Well, after circumnavigating the globe I’ve finally come to my last port and last blog entry for this trip.
People on the ship were really nervous and no at all excited about Guatemala because of all of the threats of disease and violence, but we were all very surprised by what we found when we actually got into the port. I went with Jackie, Lisa, Nick, Mandy, Kristin and Tim from Puerto Quetzal to Antigua, which is a small colonial city about a 2 hour drive from the port. The charming cobblestone streets are filled with pastel colored stores and restaurants, and we quickly found a place to sit down and eat lunch at “Donya Luisa’s”. Jackie had seen in Lonely Planet (these books are a godsend) that the little restaurant baked fresh banana bread every day at 2pm, and since it was 1 o clock we decided to grab some tostadas and wait for the bread, which tasted just as delicious as it smelled. They even let us into the kitchen to see how the bread is made in the giant ovens!
After our extremely filling lunch, we grabbed a cab and headed into a pueblo about 20 minutes outside of Antigua to a small family-owned coffee farm. We were greeted by a girl named Grace, who was our age and originally from Maine. Her parents had bought the farm and the house on the property a little less than a year ago, and they had been living there ever since. Grace had been in Guatemala since she graduated high school, and now that her parents had returned to the states for an extended visit, two of her friends were living with her. She gave us a tour of the beautiful 1 acre farm and walked us through the process of organic coffee making which was really cool, and I recognized a lot of the process from the work I did on the coffee farm in Nicaragua. Grace and her friend Amanda showed us around the house and the guest house (which they offered up as a cheap place to stay if we ever come back) and played with their three dogs. We ended up sitting and having coffee and chatting with them for a few hours. They were so great, and it was so nice to meet other people who were on the same wavelength as us when it comes to travel. Amanda was talking about how her friends at home kept asking her when she was going to start her life, and she just keeps saying this IS her life. I can definitely relate. All of their friends are living and working and doing volunteer work in Guatemala and loving it. After getting their contact information and leaving the farm, we went back into Antigua to meet the car that was taking us to our place for the night.
We had been warned by semester at sea not to take the local “chicken buses” as a form of transportation, but with our strength in numbers, two guys and encouragement from Amanda, we hopped on one and headed back into the city. We all lived, and we saved about $12. The only problem was that the bus didn’t go exactly what we thought, so we ended up having to pay a guy named John to take us in the back of his pickup truck to the place where we were supposed to meet our ride. We thought this was a little sketchy, until we found out that our ride to the “Earth lodge”, our hostel for the night, was the exact same mode of transportation. After a little time in the local market, we got into the back of another pickup and drove a half an hour up a mountain overlooking Antigua. Once we were up the hill, we had a half an hour hike into the mountain to reach our home for the night. Earth Lodge ended up being a little hippie compound built into the hill side that overlooked all of the city and the volcanoes. There were tree houses and a tee swing and hammocks and we all had a delicious vegan dinner with the other guests, and stayed up listening to music and watching the volcano’s nightly eruption from across the valley. It was amazing. We finished the night off watching the movie “Vicky Christina Barcelona” on bean bag chairs and then got a really good night’s sleep. In the morning, we got up early to watch the sun rise over the valley. We spent the morning milling around the Cliffside and playing on the tree swing that went out over the edge of the mountain. We said goodbye to some of the new friends we’d made and bought some new “tree hugger” t-shirts, and made the trek back out to meet the pickup for our ride down the mountain.
Back in Antigua, we found a city hostel called the Black Cat to stay at for the night, and booked a tour of the volcano for the afternoon. We had a little time to wander around the city before our tour left, and then we piled into a van for the hour and a half drive to the volcano. When we got to the base area where we started the hike, our van was mobbed by children screaming and trying to sell us sticks for our hike. I was totally overwhelmed, but once I saw the trail I wanted to kiss the child that sold me that stick. The hike was a lot tougher than all of us expected, and it took about an hour and a half to get to the volcanic rock, which we realized was going to be an even harder climb. The black rock was really hard to walk on without falling, and when you slipped it was so sharp that we all ended up with cuts all over our legs. I got one on my leg that bled all the way down onto my leg, which was pretty nasty. In the end, it was definitely worth it, because we got to get about 5 feet away from the running lava at the top of the volcano. It was insanely hot but such an awesome thing to see. Once we had spent some time at the peak, we realized that a thunder and lightning storm was about to hit us, and our guide said that hike down in a storm was dangerous, so we had to go as fast as possible. It took us about an hour to get down, and even though it didn’t rain, the lightning was so bright it lit up the whole valley at some points. It actually ended up being helpful because it was getting dark and most of us didn’t have flashlights. It didn’t start to really rain until we had gotten to the bottom and back in the van. We were all really proud of ourselves for getting through the hike, and it’s not every day that you get to see an active volcano. We went out for a late but delicious dinner and celebrated our last night in a port with a couple pitchers of Sangria.
In the morning, Lisa and I woke up at 5am to take a cab back to Puerto Quetzal since we had a service project that left from the ship. I was dead tired since I hadn’t really slept the night before, but we went on the project with our friends Ashleigh and McKendree and it ended up being a great day. My favorite professor on the ship, Joan, was leading the trip, so it was nice to spend my last day in port with her. We went to a place called the Open Windows Library, which was started by a Guatemalan woman from the pueblo and her two American friends. The library is one of the first public libraries in the country, and what started as a one room program with 300 books now has a whole building with over 8,000 books, 20 computers and a community room. We took a tour of the town and visited a school and spent some time with the children painting art projects. The kids ended up making us into the projects, and we left completely covered in paint. While we were walking around town, I was talking to Joan about the trip and about my plans for the future. I realized on this last day how much I loved Guatemala, and how I could really relate to the people I had met there. Joan now lives in a small village with her husband in Mexico, and she told me she thinks that central and South America just get to some people, it gets under their skin and they find it hard to leave. I think this was definitely true for me, and I know one day I’ll come back to this place. We boarded the ship one last time, leaving behind a country that perfectly summed up my experiences on this trip.
We’ve spent the past few days wrapping up classes and having celebrations, and last night we had a fancy dinner and a dance. It was a lot of fun, but today we had to pack all of our things and now it really feels like this is the end. We’ve spent a lot of time in the past days talking about re-entry into the states and reflection about what we’ve done, and it will definitely be a tough process. I’m so excited to come home, but if I was restless before I can’t imagine how I’ll feel after this trip. I know everyone expects you to come home and say you had a life changing experience, but I don’t think I’ll know how this experience changed my life until I come home. There is one lesson I know I’ve learned and will keep with me for the rest of my life and is relevant to this trip, and it can be summed up in a quote by Mark Twain: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
Thank you to everyone who followed my journey. Sea you later.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Japan 4/6-4/10 and Hawaii 4/19-4/20
So I have to keep this a little shorter than usual since school stuff is really crazy right now, but I just wanted to give a little update on the past 2 ports.
After my Great Wall adventure we headed to Japan. The night before we got there was the night before my birthday and all of my friends came to dinner and we had the giant ice cream cake from my family (which goes onto my ship board account that is linked to my credit card, which I thought was pretty funny! But thanks!) and a giant cookie tray that my friend’s Nell and Julia got for me. People made me cards and sang the happy birthday song like 12 times and it was just fun to have everyone together. The next day when we got to Japan on my actual 21st, it took us a really long time to get off of the boat and start our day because Japanese customs is a really long process. Once we finally did some of us got separated and there was some confusion and we ended up wandering aimlessly around Kobe and I was kind of frustrated because that’s how I spent most of my birthday. We finally got on an evening train to Kyoto, and once we got there are found a nice Ryokan (traditional Japanese house with rooms for rent) we could finally start our real time in Japan. We went out to a great sushi restaurant where the dishes came on a conveyor belt and you ordered specific items on a computer at your table and they came out by request on the “bullet train”. It was hilarious and fun and the fish was so fresh! We found a nearby karaoke bar to end the night with some terrible singing and strong Saki. It was a pretty low key 21st birthday, but once we were back at the Ryokan they had given us all one giant room with bamboo floors and matching Japanese robes to sleep in. After about an hour long photo shoot/wrestling match (the boys really liked their new outfits) we all fell asleep.
We spent the second day exploring Kyoto, seeing the Golden Temple (not the restaurant, but trust me all I wanted was Chinese food after this stop) and an area of Kyoto full of small monuments that was on top of a hill overlooking all of Kyoto. We were so lucky because it was the height of cherry blossom season, which only lasts for about two weeks each year. Everything looking like it was covered in fresh snow but it was beautiful and warm out. People were all dressed up in traditional Japanese outfits for a cherry blossom festival going on later that night. After grabbing some really quick food we made it onto a bullet train headed for Tokyo. The train was just as fast and as nice as I expected it to be, and I sat next to some really nice Japanese students that I talked to the whole time. We got really lucky, because paying for hotels in the Tokyo area are an average of about $100 per night, but our friends Brian had volunteered at a church right outside Tokyo and they had offered the 9 of us a place to stay for the three nights we were there. The pastor and his family were so warm and welcoming and the church had a huge game room and a puppy (bet you can’t guess what my favorite part of our stay there was)!
We got a really late start on a few of the other days, but we spent a lot of time wandering around really cool areas and just taking in the beautiful sights and people of Japan. By the time we left, I was even comfortable with the train system, which at times was so crowded that you couldn’t even blink without disturbing someone! Everywhere we went we felt completely underdressed, we were such ugly Americans. We went to Shibuya, where thousands of people cross the biggest intersection in Tokyo every time the lights change. We walked around Shinjuku which had great bars and restaurants and amazing shopping. My favorite place was Hairijuku, where some of the girls were dressed up in crazy costumes and the street was full of neon lights and music. It was a really cool area. On our last night there Lisa and I went to the top of Tokyo Tower and saw an amazing view of the skyline all lit up at night. Japan really is an amazing place, although I still can’t figure out how they manage to keep it so clean when it’s impossible to find a trash can anywhere in the entire country!
