Sat, 4/28.  Hong Kong.  Pretty new buildings, same old town.  Narrow streets, many bars.  The day began with a bus tour to Daoist Temple, looooong string of open-air escalators that cut through local streets of shops/markets, Financial District, Aberdeen (fishing waterfront).  In the afternoon I walked.  Had a half-liter of beer with the spiciest penne pasta I’ve ever had and visited the Sun Yat-Sen Museum (no pics allowed).  In the evening we did a fairly useless tour beginning with a low priced dinner, followed by a ferry ride and drive up Victoria’s Peak, finishing with a ride on a double decker tram through the one-block red light district.  My opinion; the Peak is much better during the day.

Hong Kong is a fascinating mix of Asia and England, but you’ve really got to be here.  Words don’t suit.

Prettily wrapped roses.

More beef than chicken. A change from 1987.

WWI/II Memorial, in the shadow of the 2nd tallest building in HK.

Tour guide says this boatyard once built Cheoy Lee boats.  Perhaps Mom and Dad’s boat?

Floating restaurant.

View from ferry.

View from The Peak.

Fri, 4/27.  No photos.  Wuhan’s international airport is enormous and very, very new.  Plus empty.  We could see about ten gates in a row and only two were used, including ours.  Clearly, it’s intended to  relieve some of the pressure on Beijing and Shanghai.  But not yet.

Hong Kong airport is also new; only 20 years old.  But not empty by any means.  It’s about an hour driving time from Hong Kong Island.  Hotel is very nice (small with functioning AC!) and close to the active part of the island.  Within an hour I’d had a drink in two small english-styled sports bars, something that was non-existent in China, or at least not in the locales Ricky took us to.  Women’s volleyball and Men’s rugby. Bangers and Mash for dinner on my own.

Conclusion about the People’s Republic of China: It is made up of different people.  It would be a mistake to group them into one pigeonhole, just as it would be to the same with Americans.  Duh.  The best I can say about their relationship with the central government (and their lower level mechanisms) is that it’s treated as an irritating itch which won’t go away and that they shouldn’t scratch.  Capitalism is the focus of today’s game. 99% of daily life is about getting through it. They take vacations.  (90% of tourists in Tibet are Chinese I was told.  Keep in mind that access to Tibet is restricted, even for Chinese.  But still they go.)  Pay their bills.  Talk about little things.  (Glance furtively around before complaining.)  Etc.

The only place where I saw signs with Japanese translations was at the Panda Sanctuary.  Japan may not love China, but pandas are entirely different.

Tomorrow I get to see how much Hong Kong has changed the in 30(!) years since I was here last.  Seems like just yesterday.  I’ve always thought of Hong Kong as a timeless city.  I’ll see.

Thurs, 4/26.  Incredible hazy day.  Awful photo weather.

Chinese are a noisy society.  Debarking the boat gave evidence.  Nice funicular railway to get up to the parking lot.  Our luggage was again carried four at a time manually by porters.

Tour of the Three Gorges Dam was at quite a distance.  Closer were the duel five-lock passage and single boat elevator, which was actually (to my) the most impressive part.  The dam is large, as are the locks.  But they’re fairly settled engineering feats.  More significant to me has always been the resettlement of 1.3 million people from thousand-year-old communities.  But this aspect is hugely underplayed by the Chinese.  Jacky says “people don’t care”.  I’m not entirely sure that the true answer isn’t “people fear saying anything”.  Probably a little of both.  Bottom line though, the project will vastly improve the quality of life.  More clean power, much, much less flooding.  They have four more dams envisioned upriver.

Drive to Wuhan sorta fast, pretty bumpy.  Nice looking highway (advertisements on bridges), but not exactly flat.  If we’d been on a plane, the “Fasten Seatbelt” sign would have been on the whole way.  Farm lands, burial sites, very limited ruins.  It seems common throughout the country that ruined buildings (eyesores) are torn down.  The USA could take a lesson.

Hotel is based in an old traditional building with very modern resort structures nearby.  The concept does not work.  Pond in the back is a haven for mosquitos.  Huge lazy susan at dinner.

Tomorrow we fly to Hong Kong.

Leaving the boat.  Nice orderly line.  Indoor voices.  Not, not.

The Dam is beyond the boat elevator(!).  Hard to grasp it’s size.

Photographers are screaming posing instructions. “Amazed!”, “Cocky!”, “Solemn!”, “Silly!”

Apparently, this boat fits inside the elevator!  Cuts transit time by 70%.

One of five, about 60 feet of elevation gain per lock.

I don’t know what they’re doing, but many rice ponds(?) had a person sitting beside. Fishing?

Gravesites with fresh flowers.

Temple under construction?

