Billy

Gday UteBlokes n UteChicks at BeautUtes.com

Well I have Wrote over a period of a few weeks or so! So sorry for the
delay in keeping you all up to date with my journey.

Here I am at Nagoya Japan, I have been here now for about 6 days, and the
sooner we get out of here the better, it is so bloody expensive, and all I
really want to do right now is to get this trip over with.

Nagoya has been pretty good, except where we is located a long way away
from the city part.

Right next to our Ship is a huge Aquarium which houses a Killer Whale
(Orca) all my shipmates are raving on how great the show is with the killer
whale, but there is no way that I would even consider see that poor Whale
which is locked in a tiny pool, I think that is one of the most disgusting
things in this world to keep Whales and other exotic creatures locked up in
captivity.

It really makes me sad and very angry when I hear of this kind of stuff,
and it really pisses me off that the Japs are hunting Whales for there
meat, a lot of the butchers around here sell it … so much for Scientific
Research they tell us!

Tomorrow we head off to our next destination, South Korea and then a few
days later back to Japan.

Being away from home for such a long time is not that good, there are so
many things I miss, the wide open spaces, the fresh air, the long drives
home in my ute, my family, my dog Cloggs, my own privacy, a long hot bath,
so many things.

We’ve only been away for about nearly 2 months, and knowing that its at
least three more months until I get home is kind of heart breaking…. Not
that I am not having a great time, but home is home and nothing compares to
being home and in Australia.

We do get back to Australia in about 6 to 8 weeks time, but unfortunately
not Western Australia, I am going to be stuck over the East Coast for a
month or so, and a lot of that time, we will be at Sea off the East Coast.

I tell you what, it really hits home, how lucky We are to be an Australian
and to live in such a great and free country, when we were in China, I saw
so many desperate and destitute people, including the many beggars on the
streets, who were deformed (deliberately at birth by there families so they
could make money begging) a lot of the beggars were only little tiny kids
some of which would have been 2 years old, even less, but to believe me you
would really have to see this with your own eyes. These babys are placed on
mats with empty cups next to them, that’s how they learn to beg from then
till they die.

I had a fantastic time at China though, I did the tour of the Great Wall of
China, and went to Tianemen Square and bought myself a beautiful big
Chinese Kite which I look forward to flying with my Nephews and Niece back
home.

I did have a scary experience whilst in China, and it scared the absolute
crap out of me and my mates I was with.

We were walking down a main tourist strip in Shanghai and a couple of
Chinese girls came up to us and asked if they could walk with us and
practise their English with us, I was a bit concerned at first, but they
seemed very innocent, so we said they could, and then they pointed at a
sign to a tea house and said that is the best place in Shanghai for a cup
of Chinese Tea, we said we were not interested and continued walking and
then about 10 minutes later as we turned back up the tourist stip they
convinced us to go for a cuppa.

So we went into this building, up an elevator and into this tea house,
which was more like a bar, out came the menu and then they ordered some tea and little did we know they ordered a round of Scotches for us and them, so a little while later out came the round of drinks, place food and nuts and
chips.

I saw another western tourist in there with a chinese girl…. And then asked
to go to the toilet, and I got suspicious when one of the girls followed me
to the toilet, I think make sure that I was not going to leave.

The girls were very flirtatious and touchy, and then I told my mates it was
time to go, and they agreed and we asked for the bill and when we got it,
we got the shock of our lives when it arrived saying we owed around 3000
Yuan which is the equivelent of about $330 Aussie dollars just for 6
scotches, two beers, the crappy tasting chinese tea and the food that we
did not ask for!

We got really pissed off with the owner and we knew we had no choice but
not to pay, because there were chinese guys in black suits giving us the
evil eye, know where to run except to the elevator or out the bloody window
which was 5 storeys high.

So we went through our wallets and ended up paying $100 each for the stupid mistake we made…. We were not the only suckers, I have found out since that many sailors on my ship fell for this trap!

