Thursday, March 28, 2013

This morning breakfast was 7:15 am and our excursion was 8:15 am.  We docked at Fengdu and were going to the "City of Ghosts".  

When we docked this morning we were right next to another ship.  In fact if we had been on our balcony, we could have reached across and shook hands with the people on their balconies across from us.  Needless to say, we closed our curtains.  When we got off our boat to go ashore, we had to go through their boat but they took us through the lower deck (not the passenger areas).  There was a long walk to shore and then up about 500 steps.  There were golf carts waiting on us to take us off the the "City of Ghosts".

Across the river from where we stood there was a town built with high rises.  This was the new city of Fengdu.  We were standing on top of the Old Fengdu.  It had been torn down and flooded.  They had told us that we would have to walk up 400 easy steps to get to the part we going to see.  I thought I would give it a try.  After we walked up 175 steps we got to a Pagoda that we briefly stopped at.  We were told it was going to get easier.  There was a road with a gradual incline.  Well I knew there were still more steps to climb and i was having problems breathing so I told them I was going to stay there and wait for them to come back down.  I just didn't feel I was up to the rest of the climb.  

I sat there and patiently waited and it took them almost 2 hours to come back down but by that time I was well rested and had no problems at all walking down the 175 steps.  While I was sitting there on a wall waiting on them, a Chinese woman came over by me.  I thought she was trying to get her picture made by the sign I was sitting under.  I moved over to get out of her way and she moved over next to me.  She was wanting her picture made with me.  We had been told that they liked to have their pictures made with Americans because some of them lived in very tiny towns and never saw anyone that looked like us and often thought of us as Movie Stars!  I was nice to them and posed for their picture with her.  

After we got back on the boat the River Guide gave a talk about the Yangtze River which was very good.  He said he has been working on the river boats for 10 years and had started working on them when he was 18 and didn't graduate high school or college but went to a Technical School.  His English was self taught and is very good.  

As soon as his talk was over it was time to go to lunch.  It was pretty good today but very crowded.  Since everybody was on board and there was nothing else to do, I think everybody ate at the same time.

After lunch there was a Chinese Medicine Talk and Demonstration (Acupuncture, Acupressure, and Cupping).  It was all very interesting.  They always have an Acupuncture Presentation on the big ships and I have never gone but somehow this one gets more credibility since the Dr was Chinese and it was in China!

Pat and I then went up on the top deck to enjoy the scenery.  It was nice and cool out there and not crowded.  We were just wasting time until the Embroidery and Snuff Bottle Painting Demonstration began.  I didn't realize how good this would be.  I wanted everything they had but it was all priced near the $600 mark.  The man selling the embroidery told the woman next to me to make him an offer on a piece.  The price he quoted her was $580.  I said if I made him an offer I would probably insult him.

We went back to the room to relax before the Captain's Welcome Reception.  It was to start at 6:15 pm but the Captain didn't arrive until after 6:30 pm. They gave a brief introduction of him and he spoke a few brief words -- all in Chinese.  He didn't look very old but had been working on the river for 25 years or so.  He then went around the room to all the groups and toasted them and had his picture made with them. I am not sure if my picture was taken or not but that is ok if it wasn't.  They also had refreshments but I opted out as dinner was to be served at 7:00 pm.  

We slipped out of this early so we could be first in line for dinner.  There are certain tables that are reserved for our group and it seems that we always get stuck in the table over in the corner that is hard to get out of.  We were successful in getting a better table as we were first in line.  I didn't feel like the dinner was as good tonight but they did have mashed potatoes which were good.

After dinner we looked through the gift shop which has about 5 cases of things locked up in there.  The snuff bottle painting guy was set up there selling his works.  I really like them and may have to purchase something before we leave.  Terry did buy a few things and they put them in cute little boxes.  I said that it was worth it to get the little boxes.  I saw a necklace that I have my eye on so I may go back and get that.

