Advertisement
Published: October 31st 2007
Edit Blog Post
Oriental Pearl Tower Shanghai
As seen from our window on the 19th floor 'What do you think we'll see on the east China sea' I asked Alan, glancing at the shining sky-scrapers and towers of the Bund from our 19th floor mezzanine studio apartment while repacking my bulging back-pack.
'Pirates probably' he answered.
'Mmm, Johnny Depp' I thought.
'It's not the Caribbean', he said, his sixth sense twitching.
We were set to sail from Shanghai on the Su Zhou Hao the next morning, hoping to arrive in Osaka two days later. While it was part of the original overland plan to go to Japan, after trains, boats and more trains, we had briefly investigated getting a plane, but at over 2 grand for the cheapest flights it wasn't a goer.
But Japan - so close now - had to be visited, so with time on our hands, Shanghai Ferries seemed like an idea just crazy enough to work. I crossed my fingers before sleep and wished for calm waters.
The next morning we ran across Shanghai with our back-packs bouncing up and down to the excitement of the locals.
'Yep' Alan said, looking at his map, 'the ferry terminal should be right about....HERE???'
We both looked
Shanghai
Us on the Bund at the demolition site stretching as far as the eye could see, then at each other, and then at the watches, and the map, and each other.
A number of demolition men stood contented with their mornings work, and eventually one of them nudged another and with a sigh, probably denoting the following ('bloody hell, giving directions is not in my job description') he rambled over to assist.
We all stood trying to communicate as the clock ticked, and then one of us said the key trigger word, 'Japan'. His eyes lit up and he raised his arm and pointed.
Suddenly we were running again and arrived all aglow at a tunnel that said 'ferry terminal' on it, not a ship in sight. Down the stairs we ran, and were delighted to see a ramshackle group standing around at the bottom. Within minutes we were herded through customs and onto a bus to the ferry.
Looking into the options, we pitched for our own cabin - it wasn't massively dearer and for four nights accommodation it worked out fine - however we didn't have high expectations so were delighted to be ushered into the swishest cabin
Su Zhou Hao
Our floating home for the next few days! ever.
Ok, so the Su Zhou Hao isn't the QE2, but we loved it. Our cabin had a HUGE porthole and even it's own sofa, tv, bath and amazingly a water boiler (just in case we were feeling nostalgic for train food and fancied buying some more noodles from the noodle-vending machine) which was filled up by the staff whenever it was running low. I spent two days and nights quaffing free green tea and bathing whilst on the water (freaky).
Alan spent most of his time out on deck ship watching - it's a really busy route, and ships of all sizes, states of repair and purpose were to be seen. We even spotted two submarines on the way out of Shanghai harbour, and many misanchored barges/houseboats, which the Captain also spotted. He parped the fog-horn to such a degree that he was joined by the river police, who sped up on a speed boat and awoke many families, dogs and pot-plants from their slumber, making them move so they didn't impeed our progress.
Our captain was free and easy with the fog-horns on Chinese waters, acting as though it was a bicycle or scooter winding
All hands on deck
Ready to rock, ferry style its way through busy hutong streets, but once the first of the 6,000 or so islands that make up Japan were spotted, the parping was silenced.
On deck, we watched the boat make its way through beautiful rocky, greenery-speckled islands, oil-rigs in the distance, venting smoke and vivid orange flames. Alan had great fun with the camera capturing the sunset and moonrise on our last night before we made our way to the restaurant to eat our last Chinese meal before Japan.
We awoke in Osaka and were all lined in numerical order to have our temperature taken - maybe this is to do with bird-flu - which a man with a mask administered by flashing a space-age red light on our forehead. At customs the officers rifled through our bags, dissecting every item while chatting away about our journey, intrigued by the Russian, Mongolian and Chinese visas on our passports. My customs man laughed and joked whilst intermittently asking questions such as 'any head-ache pills? Show them me please now' and suggesting temples in Kyoto which I might like to visit.
Alan was delayed longer (the customs officers in particular fascinated by the solar-charger Maire, Stephen
Onboard Su Zhou Hao
Alan peruses the menu in our cabin - which was nicer than most of the places we'd stayed to date! and David had bought us) and I was sent out through the automatic doors where a helpful hippie tried to recruit me into his cult.
We were the last to leave the terminal, but we'd made it to Japan.
xx
PS: Yay, thanks Dad for technological wizadry involving electrical knowhow! Photos uploaded.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.056s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0332s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Helen & Mick
non-member comment
Oooh
Gorgeous pics!!!! That's it, we're taking CNER and going there!!!!!!!