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.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Mauritius- 2/27
It was a bummer that we only got to spend one day on this wonderful little island, but we definitely made the most of it.
We spent the first half of the day doing a service project. We visited an Ashram which is a place where they send the elderly and mentally/physically challenged. It was interesting to see how to facility ran, but unfortunately they didn’t give us much of a chance to interact with the people there, so it felt more like a tour with people on display. I didn’t really get much out of that visit or the next placed we stopped which was a church.
At this point the trip seemed like a little bit of a waste, but we still had about 2 hours left. The last place we visited was a teen outreach program to keep young teens that don’t do well in the public school system from dropping out of school. This was by far the highlight of our day. We spent our time there singing and learning the traditional “Sega” dancing that is popular on the island. It was great because I could speak a little bit of French with them even though they speak a French-English creole that I don’t understand. It was great to see how they are teaching the kids vocations such as craft-making so that they have a better chance of getting jobs. Most of the children in the school come from poor homes where their parents are drug addicts, alcoholics or prostitutes. This experience again showed me how children in particular can overcome impossible circumstances.
The rest of the day we spent in a beach area called Flic en Flac where we had lunch and relaxed on the beautiful beaches. We had a few drinks and then headed back to the ship for a barbeque.
The night we got back was the opening ceremony for the Sea Olympics, which is color war or Maccabiah for any of you YJers reading this. We were divided into teams based on our “seas” which are our hallways and my color was orange. They had a lot of ridiculous games for us that night and the next day and it was a great day to relax since we all recently had a lot of midterms and projects due. Unfortunately my team was less than skilled in the competition and we didn’t do too well, but it was still a great break from the norm at sea.
We get to India in two days and I can’t wait for all of the adventures that are still to come. I’ll make sure to keep you posted.
SEA you later.
We spent the first half of the day doing a service project. We visited an Ashram which is a place where they send the elderly and mentally/physically challenged. It was interesting to see how to facility ran, but unfortunately they didn’t give us much of a chance to interact with the people there, so it felt more like a tour with people on display. I didn’t really get much out of that visit or the next placed we stopped which was a church.
At this point the trip seemed like a little bit of a waste, but we still had about 2 hours left. The last place we visited was a teen outreach program to keep young teens that don’t do well in the public school system from dropping out of school. This was by far the highlight of our day. We spent our time there singing and learning the traditional “Sega” dancing that is popular on the island. It was great because I could speak a little bit of French with them even though they speak a French-English creole that I don’t understand. It was great to see how they are teaching the kids vocations such as craft-making so that they have a better chance of getting jobs. Most of the children in the school come from poor homes where their parents are drug addicts, alcoholics or prostitutes. This experience again showed me how children in particular can overcome impossible circumstances.
The rest of the day we spent in a beach area called Flic en Flac where we had lunch and relaxed on the beautiful beaches. We had a few drinks and then headed back to the ship for a barbeque.
The night we got back was the opening ceremony for the Sea Olympics, which is color war or Maccabiah for any of you YJers reading this. We were divided into teams based on our “seas” which are our hallways and my color was orange. They had a lot of ridiculous games for us that night and the next day and it was a great day to relax since we all recently had a lot of midterms and projects due. Unfortunately my team was less than skilled in the competition and we didn’t do too well, but it was still a great break from the norm at sea.
We get to India in two days and I can’t wait for all of the adventures that are still to come. I’ll make sure to keep you posted.
SEA you later.
Cape Town, South Africa- 2/18-2/22
Since I already talked a little bit about my time in the Township in South Africa, I’ll try to focus on some of the other highlights of my trip here.
South Africa was one of the countries I was most excited to see for so many reasons, and it definitely met my expectations. This was the first port where we pulled in and the scenery was just incredible. Giant mountains stand over a beautiful waterfront full of shops and restaurants where you could wander for hours.
It was also great because I got to see my friend’s Mike and Nicole from Wisconsin and Becca and Lara from camp. It was great to talk to them about their experiences there and we all went out together in Obs and on Long Street and had a great time.
On our second day there we drove about 3 hours north to a place called Aquila. Here, we were served an incredible breakfast buffet with a mix of typical breakfast foods and traditional south African cuisine. Then we went on a 3 hours safari in the game reserve. We didn’t get to see any leopards because they are nocturnal, but we saw the other four out of the “Big Five” (lions, elephants, buffalo, rhinos, and leopards). We saw elephants playing together but then they got a little too close to our trucks and we had to speed away pretty quick. It was pretty funny and I got it all on video so you can all watch the elephant attack when I get home. We also saw zebras and ostriches. Let me tell you, ostriches have got to be the dumbest animals on the entire planet. They basically tried to get in the truck with us, and these were some seriously big birds, I was not planning on sharing my seat with any of them. We learned a lot about the ecosystems in the reserve and we also got to see some really cute baby hippos! After we got back we spent a little time in the beautiful camp area and got an equally delicious lunch. After relaxing by the pool for a little while we made our way back to Cape Town.
The next day we took a tour of the cape peninsula and drove to Cape Point. This is the most south westerly point in Africa where the Atlantic and Indian Ocean’s meet. We hiked to the top of the mountain there where there is a famous lighthouse. It was so beautiful just to stand at the top of the cliffs and look out over the water. South Africa has some incredible views. After hiking back down the mountain we stopped at a seafood restaurant on the water where we had lunch and then headed up to the winelands. This day was a little stressful for me because I planned all of these day trips for a big group of us and some of the timing was a little messed up. Unfortunately because of this we only got to go to one out of the planned three wineries but the one we went to is one of the most famous in the area called Spier. We tasted some incredible wine and took in the scenery. Unfortunately it cost about $300 to ship any of it home, so we had to enjoy it while we were there.
The day before we left we planned to go shark diving. Unfortunately this day was kind of a bust. We drove out about 3 hours to the dive site and took the little cage boat into some rough waters since the weather was pretty bad. By the time we reached an area where we could dive, we were in such bad waters that it wasn’t even safe to get in the cage since we would have been knocked around so much. Unfortunately I didn’t get to get over my fear of sharks, although I did get to overcome my fear of seeing myself in a wet suit (got some pretty sweet picture of that).