There was a show at 8:30 that showed Chinese Costumes and customs through the ages.  Some of the staff on board did the modeling.  It was good and entertaining.

I don't know if I mentioned this earlier but I think they said this boat holds around 240 people and there are only 120 on board so it is not very crowded.  This is definitely different than I have done in the past but is kind of growing on me but I am not sure I would do it again in China but a river cruise someplace else might be ok.  

We got back to our room and it was ice cold.  Maybe they have finally decided to do something about the heat.  Lots of people were complaining tonight so they might have had to make some adjustments since there are so many Westerners on board.  We will be burning up and the Chinese will have coats on so I guess they get cold easily.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

This morning we had to have our bags outside our room by 6:15 am for a 7:00 am departure.  We were so tired after our long day yesterday.

The Terra Cotta Warrior Museum opens at 8:30 am but they got special approval for us to visit it at 8:00 am before it opened to the public.  They also normally have to park in a big parking lot about a mile away but they got special approval to park the bus up next to the gate which was nice.

I had imagined the Terra Cotta Warriors would be in the middle of a field.  They actually had buildings built on top of the fields to protect them from the elements.  They have only finished preserving a small amount of them but the ones that they have preserved are very impressive.  We saw three different fields, a museum and a gift shop.  They actually had life size Terra Cotta Warriors that were reproductions for sale.  I really wanted one.  The most expensive one was only $2500 and that included shipping and insurance.  They also said we could make them an offer.  I am sure Craig would have loved to have had this in our yard!

After our visit to the Terra Cotta Warriors we were off to the airport for our flight.  They did have lunch for us at a restaurant in the airport and it was just ok.  After lunch they finally gave us our boarding passes and we were off to go through security again and off to the furthest gate again.  The security at Xian airport wasn't that bad.  However by the time we got to our gate they had already started boarding and the gate was a madhouse.  We got in line and waited and saw that we were having to board a bus to take us to the plane where we then had to go up the stairs to the plane.  In addition to that, we had randomly been assigned seats and I wasn't sitting with my group.  In face husbands and wives were sitting at opposite ends of the plane.  It was a short flight so it wasn't so bad.

When we arrived in Chongqing we were off to the zoo to see the Pandas.  It was late in the afternoon when we got there and they weren't sure if they would still be active or not.  However we were pleasantly surprised.  They were all out and eating when we were there.  The weather was nice and cool so that was good too.  After the zoo we were off to the river cruise.

When we drove up to where the river cruise was we were quite surprised.  None of us had ever been on one before and didn't know what to expect.  When we got off the bus we had to walk down about 2,000 steps carrying our carryon luggage.  There were no hand rails.  There were however stick men that we could hire of we wanted to and they would carry us and our bags but we opted to walk it on our own.  We had to put our bags through a scanner and we had to walk through a scanner.  I am not really sure why we had to because I am quite sure neither one of them were on.  We were quickly given our room keys so off we went to see what we had gotten ourselves into.

When we walked in our room, it was about the size of a shoe box and a bathroom the size of a thimble.  We weren't sure if we could do this for 3 days.  They had suites available for upgrade we inquired about that.  They had 2 sizes -- one of them would cost $1500 and the other one $800.  We figured we could tough it out where we were.  

It was soon time for dinner so we went to check it out.  All the meals are buffet and this meal didn't look that appealing but I did try to eat something.  I am sure that by the time this trip is over, I will have lost the 20 pounds I gained on my European Cruise in 2008.  

The Cruise Director was having a presentation on what all was going on for the next 3 days at 9:00 pm.  We went back to the cabin to rest before that because we were very tired.  Our cabin was terribly hot!  I didn't know if I could take it or not. Mary P got to work and started calling about the heat.  They said "Oh do you need another blanker?"  There seems to be a little translation problems on this boat.  She finally got them to understand what she was saying so they came to check it out and was going to get someone else to come check it out.  She said that she would stay in the cabin and I could go listen to the Cruise Director while she stayed there and waited for the air to get fixed.  When I got back from hearing the Cruise Director they still hadn't fixed it so she called again.  It wasn't long before our cabin was filled with lots of people trying to assure us it would get cool.  When we didn't believe them and Mary P kept questioning them, they brought the Cruise Director into our cabin.  At least she spoke English!  She assured us it would be better soon and that she was right across the hall if we needed anything.  Well she was right.  It finally got cool enough to go to sleep.

