Shandong Lingshan Island [山东灵山岛]
At the mid-August, I took a weekend trip to a small island at Shandong province, called Lingshan island, with 2 colleagues and many friends. It was one of those cheap fare trip, tour bus, villagers’ room, local food and very basic toilet with no practical shower. But it was fun exactly because of the lack of comfortable room so everybody just stick around together instead of each one going back to their room watching TV after diner. The island itself has nothing special, beside a respectable deep blue color rocked sea shore without beach. The advertised big seafood meals were worse than any ordinary restaurant at Shanghai, really! But we did feed ourselves properly, and there was plenty of beer and wine.
One very memorable thing was the returning day. We were supposed to leave the island around noon, just before lunch. It turned out there was a big typhoon announced by the weather channel at early morning, we rushed for the breakfast at 7am, went to the pier at 8am under heavy rain and strong wind. It was like a scene of running for your life. Arrived at the pier, there were not only our tour group but also other villagers who want to leave the island that day in afraid that there might be only one boat available for the day. So the line up was messy, they were not allowed to embark on the boat because it was arranged specifically for our group (because we pay more in advance) but those guys insisted on embarking and deliberately blocked us. The scene was like families fighting for their lifes to leave a war torn island on the last boat………
Then after the painful embarcation, the boat was overloaded with too many stocks and people, there wasn’t enough seats for everyone, and before the boat leave the port it was already rocking because of the big wave. Fully packed, uncomfortable seats without air conditioning were all conditions to make everybody feel worse than usual. Many ladies started to take seasick pills early, but that didn’t cure them in any way. Fifteen minutes after the boat left, all those who usually had seasick have a plastic bag in hand, some already filled 1/3 of the bag… Fifteen minutes later we ran out of anything disposable that could hold liquid… Ten minutes afterward all those who usually have no seasick were feeling bad too because of the sight and the smell of all those half-filled plastic bags………
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At the moment where I could no longer hold my breath… the boat luckily arrived to destination and stopped rocking, I arrived alive! It was a memorable trip for every single member of our group, we didn’t stop talking about those plastic bags during the lunch and returning road. Finally, I got home at 11pm, home sweet home!
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