The entire time in South Africa a few of us had been going back and forth about bungy jumping. It’s a really big deal there because about 6 hours outside of Cape Town is a place called Bloukrans bridge, which it the highest bungy jump in the world with the longest free fall. I was really torn about it the whole time, but JacMac was dying to go. Somehow this lead to us making the decision at around 10:30pm the night before we were leaving SA that we should hire a driver at 3am, drive out to Bloukrans, be the first people to jump in the morning and drive back as fast as possible to make it onto the ship on time. Genius, right? I decided that I wanted one more night out while I was there, so I went with a bunch of people out on Long Street and went dancing and saw some of my friends for the last time. We got back to the boat at 2am and I changed my clothes, met up with Jac and our two friends Nick and Corey and the four of us piled into a tiny car and hit the road for the first leg of about 12 hours of driving. After a sleepless night, we pulled into the jump site. We were a little concerned once they got us into the harnesses that there wasn’t much of a explanation, but I guess the only explanation you need is to jump. After crossing under the bridge on a see-through walkway that did nothing to calm our nerves, we got to the jump zone. Even though it was only 9am they started pumping techno music to get us hyped up enough to jump. I went first out of our group of friends and was pretty darn terrified. The first second of the jump was probably the scariest moment of my life, but after that it was the most amazing feeling of freedom. Once the first free fall is over you just hang there. It felt like flying. Don’t worry, I got it all on DVD and some crazy pictures. The only problem is the next time someone asks me “if all of your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it?” I’m going to have to say yes, and I have. After our crazy adrenaline rush we hopped back in the car and drove as fast as we could back to Cape Town. Unfortunately this was a little too fast and our driver got pulled over by the cops. We had exactly enough time to make it back to the ship without being late, so this little issue was actually a big problem. After dealing with the police, we nervously continued back. If you’re late getting back to the ship, you have to spend a certain amount of time on the ship at the next port. For the first 15 minutes you get 3 hours of “dock time”, pretty serious stuff. End of the story: we made it back just in time and got to jump off a bridge. Spontaneous, yes. Awesome, yes. Foolish, yes. But totally worth it. And that’s how we ended our time in South Africa.
South Africa was one of the countries I was most excited to see for so many reasons, and it definitely met my expectations. This was the first port where we pulled in and the scenery was just incredible. Giant mountains stand over a beautiful waterfront full of shops and restaurants where you could wander for hours.
It was also great because I got to see my friend’s Mike and Nicole from Wisconsin and Becca and Lara from camp. It was great to talk to them about their experiences there and we all went out together in Obs and on Long Street and had a great time.
On our second day there we drove about 3 hours north to a place called Aquila. Here, we were served an incredible breakfast buffet with a mix of typical breakfast foods and traditional south African cuisine. Then we went on a 3 hours safari in the game reserve. We didn’t get to see any leopards because they are nocturnal, but we saw the other four out of the “Big Five” (lions, elephants, buffalo, rhinos, and leopards). We saw elephants playing together but then they got a little too close to our trucks and we had to speed away pretty quick. It was pretty funny and I got it all on video so you can all watch the elephant attack when I get home. We also saw zebras and ostriches. Let me tell you, ostriches have got to be the dumbest animals on the entire planet. They basically tried to get in the truck with us, and these were some seriously big birds, I was not planning on sharing my seat with any of them. We learned a lot about the ecosystems in the reserve and we also got to see some really cute baby hippos! After we got back we spent a little time in the beautiful camp area and got an equally delicious lunch. After relaxing by the pool for a little while we made our way back to Cape Town.
The next day we took a tour of the cape peninsula and drove to Cape Point. This is the most south westerly point in Africa where the Atlantic and Indian Ocean’s meet. We hiked to the top of the mountain there where there is a famous lighthouse. It was so beautiful just to stand at the top of the cliffs and look out over the water. South Africa has some incredible views. After hiking back down the mountain we stopped at a seafood restaurant on the water where we had lunch and then headed up to the winelands. This day was a little stressful for me because I planned all of these day trips for a big group of us and some of the timing was a little messed up. Unfortunately because of this we only got to go to one out of the planned three wineries but the one we went to is one of the most famous in the area called Spier. We tasted some incredible wine and took in the scenery. Unfortunately it cost about $300 to ship any of it home, so we had to enjoy it while we were there.
The day before we left we planned to go shark diving. Unfortunately this day was kind of a bust. We drove out about 3 hours to the dive site and took the little cage boat into some rough waters since the weather was pretty bad. By the time we reached an area where we could dive, we were in such bad waters that it wasn’t even safe to get in the cage since we would have been knocked around so much. Unfortunately I didn’t get to get over my fear of sharks, although I did get to overcome my fear of seeing myself in a wet suit (got some pretty sweet picture of that).
The entire time in South Africa a few of us had been going back and forth about bungy jumping. It’s a really big deal there because about 6 hours outside of Cape Town is a place called Bloukrans bridge, which it the highest bungy jump in the world with the longest free fall. I was really torn about it the whole time, but JacMac was dying to go. Somehow this lead to us making the decision at around 10:30pm the night before we were leaving SA that we should hire a driver at 3am, drive out to Bloukrans, be the first people to jump in the morning and drive back as fast as possible to make it onto the ship on time. Genius, right? I decided that I wanted one more night out while I was there, so I went with a bunch of people out on Long Street and went dancing and saw some of my friends for the last time. We got back to the boat at 2am and I changed my clothes, met up with Jac and our two friends Nick and Corey and the four of us piled into a tiny car and hit the road for the first leg of about 12 hours of driving. After a sleepless night, we pulled into the jump site. We were a little concerned once they got us into the harnesses that there wasn’t much of a explanation, but I guess the only explanation you need is to jump. After crossing under the bridge on a see-through walkway that did nothing to calm our nerves, we got to the jump zone. Even though it was only 9am they started pumping techno music to get us hyped up enough to jump. I went first out of our group of friends and was pretty darn terrified. The first second of the jump was probably the scariest moment of my life, but after that it was the most amazing feeling of freedom. Once the first free fall is over you just hang there. It felt like flying. Don’t worry, I got it all on DVD and some crazy pictures. The only problem is the next time someone asks me “if all of your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it?” I’m going to have to say yes, and I have. After our crazy adrenaline rush we hopped back in the car and drove as fast as we could back to Cape Town. Unfortunately this was a little too fast and our driver got pulled over by the cops. We had exactly enough time to make it back to the ship without being late, so this little issue was actually a big problem. After dealing with the police, we nervously continued back. If you’re late getting back to the ship, you have to spend a certain amount of time on the ship at the next port. For the first 15 minutes you get 3 hours of “dock time”, pretty serious stuff. End of the story: we made it back just in time and got to jump off a bridge. Spontaneous, yes. Awesome, yes. Foolish, yes. But totally worth it. And that’s how we ended our time in South Africa.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Fate of the Union, Fate of the World
Tonight Barack Obama’s speech addressing the current issues facing the United States was broadcast on the ship. It was truly a joy to listen to the words of a president of our nation resonate on a personal level with my peers and myself. As we gathered in the Union to watch Obama’s first public address in front of all of congress, I felt for the first time a genuine sense of interest and pride in what is going on in our country.
