Captain Kang
(Steven and Ying in an E-boat: Suzhou, China)
I’ve been on Chinese e-bikes but didn’t realise there were also water vehicles for hire in Suzhou. There was a choice of boats; pedal or electric, and since we had a tough day of Dragon Boat rowing ahead, the boys opted for the electric alternative and voted me the skipper. You can perhaps almost make me out in the reflection of Ying’s shades, perched on the hull as momentary photographer.
Ying failed to inform me about the company practice for dragon boating – a benched longboat with seven oars; six rowers and a rudder and the obligatory drummer at the bow to keep time. I was not dressed for being on the water, except that my shorts perhaps looked rather nautical. Had I known I would spend the afternoon as e-boat captain, then drummer and rudder, I might have packed more suitable attire. At least I fared better than one of Ying’s workmates who turned up in suit trousers and a shirt, he didn’t have a change of clothes either.
Luckily, yesterday was thoroughly stunning weather – much to my family’s chagrin, I expect, since it was still rather chilly when they left last week. After a shaky, lacklustre start on the edge of Tai hu (the Tai lake), we began to make surprisingly swift headway for about 30 seconds at a time. It seems that the crew were sprinters but not for any sustained period. There were no accidents, save the chafing of the splintering seats on our (now) raw behinds and the mystery of the water based paint coming off on our clothes at the slightest touch. At one point I thought Ying had a blood-covered hand, but it was the deck’s red paint smearing in the wet.
Unfortunately I took no photographs of the dragon boating at all – since part of the wooden gunwale came off in someone’s hand as we were moored, I decided to leave all my precious belongings behind in case we were to flip over. I will have to make do with this serene shot of Ying and Steven whiling away an hour before we met for boating practice.
