I'm a real man now, I've climbed the Great Wall. Interesting statistic...if you took apart the wall and re-built it 5 metres high and one metre wide it could circle the Earth. I climbed the part from Jinshanling to Simitai. It was beautiful and not crowded at all so I think I got some great pics...although I can't actually view my blog in China because of some censorship laws I think so I will wait until Japan to post more pictures.
Shanghai is a great city, full of life, but so polluted...my lungs feel coated with grime and I'm sure that the life span here must be shorter because of it. The Yangtze River is disgusting as well, we even saw a fetal pig float by with the umbilical cord still attatched... gross. The water is this sick grey brown and when pumping the head or washing the decks down with it, you can see the discolouration as well. I'll be glad to head back to Japan where everything is a lot cleaner. It has been impossible top find shower or laundry facilities here. A lot of people have rented hotel rooms, so I stole a shower from one of the girls' room, so at least now I feel cleaner.
But don't get me wrong, China is great, and it would be fun to come back and travel around for a while and explore some of the south and western parts...maybe in the summer...
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Shanghai to Bejing, thank goodness....
So we finally made it to Shanghai. The passage over was a little longer than expected, and more than one catastrophic event happened, I think there was almost one for every day at sea! The first morning out I noticed that the anchor had loosed itself and was hanging inboard by the lifelines....oops, good thing it was the windward anchor and not the leeward one which would have fell into the water instead of the boat.
Then, the stove broke... so we rigged it up with a fire-bucket over the stove pipe so it would stop blowing itself out, although I think that even after that it still isn't cooking quite right and Katie and Gillian are most likely beyond frustrated, but they are putting on a very good face!
Then, forestay broke...I was actually on watch for this too, and it wasnt the forestay exactly, it was the bail (big 1-2in steel ring) that snapped in half. I was standing back in the stern as per usual, and we heard something and notice the main gaff jump, we all immediatly looked up and couldn't find anything wrong, even under scrutiny of the binoculars, but no wonder we couldn't find anything, we were looking at the wrong part of the ship. It was waaay up forward the stay that holds the masts forward that had come down and was now trailing along in the water. Jordan finally noticed about an hour later as he went aloft to untangle a flag halyard on the foremast. That took a bit to fix, and we couldn't go anywhere in the meantime, we had to back off our engines and just heave to while we rigged up some temporary forestays.
Then there was the maze of fish boats and deep seas to navigate through. We were all on watch for a part of this. My top numbers where more than 60 boats visable to me on deck, plus another 20-30 being monitored electronically! Did I mention this was all in the middle of the night! The fish boats where especially scary beacause they didn't really pay attention to anything like right of way or collision regulations, they would just dart out in front of you in all directions trailing nets, to boot.
Then, the hydraulic lines broke, I was actually asleep for this, but Bonice's long will attest to all the mess than this made.
Now, just so you don't all think that I am a lazy but...I was sleeping because I was sick and so exhausted I couldn't function anymore. I left Okinawa with a mild sore throat that went away, but the next day it started developing into more of a chest infection and then a head cold and then standing watch for four hours in the middle of every night eventually just took it all out of me. So it was a good thing that Jordan was able to stand watch for me that night. But don't feel sorry for just me, all the crew had been sick to some degree or another on that passage.
Now I am in Bejing, after leaving Shanghai last night on the overnight train. Today I saw the Forbidden City (beautiful and just as elaborate, and intricately overdone as Verasaille, or at least it kind of reminded me of that) Tiananmen Square, some shopping markets, the night market (where we bought dinner) the Bejing Opera, and tomorrow we are off to the Great Wall. Highlights of the trip were definately the hot shower that I go to have today (first shower since the bath house in Okinawa, and no China has no such thing...)
But really its a lucky thing we got here at all. I hadn't been into Shanghai yet, between trying to rest and ships keep the first day and half in Shanghai, so I let other peopl buy my tickets and arrange hostels... that'll teach me for not taking responsibility for my own travel arrangements. We ended up going the wrong way of the metro, finding the right way (which turned out to be the wrong way, and we should've gone to the first way) because we ended up at the wrong railway station, and had to book it in a taxi to find our train, and then make it with minutes to spare, pheww! sigh of relief.
Lessons learned:
1) always wear shoes to the head (Jose...)
