Nudist Cruise

by Hailey McPherson

  Only one Asian girl hit on us. She seemed to like me more than Livia. Maybe Asians like darker hair. Maybe I’m just more attractive to Asian girls. Maybe it was just one particular person who happened to be more attracted to me. I don’t know.

  Most of the girls did not flirt with either of us at all. I think some of them could tell that we were not lesbians. I’m sure some were simply not interested. It’s not like all lesbians like all girls. You could tell that some of them were couples, so they were not there to score anyway. Some of them probably assumed that Livia and I were a couple.

  Even though we were not part of the group, we had some interesting conversations, and we both walked away with a few phone numbers. But not from the girls just looking to get laid. By the time we left, we made a few new friends.

  I’m glad we went to the beach that day. I was not expecting so many people there, but they turned out to be a pretty friendly group, and I was never as uncomfortable as I would have been if they were men. By the end of the day I was relatively comfortable being naked around a bunch of girls. It was a good day to be naked. The sun was shining, the air was cleaner than usual and the water felt great.

  I think I might be willing to go back again some time. I would have to check some kind of event calendar, though. I don’t want to go when it is a truck driver’s field trip day.

  Chapter 18: Second Sea Day

  Liam was half awake when I got back from my late night naked walk on the promenade deck.

  “Where did you go?” he asked groggily.

  “I took a walk,” I told him as I put my camisole and panties back on.

  He was too asleep to notice that I had walked into the cabin naked.

  “What time is it?” he asked.

  “It’s almost breakfast time,” I answered, climbing into the bed.

  Of course, I was talking about my breakfast time, not his. Liam’s breakfast time is most people’s lunch time.

  “Do you want to do it?” he asked almost as a reflex action.

  “We can’t,” I told him. “You’re asleep.”

  “I am?” he asked.

  He was asleep enough not to know the difference.

  “This is just a dream,” I told him.

  “Ok, good,” he said.

  He was quiet for a while and I thought he fell back asleep.

  “I dreamed you were naked,” he mumbled.

  “You always dream I’m naked,” I said.

  I have no idea how long I slept because I have no idea what time it was when I had my late night stroll on the promenade deck. When I woke up, the sun was bouncing off the ocean outside our balcony. It was clearly later in the day than when I usually get up, though still early by Liam’s standards.

  I went out to the balcony and looked at the Pacific Ocean and clear blue sky. I had no idea where we were, but it was obvious that it was going to be a beautiful day. I wondered if we were still off the coast of China or if we were closer to Vietnam. The ocean looked the same either way. I could have looked it up on the TV channel that told you where the ship was at all times, but it was not that important.

  This was another day at sea and I had no idea what I was going to do. Liam had an afternoon and evening show, but he was free earlier in the day. I had reservations to both of his shows and a dance performance at night, and I was supposed to meet up with Earl and Edna in the afternoon. Other than that, my day was wide open.

  I got dressed for my morning jog and went up to the sports deck. I was a little surprised to see quite a few people along the way. I was not surprised that most of them were naked. This was a day at sea, after all.

  The big surprise was just how crowded the sports deck was. My morning jogs had always been pretty early in the morning when most of the passengers were still asleep. Since I woke up later this day, there were a lot more people. I did not have the deck to myself and there was a lot more traffic.

  I was pretty much used to all the naked people by now, but it still seemed strange to see so many people jogging naked. Swimming naked is one thing. That makes perfect sense to me. Clothes just get in the way and wet clothes never feel as good as wet skin. Running naked seems like it would be terribly uncomfortable.

  I cut my run short because it was just too crowded. I was also getting tired of being the only person with clothes on who did not work on the ship. I kept expecting other passengers to ask me to bring them a drink or something. That never happened because I was not wearing any kind of uniform. I was obviously a passenger, but it must have seemed strange for all the nudists to see me walking around dressed.

  There was another surprise when I got back to the cabin. Liam was awake. He was standing in the tiny bathroom in his underwear brushing his teeth.

  “Good morning,” I said to him. “Notice how I said morning and not afternoon.”

  “I had the strangest dream last night,” he told me.

  “Were you playing the drums?” I asked.

  He had no idea what I was talking about, of course.

  “No,” he said. “I’m a great drummer.”

  He’s really not.

  “In my dream, you walked out of here totally naked and went ballroom dancing or something. I don’t remember.”

  “Were you my partner?” I asked him.

  “No,” he answered. “I don’t know who you were dancing with, but you did it naked.”

  “That seems unlikely,” I told him.

  “Tell me about it,” he said, almost disappointed. “I’m hungry. Do you want to get breakfast?”

  “I need to take a shower first,” I answered.

  “Do you want me to join you?” he asked.

  “Have you seen this shower?” I asked.

  Whenever I washed my hair in the shower, I kept hitting my elbows against the walls. That’s how small it was.

  We went to the Mediterranean restaurant because I liked their bread. I like good bread for breakfast and one of the worst things about Hong Kong is a serious lack of good bread.

