Stranded on Samos

To get to Athens from Turkey, you can fly. But who wants to do that when you can see some stunning scenery on the way? Not us, that’s for sure. We set out from Selcuk in Turkey nice and early. The travel agent we had booked our ferry ticket to the Greek island of Samos with had a free shuttle bus to the ferry port at the nearby resort of Kusadasi. We were there in no time. Read the rest of this entry »

The Shanghai Ferry – Day 3

I woke up just before 5. It’s strange how ‘nothing’ can sometimes wake you up. I wonder if that’s some kind of built in self-defense thing. Anyway, the engines were dead and we were rolling gently in the still water. It was muddy brown water now, not the clear fresh blue kind we’d had the day before. I decided to go up on deck and investigate.

Again, I was pretty much the only person up. On deck though, I discovered that we had company: there were tons of ships all around us. Maybe twenty or so, and most of them were far bigger than we were. There were freighters and oil tankers and chemical ships and here and there, fishing boats that looked really tiny in comparison. It was still pretty cold though and I was soon back downstairs reading more of 1421, a book about China.

While we were having breakfast, the ship started moving again. Then we had an announcement that the arrival would be delayed by 90 minutes “because of fog.” Outside it was definitely not clear. It was kind of hazy. This was the infamous smog of China which you’ll see more of in the photos below. Back up on deck, I noticed that the boat was leaving some very big waves behind it. It hadn’t done this before. I realised that we were entering the mouth of the Yangtze River and that the waves were caused by the ferry sailing against the current. This was also the reason for the change in the colour of the water.

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The Shanghai Ferry – Day 2

The Seto Inland Sea is a very calm piece of water. Because it is surrounded by islands, there usually aren’t many waves. That night, when we finally left it and moved north of Kyushu and out into the Yellow Sea, the water became rougher. I was woken up by the boat pitching and rolling in these waves at about 3am. I could not sleep and so decided to go on deck and look around. Apart from a security guard, watching TV, and the crew on the bridge, there didn’t seem to be anyone else awake at all.

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