A Slow Boat From China - Load of Junk

Whilst I was in Singapore I had a text message from a former colleague who lives in Subic.  Some time ago he'd mentioned that between him and a friend they were planning to buy a boat in Hong Kong and to bring it to Subic Bay to keep and use. At the time I'd expressed an interest in joining the boat for the journey from HK to Subic

At very short notice via text message I was told the boat was ready to leave on the Wednesday but I wasn't leaving Singapore until the Tuesday.  I still wanted to join but I had to refuse as it would have meant me flying  direct from Singapore direct to HK to rendezvous with the boat, and I needed to be back in the Philippines, albeit briefly, for work reasons and to grab some clothes for the boat trip.

Having also received an e-mail on the same subject and read the thread included it was apparent hat the reason for the short notice was that someone had dropped out at the 12th hour and so I was second choice.  Nice.

Regardless of this I was prepared to swallow my pride and was still keen to go, just for the adventure but told them that unless the departure date could be postponed I wouldn't be able to make it but I was told the dates were cast in stone.

But apparently the stone was made out of something not so solid as I was subsequently told the boat would be leaving on Wednesday lunchtime so there was a window of opportunity, even if it was a very small window.  It would mean flying back to Subic on the Tuesday and arriving late afternoon, getting stuck into the paperwork I needed to do, book a flight at short notice (assuming there was a flight available) and up at 3am to catch the early flight to Hong Kong.

Booking a flight at short notice hurts as you're stung by being charged an outrageous amount for the flight.  I ended up paying far more for a one-way, 1 hour flight than I paid for a 3½ hour return flight to Singapore.

I caught the early flight from Clark to HK on Wednesday the 4th April. On arrival at the airport in HK I had only sketchy information on the exact plan (it didn't seem to be running well) and where to go.  I had a text message from one of the boat's co-owners who told me that a guy called Dirk, also travelling from Subic, had left his passport in the departure lounge (lets call him Berk) and had had to stay overnight in transit until his passport arrived with the next flight, and I was to meet him in the airport arrivals hall.  Despite giving him two phone numbers this seemed to be doomed to failure and after waiting for longer than necessary at the agreed rendezvous I received another message saying Berk was on the train to HK Central without me (it was going from bad to worse), so I followed suit and was told to head to the ABC.  Now using acronyms is fine so long as everyone else around you knows what they mean and trying to use them to appear to be clever, is just not clever.  To me, the ABC was a cinema on King's Street in Maidstone that was the venue for the chaotic and riotous Saturday morning cinema and which was demolished in the 70s (I guess) to make way for a new shopping centre, so it clearly wasn't there.  As it turned out the ABC was Aberdeen Boat Club - that's Aberdeen HK, not Scotland . . . .

Once off the train I went looking for the bus to Aberdeen and spotted a familiar looking guy that I'd seen in  Subic so walked over and asked him if he was Berk, and it was.  Berk told me he was heading off to the harbour control immigration office to arrange our exit later that day and so I went with him.  When we got there, which wasn't too far from the station and we went by taxi but it would have been quicker to walk, it was closed due to it being a public holiday, which made me begin to wonder about the efficiency of the planning that had gone into this trip.

From the harbour immigration office we headed to the HKYC (that's Hong Kong Yacht Club, see how clever I am?!) where we were to meet the other members of the crew.  It was here that I found out that our departure was meant to coincide with the Rolex China Sea Race from Hong Kong to Subic so that there would be other boats in the vicinity should we encounter difficulties, which did little to improve my confidence, especially as we were going to be leaving a day later than all those super-sleek racing yachts speeding towards Subic Bay without us.

The time spent waiting for the others to appear was spent with a beer in my hand watching the start of the yacht race.  It's not exactly like Formula 1, is it?  All the yacht seemed to mingle around the harbour and then once a klaxon was sounded they then pointed in the same general direction and off they (slowly) went.  The yacht club terrace consisted mostly of the posh, nouveau riche and bankers all in a sea of blazers, boat shoes, pressed chinos, G&Ts and bubbly which was far from my liking.  All Ruperts, Sebastians, Felicities and Henriettas.  About as nice as a golf club.

The other crew members turned up and after the dull start to the race we introduced ourselves and made a plan.  There were to six of us in total: from Subic there was me, Berk (Dutch), Jim (ex British Army and part owner of the boat) and from Macau/HK there was Aussie Adam (security systems) and two more Brits, Brian (façade engineering) and  John (mechanical engineer).

The plan was this: after lunch head over to Aberdeen to check the boat then back spend the night in in Central.  The next day travel to Aberdeen first thing in the morning.  Pick up a few supplies and then head off promptly at midday, with the trip to Subic taking no more than 3 days to complete.

At Aberdeen we boarded a harbour taxi, which are sampans deftly piloted by leathery faced old Chinese ladies, and headed to the boat.  

