posted by Amanda

Gangway duty was interesting. A student left her purse in a cab. The cab driver didn't give us her bag but instead he kept coming back to the ship throughout the day. He told someone the student's first name but they thought it was her last meaning the ship couldn't find anyone by that last name. Finally he was waiting for her at the gangway. Marsh Allen, an RD, told him that if he didn't give us the bag he'd call the police. Obviously, he gave us the bag but wanted 100 ringgots. The amount of scrambling we did to get the money was ridiculous. I finally told the conduct officer to have the ship page the owner to bring the money to the tender and to the gangway. I don't think they did, which seemed stupid to me. Instead the RDs and administrators on the ship took up a collection. I don't even understand why we entertained this driver to begin with. He clearly didn't give the bag to us until the last minute, always hoping the owner would appear with a reward. The conduct officer was more appreciative of his efforts since he came to the ship three times. Whatever, just give a ship officer the bag and you don't have to keep coming back.

We also had a student, one of my residents, who lost her passport. It was a bit difficult getting her off the ship at the last minute. She had to fly to KL and work to get a new passport and Chinese visa to meet us in Vietnam. Boy, did she get service. Our port agent arranged a car to take her to the airport, her flight, a car in KL, a hotel, an appointment with the embassy and so on. These kids don't even understand how lucky they are.