Tomorrow will be an early day because there is an excursion that leaves at 8:15 am.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Today was a very hard day.  We had a 10:55 am flight to Xian.  Our luggage went straight to the airport so we didn't have to deal with that.  Once we got to the airport our boarding passes were ready and we "got" to go through security at the Beijing airport.  This was quite a different experience from what I had in Shanghai earlier in the year.  In Shanghai I only had to take my laptop out of my bag for scanning and it was very fast.  They had a sign up that we had to take out computers and cameras so that was exactly what I did.  After I got through security I found out that it was now necessary to take out iPads and I hadn't done that (it was in my purse).  I was then asked to take my iPad out of my purse and to take my change out of my purse.  It seemed they had a problem with my coin purse with all my change in it.  I took those 2 things out and they sent them and my purse back through the scanner and i was good to go.  

Our plane was leaving out of the very last gate so we traipsed down to the end.  As soon as we got there it was clear that our plane wasn't taking off on time because it was still in the air and was going to be late getting there.  We sat there and waited for a while.  They had given us sandwich lunches to take on the plane because they said the food on the plane wasn't any good.  Ours was from Subway so we went ahead and ate our sandwiches and cookies while we were waiting.  Good thing we did because our flight was 3 hours late taking off.

When we got to Xian we were to go see the Terra Cotta Warriors.  It was too late to go when we got in so they rearranged our tours.  We now went to see the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and City Wall.  The Pagoda was interesting to see.  There was also a gift shop where they gave us cards that told what year we were born in.  It seems I was born in the Year of the Horse.  Once they discovered my year they then tried to sell me all sorts of things and I politely excused myself.

From the Big Wild Goose Pagoda they took us to the City Wall but it was closed so we got a tour through town.  We were booked for dinner and a show at the Tang Palace.  The food was some of the best that we have had on this trip.  The show was good but we were so tired it was hard to stay awake.  The trip to the restroom was also very good -- "Western" bathrooms!  There was also a lady there that turned the water on for you, put soap in your hands and handed you paper towels.  Quite a nice change from what we have been seeing.

We were staying at the Sofitel Xian which is a nice hotel but it was after 10:00 pm when we got there and were totally exhausted.  To top it off, we had to leave the next morning at 7:00 am so we could see the Terra Cotta Warriors before going to the airport to catch our flight to Chongqing to get on our river cruise.  

Not only was today an exhausting day, I have a feeling that tomorrow will be the same!

Monday, March 25, 2013

Today was a long day.  It was the first day of our land tour.  We had to get up early for breakfast to be ready to leave on our tour at 8:30 am.  We were on a bus that wasn't very comfortable and my seat would recline into the lap of the person behind me without even trying.  I apologized as soon as I realized what was happening so they opted to move to a different seat.

We drove  for an hour or 2 (I don't remember) and visited the Great Wall.  It was quite a walk from the bus to the Wall.  There were people everywhere.  We were given about an hour and a half to walk the Wall and then meet back at a coffee shop.  Pat and Terry walked all the way to the top on the portion that we visited.  I understand that Terry was almost crawling by the time they came back down.  It was a steep walk and even harder going down hill.  Mary P and I didn't go to the top.  We were smarter than that.  We just walked a little ways and then went back down to the coffee shop where we had diet Cokes. 

