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Published: March 12th 2011
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The thunder rolled and the waves crashed across the bow of the intrepid MSC Palermo as it valiantly sailed across the pirate infested waters making for the safe haven of Singapore.
There are a whole plethora of ways to make sea travel sound exotic and exciting filled with danger and adventure. Unfortunately if I had to choose one adjective to describe the voyage from Brisbane to Singapore it would be...meh.
Were the seas rough? Not particularly. Was the food boring? Nah, it was okay really. Was the weather nice? Mixed, rainy some days, sunny the next.
However, a lot of this was to be expected. We boarded the ship in Brisbane expecting it to be a dull and monotonous trudge across to Singapore in which the only war waged would be against boredom. We therefore came armed with a backbreaking library of books, a Nintendo DS (8 games in total and one containing 100 classic books) a puzzle book and an Ipod Nano (unfortunately with no battery and no means of charging it).
Our first day started with a guided tour of the boat, which had a small outdoor swimming pool, a sauna, a DVD library (full
of bad quality pirate DVDs) and a recreation room with a PS2 2 controllers and one game - FIFA 2010. There was also a rather dilapidated gym with little in it bar a table tennis table, now defunct due to damage caused by rough seas.
After our brief tour of the ship we eagerly awaited the ships departure for the next stage of our journey. 4 hours later, we were just waiting as the port could not find a pilot to guide us out of Brisbane. It was not until a bit after 3pm that we were finally under way.
We tried to plan for some of our time on the boat, so as not to do all of the exciting activities in the first few days and then be bored for the rest of the trip. We were at sea a few days before we ventured up to the bridge for a quick nose around and a check on how we were progressing. It was a little time after this that we eventually made it into the swimming pool, though this was more due to a period of bad weather otherwise we would have been in the
pool sooner.
Our crew were a largely quiet but friendly bunch, with a mixture of mainly Russian officers (with one German and a couple from Indian and a crew consisting of people largely from the islands around Australia. This oddly meant that the only language most people had in common was a rather broken form of English.
The highlight of the trip was undoubtedly the penultimate night at the BBQ party. A large, if slightly surreal bash, on the deck near the rescue boat. The food was very good, the music was a rather odd clash of Hawaiian music, moving into Russian pop music and Heavy Metal. It was much easier to speak to the crew at the BBQ than the 20 minutes you normally see them in the Officers Mess and it was a it of a shame that the BBQ had not been held earlier into the journey. Steph also got a free bottle of Amarula (a South African cream liqueur made with marula fruit) as none of the crew were actually prepared to buy the drink from the slopchest!
Whilst the BBQ was the highlight of the trip there was the other daily
Books
Books we took on board with us! delight of battling with the menu. Whilst we had a rather capable chef on board (who started to cater a bit more for Steph when someone eventually told him she was veggie) we were still baffled by some of the meals. Stammer Max toast anyone? How about a nice Eintopff or the rather ominous omlet whis stuff. Ultimately, as I said, the meals were very good though our chef did have a penchant for adding raw onion to every meal possible. For example Torrero Toast is toast with a pate and raw onion on the top with a fried egg to finish it off.
Overall the journey was actually very enjoyable and you can soon slip into the rather slow lifestyle as you plod along to your next destination. However, I am quite looking forward to leaving the boat tomorrow and exploring Singapore, even if it does mean having to carry my rucksack again.
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Kate
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Boat
Looks a lovely cabin and pool- the food sounds really intriguing! Did Stephanie ever make breakfast???