While our views of nudism were different and mine had changed over the last few days, another important aspect of this trip was that we were supposed to spend time together. We live apart and don’t get to see each other as much as we would like. As long as he had some free time between shows and as long as he was turned on by seeing me naked, it just made sense to jump his bones.
We got naked all over that cabin, such as it was. We were very unwholesome and a little bit unnatural all over the bed, chairs, TV counter and deck chairs. We tested the tensile strength of the balcony railing and the load bearing weight of the coffee table. At one point we were even on the bathroom floor. At least the lower halves of our bodies were. It was a very small bathroom. We found out by accident that one of the chairs folds out into a sleeping sofa. We did not sleep on it, but we used it nonetheless.
After we rested and rehydrated, we decided to go out to dinner.
“Are you going to go naked?” Liam asked me.
“No,” I said. “That’s not going to happen.”
I was all for enjoying nature, but something about eating naked just bothered me.
“Can I go naked?” he asked.
I could not find a reason to complain. My current objection was not that others were eating naked. I just did not want to do it myself. I was also in the mood for Indian food, so that meant there would be naked diners anyway.
On the way to the restaurant, I was fully clothed and Liam was fully unclothed, except for the sandals on his feet and towel in his hand. The idea of Liam walking around the ship naked concerned me a little. Specifically, I was worried about his inability to control his obvious physical manifestations of whatever lurid fantasy was playing out in his head at any given time. The fact that we had just exhausted his supplies meant nothing as far as his active imagination was concerned.
“Bring a towel,” I said to him. “If you get excited, you can hold it in front of you.”
“Wouldn’t that be obvious?” he asked.
“Not as obvious as your raging hard on,” I answered. “You need a towel with you at all times anyway. That’s the number one nudist rule.”
After dinner, Liam reluctantly got dressed. He could not work naked. None of the crew could get naked, although a few of them seemed open to the idea.
“Are you going to be naked at the late show?” he asked me.
“You’ll just have to wait and see,” I answered.
I had not yet decided. I knew there would be more people in the audience at the evening show.
When Liam left for work, I wanted to go out, but I could not decide where to go. I found myself back on the pool deck. I seemed to gravitate toward that area the most – probably something about the water. There was some kind of Hawaiian themed hula contest going on and people were drinking liberally. It was a little too loud for me, so I wandered off into the library. It seemed like a strange floor plan, but the library was closer to the pool than one might expect. Yet no matter how loud it was around the pool, the library was always peaceful.
I found a good looking book and sat down in one of the comfortable chairs. This was a place designed for sitting and reading all day. I did not have all day, but I had some time before Liam’s next show. While reading, I noticed that no one else had come into the library the entire time I was there. So I got naked, found a fresh towel – they seemed to be all over the ship – and went back to my book.
I have to say that swimming naked is better than reading naked. With swimming, you get the full effect of water all over your body and the fresh sea air hitting your naked skin when you get out. With reading, you’re just doing it naked. I think that maybe reading is one of those activities that does not really benefit from nudity. Maybe that is why the library was deserted.
I put my clothes back on to go to the show, partly because I was not ready to be naked in a full audience and partly because I would just have to carry everything around with me anyway.
I went to one of the dance shows first. I made reservations for this performance before the cruise started. As a dancer, I like to see what other dancers are up to. As a dancer who thought about working on a cruise ship a few years ago, I wanted to see what I would have been doing.
It started as a basic Las Vegas style show. It was not all that impressive or interesting. I would have been bored doing this show. It soon morphed into an international showcase, featuring dance styles from several different cultures. The dancers were from as many different countries as the rest of the crew and they all gave us a taste of their culture’s traditional dances. My favorite was the Thai dancers. Their costumes were beautiful and they moved in such unusual ways, at least from my American trained point of view.
After the dancers were finished, I had just enough time to go to the other theater to see Liam’s show. The dancing was less interesting here, but I did not come to this show to see the dancers. I was there to cheer on my boyfriend, who was disappointed to see that I was wearing clothes in the audience.
After Liam’s show, he wanted to take a late night naked walk on the promenade deck. I made sure we waited late enough so it would be as empty as it was when I did it alone. I also wore bikini bottoms and my sarong around my waist.
I was taking a chance on going out topless, but I wanted to make sure that Liam did not get too excited. I knew that if we were both naked, he would want to have sex right there on the deck. Then I would have to turn him down because not having public sex is one of the main rules of the cruise, and it was not something I was ever about to do anyway. Then he would have gotten upset that I turned him down and then he would get grumpy and be in a bad mood. It is always much easier to abort that temptation before it shows.