After our visit to the Great Wall we went to a shop where they make the vases and went on a tour.  They had some pretty stuff for sale there but I resisted buying anything.  Upstairs they had lunch for us.  We sat at a table for 10.  There was a lazy susan in the middle where they placed the food.  As we passed each thing around, they then brought out more different types of food. I really wished they would just put it all out at once so I could pick and choose what I wanted.  Some of the dishes were better than others.  

After lunch I made a visit to the ladies room.  They had 2 "western" stalls and the others were Chinese stalls.  I didn't try the Chinese stalls.  One thing that they do different is that you have to get your toilet tissue as you go in the restroom.  There is none in the stalls.  

We then had our last tour to go to.  It was of the Summer Palace.  It was nice but so many people and it was so cold.  It was built around a lake.  They said it was shaped either like a bat or peach.  I can't remember which one, but whichever one it is, it is supposed to be lucky I think.  After the tour we were given about 40 minutes of free time and were to meet back where the tour ended.  Everyone was back except for one couple.  We waited and waited for them.  Of course we were all freezing.  It ended up that they had found their way back to the warm bus.  Once they were located we got to go back to the bus also.

We were close in to town but the evening traffic was bad.  We finally made it back to our hotel and were exhausted.  After a brief rest we decided to go to the restaurant in the hotel for dinner.  We thought we ordered off a menu at night but we had a choice of ordering or eating off the buffet.  Mary P and I opted for the buffet.  They had a wide assortment of food to choose from.  Some of it I wouldn't dare try and some that I did was tasty.  They had something on the salad bar that looked like it had fingers or toes that had been chopped off.  Mary P asked someone what it was and I think they said it was a starfish.  I didn't try it.  This buffet for Mary P and I cost a little over 700 RMB which is over $100!  I guess I should have had peanut butter crackers in the room instead.

The next morning we are leaving Beijing and going to Xian.  At 7:00 am we are to have our bag outside our room that we wish to check on the plane.  Then at 8:00 am we are to have our bags outside our room that we want to keep at the hotel in Beijing that we will get on the way back.  We are only allowed 44 lbs of checked luggage on our domestic flights.  Tomorrow will come very early in the morning.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Today was a better day.  After a good nights sleep we were ready to tackle the day.  We met up for breakfast at 8:00 am.  Yesterday it wasn't crowded at that time.  However, today we had a slight wait because of the crowd.  Today they seated us in the middle of all the food so we didn't have that far to walk to fill our plates.  We had a leisurely breakfast and then decided to go see if we could find the desk that Princess Cruises was supposed to have set up.

We found the desk and they gave us our name tags that they think we will be wearing on the land tour.  They also gave us printed instructions and our itinerary for the land tour.  We went back to our rooms to read over everything to make sure we wouldn't have more questions.  Of course when Mary and I got back to our room it was being serviced and they wouldn't let us in so we stood in the hot hallway and waited on them to finish.  It seemed like it took them forever.  This place seems to lack seating in public areas.  After we finally got into our room we read over the instructions and of course had further questions.  We met the Rosga's back downstairs and asked the Rep our questions and we were on our way.

We had decided to walk down the street and see what was down there.  We were told there were lots of shopping.  The first hint of shopping I saw was a HUGE 3 story Apple store. We went in there and asked why we were having trouble with Facebook and updating our blogs. We were basically told that Facebook and Blogging wasn't done in China.  That explained some of our problems.

We then went into the mail to check it out.  It was 6 stories tall and went on forever and forever. We were trying to find something to eat and went to several restaurants and none of them seemed too appealing to us.  Somebody had told us that the restaurant across the street from our hotel was good so we all agreed to walk back down there and check it out.

When we got across the street from the hotel, there was a disagreement about which restaurant was the recommended one.  Mary P and I ate at one of them and Pat and Terry ate at the other one.  I am sure the one that I ate at was the recommended one and Pat and Terry are sure that theirs was the recommended one.  Of course our restaurant only cost us about the equivalent of $20 USD and theirs was about $40 USD.  I ordered sweet and sour chicken and it was good.  However, I wasn't successful using the chop sticks so they felt sorry for me and gave me a fork.  I really did try but couldn't master it.  Mary P did quite well with hers.

