As soon as the train stopped at Oostende Train Station, all passengers walked briskly towards the immigration building. The scene was like sheep been released from the barn or nicer to say, was like the passengers alighting from the buses and ran towards the immigration counters at Woodlands checkpoint. My wife and I walked smoothly through the immigration and custom.
We produced our tickets at the checkpoint and walked up the walkway which leads us onto the deck of the ferry. It was quite a long walk; especially with luggage, it can be quite unbearable.
Our first mystery was solved, that is, the train did not go on to the ferry, but, only the passengers. Perhaps, the train will pick up the passengers from Oostende to Rotterdam or back to Amsterdam.
We are now looking at the English Channel from the Oostende Ferry Terminal.
I imagined myself in the place of Moses, when he was looking at the Red Sea and figured out how he could cross the sea, to escape from the tyranny of the army of Pharaoh. In my case, I was not running from any treat but rather looking forward to explore unexpected adventures.
The ferry was actually a huge ship, like the Superstar Virgo at The Singapore Cruise Centre at Harbour Front. It was a 10-storey luxury cruise. There were many facilities inside the ferry such as restaurant, cinema, disco, video games, billiard pool, spa, massage, swimming pool and casino. Of course there were other facilities which I did not know about.
My wife and I stumbled our way up to the deck, and found out it was already dark. The night sea breeze was too cold, so we went back inside the ferry and settled down at the many common benches provided, while we stared into the TV.
Now our second mystery was solved as we found that the ferry trip across the legendary fierce English Channel was a pleasant one. We had earlier thought it was the same kind of ferry we used to take across Malacca Straits from Butterworth to Penang, or perhaps the ferry was like the one that ferry passengers from Singapore to Batam islands. Our fears were now at bay.
I didn’t remember what happened after that, but, all I remembered was the sound of the horn. I stood up and saw the people who were sitting with us were all gone. I knew immediately, that we had arrived. I woke my dear wife, and we grabbed our luggage and walk back down stair towards the exit. The passengers were already queuing to alight.
We arrived at Ramsgate, a coastal town in England in the wee hour of the next morning. The ferry trip was about 5 hour.
Once again we walked through the immigration and custom very smoothly and as we get out of the ferry point, the feeder buses were ready to fetch us to the train station. We carried our luggage up the bus.
Then at the train station we had to carry our luggage along the long platform before going up the train.You would have realized by now that I had abandoned the plan of crossing the English Channel via the new undersea railway system from Carlisle to Dover. The main reason was that I did not manage to find out more about it. All I heard from my sister it was expensive.
It was also not feasible, as we were in Amsterdam, and going via Oostende in Belgium is more sensible.
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Drafted on 07.04.2007
Edited on 22.07.2007 at 1057hrs
At Woodlands Avenue 5
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