The promenade deck was not as empty as it had been during my first late night walk. That time I only saw one couple. This time there were a few other passengers, but it was not especially crowded. People usually stay up later on sea days. I was more worried about Liam than the fact that people could see me topless. It did not really matter if people could see my breasts at this point. It had never mattered before this point. But I would have been mortified if Liam had an erection in front of these people.
Somehow he managed to control himself. Maybe he was getting into the spirit of nudity without sex. More likely he was shy with other people around. He might fantasize about having an audience, but I think his penis prefers to perform to a closed set.
There was one point when a very attractive woman walked past us. She was completely naked, and I’m sure plenty of impure thoughts raced through Liam’s head, but he did not have to cover himself with his towel.
“You know how they say the people you see at a nude beach aren’t the people you want to see at a nude beach?” he asked me.
“Yes,” I answered, curious to hear what was coming next.
“That’s such a lie,” he said, glancing at this naked woman.
Much to my surprise, he did not look back at her after she passed us.
“Maybe he’s growing up,” I thought to myself. “Or maybe he’s trying really hard not to look because I’m here.”
I never complain when Liam looks at other women. As long as he does not ogle. I could never have a boyfriend who stares at women’s breasts and says, “Hey, baby. Shake them jugs this way.” But I don’t have a problem with a boyfriend who finds women attractive. In fact, I think that is a good thing. If he was not attracted to women, our relationship would be in trouble.
I look at other guys. I don’t stare, but I notice when a handsome man walks by. It is only natural to be attracted to people you find attractive. What separates women from men is our ability to look beyond the physical appearance and see the person. Some men can do that, but I have come across more than a few men who could not, or simply would not.
Liam has a hard time seeing the personality of women. As soon as he meets any woman, he puts her in one of two categories – doable and not interested. If a woman is on the news because her house was just ripped
apart by a hurricane, Liam’s first words have nothing to do with empathy for her situation. It is either approval or disapproval of her appearance. The only reason he got to know my personality was because we were friends before we started dating. Even then, I was always in the “doable” category.
The irony is that Liam is not what anyone would call a lady’s man. He was very unsuccessful with girls before he met me. Even I was not interested when we met. I already had a boyfriend. So for him to look at women and automatically think “yes” or “no” is funny since women have always said no to him.
Chapter 21: Ho Chi Minh
We left Hong Kong late, so everyone assumed that we would get into Ho Chi Minh late, even though there was a full day at sea in between. We arrived at every other port in the middle of the night, but they did not let people off the ship until the scheduled morning disembarkation time. I am almost certain that it had everything to do with clearing customs.
We arrived in Ho Chi Minh early in the morning. When I woke up, I noticed land getting bigger and bigger, so I went out to the balcony and watched the ship dock. I was just getting used to watching the ship pull away from ports. This was the first time I got to see it come in. It was all faster than I expected, but I was not sure if passengers would be allowed to get off the ship on schedule. I don’t have any idea how long it takes from docking the ship to clearing all the paperwork with the authorities.
I put on my running clothes and went up to the sports deck. Since the ship was docked, naked time was over. I did not want to go jogging naked anyway. The sports deck was completely deserted, so I had a nice morning run in peace and quiet. I knew the general routine by now, so I did not expect to see anyone out there.
On days when the ship was in a city, most passengers woke up early, ate breakfast and left the ship. Everybody came back at different times, but it looked like most of them arrived at the ship as close to the last minute as possible. There were plenty of evening activities, but people were tired from wandering around the city all day and there was a greater emphasis on relaxation than partying.
On days when the ship was at sea, passengers woke up later and went to sleep later. Since everyone had to stay on the ship, there were more activities and there was more of a party atmosphere.
While I was running around the sports deck, most of the other passengers were either just waking up or at breakfast. Since the ship got in later than usual, I assumed that everyone would have less time in the city. If the ship stayed longer to make up the difference, that would only throw everything else off schedule. Cutting our time in Ho Chi Minh short made the most sense to me.
That was probably not so great for anyone who dreamed their entire life of going to Vietnam. I knew that if that was the main point of the trip for me, I would have been incredibly disappointed. On the other hand, if your dream is to see a country or city, you should probably just fly there directly and not take a cruise. Too many things can go wrong on the way. A plane takes you to your destination. A cruise is the destination.
Coming in late did not matter for me. I had already decided to stay on the ship. I did not even know if my visa application to Vietnam was approved or not and I was not going to find out. I was going to enjoy the ship and spend as much time with Liam as I could while he was not working.
I found out later that just getting into Ho Chi Minh was a hassle. In Shanghai and Hong Kong, the ship docked in the heart of the city. You could easily walk from the pier to the main attractions. In Xiamen, it was a quick taxi ride downtown or a healthy walk to the expat neighborhood with that American grocery store. For Ho Chi Minh, the ship had to dock at the end of the river delta, more than two hours away from the city. I don’t know if it was government regulations or if the ship was just too big to sail up the river.
