25 March: Rise and shine, pack and be in the lobby with our luggage by 7:45am. Vivian gives us lots of last minute advice on our way to the Guilin Airport. She gets a little misty eyed as we all say good-bye. We all have gotten to know her and really like her; she is almost like part of our group.
It has become a routine within our group that we collect a few dollars (or Yuan, or Dong) from each member to pass along to our guide and our driver. Fran volunteered to manage this task. She gets a feel from the group to determine an amount, then divides it by 8 and collects from each of us. Now, as we approach the airport, Fran gets the attention of everyone and tells Vivian and Li, the driver, how much we appreciate their efforts and she hands each of them an envelope. We have rounds of applause and it is time to drag our bags through the airport. Vivian sticks with us as we check in and have our bags weighed and x-rayed. It seems that the collective weight of our checked baggage increases everytime we weigh. This time we are 30 kilos overweight. We pass the hat and come up with the 330 Yuan (about $47).
Upon arrival in Chongquing, we are met by Dan, our new tour guide. He is a high energy young guy (27, I think). We load onto yet another nice bus and our first stop is a beautiful, modern restaurant. We are seated at a large round table in a small private room on the second floor. Typically Chinese, there is a huge lazy-susan in the middle of the table. Family style, large dishes of many different vegetables and meats are placed on this and it is rotated as each person helps themselves.
In the afternoon, we tour the city with stops at the zoo and at the “Flying Tiger Museum” then on to the dock to board our cruise boat. The main attractions at the zoo are the Pandas. They have seven, we are able to see six of them. Most were eating bamboo, but some were sleeping. The first one we saw was 2 year old Er Shun and later we saw mother, Ling Ling. Each panda has its own indoor pen connected to a larger outdoor feeding and exercise area. The Flying Tigers, American Volunteer Group (AVG), was formed and headquartered here in August 1941. These american aviators helped the struggling Chinese Air Force against the Japanese. Their primary mission was to fly transport aircraft across the Himalayas from India to China; “flying the hump”. The Chinese are still very grateful to the U.S. for helping them in a time of need.
We board the “Victoria Cruises” a luxury cruise boat which is fully booked with 206 passengers. For some reason they have upgraded our group’s cabins. Each of our roomy, corner cabins have picture windows on two sides and private heads (bathrooms). Arriving a few hours early, we claim the bar as “ours” and are soon on a first name basis with all the bartenders. Later in the evening Fran leads us in
Russian dance practice. Since we already seem to own this select area of the ship, we feel obligated to help them close.
Oh yes, as we boarded, we were asked the name of our group and thinking of the name Michael gave our website we are now known as the Oriental Express.
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Today we fly to Chongquin. This city, like Washington D.C., has its own independent government. As such it is the largest city in the world BECAUSE it has absorbed the people moved by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. People of Chongquin feel a close relationship with America because General Stillwell came here to advise Chinese Flying Tigers who battled Japan in WWII. During WWII the Chinese capital moved from Nanjing here to Chongquin.
We went to the Chonquin Zoo to see the pandas, also mandarin ducks – many beautiful birds, and monkeys. We also visited the Flying Tigers Museum where we got a demonstration of Chinese painting and caligraphy. It seemed like an odd combination – a military museum paired up with an art gallery, but I guess the American tourist make likely customers for the gallery.
On to the Victoria Star Cruise where we fairly quickly located the bar. Here Betty and I gave Jen and Linda a hard time about their luck in getting the best accomodations. We let them believe they got the upgraded suites and we didn’t. It was fun while it lasted. As we gave thought to the future stops on our trip, I thought practicing our Russian dancing was in order. Fortunately Linda and Jerry joined me which helped me look a little less like a lone berserker. Fran