I don’t know what they’re building, but it’s going to be huge.

Note the drone right center. Operator gave serious coaching instructions to dancer.

Dinner table. Fortunately, it was a set dinner, so we didn’t need the monster lazy susan.

(Delayed. First time I couldn’t get a secure (VPN) connection.)

Wed, 4/25.  Drizzle, low clouds again.  The views didn’t translate well into photos, but to the naked eye the scenery was awesome.  

Began the day with a walk around whatever city we were in.  Pagoda (unmoved), Large city wall (relocated).  (The Pagoda was built for luck so that students in the t0wn would pass the government exams.  The following year, five did pass.)  Shops selling word carvings, mostly of buddhas.  Movable escalators to aid getting people from the boats to town, regardless of water level.  Whole baby crabs, fish and shrimp, all fried.  Individuals are not allowed off the boat until 60 minutes after the paid tour goers get off.  Not a very subtle form of persuasion.

Shortly before noon we departed for the first of the Three Gorges.  View-by-view commentary from ship’s speakers, with (too much) comedy included.  One can only imagine how much more impressive the Gorge would be if viewed from the bottom, before the water level was raised several hundred feet.   There were buildings at the top of some cliffs which helped give a perspective of their heights.  Heavy boat traffic.  It was hard to drag my eyes away from the ever changing views for lunch, but there was a convenient gap between the first and second gorge to do so.

The second gorge was not quite as impressive as the first, but still pretty.  At one point we docked for a small boat ride up a tributary.  More jokes, some Chinese language lessons.  Very little technical talk about the rock formations, history, etc. There is a “hanging coffin” on one cliff.  (Review of Wiki reveals that hanging coffins are actually a thing.) Near the far end of the ride we joined about 8 other boats on a large platform to sing and dance.  Seriously.  Flabbergasted.  Clearly, the Chinese concept of being one with nature differs from mine.

We traversed the third gorge in the dark.  Farewell dinner. Another show that I skipped.  Getting tired of some companions who still seem to harbor thoughts that all Chinese can be lumped into one collective definition.  If anything, I’ve learned that they are more diverse than I expected.  I’ve determined that a crowded and noisy riverboat is not for me.  Reminded me of the Dickens quote, “being on a boat is like jail time, with the added possibility of drowning”.

Tomorrow we arrive at the massive Three Gorges Dam (tour), then drive to Wuhan.  The next day we fly to Hong Kong.

Very innovative movable escalators.

The entrance to the first gorge.

“Look! Cliffs!”

Cliff repairs.

To show off the zoom quality of my camera, the top has . . .

. . . a flag.

Interesting and large tablet.

Tourist stop in second gorge. No roads.

Small Boat ride. Cliffs closing in.

Music, singing and dancing.  Just stunning. Or stunned. The Chinese will dance on graves I think.

Tues, 4/24.  Drizzles.  Low clouds.  Views were incredible.  On a non-travel day I took the opportunity to exercise in the morning, then walked along the riverfront.  Strolled through a set of buildings called a Ghost Town, though I honestly don’t know why.  Several large structures on the hill behind with gondola access but I didn’t have time to visit.  Had to be back on the boat by 11, for unknown reasons.

At 12:30, with no notice in the daily bulletin, the boat departed.  The cruise down river was captivating.  The River is in fact no longer a river, but a very, very large reservoir, created just in the last decades.  Tributaries came in on a regular basis (with multiple bridges).  Roads and stairways drop into the water.  Lots of freighters went by.  Beautiful views of cloud-topped hills.  Pagodas.  Etc.

After docking we visited a family that had been displaced by the reservoir construction.  The husband said he felt the government treated everyone generally fairly.  Built a house large enough to become a landlord vice farmer.  Some sadness over the loss of a village with over 1,000 years of history.

Shipboard is not extraordinary.  Pretty standard.  Mostly foreigners.  Service is excellent.

Morning tai chi. The master is also the ship’s doctor. Gave a demonstration on acupuncture too.

Our server. She also performs in the evening show.

Our server again.

Mon, 4/23.  Back to sea level!  I can breath again.  (Stopped to see a yak.  About the same size as Mongolia’s yaks despite claims that they are shoulder height.)

Drizzle rain, which marred some excellent countryside views.  Bus needed to take a 30 minute detour because driver was new and hadn’t brought the proper paperwork.  Tour buses need permission to leave the city.  Getting to the boat required a walk down a hundred steps, walking across a gangway only 18 inches wide, then crossing through two nested riverboats.  In the rain.

The riverboat is a boat.  Nothing special.

Tibet River.

Last view of Tibet.

One of many tunnel entrances.  Each tunnel had a sign indicating it’s length.  Longest was 6.8 kms.

