We cast off a minute after midnight. I heard a strange wet sound and the pier slowly drifted off to the left on the bow cam. So I headed back upstairs with my camera!
After leaving Victoria Harbour a tiny light on the sea changed direction, started heading perpendicular to the ship, its speed assuring a collision midships. As it came closer its own lights and those from our (stupidly bright) ship revealed it to be a sizeable craft, similar in size to an offshore lifeboat and not dissimilar in aesthetic design.
Before hitting us it turned to match our course, drawing alongside and matching our speed at the first attempt, spent a couple of seconds mere inches from the ship then turned away again, an additional passenger nimbly skipping over the raised deck and down into the cabin. Fine seamanship, lovely to watch, and I’d guess it was the harbour pilot being collected, his job here done.
We departed the wrong way. Instead of cutting through the islands, giving a sea side view of the lovely bridges to and from Lantau Island we headed out the wrong way, circling around the East of Hong Kong island before turning SW. Getting up the next morning saw us serene on a flat sea, no land in sight. I slept well but only briefly, another 4-5 hour spell, but caught another dream filled hour before getting up at 7.30. I figured I’d hit the Lido for breakfast early, before the crowds, but so did they. Breakfast was filling, the request for “Scrambled egg please, lots. A little bit more?” fulfilled with a smile.
Returning to my room I found yet more paper. This time it was border control forms for Cambodia and Thailand. Even without leaving the ship I need to fill in three forms (and pay $70) for a Cambodia visa so I’m going to make sure I get my money’s worth and get off the ship too. No visa needed for Hainan Province (in China), Vietnam, Thailand or Singapore; thank you Foreign Office.
Heading to hand in the completed forms I was greeted by a bright, “Hello Sir, how are you?” It was Alex, one of my two room Stewards. He and Asep are cheery chaps, enthusiastically helpful and conscientiously busy. So I made life easier for them, suggested that my bed didn’t need making and that my sheets and towels were perfectly fine for a few days thank you so save themselves some work. Alex acquiesced but only after telling me to contact Guest Services if I did need anything. I’m not too fussed whether they come into the room or not, it just isn’t needed.
I’m already in the hole for $13.50, added to my bill as “Hotel Service Charge”. That’s going to hit me every day for 56 days on this holiday. More insidious is the 15% surcharge on every drink you buy, including ‘specialty’ coffee. I bought a coffee mug from the shop this morning, so that I can fill (and refill) it with Lido coffee instead of using their titchy little cups, and not only did they overcharge me ($18 for a bog standard insulated coffee cup) they added the 15% surcharge on top. I’m going to challenge that at Guest Services, the $2.70 worth far less than the principle here.
It did at least come with a ‘free’ specialty coffee – but since I went for the latte and didn’t find it very tasty they’ve mostly lost any chance they had of further sales on that front.
Even though the sea looked flat that’s probably a misleading illusion caused by the size of the vessel I’m on. The smaller boats (mere toys capable of carrying only 50 people!) probably found it a healthy swell. Even the Westerdam was gently swaying, a barely perceptible motion that didn’t disturb drinks but was picked up by my senses. It made me wonder what a proper storm would feel like.
Incidentally, good news: My new shorts, bought for this journey and stupidly not tried on before leaving, fit me well. Bad news: Too well. I need a belt to stop them falling down. I’m seeing how I get on without one, but can swap the one on my jeans if needed. But shorts and sandals save me on socks. I decided today to test the washing machine, so filled it with everything I’ve worn so far on the journey, squirted in some of the complimentary shower gel and spent three minutes kneading. Except.. the two washloads (four days’ clothing) ended up taking three quarters of an hour, including the rinsing, rigging the washing line and hanging. A key issue is that although the walls of the cabin are indeed metal the walls of the bathroom are not, so limited magnet opportunities exist. Add to that the need for (at least initially) somewhere waterproof to drip (because to wring them dry enough to not drip would require serious risk of clothing damage) and.. I can’t get into the bathroom any more.
That photo doesn’t show the shower, its built-in washing line incapable of supporting the weight of three wet shirts (but holding underwear ok). The sagging line is because although the magnet can take the weight, it slid sideways along the metal on the light fitting. Hmm. Typing this I’m wondering if I could hold it in place by fitting another magnet or two to give it extra lateral strength.
I couldn’t promise that my clothes are clean. The water coming out definitely wasn’t though, so clearly some benefit has been achieved. Given that the ship’s laundry would charge $30 to wash whatever I could fit into a bag about the right size for those 4 days of clothing I’ll let other people worry about me smelling of fragrant shower gel. That said I am anticipating all my underwear getting a $30 treat before the end of the cruise, plus whatever else I can fit in with it.
You can get unlimited laundry. $165 for a short cruise, $235 for this one. Coincidentally $235 isn’t far from how much the clothes I brought with me cost to buy. Then again, I’m not the target market for this cruise. Overheard at breakfast:
“So how many homes do you have?”
“500”
No, he wasn’t kidding. Technically they’re other peoples’ homes, he just owns them.
Sadly doing my laundry meant that I missed out on the kitchen tour. Very bad planning by me, that was about the only event all day that attracted me. Not sure if the texas hold ’em tournaments are spectator friendly, poker can be a fun thing to watch.
