(This time, I had uploaded and published the photos before the text, but cannot divide them, so I split the text in to halves, separated by a photo block…
Today, I wanted to leave the hotel slightly before check-out time at 12:00, because I only had to go to the agency at 13:00 and just wanted get some lunch before that.
But at 4:30, in another room someone started using the hair dryer and someone else wanted to communicate with that person at this very time and successfully tried to talk louder than a hairdryer dries. My ears reported that to my brain who was curious enough about this event that he woke up the rest of me.
Good job (as Neil in Taichung would say).
So, I had a long morning for working, but was not that energetic.
On the way, I wanted to get Australian $, but banks were closed and the only shop that I found for exchanging money had no AUD. I bought a lunch and went to the agency. On the way, I saw a chocolate shop, called “EZ chocolat” and stopped. The shop assistant was happy to have a customer and immediately served a cup of tea. I could taste small chocolate bars and quickly decided to buy them.
First of all, I got a discount, but then I also got a chocolate candy and when she gave me me my package, there were two pieces of cake in it. (I ate them in the evening and was delighted ? )
When I arrived at the agency, I got a message from another agent. It was clearly understandable, and he told me that he had first gone to the immigration office and would meet me after that in about 20min, because the ship still had not berthed.
He came punctually, packed my luggage in his car and we both drove to the immigration office, which was only 200m from the agency. There we parked our vehicles and went to a nearby café to wait. I didn’t need to provide any documents except my passport, because he had all documents printed out and had done the paper work beforehand. So, we sat down and talked a lot, my share was 10% and mostly just giving keywords for the next monologue, but this was no problem because it was very interesting. This man knew much about Taiwanese history and politics but also about many other countries. I cannot refer everything, but I also don’t want to repeat what I remember without checking what is true.
At 3:30, we went back to the immigration, I just signed a little paper with name and passport number and without any luggage check (“because we are just a small island”) we could go to the port. The agent had asked how I would get to the port and first was a bit ok with me going by bike, but now, he wanted to pack the bike in his car, explaining that nobody was allowed to go by bike and not even taxis would be allowed.
here is the agency, but I was not inside 
directly neighboring is a hotel, I hadn’t seen it yesterday 🙂 
view from the car 
this was not ME, it was the camera which did this 
20m left… 
those workers open the holders and fixations of the containers for unloading 
view from my cabin, to the bow of the ship 
other window – the cranes are working 
my first GPS signal from the ship 
a beautiful cake after bike and car transport
Well, we
went there, I had a short passport control at the entry, he had to fill in a
form at a second check point and soon we were at the port. The “Georgia” was
about to berth, you could see how those “pusher boats” brought her to the pier,
people throwing thin ropes down on which the big ropes were tied up, that only
could be carried by three men. And I saw many bicycles, workers driving to and fro
with them. And a taxi waiting, but the agent said it was a special port taxi.
When the stairs were prepared, I soon could enter the ship, one crew member helping
with the luggage, one carrying the bike. The ship is a bit smaller than the “Columba”
and it was good to know the basic arrangement of decks etc., because it was
more confused and winding. I was brought to my cabin and had a short visit at
the office to deliver my documents. Then I tried to find my bike and with the
help of one crew member asking the next and the next we found it in a small
extra room.
Not much later it was time for dinner and then I went to the cabin, writing
many messages, posting on facebook, reacting to comments, uploading a video, etc,
because in a few hours, I could not do it anymore. At 23:00, I was tired but glad
that I had not tried to go to sleep, because there was a very loud alarm. I
went out of the cabin and the captain came from one side and told me it was
only a test. On the Columba, there had been 2 or 3 tests, too, but they had
been announced per loudspeakers. Last time, I had had the complete F-Deck for me, because
the office etc was one deck higher, here, on F-Deck is also the office and the
captains and some officer’s rooms, so it is a bit noisy.
Today, I had learned something new about the cabin: I had not been able to open
the drawers and thought they were locked. Now I saw a key, but it didn’t fit,
so I asked. And the drawers have an extra button on the bottom that must be
pressed to open them.
Tomorrow I want to empty my bags completely in fill everything in those drawers
and cabinets and lockers.