I have a newfound love for CNN and have been trying to keep tabs on things going on at home, so I had a good foundation of information so as to understand exactly what Obama was talking about. Its funny how much more aware I’ve become of things in the U.S. since I’ve left it.
Obama spoke with humor, personality and a sense of urgency that certainly helped to answer many of my questions and quell some of my fears about where our country is headed. I am about 1/3 of the way through my trip (a thought that has become increasingly sad and scary in the past few days) and I have started to gain an appreciation for how the events in the United States have a rippling effect across the globe.
I find myself watching the news with an entirely new attitude. I’ve realized that each and every one of us is so completely blessed with even the ability to offer our help and our knowledge to those less fortunate than us. As I travel, I also realize that I am increasingly attuned to many issues in the countries we are visiting that I ignore when I’m at home, such as the poverty and homelessness on the streets where I live.
I spent an entire day on a service trip in a Township in Cape Town at an orphanage. The poverty and despair in these areas is devastating in a way that is far too overwhelming to describe on paper, and is impossible to capture in a single photograph or even a video clip. On the other hand, however, the passion and warmth of the people in the Township is equally hard to describe, for theirs is a joy that exists without the support of material objects, but stands alone as a testament to their will. I do not say this to glorify poverty, I say it to glorify the strength of the people who live in adversity but live every day with their heads held high and their hearts in a noble place. Part of me wants to talk about my experience for hours and another part wants to push it from my mind and never think about it again. I know, however, that ignoring an issue is the direct cause of ignorance. I can no longer claim ignorance, and so I can no longer ignore.
As each generation sits contemplating our problems ranging from retirement funds to college loans, I ask all of you reading this to take a look at the following message I was given to me by my professor in my International Service-Learning class. No matter where you are across the globe, I figure we can all use a little perspective:
If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing ratios remaining the same, there would be:
52 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere (North and South)
8 Africans
52 Females
48 Males
70 would be non-white
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian
89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world’s wealth and all 6 would be from the U.S.
80 people would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from mal-nutrition
1 would have a college education
1 would own a computer
If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.
If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture or the pangs of starvation…you are head of 500 million people in the world.
If you can attend a religious meeting of your choice without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death…you are more blessed than 3 billion people in the world.
If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep…you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, your wallet and spare change in a dish someplace…you are among the top 8% of the worlds wealthy.
If your parents are still alive and still married, you are very rare, even in the U.S. and Canada.
If you can hold someone’s hand, hug them or even touch them…you are lucky because you can offer healing touch.
If you can read this message, you are luckier than over 2 billion people in the world that cannot read at all.
I have a newfound love for CNN and have been trying to keep tabs on things going on at home, so I had a good foundation of information so as to understand exactly what Obama was talking about. Its funny how much more aware I’ve become of things in the U.S. since I’ve left it.
Obama spoke with humor, personality and a sense of urgency that certainly helped to answer many of my questions and quell some of my fears about where our country is headed. I am about 1/3 of the way through my trip (a thought that has become increasingly sad and scary in the past few days) and I have started to gain an appreciation for how the events in the United States have a rippling effect across the globe.
I find myself watching the news with an entirely new attitude. I’ve realized that each and every one of us is so completely blessed with even the ability to offer our help and our knowledge to those less fortunate than us. As I travel, I also realize that I am increasingly attuned to many issues in the countries we are visiting that I ignore when I’m at home, such as the poverty and homelessness on the streets where I live.
I spent an entire day on a service trip in a Township in Cape Town at an orphanage. The poverty and despair in these areas is devastating in a way that is far too overwhelming to describe on paper, and is impossible to capture in a single photograph or even a video clip. On the other hand, however, the passion and warmth of the people in the Township is equally hard to describe, for theirs is a joy that exists without the support of material objects, but stands alone as a testament to their will. I do not say this to glorify poverty, I say it to glorify the strength of the people who live in adversity but live every day with their heads held high and their hearts in a noble place. Part of me wants to talk about my experience for hours and another part wants to push it from my mind and never think about it again. I know, however, that ignoring an issue is the direct cause of ignorance. I can no longer claim ignorance, and so I can no longer ignore.
As each generation sits contemplating our problems ranging from retirement funds to college loans, I ask all of you reading this to take a look at the following message I was given to me by my professor in my International Service-Learning class. No matter where you are across the globe, I figure we can all use a little perspective:
If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing ratios remaining the same, there would be:
52 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere (North and South)
8 Africans
52 Females
48 Males
70 would be non-white
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian
89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world’s wealth and all 6 would be from the U.S.
80 people would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from mal-nutrition
1 would have a college education
1 would own a computer
If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.
If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture or the pangs of starvation…you are head of 500 million people in the world.
If you can attend a religious meeting of your choice without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death…you are more blessed than 3 billion people in the world.
If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep…you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, your wallet and spare change in a dish someplace…you are among the top 8% of the worlds wealthy.
If your parents are still alive and still married, you are very rare, even in the U.S. and Canada.
If you can hold someone’s hand, hug them or even touch them…you are lucky because you can offer healing touch.
If you can read this message, you are luckier than over 2 billion people in the world that cannot read at all.
Namibia 2/14-2/16
Anyone who ever said it doesn’t rain in the desert lied. I know this because rain is exactly what it did on our 3 day camping trip in Namibia. Most people may think that this would make our trip a total bust, but it was just the opposite.
Once the boat reached port in Walvis Bay, we were greeted by a children’s choir of local girls singing and dancing for us. Despite our industrial surroundings, this was by far the most welcoming port we’ve been to.
