Ferry to Japan

I woke up this morning sitting in a rather odd position draped over a chair. Remembering that we had walked into a hotel at 3:00 this morning, exhausted from walking so much, I realised that we must have fallen asleep in the lobby. I was amazed that we hadn't been thrown out of the hotel for sleeping there for 4 hours. I woke Ali and refreshed myself in the posh bathroom. We shamefully left the hotel and headed towards the subway station. Ali's tolerance for my coffee addiction was much appreciated yet again as I desperately attempted to find a Starbucks. We were in Frenchtown and had already passed two closed Starbucks before finally finding one that was open. I was 3rd time lucky and feeling good after a guilt ridden grande coffee of the day and a chocolate muffin. We took the subway to the train station and collected from the luggage hold where we had left them overnight. We took a taxi straight to the ferry terminal to avoid getting lost or being late.

We boarded the ship and were immediately taken to our cabin. We are lucky enough to have a cabin all to ourselves. The ferry seems fairly quiet with not many passengers. I watched from the deck as we sailed out of the port. I noticed the Oriental Pearl Tower looking just as ugly as I had first remembered. Ali got her priorities in order and did laundry first before attempting to figure out the exchange rate (so that she could work out how much the beer was). For some reason they have vending machines that only accept Japanes Yen which I considered strange since we were on a Chinese ferry. The ship is basic but surprisingly very well kept and extremely clean. There are shower rooms, toilets, amusements, a bar, restaurant, shop, reading room, hot bath, and even table tennis. We tire ourselves with a million games of table tennis before heading back to our cabin. I slept for an eternity and woke up to a note on Ali's bed. It was 10:15pm and she had been in twice already to re-write the note as to update me on her current location. Apparently, now she was having drinks with Daryl in the lounge area upstairs. Daryl is the English guy that I met earlier soon after we had boarded. I crawled out of bed and joined them for a few beers and a game of gin rummy.