Boashan, China

To explore Boashan or Shanghai, China?

Those were our initial choices, Boasan being the port where we were to start the Trans Pacific leg of this cruise. Our trip will take us on to JeJu Island, (South Korea), Kobe, Yokohama and Tokyo (Japan), Petropavlovsk (Russia) and end in Seward (Alaska). The ship’s port lecturer is Sally Hammond, a travel and food writer.

... island of 7th new natural wonder of the world in the distance ...

Her first lecture topped up all of the not-to-be-missed places that I didn’t see the first time I was at JeJu Island.

After her lecture, I want to go back there, spend a week, and really see the new 7th new natural Wonder of the World (its mid-island dormant volcanic crater) and walk its 264 miles of paths that rim the island, a popular holiday destination for Koreans, for the Chinese as well, and now for cruise ships.

... I am taking my pictures from the vessel's back balcony
... the water is choppy 7 floors down ....

My busy morning at her lecture, then a Water Colours 101 class and a Travel Photography lecture had not included breakfast.

By 1:30 p.m. and before our tour of the island was to begin at 2:30 pm, I was ready for food.

I was walking back to our cabin with broiled buttery fish and all of the greens and vegetables I could heap on my plate, smothered in a raspberry dressing. I was surprised that I couldn’t keep the plate horizontal and wondered if I were longing for the crossing in the Bay of Biscay, thinking, why am I tilted at a 45 degree angle going down this hall. Is my balance that much off?

... this boat is taking a sick passenger to shore ...
... the possibility of such a ride would make me get better ...
... water was sloshing over the deck of the tug ...

On reaching the room, I didn’t have a chance to tell Wyona about my failing physical powers. When I walked into the room, she burst out with, “This is the worst room we have ever had. We were too tired to notice last night, but today the sliding door between our rooms is running back and forth along its traces, the bells on the walls are ringing and the beds are creaking and moaning.”

... the closest we got to JeJu the second time ...

Greg walked into the room just as the captain came on the loud speaker. “I just made two tries at entering the port. The seas are rough, winds are 40 knots an hour, the harbour opening is narrow, and there is not much room to turn around. I am going to make one more try and if I am not successful, we will continue on to our next destination. Thank you for your understanding.”

“So that is why the people in the Tai chi class were all in unison, leaning to the left and then to the right while I was watching them just now. I wondered how they did that.” Greg has been sick – alternating between his desire to lay on the bed under warm covers and his need to walk unexplored halls of the ship. I know he is sick. He has not been eating. He is even off cookies.

When we were on the North East Asia part of this sailing, we had a two-pronged choice. Back-to-back cruisers could stay in the Cosmos Lounge for three hours (500 of them packed in there) while the paperwork for the new cruise was completed. Then we would leave the boat en masse and return, out one doorway and then back through another. The second choice was so take an excursion, go off of the boat in Shanghai, which was the choice we made.

At the top of my totally cool adventures so far is “on our own” in Beijing. The timing of that most excellent adventure left us a third day at the end of 2 days away, which was my back-up in case we got lost on our way back to the vessel. I don’t want to miss a sailing. The departure time in Shanghai didn’t leave us that flexibility. We got off of the boat at 8 am. The ship sailed at 4:30 p.m. We took an organized tour from the Millennium, one that took us to the Pearl of the Orient Tower, to the Hyatt Hotel (the tallest building in the world) and to the People’s Park. As a side note our guide pointed out facts of interest as we travelled an hour into the city. He talked about China’s one-family policy which has resulted in their population being 1.3 billion, rather than 1.7 billion. If you marry a Shanghai girl you can have two children he said, since the population of that city is decreasing. He was pleased to have married a Shanghai girl.

And, when we were passing the pigeon houses, he pointed them out, comparing them to the four storied government housing of the 1960’s and then to the new buildings that soar many floors, telling us that the people who live in the pigeon houses use one public toilet which services 300 to 400 families in each area. The pigeon houses, so called because their floor space is 100 square metres may have 8 to 10 people living in them. Wash day, since half of the balconies had clothes hanging from poles. The smog has lessened today he said, because of the wind is blowing it to other provinces. Ten years ago, they used to tell us it was fog. Now we know better.

