Day 103 - Tsingtao Beer

We hadn't cleared customs/immigration late last night although the captain was sitting waiting for them. The bureaucracy of each port must be frustrating. Even as passengers we see a big difference in each port in the way we enter and exit the port. Take today for example: We collected our passports on board and showed them to a guard at the bottom of the gangway. We walked out of port gate (let's call it A) and someone looked at it again. I should point out that they only looked at the passport section and not at the visa (although they did look at the visa in the last port). We spent the next seven hours walking around the city and grabbed a taxi back to the port gate (let's call it B). We had actually gone past where we wanted to, but I realised that the driver was likely taking us to the main gate. Well, we didn't get in at gate B, no chance. No real explanation, well, not in English at least. So we walked back out to the road and back to gate A, where the guy barely looked at my passport and didn't look at my mother's. We're pretty sure the fellow at this gate was the same one from the morning, so it's likely he remembered us.

This is because after seven hours in Qingdao we had not seen another non-Asian face. So, you know, we kind of stand out. One of our fellow passengers was even in the city as well, but we didn't run into him. Anyway, we had a good time wandering around Qingdao. Wandering is the best term as it wasn't until perhaps 2pm in the afternoon that I figured out where we had been. I still wasn't entirely sure where we were though. At one point a very nice local man offered to help us, and the map confused him as well! You can see the massive efforts going into preparing the city for the 2008 Olympics. The sailing events will be held in this area. Street signs are in English, although the map I had only had about 5% of the streets marked in English. Some of the newer stores have English signs. The bank teller who exchanged our currency spoke excellent English. When we stopped for lunch the restaurant manager helped us to place our order, although the menu had some pictures and some English on it. And the strangest one was while resting a for few minutes on a bench outside a shopping mall a man came and asked for the time - in English. We suspect this last fellow was practicing his English, but it was funny just the same.

As well, there is a lot of construction going on in preparing shopping malls, apartments and/or rental units. Some of it is quite gorgeous, including a planned pedestrian mall that we walked along. All and all it was an interesting day in the city. We found out today that we'll be sailing tomorrow morning at 10am. So, although we won't get another day in town, we're hoping for some lovely views of the city and shoreline as we sail out. The picture from today is one of a few I'd like to share (and will likely add in more when we're crossing the Pacific). This was taken on Beer Street, near Tsingtao brewery. I mean, who would pass up the chance to have their picture taken beside a giant beer can!