2) always bring your own toilet paper
3) be prepared to detach street vendors from your person if you don't want to buy what they have offered
4)Chinese beer tastes like "Perrier Natural Springs"
5)if you go months in flip flops, your feet will change shape, and your runners won't fit, and then you will get blisters, so bring bandaids....
Then, the stove broke... so we rigged it up with a fire-bucket over the stove pipe so it would stop blowing itself out, although I think that even after that it still isn't cooking quite right and Katie and Gillian are most likely beyond frustrated, but they are putting on a very good face!
Then, forestay broke...I was actually on watch for this too, and it wasnt the forestay exactly, it was the bail (big 1-2in steel ring) that snapped in half. I was standing back in the stern as per usual, and we heard something and notice the main gaff jump, we all immediatly looked up and couldn't find anything wrong, even under scrutiny of the binoculars, but no wonder we couldn't find anything, we were looking at the wrong part of the ship. It was waaay up forward the stay that holds the masts forward that had come down and was now trailing along in the water. Jordan finally noticed about an hour later as he went aloft to untangle a flag halyard on the foremast. That took a bit to fix, and we couldn't go anywhere in the meantime, we had to back off our engines and just heave to while we rigged up some temporary forestays.
Then there was the maze of fish boats and deep seas to navigate through. We were all on watch for a part of this. My top numbers where more than 60 boats visable to me on deck, plus another 20-30 being monitored electronically! Did I mention this was all in the middle of the night! The fish boats where especially scary beacause they didn't really pay attention to anything like right of way or collision regulations, they would just dart out in front of you in all directions trailing nets, to boot.
Then, the hydraulic lines broke, I was actually asleep for this, but Bonice's long will attest to all the mess than this made.
Now, just so you don't all think that I am a lazy but...I was sleeping because I was sick and so exhausted I couldn't function anymore. I left Okinawa with a mild sore throat that went away, but the next day it started developing into more of a chest infection and then a head cold and then standing watch for four hours in the middle of every night eventually just took it all out of me. So it was a good thing that Jordan was able to stand watch for me that night. But don't feel sorry for just me, all the crew had been sick to some degree or another on that passage.
Now I am in Bejing, after leaving Shanghai last night on the overnight train. Today I saw the Forbidden City (beautiful and just as elaborate, and intricately overdone as Verasaille, or at least it kind of reminded me of that) Tiananmen Square, some shopping markets, the night market (where we bought dinner) the Bejing Opera, and tomorrow we are off to the Great Wall. Highlights of the trip were definately the hot shower that I go to have today (first shower since the bath house in Okinawa, and no China has no such thing...)
But really its a lucky thing we got here at all. I hadn't been into Shanghai yet, between trying to rest and ships keep the first day and half in Shanghai, so I let other peopl buy my tickets and arrange hostels... that'll teach me for not taking responsibility for my own travel arrangements. We ended up going the wrong way of the metro, finding the right way (which turned out to be the wrong way, and we should've gone to the first way) because we ended up at the wrong railway station, and had to book it in a taxi to find our train, and then make it with minutes to spare, pheww! sigh of relief.
Lessons learned:
1) always wear shoes to the head (Jose...)
2) always bring your own toilet paper
3) be prepared to detach street vendors from your person if you don't want to buy what they have offered
4)Chinese beer tastes like "Perrier Natural Springs"
5)if you go months in flip flops, your feet will change shape, and your runners won't fit, and then you will get blisters, so bring bandaids....
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Waves at the Fifth Level
Well as you can gather I am still in Okinawa...we have been waiting for the weather for what seems like forever, but it has also worked in our favour as well with a myriad of things that have come up. I have spent more time at the hospital than I ever wanted to, but everyones got the drugs they need, and the sore throats and weird tropical skin things that offshore is so famous for are all well on their way to healing.
The forecast lately has been for 4-6 metre seas (12-20 feet) abd 30-40 knots of wind...we do NOT want to be out in a gale like that, but things are starting to calm down now, so hopefully its off to sea tomorrow.
I have enjoyed Japan thoroughly and am excited to return at the end of this leg, but I am definately looking forward to being back at sea and something new in China. We get to sail up the Yangtzee River into the heart of Shanghai, which will be unbelievable if my imagination comes true.
