Immediately I was accosted by a short, thin, scowling middle-aged woman dressed in a sky-blue suit. I noticed a straw broom lying on the deck and decided I could bluff this sweeper/deckhand into allowing me to travel on this upper deck where it was clear that no passengers are allowed. Though she spoke only Chinese, I recognized her displeasure. As she pointed at the ladder I had climbed, I knew she was insisting that I go back down where I belonged.

However, I offered a "bu hao!" (not understand) and, totally frustrated, she motioned me to a bench where I sat, after I had greeted the startled passengers standing below on the bow with a hearty "nimen hao" (hello, you).

Then, to my surprise, I watched as the woman I had taken for a deckhand entered the wheelhouse, engaged the engines, and turned the wheel for our departure! I have sufficiently profound respect for the captain of any vessel that I felt a bit ashamed of my brash behavior. Doing what the captain says is far more than a mere matter of etiquette.