All aboard

Monday, April 30, 2018
Chongqing, Chongqing, China
Smoggy 30C Xi'an to Chongqing
Another leisurely start to the day, once again bags outside our door by 8. 30 a.m. then off to the Wyndham Hotel buffet breakfast - and what a smorgasbord they provide, everything you could want.
Check out is just before 10.45 a.m to board the bus to the airport for our flight to Chongqing where we will finally board the Viking Emerald, our home for the next 6 nights.  Angie's language lesson for today is some Chinese characters. She draws a square  - the symbol for "Mouth"  then next to it two lines crossing that means 'through'. When you reverse the two symbols it means 'exit'. Well that makes sense...? On arrival at the airport, another lazy susan meal is waiting for us. Viking do like to provide 3 square meals a day. 
Through airport security and on to the plane for a short and comfortable flight of about 1 hour then, after our bags are collected by some of Angie's many 'uncles' (another story) we identify ours and soon board the bus and on our way to the Chongqing port on the Yangtze River. This 'city' has 30 million people, however the city is very large and we are told that after 2 days of travel on our ship we will still be in Chongqing. The high-rises again are endless and disappear into the distance and the smog. Washing drying on balconies is a noticeable feature as the high humidity around the Yangtze river means washing will not dry inside and China is not yet making enough electricity to give every apartment a free dryer. The land is also more hilly - not many pushbikes are evident. Our bus takes us to the dock which is crowded and busy. Many food stalls on the side of the road and men hustling to carry your bags We manage to evade them walk across a pontoon bridge half way across the river to finally board our ship. 
Our starboard-side cabin is lovely, compact and with a small balcony. Dad is one cabin back on the port side. We explore the ship and have a drink in the bar before dinner. Dinner begins at 7. We get there about 7.30. It looked full when we arrived but the staff found us a table with others and we had a 3 course dinner. Western style. Yah!!!
Departure from Chongqing is at 9:15 p.m. and we leave right on time. From the observation deck, we can see why on the river, Chongqing is often referred to as the Mini Manhattan of China with beautifully lit decorations and most buildings having some sort of active lighting display . There are about 180 passengers on board. That's 6 tour groups of about 30 each, most are Americans, a few Canadians, the odd Brit and us. We have not met any other Australians... yet.
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