The Imperial Palace Hotel

I am certainly on the way home; this is an undisputed and clear fact in the current chain of events. I am off the ship and in a hotel, having arrived last night and expecting to fly onwards sometime later today. I am suffering what every seafarer goes through upon finding out that he cannot walk down the gangway one minute and walk through his front door the next - severe impatience and frustration to be home.

When joining a ship any amount of planes, trains and hiccups are accepted as part of the job and all form 'part and parcel' of the excitement that a new trip to sea brings. Leaving a ship though is different, when off the ship and homeward bound any stays in a hotel, any hiccups in the journey home are all painfully borne, and as now, I just want to be back to my life and wife in Taiwan, not stuck in a hotel waiting for the phone to ring.

I departed the ship yesterday on 25 October 2006. On the morning of that great day, I had worn a path from one bridge wing to the other, a constant guard on lookout duty for my relief. I paced irritably, unable to concentrate on any task, to sit down with a cup of coffee or to let events take their natural course. I paced the bridge and I phoned the office to find out why he was not onboard yet! I paced some more and then went down to the engine room, then ran back up and continued my pacing. "A watched kettle never boils", I know!

He turned up at twelve. A very welcome sight and the ultimate sign in the sequence that I would be leaving that boat today. Unless of course he had an abrupt change of heart and decided that he did not want to join after all, or keeled over with the shock of the cold weather but this sort of thing does not happen very often. And so he came onboard and with a sigh of relief, I knew that this was my day, this was my day to go home! After three hours of chatter and handover, I raced around the vessel saying "goodbye" to my Russian shipmates of the last months and then with my suitcase I climbed into the minibus that was to take me to the Imperial Palace Hotel in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, were I am currently awaiting my plane out.

The bus trip was uneventful, a harrowed race across the southern tip of the Island of Sakhalinsk from the port of Kholmsk to the city of Yuzhno, a journey that I have now done five times in the last three months. The Russian driver did not talk to me for the whole 2 hours! He had started the trip off with a grumble of "why did I have to wait three hours for you", so I shortened that with, "my company pays for your services so you wait however long is necessary". This reply did not sit too well with him, so silence and huffs ensued which was fine by me and by 5.30pm we were at the doors of the hotel. By 5.31pm, my driver had roared off in a cloud of black smoke - and there, he had gone and forgot to shake my hand and say, "you have pleasant stay in Yuzhno please"!

The Room at the Imperial Palace Hotel
Photo Copyright © Ieuan Dolby, 2006

The Imperial Palace is a nice hotel. I was slightly worried about were I would end up this time. In the Tourist Hotel with no air-conditioning, in the Ladder Hotel with no locks on the doors and bars on the window or the Yakor Hotel were nobody speaks English and the menu is all in Russian! But surprisingly the room is comfortable and nice, the view is decent, the menu is readable and the receptionist speaks English.

I certainly had a good sleep. I spent my evening in solitude, with an initial bath to clean myself and my mind and then to the horizontal position on the bed; with a packet of cashew nuts, a beer and a movie! I cannot say much for the movie! I flicked through the six available channels on the television. The first was out as it was a rather serious Russian news reader, during the five-minutes that I watched he did not once change his expression! Quite disconcerting! I moved on to Russian MTV (the music channel) but this did not appeal, a Russian documentary on Leonardo De Vinci, an English version would not have been suitable that evening but spoken in Russian it was suicide material. Like the Taiwanese, the Russians seem to love hysterical talk shows with hosts and hostesses making complete fools of themselves by talking too loud and throwing themselves maniacally onto uncomfortable looking guests.

I ended up at the last available channel. This was a comedy, an American or British comedy but one that had obviously failed to make it 'big' as I did not recognize any of the characters. I spent ten minutes or so trying to work out from which side of the Atlantic this comedy came from but the Russian dubbing made the task nigh-on impossible. The lady in the comedy was dubbed with a male voice, this was extremely off-putting (believe me) and judging by the lack of inflection and feeling the other actors were all dubbed by the same 'dubber'! So there we had my movie for the night! A seriously poorly-dubbed movie, that had no action scenes to watch and with an annoying back ground drone of the original English spoken voices, that the Russian 'dubbers' never seem to be able to erase. By 8.30 or thereabouts I was fast asleep, a half finished beer left on the table and not a care in the world!

I am a bit perturbed this morning though! I got up at 7.30am to have a shower to find no water coming out of the tap! The correct thing to do in this sort of situation is to phone the reception desk and enquire politely 'what the hell is going on' but along with the inherent language barrier and the fact that when I tried nobody answered, I decided not to pursue this line of attack further. Next on the agenda could have been a trip down the three floors to the reception desk but with my hair standing up like 6000 volts had recently caught me unawares, I didn't feel in the mood to frighten the other guests in the hotel.

I have just now had my shower! It was not quite the sort of refreshing experience that one could hope for and it has not kept the electric hair in place but with what was available it is not going to get much better. To achieve the end aim, I put half the bottle of mineral water into the kettle, and the other half into the only other available container in the room, the toilet waste bin (there was no plug in the sink). When the kettle had boiled, I mixed the hot with the cold and well, simply used a cloth to try to make myself presentable.

Ach, I forgot to keep some water back to brush my teeth!

Sometime today, I will continue the journey onwards. Already the Pacific Endeavour is receding in my mind, my brain automatically clearing out what is no longer required! My brain is basically preparing itself for the two months that I will have of relaxation and the enjoyment of being with my family. I have ahead of me a plane journey to Seoul in Korea, another to Taipei. After that, I am not sure yet as no ticket has been booked for the Taipei to Kaohsiung haul, all part of the adventure I suppose, the one that I do not need.

The phone will ring soon, the agent with my flight details and the time for him to pick me up to take me to the airport.

Come on phone - ring!

Ieuan Dolby
Author and Webmaster of SeaDolby.com
Copyright © Ieuan Dolby, 26th October 2006