Via VSA, the idea of traveling via container freight. Slow, casual, no net access, marginal food, but 1/3 the cost (appx) of a passenger line. And hey, no reports of Norwalk virus on freighters!

Hmm. VSA makes it sound pretty good:

09.29.06 OAKLAND, CA TO KAOHSIUNG, TAIWAN (IV)

Time for Large Books

We are on the ship for eleven days before our first port of call. We play ping-pong. Time is not precious. For the first time in my life I floss daily. On sunny days we wander the deck of the ship. Look over the side and you can see fish leap up as the ship passes, flying for two or three yards like little passenger airplanes, wings and tail and everything, before knifing cleanly back into the water. Stick your head out the bays that the rope goes in when we to tie down in port and stare directly at the water rushing under you. Pelicans loop in the air after each other around the nose of the ship. Whales spout and turn over, keeping the threatening enormity of the natural world close.

And it does look pretty damn cool:

I’m overdue for some vacation, so maybe that’s why this looks so compelling. I wonder how I’d do with no internet access for two weeks in a row?