After Japan we had a much needed 9 day stretch at sea for us to recover from the past month. Between Thailand and Japan we only had 2 days between each port, so we were all pretty dead. It was also a really fun time on the boat because our group of friends did a lot together. Some of our Christian friends came with us to the Passover seder we had on the boat, and then my friend’s Ashley and Tim created a really funny Easter egg hunt around the boat. We did a lot to keep ourselves distracted from the insane amount of work we had during this stretch, and it made me realize how much I’ll actually miss the time when we’re not in port! Still, after 9 days I was so excited when we made it to Hawaii, and the Dean woke us up over the intercom by blasting “Living in America” at 6am when we came into port.
Hawaii is absolutely gorgeous. The beaches are wonderful and it’s all surrounded by mountains and fun shops and restaurants. Myself and three friends have been planning to go skydiving in Hawaii for weeks, so we were really disappointed on the first morning when we made our way to the airfield and were told it was too windy to jump by the time we got there, but we could come back at dawn the next day and jump. We signed up for a jump the next day and then went to meet our friends on the beach. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and playing games on the beach and using our cell phones to call people non-stop since we finally weren’t getting charged for international calls! It felt really good to have English speaking cab drivers, and cabs with doors for that matter, and to recognize stores and other American symbols. I didn’t realize how much I’d miss the states until I was back there! We had dinner the first night at a kitschy place called “Duke’s” and I ordered my first legal drink in the states!
The next morning we got picked up at 5:50am and headed back out to the airfield. We watched the sun come up over the beach and the mountains, and Nell, Shayna, Lauren and I calmed each other’s nerves while we waited for our turn to jump. It was a perfect day to jump out of an airplane at 14,000 feet, and that’s just what we did. It was an amazing feeling and the view couldn’t have been better. The pictures I have of my jump are hilarious! It was a great bonding experience for us and it was so cool! We met our friends at the beach again, and we spent a lot of the day walking around the shops and getting a last taste of America before it was back on the boat.
These next 4 days are pretty hectic with finals before we get to Guatemala, but I’m lucky because I don’t really have anything do after that, so I just need to get through this week. I can’t believe the trip I winding down, but we still have one more port so I’m trying not to think about it!
After my Great Wall adventure we headed to Japan. The night before we got there was the night before my birthday and all of my friends came to dinner and we had the giant ice cream cake from my family (which goes onto my ship board account that is linked to my credit card, which I thought was pretty funny! But thanks!) and a giant cookie tray that my friend’s Nell and Julia got for me. People made me cards and sang the happy birthday song like 12 times and it was just fun to have everyone together. The next day when we got to Japan on my actual 21st, it took us a really long time to get off of the boat and start our day because Japanese customs is a really long process. Once we finally did some of us got separated and there was some confusion and we ended up wandering aimlessly around Kobe and I was kind of frustrated because that’s how I spent most of my birthday. We finally got on an evening train to Kyoto, and once we got there are found a nice Ryokan (traditional Japanese house with rooms for rent) we could finally start our real time in Japan. We went out to a great sushi restaurant where the dishes came on a conveyor belt and you ordered specific items on a computer at your table and they came out by request on the “bullet train”. It was hilarious and fun and the fish was so fresh! We found a nearby karaoke bar to end the night with some terrible singing and strong Saki. It was a pretty low key 21st birthday, but once we were back at the Ryokan they had given us all one giant room with bamboo floors and matching Japanese robes to sleep in. After about an hour long photo shoot/wrestling match (the boys really liked their new outfits) we all fell asleep.
We spent the second day exploring Kyoto, seeing the Golden Temple (not the restaurant, but trust me all I wanted was Chinese food after this stop) and an area of Kyoto full of small monuments that was on top of a hill overlooking all of Kyoto. We were so lucky because it was the height of cherry blossom season, which only lasts for about two weeks each year. Everything looking like it was covered in fresh snow but it was beautiful and warm out. People were all dressed up in traditional Japanese outfits for a cherry blossom festival going on later that night. After grabbing some really quick food we made it onto a bullet train headed for Tokyo. The train was just as fast and as nice as I expected it to be, and I sat next to some really nice Japanese students that I talked to the whole time. We got really lucky, because paying for hotels in the Tokyo area are an average of about $100 per night, but our friends Brian had volunteered at a church right outside Tokyo and they had offered the 9 of us a place to stay for the three nights we were there. The pastor and his family were so warm and welcoming and the church had a huge game room and a puppy (bet you can’t guess what my favorite part of our stay there was)!
We got a really late start on a few of the other days, but we spent a lot of time wandering around really cool areas and just taking in the beautiful sights and people of Japan. By the time we left, I was even comfortable with the train system, which at times was so crowded that you couldn’t even blink without disturbing someone! Everywhere we went we felt completely underdressed, we were such ugly Americans. We went to Shibuya, where thousands of people cross the biggest intersection in Tokyo every time the lights change. We walked around Shinjuku which had great bars and restaurants and amazing shopping. My favorite place was Hairijuku, where some of the girls were dressed up in crazy costumes and the street was full of neon lights and music. It was a really cool area. On our last night there Lisa and I went to the top of Tokyo Tower and saw an amazing view of the skyline all lit up at night. Japan really is an amazing place, although I still can’t figure out how they manage to keep it so clean when it’s impossible to find a trash can anywhere in the entire country!
After Japan we had a much needed 9 day stretch at sea for us to recover from the past month. Between Thailand and Japan we only had 2 days between each port, so we were all pretty dead. It was also a really fun time on the boat because our group of friends did a lot together. Some of our Christian friends came with us to the Passover seder we had on the boat, and then my friend’s Ashley and Tim created a really funny Easter egg hunt around the boat. We did a lot to keep ourselves distracted from the insane amount of work we had during this stretch, and it made me realize how much I’ll actually miss the time when we’re not in port! Still, after 9 days I was so excited when we made it to Hawaii, and the Dean woke us up over the intercom by blasting “Living in America” at 6am when we came into port.
Hawaii is absolutely gorgeous. The beaches are wonderful and it’s all surrounded by mountains and fun shops and restaurants. Myself and three friends have been planning to go skydiving in Hawaii for weeks, so we were really disappointed on the first morning when we made our way to the airfield and were told it was too windy to jump by the time we got there, but we could come back at dawn the next day and jump. We signed up for a jump the next day and then went to meet our friends on the beach. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and playing games on the beach and using our cell phones to call people non-stop since we finally weren’t getting charged for international calls! It felt really good to have English speaking cab drivers, and cabs with doors for that matter, and to recognize stores and other American symbols. I didn’t realize how much I’d miss the states until I was back there! We had dinner the first night at a kitschy place called “Duke’s” and I ordered my first legal drink in the states!
The next morning we got picked up at 5:50am and headed back out to the airfield. We watched the sun come up over the beach and the mountains, and Nell, Shayna, Lauren and I calmed each other’s nerves while we waited for our turn to jump. It was a perfect day to jump out of an airplane at 14,000 feet, and that’s just what we did. It was an amazing feeling and the view couldn’t have been better. The pictures I have of my jump are hilarious! It was a great bonding experience for us and it was so cool! We met our friends at the beach again, and we spent a lot of the day walking around the shops and getting a last taste of America before it was back on the boat.
These next 4 days are pretty hectic with finals before we get to Guatemala, but I’m lucky because I don’t really have anything do after that, so I just need to get through this week. I can’t believe the trip I winding down, but we still have one more port so I’m trying not to think about it!
Saturday, April 4, 2009
China: 3/29-4/3
I can’t believe how quickly the countries in this portion of the trip have been passing by, it doesn’t even seem real that in two days we get to Japan and then this crazy trip is almost over. Part of me wants to slow everything down and start over but I’m also really excited to come home and see everyone and share all of my experiences and the pictures I wish I could share with people from here! China followed the trend of being completely different from every other port so far, and it was definitely one of the best-organized tours I’ve ever been on.
We had our first day free in Hong Kong, which is one of the coolest cities I’ve ever seen. It sits right on the water, surrounded by mountains and filled with some of the weirdest looking skyscrapers in the world. I definitely understand why they chose to film the new Batman movie there and say it was Gotham City. We spent most of our day in Hong Kong shopping around at a market on crowded and winding city streets and then decided it was a good idea to try to hop on a bus to get to a new destination. Unfortunately, we forgot that none of us spoke Chinese, and ended up on a one hour bus tour of the city. This would have been great, except that we couldn’t understand the announcements about where we were, so we rode the bus unknowingly almost all the way back to our ship, and with the help of some friendly Brits, ended up in a cool shopping area where we finally got some food. We had a great dinner complete with dumpling soup and fried rice, and since we were the only white people in the huge restaurant we felt like we’d found ourselves a very traditional dinner. Full and happy, we wandered the shops for a while and then headed back to the ship to watch Hong Kong’s famous light shows on the skyline. I’m not sure if it was just because it had been built up to be such a big deal or if it was a little lackluster because it was a weekday, but there was definitely a huge crowd on the ship waiting for something spectacular that never happened. Either way, the city lights up in some awesome colors at night and it was cool to see from the docks of the ship. Since we ha a busy few days head of us, we crashed pretty early that night.