That’s when we got really scared and was one of the only times in my life
that I literally feared that something bad may happen to us.

A few days before that in Shanghai we were having a brew and a smoke on the side of the ship watching the old boats and ships rush by our ship and low
and behold there was a floating human body of a Chinese man face down in
the river go past the ship, and at that tea house I had awful
visualisations that may be happen to me if we did not get out of that place
and walk the long journey home back to the ship.

We paid the bloke our money after a brief argument about it, and me being
the mediator convincing my mates just to pay the bill and get home, once we
paid, we walked to the elevator, our hearts racing a million miles an hour.
Just waiting for the elevator seemed to take forever, watching the numbers
light up, 1, 2, 3, 4 and finally floor 5, then us expecting that as soon as
the elevator door opened that out would jump a heap of Chinese guys in
black and knife us to death or something.

When the door did open, a Chinese lady walked out, and even that scared the
shit out of me.

As soon as we got back down to the main tourist street, it seemed as though
every chinese person who walked past us was staring at us or was following
us, even being back on the safety of walking through the throngs of
thousands of chinese people, I still did not feel safe.

We could have easily caught a taxi home, but we were scared that the driver
might kill us or something. It was dark, cold and people were everywhere,
and about half an hour later of rushing back to the ship, looking over our
shoulders every five paces we got back to the safety of the ship, and as
soon as we walked through the security of the gates, we shook each others
hands, cracked open a cold beer and sat on the wharf thinking about how
stupid, and how lucky we were to get out of that place.

I should have known better, I travelled to many countries in Europe where
this trick is very common, the pretty girls suck in the tourist, and ask
them if they want a coffee or tea and later it ends up costing you 100’s of
dollars.

That would have to compare to my other scary experience when I was in
Athens and got mugged by a bunch of Gypsies, once again getting sucked in
by a pretty Gypsie girl, smiling at me, but that’s another story.

Me and my mates are not the only ones to get done for stuff like that, I
have been very lucky, I know quite a few people on the ship who have lost a
thousand or two from handing over their credit cards and the people behind
the counter have taken it out the back and gotten all the details and taken
all their money.

Some Sailors have been mugged, pick pocketed, jewellery stolen and other
nasty things, I lost about $100 so I am happy with that.

But I think it is there own faults too, being very drunk, putting their
wallets in their back pockets, and other stupid things. At every port we
have been too so far, sailors on the ship have been ripped off.

Well, its ANZAC Day today, I got up this morning at 4am for the Dawn
Service, I am part of the Ships Guard team, so I was out there on the
Flight Deck with three other members, we hard to do some special Drill
movements with our weapons.

It all went well, we had quite a few people on the ship for the service,
some Australian and New Zealand people who live here in Nagoya. I would say
there would having been about 300 people on the ship for the Dawn Service.

It was a good day, but I would have rather have spent my Anzac Day back at
home with family, my dad served in Vietnam, and I would have preferred to
have marched with Dad, back home in Dumbleyung, my good old dad turns 80
next year, so there is know way in the world that I will miss that special
day with my dad.

I am so proud of my Dad, every year without fail he organises the ANZAC Day
service held at Dumbleyung, there is so much work he does, organising guest
speakers, writing letters to the RSL, and so much more. Good on ya Dad.

I have had a bad case of the flu for the last couple of weeks, its been
pretty bad, and it makes things worse when just about everyone else on the
ship has it as well. Its bloody cold here where we are right now, and the
worst thing is trying to sleep in the sleeping space, there are bloody Air
Conditioners going down there all day and all night, the worst thing is
after having a hot shower and then trying to get warm when you hop into
bed.

Because every bed has one of those air blowers, like the ones on the planes
which blow cold air onto you directly from the ceiling, and the one of my
bed is stuck, so I can’t rotate it to stop the cold air blowing, so tonight
I am going to block it with some tissues or something, because I am bloody
sick of it…. Even now after typing this e-mail for 30 minutes, my hands are
numb with coldness.

