Today is the last day of our Real Russia Trans Siberian Tour. Once we get to the ferry we are all on our own as Pam and Ken are on their way to Hong Kong. We are calling our time in Korea Stage 6 of the world tour.
The hire car turned up at 6.15am, much to our relief. Our driver had very little English but he was dressed in a black suit with white shirt and wore white gloves while driving. The car was a black VW Passat with a thick red carpet on the rear floor.
This all inspired confidence. Because of the early start we were soon out of the city and onto a highway with four lanes each way eating up the 160 km at a good rate with no white knuckles. We started to see a lot of trucks on the road, heading for the ports. So this is why we had not seen many till now; they all head east from Beijing. After 100 kms or so we quite suddenly found ourselves behind a queue of trucks spread across the four lanes and also the breakdown lane. We moved forward very slowly and our driver tried every lane to squeeze ahead of the trucks. Eventually we reached a set of toll booths which seemed to be the cause of the problem as once we got through the traffic thinned. The driver had to pay two tolls altogether so he would have to pay again to get back to Beijing. We hoped he would still make some profit from the 1500 yuan we had paid. We could see we were approaching the port and he had assured us he knew where to take us when we first got in the car, but we ended up at the container ship port. That would have suited us fine if only China had agreed to let us board a container ship back to Australia but they have a blanket ban on people doing this. Do not ask us why. We then lost all confidence in our driver as he turned on his smart phone and followed spoken instructions which took us to the Cruise Ship Terminal. He encouraged us to get out here but a security man assured him there was no ferry to be boarded there. He stopped several times to ask directions and took us through the city to a wharf gate where some workers having a smoko pointed out the terminal building 100 meters away. This is the terminal as seen from the ferry.
It was 9.15am so the trip had taken three hours when it should have taken two, but we were there with time to spare and that was all that mattered. The next ferry was not till Sunday if we had missed this one.
No one spoke English here so we followed sign language from the staff to get boarding passes, pay port fees, get through customs and immigration and queue up for the bus that drove us 200 meters to the gangway.
We struggled up several flights of stairs to get on board
and the more steps to get to our deluxe cabin. The cabin had everything we needed, including a toilet and shower, but was quite basic in standard. We saw the "royal" cabins nearby which were not much better but at least they had a window. The standard tickets bought a mattress on the floor in a large room. The whole setup was nothing like the Stockholm to Turku Ferry run by Viking Line. The model looked quite good, so we had no doubts about seaworthiness and we had a very calm crossing.
We managed to buy a drink each at the Chicago Coffee Bar but they sold no food. After changing our Yuan to Won we realised we were the only ones of western appearance on the ferry and found it irritating to be the subject of quite a lot of staring. We sat on a lounge at the front of the ship watching the fog and a man who announced himself as 67 opened a conversation by asking our ages. He tried to be helpful by suggesting some places we could visit in Korea. We had no success in competing with the loads of bus tour people who crowded into the restaurant at tea time so went to bed without supper.
The hire car turned up at 6.15am, much to our relief. Our driver had very little English but he was dressed in a black suit with white shirt and wore white gloves while driving. The car was a black VW Passat with a thick red carpet on the rear floor.
It was 9.15am so the trip had taken three hours when it should have taken two, but we were there with time to spare and that was all that mattered. The next ferry was not till Sunday if we had missed this one.
No one spoke English here so we followed sign language from the staff to get boarding passes, pay port fees, get through customs and immigration and queue up for the bus that drove us 200 meters to the gangway.
We struggled up several flights of stairs to get on board
and the more steps to get to our deluxe cabin. The cabin had everything we needed, including a toilet and shower, but was quite basic in standard. We saw the "royal" cabins nearby which were not much better but at least they had a window. The standard tickets bought a mattress on the floor in a large room. The whole setup was nothing like the Stockholm to Turku Ferry run by Viking Line. The model looked quite good, so we had no doubts about seaworthiness and we had a very calm crossing.
We managed to buy a drink each at the Chicago Coffee Bar but they sold no food. After changing our Yuan to Won we realised we were the only ones of western appearance on the ferry and found it irritating to be the subject of quite a lot of staring. We sat on a lounge at the front of the ship watching the fog and a man who announced himself as 67 opened a conversation by asking our ages. He tried to be helpful by suggesting some places we could visit in Korea. We had no success in competing with the loads of bus tour people who crowded into the restaurant at tea time so went to bed without supper.
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