Jumping the Fence (and Getting Ripped Off)

Oh China Firewall, I won't miss you.

After a little trip to Shanghai's flea market and the Urban Planning Exhibit, where epic city-wide dioramas can be seen, we went to the port and embarked on a boat.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have waited long to make this joke: I'm on a boat, motherfudger.

As we go the scenic route to Fukuoka, Japan, we opted to explore the vessel we were to sleep a few nights in. A wading pool, buffet and mini-theatre composed a few parts of the boat. I don't know the fares and fees and I don't want to know.

But even better was the inclusion of boat-wide Wi-Fi. It had no password, but it had a log-in page. It only needed a passenger to register and put in card and cabin numbers so I thought Wi-Fi was free. Deceptively enough, it was not.

50 US cents per minute, with $30 for an hour package. What a rip-off in exchange for complete net access (especially considering China's Firewall)! I thought the computer stations in some room was going to be free but no dice.

No choice but to pay? Well, I guess there's the option of not using the Wi-Fi at all.

Then again, it's hard to resist the Internet access, not to mention how convenient the Wi-Fi is. But damn it, why does it have to be this way?!

Now we're in the middle of nowhere, in some time period I can't precisely pinpoint, because for every Monday and Tuesday, the ship's clock gets altered through the addition of an hour. And apparently, the changes were already deployed a long while ago. Hmm.

At night, we watched yet another magic show but this time hosted by a female Australian magician (who at first I thought looked like a transvestite). It was a decent enough diversion.

Well, for now I guess there's nothing more to say except for... FREE WIFI PLEAZE I'M DYING INSIDE

Trivia: There are tons of Filipinos in the crew. My Chinese-impaired brother (oh wait, my siblings and I are all limited Chinese speakers) won't have to fret.

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