In my stateroom the TV is tuned to the ship’s location. Date, time, heading (220.5 degrees), speed (14 knots) and a map display showing our location (South China Sea). I have the map zoomed out a bit so you can see Vietnam and Taiwan. Which makes me wonder.. does this confuse the Chinese nationals on board, whose Government forbids and censors the name ‘Taiwan’ from all their media and internets. I might need to find one and ask.
Dinner last night stayed in me for four hours. The same time after breakfast I have no repeat of the symptoms, so my conclusion is: It’s the water from the tap in my bathroom. I don’t think it caused me actual illness but it tasted heavily flouridated so my body likely responded adversely to that. I have reverted to filling my water bottle from the Lido and only using that for in-room hydration, although now that I have the insulated coffee mug (with lid) I can also bring back coffee. Yay! 🙂
Lunch was indeed a cup of coffee in my room. Well, that and an ice cream cone with a scoop of rum & raisin in it on the aft deck, sat in the sun. To be fair the time it took to eat that was long enough to be in that sun anyway – only 28C but that’s a proper sun that is.
Post lunch I could reflect on something the gym schedule had mentioned: Cruise passengers on average gain 1-2lb in weight during their cruise. Per day. I’d already walked 2km by then, drank no alcohol, mostly skipped lunch and was still tempted by the extensive food options available. It’s very easy to believe that someone could indeed gain a stone and a half over the fortnight. I do not intend to be such a person, as my clothes would no longer fit and I need to wear them for another two months post-cruise. Plus with four cruises that would be six stone gained. I’d need lifting off the final cruise with a dockyard crane.
I popped up to deck 10 at the front. This has lovely forward facing windows which are shit for photography but still let you see where you’re going. We’re heading towards an empty horizon.
It’s also where you can seek guidance on the ports at which we’ll be stopping. I listened in on someone else’s conversation with the expert and got the answer to my own question: There’ll be free shuttle services (or tenders) at most of the ports. Just a couple where the only thing nearby is a 90 minute drive away, like Ho Chi Minh. Rather than walk back to my room (at the other end of the ship) I went straight down to the main stage area to read my book until the lecture I wanted to sit through. In it someone was doing a different presentation which I’d avoided: What to do at the next two ports we visit.
I’d expected this to be a hard sell on the cruise ship tours. It was the opposite: How to get the most from those ports if you’re doing your own thing. Don’t take a taxi there, do make sure you see this, these cafes do decent coffee and free wifi. Damnit, exactly what I need to know. I’ll go to the equivalent presentations for the rest of the cruise.
The lecture I’d gone to see was interesting too. A brief history of post civil war China, covering Mao and the good things he did, the bad things he did and the terrible consequences. The post Mao era was covered in about ten minutes, right up to around 2015. I think the speaker is from Hong Kong but it’s hard to be sure.
On the way back I browsed the shops. Horrifically expensive except, curiously, the Absolut vodka. Two litres for $34, that’s cheaper than I can buy it at home. I was sorely tempted but didn’t buy any, purely because it’s basically 2kg of sugar that would go straight onto my waistline. I retrieved my new coffee mug and refilled it in the Lido, a final drink before dinner. Breakfast still inside me too, a welcome change from yesterday.
More motion from the ship, just before dinner time. Throughout the day it’s been coming and going, like a large aircraft that doesn’t have turbulence, occasional reminders that you’re not on solid rock. Probably for the best in a ship.
Dinner itself was a formal affair, one of the three ‘Gala Night’ events on the ship. In other words, don’t turn up dinner in shorts & t-shirt. In black jeans and a short sleeve shirt my sports jacket elevated me to ‘above average’ on the formality front.
I made sure when booking that I don’t have an assigned time to eat, and that in turn means I get allocated to whichever table is free when I enter the restaurant. Except I was asked if I wanted to share and my shrug treated as a yes, so I was shown to a free seat on a six person table. We ended up with five, a married Russian emigre pair now living in Dallas and two old women, one of whom was discussing the deficiencies of the first class lounge at LAX. Apparently her first cruise was in the 70s and she’d been on this ship when it went through the Panama Canal last year.
Conversation wasn’t great. The Russians (despite migrating in 1993) lacked the English to really participate and one of the old ladies barely spoke the whole time. What little she did say made me wish her friend would shut up, she was far more engaged and engaging.
Sadly the formal affair and company prevented a photograph of dinner. Undercooked lamb chops on beans, so not terribly exciting. It lacks the honesty and simplicity of the Lido without managing to elevate itself beyond that so I’m not terribly impressed. Tomorrow’s menu looks even worse.
My post-dinner movie was interrupted a knock on the door. Acep and Alex, who apparently don’t trust me to make my own bed. Seems the process is that they come into each stateroom twice a day, make the bed, check the towels, leave a chocolate. Clearly my suggestion that they skip mine until Thursday was interpreted as only meaning the morning one. They asked when I was going to do dinner so I disappointed them by admitting I’d already eaten. They asked what time I have dinner each night so I confirmed that I have open dining and no fixed plans. I did take pity and tell them they were welcome to come in but waved at my neat tidy bed and made the point that really there’s nothing for them to do. They looked sad, handed me tomorrow’s schedule and a chocolate and let me finish watching the film. Solo, if you’re wondering. It was ok.
Tomorrow’s schedule is “Go to China!” First shuttle leaves at 8.30am so I want to be up early and I’m way overdue a good night’s sleep so even though it’s not yet 10pm I’m going to crash. Only 4km walked, but since I spent most of the day in my cabin…