Dum & Bum: 1/11/07........new friends!

So yes, on a thursday, like two days ago if i'm not mistaken (took me like 5 minutes to figure this out) hahahahah i got to go on the DOULOS ship man!!! And it was AMAZING!!! Ps.Ling, Ting, Sam and I got invited to go onto the ship under VIP pass man, and have a tour of the ship and everything at 5pm!!! So we wanted to buy some books first so we left early and reached Muara port at around 4pm ish (thank God Ling asked us to leave earlier, i got lost TWICE, so embarassing :$) hahahahah

Anyways, so once we reached we didn't really know where to go and everything so we just decided to walk. Although there were shuttle buses to and fro the ship, as we didn't know where to board and everything we WALKED!!!

So semangat man! So from like 4pm till about 4.45pm we shopped for books, hahahah Ling bought a bunch of books man (the most), followed by Sam (as he found out they received credit cards), then Ting then ME! I got like THREE new cook books heheheheh so happy man! It was SOOO cheap and in VERY good condition! The one thing that really scared me were the STAIRS leadind from the dock to the ship man! When you like reach the middle as there is no support and everything, you can actually feel the stairs, METAL STAIRS, bouncing up and down man! And Sam didn't make it any easier, as he was purposely MOVING the stairs!

So anyways being typical chinese people, we didn't wanna carry our books and everything around with us when we have a toured on the ship right, so we decided to put everything back into the car, so we WALKED again (MORE STAIRS), seriously man, it was like TORTURE!!! And we had to like power walk from the car back to the ship as we were running late already (like 4 minutes lah, but PUNCTUALITY is IMPORTANT!!) and crazy man, once we reached the ship and everything, we were all sweating man! Not sweating like pigs lah, but more of "glowing" hahahahahah

So out host came and then we were brought to meet other crew-members on the doulos and found out some interesting facts about the ship and also the crew members:

Doulos is greek for SERVANT!
there are over 50 nationalities in the ship
about 350 crewmates
the ship is 93 years old
the ship is being spruced up DAILY
one of the crew members told us that, when she was young and still in her mother's womb, she kicked so violently that she broke 2 of her mother's ribs (just had to put this in cause it's totally unheard of man)

So anyways, we then broke up into smaller groups and Sam and I got stucked together but we got to meet two COOL guys on the ship, Mo and Chris! They were so cool man! Chris is a welder on the ship from the UK and Mo is one of the many deck inspector from Germany and sometimes get to STEER the ship!! SOOOOOO COOL RIGHT!!!

We then had dinner on board and it was the BEST!!!! We had like carbonara and cauliflower! And it was really good man! We also had this strawberry "juice" thing which both Mo and Chris was discouraging Sam and I to drink, as it's made from powder or something and they had a argument about whether or not the orange juice served on Sunday on board was real or not hahahahahah it was hilarious man, especially Mo who keeps bringing up "with real pulp" and Sam saying "artificial pulp" hahahahahahahah so funny.

Then after dinner they brought us around the ship, like AROUND man! We obviously first passed the kitchen and then had a little pit-stop as they found ice-cream, and they were like complaining how come the other tables had ice-cream, but we had to go all the way to the back just to get ice-cream hahahahhaha. We then went to see the fire fighter's room, the engine room, Main Street (a corridor that travels from the front to the back of the ship), the laundry room, Chris' work station, Mo's work station ( where we found out that the tension in the ropes that he worked with are soooooooo STRONG that if they were to snap, it could cut a person in HALF!), both Mo's and Chris's cabin, the store room where they keep all the books, a Ship Shop where they sell snacks and toiletries (sooo cool, they sell LAY'S chips hahah) and some other places!
We then joined them with their weekly programmes and it was indeed an honour to be able to be part of something that's so big. And then it was time for us to leave :'( although it was only like 3 to 4 hours with Mo and Chris, Sam and I really got to know both of them and got attached, cause they were so COOL and we all just totally connected. So the leaving part was the hardest......but we got to like exchange e-mails and everything and we also took some crazy pictures hahahahah. Indeed it was a once in a lifetime experience.

It's amazing what the Doulos is doing all around the world, having a motto of "Bringing Knowledge, Help and Hope" that there are people, ordinary people, young and old, just like you and I, that are willing to give 2 years of their life to go out into sea, volunteering themselves to do something totally selfless! And it indeed was a GREAT pleasure to get to know Mo and Chris, and to know that they are doing GREAT things for people who are in need! I will totally miss them!