In the morning we were picked up by the travel agent and went to the airport. The Hong Kong airport is humongous and beautiful. I made sure everyone in my group of 13 got on their flight (since I was organizing the trip) and then went to check in for my flight, but for some reason wasn’t showing up in the system. I knew I was on a flight about 20 minutes after my friends since I had booked mine before the trip, but what I didn’t realize was that I was on a completely different airline in another terminal! After a quick “see you in Beijing” to my friends, I ran through the airport and made it through the security, customs (since HK is not technically the same country as China) and all the trams through the massive terminal in time to get a quick bite to eat before my flight. Once I got on the plane I passed out immediately because I had taken some decongestants that apparently were not non-drowsy. Once I landed in Beijing I met up with the rest of my friends and our tour guide Vincent, who would soon become one of the most entertaining parts of our trip. Again, we got really lucky to have such an awesome tour guide. We made our way through the city and then to our hotel, which was pretty typical as far as hotels go, minus the fluorescent day-glow lotus tree and paper lanterns in the entranceway. We convinced Vincent (our new best friend) to take us to a cool place for dinner. This was a great decision, since after a half an hour walk we ended up in an area where no one spoke a word of English. Dinner was incredible and after what seemed like a 4 course meal our bill came to about $7 each! For the rest of the night we walked around a large bar area in which every bar had some form of questionable live music performance going on along a river bank. It was a Monday night so things were pretty low key, but we ended up playing the Chinese version of hackeysack with some teenagers in the park.
The next morning was a big day of tours. We went first to Tiennamen Square and the Forbidden City. Honestly I’m really frustrated with our Global Studies course that is suppose to be preparing us with the history of the countries that we are visiting. They didn’t even cover the events that happened in these historical places that are so important to their history. Anyways, it was great to see it and finally learn about it from Vincent. The Forbidden City was so big, I still can’t get over how they built these things so long ago without modern tools. It was really cool to see, but it was also under 30 degrees and windy, and so we were absolutely freezing the entire time walking around. Since I didn’t exactly pack for that kind of weather, we all ended up buying either snow hats with the communist star on them or hats that looked like panda heads. I got a panda, and my ears were certainly grateful. After the Forbidden City we went to the Summer Palace which was gorgeous, I can’t believe people had these huge places to live in just for one season. In the afternoon we went to a giant pearl market. I have to say, going to the markets is certainly one way of experiencing the culture. I was literally chased down 2 aisles, around a corner and grabbed by the wrist by a tiny Chinese girl half my size screaming at me calling me a “cheapo”! I wasn’t exactly pleased, but it was entertaining for sure.
On our second morning in Beijing we got to go see the Olympic Birdcage and the Water Cube. It was so awesome to be standing where all of the athletes were, and I can only imagine what it was like in the Olympic village when all of that craziness was going on. I took a picture of myself doing a handstand in front of the Birdcage which was great and the whole thing was just a fun stop before leaving the city. After that we started the long drive out to the country towards the Great Wall. Before that, we stopped at the Ding Ling hidden tombs, which was a beautiful park that stands above the tombs of emperors of China. We then had a really great lunch at a restaurant Vincent chose and then started our 3 hour drive to the wall. We got there just in time to run out of the van and up the wall (let me tell you, those Chinese soldiers must have been in damn good shape running up and down those stairs they built) in time to watch the sunset over the wall. It was so beautiful, and we were the only ones around. You could see for miles from the top of the wall and it was surrounded by expanses of mountains. I’ve definitely realized that I need to live around mountains and water to be happy. We went back down the wall to grab some dinner nearby and gather our things for the night. Once we got back up on the wall, we were given sleeping bags, little mats, cases of beer and apple juice boxes for our night in the tower under the stars. It was too cold to even reach our hands out of our sleeping bags to grab a drink, so we huddled down for a fairly restless night that was only made worth it by seeing the sunrise over the wall the next morning. It’s also pretty cool to say that I’ve slept on one of the 7 Wonders of the World. I still think it’s funny that a wall built by the Chinese to keep people out if now what draws tourists in.
After a breakfast of odd Chinese imitation hostess snacks, we began our six mile hike of and famous and ancient part of the wall called Simetai. The first couple miles were really tough with sharp inclines of over 200 vertical and unstable steps. By the end the terrain was more rolling and it was a perfect day to hike. It was awesome to get to just take it all in with just 12 other people. We finished the hike in about 2 hours, and then we were rewarded with a zipline that goes off of the wall over a river and down to a little boat that took us to lunch. We had the rest of the afternoon at a market back in Beijing (overwhelming as usual, although I think I’ll probably try to bargain at Bloomingdale’s when I get home) and then got dropped off by Vincent at the train station. Saying goodbye to Vincent was definitely tough, he almost cried when he hugged us all! Then we got on our sleeper train to Shanghai. This was absolutely hilarious. Lisa, JacMac, Nick and I shared a compartment with 2 bunk beds and a tiny little nightstand with a flower on it! It was really cute and way nicer than the one they had taken in India. It was definitely great for my first sleeper train experience. It’s a really cool way to travel. Go to sleeping in Beijing, wake up in Shanghai!
Since we got to Shanghai in the morning, we had time to go back to the ship for a much needed shower before having some time in the city. It was kind of a gloomy day, so it ruined our plans to go to the top of the tallest building in the area for drinks and a view. Instead we went to the French Concession, a little area that was not as cute as we had pictured it but provided a great and much needed non-fried lunch. We spent the rest of the day in a little bustling shopping area just taking in some final sites of China before heading back to the ship.
It is getting tough to only see just a glimpse of all of these countries, and I’m definitely feeling really far from home right now, but the experiences just keep getting better. I’m so glad I traveled with a smaller group of friends instead of the 150 other SASers going on the same trip as one big group. We had an awesome time and I got to travel with some friends who I hadn’t gotten to yet. Everyone on the ship is sick (I’m ok so far, fingers crossed) and really tired, but we’re all pushing through. I’d say we’ll have a rest after Japan, but unfortunately schoolwork really kicks in after that because the professors all try and cram stuff in at the end. I’m a little worried about the current state of Japanese and North Korean relations, but I figure the ship’s administration would not be letting us go if they didn’t think it was safe. Despite all that, I’m focusing on sushi, sake, karaoke and some amazing sights and experiences with our original group of six that started traveling together at the beginning of the trip along with some great new people we’ve met along the way!
We had our first day free in Hong Kong, which is one of the coolest cities I’ve ever seen. It sits right on the water, surrounded by mountains and filled with some of the weirdest looking skyscrapers in the world. I definitely understand why they chose to film the new Batman movie there and say it was Gotham City. We spent most of our day in Hong Kong shopping around at a market on crowded and winding city streets and then decided it was a good idea to try to hop on a bus to get to a new destination. Unfortunately, we forgot that none of us spoke Chinese, and ended up on a one hour bus tour of the city. This would have been great, except that we couldn’t understand the announcements about where we were, so we rode the bus unknowingly almost all the way back to our ship, and with the help of some friendly Brits, ended up in a cool shopping area where we finally got some food. We had a great dinner complete with dumpling soup and fried rice, and since we were the only white people in the huge restaurant we felt like we’d found ourselves a very traditional dinner. Full and happy, we wandered the shops for a while and then headed back to the ship to watch Hong Kong’s famous light shows on the skyline. I’m not sure if it was just because it had been built up to be such a big deal or if it was a little lackluster because it was a weekday, but there was definitely a huge crowd on the ship waiting for something spectacular that never happened. Either way, the city lights up in some awesome colors at night and it was cool to see from the docks of the ship. Since we ha a busy few days head of us, we crashed pretty early that night.
In the morning we were picked up by the travel agent and went to the airport. The Hong Kong airport is humongous and beautiful. I made sure everyone in my group of 13 got on their flight (since I was organizing the trip) and then went to check in for my flight, but for some reason wasn’t showing up in the system. I knew I was on a flight about 20 minutes after my friends since I had booked mine before the trip, but what I didn’t realize was that I was on a completely different airline in another terminal! After a quick “see you in Beijing” to my friends, I ran through the airport and made it through the security, customs (since HK is not technically the same country as China) and all the trams through the massive terminal in time to get a quick bite to eat before my flight. Once I got on the plane I passed out immediately because I had taken some decongestants that apparently were not non-drowsy. Once I landed in Beijing I met up with the rest of my friends and our tour guide Vincent, who would soon become one of the most entertaining parts of our trip. Again, we got really lucky to have such an awesome tour guide. We made our way through the city and then to our hotel, which was pretty typical as far as hotels go, minus the fluorescent day-glow lotus tree and paper lanterns in the entranceway. We convinced Vincent (our new best friend) to take us to a cool place for dinner. This was a great decision, since after a half an hour walk we ended up in an area where no one spoke a word of English. Dinner was incredible and after what seemed like a 4 course meal our bill came to about $7 each! For the rest of the night we walked around a large bar area in which every bar had some form of questionable live music performance going on along a river bank. It was a Monday night so things were pretty low key, but we ended up playing the Chinese version of hackeysack with some teenagers in the park.
The next morning was a big day of tours. We went first to Tiennamen Square and the Forbidden City. Honestly I’m really frustrated with our Global Studies course that is suppose to be preparing us with the history of the countries that we are visiting. They didn’t even cover the events that happened in these historical places that are so important to their history. Anyways, it was great to see it and finally learn about it from Vincent. The Forbidden City was so big, I still can’t get over how they built these things so long ago without modern tools. It was really cool to see, but it was also under 30 degrees and windy, and so we were absolutely freezing the entire time walking around. Since I didn’t exactly pack for that kind of weather, we all ended up buying either snow hats with the communist star on them or hats that looked like panda heads. I got a panda, and my ears were certainly grateful. After the Forbidden City we went to the Summer Palace which was gorgeous, I can’t believe people had these huge places to live in just for one season. In the afternoon we went to a giant pearl market. I have to say, going to the markets is certainly one way of experiencing the culture. I was literally chased down 2 aisles, around a corner and grabbed by the wrist by a tiny Chinese girl half my size screaming at me calling me a “cheapo”! I wasn’t exactly pleased, but it was entertaining for sure.
