Photoblog 6

Hotel near warriors, warriors, Shanghai skyline

Captain's Farewell

Somehow Silversea have transformed the mood of the cruise, which was very low for the first few days because of the appalling weather and the missed ports. At the Captain's Farewell party, he was thanked personally by many guests and applauded several times during his speech because of the way he kept everybody safe and relatively comfortable. The crew received a standing ovation - there is always a lot of cheering for their hard work but this was something special.

Actually, the transformation wasn't 'somehow'. It was at least partly achieved by a letter from the Captain giving everyone a future cruise credit of 20% of whatever they paid for this cruise. Generous considering that weather issues are not Silversea's fault but probably aimed at calming the US lawyers. TSH and Diva have taken advantage of the credit and the early booking deals to book Singapore to Athens for 2020.

Gala lunch on the last day and then TSH and Diva are looking forward to their few hours in Hong Kong.

In which TSH goes it alone in north west China

Somewhere between Pit 3 and the exhibition hall, Diva realised that not only could she not see TSH but that she had not seen him for a while. She looked ahead and behind and to each side but he was not there. The group moved on and he still did not appear. Into the exhibition hall, down the stairs and still nothing. She eventually found the tour guide and suggested that she should go to look for him. She was told in no uncertain terms that she was not to leave the group. The guide did not want to be searching for two lost British pensioners. The Silversea escort went off, as did one of the tour guides, complete with a card with his name on it.

TSH has a well-established habit of racing ahead, or dawdling or shooting off to one side. All in the interests of taking the perfect picture which is not cluttered up with the tour group. Diva long ago stopped following him and took the decision to do what she wanted to do and catch up later. Normally it worked out OK but not this time.

The whole Xian site is a mass of people, mostly in tour groups, mostly Asian people who do not speak English and would be unable to understand or help. And he had no mobile phone and the cards which the guides has handed out with their details were one per couple and Diva had theirs. 

When he eventually appeared with the Silversea escort, he had a broad grin on his face. Relief at being rescued. But Diva was not smiling and his smile enraged her even more. She had let her fertile imagination run riot and was really quite worried, as well as furious at missing the exhibition hall. So there was a major discussion in front of everybody, which shocked the  Chinese guide, who misguidedly tried to calm Diva down, Which just ramped it up.

He completed his disgrace by losing his ship card somewhere on the journey. Fortunately he was allowed back on and was able to enjoy dinner in the suite - salmon salad, spring rolls, club sandwich, cheesecake, champagne. Followed by drinks in a bar with a good view of the impressive Shanghai night-time skyline.

The TSH version (or defence) follows. Pit 3 was quite dark and crowded and yes TSH did wander a little to get the perfect photo. He was aware that the Silversea rep was about ten feet in front to his left and the main group were to his right further back in the Pit. When he turned round they had all gone but to where he did not know. Adopting a sensible survival strategy, TSH stayed where he was, in the belief that he would be missed at some time and a search made for him. After an anxious few minutes the Silversea rep appeared and an obviously relieved TSH broke out into a smile which was not welcomed on his reunion with Diva.

World Wonder

Thousands of terracotta warriors lined up in their original pits is a sight which no-one is fully prepared for. Each one with a different face and some complete with their horses, although the wooden chariots have rotted away. The tour also included a sight of a pit which has not yet been excavated because the warriors are thought to still bear their original colours and the authorities want to be sure they can preserve them properly before uncovering them.

The whole site is huge - the Silver Shadow contingent were provided with golf buggies to make the journey from the car park to the main area. Everything seems far distant from the mound where the emperor is buried and it is thought that the whole area contains parts of his vast mausoleum. The mound has not yet been excavated because it is thought to have many traps for grave robbers and to be contaminated with mercury because the emperor thought it would give him long life. Instead of poisoning him.