That steely grey sky is an image that is hard to get off of my mind. I captured that sky in many of my pictures.

Our move from one room to another on the ship was welcomed. In the first room we lived as though we were a collective rubix cube – when one body moved along the isle at the foot of the bed, two others of us also had to exchange places: move to the side of the bed, or tuck ourselves between the bathroom door and the closet doors.  Tight quarters made us good friends -- able to tread on one another's toes, metaphorically speaking.

When we came back on board our first priority was to check out the new room, having been assured by the old attendant that we would be more comfortable in there. It is true – two rooms, one sleeps two, the other three. A sliding glass door separates them, and a balcony that is 240 square feet is outside, just slightly smaller than the spare footage of the cabin. After one day of the extra-ordinary happiness in the new room, being able to spill out into more space, Wyona was down to the Captain’s Club, booking this room for next year’s 2014 voyage. This is not possible, she was told. The room is meant to sleep five, if you book it now, you pay for five, even if you cancel two of the people.

“Do you mind me asking, how you got this room,” the cruise booking agent asked.

“I booked on line,”Wyona answered.

He nodded. “That is the only way you could have booked this room. Someone has cancelled the booking just as the 75-day booking cancellation period is about to an end.”

So we are three, where five should be. I hardly dare leave the room. Security will have to pry my hands off of the balcony to make me leave. This unit is called a family veranda. Below us is a sunset veranda – food is delivered to those passengers three times a day – not their meals, their in-between-meal snacks.

I love travelling with my collective cohort – people ages 50 and up. When they pick up a piece of paper, they hold their arms as far away from their body as they can, so that they can read the print. When you talk to them their hands go to their ears to adjust their hearing aids. They like the podium speakers who use the most volume on their microphones, who speak slowly and who articulate clearly. I notice a large number of my peers hold back on the dressings on their salads and they decline desserts. I know I do not belong with this last group.

I did have to make a long trip from my room to Guest Relations yesterday. My card didn’t work to key me into the room. I lost confidence that I had the right room number and even the hallway was no longer recognizable to me.

“I still know my name, but I am not sure of my room number,” I said to the clerk.

“Tell me your name.”

I checked on my card to see if I could get my name right -- if I even knew who I was.

“You are in 7204,” he said.

“Could you write that on the back of my card, so that I can remember the number until I get there,” I said.

He took out his red pen. “You realize that if you lose your card, someone else will be able to get into your room.”

“That will be fine. At least one of us will know our way home then.  Right now I don't know where I live.”

Speaking of being lost, the people in the suite next to us didn’t even make it to the ship at all. The attendant said that our next door neighbours had missed the sailing, but had phoned to say that they would board the ship in JeJu. I thought of them when the captain announced that the boat would be unable to docking there.  Later I found out that 22 people were onshore, waiting to get on at this port.  They had to catch up with us 3 days later.  The boat gives no assurances that they will be in every port that the itinerary suggest we will go to.  The only sure port is the first one.  An expensive lesson for those who just didn't want to go to the trouble to get a visa for China and begin the cruise there.

A tug did come out of the harbour to pick up on onboard medical emergency. People watching the handover of the stretcher to the tug saw water sloshing over its deck from the high seas. We paused, stopped really, later again for another tug – this time one to take the immigration officials back home, their paper work now in vain.

As the evening fell one of the diners at our table saw through the port holes, ship passing ours, their lights bright. Then another. In the evening we walked out to the balcony with our binoculars to see those ships – small boats with huge banks of lights shining toward us – more of the spy vessels. I counted 28 of them on the horizon. Wyona looked around the corner to the left where we can see the starboard side of the ship. “Another group of just as many boats. We are surrounded.”

Yes. These are contested waters. Each country watching the other.

Arta