Three Gorges Dam (Day 3574 - 9/7/19)

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The ship hasn't left yet, so they are still where they were yesterday. After Mallory's bag arrived last night, they assumed that Stephen's bag would arrive shortly after. Stephen's bag had their contact solution which they needed so that they could take their contacts out. They waited 35-40 minutes for Stephen's bag to arrive, but it never did. Stephen thought it was weird that it hadn't arrive yet, so he decided to walk to the other floors to look for his luggage. A few decks down he found his bag in front Room 227. The luggage had his tag on it and a tag that was labeled "Room 227" which is no where near their room which is Room 412.

Stephen says that they are really exhausted, so they planned on sleeping in and skipping breakfast which is from 7:00 AM - 8:00 AM. They didn't go to bed until 1:00 AM - 2:00 AM yesterday, so this was a good chance for them to get some sleep. But, they do cabin announcements every 30 minutes and there are speakers in the room. The speakers were blaring announcements, so they could only sleep in 30 minute increments since the announcements kept waking them up. They are planning to go get lunch now and they have an excursion at 2:00 PM.

Stephen says that they are already signed up for half of the excursions, but there is another half that you can sign up for while on the boat. He is looking forward to do some relaxing, so he probably won't sign up for the extra excursions. It is also because they are on a boat and Stephen tends to get easily sea sick. Mal gave him a sea sickness patch to put behind his ear. At first, he thought that it looked like some hippie voodoo stuff, but Mal assured him that it's actual medicine. He hopes the patch helps his sea sickness since he is still feels sea sick even though they are docked. Then, they go downstairs to the Victoria Lounge to have lunch. Stephen mentions that breakfast, lunch, and dinner are provided for them while they're on the boat. Afterwards, the go out on the deck. It is beautiful outside, but it's really humid. It's not even as hot as it is back in Myrtle Beach, but Stephen and Mal have been suffering from the heat caused by the humidity.

They go to the Three Gorges Dam which is a hydroelectric dam that produces the most hydroelectric power in the world. When they were constructing it, millions of people had to be displaced. The government decided to step in and build a lot of new cities in order to move all those people. The construction of the cities took 7 years to be completed. The dam was then built in 1993 and was finished 22 years later in 2015. Stephen talks about how they learned that China had historically relied on coal which had made up 70% of their power source. They're trying to get away from that, so this is the first of 18 more dams that will be created on the Yangtze River.

They returned back to the ship and Stephen talks about how the cruise portion of this trip will be more relaxing. They are only signed up for a few excursions, so they will have more time to take it easy. Stephen mentions that they have an excursion tomorrow morning and then they will be relaxing in the boat afterwards.