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Post date: 24-Nov-2009 12:59:51
Colin and I decided that for $500.00 for both of us Canadian we would take a 48 hour ferry from Shanghai, China to Osaka, Japan. It's cheaper than flying and would be a great experience.
We boarded the Su Zhou Hao ferry at 10:00 AM and paid 5400 RMB total plus 30 RMB each as departure Tax. We also had our temperatures read before we were permitted to get on the boat.
It was mostly people from China on our boat and a few backpackers from Belgium, England and France. We stayed in Spa6 in Twin beds 1 and 2. We had a private room, shower and bathroom on the 4th Deck which was the highest level on the boat. The other rooms included bunk beds or a huge room where up to 48 people slept on mats. The bathroom and showers were shared for these rooms.
We spent the first hour exploring the boat. We took pictues in the rain from the outside deck, we looked into playing the Wii for 30 Yen for 30 minutes, ping pong, enjoying some time in the movie lounge or the reading lounge at the bow of the boat. You can smoke anywhere you want on the boat.
Announcements are made all day stating when the restaurant is open for a meal or the store is open. Before we got to sleep the following announcement was made in Japanese, Chinese and then English: "The information desk will be closing for the evening. According to regulations we would like to remind you not allowed to smoke while lying on bed. You're welcome. Thank you. Goodnight."
For the first two hours of of our journey, we sat and watched the scenery of factories on the shores of China and the cargo boats carrying coal on the Huang pu river and the Yaghnese River. The river looks like a double double. The creamy white waves are the milk and the wind blowing the mists of water is a packet of sugar being sprinkled into a coffee. Unfortunately, due to the horrible wind and rainy storm, the double double was stirred in both directions and then thrown in the air repeatedly with our boat acting as the cup.
Colin and I were trying to watch an episode of By Any Means by Charley Boorman, but it didn't help that he was on a military boat sailing to the Philippines. Charley did not provide the distraction that we were hoping for and by 3:30 PM Colin and I both saw our lunch again. Dinner was announced and we did not leave our room. We lied in our beds. Getting up to puke was the worst. I could barely sit up in time and Colin somehow managed to stumble to the bathroom each time. Everything in our small room felt miles away and it was impossible to get up and pee without being sick. We had made it almost two hours without being sick but then an extremelty retchedly dramatic puker started up in room 5 next to us. Just the sound of it made Colin and I get sick again. By this time, we had lost track of how many times we had been sick and there was not even any bile or acid left in our stomachs.
The door to the deck was at the end of our hallway and I had thoughts of hurling myself from the boat and swimming to shore. I was also praying that we didn't capsize because it felt like the entire boat had left the water at times. Colin was preparing for a capsize and planning how to get us both off the boat safely in his head.
We couldn't listen to music, we couldn't move, we just picked a spot to stare at on the ceiling. Each time I fell asleep I woke with a start as my heart lept from my chest as we hit antoher swell. I had to continually focus on my yoga breathing to keep from panicking. All night it felt like we were on a swing, the Drop of Doom and a merry go round at the same time. We had to hang onto the wall and our headboards to keep from being thrown to the floor.
We heard breafast announced at 7 AM, lunch at noon and then dinner at 5:30 PM and we had still not left our beds or our rooms. We were running dangerously low on water and I would have paid any amount of money for a Sprite. The waves had lessened a bit and the pain in my stomach turned from nausea to ravenous. I put my pants on and tucked a blue seasickness bag into my pocket. I stumbled out of our room and down the stairs focusing on my hunger and thirst. There were less than 10 people in the dining room. I grabbed two waters, two Sprites and a plate of whatever they were serving for 770 RMB which is about 8 Cdn. I somehow made it back into our room and set the tray on the table. We both managed to eat a few bites of rice and a few bites of cabbage. We couldn't touch the meat though. After a full can of Sprite, we were feeling almost human and fell in and out of sleep for another restless night. All night I felt like a balloon that two kids were keeping in the air by hitting it back and forth. I floated around in my bed with each swelling wave.
We managed to eat lunch and dinner the next day. However, we were supposed to arrive at 9:00 AM on the 12th but did not arrive until 7:00 AM on the 13th due to having to change course because of the horrible storms. We received a free lunch, dinner and breakfast to compensate and we were actually able to eat all these meals too. After our horrific journey, we have concluded that some people are born to be sailors and we are not sailors.
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