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Thanks for reading.

Grand Cerf

During the long voyage across the Pacific Ocean I asked the other passenger, Aurelie, to teach me a French song. I have been practicing and I think I have it in a presentable form now. This is a children's song about a deer who saves a rabbit from the hunter. There is an American version of this except with an old lady instead of a deer.

I enjoyed this so much that I asked my hosts in Shanghai to teach me a Chinese children's song. They did but I'm not ready to perform it yet. When I get to Hanoi I will try to learn a Vietnamese children's song.

So. Here is my rendition of Grand Cerf:

Inkstones

At the Guangzhou Museum I learned about inkstones. These are used to grind ink (which is solidified into a stick) and mix it with water. There are four main types of inkstone, one of which is duan which is mined in this part of China. A scholar's desk included the "four treasures," brushes, ink, inkstone, and paper.

Guangzhou, Yuexiu Park

Several people have told me they have trouble viewing this site, and it seems no one can leave comments. Sigh. Sorry about that. I should habe explored other blog possibilities before I left Tacoma. I don't think I can do anything else with just my phone. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.

Yuexiu Park is a large beautiful place with lakes, gardens, sculpture, a bowling green, an amusement park, and lots and lots of noisy birds and insects.

 One trail was called The World of Idioms and Fables. It was lined with sculptures illustrating these. As I am not familiar with Chinese culture I did not understand most of them but it was fun anyway.

 I called this guy the hitchhiking mage.

Ooh. I know this one. The blind men and the elephant.

Nothing to see but jungle but I recorded a short video to capture the bird and insect noise.

Guangzhou

I've been in Guangzhou for about 24 hours and 12 of those were sleeping. But now I have been to two museums, the Guandong Museum of Art and the Guangzhou Museum. The first had some really amazing modern carved jade by a great artist but I guess it was just over my head. I can't think of anything to say about it. I've never seen anything like it before. What I can talk about is the sculpture garden outside. It included some heroic worker stuff but also some very thought-provoking pieces.

At the Guangzhou Museum I saw some beautiful carved jade, porcelain and bronze pieces. There was a whole room devoted to ink stone which I had never heard of before.

Fun but exhausting. Time to get some more sleep.

Shanghai 4

Sunday I visited the Power Station of Art. The building was originally an industrial power station and was made into an art gallery in 2010. My host, Holly, said it is called the Shanghai MOCA, but the building clearly says Power Station of Art.

This leads me to a point that has been building in my brain all week. It is impossible to fully experience a place if you don't speak the language. For example, I'm sure I would have learned a great deal about Chinese music and culture in general if I could have understood the speaker at Saturday's concert.

So even though I'm here in this beautiful city and seeing the sights and hearing the sounds I'm like an animal or a blind and deaf man who only experiences a tiny part of the whole. I felt the same way at this art exhibit.

The artist is Li Shan, of whom i have never heard, but who is very famous. In 1993 he gave up traditional art and started working with DNA and how it can be manipulated. His work includes images of combined life forms, and also actual manipulation. One of the exhibits was a field of corn growing in a vast array of milk crates. Another was the same with rice. The explanations were only in Chinese so I have no clue what the manipulation was.

The work was beautiful and moving. Sometimes repulsive. Part of the exhibit was pages from Li Shan's notebooks. I really wanted to know what he was saying but I'm illiterate.

So much beauty.

Shanghai 3

Today I went to a concert at the Shanghai Concert Hall. It was an ensemble of traditional Chinese instruments. The music they played varied tremendously. The young players performed masterfully. There was some sort of hammered zither, a flute, a drum, a variety of lutes, and an erhu. I couldn't read the program or understand the speaker but I appreciated the expert and emotional playing in a variety of styles. The first and last pieces sounded traditional to me, like what I was expecting to hear. In between were all kinds of other things. Some sounded like pop tunes but they were unfamiliar to me. I did recognize the Clarinet Polka, and Scott Joplin's The Entertainer, both performed by flute and zither.

Shanghai 2

Today I went to a section of the city called Old Town and toured two sites. The first was Temple of the City God. This seems to be a real religious site. You could get incense on the way in and burn it at various shrines. Lots of incense was also burning in the central courtyard.