Sampan in the rain

I was told the boat we would be taking to Subic was a Chinese Junk. Now, I don't know about you but to my mind's eye a Chinese Junk looks like this:

Which I believed to be relatively sea worthy ocean going sailing vessel that was the ship of choice of Chinese traders/mariners. Although I did think for a minute that perhaps if the Chinese had chosen something else there wouldn't be quite so many programmes on the Discovery Channel about salvaging willow pattern pottery from the sea bed.

However, what it was in fact was this:

Now, whilst it is undoubtedly a nice boat I don't know about you, and I'm no expert, but to me this didn't appear to me to be a ocean going vessel capable of crossing the South China Sea. Well perhaps on a flat calm but not on even remotely choppy seas, never mind a storm. Perfect perhaps for cruising the coastline or Hong Kong island hopping but nothing too adventurous.  

I was having serious doubts about this trip and considered using the excuse that as there had been a delay I needed to be back in Subic and so would have to bail out.  But you know what, I didn't want to be the guy who scuppered the whole trip.  Six people were needed (so I was told) and I looked around at the others and they didn't outwardly show any sign of concern, especially Berk who was apparently a sailor extraordinaire (but who couldn't look after his passport) and was to be our pilot and captain for the trip.  So I continued to go along with it albeit with some serious reservations.

There was no life raft on the boat. One would have to be acquired. There was no EPIRB (Emergency Positioning Indicating Radio Beacon) so in the event of an emergency we could be found in the lift raft instead of bobbing around in the South China Sea for days, weeks or months on end.  I'm not even sure there were any distress flares. Berk had a hand held VHF radio, which if dunked in the sea would have been useless and even if it wasn't, was only good for line of sight distance so unless there were loads of ships passing we wouldn't be able to contact them.  There was no power outlet so one would have to be rigged up.  There was no refrigeration to keep food fresh (why would there be?  It's not like it was the sort of boat built to spend days at sea in).  The navigation lights needed new bulbs.  And there was me thinking it was all set up ready to go.

Really it was going from bad to worse.  There seemed to have hardly been any real or proper preparation and I could see with the amount of preparation involved it was going to be difficult to leave the following day, never mind leaving at midday.

After making a list of items needed we headed back to Central.  I went to bed early whilst the others went out on the lash - perfect preparation for a busy day ahead.

What's the Meaning of the V?

At the beginning of April I was back in Singapore for a company conference, which ideally should have worked out well for me because I had a couple of second hand cameras to pick up from the office (I don't have anything delivered to the Philippines for two reasons: firstly, I don't think I'll ever get it because anything of any value will probably go 'missing' or secondly, it's is likely to held to ransom pending the payment of outrageous, punitive and exorbitant customs and duty charges (see Coffee Chaos) that bear no resemblance to the real world. The reason for the disproportionate charges, as I believe, is for either those nice chaps holding on to your goods to make some easy cash or if you don't pay, then the crooks nice guys in customs get to keep your goodies.

Unfortunately, one of the cameras I was hoping to pick up was stuck in a warehouse in Singapore. The Singapore post office has a service called Vpost which facilitates buying items in Europe (including the UK although I steadfastly refuse to accept that the UK is in Europe), the US, China and Japan, having them delivered to an forwarding depot in the relevant county whereby Vpost then ships your goods to Singapore for less money than regular courier/postal services.  And they do all the customs nonsense as well, rather than having to deal with a separate entity.

Up until now this has worked out rather well for me with no problems and an excellent, efficient service such that you'd expect from Singapore.  On this occasion I'd bought two items in the UK.  By some eBay or PayPal quirk (don't get me started on PayPal) one item ended up being delivered to my UK address, which was relatively easy to resolve.  

The other was correctly delivered the forwarding depot in Warrington.  It was even shipped to Singapore within a couple of days but then it all went wrong.  Once Vpost receive the item they send you an invoice to pay.  Once you've paid, the goods get sent to your address.  However, the camera they were invoicing me for wasn't the camera I'd purchased, it was one I'd bought last year and had already taken delivery of.  Now, you'd think it would have been relatively simple to just explain to Vpost where this had gone wrong and for them to correct it? Wrong: it took me over 4 months and countless e-mails to get my camera (which I still don't have and won't have until I visit Singapore again).  

I've often wondered what the V in Vpost stands for.  Now I think I know:

The upshot of this was that I wasn't able to get my sticky mitts on the camera (a Nikonos V  if you must know - with V standing not for 5 but for Very nice underwater camera) when I went to Singapore, which was rather disappointing and so had to rely on my phone (crappy shots on a HTC Wildfire) and a Yashica Dental Eye III, whose furthest focussing distance is around 2ft (don't ask why I have a Yashica Dental Eye III) so is limited to macro photography.  

I also picked up (and nearly strained my back as it's a behemoth of a camera) a Fuji GX680 II.  Now that was something I was looking forward to playing with but, like a kid at Christmas with a new toy and no batteries, this came with no battery pack.  I was convinced I'd be able to source one in Singapore but to no avail, despite checking all the second hand camera shops and even Sim Lim for an alternative type.

