Symphonies of Lights

Hong Kong Island was ablaze with the 8pm music and light show. The grey concrete and glass skyscrapers of day suddenly took on individual personalities as they jovially flashed and jiggled their multitude of rainbow lights and sent lasers into the night sky in synchrony with the retro electronic beat of the music. All very Orbital and quite spectacular. (see video below)

Watching the show for a second time from the deck of our cargo ship the distant skyscraper disco paled in comparison to the dockyard rave around us. CMA CGM Hugo was being loaded up. Six thousand forty foot containers were being stacked like duplo blocks in the holds. Cranes the size of skyscrapers wheeled along the port side flashing and beeping as they went, picking up crates from the back of lorries, tugging them into the air and bringing them crashing down with a metal on metal thud on top of the layer below. The ship shook with each deposit.

There were six cranes dancing on our ship, hundreds more in the port moving and stacking boxes, and ships all around us being laden in a similar way. All glistening with flashing warning lights. Set to the accompaniment of a repetitive beats (engines thumping) and bleeps (reversing lorries, moving cranes) soundtrack with overlying noises (crash and click of containers) that would make Aphex Twin jealous.

It is a gargantuan operation and must have a powerful, logistical mind behind it all. Someone must know what is in the surrounding sea of containers (the officers on the ship do not), where they have come from and where they are going. Containers from the stacks stored on shore are lifted onto lorries that bring them around to the ship edge where a small man in a control box dangling from the top of a crane picks up, drags and drops the containers on board. The men operating these pods must be regular winners on the fairground snatch and grab games. Between them, they load thirty containers onto the ship every hour. It’s a long track.

This is the international world of shipping. This is how Made In China products arrive in our shops. And tonight I feel like a VIP guest at an exclusive underground party. Hong Kong International Port is where the Symphony of Lights is really at.

Read more...

How to...get a US visa

Believe it or not, if you travel by cargo ship to the US you need to get a visa before you travel. Unlike Brits who fly or even come by scheduled cruise ship you don’t qualify for the usual visa-waiver scheme. That means dollars – lots of ‘em – and allowing plenty of time to be processed through the system.

So force a grin, remind yourself that you’re travelling in a far more interesting (and environmentally-responsible) fashion and take it on the stiff-upper lip.

You will need to apply for an non-immigrant visa – that means scrubbing yourself up and going for an interview at the US embassy in Grosvenor Square (if you happen to live near London, of course).

In order to book your appointment you must first dial up the premium-rate phone number 09042-450100 (£1.20/minute - a typical call lasts 10 minutes). Try and book your interview appointment for as early as possible in order to minimise your wait in line.

In exchange for the fee ($131 at the time of our applying) you are sent an interview confirmation letter. You are also directed to DS-156 form, which you must complete online. Chaps aged 16-49 are also required to fill in one extra form, in order to assure the authorities of their good intentions.

On the day of your interview, book the morning off work and take a brolly (you are made to wait outside), along with the heap of documents required to prove that you a fine upstanding subject of her Britannic majesty. Mobiles, backberries, peapods and other fruitily-titled or otherwise electronic equipment are not welcome so take a good book.

Be prepared for a long wait, but a relatively short ‘interview’. You will go to two separate counters – one to hand in your documents and the other, for your ‘interview’ – more a quick chat. Our interviewer was a nice, friendly fellow who had no hesitation in granting us the standard ten year visa.

Then comes the sting in the tail – arranging the return of the passport you have so willingly just handed over the counter. You have no choice but to use the couriers, standing like vultures, at the exit. Laughingly-entitled ‘Secure mail Services’, I found them without question the most useless postal company I have ever encountered (and that is against some pretty stiff opposition).

I’ll spare you the details but take care to be very specific about how, where and when you’d would like your passport returned before parting with (up to) twenty notes. You must sign in person for the delivery when it finally comes.


Read more...

The what a to-do list

As of 12th April our to-do list read:

1) Book ship from Hong Kong to Los Angeles
2) Book Eurostar tickets
3) Book Trans-Siberian express tickets
4) Book US visa appointment (09042-450-100; £1.20/minute!!)
5) Get Russian visa
6) Look what other visas we need and book appointments:
- Mongolia
- China
- Vietnam
7) Book insurance
8) Get jabs
9) Organise WWOOF Japan placement(s)
10) Book Japan Rail Pass

It took us months to even work out what we needed to do. There’s not a book on the shelf about how to travel without flying. Hurrah for the Man in Seat in 61 and Google without which we would probably still be working out how to get to Finland (major stop #1 on The Trip).

With 26 days to go, all of this list – bar (2) booking the Eurostar and (4) getting a U.S. Visa – remains outstanding. So if anyone else is planning to do a similar trip, you should find this blog useful. It could save you a lot of time...

Read more...

How to...cross an ocean without flying

There are no ferries or passenger ships across the Pacific and only the QE2 or Queen Mary cruise ships across the Atlantic. You’ve got to take a cargo ship...

There are a few tour operators who deal in freighter ship travel, two of which are in London:

Strand Travel
Cruise People
NSB (through Frau Gloger)


A few things we learnt about cargo ship travel:

a) Cargo ships only carry up to 11 passengers

b) Therefore you have to book your berth in advance

c) Cargo ships rarely go where tourists want, they go where cargo is needed. Your journey is somewhat determined by the routes available (but there are plenty)

d) When you’ve found a good route, note that they go infrequently (e.g. monthly)

e) Even when you have a departure date, it’s likely to change (depending on weather, loading of cargo etc)

f) Paying for the voyage is going to hurt. So you have to be philosophical about it; the price includes travel across a massive distance and includes accommodation and three meals a day. You probably would pay the same price flying to the same destination and staying in hotels over the same time period. But in addition you get the cargo ship experience (sea dogs, swells and sunshine) for FREE! It’s a bargain really.

g) You need visas for every country the ship stops in. For us, this means a Chinese and American visa. Arriving in America on a cargo ship discounts you for a waiver-free tourist visa. You need to get a B-1 ten-year multiple entry tourist visa, and for that you need a visa interview. The travel agencies can help here.


Read more...