Shanghai, well not really

Last year, due to the ad hoc nature of my voyage, I did not have a visa for China so was confined to the ship.  This year, I first got the visa for India knowing that I would not be allowed on the ship without it.  And, then simply ran out of time as I did not want to give up my passport so close to the departure date.

So I called Cunard in Southampton, spoke to a lovely man who said that the pursers would get it for me on the ship.  He said that I should ask them as soon as I boarded in Southampton and they could apply in the UK, and it could be picked up on the return in January or it could be applied for in Dubai and picked up in Hong Kong.

I got on the ship, asked the pursers and no one had a clue.  So, the visa was never applied for and I am not allowed off.  There are worse things.  None of the American crew members is allowed off, but there are so many different stories about why that no one knows which to believe.

What I found interesting was a notice that China will not allow anyone who is coughing to enter and if caught in China, that person will be quarantined.  The word comes from Italian – quarantigioni – which means 40 days.  When the plague swept through Europe in the 14^th century, the Venetian Republic required ships to anchor away from the city and not unload for 40 days – enough time for the disease to be cured or for the sailors to die.  Forty days in a Chinese hospital jail – oh joy!

All ships under quarantine had to fly a yellow flag – a rule still in force today.  According to the daily program, a yellow flag is still carried aboard QM2.

During the Christmas holiday voyage, with the many cases of Norovirus aboard, there were fears among some of the passengers that the ship would not be able to dock in New York.  Let’s see – quarantine aboard ship, quarantine in a Chinese jail, quarantine aboard ship, quarantine in a Chinese jail – duh!!

Aside from the obvious of not wanting to do anything in a Chinese jail, an incident yesterday morning convinced me that I really do not want to do anything in China.

While walking through the Grand Lobby yesterday morning, I encountered a group of Chinese visitors, in their 20’s, dressed in blue uniforms with beautifully embroidered letters and characters on the back of their jackets.  I asked if I could photograph the characters and a young man graciously assented.  As I did; I noticed a “minder” photographing me so I then photographed him photographing me photographing him.  This could have gone on for hours – actually it did for 3 rounds of photographs but then the head minder, in a dark blue suit barked what sounded like an order and they all left, two by two.  The photo I took will end up on the blog.  What do you suppose will end up with the photo of me?  Yeh, I think so, too.

 

PS:  I know there are some stops missing and I will fill in the gaps starting tomorrow.  We will have 6 or 7 sea days – my favorite.