We hopped off the ship after a diplomatic briefing of the country and JacMac, Lisa Nick and I joined a group of 11 heading into the desert. Lead by our Wild Dog Safari guide Clifton and his assistant Alfeus, we headed on what we were told was a 2-3 hour drive. Apparently we were unaware of a little phenomenon called “African Time”. We stopped at scenic points along the drive seeing vast stretches of desert turn to mountains and then stopped for a picnic lunch. While stopped at a cliff for pictures of the mountain, we saw huge dark storm clouds in the distance. The desert is amazing because you can see for so far in so many directions. Because of this you could see where the rain began and ended, it was incredible. We stood around for a while talking about how fast the storm was moving until we realized it was moving in our direction.
After running back onto the safari bus the downpour began, and continued for the rest of our 8 hour drive (2-3 hours African Time) on dirt roads. There should definitely be an amusement park ride based on the experiences of driving on unpaved roads in Africa in a rainstorm. By the end of our trip, I was praying that our bus had the ability to turn into a Duck Tours boat, considering we were doing more floating than actual driving. Apparently this was the most rain that Namibia has seen in years. When we reach our campsite, most of it is under water. We try to get rooms in a nearby hotel but they are all full and flooded. At this point it’s looking like we’re sleeping on the bus. We head back to the campsite to wait out the rain and crack open the wine we bought at a supermarket before leaving port. At this point, we’re all pretty darn happy we thought to grab a little alcohol. The rain starts to slow down and Clifton and Alfeus set up to make dinner. After about 2 hours we’ve pitched tents, started a fire and cooked a delicious dinner of chicken and rice with just about every condiment you can imagine (they really like their flavors in Namibia). The rain has stopped and we’re very proud of ourselves for sticking it out.
Tired from our long day of traveling and sight seeing, everyone crawls into their tents for bed. I’m so tired at this point, but because of the rain the air is extremely heavy. Another desert lie: it gets cold at night. I woke up at about 3am in a panic because I could barely breathe. I woke up Lisa and ran outside. Being claustrophobic in a small hot tent is not a good feeling. Despite being miserable, I ran outside and Lisa and I were the only ones who got to see the stars once the clouds had cleared. Never in my life have I seen starts like these. It was totally worth the panic attack.
After a sleepless night, our 5am wake-up call was a welcome relief to escape the tents. Tired and sweaty, we piled onto the bus for our drive out into the desert in hopes of reaching the dunes before sunrise. We get to Sossusvlei, one of the most stunning areas of the Namib Desert, just before sunrise and race up the nearest tall dune. Here we sit silently and watch as the sun comes up over the vast expanse of space. Now I know why people write songs about the desert sunrise. Everything lit up to be a thousand colors; Purples, blues, reds and yellows, literally every color under the sun. Sometimes it scares me how beautiful these parts of the world are that are untouched by humans other than the imprints of our shoes. It makes me wonder what it used to look like where I live at home, before we covered it in bricks and cement. After we’d taken in the sights and spent our last peaceful moments at the top of the dune we wandered back down to the bus where Clifton and Alfeus had set up a delicious breakfast of eggs and bacon and toast with Nutella, along with some much needed coffee.
We then filled up on water and began our 4 hours desert hike. Across the open space and over the red dunes, we walked as Clifton taught us what plants we could eat to provide water if you’re lost in the desert and caught little lizards and bugs for us to inspect. Although the climb up the hot dunes was intense, we had a blast running down the unpacked sand, it looked like we were walking on the moon. On one dune we even slid down on our stomachs like penguins because the sand was so soft from the rain the night before. It was a pretty funny sight to see a bunch of us sliding full speed on our tummy’s down a sand dune. We ended our hike in an area called Deadvlei. We were all so hot and tired by this point that Jac and I took off our socks and shoes and walked through the desert mud. It was a free foot treatment and it felt great! We made our way to some open trucks that took us back to our bus and headed back to camp.
After a quick rest Clifton drove us to a canyon with a giant river running through it. It was a sight that was pretty much impossible to capture on film but it was definitely an awesome view.
When we got back to the campsite it starting to pour again right after we had all changed into our bathing suits to get in the pool and rinse off the desert dust. The wind picked up and all of a sudden our tents were blowing away. So we ran around screaming and barefoot holding down tents and tarps absolutely covered in mud. We must have been the craziest group of half-naked white kids the people who worked at the campsite had ever seen. At one point the rain was coming down so hard that it was starting to hurt, so Jac, Lisa, Nick and I huddled together on the group under a tarp. At this point we were already so filthy that we decided just to go with it. We covered ourselves in the wet sand and afterwards took some hilarious tribal photos of ourselves. It’s funny how much fun you can have with a little rain and a good attitude.
After another campfire dinner and barbeque, we had to sleep in a game room because our tents were soaked. This would have been okay, except the room was completely infested with bugs and even hotter than the tents. I spent most of the night just sitting outside and waiting for the sun to rise.
In the morning we packed up and drove to Swakupmund, the touristy area near where the ship was docked. We had lunch at a café and wandered around the open air craft market. Back to bargaining, I traded a cheap leather bracelet I bought in Morocco for a very cool small Africa tapestry that’s now hanging in my room.
Despite being dirty and tired, we ended our trip satisfied with the idea that we had seen one of the most incredible natural views the world has to offer.
Once the boat reached port in Walvis Bay, we were greeted by a children’s choir of local girls singing and dancing for us. Despite our industrial surroundings, this was by far the most welcoming port we’ve been to.
We hopped off the ship after a diplomatic briefing of the country and JacMac, Lisa Nick and I joined a group of 11 heading into the desert. Lead by our Wild Dog Safari guide Clifton and his assistant Alfeus, we headed on what we were told was a 2-3 hour drive. Apparently we were unaware of a little phenomenon called “African Time”. We stopped at scenic points along the drive seeing vast stretches of desert turn to mountains and then stopped for a picnic lunch. While stopped at a cliff for pictures of the mountain, we saw huge dark storm clouds in the distance. The desert is amazing because you can see for so far in so many directions. Because of this you could see where the rain began and ended, it was incredible. We stood around for a while talking about how fast the storm was moving until we realized it was moving in our direction.
