Complaints

April 22, 2013

So as not to wake Wyona and Greg with the clicking of my computer keys, I am in the iLounge. I wake two hours before they do. My plan is to come here, where there is 24 hour internet to a satellite and people pay for internet packages. I can type here. I don’t wake Wyona and Greg.

 ... tube doors in Beijing ...

There is drama unfolding before me. Instead of typing, I listen to the level of anxiety people have when they are paying for the internet and it is not working for them. This is not BAM! you are onto the internet as it is at home. The process goes ... data up to the satellite, then data back to the ship ... slow to say the least. Things are worse in the travelers’ hearts when that clock is ticking – even the ones who have complimentary package – free – people go to melt down.

I am getting good practise with my own anxiety control, watching the IT techs. People come in at a level of 7 out of 10 when they are at the door, and once they begin telling their story they are at a 9.5 level in an instant. If there were Kleenex nearby they would start to cry. This is actually better than a movie.

This isn’t the only place where there is anxiety. First of all, Greg taught me long ago this is China. There is the Chinese way and the American way, and that I shouldn’t get the two mixed up. What do you think it was like at the money changers in the ship terminal, when the two girls sitting at the exchange desk ran out of money? No money at the money changers. The paying tourists are outraged. “You are here to serve us ...,” I just about fell over when I heard that sentence. She is going to complain right to the ship’s captain, as though he has control over the Chinese money changers.

student writes address in Chinese so that we can find our way back to the market
and then back to the boat -- no getting lost in English or Chinese

Greg spoke with a contingent of Chinese travel tour agents whom we saw touring the boat. They told him that next year there will be 17 cruises start from this port. Greg said that arranging shuttle buses from the port to Tianjin might be a high priority. “Believe me, we would like nothing better than to do that. It is the Chinese officials who won’t cooperate with us,” the on board crew said.

Our vessel can arrived at 6 a.m. The passengers not allowed to debark until 10:30 .am.

It doesn’t make sense, at least not North American sense.

Arta