On our second morning in Beijing we got to go see the Olympic Birdcage and the Water Cube. It was so awesome to be standing where all of the athletes were, and I can only imagine what it was like in the Olympic village when all of that craziness was going on. I took a picture of myself doing a handstand in front of the Birdcage which was great and the whole thing was just a fun stop before leaving the city. After that we started the long drive out to the country towards the Great Wall. Before that, we stopped at the Ding Ling hidden tombs, which was a beautiful park that stands above the tombs of emperors of China. We then had a really great lunch at a restaurant Vincent chose and then started our 3 hour drive to the wall. We got there just in time to run out of the van and up the wall (let me tell you, those Chinese soldiers must have been in damn good shape running up and down those stairs they built) in time to watch the sunset over the wall. It was so beautiful, and we were the only ones around. You could see for miles from the top of the wall and it was surrounded by expanses of mountains. I’ve definitely realized that I need to live around mountains and water to be happy. We went back down the wall to grab some dinner nearby and gather our things for the night. Once we got back up on the wall, we were given sleeping bags, little mats, cases of beer and apple juice boxes for our night in the tower under the stars. It was too cold to even reach our hands out of our sleeping bags to grab a drink, so we huddled down for a fairly restless night that was only made worth it by seeing the sunrise over the wall the next morning. It’s also pretty cool to say that I’ve slept on one of the 7 Wonders of the World. I still think it’s funny that a wall built by the Chinese to keep people out if now what draws tourists in.
After a breakfast of odd Chinese imitation hostess snacks, we began our six mile hike of and famous and ancient part of the wall called Simetai. The first couple miles were really tough with sharp inclines of over 200 vertical and unstable steps. By the end the terrain was more rolling and it was a perfect day to hike. It was awesome to get to just take it all in with just 12 other people. We finished the hike in about 2 hours, and then we were rewarded with a zipline that goes off of the wall over a river and down to a little boat that took us to lunch. We had the rest of the afternoon at a market back in Beijing (overwhelming as usual, although I think I’ll probably try to bargain at Bloomingdale’s when I get home) and then got dropped off by Vincent at the train station. Saying goodbye to Vincent was definitely tough, he almost cried when he hugged us all! Then we got on our sleeper train to Shanghai. This was absolutely hilarious. Lisa, JacMac, Nick and I shared a compartment with 2 bunk beds and a tiny little nightstand with a flower on it! It was really cute and way nicer than the one they had taken in India. It was definitely great for my first sleeper train experience. It’s a really cool way to travel. Go to sleeping in Beijing, wake up in Shanghai!
Since we got to Shanghai in the morning, we had time to go back to the ship for a much needed shower before having some time in the city. It was kind of a gloomy day, so it ruined our plans to go to the top of the tallest building in the area for drinks and a view. Instead we went to the French Concession, a little area that was not as cute as we had pictured it but provided a great and much needed non-fried lunch. We spent the rest of the day in a little bustling shopping area just taking in some final sites of China before heading back to the ship.
It is getting tough to only see just a glimpse of all of these countries, and I’m definitely feeling really far from home right now, but the experiences just keep getting better. I’m so glad I traveled with a smaller group of friends instead of the 150 other SASers going on the same trip as one big group. We had an awesome time and I got to travel with some friends who I hadn’t gotten to yet. Everyone on the ship is sick (I’m ok so far, fingers crossed) and really tired, but we’re all pushing through. I’d say we’ll have a rest after Japan, but unfortunately schoolwork really kicks in after that because the professors all try and cram stuff in at the end. I’m a little worried about the current state of Japanese and North Korean relations, but I figure the ship’s administration would not be letting us go if they didn’t think it was safe. Despite all that, I’m focusing on sushi, sake, karaoke and some amazing sights and experiences with our original group of six that started traveling together at the beginning of the trip along with some great new people we’ve met along the way!
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Vietnam: 3/22-3/26
This trip was definitely a big change from what I’ve been doing the past couple of countries. As opposed to crowds of tourists pushing through monuments, we saw quiet countryside and isolated villages. Not only did we see only a handful of other white people, but we didn’t see a single other group of people from semester at sea during the entire trip, which was a nice change and very relaxing.
With four other people who I’d only really met on the ship in passing (Ryan, Ryan, Gillian and Karine) I flew from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi. In Hanoi we met our guide for the week, whose name was Ngoc. After realizing that none of us could pronounce those consonants in that order, he told us to call him “Ruby”, which worked for all of us. Ruby was friendly and enthusiastic, and he quickly became our favorite tour guide and a close friend. We spent most of the first day traveling about 4 hours out into the country to a place called Lang Son where we stayed the night in a hotel. We had dinner and some beers at a nearby restaurant on a lake, and then went to the night market. Most of the markets we’ve been to so far have been handicrafts and other touristy knick knacks, but since we were far from any attractions this market was definitely geared towards the locals. Despite being in Vietnam, I’ve never seen so many things that were “made in China” in one place in my whole life! Fake Rolex watches, fake silk ties, fake everything! The only things we bought we some socks and coloring supplies for the children at our home stays.
The next day we traveled out into the Cao Bang province through the mountainside. We stopped at a small village on the way to walk through and see the preparations going on for a local wedding. On our walk, we were stopped by a woman who ushered us into her house and sat us down to have little green bean cakes (I know it sounds gross, but they were really sweet and actually pretty good!). We spent about 45 minutes in her house, and she told us about how she is the principal at the village school. She was very friendly and we couldn’t’ believe that she had invited us into her home off of the street! After giving her some new school supplies, we continued to make our way down the road. We stopped to talk to an old woman making rice and banana leaf boxes for the wedding, and she showed us how to make them along with some of the local girls who gathered around to stare. We left the village that we had only intended to walk through with some real memories of the kind people. After hiking along the road for a while to take in some of the scenery, we got back in the van and made our way to the village where we’d be staying for the night. It was definitely a more modern village that we had anticipated. Although it was definitely extremely poor, there were tall buildings painted in crazy bright colors in some areas and little wooden huts in others. We briefly met the family we would be staying with, but they were all very busy with dinner preparations and construction on their new house. Ruby then took us on a walk through the village, where we were waved to and greeted with “Xin Chao!” by all of the locals. We walked up the road that led up the mountains and away from the village, and then took about an hour to sit on the stone wall lining the road and look down into the valley at the rice paddies and the little village. It’s amazing to think how peaceful and beautiful this view was, but that this is the only view that some of the villagers will see in their entire lives. We had a homemade dinner and then hung out with some of the family while they played cards and we showed them where we’re from on a world map. It was also interesting to see the giant map of the world they had hanging on their living room wall. On the map, Asia and Africa are on the left side and the US is on the right side, and it looks a lot smaller than the way we portray it on our maps. It’s strange to see how even maps are biased. We all went to bed early that night on our mattresses surrounded by mosquito nets, which are really kind of pretty in the morning light…not a bad way to protect yourself.
In the morning, we thanked our host family and began the drive to the Ban Gioc waterfalls. When we got there, border patrol had to check all of our passports. When Ruby saw our confusion, he explained that the river coming out of the waterfall is actually split between Vietnam and China, so we couldn’t swim or raft all the way across the river because that’s technically crossing the international border! Once we were allowed into the park, we saw how beautiful the waterfalls were. We rode on a raft out into the river and almost under one of the falls. Then we all jumped into the river, which definitely amused some of the Chinese tourists on the other side of the river who snapped some pretty funny photos of us…I guess a bunch of white kids in their bathing suits in a river where no one else is swimming is kind of a funny sight in Asia! After drying off, we hiked up and around the falls to get a better view. Once we were closer up, we realized how many layers there were to the falls, they just kept going higher and higher. We hiked back down (which was actually little tougher), and had lunch back near where we parked the van. After lunch we walked to the base of a huge mountain, where we crawled through a little tunnel that opened up to giant caves that must have had at least 60 foot ceilings! There were beautiful stalagmites and stalactites, some of which sparkled because they were made out of crystal. It looked like some kind of lost world. There were definitely some narrow parts we had to get through, and Ruby kept yelling back at us “Happy Buddha’s be careful!” We tried not to take this offensively, since I’d definitely rather be called a Happy Buddha than a fat American! Ruby had some other funny terms, such as a “happy house” for a bathroom, because when you’re done using it you’re happy! When there were no happy houses along the road, he told us we could use the “happy trees” and “happy rocks”. Needless to say we had to get a little creative with our bathroom habits on this trip. After the caves we made our way back to Cao Bang city (which definitely isn’t the type of city you might picture) and had dinner. This was a pretty low key night that we spent at a hotel, so we took some time to get to an internet café and I started to figure out my classes for next semester, which was pretty tough but I think I got it figured out.