People knelt and worshipped in front of a variety of statues, large and small. I was intrigued by one statue who had hands coming out of his eyes. And the hands had eyes in them. I would like to know his story.

The second place I went was called Yuyuan Garden. It's a walled-in collection of buildings trees and ponds. The original purpose was to provide a place for quiet contemplation, but there are far too many tourists for that now.

Shanghai

It's my second day in Shanghai. I now sort of know how to ride the subway, but I've only ever gotten on and off at the same two places. Both days someone has approached me wanting to take a selfie with me. I'm a freak.
     I spent about three hours at the Shanghai Museum. It was fantastic. I want to share some of the cool things I saw.

 This is labeled as a guardian of the world. I'm going to need to do some research on why he is stomping on a baby.

Jade carving. So beautiful.

Apparently people made chamber pots like this because they thought it would be fun to wake up and pee in a dog's mouth.

Xiexie Shanghai

Ningbo

Before this year I had never heard of Ningbo, China. I went there because the ship would not allow me to disembark in Shanghai. I was there for about 34 hours. What I learned was that Ningbo is a very large and very old city. It was once called Míngzhōu, and has always been an important capital city in this area. The port is the 3rd largest in the world. 
     My host's friend Robin spent the day acting as my guide and interpreter, which made it possible to see and do much more than I could have on my own.
     Our first stop was lunch. You see Robin here with our fare. It turns out Ningbo's signature dish is niu wa or frog. He took me to what he said is the best niu wa place in town. It is called zai hui shou which means You look back many times, meaning that you will regret it forever if you don't come in here. We got a bowl of frogs, a bowl of fish soup, a plate of steamed bok choy, and a bottle of orange soda. The frogs are served in a spicy broth with all those round red chilies. Delicious. These are not frog legs it's the whole thing, well ok, they cut off the heads and feet. I set one critter up for a close-up. 

They were really tasty.
     After lunch we went to the Ningbo Museum which is a very large beautiful building. There I saw Neolithic artifacts and other amazing things (bronze swords, jade Buddhas, fine porcelain) from Ningbo's long history. 
     Next, Robin drove me out to see a village, very different from the city.
     I could come back and see things I missed on this trip, but this was a good introduction. 

Thank you Ghost Writer. I am now in Shanghai and internet access does not seem to be a problem. I will resume posting.

Ghost writer

Our world traveling, unique friend Bob, has found “developing world” tech communications works as well as Trump’s mouth - crap.  So now you know this Ghost Writer’s personality.

As of couple days ago we can write limited text, no more than 4 lines & no pictures.  He’s going to keep trying to get his blog to work.  And I’m going to blog for him in the meantime.  But, since I’m writting his text I’ll put in quotes his words so you know whose voice your reading.  We don’t know yet if he’ll be able to read your post, but I’ll text them to him so h can respond.

So here we go😯

Customs

When we got to port two U.S. Customs agents came on board and interviewed everyone individually. When it was my turn I handed the agent my US passport and declaration card. His first question was, "Parley voo fransay?" The interview lasted maybe 10 minutes but it seemed much longer. It was like being made to talk to the most boorish clod at a party. "Why do you want to go to China? Why on earth would you want to travel on a freighter? [This was asked in several ways and he still never seemed satisfied with my answers.] How did you even find out such a thing was possible? How much does it cost? How can you afford that on a librarian's pension?" He kept repeating that he had never heard of passengers on a freighter. I got the feeling he was hoping I would break down and confess to being a crew member. Then they searched both passenger cabins thoroughly, after asking us if we had any knives guns or bombs. After they left the captain said to me, "So, you are not a terrorist after all!"

 I don't dispute the fact that they have an important job to do. I'm just irritated about the way they do it. I don't think this behavior makes anyone safer.

Enough. Yesterday I mentioned the good food. Here is a representative sample:

As I write this we are preparing to leave L.A.

The Crew

"We sail the ocean blue
And our saucy ship's a beauty
We are sober men and true
And attentive to our duty"

The crew of the Rigoletto can be divided into two categories. The senior officers are French, and everyone else is some sort of eastern European. I would have said Russian but the steward Andriy told me he is Ukrainian. I can't tell the difference.

