February
04, 2018 Sunday
Location
: Incheon, Korea
After
the long wait for an approval on my shore leave ., I finally got the chance to
roam around again in south Korea after three months. Honestly I think it’s a
bit unfair that I have to wait for a month just to get a chance on shore leave
in the first place, its totally a bummer that this is the procedure in Shell /
Nakilat principal and very repressing.
Anyway
I'm not surprised that this will be case given that SHELL is a
"Perfectionist" kind of principal and that terms here are rarely fair
to Filipino's and this includes shore leaves. In reality a sailor working here
wouldn't enjoy his work at all because of the so many restrictions.
I
remember back when I was in the Oil tanker type of ship ., there is rarely any
restrictions on shore leave and that almost everyone is allowed as long as they
arrive on time before the ship leaves. Absolutely almost everything there was
very easy to handle., and it’s very different on what shore leave is in LNG
ships.
Since
I finally got to roam to south Korea ., my main goal to find some part
replacements for my Nintendo Switch and second objective is to get at least
some memory upgrades in SD card for my Nintendo Switch as well. Third objective
is to find antibiotics for my recent skin infection (Boil) to be specific I
have to find amoxicillin. There were four of us who finally got a chance on
shore leave and was dropped off on a store called "Seaman's Center"
., It's not actually a seaman's Center - just a store named on it., ( the real
Seaman's Center is actually just on the other side of the street) .
We
never actually got to roam around Incheon due to weather problems and its still
too damn cold (as in -4 degress celcius) to stay out outside so most of the
time on shore leave was spent in a subway dealing with an Indian cellphone
dealer., (which Oiler Danilo is annoying., and his chat dealings with the
Indian goes on like forever) .
the
remaining half an hour was spent in a small mall called "Emart" which
for I wasn’t able to get amoxicillin antibiotics for my ongoing skin infection
(Boil), I assume that probably buying antibiotics here in south Korea needed a
prescription and that the pharmacy store there is basically has nothing
important in their shelves compared to small pharmacies store's in the
Philippines which I can buy antibiotics almost practically everywhere without
prescriptions.
While
buying a few chocolates on the small supermart ., a Korean cashier probably
mistook me to be Korean looking from my haggard pale look (must have been my
ongoing bad skin infection) and asked me where I'm from., I replied I was from
the philippines.
Just
to mention ., On the way to Emart - we practically circled around than going on
to the usual route because Oiler "Danilo's" meddling on which
direction we should go., we almost went way off on the path and was already
near a ferry passenger terminal.
When we got on the rendevouz area (mama's sans
place) it was around 7pm. A.B. "Mario Manalo" mention that internet
connection on Mama San's place was strong and fast enough to accommodate
downloads so I immediately wasted no time and quickly put up my Nintendo switch
to download some games I bought on the Eshop and as what they said , internet
in korea is really fast AS A HUNDRED TIMES FASTER THAN IN THE PHILIPPINES. In
the span of thirty minutes I was able to finish the downloads on two games that
I bought "Pokken tournament" (pokemon fighting game) and Voez (a
music game) ., If I only knew that internet here in mama san's place was this
fast - I could have arrived a bit earlier to finish off some heavy download
games which I still have on my Nintendo.
Probably If I had arrived earlier I could have finished downloading
"Skyrim" game on Nswitch.
Most
memory upgrades I got was from mama san's store. The 64GB SD Card, although it
not enough or suitable for my Gaming console it is however perfect for my other
mobile gadgets like tablet and Action camera.
At
around 7.30pm we were picked up by the bus and was put straight back to the
ship. When we returned I was told by
BOSUN Berlix to take a rest for about 6 hours then be on the deck watch at 4am
to 8am in the morning.