Landslide!

Climb down to the boat.

Sun, 4/22.  After two day of looking at the Potala Palace, we finally toured it.  Requiring a climb of 300 steps plus an continuous inclined stone path.  At 12,000 feet.  Actually, easier than I feared.  I was third to the top and the first two (natives to 10,000 foot Colorado) didn’t really count.  No photos allowed inside, monitored closely.  Everything is in superlatives.  Massive stupas and tombs.  Thousands of statues.  A timed one hour walk though with intense incense!  We saw only 17 of the shrines.  Overwhelms the senses.  Very few windows, so you’d never know you were hundreds of feet above ground level.

For lunch we had the Tibet version of pizza.  Not heavenly.  After a needed rest, we set off for the Tibetan family visit, comprised of one woman, who gave mono-syllabic answers.  Our Tibetan tour guide gave most of the answers.  Frustrating.  But her home was extremely attractive.  Custom made furniture with incredible paintings, which matched the ceiling paintings.  I don’t think she was a typical Tibetan.  A big picture of China’s leadership was incongruously displayed in one corner. “Every home is given one.” She was unwilling to get anywhere close to a conversation about China.

Dinner was yak burgers.  Not bad.  Taste was not like hamburgers.  Got off the bus early to take my last picture of the Palace, from the same perspective shown on the 50 Yuan ($8) bill.

8:30 in the morning. Note the bowtie.

Family Kitchen. In the winter, it’s also their living room/bedroom. Stove supplies the heat. But the rest of the house is fantastic!

The Potala Palace is on the . . .

. . . 50 Yuan bill. About $8. (The largest is only 100 Yuan.)

Sat, 4/21.  Even though our guide was able to get us into the Jokhang Temple through the back way (saving us hours of standing in line), once inside the crowds were insane.  Parts rivaled a Tokyo train during rush hour.  The temple is a collection of many, many statues, each with some special significance.  To see the main one up close, one must first endure the line that includes half the others.  We walked the outer ring, thereby skipping a good view of everything.  But we got the gist of it all.  There weren’t guys with megaphones telling people to move along, but there should have been.  Outside people walked around the temple clockwise.  Others prostrated on the ground at the front.  A few did both, advancing a little each time.  (I refused to take pictures of them.  It just seemed disrespectful.)  Overall, the Temple from the outside is completely unremarkable.  Except for the line to get in.

The Barkhor Bazaar surrounds the Temple.  If you were buddhist, there were lots of things to tempt you.  Nothing special.  They sell yak skulls.  Wouldn’t fit in my suitcase.

After lunch some went to two additional buddhist sites.  I passed and satisfied my time with a walk around tomorrow’s destination; the Potala Palace.

It snowed last night in the mountains.

These banners on the mountain top have some religious significance that escaped me.

Top of the Temple.

This would be the office of the Dali Lama if he was in Tibet.

The roof of the Temple.

This is a photo of the backside at dusk from the roof of our hotel.

Fri, 4/20.  Not much today.  Early flight to Lhasa.  We were’t allowed on the plane without permits.  We were’t allowed out of the terminal without the same permits.  I hadn’t realized how tightly controlled access was to Tibet.  The Lhasa Airport is about 90 minutes from Lhasa.  Not sure why, though mountains might be a reason.  Though the road is extremely flat, we transited through three tunnels and two long bridges.  Very flat land between high mountains.  Guide said it snowed last week.  66 degrees today.

Throughout our tour Jacky has been scaring us about the 12,000 foot altitude.  Apparently he has a hard time adjusting.  Though I experienced some slight dizziness shortly after landing, I recovered and now feel fine.  Heart rate is increased.  Stretching didn’t bother me.  Ibuprofen works fine.

Our hotel is excellent, though we all still cannot figure out the thermostat, even though each hotel’s is similar.  I’m getting frustrated.  Opening the window works, but that’s not the point.  We’re situated just blocks behind the Potala Palace, which is every bit as impressive as the pictures.  We tour there tomorrow, we think.  Admission tickets are issued the evening before and the time is precise.  Entry and Exit.

Natives are dressed in a wide range, from international normal to unique local tradition.  Nice hats.  People smile a lot except for the military personnel, whose presence is felt.

A really good briefing from a local professor (who got her masters in Hawaii).  Great lunch and dinner.  Tasty yak meat, hot flatbread.  The local guide says the water is safe to drink, but Jacky says differently.

Air bottles. They feel empty. Duh. “Just breath normal, fellas.” (Apollo 13)

The picture is much better than reality. The sun is very bright. I barely knew what I was taking a picture of.

Our first view of Potala Palace.

Chinese have unlucky numbers, reflected by elevator exclusions. But 4-7 seem excessive.