MV Doulos in Keelung

MV Doulos in Keelung, Taiwan

From Thursday 19 April to Tuesday 8 May 2007.

I am going to the floating book fair with my friends on Saturday to enjoy the profound book collection.

Gees!
I am so upset that I can’t stop posting articles.
I lost my 60 episodes of Sherlock Holmes radiodrama.
I spent 60 hours to capture it from radio, but I foolishly deleted it.
Dammn it!
I want to kick myself.

http://www.doulos.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

Doulos is back. The MV Doulos, the world’s oldest active cruise liner and a floating book fair is now in Hualien (1st May - 12th May 09), and will be in Keelung (15th May - 4th June 09)

admission 10NT
Book split is something like 30% Christian, the rest God Knows :smiley:.

but I figure it might be an interesting couple of hours. Gonna take the little one, should be plenty of steps and ladders for her. And a gangplank.

[quote]Our Core Values
Loving God

God is the creator and sustainer of life. He loves us and we enjoy relationship with Him. We worship God and honour Him by the way we live and work. He gives our lives hope and meaning.[/quote]

I went to visit the Doulos last time it docked at Keelung. It’s well worth going. It’s a Christian missionary venture, so there are quite a lot of Bibles and so on. But they are also trying to promote family values. That means there are a lot of books about cooking, handicrafts, household tips, and kids’ educational books, puzzle books etc. I bought several books that you wouldn’t find on sale anywhere else in Taiwan, and a very nice Doulos souvenir mug, all very reasonably priced. Everything is priced in their own units because they sail from country to country. You pay at the counter according to the exchange rate they have set for NT dollars against their Doulos units. By the way, there is also a nominal charge of NT$10 to pay before you go on board the ship.

Transport from Taipei is very convenient. If the ship is docked at the same place as before, then from the railway station or highway bus terminus you walk over to the other side of the harbour, then along the length of the harbour for less than 10 minutes to get to it.


Last time the MV Doulos was docked near the Evergreen Laurel Hotel (red star on map above)


Doulos port visit schedule
3-D view of Doulos bookstore

We went down there (Hualien) early on Friday, it was pretty mobbed with students. Perhaps a better time to go would be lunchtime. Was a bit disappointed with the books TBH, I had an image of a floating library of interesting titles - lots of dusty second hand items. But it was much more mainstream, with several copies of each.

Think the tour of the ship would def be a good idea - the crew were all very friendly, and the shipmade cookies were damn good :smiley:.

I went yesterday with the GF. Personally I was somewhat upset with the fact that they aren’t up front about this being a religious missionary boat, and charging an up front donation (however small) without being up front about this is unethical at best and in my opinion a bad reflection of those who are on the boat.

They need to be very up front about this being a Christian missionary vessel. As it stands it’s a trap, and I can’t imagine most people feel very good about the experience after spending 30 seconds in the dusty bookshop and realizing that… wait a minute, the books are all Christian books… and further realizing what the purpose of the ship really is.

A quick perusal of their predictably equivocating web site (never explicitly admitting that this is a CHRISTIAN mission) confirms the overall “trap the natives” attitude these people take towards their two year commitment.

They aren’t clear and up front about the true purpose of this ship because their attendance would drop by about 90% if they did.

Doulos: FAIL

Some of the books are Christian books, and some are general interest, as I described above. It looks like you didn’t spend long enough on board to see the other stuff. I bought a book of household tips (how to remove stains, get rid of cockroaches etc.), two books of wordfind puzzles that I used as supplements in my English teaching, a book about arithmetic (because I’m a math idiot) and maybe some other stuff that I might have forgotten. (This was two years ago.) I had to restrain myself from buying a whole pile of books - and I’m a diehard atheist.

I was using hyperbole, but yes fine, it’s about 30/70 christian to non-christian. That doesn’t affect my argument at all.

drv, why would anyone sail a boat full of books about for no reason? Erm, buyer beware?

Buttercup, there are plenty of worthy causes that don’t involve religion. Again, if the religious part isn’t a big deal, why be so secretive about it?

But it must be one of them, no? Not merely a pointless altruistic venture, or a really bad business idea? And what kind of ‘worthy cause’ is most likely to involve texts?

Not starting a fight, just wondering how you may have thought it wouldn’t be a religious endeavour. :wink:

Well, they might have had some decent books, apart from the obviously mind-bogglingly brilliant stain removal text. :wink:

Didn’t have a problem with the god stuff, no-one cornered or bothered me. Think it’s pretty obvious that it is a Ship of the Lord. Books were very so-so though, and we’ve just thrown the Dr Seuss jigsaw one away, it sucked.

I went to the Doulos book exhibition last Friday. The best word to sum up the kinds of books they have on sale would be “wholesome.” Some of the books look like they’ve been through a typhoon or two. I bought several books, mostly of the sewing/cooking/health variety. Among the religious books, I picked out one called “The Myth of a Christian Nation” by Gregory A. Boyd.

The MV Doulos is moored at the same place as before (see map on previous page.) This Thursday 28 May is the last day of the book sale. After that the ship will stay at Keelung for a few more days, but not open to the public.