The cruise line provided shuttle buses into the city and a lot of passengers had booked tours, so it probably did not make much difference. Except that if you have less time in this city than every other city, you don’t want to spend more time just getting there and back.
After the cruise was over and I went home, I found out that there is a small resort city very close to where the ship had docked. Had I known about that, I might have gotten off the ship and looked around that area, assuming I could get a visa.
By the time Liam was awake and ready for breakfast, most of the passengers were off the ship. He wanted to go to breakfast naked, but it was not a naked day.
“We have the whole ship to ourselves and we can’t even use it,” he complained.
We did not actually have the entire ship to ourselves. There were always other passengers on board. Some chose not to go into the city and some probably could not get visas. Someone told me that at every port there are always a few people who are not allowed to get off, usually because of some problem with their paperwork, but sometimes the immigration officials just don’t want them there.
In the United States and Canada, if you have a criminal record and you are not a citizen, they will make you stay on the ship. If you are a citizen, they have to let you in your own country. But the ship always has a list of foreigners, whether they already have a visa or not, who will not be allowed to get off the ship. I don’t know what the rules are for Vietnam, but I’m sure they refused some people. I heard that some passengers even had to stay on board in Hong Kong, and that is the easiest city to get into from pretty much anywhere.
After breakfast, Liam and I wandered around the ship. We went to the back end and onto a small deck that does not see a lot of people, probably because the only activities on that part of the ship were the ping pong tables and chess and checkers boards. We played a quick game of chess even though Liam does not know how and I am not very good at it. What made it interesting was that the chess board was enormous and the pieces were the size of children.
“Good thing it’s not checkers,” Liam said. “Imagine trying to king these pieces.”
Then we went to the front end of the ship and walked out onto the very tip, where everyone on every boat does that king of the world thing, which is kind of ironic considering what happened to that ship. Liam decided that he is definitely not king of the world since he hates his job, he hates where he lives and he is generally dissatisfied with this stage of his life, and the ship was not moving. Standing on the very front tip is not the same when the ship is docked.
The view from the ship was not all that impressive either. In Hong Kong, we had unique views of Victoria Harbour. In Shanghai, we were in between the old side of the city and the new side, right in the middle of the most popular area. In Xiamen, we were between Xiamen Island and Gulangyu, the main tourist island. In Ho Chi Minh, we were at a commercial port in a town full of industrial ports, refineries and a steel mill. It is hard to be king of the world while you are facing a steel mill.
We went up to the pool deck and went swimming. It was a little disappointing because we had to wear bathing suits. Once you have gone swimming naked, it is hard to swim while wearing clothes. There were a few other passengers on the pool deck, but not many. On naked days, the pool deck was the center of all the action. It was not nearly as popular when the nudists had to wear clothes.
When Liam went to work, I wandered around the ship by myself. I found a deck chair in a nice quiet corner and just sat down and relaxed. I was facing away from the dock, so I had a great view of the ocean. I did not really do anything, but it was one of my favorite moments of the cruise. After all the running around in Hong Kong and Xiamen, and going from one activity to another on the ship, it was nice to just sit in the cool ocean breeze and do nothing for a while.
After my little break, I wandered down to the reception area and ran into Sebastian’s friend, Helena. We talked about working on a cruise ship and Liam and Sebastian.
“I’ve seen him around once or twice,” Helena told me about Liam.
“Do you know Sebastian?” I asked her.
“Oh, everyone knows Sebastian,” she said.
The way she said it gave me the impression that she knew him better than most.
Helena was beautiful and taller than the average Thai woman. She had one of those naturally thin East Asian bodies that the rest of us will never have even after exercising six hours a day. If I had her body, I could do ballet.
We talked about what it was like to be stuck on the ship for long periods of time.
“I try to get off the ship whenever I can,” she told me. “If I don’t have to work and I don’t need a visa.”
She told me that living on the ship made it harder to get a visa. They know where they are going well enough in advance, but they don’t always know if they are going to have a day off at specific ports.
“Places where you don’t need a visa are just easier,” she said. “But if we’re going somewhere I really want to see, I’ll still try to get one.”
We talked about how difficult it is to maintain a relationship while working on a cruise ship.
“If your boyfriend’s at home and you’re here, it just doesn’t work,” she said. “We have e-mail, but we can’t always make phone calls when we want to. If your boyfriend’s on board with you, you’re together too much. You just see each other all the time. And everyone else on board knows your business. There’s not much privacy.”
“What about the guys?” I asked her. “Do most of them have girlfriends at home?”
“A lot of them do,” she answered. “But that doesn’t stop them from trying to hook up on board. Some of them are even married, but most of them aren’t faithful.”
Nudist Cruise Page 19