The journey was long and hard - 27 hours from ship to ship, including long bus rides and the return flight. Dinner was a box of sandwiches from Starbucks and the guidance was against eating the airline food. The hotel was excellent - ridiculously so for a 7 hour stay. It was vast like everything else in China and the rooms had so many lights that many guests could not work out how to switch everything off and just slept with the lights on. TSH and Diva were in control of the system within 15 minutes. The bathroom with circular bath and separate shower and twin basins was open plan with the bedroom (except for a curtain) but the toilet was nicely tucked away in its own separate room with basin.

There will be a separate blog about TSH's solo adventure.

Cruise ship note: TSH and Diva did not see another cruise ship between Alaska and Tianjin, where they encountered Royal Caribbean's 'Ovation of the Seas'

Photoblog 5 Tianjin

China

The Captain was delighted to announce that Silver Shadow is faster than Kung-Rey, so that it presents no further threat to the cruise. He was less delighted to announce that top speed had to be maintained owing to a medical emergency in the night. Silver Shadow reached the port at lunch time, far earlier than the original scheduled time of early the following morning. The sick guest was immediately taken to hospital.

The early arrival meant that all of the face to face immigration procedures could be conducted in the afternoon. This was helpful as tours to Beijing were departing at 6am the following morning. Silver Shadow provided food and drinks to local staff working in the cruise terminal. Diva and TSH witnessed a butler pushing a trolley loaded with food for immigration staff.

Diva and TSH did not travel into Beijing, as they had previously visited the sites there. Instead they chose to go on a trip to the city of Tianjin.

The port at Tianjin is very extensive and it takes half an hour just to drive out of the port area. Tianjin is a modern growing city with many interesting new buildings as well as a few older ones.

The first stop on the tour was at the later life residence of Pu-Yi, emperor of the Qing Dynasty. The dwellings (one could not call it a palace) were only built in 1921 and were quite modest but interesting. Perhaps time to re-watch 'The Last Emperor'.

The next stop took the travellers to walk along an old street which was populated by food stalls and craft shops. TSH found this very interesting but did not buy anything.

Diva and TSH were next treated to lunch - a traditional Chinese mix of foods, eaten with the aid of chopsticks. This was a challenge to some guests, who had no previous experience of using chopsticks.

The next stop was at the Yangliuqing New Year Painting Museum where the process of drawing, carving wooden blocks and then printing the pictures was explained. It has to be said that this was not the highlight of the tour for Diva and TSH. The brightly-coloured pictures would never be hung on their minimal walls. They did however make a small purchase of gifts for young people.

The last stop was for afternoon tea at the former Mansion of Prince Qing. Diva was surprised to be  served with Earl Grey tea.

After this it was back to the ship where the butler had left out some tea and sandwiches!

That evening Diva and TSH opened the pink champagne provided when they embarked the ship way back in Vancouver. The champagne was used to accompany pizza delivered to the suite. The butler questioned the order for two pizzas, pointing out that they were large. He emphasised his point later when he delivered them. He placed one pizza on the table and another at the other side of the room. 'Here is your extra pizza, sir'. He was no doubt even more surprised when he tidied the tray away later to discover that there was very little pizza left.

On the following day Diva and TSH took the shuttle bus to the local shopping centre. This involved the journey out of the port area again but they were determined not to sit on the ship all day. The walk round the shops and food outlets was interesting as most of them were aimed at providing for local people rather than tourists. Some names like MacDonalds, KFC and Starbucks were familiar, as was toysrus, but these were in the minority. They have soft play areas in China, just like in the UK. It was fascinating to note that young children in China - and in Japan and S Korea - often wear Spiderman hats and have dinosaur stickers on their backpacks.

Many guests were unable to buy anything in China because they had not read widespread travel advice that Chinese establishments take only their own currency and do not accept credit cards. The ATMs are not keen on western cards. TSH and Diva had cash but when making a purchase, Diva was embarrassed when the cashier shook his head and refused to take her offered note. Turned out TSH had issued her partly with Russian currency. Fortunately it was mixed in with some Chinese!! Accountants, eh? 

A member of crew told TSH and Diva all about the crew trip to the Great Wall. Silversea had taken 75 of them for an outing and it was clear that they had really enjoyed themselves. This particular crew member was on his first time at sea, first time seeing the world and he was thrilled by the experience.