The next morning we had “Pho” for breakfast, which is a beef noodle soup…pretty interesting breakfast choice. After breakfast we drove to Lake Ba Be where we were greeted by the grandfather of the family we would be staying with in a wooden boat. You have to take the boat across the large lake to get to a path where you walk the rest of the way to the village. It took us about half an hour to make this entire transfer, so it’s not surprising that not a lot of people leave the village until they can afford motorbikes to take the narrow road out that our van couldn’t fit down. This was definitely a more traditional village with wooden houses surrounded by rice fields, mountains and the lake. It was one of the most peaceful places I’ve ever been. The family welcomed us into their home and we sat and ate lunch. I absolutely adored their 4 year old daughter, In, who was shy at first but by the end of our stay was so friendly. After a little relaxation on the hammock, the grandfather took us back out on the lake for the day and we walked around one of the little islands for a bit. When we got back, I spent the whole afternoon playing with In until it was time for dinner. I was so happy because Ruby had bought us the ingredients to make spring rolls earlier in the market, so he gave us a lesson and we made them for the whole family! They weren’t the prettiest spring rolls I’ve ever seen since most of them kind of exploded, but there were so good! Dinner that night was definitely the best meal we had the entire trip. After the family went to bed, we met up with some international teachers who were living in Hanoi that Ryan and Gillian had met in the city the night before. They were absolutely hilarious and from all over the world, and so we hung out with them for a while and drank and talked about Vietnam and life and everything. The two girls who were staying in the same guesthouse were great because one of them is a Public Health graduate student at UCLA and the other is living in China teaching and volunteering, they had some great advice and opinions on my plans.
When we woke up, we were really sad to leave the village. It had definitely been our favorite part of the entire trip. We went back across the lake and started the 7 hour drive back to Hanoi. Saying goodbye to Ruby at the airport was also really tough, since we’d gotten so close to him. So, in his honor I’m putting in this plug for the new travel agency he’s trying to start, the website is www.originvietnam.com and it should be up and fully running within the next couple of weeks. Check it out if you have time! On the topic of plugs, I was contacted by someone who has read my blog and said that I can have a donation made it to the World Wildlife Foundation, World Vision or Make-a-Wish foundation just by mentioning their website. So, to get involved in “Traveling for Charity” I’d like to encourage you all to visit www.HotelsCombined.com when you need to find a well priced place to stay while you’re on your own travels! I figure any company that’s willing to donate some of their profits directly to charity just for a little advertising is a good one!
Overall, Vietnam was a great way to take a break and really get to meet the people who inhabit the majority of this stunning country, and get away from the stresses and pressure of traveling with an around huge groups of other people on our program. I’m so glad I’ve gotten to do such a variety of trips in each country, it’s definitely teaching me what’s important for me to do while I travel and what I want to get out of this and every other trip I take in my life.
With four other people who I’d only really met on the ship in passing (Ryan, Ryan, Gillian and Karine) I flew from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi. In Hanoi we met our guide for the week, whose name was Ngoc. After realizing that none of us could pronounce those consonants in that order, he told us to call him “Ruby”, which worked for all of us. Ruby was friendly and enthusiastic, and he quickly became our favorite tour guide and a close friend. We spent most of the first day traveling about 4 hours out into the country to a place called Lang Son where we stayed the night in a hotel. We had dinner and some beers at a nearby restaurant on a lake, and then went to the night market. Most of the markets we’ve been to so far have been handicrafts and other touristy knick knacks, but since we were far from any attractions this market was definitely geared towards the locals. Despite being in Vietnam, I’ve never seen so many things that were “made in China” in one place in my whole life! Fake Rolex watches, fake silk ties, fake everything! The only things we bought we some socks and coloring supplies for the children at our home stays.
The next day we traveled out into the Cao Bang province through the mountainside. We stopped at a small village on the way to walk through and see the preparations going on for a local wedding. On our walk, we were stopped by a woman who ushered us into her house and sat us down to have little green bean cakes (I know it sounds gross, but they were really sweet and actually pretty good!). We spent about 45 minutes in her house, and she told us about how she is the principal at the village school. She was very friendly and we couldn’t’ believe that she had invited us into her home off of the street! After giving her some new school supplies, we continued to make our way down the road. We stopped to talk to an old woman making rice and banana leaf boxes for the wedding, and she showed us how to make them along with some of the local girls who gathered around to stare. We left the village that we had only intended to walk through with some real memories of the kind people. After hiking along the road for a while to take in some of the scenery, we got back in the van and made our way to the village where we’d be staying for the night. It was definitely a more modern village that we had anticipated. Although it was definitely extremely poor, there were tall buildings painted in crazy bright colors in some areas and little wooden huts in others. We briefly met the family we would be staying with, but they were all very busy with dinner preparations and construction on their new house. Ruby then took us on a walk through the village, where we were waved to and greeted with “Xin Chao!” by all of the locals. We walked up the road that led up the mountains and away from the village, and then took about an hour to sit on the stone wall lining the road and look down into the valley at the rice paddies and the little village. It’s amazing to think how peaceful and beautiful this view was, but that this is the only view that some of the villagers will see in their entire lives. We had a homemade dinner and then hung out with some of the family while they played cards and we showed them where we’re from on a world map. It was also interesting to see the giant map of the world they had hanging on their living room wall. On the map, Asia and Africa are on the left side and the US is on the right side, and it looks a lot smaller than the way we portray it on our maps. It’s strange to see how even maps are biased. We all went to bed early that night on our mattresses surrounded by mosquito nets, which are really kind of pretty in the morning light…not a bad way to protect yourself.
In the morning, we thanked our host family and began the drive to the Ban Gioc waterfalls. When we got there, border patrol had to check all of our passports. When Ruby saw our confusion, he explained that the river coming out of the waterfall is actually split between Vietnam and China, so we couldn’t swim or raft all the way across the river because that’s technically crossing the international border! Once we were allowed into the park, we saw how beautiful the waterfalls were. We rode on a raft out into the river and almost under one of the falls. Then we all jumped into the river, which definitely amused some of the Chinese tourists on the other side of the river who snapped some pretty funny photos of us…I guess a bunch of white kids in their bathing suits in a river where no one else is swimming is kind of a funny sight in Asia! After drying off, we hiked up and around the falls to get a better view. Once we were closer up, we realized how many layers there were to the falls, they just kept going higher and higher. We hiked back down (which was actually little tougher), and had lunch back near where we parked the van. After lunch we walked to the base of a huge mountain, where we crawled through a little tunnel that opened up to giant caves that must have had at least 60 foot ceilings! There were beautiful stalagmites and stalactites, some of which sparkled because they were made out of crystal. It looked like some kind of lost world. There were definitely some narrow parts we had to get through, and Ruby kept yelling back at us “Happy Buddha’s be careful!” We tried not to take this offensively, since I’d definitely rather be called a Happy Buddha than a fat American! Ruby had some other funny terms, such as a “happy house” for a bathroom, because when you’re done using it you’re happy! When there were no happy houses along the road, he told us we could use the “happy trees” and “happy rocks”. Needless to say we had to get a little creative with our bathroom habits on this trip. After the caves we made our way back to Cao Bang city (which definitely isn’t the type of city you might picture) and had dinner. This was a pretty low key night that we spent at a hotel, so we took some time to get to an internet café and I started to figure out my classes for next semester, which was pretty tough but I think I got it figured out.
The next morning we had “Pho” for breakfast, which is a beef noodle soup…pretty interesting breakfast choice. After breakfast we drove to Lake Ba Be where we were greeted by the grandfather of the family we would be staying with in a wooden boat. You have to take the boat across the large lake to get to a path where you walk the rest of the way to the village. It took us about half an hour to make this entire transfer, so it’s not surprising that not a lot of people leave the village until they can afford motorbikes to take the narrow road out that our van couldn’t fit down. This was definitely a more traditional village with wooden houses surrounded by rice fields, mountains and the lake. It was one of the most peaceful places I’ve ever been. The family welcomed us into their home and we sat and ate lunch. I absolutely adored their 4 year old daughter, In, who was shy at first but by the end of our stay was so friendly. After a little relaxation on the hammock, the grandfather took us back out on the lake for the day and we walked around one of the little islands for a bit. When we got back, I spent the whole afternoon playing with In until it was time for dinner. I was so happy because Ruby had bought us the ingredients to make spring rolls earlier in the market, so he gave us a lesson and we made them for the whole family! They weren’t the prettiest spring rolls I’ve ever seen since most of them kind of exploded, but there were so good! Dinner that night was definitely the best meal we had the entire trip. After the family went to bed, we met up with some international teachers who were living in Hanoi that Ryan and Gillian had met in the city the night before. They were absolutely hilarious and from all over the world, and so we hung out with them for a while and drank and talked about Vietnam and life and everything. The two girls who were staying in the same guesthouse were great because one of them is a Public Health graduate student at UCLA and the other is living in China teaching and volunteering, they had some great advice and opinions on my plans.
When we woke up, we were really sad to leave the village. It had definitely been our favorite part of the entire trip. We went back across the lake and started the 7 hour drive back to Hanoi. Saying goodbye to Ruby at the airport was also really tough, since we’d gotten so close to him. So, in his honor I’m putting in this plug for the new travel agency he’s trying to start, the website is www.originvietnam.com and it should be up and fully running within the next couple of weeks. Check it out if you have time! On the topic of plugs, I was contacted by someone who has read my blog and said that I can have a donation made it to the World Wildlife Foundation, World Vision or Make-a-Wish foundation just by mentioning their website. So, to get involved in “Traveling for Charity” I’d like to encourage you all to visit www.HotelsCombined.com when you need to find a well priced place to stay while you’re on your own travels! I figure any company that’s willing to donate some of their profits directly to charity just for a little advertising is a good one!
Overall, Vietnam was a great way to take a break and really get to meet the people who inhabit the majority of this stunning country, and get away from the stresses and pressure of traveling with an around huge groups of other people on our program. I’m so glad I’ve gotten to do such a variety of trips in each country, it’s definitely teaching me what’s important for me to do while I travel and what I want to get out of this and every other trip I take in my life.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Thailand: 5/15-5/19
After the rush of India, the relaxing atmosphere of all of Thailand was a welcome relief. The people of this country are calm in a way I have never experienced before, which I think has something to do with the prevalence of Buddhism. Even the hagglers in the market, who in every other country were avoided at all costs, were calm and encouraging as opposed to loud and pushy.
