Week 2
Day 3

As I’m writing this, the ship is moving out at a snail’s pace towards the “escalator of the 3 Gorges Dam”.

We woke up really late this morning. My roommate, Satish and I could not remember hitting the alarm clock button off of both alarms. Despite waking up late, we quickly packed our bags and set off on time for our 3 days and 2 nights in the 3 Gorges.

We took a 5-hour bus journey to the 3 Gorges Dam. In the middle of this journey, we stopped at a half-way station to wait for the other group of students from Ngee Ann polytechnic to join us while we freshen up and relieve ourselves. They soon joined us and we proceeded with the journey. After reaching Yi Chang which is a part of Wubei, we had lunch at the Yan shi Hotel. The food there was quite alrite, but the service, very poor. At the start, the tour guides were arguing with the floor managers there regarding the lack of seats. Everything was soon settled and the food was served. During the servicing of the food, the service staff for our table was very impatient about arranging the plates on the table so that there is more space, spilled a cup of tea on 1 the group members. Luckily there was a jacket that belonged to a guy, to block the spillage and the group member was not scalded.

After lunch, we set off for the 3 Gorges Dam. We had to go through winding roads of beautiful sceneries and a series of short to long tunnels through the hills. Arriving at the Dam, we were greeted by a sight of the “escalator” which was where the ships were brought up or down. We went for the first station which was where the exhibition of the model of the dam was as well as the souvenir shops. It was also the highest view of the area where we could go. It had a nice view of the dam as well as the area around it. The next station was the 185 station which was the height of the dam. It had the clearer view of the dam, and this was where the guide explained how it was built. The last area was the memorial park which was built for the 3 gorges dam. There was another good view of the dam in the park.

We bought a box of keychains that cost 40 yuan. We found out later at the end of the trip that the other people sold it at 20 yuan. So we were indirectly cheated for 20 yuan! O well, a lesson learnt for us, never be inpatient regarding the buying of things, always consider the price as well as the the risk that’s involved. Whether we can get it at a cheaper price at the end of the trip or at the start, it’s all a risk that we have to take. After the picture taking session, we took the bus to the same hotel for dinner, this was where we were told that we were behind time and was suppose to board the ship at 6p.m, but it was at 6p.m that we arrived at the hotel for dinner, so we quickly ate and rushed to the dock. It was at 7.30 that we arrived so we were 1 and a half hours late! Some of the other passengers were not happy with us too.

A few hours into the ride, we had to stop as the “escalator of the Ba Dong Dam “was closed, indicating that there were ships inside. While waiting, 2 ships arrived behind us. An hour later, the “escalator’s “doors opened and we were ready to take pictures of the ship moving in, but our hopes were dashed when our ship did not bulge even a bit, while the other 2 ships that arrived after us actually moved forward and went in to the “escalator”. We felt confused and watched the stars and talked while waiting for our turn. After around 45 mins, our wait was gone and our ship moved in. the escalator was huge and the water that was needed to raise the ship to a high height quickly filled the area that we were in, this amazed us as we thought the reason why the proceedings was so slow was due to the slow pumping of the water. Our ship was raised quickly and we soon left the Ba Dong Dam which was downstream of the 3 Gorges Dam.

We did our journals while waiting for the ship to arrive there and we fell asleep before we arrived there, and it would seem that the ship arrived at those might doors of the “escalator of the 3 Gorges Dam” and we only left there at around 6 in the morning.