  Since it was a day at sea, most of the passengers were naked and this was one of the restaurants that allowed nudity, but by now I was used to seeing naked people all over the place. I can’t say that I did not notice anymore. I noticed, but it was not making me as uncomfortable as it did at the beginning of the cruise. I did not want to only eat in the main restaurant anyway. There were too many choices on the ship to limit myself to just one.

  Even though it was a naked day and we were in one of the naked restaurants, Liam wore clothes. He talked a great deal about being naked all the time before the cruise, but once we were on the ship, he was all bark and no bite.

  About two years earlier, he somehow got it in his head that it would be a good idea to take pictures of us flashing each other in public. He wanted me to take pictures of him and then he would take pictures of me.

  “We can do it in the apartment if it’s really that important to you,” I told him.

  “It’s just not the same,” he said.

  I had to agree with that. In our apartment it would have been legal and safe.

  I never wanted to shoot down another of his wild fantasies, but Hong Kong is a very crowded place. There is no such thing as privacy anywhere except in your own apartment. We went for a walk down Nathan Road and I pointed out that there were people everywhere. That is a larger and busier than average road, but the whole city is crowded. I think that was part of the thrill to him.

  He suggested we do it at Disneyland, but there was no way I was doing anything like that there. That is where I work. He worked there at the time, too. Forget about getting kicked out of the park. We could have lost our jobs. We had only been there less than two months at the time, and getting fired and deported so soon would have meant going home very early with our tails between our legs and having to explain to everyone that we had to leave because Liam wanted me to flash some boobs.

  I’m all for fantasies. I think they can be good and healthy in any relationship, but I don’t wan
t to do anything that is going to physically and financially hurt us. Needless to say, we have both always stayed fully clothed on the streets of Hong Kong and Disneyland.

  I thought he gave up on that idea until a few months later when we took a short trip to Macau. It is right next to Hong Kong, so it’s a good place to get away for a weekend. It is also far less crowded than Hong Kong. There are pockets of empty streets, and we actually walked for almost half an hour one time without running into a single soul. You never see that in Hong Kong. There are always people everywhere.

  In Macau, Liam brought up the flashing idea again while we were walking on an empty street.

  “You go first,” I said, joking.

  I never thought he would do it, but he did. He ran across the street and told me to point my camera at him, and then he dropped his pants. Without really thinking about it, I aimed and fired. I took a lot of shots of his butt, but there were a few frontal poses in there as well.

  “I can’t believe you did that,” I said, putting my camera away.

  “I said I would,” he replied. “I always do what I say I’m going to do.”

  “Is this a new rule?” I asked him.

  As we were walking along the empty street, we came up to an old Chinese temple. No one was there, but it was wide open so people could go in and do whatever people do in Chinese temples.

  “Let’s go in there,” he suggested. “I’ll get totally naked, but then you have to show something.”

  He was negotiating, but all of it was his idea. I was not invested in this plan at all.

  “You can’t do it here,” I told him. “That’s far too disrespectful. This is a holy site to these people.”

  I knew that Liam did not like anything I was telling him, especially since the place was more deserted than anything we would ever find in Hong Kong. It was the emptiest public place we were ever going to see. At the same time, he knew that I was right.

  “Streaking on an empty street is one thing,” I told him. “But we’re just visitors here. We shouldn’t completely piss off the locals.”

  That was the end of his flashing in Macau and he never suggested doing it anywhere else. We went to the nude beach on Lantau at the end of that year, but that was more about Liam frolicking naked in nature and trying to see naked girls, even though there none around. Flashing is a completely different animal and I assume it is more about the thrill of getting caught. Every nudist will tell you that flashing has nothing to do with nudism and that it is a bad thing.

  After Macau and the nude beach, I thought that Liam’s public nudity days were over. He was too scared to get naked on the cruise during our first day at sea or any of several other times he could have. I actually got naked more than he did on that ship, unless you count our cabin and balcony. He had to work sometimes and nudity was not an option, but I was still surprised by how much he kept his clothes on.

  So when we went up to the pool deck before he had to go to work, I expected him to keep his clothes on just as much as he had the last time.

  The pool deck was fairly crowded, but we found a few empty deck chairs and put down all of our towels and whatnot. I was wearing a bikini and Liam was wearing swimming trunks and a t-shirt. I sat down and watched in amazement as he stripped off all of his clothes right there in front of everyone. No one else noticed because they were all naked, but it definitely caught my attention. I have seen him naked a million times, but I have never seen him naked surrounded by so many naked people. I have never seen him naked surrounded by a lot of clothed people either.

  Once again, I was the only person with clothes on as far as the eye could see, although there was a topless woman wearing shorts.

  “You should just get naked,” Liam said to me. “Then you’ll fit in.”

  I have never liked peer pressure. If everyone jumps off a bridge, I am not going to do it. I was not about to get naked just because everyone else was naked. They were naked because they were nudists. I was clothed because I was not a nudist. It was a clothing optional cruise, after all. That meant nude or clothed were equal options as far as I was concerned.