We headed to Bangkok after getting into port, but since it took a while getting cleared by border patrol the only thing we had time to do in the city was grab a delicious buffet lunch (with crazy shaped deserts in every single color) and head to the airport. With 93 other people (including my friends Kristin, Cara, Chandler, Brian, Andrew, Caitlin and Theresa) we walked through the beautiful brand new airport and boarded our flight to Phuket. We landed over a beautiful island paradise and arrived in a bustling tourist area full of restaurants, bars, spas and more strip clubs than I’ve ever seen in one place. Even someone from Vegas would blush. Our hotel was a sprawling piece of land in Patong beach with a few pools, nice rooms and a 2 minute walk to the beach. The first night we were all pretty tired from traveling so we went out to a late dinner where there was live 90’s music sung by a Thai cover band (a trend we noticed was pretty prevalent all over the place) and ate some pretty decent Thai food along with our drinks that came in pineapples. We spent the rest of the night at an open air bar playing pool and foosball and just relaxing.
In the morning, we woke up early to start our busy day. The hotel breakfast was delicious. I’ve never liked pineapple, but in Phuket it was incredible and I ate it with every meal. We left the hotel and broke up into 2 groups. Our group went first to a remote jungle area about 2 hours into the mainland where we hopped into rived kayaks and were paddled downstream. The scenery on the river was wonderful. Giant rock formations, beautiful butterflies and a sense of peace in nature surrounded us during our ride. In the middle of the river, they let us jump out of our kayaks and swing from a tree vine into the water. None of us trusted the vine at first, and I was the first girl to climb up and try it out, but once a few of us tried it everyone got into it and it was great. After we got back to the point in the river where we started, we drove to a nearby bungalow for lunch and a little time out of the hot weather. After that, we went into the jungle where we rode elephants. We named ours “Snuffy” and I got to ride right on his shoulders without a chair or a seatbelt! One of the funniest parts about the elephant ride was that I realized it was my third time on an elephant in a little over a week! Yeah, life is pretty sweet…And it kept getting sweeter. We got dropped off at a spa on our way back to the hotel and got 2 hours aromatherapy massages for about $25 US. I’ve never been so relaxed in my life. For dinner that night, we went to a place called the Tiger Inn, which looks like a giant tree house on the inside. Since it was so late and we were really the only ones in the restaurant, they let us come up and sing with the live band. We sang some old school songs like “Brown Eyed Girl” and it was pretty hilarious seeing the words that they had written out, some of which were really wrong. I had amazing pad thai that came wrapped in an egg like an omelet, it was so delicious! I loved all of the thai food although some of my friends definitely ordered dishes that were way too spicy for me. We wandered around the bar scene for a while after dinner, but after a few accidental encounters with some clubs that were not strictly for dancing, we decided instead to head to the beach and jump into the Indian Ocean, which is so warm its like bathwater.
The next day we were taken on a great tour of some of the neighboring islands. We went to James Bond Island which is where “The Man with the Golden Gun” was filmed. It was really pretty but there were WAY too many tourists there and we could barely get around. After that we got into sea kayaks and spent the rest of the morning exploring sea caves called “hongs”. Some of the caves we so low that you had to completely lay flat in your kayak just to get through! The water was so clear and it was a perfect day for swimming and boating. We also went into a cave that was pitch black and absolutely full of bats! I’ve never seen some many in one place. I guess that explains why they refer to it as the “Batcave”. Then we were given a wonderful lunch on our larger boat, which was really impressive considering they made it on the beat up old barge. We had all kinds of meats and fish and noodles, and we even had soup! We spent the afternoon doing flips off of the boat into the ocean and hanging out on the beach at Lawa Island. It was a great day full of activities, and luckily I wasn’t one of the people who got stung by one of the jellyfish the size of basketballs or bit by a venomous sea snake (others on my trip weren’t so lucky, but everyone is fine now). After this we went to a shopping venue and then back to our hotel to freshen up for dinner. We went out to dinner that night with about 20 people which was a lot of fun, and then we went to one of the surprisingly large number of Irish bars in Phuket to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day! It was fun to see a familiar tradition, and for the second night in a row we ended the evening in the ocean, it was too much fun to pass up! The next day we got on a plane and headed back for “One Night in Bangkok”!
When we arrived in the city, we checked in to our hotel and met up with some other friends who had been in Bangkok the entire time. We went out to dinner and the spent the night wandering around the night market which is open until 3am. Unfortunately in the area I was in, the only bars that they had were not ones that we really wanted to go into, especially the girls! On our last morning in Thailand, we took a canal tour of Bangkok, since it’s set up on a canal system just like Venice. It was really cool to see how a city runs like that on a waterway. After that we went to the Grand Palace. It certainly lived up to its name. Gold statues decorated in bright colors and temples covered the expansive areas. It was truly magnificent, but there were just so many people there at once that it was a little overwhelming. After a quick bite to eat, we made our last stop at the Sriracha Tiger Zoo. Not only were there tigers, but also pigs, dogs, crocodiles, elephants, camels, monkeys, rabbits, deer and donkeys. It was a very interesting mix. As great as it was to see all the animals close up (we got to hold and feed a baby tiger!) it was sad to see all those animals in captivity. I think that zoos in general just make me uncomfortable and sad. The day started off really great and we took a group picture holding the tiger (which we then had made into family t-shirts that we all sported getting back on the boat) but by the end of our time there we were all ready to leave.
It’s funny that Wisconsin’s spring break fell at the same time as my time in Thailand, because all of the time adventuring around the beautiful beaches definitely felt like spring break. It wasn’t the same cultural experience I’ve had in other countries, but it was a great time for all of us to get in a little relaxation that we all definitely needed after India. We get to Viet Nam tomorrow, and I’m flying up north to Hanoi with four people I hardly know and going backpacking through the jungles and doing village home stays. I’m really excited to meet some new people and really get to see a part of this culture that has a history so tied up in our own.
We headed to Bangkok after getting into port, but since it took a while getting cleared by border patrol the only thing we had time to do in the city was grab a delicious buffet lunch (with crazy shaped deserts in every single color) and head to the airport. With 93 other people (including my friends Kristin, Cara, Chandler, Brian, Andrew, Caitlin and Theresa) we walked through the beautiful brand new airport and boarded our flight to Phuket. We landed over a beautiful island paradise and arrived in a bustling tourist area full of restaurants, bars, spas and more strip clubs than I’ve ever seen in one place. Even someone from Vegas would blush. Our hotel was a sprawling piece of land in Patong beach with a few pools, nice rooms and a 2 minute walk to the beach. The first night we were all pretty tired from traveling so we went out to a late dinner where there was live 90’s music sung by a Thai cover band (a trend we noticed was pretty prevalent all over the place) and ate some pretty decent Thai food along with our drinks that came in pineapples. We spent the rest of the night at an open air bar playing pool and foosball and just relaxing.
In the morning, we woke up early to start our busy day. The hotel breakfast was delicious. I’ve never liked pineapple, but in Phuket it was incredible and I ate it with every meal. We left the hotel and broke up into 2 groups. Our group went first to a remote jungle area about 2 hours into the mainland where we hopped into rived kayaks and were paddled downstream. The scenery on the river was wonderful. Giant rock formations, beautiful butterflies and a sense of peace in nature surrounded us during our ride. In the middle of the river, they let us jump out of our kayaks and swing from a tree vine into the water. None of us trusted the vine at first, and I was the first girl to climb up and try it out, but once a few of us tried it everyone got into it and it was great. After we got back to the point in the river where we started, we drove to a nearby bungalow for lunch and a little time out of the hot weather. After that, we went into the jungle where we rode elephants. We named ours “Snuffy” and I got to ride right on his shoulders without a chair or a seatbelt! One of the funniest parts about the elephant ride was that I realized it was my third time on an elephant in a little over a week! Yeah, life is pretty sweet…And it kept getting sweeter. We got dropped off at a spa on our way back to the hotel and got 2 hours aromatherapy massages for about $25 US. I’ve never been so relaxed in my life. For dinner that night, we went to a place called the Tiger Inn, which looks like a giant tree house on the inside. Since it was so late and we were really the only ones in the restaurant, they let us come up and sing with the live band. We sang some old school songs like “Brown Eyed Girl” and it was pretty hilarious seeing the words that they had written out, some of which were really wrong. I had amazing pad thai that came wrapped in an egg like an omelet, it was so delicious! I loved all of the thai food although some of my friends definitely ordered dishes that were way too spicy for me. We wandered around the bar scene for a while after dinner, but after a few accidental encounters with some clubs that were not strictly for dancing, we decided instead to head to the beach and jump into the Indian Ocean, which is so warm its like bathwater.
The next day we were taken on a great tour of some of the neighboring islands. We went to James Bond Island which is where “The Man with the Golden Gun” was filmed. It was really pretty but there were WAY too many tourists there and we could barely get around. After that we got into sea kayaks and spent the rest of the morning exploring sea caves called “hongs”. Some of the caves we so low that you had to completely lay flat in your kayak just to get through! The water was so clear and it was a perfect day for swimming and boating. We also went into a cave that was pitch black and absolutely full of bats! I’ve never seen some many in one place. I guess that explains why they refer to it as the “Batcave”. Then we were given a wonderful lunch on our larger boat, which was really impressive considering they made it on the beat up old barge. We had all kinds of meats and fish and noodles, and we even had soup! We spent the afternoon doing flips off of the boat into the ocean and hanging out on the beach at Lawa Island. It was a great day full of activities, and luckily I wasn’t one of the people who got stung by one of the jellyfish the size of basketballs or bit by a venomous sea snake (others on my trip weren’t so lucky, but everyone is fine now). After this we went to a shopping venue and then back to our hotel to freshen up for dinner. We went out to dinner that night with about 20 people which was a lot of fun, and then we went to one of the surprisingly large number of Irish bars in Phuket to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day! It was fun to see a familiar tradition, and for the second night in a row we ended the evening in the ocean, it was too much fun to pass up! The next day we got on a plane and headed back for “One Night in Bangkok”!
