I see Asia

Dear reader, I have actually stepped my foot in Asia for the first time - not just passing trough some international airport on my way elsewhere, or accidentally from one ship to another but actually, genuinely arriving in Asia. Its quite a big deal because I have been travelling for work more than fourteen years now and the routine kind of killed my excitement, I really had enough of same old Caribbean, Mediterranean and Baltic itinerary year in & out, even occasional new place like Iceland soon becomes old news so yes I was really thrilled upon hearing that this time I will sail somewhere else.

First, my arrival in Singapore was extremely traumatic. 

Not because the length of the flight (fourteen hours) since I was prepared for this, but because local immigration grilled me for another four hours for not having some very extra special documents that no other country in the world demands except Singapore - not having them, I actually faced deportation, which already happened to some of my colleagues. After several tense hours and desperate attempts to contact officials in Miami, I was eventually let go trough the border but my documents were still not in order and I was grilled again upon embarkation on the ship. On top of it all, this ship just finished so called "dry dock" so the crew area was in total disorder - apparently it takes some time to get everything working out properly as it should - so not only there was a dust, dirt and pieces of carpets & furniture everywhere but my own accommodation was not ready: the cabin door could not be closed, half of a carpet was missing, there were no bedclothes, no pillows, no air condition, no towels, no wc paper, shower not working, sink blocked... and Jet Lag just hit me so I had to lie down and snore on the bed the way it is, sheets or no sheets. Surely I reported all of this but guests cabins are priority and we will deal with crew later. On the fifth day the captain came to inspect crew cabins and when he saw my blocked sink, he kneeled down himself and used his Swiss army knife to fix the darn thing. 

My very first port was place called Laem Chabang in Thailand. Alas, dear reader, I was on port manning duty (don't ask - one of the extra duties everybody on board has on top of regular job) so couldn't go anywhere further than just top of the ship, from where I took this pictures of very picturesque and magical industrial terminal that stretches for miles around - in fact, there is a shuttle bus service to Pattaya and Bangkok but it takes hour or two if you are interested. What I expected previously (experience talking) proved to be true, some of our ports are simply extremely far away from any civilisation so there is absolutely no way one can simply walk out into town, shuttle buses and taxies are necessary. Even if I could go out, I probably wouldn't because at this point I have $15 and shuttle bus was $10 so why bother with driving two hours somewhere just to have tea and drive back again. Unfortunately both me and my roommate were on the same duty, so we were both dying from boredom in that stuffy cabin with no air condition. 

I asked all of my colleagues about the next port in Cambodia but they all appear completely uninterested. 

"I don't know", "I was sleeping", "It was raining", "Nothing to see there". Listening to them one wonders why on Earth these people applied for this job where travelling takes them around the world, if all they do is sleeping and drinking in crew bar. I was also a bit shaken with official message from the ship - warning for the crew to keep in groups and not to go out alone because of the noticeable crime rate in town - but decided that I need to poke my nose outside or else I will become too grumpy, locked inside all the time too long. Even the official Wikipedia page about Sihanoukville is not very flattering, warning about chaotic traffic ("Drivers of motorbikes often do not wear helmets, drive indiscriminately on any side of the street and it is common to see motorbikes with more than two passengers or vehicles driven by children and under aged people. Traffic lights are often ignored.") and lots of crime everywhere. I bravely took the shuttle bus along with several other cruise guests and we all laughed when we met on the same bus in roughly fifteen minutes - all we saw was ugly and smelly local big market, very exotic looking but all sorts of non-appealing food was mixed with inexpensive items like luggage and clothes, the odours were distinctively nauseating and of course beggars were pulling my sleeves at every step. The city looked ugly and desperately poor, there was no sidewalks - they are all taken with local "businesses" or should I call them what precisely they are, cheap stalls - which forces you to walk directly on the road, behind the cars and motorbikes. I perfectly understand that one can't expect same standards all over the world but this was not appealing - I saw it and quickly assessed the situation, decided this is not for me and went back to the shuttle bus. I really wonder will I enjoy my Asian adventure at all, because I am creature of comfort and all this dirt, dust and poverty don't appeal to me at all. As for the celebrated beaches, I am not interested in beaches or suntanning so it all sounds relatively depressing. Even the food I have seen was all deep fried and unhealthy looking - having a serious conversation with my doctor I changed my diet completely so the only food I am eating these days is fruits and vegetables - all this oil dripping from everywhere was just alarming. Strangely, people seems to eat absolutely everywhere on this heat and out of any old plastic container. I have no idea why in the world would any tourist want to visit such a dirt-poor place like Cambodia if not for bragging later. You might as well go to Albania instead, at least its in Europe. 

Next port was Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam - at least this is how it was advertised - unfortunately we are nowhere near that place, in fact we are docked in a port from which you need to travel two hours to town. There is absolutely nothing outside of the ship, no sign of life except hawking cab drivers who demand $ 85 for a drive so forget about Ho Chi Minh City, not only that I don't have money for that kind of excursions but after driving around all day long I still need to work in the evening & there's nothing that I need so desperately to drive four hours. As much as I heard, tomorrow is another place in Vietnam (Nha Trang) where its possible to simply walk out from the ship to town, so I will skip Ho Chi Minh City indefinitely. 

Conclusion: 

It might be too early to say, after all its been only a week but for now I can tell that this is far from what I expected. Where in Europe and in Caribbean ships were docked in spots relatively near to cities (so it was possible to just walk outside, no matter how ugly these docks and terminals usually are) here in Asia for some reason shipyards are extremely far from any human habitations, I mean, there's nothing and nobody around unless you are ready to empty the wallet every day for a cab ride or tourist excursion somewhere. In my first week I have seen only one place (which makes what, four times going out in a month?) and it was such a dirty, smelly shit hole that I thoroughly scrubbed my sandals upon return to my cabin. If this is how it's going to be, than I'm not looking forward to the next six months. At all.