Here I am complaining, and I am so lucky to be where I am, I must say my
heart goes out to Schapelle Corby, that poor aussie girl who in my view has
been set up for this stupid drug thing…. Everytime I read about her, my
heart aches for the suffering that she must be going through, I know that
she is innocent, who would want to smuggle drugs to Bali, I would say if
someone was going to smuggle the drugs, they would rather smuggle drugs
into Australia, not into Bali… it is so obvious she has been set up!

I am not really a religious person, but I hear she has turned to God, I
can’t blame her for doing that, I just pray to God that she gets out of
this and goes back home as soon as possible.

This is our ships final year in commission, which means come November 10th
HMAS Canberra will no longer be, you can read more about our
decommissioning journey and trip at our official website here
www.navy.gov.au/ships/canberra and I think they are updating the website
with photos, but I just had a look and there is no recent photos at this
stage.

Not sure if I already told you, but we have a proper Navy Photographer on
the ship for the whole year, which he is taking photos for a
Decommissioning Book and DVD, so I am really looking forwarding to getting
that once this year is over and done with.

At the moment we are back out at sea, off the coast of Japan heading for
SouthKorea, about an hour or two ago, we went past an active Volcano only
about 8 miles away, but it was massive and a lot of steam and smoke coming
from its top, it looked very beautiful.

Its bloody cold outside, I miss the warm weather so much, in a month or so
we will be going to the island of GUAM one of the islands of Micronesia in
the Pacific Ocean and apparently the weather there will be warm and hot, so
that will be nice, then after that, we’ll be heading to the East Coast of
Australia, were we will visit most of the major Ports there and then do a
Freedom of Entry Parade in Canberra, where once again it will be bloody
cold.

We have been pretty busy on the ship, not too far away we have something
called Captains Rounds, where the Skipper of the ship does his big
inspection of every single working space on the ship, so it needs to be
immaculate.

Where I work, in the Mainstore we have been very busy painting the Deck,
and all the Bilges, my workmate John has done the deck and I have mainly
worked on the Bilges, its not a bad job, but does get very tedious…. The
worst thing I hate what we do is called Cleaning Stations, which we do
everyday whilst we are on the ship, and that involves mopping the deck,
cleaning walls, dusting, polishing brass, sweeping, vacuuming and other
crappy things … its not as bad as it sounds, we only do it for 30 mins a
day.

But as the Captains Rounds approaches we will be doing this all day and
everyday for a week or two… that’s why John and I are painting everything,
so when he inspects our area, it will look immaculate and hopefully that’s
what will get his attention and not the white glove out looking for dust.

I am back in the Café tomorrow, that means I get up at 6am for a full day
washing dishes, cleaning tables, keeping the drink machines full, filling
salt and pepper shakers.

Although it is a break away from my normal work routine, I would rather not
do the café, because most of the sailors treat the eating area like crap,
or in other words eat like pigs and when they have finished the tables are
filthy. We are rostered in the café about once every 10 days, I am not the
only one who dreads the café, and everyone does.

Well shopping, I don’t mind shopping, especially love to walk around
markets and stalls, I like to buy a nice momento from each place or
country I visit, and since I am saving some decent money for a decent place
of my own, I have snapped up some nice things for myself.

I love Buddhism, so I have bought some really nice Buddha things for my
place, and heaps of incense which is so cheap over here and good quality,
but most of the stuff I buy is the usual stuff that will collect dust, they
are like little statuettes or busts of Buddha.

I have bought some nice little Chinese pictures printed on silk paper
which depict many things to do with food, drink and cooking, so I reckon
they will look fantastic framed in my kitchen, I bought about 12 different
ones depicting many different oriental scene.