When we arrived in the city, we checked in to our hotel and met up with some other friends who had been in Bangkok the entire time. We went out to dinner and the spent the night wandering around the night market which is open until 3am. Unfortunately in the area I was in, the only bars that they had were not ones that we really wanted to go into, especially the girls! On our last morning in Thailand, we took a canal tour of Bangkok, since it’s set up on a canal system just like Venice. It was really cool to see how a city runs like that on a waterway. After that we went to the Grand Palace. It certainly lived up to its name. Gold statues decorated in bright colors and temples covered the expansive areas. It was truly magnificent, but there were just so many people there at once that it was a little overwhelming. After a quick bite to eat, we made our last stop at the Sriracha Tiger Zoo. Not only were there tigers, but also pigs, dogs, crocodiles, elephants, camels, monkeys, rabbits, deer and donkeys. It was a very interesting mix. As great as it was to see all the animals close up (we got to hold and feed a baby tiger!) it was sad to see all those animals in captivity. I think that zoos in general just make me uncomfortable and sad. The day started off really great and we took a group picture holding the tiger (which we then had made into family t-shirts that we all sported getting back on the boat) but by the end of our time there we were all ready to leave.
It’s funny that Wisconsin’s spring break fell at the same time as my time in Thailand, because all of the time adventuring around the beautiful beaches definitely felt like spring break. It wasn’t the same cultural experience I’ve had in other countries, but it was a great time for all of us to get in a little relaxation that we all definitely needed after India. We get to Viet Nam tomorrow, and I’m flying up north to Hanoi with four people I hardly know and going backpacking through the jungles and doing village home stays. I’m really excited to meet some new people and really get to see a part of this culture that has a history so tied up in our own.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Reflections
I haven't written any poetry in a long time, so bear with me, but I wanted to share this. I wrote it after India.
"Hold on to your purse"-3/11/09
Hold on to your purse, they said.
And so I held on tight
Afraid they’d take away from me
The things I owned outright.
Don’t wear your fancy clothes.
Or your nicest jewelry
And so I dressed in cotton
To keep the beggars far from me.
Keep your eyes averted.
So I looked down at the floor
And I didn’t see the children
Who desperately needed more.
Don’t befriend the locals.
They all want something from you
And so I just stayed silent
What else was there to do?
Then I left this place
And I took my souvenirs
A silken scarf, a tapestry
The same things as my peers.
My purse was never pilfered
My jewels remained at home
My eyes saw only beauty
And I said nothing,
I stood alone.
So I left with what I came
Each item, big and small.
But if I must hold my purse so tight
Why even go out at all?
"Hold on to your purse"-3/11/09
Hold on to your purse, they said.
And so I held on tight
Afraid they’d take away from me
The things I owned outright.
Don’t wear your fancy clothes.
Or your nicest jewelry
And so I dressed in cotton
To keep the beggars far from me.
Keep your eyes averted.
So I looked down at the floor
And I didn’t see the children
Who desperately needed more.
Don’t befriend the locals.
They all want something from you
And so I just stayed silent
What else was there to do?
Then I left this place
And I took my souvenirs
A silken scarf, a tapestry
The same things as my peers.
My purse was never pilfered
My jewels remained at home
My eyes saw only beauty
And I said nothing,
I stood alone.
So I left with what I came
Each item, big and small.
But if I must hold my purse so tight
Why even go out at all?
India: 3/5-3/9
India was certainly all of the things I was told it would be, and also a whole lot more. From the second we stepped off the boat until we pulled out of the port in Chennai, every one of your senses was attacked with the rush of India.
This was my first trip traveling with a large group of people, and although it was fun to get to meet new people on the trip, trying to get around the temples of India with 90 people is not exactly an easy thing to do.
The first day we piled onto the air conditioned buses (it was about 97 degrees in Chennai) and headed to the airport. I was a little nervous since it was also my first time flying in a port, but the airport was very modern and clean. And other than the fact that my ears popped the entire flight it was easy and the hot meal provided was delicious.
We landed in Delhi and went to the hotel where we had dinner and some drinks on the rooftop. The area of Delhi where we were staying for the night was quiet with mostly houses and shops, and the waiters at the hotel told us that there was really nowhere to go out within a 45 minute drive. Since people were pretty tired from the day of traveling, most of the group went to bed, but a couple of us stayed up. A lot of fireworks were being set off nearby and our waiters told us that they were in celebration of local weddings. We joked about trying to go to one, although secretly I really wanted to go. Then someone suggested that we just try and find it, worst thing to happen is that we spend a little time seeing some of the city. Long story short, the 6 of us found the wedding, and we were welcomed in by about a thousand Indian’s with open arms. The party had spilled out from the tent into the streets with drummers and sparklers and people dressed in the most amazing colors I’d ever seen. Oh and also, there were elephants. In my excitement I pointed to one of them, and all of a sudden two Indian men had my feet and I was lifted up onto it. From the top I could see the entire party tent, and it was spectacular. My friend Phil hopped on with me and we rode around the street where the party was being celebrated by all of the children. After being lowered down (which is a little scary on an elephant) we were dragged into the thick of the party. At this point things got a little questionable, since we weren’t really sure if we were allowed to be there. We spent a little time dancing around, and I’m definitely in the bride and groom’s wedding video and pictures, but after a little while we got the impression that it was time for us to go. I’m still not completely sure how welcome we were, but it was definitely an experience, and I got my one wish of what I wanted to see in India on the first night there!
The next day we went to three different sites around Delhi. The first was an amazing Hindu temple called Shri Laskshmi Narain that was red and yellow on the outside. This was where I first realized that I’d have to get used to seeing swastikas, a Hindu symbol for peace, all over the place. The inside of the temple was covered in colorful murals of the Hindu gods, and a really nice local man who spoke English translated some of the stories for me. We walked around with our shoes off and it was really peaceful. Next we went to a place called India Gate which commemorated the many Indian soldiers who died fighting for the British. It was a large arch that was a little reminiscent of an industrial Arc de Triomphe with three flags in front of in representing the Indian army, navy and air force. There is also a fire in front of it that burns constantly. The last place we visited was called Koutour Minar, which is the largest brick minaret in the world. It is surrounded by the ruins of 6 other monuments. The entire area was so big and we spent a while just wandering. Here we met some small beggar children who we gave stickers and spent some of our day with. Two little boys, a young girl and their infant baby sister wandered around the worksite of the ruins nearby their mom while she carried rocks on her head. They were so sweet and friendly, and when we saw them a little later digging through the trash with the baby in their arms it really broke my heart. This was not our first encounter with the beggars of India. We had been accosted at almost every tourist area we stopped at. People were in our faces selling small and useless handicrafts for next to nothing, and everyone trying to sell the same things. I really don’t know how anyone makes any money at all when they all have the exact same things to sell. We left the ruins and began our six hour drive to Agra.
Here, we ate again at the restaurant which had a spun on the roof. We sat with some Indian business men. Some of them were really nice and friendly and wanted to talk about India and ask about America, but there was one guy who was really creepy and kept trying to take pictures of us. After asking one too many times for him to stop, we decided it was best just to leave and head to bed. In the morning we had a 5:30am wake up call and boarded decorated horse-drawn rickshaws and headed to the Taj Mahal. We waited in a pretty long line but we made it in just in time to see the sun come up over it. The Taj is really impossible to explain on paper. It’s more beautiful than pictures can capture and its amazing that someone built this for another person simply out of love, and that she never got to see it. We spent the whole morning wandering around inside the buildings and in the gardens and trying to see it from every angle. We left in a state of awe. Before heading to our next destination, we stopped at the Red Fort. The first recorded history of this giant expanse of buildings was in 1080 AD, when it was the central of the Agra government. From the top, there is a perfect view of the Taj Mahal. After seeing entire fort and realizing that monkeys are about as common in India as squirrels are in American (one tried to jump on my shoulder!) we headed to the buses for an 8 hour ride to Jaipur.
We all pretty much crashed once we got to the hotel. At this point I was already proud of myself for trying all different kinds of Indian food and not getting sick! In the morning we went to a place called the Amber Palace, where we rode elephants to the top of a giant structure built into a hill. Even though we’d already been to so many beautiful sights, I continued to be amazing by how detailed and how large of a scale all of these sites are and how they possibly could have been built without modern tools. This palace was built for Hindu kings and was made out of yellow and marble. It even had an entire wall with different shaped mirrors embedded in it. After this we stopped just to look at the summer palace at the bottom of the mountain which looks like its floating in the middle of the lake. The beauty of this palace was however somewhat masked by the horrible amount of trash floating everywhere in the lake. Pollution is truly a problem that Indian needs to deal with, but when you see the amount of trash and people on top of the lack of space, you wonder where you could even begin. After leaving here, we went to a textile factory. This was one of my favorite stops on the trip. Here we saw the entire process of how Indian textiles are made, from the man who hand weaves at the loom to the woman who picks out every individual flaw in the stitching. It was really incredible, and it takes over 4 months of hand-made work to produce the final product. We also saw a demonstration on block printing, which is a tedious process that I would never have the patience for. When they took us into a massive textile store full of saree’s and scarves afterwards, I couldn’t even buy anything because I was so overwhelmed by the amount of work it took to make each piece. Our last stop was The Jaipur temple where the king of Jaipur still lives. This was another beautiful sight where we saw traditional dancers and a snake charmer outside the entranceway! We spent the rest of our afternoon bartering in the markets where we met a really nice shop owner who took us to the rooftop and showed us a wonderful view of the city at night.