Photoblog 4

                              Hiroshima A bomb dome with pic in front of how it was before

Peace Bell

Hiroshima cenotaph looking back towards A dome

Rice crop

Inside a temple - Busan

Sunset over Hiroshima

Busan

Earlier in the cruise, the rumour was that some of the 56 people who left the cruise to escape Trami might be re-boarding in Busan but TSH and Diva saw no sign of this. Would they re-board with Kong-Rey in the vicinity? Would they meet another group who might want to get off because of the new typhoon and the lack of good ports? TSH and Diva are still baffled about why anybody would risk leaving the ship in Japan, which was itself to be affected by the weather. And most guests do not speak the language or read the script and most Japanese do not speak English or accept credit cards. And all the luggage!! How would it all work?

There has been mush development in Busan since TSH and Diva last visited, mostly consisting of clusters of extremely high rise accommodation. There are impressive bridges, well lit at night, all around the extensive harbour area.

The tour went to an unusual and very interesting temple by the sea. It was mostly built into the cliff and involved a lot of steep steps. Several Buddhas and many statues. The second call was to a skywalk - a glass walkway built out from a cliff. Diva the coward passed on that one but TSH donned his overshoes and did the walk.

Clean Japanese toilets with soap and toilet paper have now been left behind.

Racing Kong-Rey

2 super-typhoons in one cruise? At weather briefing number 4, the captain says this is unprecedented. So Silversea have persuaded the Chinese to allow the Silver Shadow to go straight from S Korea to Tianjin. Therefore, there is no need to return to Japan to make the token call after Busan in S Korea. The suggestions from the guests are becoming more feeble but someone made an attempt to persuade the Captain to call at Incheon/Seoul instead of Busan. The latter call was probably cancelled weeks ago. The Captain lost a lot of credibility when he clearly did not know (as most of the guests did) exactly where Incheon is.

Cruise Director Kirk keeps a list of the top ten silly questions asked by guests. He has a whole new set after the weather briefings on this cruise.

The plan is to head out of Busan and cruise very quickly to Tianjin, out-running the approaching super-typhoon Kong-Rey. A rough night was expected but in the event it was not too rocky, although the weather is deteriorating into low cloud and rain. No chance of Tai Chi in the open air.

TSH and Diva have used up all their Stugeron - probably unnecessarily, as they have had no problems - and are now dependent on the ship's tablets from Reception. Food and wine still excellent.

Hiroshima

After the Silver Shadow eventually acquired a pilot for the exit from Nagoya bay, the cruise proceeded towards Hiroshima. The Captain decided to retain that port and drop Jeju to put the ship back on schedule.

The guests are not all pleased - some would have preferred different choices of ports and some wanted to leave the bay without a pilot (even though it is required by law and seemed sensible in relatively narrow waterways with a lot of other vessels also sheltering). One called the need for a pilot a 'restrictive practice'. No secrets about his politics.

The 8:45 tour started late. One pair of guests turned up after a phone call was made to their suite. They muttered that they were expecting the tour to start at 9:15. Other guests tutted and said that was never the start time. Just after the bus left the tour area, the latecomers discovered that they were indeed booked on a 9:15 tour and the bus had to return to drop them off. Their friend who had been saving their seats also belonged an a different tour.

The first part of the journey was a little rough as the sea was still what the Captain calls 'grumpy' in the wake of the typhoon. The final part, into the bay of Hiroshima, was flat calm and everyone was able to enjoy the impressive scenery. The mountains are not as high or dramatic as Norway or Alaska, but they are very attractive. No snow-covered peaks here - too far south.

The Hiroshima Peace Park was beautifully presented but sobering. The tour covered the A dome, the flame of peace, the Peace Bell, the cenotaph and a well-presented museum. The museum told the story of  August 6th 1945 and the subsequent rescue efforts, as well as initiatives to abolish nuclear weapons.

The tour ended with a visit to a garden, which had a central lake and several bridges, as well as attractive greenery. Diva did not walk the whole way round as some of the paths were rough and she was determined to avoid another fall.