Ferry to Vladivostok

(Osaka - Sakaiminato 228km/141 Miles)
(Sakaiminato - Dong Hae 413km/256 Miles)
(Dong Hae - Vladivostok 678km/421 Miles)

Total distance traveled = 1722 km/1070 Miles

In Sakaiminato I got on the Eastern Dream and we set sail for Korea. The company's website had lots of photos and the boat looked better than I had expected. As the journey continued there were a few little things that detracted from the experience. I'm glad I didn't have to spend more than two nights on there, but generally it was alright and was much more interesting than a flight.

My cabin was shared with 7 other people (4 bunk beds). They were mainly Russians in my room, but there were quite a lot of South Koreans on the boat too. I got talking to a British girl called Sara on the boat and we spent most of the two days chatting and laughing at other passengers. I also chatted with an Australian guy called Chris, a few Korean boys on a schools trip, and attempted to communicate with a Russian guy called Andrei.

The website had said there was an internet room on the boat, so it was a bit of a dissapointment when we discovered it had been replaced by a second Duty Free shop. The meals weren't too special either and I ate more out of necessity than enjoyment. There was a bar and a nightvlub too. I didn't try the bar, as it seemed a bit expensive and nobody seemed to go in. The nightclub was fun, in a 'so bad it was good' kind of way. The first night they had passengers singing karaoke and the second night saw some of the crew singing and dancing. The drinks were cheap too, so when there was no organised entertainment Sara and I tried to speak to Andrei.

This was mainly in a mixture of English and Japanese. He spends his time travelling between Japan and Russia working as a delivery driver. He seemed to like Japan, but can't get a visa for more than 3 months - hence the constant travel between the two places. He told us about having two passports (one for in Russia and one for international travel), his wife who stays in Vladivostok and runs a nail salon, him driving 80,000km a year, and the fact that he can fire big guns! Didn't quite get that part, maybe he served in the army. His favourite English phrase seemed to be 'No problem' (obviously in a thick Russian accent. Think James Bond villan). When we asked him what this was in Russian, he said 'Niet Problem'. This is the easiest Russian phrases I've encountered so far.

The Korean boys seemsed to enjoy practising English and seemed to be constantly bouncing around. They demonstrated the dance 'sex on the beach', attempted to dance like Michael Jackson, traded insults with each other, and dished out random compliments. These included 'you look like John Connor', 'Wow, you're very tall', 'You're handsome', and 'Your boobs are like stone!'.

By the end of the trip I was avoiding people attempting to practise English. The conversations quickly went from a fun attempt to communicate to draining and repetitive banal conversations. This had to be done whilst smiling a lot too, so not as to offend people who were doing nothing at all wrong.

We'd been warned by Andrei that the customs process in Russia was very long. It was actually very quick, but before we got there we had to wait for 2 hours on the boat. Maybe this is the normal process and there was some misunderstanding. After stepping onto Russian soil, we changed some money, bought a few postcards, then split into two groups. Those of us who were staying in Vladivostok, and those who were going onto the train. I went with Chris, and we set out to find our first Russian hostel before dark.

More photos here...
http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Japan%20to%20Russia/Ferry%20to%20Vladivostok/?albumview=slideshow

Orange dinosaur and military marching music...naturally.