http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_YlkEUOonI&feature=PlayList&p=0516A45938BF35B7&index=0&playnext=1
Have you ever been the victim of random temperature checks??
We have (6 times in 2 days in fact).
Have you ever been forced to buy and wear a face mask??
We have.
Have you ever spent 48 hours on a boat??
We have... and we live to tell the tale!!
Have you ever been the victim of random temperature checks??
We have (6 times in 2 days in fact).
Have you ever been forced to buy and wear a face mask??
We have.
Have you ever spent 48 hours on a boat??
We have... and we live to tell the tale!!
Swine flu... apparently it's a pretty big deal... and apparently when travelling from Osaka, the Swine Flu Capital of Japan, extreme measures are taken to ensure that you don't have or spread the flu to your country of destination.
Prior to being granted permission to board our ferry from Osaka to Shanghai, we had to pass a test... it's not one you can study for, but it is, in this age of Swine flu, the greatest test of all... The Temperature Test. Now, in general, tests of any kind make us a little nervous, but after seeing the guy in front of us denied permission to board the boat, we began to worry a little that we could be forced into quarantine in Japan and miss our ferry to China. That would be just our luck. We waited in anticipation for our turn to take 'The Test', which involved a small Chinese man holding a sensor of sorts about 2cm from our foreheads to check our temperatures. The first 5 attempts at checking Amy's temp were complete failures... apparently a body temperature reading of 3 degrees Celsius isn't normal... good to know our travel fate was dependant on such an accurate and reliable scientific instrument. After some very technical adjustments were made to the sensor (that is, the clerk bashed it against his palm a few times), our temperatures were read and we were finally allowed to board the boat. Phew.
Upon boarding, we were shown to our 16 bed dorm room (ladies only, thank you)... by dorm we mean a 5m X 5m cupboard with windows and tatami mats on the floor... and by bed we mean a very thin mat on the floor with a brick for a pillow. As the last people to get into the room, we were happy to see that it was only half full.. what we weren't happy to see was that our room mates for the next 2 days were 4 Japanese women with a brood of little kids under the age of 5. Every kid on that boat was in our room. Joy! Don't get us wrong, we love kids, but being woken up by a 4 year old smiling at you while jumping from your shins to your stomach (fact) tends to make their charm wear a little thin. Really, in all fairness, they were really cute kids and when they weren't building forts around our beds with the spare pillows and mattresses, or spilling their drinks all over the floor (that was also our bed), they provided us with a lot of entertainment and hugs on our long journey.
In addition to making BFF's with 4 year olds, we were also lucky enough to meet a few other travellers who, like us, had opted fro this cheap mode of transport. As you can imagine, there's not too much to do on a boat for 2 days, so we bonded with our new travel companions with the help of beer vending machine and karaoke bar. We don't know why, but there's something about being stuck in a confined space for a long period of time with the threat of swine flu hanging over your heads that makes you feel like you've known someone for years... so by the time we got to China, these guys were our best friends!
Upon arriving in Shanghai we were greeted by the sight of 10 policemen waiting for our boat to dock. They forced everyone to wait on the boat for an hour while they searched bags and took groups of Japanese men aside for questioning. We're still not entirely sure what was going on, but the boat rumour-mill has it that they were searching for counterfeit money.
After the police allowed us to leave the boat and we passed yet another temperature test, we headed to immigration where we all had to undergo thermal scans before being allowed to continue through customs... well most of us were allowed to continue to customs. Our friend Niall, had worked himself up into such a nervous state that he failed the thermo-scan and was promptly led into a closed room by a man in a biohazard suit. We may never know what really happened in this room, but after about an hour, a shaken Niall was released... he asked us never to speak of this incident again (or something kind of like that).
Finally free from the confines of the boat, our team of 2, now 5 strong, discarded our face masks and stepped out onto Chinese soil.
The end.
Prior to being granted permission to board our ferry from Osaka to Shanghai, we had to pass a test... it's not one you can study for, but it is, in this age of Swine flu, the greatest test of all... The Temperature Test. Now, in general, tests of any kind make us a little nervous, but after seeing the guy in front of us denied permission to board the boat, we began to worry a little that we could be forced into quarantine in Japan and miss our ferry to China. That would be just our luck. We waited in anticipation for our turn to take 'The Test', which involved a small Chinese man holding a sensor of sorts about 2cm from our foreheads to check our temperatures. The first 5 attempts at checking Amy's temp were complete failures... apparently a body temperature reading of 3 degrees Celsius isn't normal... good to know our travel fate was dependant on such an accurate and reliable scientific instrument. After some very technical adjustments were made to the sensor (that is, the clerk bashed it against his palm a few times), our temperatures were read and we were finally allowed to board the boat. Phew.
Upon boarding, we were shown to our 16 bed dorm room (ladies only, thank you)... by dorm we mean a 5m X 5m cupboard with windows and tatami mats on the floor... and by bed we mean a very thin mat on the floor with a brick for a pillow. As the last people to get into the room, we were happy to see that it was only half full.. what we weren't happy to see was that our room mates for the next 2 days were 4 Japanese women with a brood of little kids under the age of 5. Every kid on that boat was in our room. Joy! Don't get us wrong, we love kids, but being woken up by a 4 year old smiling at you while jumping from your shins to your stomach (fact) tends to make their charm wear a little thin. Really, in all fairness, they were really cute kids and when they weren't building forts around our beds with the spare pillows and mattresses, or spilling their drinks all over the floor (that was also our bed), they provided us with a lot of entertainment and hugs on our long journey.
In addition to making BFF's with 4 year olds, we were also lucky enough to meet a few other travellers who, like us, had opted fro this cheap mode of transport. As you can imagine, there's not too much to do on a boat for 2 days, so we bonded with our new travel companions with the help of beer vending machine and karaoke bar. We don't know why, but there's something about being stuck in a confined space for a long period of time with the threat of swine flu hanging over your heads that makes you feel like you've known someone for years... so by the time we got to China, these guys were our best friends!
Upon arriving in Shanghai we were greeted by the sight of 10 policemen waiting for our boat to dock. They forced everyone to wait on the boat for an hour while they searched bags and took groups of Japanese men aside for questioning. We're still not entirely sure what was going on, but the boat rumour-mill has it that they were searching for counterfeit money.
After the police allowed us to leave the boat and we passed yet another temperature test, we headed to immigration where we all had to undergo thermal scans before being allowed to continue through customs... well most of us were allowed to continue to customs. Our friend Niall, had worked himself up into such a nervous state that he failed the thermo-scan and was promptly led into a closed room by a man in a biohazard suit. We may never know what really happened in this room, but after about an hour, a shaken Niall was released... he asked us never to speak of this incident again (or something kind of like that).
Finally free from the confines of the boat, our team of 2, now 5 strong, discarded our face masks and stepped out onto Chinese soil.
The end.
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