Barbara J. Hamby

sign-up for our email list

Shanghai - Second Day

Night in Shanghai

On our second day in Shanghai, Al was up very early (before breakfast which wasn’t served until 7:00). He found coffee and brought two cups to our cabin. I drank one, which was hot and fresh and helped wake me up. By the time I had showered and dressed, Al had eaten breakfast and walked around a nearby section of Shanghai.

On one of his many trips ashore, Al found some Chinese beer mild enough for me to enjoy a little. He said a few local people attempted to converse with him but, because of his hearing, it was impossible to understand all but one. He asked,

“You from sheep?”
Al told him “Yes.”
“Where you from?”
Al answered, “Oregon.”
“Where you from?”
“America.”
“Oh,” his questioner replied.
Obviously, Oregon did not compute.

Al said he noticed that most people who walked ashore from the ship did not cross any busy streets. As we had already learned, pedestrians have no rights, even in a crosswalk. Watching for cars, taxis, trucks, motorbikes, bicycles and scooters coming from all directions requires more dexterity than most of us can exert. He was brushed several times when crossing, by bikes or motorbikes or unseen vehicles.

I bought more Chinese postage and sent a thank-you letter to the lady who rescued us the day before. She works for the Consulate General of the U.S.A., according to her business card. Her title is Community Liaison Office Coordinator. She is very obviously American, and I’d love to know how she happens to be working here and what she actually does. There was no time to discuss such matters when we were trying to get out of the heavy rain and back to the ship.

I also mailed a few postcards, which didn’t arrive until after we were home. According to reports from the recipients, some arrived a week or two after we returned.

We really enjoyed our balcony. Activity on the river was a 24-hour show. I never saw anywhere near as many ships and boats on the Columbia when I lived in St. Helens as constantly went back and forth there. We saw tugs pulling multiple barges, a huge empty Korean tanker parked directly opposite us, pleasure boats, some carrying tourists for short rides, and many boats I couldn’t even identify. I noticed crew members on working boats wore life jackets. Pleasure cruisers did not. Of course, from the looks of that river, I’d prefer to drown if I fell in, rather than suffer any of the many diseases lurking there.

We watched our ship being fueled once. The fuel boat was just below our balcony.

We also watched a tape on television of the acrobat show that we had not been able see well in the auditorium. It was sensational and, even though the photography was not the best, I appreciated the opportunity to see all of it.

At dusk the riverboats lit up for another parade of “Christmas” type boats. Some of the tall buildings across the river displayed colored lights also. Even though it was overcast most of the time we were there, the lights were fun.

I woke Al from a nap when a huge mysterious piece of heavy equipment was going by on a barge. I thought he might know what it was, but he’d never seen anything like it either. I thought this river would be a great location for a murder mystery. Unfortunately, I don’t write those.

With the assistance of two tugboats, our ship made a u-turn in the narrow and crowded river channel and headed out of Shanghai just at dark. The city lights, boat lights, and the lights of a bridge we went under were all spectacular.

After an hour of cursing, sputtering and muttering, I coaxed the computer to give us a slide show of our digital camera’s contents. It went down fighting, slipping into hibernating mode a couple of times and refusing to show any pictures at all for a while, but I’m stubborn and it paid off.

Later, I went to the buffet to get a glass of ice water. It turned out to be a bad time. There was a huge spread of fruits, and exquisite pastries and other desserts. I managed to take mostly fruit, especially strawberries, a piece of watermelon and half a fried banana. {We won’t mention the two tiny pastries}. I brought Al some plums and shared the fried banana.

Then it was time for bed. We were warned we might be rocked a bit when we get out into open sea.