25th February 2011 – At Sea

25th February 2011 – At Sea

We've done so little today that I thought I'd add a couple of comments from yesterday. Our guide who was born in Taiwan introduced himself as Abraham, explaining that it was easier for Westerners to pronounce than his Chinese name. He also told us of his visit to Hong Kong where he didn't understand a word they were saying and had had to spend his time speaking English. Taiwan's official language is Mandarin and in Hong Kong Cantonese, different enough for him to struggle. Cost of shore excursions reared its ugly head again at dinner. Our American couple had done a ship excursion, virtually the same as ours; the only difference being that they did not go into the big shopping mall but instead went to the Grand Hotel for lunch which was included in the price and the cost was $149 per person, our private tour which, as I said went to the shopping mall and where we bought our own lunch, cost approximately $50-$60 per person and the remaining 2 couples on the table had hired a taxi, no guide, saw 4 places (we saw 6) and paid $28 per person!

The clock went forward 1 hour last night and like most people who had been out on trips we turned in early.

I was going to do some laundry today, but quite simply I couldn't be bothered! The weather has now turned cold enough to force everyone inside, creating a problem to find somewhere to sit. An added problem(!) is that being an American ship the air-conditioning in some areas is absolutely glacial. Why do Americans like their air-conditioning set so cold. Maybe they think it will help us to get used to the cold in China where tonight's news tells us it is snowing in Beijing.

One of the dining rooms had what was called a Traditional English Pub Lunch, as part of the menu there was fish, chips and mushy peas. The fish was cod and the chips were quite acceptable but the mushy peas bore little resemblance to the mushy peas we know. The tartare sauce was thin and watery but there was tomato ketchup and malt vinegar. Not quite the fish and chips we know.

Tomorrow we visit Nagasaki and Stephan and I have just watched a talk about how to get about, which seems simple enough; however what has had us in stitches was the first 5 minutes when the lecturer explained, with a perfectly straight face, the use of Japanese toilets! She likes to take photos of signs and how she didn't fall about laughing at visual descriptions of how to use squat toilets or for Japanese people how to use western toilets, ie. face the right way, don't stand on the actual seat, I don't know. We hope to see these signs ourselves and if we do we will publish a selection once we get home.

BREAKING NEWS: A man and a woman, together with their respective spouses were thrown off the ship in Taiwan yesterday for fighting in the launderette! Apparently the woman removed the man's washing from the machine so she could use it, he then returned to the launderette, words were exchanged which continued into the corridor when blows are said to have been exchanged. Might be trawling through youtube on our return to see if any cameras picked it up!