After running back onto the safari bus the downpour began, and continued for the rest of our 8 hour drive (2-3 hours African Time) on dirt roads. There should definitely be an amusement park ride based on the experiences of driving on unpaved roads in Africa in a rainstorm. By the end of our trip, I was praying that our bus had the ability to turn into a Duck Tours boat, considering we were doing more floating than actual driving. Apparently this was the most rain that Namibia has seen in years. When we reach our campsite, most of it is under water. We try to get rooms in a nearby hotel but they are all full and flooded. At this point it’s looking like we’re sleeping on the bus. We head back to the campsite to wait out the rain and crack open the wine we bought at a supermarket before leaving port. At this point, we’re all pretty darn happy we thought to grab a little alcohol. The rain starts to slow down and Clifton and Alfeus set up to make dinner. After about 2 hours we’ve pitched tents, started a fire and cooked a delicious dinner of chicken and rice with just about every condiment you can imagine (they really like their flavors in Namibia). The rain has stopped and we’re very proud of ourselves for sticking it out.
Tired from our long day of traveling and sight seeing, everyone crawls into their tents for bed. I’m so tired at this point, but because of the rain the air is extremely heavy. Another desert lie: it gets cold at night. I woke up at about 3am in a panic because I could barely breathe. I woke up Lisa and ran outside. Being claustrophobic in a small hot tent is not a good feeling. Despite being miserable, I ran outside and Lisa and I were the only ones who got to see the stars once the clouds had cleared. Never in my life have I seen starts like these. It was totally worth the panic attack.
After a sleepless night, our 5am wake-up call was a welcome relief to escape the tents. Tired and sweaty, we piled onto the bus for our drive out into the desert in hopes of reaching the dunes before sunrise. We get to Sossusvlei, one of the most stunning areas of the Namib Desert, just before sunrise and race up the nearest tall dune. Here we sit silently and watch as the sun comes up over the vast expanse of space. Now I know why people write songs about the desert sunrise. Everything lit up to be a thousand colors; Purples, blues, reds and yellows, literally every color under the sun. Sometimes it scares me how beautiful these parts of the world are that are untouched by humans other than the imprints of our shoes. It makes me wonder what it used to look like where I live at home, before we covered it in bricks and cement. After we’d taken in the sights and spent our last peaceful moments at the top of the dune we wandered back down to the bus where Clifton and Alfeus had set up a delicious breakfast of eggs and bacon and toast with Nutella, along with some much needed coffee.
We then filled up on water and began our 4 hours desert hike. Across the open space and over the red dunes, we walked as Clifton taught us what plants we could eat to provide water if you’re lost in the desert and caught little lizards and bugs for us to inspect. Although the climb up the hot dunes was intense, we had a blast running down the unpacked sand, it looked like we were walking on the moon. On one dune we even slid down on our stomachs like penguins because the sand was so soft from the rain the night before. It was a pretty funny sight to see a bunch of us sliding full speed on our tummy’s down a sand dune. We ended our hike in an area called Deadvlei. We were all so hot and tired by this point that Jac and I took off our socks and shoes and walked through the desert mud. It was a free foot treatment and it felt great! We made our way to some open trucks that took us back to our bus and headed back to camp.
After a quick rest Clifton drove us to a canyon with a giant river running through it. It was a sight that was pretty much impossible to capture on film but it was definitely an awesome view.
When we got back to the campsite it starting to pour again right after we had all changed into our bathing suits to get in the pool and rinse off the desert dust. The wind picked up and all of a sudden our tents were blowing away. So we ran around screaming and barefoot holding down tents and tarps absolutely covered in mud. We must have been the craziest group of half-naked white kids the people who worked at the campsite had ever seen. At one point the rain was coming down so hard that it was starting to hurt, so Jac, Lisa, Nick and I huddled together on the group under a tarp. At this point we were already so filthy that we decided just to go with it. We covered ourselves in the wet sand and afterwards took some hilarious tribal photos of ourselves. It’s funny how much fun you can have with a little rain and a good attitude.
After another campfire dinner and barbeque, we had to sleep in a game room because our tents were soaked. This would have been okay, except the room was completely infested with bugs and even hotter than the tents. I spent most of the night just sitting outside and waiting for the sun to rise.
In the morning we packed up and drove to Swakupmund, the touristy area near where the ship was docked. We had lunch at a café and wandered around the open air craft market. Back to bargaining, I traded a cheap leather bracelet I bought in Morocco for a very cool small Africa tapestry that’s now hanging in my room.
Despite being dirty and tired, we ended our trip satisfied with the idea that we had seen one of the most incredible natural views the world has to offer.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Equatorial
Zero degrees Longitude- 2/10
Neptune Day. Hundreds of myths surround the day that marks a ship’s passing from one hemisphere to the other. People say that sailors in the navy are covered in fish guts and then thrown overboard. That’s not exactly how it happened on semester at sea, but it was a very different day.
They cancelled our classes but didn’t really give us any schedule ahead of time to tell us what this was all going to be about. A 7:30 am pots and pans wake up call with our cabin stewards running up and down the hallways covered in tin foil and war paint was, needless to say, and interesting way to start the day.
Everyone had breakfast and then at around 9am there was an announcement “Calling all pollywogs to the rear deck!” (To clarify: all sailors are considered “pollywogs” until they go though the rite of passage of crossing the equator and become “shellbacks”). With our captain and crew covered in paint and ridiculous outfits, almost all 700 students went through the ritual.
We were covered in a green slime, kissed a fish on the mouth, bowed to the king and jumped in the ice cold pool. It was ridiculous but so much fun. Then probably about 100 students, boys and girls shaved their heads. It was crazy. It looks like we have a bunch of oversized babies running around the ship it’s hilarious. I have a lot of respect for the people who did it, but I was not one of them. I think my ears stick out just a little too much to pull off being bald. We spent he rest of the day just hanging out in the sun (proven by my minor sunburn, its true what they say about the sun being a little tiny bit stronger near the equator) and they had a huge barbeque for us last night which was wonderful. We officially crossed the equator today at about 3:15pm. No, there is not big line that goes across the ocean, but it was pretty cool. I’m officially a shellback.
Being at sea for another 9 days is rough. I woke up this morning feeling pretty sick, I’m not really sure why, so I’ve just been resting all day. I haven’t eaten much so hopefully I’ll make it to dinner. The food on the ship is good but pretty repetitive; we have pasta and potatoes in some form at every meal and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches have made a surprise recurring role in my life at age 20. I’m really convinced that in some time warped way semester at sea is responsible for the Irish potato famine. I swear I’ve never seen so many potatoes in my whole life. They must have a whole section of the kitchen freezers dedicated to just potatoes. I’d even bet there’s someone whose job it is solely to chop the potatoes into different shapes to make us feel like we’re eating different things. When I asked one of the Jamaican waiters exactly how many potatoes we had on board, his response was “Oh we got a whole lotta potatoes mon!” I think that statement pretty much covers it.
