Out in the Yellow Sea

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Greetings from the Yellow Sea! Right now we’re on our way to Beijing, to finish the second leg of the tour, after being in South Korea, Japan and Russia the last little while. I’ve been very luck with these past four stops as I was able to get off in all four ports and as such this blog is a little bigger than the last few. Also, in an effort to try and get as much out of my internet card I’m writing the blog (and e-mails) in my cabin while I’m off line, so I tend to ramble a bit more then when I’m having to worry about my card running out; as well, since I’ve written this entry as we’ve gone down the coast since I might have written something a couple hours after leaving or a couple days later. Also, I hope to get some pictures up today, but we’ll see if the travelblog site wants to cooperate, since I can’t do that until I get online.

So, like I said I was one of the lucky few crew members who were able to get off in Russia. The Russian immigration officials took forever to process the passports of passengers and crew which put a huge backlog into the day. However, because I was going on a tour, I got to get off with those passengers. By the time we got back from our tour it was supposed to be the end of the day in Russia for everyone. However, the captain had extended passenger shore leave by two hours because there were still people who hadn’t gotten off the boat yet. Needless to say, by this time crew weren’t allowed off anymore, so as I said, I got very lucky. In the end, we were supposed to leave the harbour at 5pm, but didn’t leave until nearly 10pm. Apparently this is just a warm up - Japan, Korea and China could be similar but Vietnam, Singapore and Cambodia are going to be even worse.

So, my tour - I had the chance to go to a sled dog camp and see how the dogs were trained in the summer months. Before we got there though we were loaded into a bus that very much would fit the visual picture of what one might think a bus in Russia would be - cramped, a little smelly and very bumpy. However, the bus took us through the town on the way to the camp and that was a great experience. We got to drive past the local ‘stadium’ (little more than a dirt patch with another section with some grass for soccer and some cement seating), past a mounted tank on the side of the street (which at one time did work while mounted until some kids got it in and started driving it), the local housing (all 3-4 story warn down apartment buildings heated by warm water pipes running through each suite), a golden temple and other buildings in the city. Because of it’s location, Petropavlosk is very prone to earthquakes (hence no gas lines and the pipe heating) and one of the three volcanos that can be seen from the city is still active. As well, due to the mountain range that forms the volcanoes it cannot be reached by road from the rest of Russia and is reached only by air and sea (no railroad either). In fact most of the cars are supplied by Japan and Korea. The entire Kamchatka peninsula region is actually only coming out of the Cold War era. The peninsula was used as the headquarters for the Pacific Russian fleet and was closed off to everyone but military personal for the longest time. Only now has the government been starting to close the military bases there.

Once we actually got to the camp, it was a little disappointing actually. First off, it very much felt like I was back home. The camp was an open field on the edge of a bit of a forest with a couple less then sturdy buildings. Most of the vegetation was just like home. Then besides the like 10 people speaking Russian there (the 4 tour guides, dog trainers and the cooks) everyone else was speaking English (passengers). Then the dogs themselves: each of them was attached to about a 4 foot chain and had a small food and water dish and a house. You could tell the out reaches of each chain because the dogs had obviously walked many circles and had beaten down the grass there. Fortunately, all the dogs were under the trees so they had shade for most of the day. The tour itself began with some free time to walk around the area and then a lunch which was beet root soup (and yes, I did eat it and it wasn’t that bad), bbq salmon, pancakes and the smoothest shot of vodka I have ever had. It was very potent too; I could tell as soon as it was down my throat. The Brit videographer on the tour and I figured the cooks had been downing the stuff like water the whole time we were there. After lunch we were taken on a small walk on the outskirts of the field to pick berries and mushrooms (some of which weren’t poisonous) and then back to watch a quick demonstration of how the dogs are trained in the summer - they have a sled with wheels. Anyways, one of the trainers harnessed in 6 dogs and then took off. However, while he was harnessing in the dogs, I was taking a video of the process with my camera when I got stung by one of the many bees in the area. The video is actually kind of funny - nice and still on the dogs then shaking all over the place as I’m doing a dance trying to shake off the pain while not swearing in front of all the passengers. After the guy returned, we were herded back on to the bus and headed back to the ship.