Some notes on the Japanese:
- they are extremely organized (there are four different kinds garbage cans and even your monorail tickets end up in the trash, Paris could learn from this!)
- everything is very quiet (a downtown busy intersection sounds like a quiet suburban one in Canada, they really know how to make mufflers I guess)
- they are fastidiously clean (and I, a dirty sailor, am cleaner for it as well)
- when it come to presentation they cant be beat ( I dont even mind all the excessive packaging beacuse their disposal system is so good)
- everyone dresses very well (or at least what the magazines say is well...)
- they live longer, and look younger (our engineer lisaon is 70-somthing, and I wouldnt have guess him a day over 45)
The forecast lately has been for 4-6 metre seas (12-20 feet) abd 30-40 knots of wind...we do NOT want to be out in a gale like that, but things are starting to calm down now, so hopefully its off to sea tomorrow.
I have enjoyed Japan thoroughly and am excited to return at the end of this leg, but I am definately looking forward to being back at sea and something new in China. We get to sail up the Yangtzee River into the heart of Shanghai, which will be unbelievable if my imagination comes true.
Some notes on the Japanese:
- they are extremely organized (there are four different kinds garbage cans and even your monorail tickets end up in the trash, Paris could learn from this!)
- everything is very quiet (a downtown busy intersection sounds like a quiet suburban one in Canada, they really know how to make mufflers I guess)
- they are fastidiously clean (and I, a dirty sailor, am cleaner for it as well)
- when it come to presentation they cant be beat ( I dont even mind all the excessive packaging beacuse their disposal system is so good)
- everyone dresses very well (or at least what the magazines say is well...)
- they live longer, and look younger (our engineer lisaon is 70-somthing, and I wouldnt have guess him a day over 45)
Friday, February 01, 2008
Okinawa
Made it to Japan finally and am definately fed up with japanese keyboards already, however the rest of the country is amazing so far, and I have definately had some different cultural experiences already.
The first night I went out to eat we found some really traditional Okinawan style food, which is different from Japanese. It would be comparable to a Japanese/Chinese blend. Some of the more distinct dishes I tried were：rafute - a local dish once served in the Ryukyu court which is pork (complete with fat slab still on top) in a sauce of ginger, brown sugar, soya sauce, and awamori. Awamori is the local firewater 30%-60% and has a Habu snake coiled in the bottom... another dish was mimiga - raw pigs ears sliced very thinly and marinated in vinegar. You mix this one around with the vinegar, ginger and bean sprouts and cruch up; it is served cold.
The next day was shower day...Japanese style. I visited the local bathhouse. It was great, and I think it would be very healthy for north american body image ideals. It is definately one of the best experiences I have had and will do it again. There were all these hot pools with jets (including a bedae style one) and electrodes, along with a cold pool and three different hot rooms, wet heat, dry heat, and a salt scrub/exfoliation sauna. Before you go into any of these though, you must clean yourself thoroughly at one of the little vanity stations along the wall. There is a very small stool) quite slippery once you are soaped up... along with shower head, tap and bucket, water temperature control, soap, etc.
It was lovely and I do not think I have felt this clean since before I left Victoria!!!
The first night I went out to eat we found some really traditional Okinawan style food, which is different from Japanese. It would be comparable to a Japanese/Chinese blend. Some of the more distinct dishes I tried were：rafute - a local dish once served in the Ryukyu court which is pork (complete with fat slab still on top) in a sauce of ginger, brown sugar, soya sauce, and awamori. Awamori is the local firewater 30%-60% and has a Habu snake coiled in the bottom... another dish was mimiga - raw pigs ears sliced very thinly and marinated in vinegar. You mix this one around with the vinegar, ginger and bean sprouts and cruch up; it is served cold.
The next day was shower day...Japanese style. I visited the local bathhouse. It was great, and I think it would be very healthy for north american body image ideals. It is definately one of the best experiences I have had and will do it again. There were all these hot pools with jets (including a bedae style one) and electrodes, along with a cold pool and three different hot rooms, wet heat, dry heat, and a salt scrub/exfoliation sauna. Before you go into any of these though, you must clean yourself thoroughly at one of the little vanity stations along the wall. There is a very small stool) quite slippery once you are soaped up... along with shower head, tap and bucket, water temperature control, soap, etc.
It was lovely and I do not think I have felt this clean since before I left Victoria!!!
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