Classes have been going well. It’s a VERY weird schedule since we have classes for 9 days in a row even on Saturdays and Sundays and then we go for another 10 days without any class at all. Because of this schedule I now have no concept of what day of the week it is. I could tell you if its an A day or a B day for classes or if we’re in port, but that’s about it. I apologize in advance for forgetting birthdays since I also struggle with the date. Hopefully that will get better. I’m finally now getting used to being on a 2400 hour time schedule. That was trickier than I thought.
Classes are going well. I had to give a speech today and I have a midterm on Thursday (which is funny because we’ve only had 6 days of that class) but hopefully all of that will go well. I really like all of my professors, its really different having them live with us. We see them at meals and around the ship. One of my teachers talked about it on the first day and said that we were more than welcome to skip class but that we shouldn’t assume that it won’t be awkward when we see them at lunch later that day. Very true statement.
I’m really excited for Namibia. We are going on a desert camping trip. We don’t know exactly what that means, but it should be a blast. The girl who is running the trip is actually in one of my classes to I trust that it will be a good experience. We are going to try to buy sandboards in port and take them with us to ride them on the dunes. It will definitely be interesting.
That’s all I’ve got as far as updates for now. I really miss all of you and hope you’re all happy and healthy wherever you are!
Sea you later!
Neptune Day. Hundreds of myths surround the day that marks a ship’s passing from one hemisphere to the other. People say that sailors in the navy are covered in fish guts and then thrown overboard. That’s not exactly how it happened on semester at sea, but it was a very different day.
They cancelled our classes but didn’t really give us any schedule ahead of time to tell us what this was all going to be about. A 7:30 am pots and pans wake up call with our cabin stewards running up and down the hallways covered in tin foil and war paint was, needless to say, and interesting way to start the day.
Everyone had breakfast and then at around 9am there was an announcement “Calling all pollywogs to the rear deck!” (To clarify: all sailors are considered “pollywogs” until they go though the rite of passage of crossing the equator and become “shellbacks”). With our captain and crew covered in paint and ridiculous outfits, almost all 700 students went through the ritual.
We were covered in a green slime, kissed a fish on the mouth, bowed to the king and jumped in the ice cold pool. It was ridiculous but so much fun. Then probably about 100 students, boys and girls shaved their heads. It was crazy. It looks like we have a bunch of oversized babies running around the ship it’s hilarious. I have a lot of respect for the people who did it, but I was not one of them. I think my ears stick out just a little too much to pull off being bald. We spent he rest of the day just hanging out in the sun (proven by my minor sunburn, its true what they say about the sun being a little tiny bit stronger near the equator) and they had a huge barbeque for us last night which was wonderful. We officially crossed the equator today at about 3:15pm. No, there is not big line that goes across the ocean, but it was pretty cool. I’m officially a shellback.
Being at sea for another 9 days is rough. I woke up this morning feeling pretty sick, I’m not really sure why, so I’ve just been resting all day. I haven’t eaten much so hopefully I’ll make it to dinner. The food on the ship is good but pretty repetitive; we have pasta and potatoes in some form at every meal and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches have made a surprise recurring role in my life at age 20. I’m really convinced that in some time warped way semester at sea is responsible for the Irish potato famine. I swear I’ve never seen so many potatoes in my whole life. They must have a whole section of the kitchen freezers dedicated to just potatoes. I’d even bet there’s someone whose job it is solely to chop the potatoes into different shapes to make us feel like we’re eating different things. When I asked one of the Jamaican waiters exactly how many potatoes we had on board, his response was “Oh we got a whole lotta potatoes mon!” I think that statement pretty much covers it.
Classes have been going well. It’s a VERY weird schedule since we have classes for 9 days in a row even on Saturdays and Sundays and then we go for another 10 days without any class at all. Because of this schedule I now have no concept of what day of the week it is. I could tell you if its an A day or a B day for classes or if we’re in port, but that’s about it. I apologize in advance for forgetting birthdays since I also struggle with the date. Hopefully that will get better. I’m finally now getting used to being on a 2400 hour time schedule. That was trickier than I thought.
Classes are going well. I had to give a speech today and I have a midterm on Thursday (which is funny because we’ve only had 6 days of that class) but hopefully all of that will go well. I really like all of my professors, its really different having them live with us. We see them at meals and around the ship. One of my teachers talked about it on the first day and said that we were more than welcome to skip class but that we shouldn’t assume that it won’t be awkward when we see them at lunch later that day. Very true statement.
I’m really excited for Namibia. We are going on a desert camping trip. We don’t know exactly what that means, but it should be a blast. The girl who is running the trip is actually in one of my classes to I trust that it will be a good experience. We are going to try to buy sandboards in port and take them with us to ride them on the dunes. It will definitely be interesting.
That’s all I’ve got as far as updates for now. I really miss all of you and hope you’re all happy and healthy wherever you are!
Sea you later!
Friday, February 6, 2009
2/11:Marrakech Express
Morocco: 2/2-2/5
Talk about culture shock.
Bienvenue a Casablanca, Morocco. Take 5 steps off the boat and let the haggling begin. Hop a train to Marrakech and 3 hours later we arrive in a city where cars, buses and trucks share the same lanes as mopeds, rickshaws and donkeys. The 6 of us (JacMac, Lisa, Nick, Chandler, Brian and myself) spend the next half an hour being led around by a group of small boys in the Doukala area searching of a place to stay (since spontaneous travel has become the theme of our little group). From the looks of the streets we think we’ll be lucky to find a place with any sort of bathroom at all. Down a tiny alley and the images of our possible lodgings become even sketchier. A knock at a large brown door and we find ourselves in what can only be described as the perfect Moroccan “Riad”. After being greeted with some of the most wonderful sweet mint tea I’ve ever tasted we explore our surroundings. A large atrium opens up around rooms draped in Moroccan décor with full working sinks, showers and toilets. For Less than $25 a night we couldn’t be happier. We settle in quickly.