Hence, most of my weekend was taken up with looking for batteries for the GX680 and very little in the way of actual photography.

On Sunday morning I was up very early and went for a walk around the Singapore Botanic Gardens, something I'd been wanting to do for ages.  Going early was definitely the right thing to do because as the morning progressed the place just became increasingly mobbed, which is hardly surprising considering Singapore is the world's third most densely populated country (it used to be second but it's relegation to third place hasn't been because of a reduction in population, in fact far from it as it's looking to increase the population numbers, but it's slip to 3rd place is probably due to a large influx of mainland Chinese into Macau). 

The gardens were fantastic, immaculately kept and tended, as you'd expect from Singapore. In one section there were sprinklers emitting a fine spray creating a mist to water the plants and with the low morning sun creating a dapple light through the trees the whole place looked enchanting and just like you'd imagine a rain forest to look like.

Here are some photos - apologies for the poor quality but don't blame me, blame HTC and Vpost.

For lunch, as is now par for the course, Sunday was spent having champagne brunch in the Prego Café at the Fairmont Hotel. As usual it involved too much food and too much champagne and so a lazy sleepy day was had for what remained of the day.

Mmmmm! Any room for dessert?

Taiwan Times

Mid March I was in Kaohsiung again as I needed a break from the Philippines and spend some time somewhere rather more civilized. What can I say about this place that I haven't said already?  It really feels like home. Especially as the weather was unseasonably and decidedly chilly with a rather unfortunate grey cloud blotting out any hint of sunshine.  Crap light for taking photos - everything seems so flat.

Kaohsiung airport is only small and there aren't many, if any international flights going there from Europe or the west.  There are hundreds to Hong Kong and China to cater for the cultural links between Taiwan and China but that's about it really.  As a result I love the airport because there are rarely any crowds, absolutely no queues at immigration and the baggage collection hall is as serene as a Buddhist temple.  It's the same going out and the airport security are super polite - they really treat you like they are inconveniencing you, rather than the other way round as it is at London's airports.  Furthermore, because it's a small airport you don't have to walk miles and miles between/to terminals.  That in itself should be an argument not to expand Heathrow further.

I once arrived in Heathrow (Deathrow) and there was sign as we exited the plane stating that you needed to allow 1 hour to walk to the furthest gate if you were transferring.  1 hour - that's like 4 miles away at a brisk pace!  Although I'm sure the airport was allowing for a large margin to cater for the less mobile (probably those nationals - mention no names - who lug around more hand luggage than I carry in baggage).

I had to travel to Manila to fly to Kaohsiung because the only airline that used to fly to Taiwan from Clark had gone bust.  Little surprise really: they didn't advertise and no one knew of them.  I only found out about them from a friend who found out about them by accident, and on the one occasion I did fly with them the plane was nigh empty going in both directions.

So what did I do in Kaohsiung?  Well, nothing very much different from what I usually do.  I went camera shopping, caught up with my mate Dave, ate far too much wonderful food, drank far too much beer (Dave's fault) and walked for miles and miles and miles.

Wrap 'em - I'll take them all.

Two binge drinkers on the town

There is a dynamism about Taiwan that we would do well in Britain to emulate.  When the Taiwanese realised that the port in Kaohsiung (the principle reason the city exists) were becoming obsolete, they basically shut down the old ones and built new super high-tec ones (watch Mega-Cities on Nat Geo about Kaohsiung).  No fuss, no drama, no years and years of public enquiries, they just did what was necessary to make the place work.  And the upside of this is there is now a whole new area that was once the old, grimy, dirty and seedy docks, and railways sidings that served it, which has now opened up to new waterfront venues for bars, restaurants, museums, exhibition halls and concert halls.  Again, and although this is all in its infancy, the transformation as been nothing short of astonishing and it's where I spent most of this trip, walking around and exploring the place.  I've always been aware that the area exists but obviously when it was an operating port, security restrictions prevented anyone from entering the area (unless you were a docker or a merchant seaman of course), so it was really interesting to see what actually was behind the port walls.

When I arrived back in Subic my feelings of inner tranquillity and harmony were very quickly shattered.  I'd bought a new (brand new) bin for the gardener to use to collect the leaves so that he didn't have to use the rubbish bin and scatter the rubbish in the forest at the back of the house.  As I pulled into the drive I noticed the new bin was still sitting there unused and that he was using the rubbish bin.  I do find it difficult to control my rage in circumstances like this but I did manage to keep it together.  But this was severely tested.  I asked him why he was using the rubbish bin and not the new bin I'd bought specifically for the garden.  His first answer was 'No'.  No what?  What do you mean no?  No's not an answer - it wasn't a yes or no question. Then when pushed for an explanation he said he liked the rubbish bin.  What? It's a plastic bin the same as the one I've just bought, except the one I've just bought is empty and for use in the garden and the one you're using is the rubbish bin full of rubbish.

All I could do was just walk away.