paperwork in place

I've now got my passport with spiffy new visas for Brazil, India, and China. It cost an arm and a leg -- over $700 going through the visa service. But there they are. I can bop in and out of India until October 2016, China until October 2012, Brazil until -- yikes! only 90 days from last Monday! OK, that's nine days until the end of November, plus 31 days of December, 40 days, plus 31 days of January is 71 days. Whew! I'm OK, we'll be done with Brazil by January 20 unless I get kidnapped by curare-dart-wielding tribesmen from the depths of the Amazonian rainforest. Even then I'll be OK as long as the ransom gets paid before February 20 or so. I wonder why Brazil is so stingy.

And the welcome packet from Holland America arrived last weekend with the information that there will be 18 formal nights, about one a week, plus offers for beverage and spa and internet packages. I've already ordered a glass of "house wine" with each dinner, 1000 minutes of internet access, and the cheapest of the photo packages -- I am a dunce at photography, and if I want to remember how I looked on this cruise, I'm going to have to pay for someone else's version of me. And there's a deal whereby I get a liter of water delivered to my cabin every morning. Probably a good idea, since we'll be in hot, humid tropical places most of the time. I can put my liter of water in my knitting bag with my tablet* as I wander about the ship looking for a place to sit where I can watch the ocean go by. **

*Yes, I've ordered a tablet, a Toshiba Thrive. My friend Nanette got one, and just twiddling with it for a few minutes was all it took to overcome my feeble resistance. It arrives late next week. I had all sorts of very valid rational reasons not to get one. But Nanette's was all shiny and colorful and had all these neat apps on it and I swear I was a grownup once, I really was, I did deferred gratification and everything, I really did. I have the image of the fallen woman crooning, "I was not always as you see me now."

**It will, of course, be nothing like this when I'm actually on the ship. There are people who plan out their adventures to the last detail, then go and march triumphantly through their plans, point by point, and return having done exactly what they expected to do. That sounds to me like a total waste of time. Why have an adventure if you already know how it's going to turn out?

letter from the Captain

Yesterday I got a letter from the captain -- from two captains, actually.

The man who has been captain on Holland-America's world cruises for several years is unable to continue this year due to family medical situations. He wrote to apologize to those with whom he has sailed before, saying how much he had looked forward to sailing with them again and wishing them a good voyage.

The man who will be captain wrote to say how delighted he is to be sailing with us and how much he's looking forward to, yada, yada, yada.

But the exciting thing is the information about the new captain. He's British, for one thing, but the really cool thing is that he's been a seaman for 43 years and a captain for 25. He's sailed on British Merchant Navy vessels, cargo ships, and ferries as well as several Holland America line ships. I am entranced with the fact that he didn't just enroll in cruise ship captain school and graduate with arrogance and class entitlement. (Occupy Portland is only six blocks away, the spirit is getting to me.) I (unrealistically) imagine him hauling ropes and clambering up masts to unfurl sails and maybe even occasionally saying "Arrrh" -- no, wait, that's pirates. But you get the idea.

"Any mariner would be delighted to sail in such a great variety of waters -- Antarctica, Polynesia, the Great Barrier Reef, and the Suez Canal." This is a man after my own heart.

Can it be that this is actually going to happen in just 54 days, 5 hours, 26 minutes, and 48 seconds?

"Don't drink the water, and don't breathe the air"

If you're old enough to remember Tom Lehrer's satirical songs, you'll recognize the title of this post from his song "Pollution". It comes to mind because of the following:

Readings today from the indispensable (and highly controversial) @BeijingAir feed:

For explanation of the readings, see this chart from the EPA and other government health agencies. Take-home message: air quality readings in the high 300s, like those prevailing in Beijing recently, are defined as "Hazardous" and only rarely occur in North America or Western Europe:



In case you can't read the "Hazardous" description, it says that readings over 300 "would trigger a health warnings of emergency conditions. The entire population is more likely to be affected." For real-time reading of comparable US AQI levels, see this map.

I'm going to be in Beijing for two days as part of the overland China excursion that leaves the ship in Indonesia and rejoins it in Hong Kong. I hope I will be able to see from one end of the street to the other. I'm pretty sure two days is not enough time to do serious damage to me, but I do wish my Chinese hosts had a choice about what air they breathe over longer periods.

Maybe I'll add "BeijingAir" to my Twitter feed. It's published by the US Embassy based on measurements taken by equipment on their roof. The Chinese government wishes quite emphastically that they'd shut up about it.