After washing our faces (with our mouths closed of course) and freshening up, we hit the streets. After walking less than one block we hear the sound of children singing coming form a nearby school. With 7 years of French under my belt I’m feeling bold. We walk up the narrow stairwell of a run down building and find a welcoming little woman who ushers us in to sit with the children. We can’t take our eyes off of them. Tiny voices rise to sing the obedient Arabic verses of the Koran along with the sounds of French children’s songs. We laugh and sing and take pictures with the children. Less than half an hour in the city and we’ve made a connection.
Hungry from our travels, we leave in search of some sort of sustenance, each of us secretly worried about everything we touch, but trying not to let on about it. Distracted once again, we enter a natural herbal pharmacy and are greeted by 2 of the most enthusiastic pharmacists you could image. And the speak English! We are directed to all sit against the wall and then given a scented tour of Moroccan culture. Spices, oils and lotions. Cures for every ailment. The entire place smells of things we’ve never experienced. We’re total suckers for the performance and everyone buys a little something, but no one minds. We had so much fun with them that they lead us to a nearby restaurant where we are promised good food and good service.
The restaurant delivers. 2 ½ hours and 3 courses later, our bill totals to less than $7 each. You certainly get more bang for your buck in Morocco. After being directed to a nearby Hukkah (Shisha) bar we spend the night smoking and drinking tea in the company of the locals. The perfect way to end our first day in Marrakech.
How can we top the experiences of day 1? We plan a trip to the Medina, but as usual we are side tracked along the way. Walking into an Artisan shop, we had few expectations but to be bartered with and ripped off. We could not have been more wrong. Abdul and Yussef, the store owners, welcome us into their home in the back of the store for more of the mint tea. They dress us in traditional Saharan Berber outfits and spend the afternoon talking with us. After giving us all Moroccan names (Fatima, Aisha, Hadija, Hassan, Rashid and Mohammed) they direct us on our way to the medina, and invite us into the medina and invite us to come back for diner to learn how to cook a Moroccan meal. We gladly accept the opportunity to have a local cooking class!
After stopping to take a few pictures of Koutubia, Marrakech’s largest and most famous mosque, the medina (Jemaa el Fna) opens up before us. Snake charmers on the left and belly dancers on the right. It’s a scene right from Disney’s Aladin. We haggle our way through street vendors and into the heart of the Medina. 4 hours later we emerge bedecked in jewelry with pirated DVD’s in hand (which we find out once we’re back on the ship are dubbed over in French…at least they were cheap!).
We return to Abdul and Yussef’s place and spend the evening chopping vegetables and learning to cook traditional “Tarjine”. We talk about politics, war, religion and anything else we can think of. We end the night exhausted and speechless at our Moroccan adventure. A country we feared to enter ended up being the most welcoming place we could have hoped for. We are even offered a place to stay if we ever choose to return. We leave a note on Abdul’s door in the morning before we leave and he bikes around the streets until he finds us to say one final goodbye.
Back on the train heading for Casablanca. Now comes the entertainment. Chandler and I, bored with the scenery, go in search of our other SAS friends we met in Marrakech in another train car. We leave everything behind with our friends 4 cars back. We sit with the others playing cards and exchanging stories, passing the time. We hear an announcement for the Casablanca stop but we are instructed that this is the first of two stops, and we want the next one. We decide this makes it a good time to head back to our seats. For some reason, we can’t find them. 10 panicked minutes later, we realize we are on a train in Morocco with no passports, ID, money or cell phones. This could be a problem. During the rainy half an hour walk (we couldn’t take a taxi since we had no money) back to the ship, all we can do is laugh about the circumstances and hope our friends grabbed all of our belongings when they got off at the wrong stop without us. After somehow convincing Border Patrol to let us past the gate with no identification, we get on the ship and wait for the rest of the group. Seeing my friends and my bags has never been so exciting. Plus we made it through the entire trip without anyone getting Shista, Crypto, bed bugs or Scabies!
What a trip.
Sea you later!
Talk about culture shock.
Bienvenue a Casablanca, Morocco. Take 5 steps off the boat and let the haggling begin. Hop a train to Marrakech and 3 hours later we arrive in a city where cars, buses and trucks share the same lanes as mopeds, rickshaws and donkeys. The 6 of us (JacMac, Lisa, Nick, Chandler, Brian and myself) spend the next half an hour being led around by a group of small boys in the Doukala area searching of a place to stay (since spontaneous travel has become the theme of our little group). From the looks of the streets we think we’ll be lucky to find a place with any sort of bathroom at all. Down a tiny alley and the images of our possible lodgings become even sketchier. A knock at a large brown door and we find ourselves in what can only be described as the perfect Moroccan “Riad”. After being greeted with some of the most wonderful sweet mint tea I’ve ever tasted we explore our surroundings. A large atrium opens up around rooms draped in Moroccan décor with full working sinks, showers and toilets. For Less than $25 a night we couldn’t be happier. We settle in quickly.
After washing our faces (with our mouths closed of course) and freshening up, we hit the streets. After walking less than one block we hear the sound of children singing coming form a nearby school. With 7 years of French under my belt I’m feeling bold. We walk up the narrow stairwell of a run down building and find a welcoming little woman who ushers us in to sit with the children. We can’t take our eyes off of them. Tiny voices rise to sing the obedient Arabic verses of the Koran along with the sounds of French children’s songs. We laugh and sing and take pictures with the children. Less than half an hour in the city and we’ve made a connection.
Hungry from our travels, we leave in search of some sort of sustenance, each of us secretly worried about everything we touch, but trying not to let on about it. Distracted once again, we enter a natural herbal pharmacy and are greeted by 2 of the most enthusiastic pharmacists you could image. And the speak English! We are directed to all sit against the wall and then given a scented tour of Moroccan culture. Spices, oils and lotions. Cures for every ailment. The entire place smells of things we’ve never experienced. We’re total suckers for the performance and everyone buys a little something, but no one minds. We had so much fun with them that they lead us to a nearby restaurant where we are promised good food and good service.
The restaurant delivers. 2 ½ hours and 3 courses later, our bill totals to less than $7 each. You certainly get more bang for your buck in Morocco. After being directed to a nearby Hukkah (Shisha) bar we spend the night smoking and drinking tea in the company of the locals. The perfect way to end our first day in Marrakech.
