Shanghai China.
After the, very nice, eleven hour flight from Heathrow to Shanghai we were both pretty tired. There was no rest to be had though because, this time, we were going to be transferred directly from the airport to the ship pier. The humidity as we stepped from the air conditioned loveliness of the plane hit us hard. It was like walking into a wall of wet hot steaming towles. My travel tracksuit, whilst great for the travelling and the coolness of the plane, was not so brilliant in this situation.
 
We have to say, Princess have let themselves down slightly with the transfers to the ship on this occasion. China make you jump through hoops to enter their country and we had to obtain Visas some months ago. Still, there seemed to be endless bag checks and passport controls on the way out! (As well as landing cards, departure cards, "what are you doing here" and "how long are you staying" cards.) O_oThat would all have been okay, but even after we arrived at the Pier, there was a long wait to be allowed to board the ship. It was quite an eventful wait though. One young lad who looked to be in his twenties, had sat with his lady friend opposite us at the ships terminal. He wandered off to get himself a drink and, quite reasonably, headed for the tap with a sign above it stating that it was "DRINKING WATER". What this sign did not specify, rather oddly, was that yes it was drinking water but it was BOILING hot drinking water for making tea with. The Chinese do love their teas after all. 


 The lad yelped and shot backwards as he ran his hand under the water. I could see right away that his fingers were blistering. His girlfriend was next to useless and simply laughed at him which made me very...very...angry. Had she shook herself into action after that and helped him out, it would have been okay. But no....she just seemed to go into a mood because he didn't laugh when she did. I told him to go and run his fingers under the tap in the bathrooms which he duly did. 

  When he returned a mere, twenty seconds later, I realised this wasn't someone who had any first aid knowledge at all. With his girlfriend now looking like she was sucking on several lemons, she continued to ignore him as he sat back down. I kept an eye on him for a few moments not wanting to jump in just in case the girl finally made an attempt to do the right thing. When I saw that he was trying to cool the blisters down by holding them against the metal of the chair, I had seen enough.I stomped off to the nearest English speaking member of staff (doesnt take long to find because they learn English from Kindergarten age in China) and I demanded a large cup of iced or ice cold water. She obliged and I walked up to the lad, handed him the cup and told him that he needed to keep his fingers submerged for at LEAST fifteen minutes.  

 He seemed genuinly grateful and it did look as though he was getting some pain relief when he dunked his hand in. His girlfriend however, looked as though her nose had been placed right out of joint. I managed to hold my tongue and not comment on her utter uselessness but I think she very clearly got the message anyway!
 
Okay so Shanghai! The trip from the airport to the cruise terminal was meant to be twenty minutes but the rush our was upon us. About an hour and a half later we had arrived. At least the coach was air conditioned! Shanghai is humid...very VERY humid and, being in a monsoon, environment, it is also very very wet. As we were moving along in the coach, you could see steam rising from the roads and out of the drainage systems. David didn't think the parts of Shanghai that we saw, really sold it for him.  

 I liked the business of it all and I liked seeing all the high rise buildings in various stages of construction.Shanghai is the economic capital of China (according to the residents!) They, unlike those living in Bejing, have little to no interest in politics. It is all about making money. I don't think that living in Shanghai would be particularly good for our health...the smog was quite distinct. It was thick, sometimes visibility down to only a few hundred yards. Everywhere you looked was veiled by the haze of the smog. With all the building works and especially in the poorer looking areas, the haze made it look like a post apocalyptic city. I found it all very interesting, I think we both did. But we were happy to be in the cocoon of the coach too.So now we are aboard and sailing for the port of Nagasaki in Japan. Today is an at sea day and we are just about to head out to play some basketball and to look around the ship some more. There are next to no children on board and, from what we have seen so far, a real mixture of cultures and nationalities on board. It is all very exciting all ready. 

 
Oh....this is exciting too...The phone rings in our cabin last night. David answers it and a female voice says "Hello, can I speak to Little Little please?"  
 Unbelievable! Of course, Little little is now ranting on about just how famous she is and continually asks us how many people have rung up asking to speak to either Dave or me. It was of course, Inna, our lovely Crooners bartender who we met on our last Cruise! we knew she was going to be on board, but we had not expected that call! Okay, off to play Basketball. More to come.xxxxx

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Our cabin is amazing....it faces out the back of the ship. (Aft) so we have a wonderful wake view. Big balcony too!