This is an excerpt from an email to a friend.
We were in a van with a standard transmission on the way to the ship. It took a while to get to the cruise terminal because the speed limit on the freeway is around 50 mph. NOBODY was speeding but they were looking at their cells. I guess that’s one of the good things about a totalitarian society.
We got into Shanghai 6 hours late at midnight because of crew problem in Los Angeles. They don’t use the jetways at that time of night. It was sprinkling and cold. I had never used my legs on more than two steps. I had visions of me literally busting my ass slipping down the metal stairs off the plane. I was slow but I made it safely down to my scooter. The next adventure was getting onto the the bus to the terminal.
There was no ramp for the scooter. Luckily there was an American on the plane that helped us lift it onto the bus. Everything went smoothly once we were in the terminal. A English-speaking girl walked us through customs and baggage claim. I hope she wasn’t too insulted when I tried to tip her. In my defense it didn’t look like she worked for the government.
The ride was a bit scary since it was late and wet. There was no scenery to mark our progress so after what felt like an hour I started silently questioning the character of our driver. I felt a little better when we got to downtown but not a lot of lights were on. I couldn’t see the hotel until we pulled in.
To be fair, no city looks good in the rain. I could tell Shanghai was Europe-influenced. All those browns and grays look very depressing on a cloudy rainy day. The hotel restaurant had a good view of the street and Lord there were a lot of people out even in the nasty weather. I wasn’t about to try to navigate through them with a cane or the scooter.
We got our first look at the city on the way to the ship terminal. Our van had a standard transmission. If we were in Houston that would have worried me, but the ride was slow and safe thanks to all the other drivers on their cells. I got an old school China feel during the ride. It looked like a city from the 60’s.
I saw a different part of the city going from the cruise terminal to the airport. We had a guide on the bus to sell us on coming back to romantic Shanghai. She obviously works for the propaganda department. She sang a song in Chinese about returning to the city. They need a sunny day for that sort of thing to have any effect.
The scenery reminded me of the last scene in a movie called Bartelby, pods of 20 or 30 story multi-family buildings. Rush hour must be a nightmare on a good day.
Apparently I was using the first electric scooter ever in the Shanghai airport. It must have taken at least 20 minutes and 4 United employees to give me the right tags. I wanted to tell them to call Los Angeles because they got me on the plane to China. That prepared us for the Chinese TSA.
If a person is tall in China and can’t play basketball I guess they put them in the military. It was a bit scary trying to explain about the scooter to guys that have guns and barely speak your language.
There wasn’t a lot to see from the ship in Tianjin. This is being built near the port in Korea.
It reminded me of the second Judge Dredd movie.
This is the last trip story. The ship stopped at a Japanese island called Kageshima before we got to Nagasaki. We were docked across this big plain park where families and school groups were enjoying the day. I was on the 9th deck eating lunch when everybody on the deck started pointing toward the bow. They were pointing at this:
I posted aone minute video of it spewing darker smoke on Facebook. Find my name with the green-suited avatar on March 9.
I had not read any information about this place. Since I wasn’t getting off the boat I felt no need for research. So I see this I expect all the families at the to a classic Godzilla scene, point, yell, and run. I’m also expecting the ship to sound the horn to signal passengers get back to the boat.
Geography jumped to my mind first, 1.Ring of Fire, 2, Japan, 3.Smoking volcano directly in front of the boat. Externally I was calm and quiet. Internally I was yelling “WHY AREN’T YOU MOVING THIS THING AWAY FROM THE EXPLODING MOUNTAIN IN FRONT OF YOU?” Coming from hurricane country I have no pity for people who refuse to get out of the path. They had been told for days the storm was coming. You don’t get that kind of warning with earthquakes or volcanoes.
I went back to the cabin for two reasons, that’s where the lifejackets were and to look up the eruption activity on the internet. Apparently this happens daily. Occasionally it throws out small rocks so kids should wear some sort of headgear. My wife had read the literature so she was amused at me being upset about being that close to an erupting volcano.
