guam to china


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Asia » China » Shanghai
February 22nd 2008
Published: March 7th 2008
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Guam:
Guam was everything that we had hoped for (for the returning crew), pure western culture and heat that didnt kill us! As soon as we arrived we imidiatly splintered off into seperate groups, not seeing some people for the rest of the week. five of my friends and I decided to rent a car for the week (it was imposible to get anywhere without hoping for a hitch or paying way to muchfor a taxi) and went off to find the first recognizible resturant and stores that we could find (subway and kmart... boring I know! but our exsitment was bizzarly uncontainable). For most of the trip we tried to fit in all the things that we were missing from home (starbucks, dancing, new ppl, swimming pools, movies, ect) we almost had are car towed one night but managed to talk our way out of it...
My fav moment/day was when the five of us drove up to 'Tarzan falls' and walked through this silppery muddy clay path (we had a few mishaps and have the red brown stains to prove it) to this clear rocky stream wich droped down in a beautiful waterfall! we somehow managed to climb halfway down the side of the fall and frolic in the cool water!

The Passage:
This was the longest period of time that we have ever spent at sea for,but it was one of the most pleasent passages that I've experienced yet! We raised the sails almost imideatly and didn't have to turn on the moter for quite a few days! the winds were favarible for mostly the whole eight days.

Japan, Okinawa:
We arrived quite early in the morrning and were eager and excited to get off the boat after being confined to it for so long, but our efforts were thwarted immidiatly by the Okinawin port agents who took away our passport and proceced us for most of the day. we were finaly let off 8hours later and inidiatly found our way into town. But our efforts were in vain, for we could look in at all the beautiful and delishous places but the ATMs would not let us take out any money so we could only drool.
the next day we finally found $ and had a really fun watch dinner (our watch leader was causing mayham by flinging chopstick everywhere, luckly we were in a pirvate room so he didnt embaress us to baddly. still he should know better at 32!). The next day a bunch of us went to the castle nearby (while experiencing the surprisingly clean subway) and explored the gardens and the palace. all very beautiful even though its winter here. Then we splintered off and Rachel and I went to wander the narrow passages of markets and some how found ourselves in the meat market. There were colorfull fish everywhere and pig feet, heads and face skin (!!?) everywhere!
The rest of our days were filled in much the same way, we had been delayed in Okinawa for almost a week longer than we had planed, and many of us were getting antsy to leave! But there was one thing that kept us happy to stay... The Bathhouse!!

The Bathhouse:
Ever since we hit cold weather sailing from guam to Okinawa it has been imposible to clean ourselves without resorting to baby wipes (which I now understand why they were on the packing list!) so we have been visiting the local baths. What there look like is a giant open spa with sitdown showers, several pools of increasing tempature, some with jets that are surprisingly strong, and different saunas. One which has a bowl of salt in the middle, we were confused to what to do with said bowl of salt, then we had one of the old ladies walk in (btw the majorty of ppl in there were above there 60's and it was mandatory to be naked... a little shocking for some!) and started to exfoliate herself with it. aparently the ladies are very friendly here and offered to rub down some of the other girls! other than that a very relaxing way to spend a few hours.

Passage to China:
We finally left Okinawa on valentines day in the later afternoon, just so we had time to celabrate the day, everyone got in the mood and there were chocotates and cards fling everywhere! That was the end of the pleasentness of that passage! the first two days I couldnt eat because it would come right back up a few minutes later, which broke my perfect record on the ship. the next day the galley caught on fire. Aparently the fumes had leaked and everyone was smoked out while jordan and I closed all the bulkhead doors so the fire fumes wouldnt spread. After that the fore boom stay broke and the line was trailing in the water for quite some time. Finally when we thought we were in the clear (we were ancored and set to be meeting the pilot who would take us into Shanghai port) we had anouther fiasco ocure. just as I was coming on watch we were raising the ancore, and not 50meter from the surface the transmision busted open and started spraying transmision fluid everywhere (and on everyone). we had to hurredly clean the deck before it stained to much (we planned to show the boat to lumber agents in Shanghai! whoops)and ppl didnt slip overboard, while having to manualy hoist the 800pound ancore back onto the side. I understand why sailors are classicly portraid as giant burly men... with the amount of effort it took to lift it we had to switch people (groups of 4-5) every thirty pumps. While this was happening we were being draged by the current into the freighters behind us! we eventully secured the ancore and sailed off to our 5am meeting that was 4hours away.

Shanghai:
Eventuly came into China with communist-like efficency, spent the first day exploring town and dipping our toes into the culture. the next day two of the girls and I walked aourd the touristy area (I'm still shocked whenever I see anouther white person) and spent a wonderfull girl day together, apart from the constain harrasment from street vendors tring to get us to go into back ally to buy fake bags, watches and DVDs. Once the first group of people left to go to Bejing the remaining of us spent a great week together as a real close knit comunity doing everything we could in Shanghai together. We took the 'tacky tourist tunnle' to the other side of the river and scaled the tallest building in China (for now). then went to the 'super brand mall' to get some much needed warm weather gear, some of the ppl couldnt handle the shear size of the place, oh well they'll have to get use to that! Then we wandered around the peoples squared (cheaking out activitys for the week to come) and then regrouped at the boat. the next day Sara Ross and I had a girls day, first we went to the silk market to seek out pashminas and dresses, we found one stall that we liked crammed full of brightly colored frabrics with intricate patterns and a very friendly tailor who english was very good. So we got fitted (I felt v. classy getting profesionaly measured) for our traditional dresses. Since we were in old town anyway we decided to wander through the back ally stalls passing by many different sights and smell (moslty great ones coming from movable grills). we stopped brifly in frount of a tea merchant which encouraged the lady to usher us into the open shop and spontainusly put on a tea ceromony for us! then we hopped in a quick cab back to ppls square and spent a good 3 hours exploring the museam which was facinating! we had a quick bite to eat then watched the fireworks for lantern festivle from the bund overlooking the river. We had to go back the next day or so for our second fitting so while we were there we practiced our barganing skills, amanda far surpasses the rest of us, and managed to get a coat and purse for 200yen off the original price. I managed to get some deals myself aswell. then we all splintered off and Joel and I when back into old town, and eventuly found the Yu Yuan gardens. we had borowed one of the guys profesinal cameras so we had a great time snapping away at whatever we found interesting, we ended up taking 150 pic's in a few hours. with good reason, the garden was filled with beautiful stone arcutecture, streams with koi fish, bonsi trees and ceramic art. the next night half a dozen of us got tickes to the Chiness acrobats, there were several impressive acts: swinging, plate spinning, bike act, chair balancing, arial ballay, the ball of death. next night me and the boys had a cultural night and went to see a kung-fu movie. i didnt make any sence to us and was heavely etited by the communist gov. oh and i got hit by a bike while crossing the street to get to the theater!

after that we sailed from China and I will fill you in on that part of my trip on a later date!
Talk again soon, Tiana





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