After we finished eating we went back to our room to regroup. Pat and Terry had quite an adventure after they finished eating.  I will just have to let them tell you about theirs because I am sure I couldn't do it justice.

Today was basically a slow and quite day.  Tomorrow is the first day of our land tour.  We will be going to the Great Wall and Summer Palace.  We will be leaving the hotel around 8:00 am in the morning so we will be turning in early tonight.

I have failed to mention that since I can't get onto my blog to post, my daughter is posting these updates for me.  Also, since I can't get onto Facebook on my computer, I am not able to post pictures.  Hopefully once we get on the ship in a week, I can post the pictures.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

After going to bed last night, we were awoken by a text this morning  at 3:00 am from Pat.  They had just gotten in and she told us what room they were in and to call us when we got up.  Little did she know, that got us up but we didn't call.  I think we finally called a little after 6:00 am and we made arrangements to meet at 8:00 am for breakfast.  Breakfast was included in our package so that was good to know.  There were lots of things to choose from.  The restaurant was very nice with good service.  It was served buffet style.  After eating our breakfast we continued to sit and the table and talk about what we were going to to and make plans for the day.  

We went to the Concierge and had them to make us reservations for the Legends of Kung Fu.  It was recommended to us by our Tour Guide that picked us up from the airport.  The tickets were pretty expensive but we went ahead and booked them.  After a quick stop back at our rooms we were on our way to see what we could find.  First stop was Starbucks.  We went there so we could get on the internet because the hotel internet had been pretty bad.  I can't get onto anything on my laptop and can periodically get onto Facebook on my iPad and iPhone.  Well the internet at Starbucks wasn't any better.  After staying there for quite a while we were on our way to see more sights but had to stop by the hotel first.  I told the Rosga's to call us when they were ready.  I know they were pretty tired after their flight in steerage on American Airlines.  We finally decided that they had layed down to take a nap.  By that time, i was getting pretty hungry and HAD to have something to eat because I was feeling sick.  I ate some peanut butter crackers that i had brought with me.  I thought that would do the trick but it didn't.  I finally told Mary P to call and order me a burger from Room Service so she called and placed an order for us.  By the time they got to the room I felt really ill and it was all I could do to keep from throwing up when I smelled the food and was watching the lady set everything up.  She probably thought I was really rude when I wouldn't hardly talk to her and before she even got out the door I made a mad rush to the restroom!

Well I didn't get sick, but it took me several hours to eat the meat of my $2,000 burger.  It actually was better when it was cold.  I told Mary P that I really didn't think I would feel like going to the show, so she called Terry and told him to cancel so he did.  We hadn't paid for the tickets because we were to pay for them when we picked them up at the theatre. Hopefully they didn't charge us a cancellation fee. I actually think they were glad.  I don't think they went out the rest of the day either.  We turned in early and hopefully on Sunday we will all be rested and feel like doing more.

Thursday & Friday, March 21 & 22, 2013

Thursday & Friday, March 21 & 22, 2013

Thursday, March 21 was the long anticipated day.  It was the day I left for my Asian Cruise Tour. We started with an early flight out of DFW.  We originally were booked with United from DFW to SFO and then on to Beijing.  Thanks to United and their schedule changes, their flight would no longer get us to SFO in time to make our connection so US Airways booked us on their flights therefore making it necessary for us to connect in PHX to get to SFO.  Not really bad except our flight now left at 6:00 am out of DFW.  This meant it would be a very early morning -- setting my clock to get up at 1:30, pick Mary P up at 3:30 and then on to the airport.  Our flights from DFW and PHX were both on time departure and arrivals.  Once arriving at SFO we had to go to a different terminal which meant riding a little bus.  It wasn't so bad because it was all done within the secured areas and we didn't have to clear security again.