I mostly see them at mealtime. The Frenchmen say "bon appetit" and the captain and chief engineer shake my hand. Otherwise I have no idea what they are saying. Or rather, I should say I wouldn't have any idea except the other passenger is a French woman who informs me that their two topics of conversation are work and the food. For me the food is great. The captain said of the chef, "He's not the best. He's not the worst." French people. Aurelie (the other passenger) says she gets frustrated because her friends only talk about the food at meals.

First world problems.

Ahoy.

Los Angeles

This is the poster outside my cabin. Each passenger cabin has a name and whether fortuitous or by design mine matches my destination. The posters all feature places with a CMA CGM ship in the background. Oddly, the motto at the bottom is in English.

I am enjoying watching the port activities which are like an elaborate ballet. I am amazed at the number of people, the huge cranes, armies of trucks, and machines I don't even know the name of, all working together.

The port of Vancouver is much larger than Seattle but L.A. is fucking HUGE.

Vancouver

We arrived in Vancouver Tuesday morning at 5am. Very hazy and smelling of smoke. I spent the day on the ship, watching the port operations and reading my book. At dinner I met the new passenger, a French woman who is going to Pusan, Korea. She told me we are not leaving until Thursday, so I decided to go ashore today. First I had to get the captain's permission. When this was accomplished I went to the ships office to get a Xerox of my passport (all passports must remain on the ship) and sign out. They said, "climb down the gangway and find a stevedore to call you a shuttle." I climbed down but no one was around. I walked around until I saw a suv to flag down. He said to wait by the gangway so I went back to the ship. Eventually another SUV came but they were mostly concerned about a net hanging over the side of the ship that had gotten snagged. I got in and waited for them to solve the problem. Then I was driven to the port gate where I showed my ID and signed out. Whew.

After that I started having fun. I walked through Chinatown and downtown to Stanley  Park. I spent several hours walking around this huge beautiful park. It felt really good after 3 days on the ship.

The original plan was to sail from Vancouver to Yokohama, but now it seems we are going to Los Angeles before crossing the Pacific. More fun. It turns out that when at sea I can take walks on the cargo deck where I can go in a straight line for a long time. That will be nice.

I probably won't be posting pictures for a while because on the ship I need to buy internet by the megabyte.

Ahoy ahoy.

The Rigoletto

There she is, ship of dreams ...

I caught the 594 bus from Tacoma to Spokane street in Seattle. From there it was about an hour's walk to the main gate of Terminal 18. I showed my papers to the customs guard and he called a shuttle to take me to the ship. Such a lot of fuss. Anyway I made it. It is a French ship and most of the officers speak French. Most of the crew seems to be Russian or Ukrainian, I can't tell the difference. My steward is Ukrainian and has trouble with English. He is really helpful though. My cabin is very comfortable. I eat in the officers messroom but at a separate table. Just as well since they are all speaking French. They are very friendly. As each one enters he looks at me and says "bon appetit."

The food is very good. Lunch and dinner come in 3 courses and I have a bottle of red wine on my table. I could get used to this.

Parasailing

One last little mini-adventure here at home before I leave. My friend Lisa and I went parasailing here in Tacoma.

More visas

Six days until my ship sails. Time to make sure everything is ready. I learned today that the Viet Nam visa I thought I was applying for was a scam. There's $17 I'll never see again. I found the official Vietnamese Embassy website and applied for a real visa. I'll have to pick it up in the Vietnamese consulate in Shanghai.

Got my Australian visa in about five minutes online. Good on ya, mates! No visas required for Malaysia or Indonesia so I guess I've done all I can do.

Gifts for hosts? I don't know. I'll see if I can find something.

Eclipse

Before I begin my big trip I decided to make a little trip to Madras Oregon to view the total solar eclipse. It was really cool. Also cool was the campground filled with friendly intelligent people who were all there for the same reason.