I also bought a beautiful hand crafted Chinese Chess Set, which they reckon
the pieces are made from bone, but from my point of view looks ceramic, but
I like it though…. As long as it is not ivory, because I definitely do not
support that kind of stuff.

I went to these markets the other day in Shanghai, it was fantastic, it
mainly catered to clothing and a big fruit, vege and seafood market. I went
to the seafood market, it was full of all sorts of live fish, there were
even a lot of live frogs, massive frogs actually and they were going left
right and centre, so obviously they like to eat frogs in China.

I did not see any dead dogs or cats, thank god, but in the poulty and meat
side there, I was bloody surprised I did not come down with the Bird Flu or
some other strange exotic disease, as the hygiene standards were very poor,
especially as the chickens would have their heads chopped off as soon as a
buyer was found.

At the Market, I bought myself a decent laptop bag, a little backpack, a
few tshirts and some warm clothing, and while I was there I had to buy
Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book … with all his famous Communist Quotes and
sayings, so that will be an interesting addition to my bookshelf.

As I mentioned above I really enjoyed the tour I did, the only problem I
had with it was where ever we went, there were just so many people,
something that can’t be helped when the country has over 1 Billion people
living in it.

But some of the highlights were The Great Wall of China, this was
beautiful, but the section we visited was packed with people, so finding a
decent spot to get photos was hard. I managed to climb to a very high
section of the wall, apparently if you climbed the very highest section you
were a “True Man” or something… there was a tiny bit of snow there, but it
would be so much more beautiful when its covered in snow.

That night we went to a restaurant to try out the very famous Beijing Duck,
not too be confused with the other duck, Peking Duck. Anyhow this duck
was absolutely delicious, one of the best ducks I have ever tasted, apart
from the ducks I ate when I was a kid after duck shooting…. But I must
admit, this Beijing Duck did taste nice, and I did not chip any of my teeth
on shotgun lead pellets.

We left that restaurant full and a bit tipsy after the ducky duck and some
of the strong Chinese Beers they served us, and then headed out to see one
of the famous Chinese Acrobat Shows at some theatre in Beijing, it was one
of the most amazing shows I have ever seen. I actually forget the name of
the group, but I bought a DVD of them doing a show.

Its now a few days later and we have recently just left Busan South Korea,
we did not stay there for long, only about 3 days, it would have been nice
to stay just one day longer, to enable me to do some sight seeing,
something I did not get to do, because of some work commitments.

I really wanted to go and see the Commonwealth War Cemetery there which
contains the graves of many Australian Soldiers who fought in the Korean
War in the 1950’s, to pay my respects and tributes would have been nice,
but unfortunately I just could not make it!

The only thing I managed to do whilst I was in Korea was to go to some
Markets which were not that good, not as good as the ones in China, where
you can bargain like really good, at the markets in Korea, there was no
bargaining at all.

I also found the people not really that friendly, I think maybe because
they may have thought that we were American Soldiers or Sailors, a lot of
people in Korea don’t like the yanks much, because of the war and other
stuff.

We actually stayed at an a Navy Base, it was pretty amazing when you see
all the Guards walking around with fully automatic machine guns and so
forth, and very willing to use them if need be. I had a slight fright, we
were walking to the entrance to go out for a beer and it was take, and then
we heard this commotion, a guard yelling, and we saw him get on his knees
in the firing position, I shat myself, it was just dark, but I could still
see him and it looked like he was pointing his weapon at us.

So we all put our hands up and stood still like scared rabbits in a
spotlight! But he was pointing it the other direction at a lady in her car
who drove and parked her car too close to the entrance… so that was my only scary experience I have from South Korea.

The second night in we went out to the dingy nightclub strip called Texas
Street, all I can say is what a dive of a place, full of Ugly Russian and
Philippine Prostitutes, and heaps of sleazy blokes from all around the
world, because Busan is a major shipping port…. But my mates and I did have
a great time and no…. Not that type of great time!

Well its now a few days later and here we are back in Japan, at a place
called Yukoska, which is home to the massive presence of the US Navy.

