people (2 bunk beds), no bathroom and no TV. Lots of them set up card games between the bunks.

We had 2 very narrow twin beds with a reading lamp. Chuck kept banging his shoulder on the lamp.

A TV:

We also had an air conditioner. It is the metal box over the desk.

Our own bathroom (with western toilet) and a shower that used the whole bathroom as a stall. We were told that the water is only hot when the motors are running – so not to take a shower when the boat was stopped.

Hongfeng had mentioned that the boat didn’t provide toothbrushes and toothpaste like the hotels do. She didn’t include that they didn’t provide soap, towels or TOILET PAPER, so we hadn’t brought those things. I did have some little tubes of shampoo that we used as soap. I had lots of tissues for toilet paper and we used Chuck’s tee shirts as towels. For two nights, we could deal. Now, I basically find boat rides boring. In a funny way, the funkiness of this trip made it better.

We had a door that opened onto our own fenced in balcony.

We were next door to Hongfeng. She was sharing with a young man.

About ½ hour after the boat sailed, we went through the lock of a small dam. 2 hours after that we got to the big 3 Gorges Dam. It is a damn big dam. There are 5 locks in a row to get the boat to the level after the dam. They also will have an elevator for smaller boats so that they won’t have to wait as long. They put the boats into the lock 3 across and 5 deep. It takes quite awhile to load up all the boats in the lock. Our tour guide was out on the deck giving lots of info in Chinese. Hongfeng translated the salient points. We all watched the process for the 1st lock and the transfer to the 2nd lock. At that point it was getting late. The guide said, “You see one lock, you see them all.” And we all went to bed. I thought that perhaps the noises of the transferring from lock to lock (whistles and horns blow) would keep me awake. Nope, slept like a baby. This is what the lock looked like from our room.

Breakfast was from 5 -7. You want to be up early to see all of the scenery. The Chinese people all posed for pictures at every new rock. I think they want to show that they have been there. We had our pictures taken too.

By this time people were getting used to us and began to be quite friendly. Everyone who spoke any English at all, came up to talk with us. They asked us questions about what we were doing and were quite forthcoming about their own lives. One young woman was a teacher. She noticed that Hongfeng and the people next to her were discussing education and I explained that Hongfeng was a professor. She felt that Hongfeng was very lucky. Many people (especially women) of her generation were not educated. She said that her mother and her uncle could barely write their names.

We had an early lunch at 10:30 because at 11:00 we transferred to a small tour boat to go up the mini 3 gorges. We scurried and got seats on the 2nd level, but then discovered that there was a top deck. We paid the surcharge to go up there. It was a little hot, so we ended up in the air conditioned driver’s cabin in very comfy seats and were served tea for the whole trip. The weather was fabulous and clear and a very good day for this. The pilot offered to let us steer, but we passed on the opportunity. We just took turns sitting next to him. Being in this cabin made the trip much better. In the regular seats, the young woman commentator talked non-stop for 4 hours. Hongfeng would have had a hard time sorting out what to point out to us. Instead we had the pilot pointing out the good stuff and Hongfeng could just tell us what he was saying.

There had been a storm so a lot of debris had washed down the river and all collected at one point. Small boats were picking up the stuff and carrying it away. Among the trash and wood debris there were 2 dead pigs. (Quite bloated)

Back to our home away from home for more steaming upstream and dinner.

At 6:00 we transferred to another small boat to visit the temple of the White Emperor. This was a real scene. We had to walk through 4 boats to get to the dock. All of the people on these boats were going to get on 2 small boats to go to the temple’s dock. Our guide had a system. He would tell us when we should be ready to leave the boat and depend on us to get to the dock on our own. Then he would meet us and give us our tickets for the next step and point us on our way. (Some of the other guides led their troops the whole way.) We were in a line that was moving through a 1 person doorway when suddenly there was a pushing, screaming phalanx shoving from the right. It was quite scary, because at the doorway there was a lip that you had to step over. If anyone had fallen they would have been crushed. Two women in front of us were screaming at each other, but nothing seemed to get settled. The Chinese are very good at moving groups of people from one place to another very quickly – no one dawdles, but they do like to push and shove.

The Temple of the White Emperor had 425 steps. They had guys with chairs that offered to carry you up or down. I think I saw a look of relief when Chuck said no thanks.

This was the view from ¾ way up.

These two cuties had their hair pulled into side pony tails which were wrapped with bands. I wanted them to turn around so that I could get a close up of how their hair was done, but they kept turning to face me.

It was a good thing that this excursion was in the early evening. It was really hot climbing all of the stairs and then climbing down again. There was the usual gauntlet of vendors on the way in and out. They all sing out “Just looking.”

It felt good to get back to our air conditioned cabin and another good night’s sleep.

24 flights today 1 flight each for breakfast, lunch & dinner, 1 flight each time we returned to the boat, 2 flights on the Mini 3 gorges boat, and 17 at the White Emperor temple.

The last day we got up at 5:30, had breakfast at 6 and left the boat at 6:30. The boat was going through the locks again and we were going to each and every overlook spot so that we would be able to see the damn dam in all of its glory from every angle. The real reason that they do this is because the locks are pretty boring and we have to be kept busy for 4 or 5 hours. Every time we stopped, the bus guide would say what time we had to be back on the bus. We all had to get back on the same bus each time so were given the license number to memorize. (There were a lot of buses all doing the same thing – because all of the boats in the locks were sending their passengers off.) The amazing thing was that no one was more than 2 minutes late. The latest person had been in the bathroom. (2 flights at highest overlook)

Then we moved on to a temple that had kept a record of the water levels through the years. 1830 was the high mark, ¾ of the way up the temple’s pillars. All temples have 4 levels (that means 4 flights of stairs – minimum, some have more than one flight between levels) It was possible to be blessed by a monk, but that was a treat we could forgo to. This gauntlet was really aggressive. We were all glad when our boat pulled up to the dock. To get to it, we had to pass through a 1st class boat – it had a giant fish head and tail and lots of carvings and Chinese furniture. Also the entire boat was air conditioned. They made us (the hoi polloi) use the crew stairway.

Back on the boat (2 flights), lunch (1 flight) and then a small relaxing time through the last lock at the small dam and time to get off the boat. The guide said that he would carry our big suitcase. (What a relief!) (4 flights)

The bus back to Wuhan was even more crowded than the one going. We picked up a guy in a service area parking lot and he sat on an upturned bucket in the middle of the aisle for the whole trip. There was absolutely no leg room at all.

We had a late dinner at the guest house. Feng Liu came and had a beer with us so that he could hear about the trip. His department paid for our trip and he wouldn’t let us reimburse him for either it or the hotel room. We have been really treated well on this trip. Everyone has been tremendously helpful and have gone out of their way to make sure that we are OK.

Said goodbye to Hongfeng. She was going back to Hefei (by bus) in the morning.

10 flights