Once to the United terminal we found the United First Class International Departure Lounge.  It wasn't crowded so we were able to find a seat with plugs and also near the food.  However they really didn't have food that looked very good but they did have some good fresh fruit so that was what I got.  If you are into alcohol it looked like they probably had anything you could ever want but it wasn't yet noon so I wasn't really interested in that.  

Our flight was to depart SFO at 1:00 pm so it started boarding at 12:10 pm.  As soon as they made the announcement we made our way to our gate -- Gate 102.   The lounge was at Gate 98 so we didn't have far to walk.  We quickly boarded the plane and made our way to our seats -- 1K and 2K.  This was a 747 and we were on the lower level in the nose of the plane.  The seats were roomy with lots of room to spread out.  Since I was in Row 1 there was no place to stow my carryon above my seat.  The flight attendant had me to put it above Row 4 which made it nice leaving the plane because that was the last row in First Class so I could just grab it and go.

The inflight service was ok I guess.  When the flight attendant was coming around to get our beverage choice I told her I wanted Coke Zero.  She couldn't understand me even after I repeated it 3 times.  She thought I was asking for some kind of wine or liquor that she didn't have.  She tried to offer me something else that I didn't understand. I just looked at her and said "No, Coca Cola"  That she understood.  I guess she didn't understand why I was wanting that when I could have any number of things.

I ordered Pork Chops for my main course and they were so tough I couldn't even cut it.  I managed to get about 3 bites cut off and that was all I ate of that with a little bit of side dishes, but I had already had nuts, appetizers and a salad so I wasn't that hungry.  In fact I even passed up the ice cream sundae.  After eating, I settled in to try and watch a movie.  It seemed they were showing the same movies that they had when I went to Australia at Christmas so I watched Mary Poppins!  After that was over I decided to get some sleep so I turned everything off and went to sleep.  It seemed it wasn't long before they were waking us up for breakfast before the end of our flight.  This was my favorite meal -- cereal and fresh fruit!

I forgot to mention that when we got on board, the pilot came on and told us the flight path that we were going to be taking.  He said that it would be daylight the whole flight but he would try to keep announcements at a minimum because he knew that people would be sleeping.  We were departing SFO and flying north over Oregon, Washington, Alaska and up over the Russian territories and down into Beijing.  We would not be going over any water!  Also when we left SFO we got to fly over the Golden Gate Bridge and I think I saw Alcatraz as well.

When we got near Beijing, we had to circle several times because of the air pollution.  I am not sure how late we were -- probably about 30 minutes.  Once on the ground, we had to walk 200 miles to passport control.  Once through that we had to hop on a train to go pick up our luggage.  Once we had our luggage loaded onto carts, we went through immigration where they just waved us through.  We then started looking for someone holding up a sign for us and it wasn't long until I spotted a sign that said Princess Cruises.  They were there for us.  We quickly went and got on an elevator and then out to the mini van that was waiting for us.  We are staying at the Peninsula Beijing which is downtown. The traffic was very bad for a Friday evening -- yes we left DFW on Thursday morning at 6:00 am and we arrived in Beijing around 5:00 pm on Friday evening.  By the time we got to our hotel, checked in and got to our room, it was around 7:00 pm.  We were exhausted and stayed in for the rest of the night.  The Rosga's were to be in later that night.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

In about a week I will be leaving for my long anticipated Asia Cruise Tour.  I still have so much to do to get ready for the trip.  It seems like I have just gotten back from Australia.  In fact I haven't even gotten fully unpacked from that trip.  This next week will be very busy trying to figure out how many pieces of luggage I will take, deciding what to pack as we will have different climates along the way, and most importantly ordering my foreign currency from the bank.

I think I will have free wi-fi most of the trip so I plan to continue my tradition of writing my blog on a daily basis.  I will try to do better with the pictures this time.  I don't think I ever finished downloading my Australia/New Zealand pictures yet.  Maybe I can do that too while I am gone.

As I have said before, sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.........