The floating bookstore

Logos Hope is the second ship to set sail on its maiden voyage. Travelling all around the world to spread the 'word of hope' (as the ship is named after), this year's pit stop includes Malaysia.

During the first weekend of the boat's anchor at Port Klang, the Malaysian public turned out in full force, getting to experience, first-hand, the wonders of a floating bookstore and the story behind it.

After an hour or two of queuing up, no doubt people were impatient and delighted to finally see if it was worth the wait.

After being welcomed on board as you would when boarding a plane, we were first treated to a (video) screening that explains the humble beginnings and the ship's mission and vision.

To sum it up, their aim is bringing knowledge, help and hope.

Before proceeding to the bookstore exhibition section, we also checked out the interesting timeline of facts and trivia presented attractively on the walls of the ship itself.

Now, on to the main course which is the book exhibition itself. The books are priced in units to make the conversion rate easier as all countries use different currencies. Here, 100 units is equivalent to our RM 8.

Compared to book exhibitions like Big Bad Wolf or the recent Bookfest at KL, the books do not come that cheap as understandably, there were no major discounts, special price, etc. or books on offer.

However, it does feels like you've stepped in a bookstore with a huge variety of good hardcover books. Hours flew by as we eagerly browsed through the books amongst the crowd.

Books aside, the exhibition also sells music albums from various genres as well as souvenirs and merchandise.

After the book exhibition, we breezed through the section with a lot of (hand-drawn, colourful) portraits depicting life, hardship, family and other stories, mostly of children or young people. Most did not stay long to decipher the meaning of the portraits as like yours truly, their feet were aching from standing too long and headed straight to the cafeteria or what was aptly named International Cafe.

Here, the public had a chance to chat and mingle around with the crew members of various nationalities; they were assembled on board from 45 different countries.

I was pleasantly surprised that the 'shy' stereotype of Malaysians were less apparent today. Fluent or otherwise, public and crew members flaunt their English, exchange greetings and then all around, conversations were going pretty smoothly.

Oddly enough, all the crew members were undeniably well-groomed and easy on the eyes. Which got me wondering if it was a prerequisite!

My table (where I sat with my family) was joined by two lovely ladies who approached us first, asking if we would mind them joining us.

25-year-old Katya (wearing the name tag, second from left) is from Russia, while Sabrina Muller, 27, is from Switzerland.

Katya spoke extremely fluent English due to the nature of her job. Besides being an English teacher, she is a language translator (Russian-English and English-Russian). It is her job to teach the new crew members who are less fluent in English, as it is now their lingua franca while on board. She works in the administrative department. Meanwhile, Sabrina is one of the 'angels'. 'Angels' wake up at 5.30 am to clean the ship spic-and -span.

All crew members work on various projects, and may be assigned to receive different tasks, in which the ship delivers aid to the needy. Katya recalls that she had helped bring cheer to children in (their) Dubai (pit stop) while Sabrina remembers painting a fresh new coat to brighten up a hospital.

Both of them did not bring a friend along or knew anyone else when they boarded the ship as a volunteer. (All crew members are unpaid volunteers).

They were truly ladies with a brave, free-spirited mind and a soul for adventure. To hop on board as a crew member is not something to be taken lightly, as the usual period of volunteering is two years. (In special cases, upon request, the minimum period granted is 3 months.)

Both admitted that they were having a great time getting along with the other crew members and starting to get to know the newcomers closer as the day goes by.

Their joy was obvious in the manner that both gushed about having a 'wonderful' coconut curry dinner yesterday and a really 'great' chef on board.

Having good food and great company on board, what more could one ask for? (Although unpaid, crew members are given some pocket money.)

With my curiosity piqued, I inquired about the prerequisites to become a crew member.

It turns out one has to be aged 18 and above, and fit/healthy.

Before I can say 'yes!', she dropped the bombshell.

One also has to be of Christian religion to be a crew member.

"So there is no place for a non-Christian on board?", I asked.

"Well, not as a crew member, but you can be a guest. Of course, we welcome visitors from all religions!", Katya replied.

After gathering that I have become not eligible, the conversation naturally moved on to other topics.

It was a long conversation (Katya was doing most of the talking though). The other noteworthy fact we learned was that apparently, the first ship, Doulous was built two years after Titanic!! Doulous meant 'servant', which represented its service to the people. No longer in service, it is currently decomissioned in Singapore.

Eventually, we ended the conversation somewhere and waved goodbye to the crew members and the ship.

Logos Hope was an impressive sight at night, eerily enchanting on the dark, smooth surface of the still ocean.

Ultimately, Logos Hope was not only memorable for its concept of the floating bookstore, but also for its friendly crew members with a diverse background.

*After Port Klang (Selangor), Logos Hope will be stopping at Kuching (Sarawak) and Kota Kinabalu (Sabah) next before continuing on its next destination, Singapore.