Day 19 ; 3 Gorges

Woke up at 6AM and had a free breakfast on the ship!

Tickets were issued to us again to visit part of 3 Gorges!

Reached the temple! First, we saw the 4-face buddha! The place was crowded and the tour guide had a hard time looking for all of us!

Shunqing, me, Esh and the wonderful scenery at the back! Look fake due to the misty air. BUT, ITS REAL!!!

After a long walk, we all decided to rest on the steps!

As usual, Group B!

The place was HUGE, with mountain all around us, the river below the bridge and flags placed all along the bridge! Just like those in the movies whereby the king is crossing his palace's pond.

Our lunch and tomato soup!

We were than, being transferred from a big ship to a smaller ship to view the Shen Nong Xi Place. The wind was so strong that it made my hair mess!

One of the attractions was the small river between the mountain. It was being ZOOMED in! so the river stream is actually very small. I think it is a waterfall instead, though.

The super DOPE rock with the GIANT shoe print! Can you spot it?

We were than being transported to an even SMALLER sampan! This was being rowed by around 4 people along the river! The person holding on to the loud speaker was one of the tour guides. He knows how to speak english!

Mist on the mountains!

When we reached a certain point, the riverbed was too rocky that the rowers have to stop rowing! and they started pulling the sampan!

The 2 back rowers! The one in Red is the CAPTAIN! SALUTE!

See the rocky area? So narrow!

While rowing, we placed our hand in the water and the water was freezing cold! Look at the layer of mist above the water! Condensation?

Went back to our HUGE ship to pass the 7 gate at 11pm!

Reflection; First time sleeping on board a ship! Wasn't a bad experience as I was able to sleep although the air-con was not working well. The ship food was not up to standard but was still edible and some dishes we actually quite nice. Just that even though I ate 3 bowl of rice, i'm still hungry ): Going to gain weigh soon! And almost 3 meal straight, we were being served with pork fats! YUMMY!

Oh, I felt very surprised with the wonderful scenery i get to see by my own eyes! The view was breathtaking. Just like those you always see in picture but now they are just RIGHT INFRONT of you! The feeling is simply fantastic! Each of the different mountains come s with a different set of story. Like the one with the Shoe print, Mouse look-alike, goddess statue looking rock and the temple really amazed me.

I realised too that the people who rowed the sampan for us were from the same family! Each family will have around 4 generations. The ladies in their village have to marry off young and if they are not married by the age of 24, people will think that they carry diseases or something. I feel very fortunate to sit on the sanpan because they will be in operation for a few more years only. Their kids left their hometown to work in the city and decided not to take over the family business of rowing boats. How sad!