View in the morning, on the open deck of the ferry.
Off the ferry to 巫山神女溪. We got to travel around the gorges by boat, to be another step closer to nature.
Nicely decorated boats that were going to bring us around.
The dorky Bossman.
Lifejackets on for The A-Team!
We were allowed to alight the boat for about 20 minutes to hike up one of the foot of the mountains. The rocks there were beautifulliy layered or eroded and it was really serene, safe for the tourism guide with the ear-blasting microphones.
All that riding on that boat made us very, very tired.
After the trip to 巫山神女溪, we headed to 白帝城, an replica of an ancient city, much like the now defunct Tang Dynasty in Singapore.
Didn't get to hear much about the place since the A-Team was so busy taking photos, we lagged behind. Thought we were running late for the final meeting time, so we ran up 400-steps and down another 400, only to realise we were the first group to reach the meeting destination! Pity we didn't get to stay at the top a little longer though, it would've been nice to take a look around.
Returned to the cruise shortly after meeting up with everyone, and we were allowed the rest of the night off. Worked on our project a little more with the A-Team thanks to Bossman's laptop, and then ended up playing Pick-up Sticks.
Learnt something new about my group members today: the things that can make a 23-year-old Bossman and big almost-18-year-old Liangxun giggle and laugh really hysterical is basically just picking sticks up.
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Woke up early today at 0530 to film some footage for The A-Team's project before having breakfast and then leaving the cruise. Felt a little sad to be heading for the dorms so soon, but it was to be expected. All good things must come to an end, as they say.
Was done filming (after falling on my butt in front of the camera, ow) and headed down for another bland and oily breakfast, at the same time returning the keys to the crew.
Next stop: The Three Gorges Dam!
Took a 20-minute bus ride to the Three Gorges Dam, where we had to wait some more for the buses that will take us up to the viewing area.
Instead of walking up the long flight of stairs with our belongings, some of us (me included) decided to take this cable car ride (?) for RMB2.
Some friends from Secondary school I ran into! They were under SoE and in the Zhongnan district branch of WUST. They were visiting the Three Gorges on the same day too, heh.
Yixian, Yuchuan, Sheila and Edward.
The corn apparently tasted funny, and Bossman ended up feeding it to the fish in the pond below:
Apparently HFC doesn't stand for Hubei Fried Chicken, but Happy Fried Chicken. I think the former is more fitting, though.
Another four-hour bus ride from Yichang back to Wuhan after finishing our lunch. We were all asleep at first, but something happened along the way and we ended up....
Playing cards. Why, you ask?
A vehicle delivering cabbage (I assume) overturned and caused a jam along the entire road. Took us 30 minutes to get out of it and then another 10 to reach the nearest rest stop.
Continued on our remaing two hours worth of bus journey after the cabbage incident, where the back of the bus (namely Bossman, Sheila and I) started singing along to random chorus of random songs. How else to end a cruise trip than with a singalong, right?
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Personal Reflection
This cruise and its itinery may have been a little boring, and the Three Gorges Dam probably overhyped, but I still really enjoyed this cruise. Reason being that I actually felt closer to the A-Team during the trip, when we had to keep running around the cruise talking photos and videos together.
The three small games of pick-up stick, no matter how simple and no matter how much I lost (my lowest was only two sticks, sigh), it was a moment of team-bonding that I really liked.
I guess back on land, we would all be committed to school assignments, updating our blogs and separated by different choices in food, but on that cruise, we were, in a way, inevitably put together to spend time with one another.