As a matter of fact I have been here for about 4 days so far, and its been
great to get to a place where most people speak English, and especially
where they love Aussies.

I have made a couple of great mates with some Americans, I was out with the boys the other night, and met a US Naval Officer by the name of Ken who
serves of the Aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk, and anyhow he showed us all
a great night on the town in Yukoska, singing in Kareoke Bars and then
taking us to a fantastic American Country Pub called Georges, which played
some fantastic Australian and American Country Music.

I had a ball, so thanks Ken to a fantastic night I must say.

The following day he gave us a fantastic tour of USS Kitty Hawk.

I must admit, I have not met too many Americans, and I can be a little
biased towards their culture, blame that on Jerry Springer but My opinion
on Yanks have changed somewhat… they are some of the friendliest and
courteous people I have have met, and have have shown me a great time since being in this Port!

As a matter of fact the Kitty Hawk will be in Sydney around the same time
as when Canberra will be there as well, so everyone is going to try and
catch up with him and some of his mates when we’re all there at the same
time.

As I mentioned before, its been great at this base, I have not really done
any sight seeing here, although Tokyo is only one hour away by train, but I
don’t fancy the Japs much, so I decided to hang around here.

Its amazing how well these Yanks get looked after here with all the
amenities which are provided for them, such as free internet, free movies,
McDonalds, Wendys, KFC, Starbucks Coffee, Ten Pin Bowling, and so much more…. The base is just like a town or suburb.

The massive supermarket here, which is amazingly cheap, and they even sell
Vic Bitter and other Aussie Beers, and wines, but no bloody Bundaberg Rum….
It is so cheap, I bought a pair of Levi 501 Jeans the other day for around
$35 Aussie bucks, back home you are paying near on $135 dollars for a pair
of 501 jeans.

Its not just the jeans which are cheap, its everything, from food to
electronics etc.

These last couple of days we have been working, usually once work is
finished a couple of mates and I go up to Starbucks Café and have a
cappuccino, and go and check out some of the goodies at the supermarket.

So my next destination in Guam, apparently their Navy Store there is the
Second Biggest US Navy Store in the World, so that’s where, I might buy up
on a few things I need, especially a decent MP3 player…. The stores are
similar to K-Mart, but everything is like nearly 40% cheaper than what you
would pay in Australia.

I went to the movies last night, saw the new Bruce Willis movie called
Hostage, it was really good, the yanks are so patriotic, before the film
starts everyone stands up to the Start Spangled Banner, I think that’s the
USA National Anthem, and on the film screen plays a film clip which is very
much like Propaganda.

Our next trip to the next Port is going to take ages, well only eight days,
but I know it will seem forever, then we’ll be there for around 3 days and
after that thank god, we return back to Oz, a trip which take 14 days… oh
well the good thing about long trips out at sea like that is you tend to
save a lot of money, so that’s a big bonus point!

Oh well time to go, leaving for our last overseas destination tomorrow,
then after that we’ll be back downunder thank bloody god for that!

Last night here, it will be good to sail, I’ll be stocking up on some
munchies, noodles, lollies, mags, for my next journey, probably off ten pin
bowling tonight, then one more night Standing to the Yank Nation Anthem at
the movies tonight.

Whenever I get the chance, well almost everyday I visit BeautUtes.com and
see whats happening, great to see everyone is joining in on discussions and
people are making some great and new friends at the site.

At the moment I am busy writing to Jim @ www.OutbackAntics.com.au for help in designing a nice logo for our site, so that we can get some nice
stickers, t-shirts and so forth made up for members of the site and to sell
at ute musters.

So if anyone has any great ideas, for a logo, humourous, serious, and so
forth please lets us know! Its hard work trying to think of something, so
it would be fantastic to hear of your views on a logo for www.BeautUtes.com

Catchyas and Take Care

Billy Sherman

__________________