Siberia and sakura

Docked at 11.30, and we decided to disembark and have a look around rather than staying on the boat until it left again at 6.

There is a strict order for disembarkation, but the announcements are drowned out by music in the main areas and aircon in the cabins. So rather than joining the scrum we took a viewing point on the top stair and attempted it work it out from the surges and shouts below. It felt like those bits of the olympics where you find yourself watching a demonstration sport you've never heard of, and have to extrapolate the aim and rules from the cheers and boos of the crowd.

Establishing teams was simple. Team A, in orange shirt and blue jacket - staff; Team B no uniform - passengers.

Aim of team B
Get off the boat. This is played individually, rather than as a team.

Aim of team A
I Initially made the assumption that this was also to get team B off the boat, but that was an error. It was primarily to get supplies *onto* the boat, with the secondary aim of preventing team B leaving in anything other than very small batches.

Rules.
Both teams have to play through the gangplank, which has a maximum load of 10 people at a time, and can operate in only 1 direction at once. Priority seemed to be Koreans getting onto the boat; Koreans getting off the boat; Russian workers getting off the boat; other tourists and transit passengers.

Tactics and progress of play
If you are familiar with roller derby, it may help to take as your starting point a 3-level version of that, played on foot, and with the 2 teams moving in opposite directions.

Team A makes the first move by roping off a section at disembarkation level and stationing 4 to 5 'blockers' between that and top of the gangplank.

Team B counters by forming a large scrum behind the rope and leaning until it gives way (they initially did this before the initial start of play, and carefully refastened it). The blockers run around shouting and herding everyone back behind the rope.

This contains Team B, but poor inital placement of the corral means the Team B scrum also prevents the Team A 'runners' reaching the upper levels with their resupply boxes.

Team A places a chair at the end of the stair rail, to allow their runners to climb over. Team B counters with subscrums on each side of the second set of stairs. Team A dispatches the 'long blockers', to the staircase. Whereas blockers are male, long blockers are female; they neither run nor shout, but are equipped with laminated signs. Team B is not permitted to push or challenge the long blockers.

With all players now on the pitch, the remaining play consists primarily of loops of the scrum - re-corral manoeuvre alternating with runners breaking for the top level, until all of Team B has escaped. The subscrums are released to floor level once the main scrum diminishes and is unable to block the bottom stairs.

Additional hazard.
A rap remix of Adiumus, and a too-fast bebop version of Night and Day, on a brain-melting loop.

Altogether this took 2 hours, so allowing 2 hours for getting back on board later there was not much time left to walk into Dongae proper. We attempted it, but it's a larger place than it looks on the map. And the only cafe we located didn't do food. Instead we stocked up at a local 7-11 equivalent and headed back, donating our map along the way to 2 lost Russians attempting to find the bus station.

Despite all that, I quite liked what little I saw of South Korea. Cloud pruned trees lining the streets, cheery patterns on the pavements, lots of cycle paths and pedestrian crossings, and every inch of growing space in gardens used for neat rows of garlic, onions, cabbages and beans.

And as it turned out, getring back onto the boats was very quick and easy. No queue at the check in desk, and when I peered round the corner of the security an immigration area to see whether it was open I was waved straight in. I'm not quite sure why there were hordes of people waiting and not going through - perhaps there were open for transit passengers but not those joining the boat for the first time.

The crowd for this leg is very different from yesterday's. That was clearly workers, a fairly even mix of Russian and Korean but almost exclusively men - with just a handful of holidaying Russian friends or families. This is all Korean tourists, mainly in big organised groups. Should have tried the on board onsen yesterday, it will probably be packed tonight.Read more