In the morning, we woke up at 4am to make our flight. We thought we were heading straight back to Chennai, but our plane made two other stops, one of which was in Bombay (which I learned is actually the same place as Mumbai). About 100 yards from our plane were shacks made out of tin that looks exactly like the ones in South Africa. The poor population of the city was literally spilling onto the runway. As we took off over the city, you could see that almost every inch o the city was covered in either a building or pollution. I’ve never seen anything like it.
When we arrived back in Chennai, we spent a little time in a local shopping center where we finally got to eat Dossahs for lunch (great recommendation dad!) and do some last minute shopping. We bargained with a driver of a motorized rickshaw (basically a moped with walls and extra seats) and made our way back to the ship.
Walking through the port and back to the gangway took about 20 minutes. It was here that my whole experience in India really hit me. The air was so thick with pollution that I could barely breathe, and the ground was covered in a layer of thick black filth. Even here in the outskirts of the city, the haggling continued. It was then that I realized that every single person we’d met in this country that is full of mouths desperately in need of feeding was fighting. Fighting for our patronage outside of their shops, fighting for our money, fighting to convince us that they were worse off then the next person and deserved whatever we had to give. Even the smallest children fought or were being used to fight. Children whose arms had been cut off by starving parents and babies who had been drugged and loaned out for begging were abundant in every city, so much so that we had almost become desensitized to the horror. Every person was fighting just to survive, and once I realized this, the magnitude of the problems that these people face were even more apparent to me. I saw then that it was impossible to decide who should receive my handouts, who is worthy of the generosity that I can give only because I am lucky. It’s like looking up at the night sky and trying to pick just one star to save.
This was my first trip traveling with a large group of people, and although it was fun to get to meet new people on the trip, trying to get around the temples of India with 90 people is not exactly an easy thing to do.
The first day we piled onto the air conditioned buses (it was about 97 degrees in Chennai) and headed to the airport. I was a little nervous since it was also my first time flying in a port, but the airport was very modern and clean. And other than the fact that my ears popped the entire flight it was easy and the hot meal provided was delicious.
We landed in Delhi and went to the hotel where we had dinner and some drinks on the rooftop. The area of Delhi where we were staying for the night was quiet with mostly houses and shops, and the waiters at the hotel told us that there was really nowhere to go out within a 45 minute drive. Since people were pretty tired from the day of traveling, most of the group went to bed, but a couple of us stayed up. A lot of fireworks were being set off nearby and our waiters told us that they were in celebration of local weddings. We joked about trying to go to one, although secretly I really wanted to go. Then someone suggested that we just try and find it, worst thing to happen is that we spend a little time seeing some of the city. Long story short, the 6 of us found the wedding, and we were welcomed in by about a thousand Indian’s with open arms. The party had spilled out from the tent into the streets with drummers and sparklers and people dressed in the most amazing colors I’d ever seen. Oh and also, there were elephants. In my excitement I pointed to one of them, and all of a sudden two Indian men had my feet and I was lifted up onto it. From the top I could see the entire party tent, and it was spectacular. My friend Phil hopped on with me and we rode around the street where the party was being celebrated by all of the children. After being lowered down (which is a little scary on an elephant) we were dragged into the thick of the party. At this point things got a little questionable, since we weren’t really sure if we were allowed to be there. We spent a little time dancing around, and I’m definitely in the bride and groom’s wedding video and pictures, but after a little while we got the impression that it was time for us to go. I’m still not completely sure how welcome we were, but it was definitely an experience, and I got my one wish of what I wanted to see in India on the first night there!
The next day we went to three different sites around Delhi. The first was an amazing Hindu temple called Shri Laskshmi Narain that was red and yellow on the outside. This was where I first realized that I’d have to get used to seeing swastikas, a Hindu symbol for peace, all over the place. The inside of the temple was covered in colorful murals of the Hindu gods, and a really nice local man who spoke English translated some of the stories for me. We walked around with our shoes off and it was really peaceful. Next we went to a place called India Gate which commemorated the many Indian soldiers who died fighting for the British. It was a large arch that was a little reminiscent of an industrial Arc de Triomphe with three flags in front of in representing the Indian army, navy and air force. There is also a fire in front of it that burns constantly. The last place we visited was called Koutour Minar, which is the largest brick minaret in the world. It is surrounded by the ruins of 6 other monuments. The entire area was so big and we spent a while just wandering. Here we met some small beggar children who we gave stickers and spent some of our day with. Two little boys, a young girl and their infant baby sister wandered around the worksite of the ruins nearby their mom while she carried rocks on her head. They were so sweet and friendly, and when we saw them a little later digging through the trash with the baby in their arms it really broke my heart. This was not our first encounter with the beggars of India. We had been accosted at almost every tourist area we stopped at. People were in our faces selling small and useless handicrafts for next to nothing, and everyone trying to sell the same things. I really don’t know how anyone makes any money at all when they all have the exact same things to sell. We left the ruins and began our six hour drive to Agra.
Here, we ate again at the restaurant which had a spun on the roof. We sat with some Indian business men. Some of them were really nice and friendly and wanted to talk about India and ask about America, but there was one guy who was really creepy and kept trying to take pictures of us. After asking one too many times for him to stop, we decided it was best just to leave and head to bed. In the morning we had a 5:30am wake up call and boarded decorated horse-drawn rickshaws and headed to the Taj Mahal. We waited in a pretty long line but we made it in just in time to see the sun come up over it. The Taj is really impossible to explain on paper. It’s more beautiful than pictures can capture and its amazing that someone built this for another person simply out of love, and that she never got to see it. We spent the whole morning wandering around inside the buildings and in the gardens and trying to see it from every angle. We left in a state of awe. Before heading to our next destination, we stopped at the Red Fort. The first recorded history of this giant expanse of buildings was in 1080 AD, when it was the central of the Agra government. From the top, there is a perfect view of the Taj Mahal. After seeing entire fort and realizing that monkeys are about as common in India as squirrels are in American (one tried to jump on my shoulder!) we headed to the buses for an 8 hour ride to Jaipur.
We all pretty much crashed once we got to the hotel. At this point I was already proud of myself for trying all different kinds of Indian food and not getting sick! In the morning we went to a place called the Amber Palace, where we rode elephants to the top of a giant structure built into a hill. Even though we’d already been to so many beautiful sights, I continued to be amazing by how detailed and how large of a scale all of these sites are and how they possibly could have been built without modern tools. This palace was built for Hindu kings and was made out of yellow and marble. It even had an entire wall with different shaped mirrors embedded in it. After this we stopped just to look at the summer palace at the bottom of the mountain which looks like its floating in the middle of the lake. The beauty of this palace was however somewhat masked by the horrible amount of trash floating everywhere in the lake. Pollution is truly a problem that Indian needs to deal with, but when you see the amount of trash and people on top of the lack of space, you wonder where you could even begin. After leaving here, we went to a textile factory. This was one of my favorite stops on the trip. Here we saw the entire process of how Indian textiles are made, from the man who hand weaves at the loom to the woman who picks out every individual flaw in the stitching. It was really incredible, and it takes over 4 months of hand-made work to produce the final product. We also saw a demonstration on block printing, which is a tedious process that I would never have the patience for. When they took us into a massive textile store full of saree’s and scarves afterwards, I couldn’t even buy anything because I was so overwhelmed by the amount of work it took to make each piece. Our last stop was The Jaipur temple where the king of Jaipur still lives. This was another beautiful sight where we saw traditional dancers and a snake charmer outside the entranceway! We spent the rest of our afternoon bartering in the markets where we met a really nice shop owner who took us to the rooftop and showed us a wonderful view of the city at night.
In the morning, we woke up at 4am to make our flight. We thought we were heading straight back to Chennai, but our plane made two other stops, one of which was in Bombay (which I learned is actually the same place as Mumbai). About 100 yards from our plane were shacks made out of tin that looks exactly like the ones in South Africa. The poor population of the city was literally spilling onto the runway. As we took off over the city, you could see that almost every inch o the city was covered in either a building or pollution. I’ve never seen anything like it.
When we arrived back in Chennai, we spent a little time in a local shopping center where we finally got to eat Dossahs for lunch (great recommendation dad!) and do some last minute shopping. We bargained with a driver of a motorized rickshaw (basically a moped with walls and extra seats) and made our way back to the ship.
Walking through the port and back to the gangway took about 20 minutes. It was here that my whole experience in India really hit me. The air was so thick with pollution that I could barely breathe, and the ground was covered in a layer of thick black filth. Even here in the outskirts of the city, the haggling continued. It was then that I realized that every single person we’d met in this country that is full of mouths desperately in need of feeding was fighting. Fighting for our patronage outside of their shops, fighting for our money, fighting to convince us that they were worse off then the next person and deserved whatever we had to give. Even the smallest children fought or were being used to fight. Children whose arms had been cut off by starving parents and babies who had been drugged and loaned out for begging were abundant in every city, so much so that we had almost become desensitized to the horror. Every person was fighting just to survive, and once I realized this, the magnitude of the problems that these people face were even more apparent to me. I saw then that it was impossible to decide who should receive my handouts, who is worthy of the generosity that I can give only because I am lucky. It’s like looking up at the night sky and trying to pick just one star to save.
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