Overall, it was a very tiring trip due to certain factors... Which is not at all how a vacation blog account should start. But it's true.

The cruise- the Good:
1) The suite! I love our room. Haha. It had an amazing view of the Bund before we set off and I got my best photos of the Shanghai skyline before we sailed off.

To sum up: Champagne, chocolates on the pillows, priority seating. Love.

2) Service was amazing. (On a rather more random note, the cruise reminded me that I once dreamed of hopping around the world on an airplane as a air stewardess. But since my lack of height has clearly closed that door, maybe a cruise ship then.)

3) Breakfast room service and mid-afternoon cheese and chocolate platters.

4) Fine dining: I am so fat from all the cakes and desserts and main courses and starters. All the food is amazing and it looked amazing and it tasted amazing.

5) I had time to sit outside on the balcony with nothing by the deep blue sea in front of me and read. It was nice.

And when I popped my head over to the next balcony, there was a very nice French couple who waved back. (I eavesdropped a lot. Haha)

The cruise- the Terrible:
1) I have met the nouveaux riche. 1300 of them. Okay, I'll explain.

1700 people on the cruise. 1300 were Chinese citizens.

i) The first strange thing is that most of these people appear to be retirees, or around that age. And most of them didn't even come with their spouses. It was more like Sex and the City gal pals plus 30 years...

So, the nouveaux riche are... wrinkled.

ii) Some of them are cute: I saw one old granny (the word feels right on her). She sat opposite me with a toothless smile and at least 3 plates of sunny side-ups, hashbrowns, bacon and other breakfast things. When her tour guide came over to hurry her along, she hurriedly put the hashbrown between two sunny-side ups. Then she attempted to eat the peculiar sandwich... and then ask if she could wrap it up in a napkin.

iii) Some of them are confused: This woman stood next to me in front of a sign that announced an art auction and a Picasso piece. She squinted at them both and finally asked me in Chinese what was happened. It took me a moment to translate art auction. But then after that she shook her head at the Picasso and left.

(Yes I attended art auctions. There was free champagne and I made a mental note to check if NUS offered a history of art module.) (Yes, studying is never far from my mind.)

iv) Some of them are obnoxious: If queuing is a Singaporean past time, then queue cutting is a Chinese one. They're highly skilled at it too.

And they're also capable of knocking quite hard into people, without seeming to notice at all. After a while, I got too fed up to apologise or say excuse me. Felt pretty meaningless...

... In a Bingo session, one very very petty man actually shouted onto the floor because the announcers were speaking English and the numbers were being flashed but not read out in Chinese.

And don't get me started on their behaviour near the sales.. elbowing, snatching, shoving... Like I said, after a while, I just pushed back. (... At this point, a narrator would comment on the impatience of youth or something)

v) They buy luxury brands; and they're big buyers. LV and Guess bags and watches in 4s, 5s, or 6s. It was amazing to watch. Their favourite designs are the ones where the brand is loudly and proudly glinting out at the world. (I wish I could write like Fitzgerald about them but I can't. So make do.)

vi) (I don't know quite how to categorise this particular incident. I feel kinda bad writing it.) When I was in the gym, a whole group of them trooped in and examined the equipment like it was an attraction.

... One of the men hung onto a machine... like a monkey. Because he didn't know how to use it.

And the rest of them snapped photographs next to pieces of equipment.

Okay, I listed them under the Terrible. So clearly, I didn't enjoy their presence quite so much. By the end of the cruise my impression of the Chinese was pretty much this: rude, vulgar, rich. I became... sort of scared. Of the idea that China will be the major world power in the most parts of my lifetime. Secretly, I've never felt good about it. I can't exactly explain why. But observing the Chinese for 6 days only seem to enhance this feeling. I will find a way to articulate it soon.

(Possibly, it's that the world is changing. And like sand shifting under my feet, nothing feels solid and it feels like I could sink.)

Fukuoka, Japan:
1) I marvel at the high degree of public morality in Japan, I really do. The taxi driver stopped the meter when we stopped at red lights. Waiters hurry after you to return extra change even after we had left the restaurant. People hurry off subway trains to return a dropped possession.

2) Shopping was amazing!

3) You should travel with people who have similar interests. There was so much I wanted to stop at, read, take photos of... But my parents and brother were so bored...

This is why I want to travel alone.

Pusan, South Korea:
1) Again, the similar interests point. I didn't get to go to the only UN cemetery in the world.

2) There is something very whacked up about the planning of their subway system. Stations could appear in the middle of nowhere. I came out of one to find myself somewhere along a very wide and busy road. And attractions were located fairly far away from stations.

3) Shopping could have been amazing if I was alone. Really, the clothes were amazing.

The brother was a deadweight. I had to refuel him with donuts.

... I will post separately about Shanghai. Going to flop back to bed to wait for Bryan to get home.