I took this selfie under the total eclipse. Unfortunately my phone camera didn't notice the black middle and just made it look like the regular sun so I had to edit the picture to add the black spot which was really there I swear to god. Thirty minutes earlier I had been in my t-shirt but when the sun went away it got cold so I put on my sweatshirt. Notice how the horizon behind me is bright as if it's sunrise.

Less cool was the allergic reaction I suffered later that day while eating some sesame crackers. Nervous Nellies in the group insisted on a trip to the Madras ER where I got lots of nice antihistamines that ensured a good night's sleep. Also, I'll be taking an epi pen with me to China. I still don't know what it was that made my lips and eyes swell up.

My Chinese visa

When I started planning this trip the travel agency gave me lots of information about how to prepare. Part of it was, "A type M visa is required to disembark in Shanghai." I thought, OK, I want to disembark in Shanghai so that's the type of visa I should get. I even read the visa information on the consulate's website. It says for a type M visa I need a letter inviting me to China. So the travel agency sent me a letter on it's letterhead stating how I was arriving and that I need a type M visa. Turns out it's not that simple though. First of all, the Chinese consulate won't consider visa applications more than 90 days ahead of date of entry so I had to wait until July to do anything. So in July I went to a visa service agency in Seattle. They told me the consulate would not consider an application unless the supporting letter came from a company doing business in China and sported an official government stamp. So I went to a different visa agency. Holiday China China in the International District. They were willing to send in my application for a type M visa. But two weeks later they called and said the consulate would not accept the letter. So I had to change my visa application to type L (tourist) and change my disembarkation port to Ningbo.

I still don't understand why tourists are not allowed to disembark in Shanghai but I have an opinion about how this was conveyed to me. While "a type M visa is required to disembark in Shanghai" is technically true it would have been much more direct and helpful to say, "tourists are not allowed to disembark in Shanghai."

Anyway, another requirement for the visa is a recent photo with a white background, no glasses, no smiling, ears visible. The result is the photo above. I suspect that I suffer from Bitchy Resting Face Syndrome.

My 2nd post

Ship travel requires a bit more preparation than other forms. In addition to getting a Chinese visa I had to supply a variety of information to the shipping company. They needed a signed form from my doctor that I am healthy enough to travel. They needed proof of heath insurance that includes international emergency services. I had to sign a letter indemnifying the ship of any liability from loss or injury to myself even resulting from "unseaworthiness or other failure of the ship." I had to sign a form stating that I had read and agreed to all the conditions pertaining to living on the ship (no doctor, no drugs, stay away from the crew's work areas, blah blah). Also, because of the unpredictability of ocean travel, the September 3 departure date is approximate. I need to be in contact with the local shipping agent to learn the exact date and time I need to show up at the port of Seattle for embarkation. I also had to sign a form waiving trip insurance which they recommend.

It is all done so all I need now is to show up at the port at the appointed time. I even have all my shots. I had a fun shopping spree at REI to get some travel supplies and clothing. I got a new phone so I hope it won't die like my old one did last year on my flight to London. One last thing is I need to get some new walking shoes. Then I will be ready.

My first post

It is three weeks until my ship sails but now is a good time to begin. I have already learned a thing or two. I have been preparing for this trip since January. I started with the germ of an idea to start traveling with an open-ended itinerary. I want to visit Asia and Australia, two continents on which I have never set foot.

The problem is I hate long flights. I can handle three or four hours. After that it becomes tedious at best and a grueling ordeal at worst. Of course I know that's not the worst but I choose not to think about all the really horrible things that can happen on an airplane. My solution to the long-flight problem is to book passage on a freight ship. I have heard of people doing this for years and have imagined what it is like. It is more expensive than regular air travel and much more time-consuming. But what the hell. I can afford it and I have plenty of time. Also the ship will be my first interesting destination. I will have lots of time to get to know it and see how it works and where it goes.

Once over the Pacific Ocean I can continue my journey by train and shorter flights. I am looking forward to train travel in China. And I can stay put as long as I want. I like to visit a place for at least a few days and really get to know that one place. I find this more satisfying and rewarding than quick tours where I see a few sights and then move on. Accordingly, I have booked lodging for nine days in Shanghai. That is the only booking I have done so far. I would like to remain as flexible as possible while recognizing that some advance planning is necessary.