  Something about Liam being naked was an invitation for other passengers to talk to us. They were always friendly, but they could instinctively tell that we were not nudists, mostly because we were never naked. With Liam naked, it looked like at least one of us was one of them.

  A friendly couple came up to us and asked if they could sit down. They were completely naked, of course, but they did not seem bothered by the fact that I was not. Pretty soon, another couple joined us and we had a little group of nudists, and me, all sitting around talking.

  “So you’re not ABC members?” one of the naked women asked.

  This question came up a few times during the cruise. When your group books an entire ship, it is probably strange to meet people who are not connected to your group in any way.

  We talked about being performers in China and how Liam was filling in for a friend. That is when the conversation inevitably moved on to what it was like to work on a cruise ship.

  “We’ve been on a few cruises,” one of the naked men said. “I’ve always wondered what it was like for the crew.”

  “The cabins are a lot smaller, that’s for sure,” Liam told them.

  “Our cabin is smaller than our closet at home,” one of the naked women said.

  “Picture that with three people,” Liam said. “And all of their stuff. The crew doesn’t just pack for a week. You need to bring everything you’ll need the entire time you’re on the ship.”

  Everyone was interested in Liam’s behind the scenes tales of life on a cruise ship. This was only his eighth day, but he still had stories you never get from being a passenger. Some of these people go on cruises all the time and still did not know anything about the crew’s perspective.

  “Is the crew ever allowed to use any of the pools?” one of the naked men asked Liam.

  “Is there a special time for them?” another naked woman asked. “Like in the middle of the night or something?”

  “No,” Liam told them. “There’s a crew pool that’s tucked away where you can’t see it.”

  This came as a revelation to the veteran cruise passengers. They all seemed fascinated to learn about these new details.

  “That’s nice,” one of the naked women said. “They don’t have to watch all this and have nothing of their own.”

  “It’s a very small pool,” Liam told his audience. “It’s not nearly as nice as this one. Nothing on the crew decks is nearly as nice as what the passengers get.”

  “To be fair, we paid a lot of money for all of this opulence,” one of the naked men said.

  “I’m sure everybody on the crew understands that,” Liam replied. “It’s like any job. The help and the customers don’t mix.”

  “Except for you,” one of the naked men said.

  “I’m part time help and part time customer,” Liam said.

  “Thanks to this beautiful young lady,” one of the naked women said, trying to inject me into the conversation.

  I did not mind being in the background. I don’t need to be the center of attention twenty four hours a day, and Liam was enjoying having insight and information no one else had. She was also incorrect. We were only there because of Liam. I was just along for the ride.

  While Liam was regaling everyone with stories of life in the lower depths of a cruise ship, it occurred to me that I was sitting in a small group of completely naked people and I was not even thinking about how naked they were. Until I started to think about how I was not thinking about it. We all talked and laughed and I watched Liam tell stories without all the nudity even crossing my mind. I was on a cruise ship full of nudists somewhere in the South China Sea and we could have just as easily been sitting at a dinner table on Hennepin Avenue.

  I did not think about it at the time, but later on I realized that Liam was sitting completely naked surrounded by naked people and he never got an erection. There
was absolutely nothing erotic about any of this. Nudists told me a million times that nudity was not sex and they were as right as can be. Liam’s fantasies about being around a bunch of naked women are always sexual, but when he actually was around a bunch of naked people, he talked about work and food.

  When Liam had to get ready for rehearsals, I went with him back to the cabin. Watching him tell his stories of life on board only reminded me of how little time we were spending with each other on this cruise. He had some free time here and there, but the most time we had spent together was in Xiamen and that did not turn out to be the best experience for either of us.

  He had to work during days at sea and I spent the entire day in Hong Kong off the ship, so I did not see him even when he had some time off.

  “I should just stay on board when we’re in Ho Chi Minh,” I told him.

  “I have two shows that day,” he said.

  “I know,” I told him. “But you’ll have some time off and if I’m in the city, we won’t see each other at all. At least if I stay on board we’ll have some time together.”

  We never get to see each other very much with him living on the Mainland and me in Hong Kong, and I came on this cruise to be with him, not to wander around Vietnam. I did not even know if I had a visa and I did not really care about doing anything in Ho Chi Minh anyway.

  Liam wanted me to make the most of the stops, but I had mostly decided to simply skip Vietnam and stay on the ship.

  Chapter 19: Mud People

  I was supposed to meet Earl and Edna after Liam went to work, so I went back up to the pool deck. Since it was another day at sea, there were all kinds of activities going on. There was always something to do on the ship, but on sea days it was non-stop action.

  In addition to all the games and contests, there was a small group of people giving massages and playing with mud. These were not the professional, and very expensive, massages given by the crew in the spa. These were passengers who were also professional or at least semi-professional massage therapists giving massages for free.