When we arrived in Osaka, it was my turn in the rotation to have to stay on the ship for the day, however, because we left later then initially planned, I had a chance to get off for a couple hours in the evening and explore. First thing I did was get on the massive ferris wheel that was right next to the ship. It was an amazing view of the town and some of the islands and bridges in the area, especially at evening with all the buildings lit up. (the wheel is either 102.5 meters in diameter or 102.5 meters from the ground at the highest point - I couldn’t quite figure it out). Afterwards I walked around the little shopping center and then out the courtyard in front of the aquarium where there was the end of some sort of dance with drums going on. I was going to head back to the ship after that but I ran into some of the other youth staff who had just gotten back from their tour. So we walked around the streets a little; unfortunately there wasn’t much going on, on the streets around the pier and we didn’t have enough time to hop on the train into town so we just went back to the ship.

A couple days later we were in Nagasaki and I had most of the day off so I was able to explore the town with a couple other youth staffers and most of the musicians. The day got off to a rocky start as the exchange place on the pier had ran out of yen by the time we had gotten there, so all some of us had was useless American money and since it was Sunday, no banks were open and we couldn’t understand the ATM machines. Fortunately there was enough Yen amongst the group that we were able to get on the trolley and make our way up to the Nagasaki Peace Park and Ground Zero for where the atomic bomb had gone off. Both parks were absolutely phenomenal. After we got off the trolley we walked up to the peace park where we were greeted by a fountain in front of different statutes from a variety of countries around the world sent to commemorate the bombing. At the end of the walk way which these statues bordered there was a massive statue complimented with little a-frame buildings in which people could hang chains of paper cranes (the Cruise staff on board had the passengers make 1000 cranes which were placed there during a ceremony earlier in the day). Afterwards we walked a few minutes over to Ground Zero, where it was very ominous to be. In the middle of the park there was a monolith surrounded by cement circles marking where the bomb had gone off. As well there was a section of a wall of a church that had stayed standing through the explosion and a cross section of earth where you could see debris and other material that had been covered by earth in the explosion.

Once we were done at the parks we headed back towards the ship and found a restaurant to stop at and celebrate the birthday of one of the musicians. The restaurant we stopped at was in Chinatown. I would have preferred to go to some place a little more authentic to Japan, but it wasn’t my birthday. Plus, the idea of 2 Canadians, 2 Americans, a Brit, a German, a Mexican and a Brazilian going to Chinatown while in Japan was a little too much to pass up. Also, I found out that although the banks were all closed, we were able to change our money at some of the hotels. The exchange rate wasn’t great but we could still do it - I have a feeling that knowing this might help me down the road someday.

The next day we were in Pusan, South Korea, and I found myself as an escort on one of the tours. The only problem with that was we arrived early in South Korea and while we sailed from Nagasaki to Pusan we continued the birthday party for the musician, so I was on the tour with only three hours of sleep under my belt. It’s a good thing I did wake up though as the tour took us to three places in town, the first of which was a beautiful outdoor temple that was built on a hill that overlooked the ocean. The only problem I had with the temple was that in the pathway leading directly to it there were some vendors set up and it looked like there were some more vendor set up inside the main square of the temple as well. I also found it a little odd that while there were some people praying at different places though out the temple, we were all just walking around taking pictures. After the temple we headed off to some unknown place. When we pulled up we saw that there were the other tour busses there, but the guide didn’t say where we were, just when to be back. Fortunately, there were some signs around that weren’t entirely in Korean and we were at the APEC house, which was build in a park like area at the end of a small peninsula. As well, there was a running track (like actual turf track) that wound it’s way through the park and at the top of the hill there while what looked like a bit of a shrine (there was no English writing whatsoever though) and off to the side where the track when though there was some workout equipment for a Participaction type of park. Once we were back on the bus, we drove over a 4.5 mile long bridge before heading for the big shopping centre of the town. It was like a mall, except it was it was like it had no roof. All the shops were down alleyways and the alleys had little kiosks and the first floor of the buildings were all normal shops. It was just like a mall, but it was outside. Which would have been cool, but it’s very humid here (and in Japan) so everyone was just sweating buckets and waving little fans in front of them, including the locals.

Unfortunately I won’t be able to get off in Beijing or Shanghai due to Chinese immigration (most of the crew is stuck on board), but I will be able to get off in Hong Kong a week from now. After we leave China, we’ll head for Vietnam (two stops), Cambodia, Singapore and Darwin, Australia before finishing the third and final leg of the Pacific Cruise in Sydney on the 27th.

Alright...no pictures again today..one day soon though. Until then, take care

Zach

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