How can we top the experiences of day 1? We plan a trip to the Medina, but as usual we are side tracked along the way. Walking into an Artisan shop, we had few expectations but to be bartered with and ripped off. We could not have been more wrong. Abdul and Yussef, the store owners, welcome us into their home in the back of the store for more of the mint tea. They dress us in traditional Saharan Berber outfits and spend the afternoon talking with us. After giving us all Moroccan names (Fatima, Aisha, Hadija, Hassan, Rashid and Mohammed) they direct us on our way to the medina, and invite us into the medina and invite us to come back for diner to learn how to cook a Moroccan meal. We gladly accept the opportunity to have a local cooking class!
After stopping to take a few pictures of Koutubia, Marrakech’s largest and most famous mosque, the medina (Jemaa el Fna) opens up before us. Snake charmers on the left and belly dancers on the right. It’s a scene right from Disney’s Aladin. We haggle our way through street vendors and into the heart of the Medina. 4 hours later we emerge bedecked in jewelry with pirated DVD’s in hand (which we find out once we’re back on the ship are dubbed over in French…at least they were cheap!).
We return to Abdul and Yussef’s place and spend the evening chopping vegetables and learning to cook traditional “Tarjine”. We talk about politics, war, religion and anything else we can think of. We end the night exhausted and speechless at our Moroccan adventure. A country we feared to enter ended up being the most welcoming place we could have hoped for. We are even offered a place to stay if we ever choose to return. We leave a note on Abdul’s door in the morning before we leave and he bikes around the streets until he finds us to say one final goodbye.
Back on the train heading for Casablanca. Now comes the entertainment. Chandler and I, bored with the scenery, go in search of our other SAS friends we met in Marrakech in another train car. We leave everything behind with our friends 4 cars back. We sit with the others playing cards and exchanging stories, passing the time. We hear an announcement for the Casablanca stop but we are instructed that this is the first of two stops, and we want the next one. We decide this makes it a good time to head back to our seats. For some reason, we can’t find them. 10 panicked minutes later, we realize we are on a train in Morocco with no passports, ID, money or cell phones. This could be a problem. During the rainy half an hour walk (we couldn’t take a taxi since we had no money) back to the ship, all we can do is laugh about the circumstances and hope our friends grabbed all of our belongings when they got off at the wrong stop without us. After somehow convincing Border Patrol to let us past the gate with no identification, we get on the ship and wait for the rest of the group. Seeing my friends and my bags has never been so exciting. Plus we made it through the entire trip without anyone getting Shista, Crypto, bed bugs or Scabies!
What a trip.
Sea you later!
Saturday, January 31, 2009
1/11
I'm currently sitting outside a catherdral in Cadiz on a beautiful sunny day. I can't think of a better place to sit and write about my trip in Spain!
First of all I'm so glad we went to Sevilla.
The old fashioned vintage feel and the history of the city was amazing. After wandering around for about 3 hours trying to find a place to stay we finally made it to a hostel, dropped our bags and went straight out for Tapas and CampoCruz (Sevilla's local beer). Once we'd had our refreshments, we spent the entire first day just wandering the city checking out local shops and landmarks. We watched the sunset over the river and hung out for a while in the parks along the water. We had big plans for the night but since we ate dinner around midnight we didn't make it out our first night there.
On thursday we did some more serious sightseeing. We walked around the university and the Gardens of Alcaczar and hung out around a fountain that quickly became our favorite meeting spot since it was right in the center of everything. On Thursday night we went to the Sevilla vs. Valencia football game. Let me tell you, the Spaniards LOVE their football. The game was intense and Sevilla score the winning goal in the last 5 minutes of the game. The energy was insane! After the game the security guards weren't paying attention and we got to go on the professional football field! Unbelievable. Then we danced and sang with some locals outside the stadium for about 2 hours and they gave us their championship scarves that all the Sevillans have. Perfect souveniers with a story. After a quick bite to eat we went back to our hostel to change and finally made it to the club at 3am. We stayed at Buddha bar until about 6am and then made our way home. The Spanish like partying about as much as they like football.
After a rough wake up call (and sticking to the moto "we'll sleep when we're dead") we headed out to see everything else we could find in Sevilla. We went back to the Catherdral and had the most amazing picnick lunch by the foutain. We bought fresh baguettes with meats and cheeses and some pastries and a bottle of sweet wine and just sat outside. It really was perfect. After meeting up wit Alex Goff (YAY!) made a plan to meet up later and then headed to the Plaza d'Espana. We were all really tired and grumpy from walking everywhere but I think everyone agreed once we got there that it was totally worth it. I've never seen such beautiful architecture in my entire life. Someone told us that one of the Star Wars movies was filmed there and I cana definitely see why. Intricate paintings on columns surround a central fountain with doves flying everywhere. Defintely and ideal movie set. At night we all headed to an underground Flamenco bar and saw some live music and local dancing. It was the perfect end to our Sevilla trip.
This morning we all tried to catch up on some of the sleep we missed out on while we were on th train back to Cadiz. Now its time to get back on the boat. We sail for one day tomorrow with a stop in Gibralter to refuel and then we'll be in Morocco on Monday!
I honestly can't believe this is only the first port, this trip has already been worth it.
Sea you later!
First of all I'm so glad we went to Sevilla.
The old fashioned vintage feel and the history of the city was amazing. After wandering around for about 3 hours trying to find a place to stay we finally made it to a hostel, dropped our bags and went straight out for Tapas and CampoCruz (Sevilla's local beer). Once we'd had our refreshments, we spent the entire first day just wandering the city checking out local shops and landmarks. We watched the sunset over the river and hung out for a while in the parks along the water. We had big plans for the night but since we ate dinner around midnight we didn't make it out our first night there.
On thursday we did some more serious sightseeing. We walked around the university and the Gardens of Alcaczar and hung out around a fountain that quickly became our favorite meeting spot since it was right in the center of everything. On Thursday night we went to the Sevilla vs. Valencia football game. Let me tell you, the Spaniards LOVE their football. The game was intense and Sevilla score the winning goal in the last 5 minutes of the game. The energy was insane! After the game the security guards weren't paying attention and we got to go on the professional football field! Unbelievable. Then we danced and sang with some locals outside the stadium for about 2 hours and they gave us their championship scarves that all the Sevillans have. Perfect souveniers with a story. After a quick bite to eat we went back to our hostel to change and finally made it to the club at 3am. We stayed at Buddha bar until about 6am and then made our way home. The Spanish like partying about as much as they like football.
After a rough wake up call (and sticking to the moto "we'll sleep when we're dead") we headed out to see everything else we could find in Sevilla. We went back to the Catherdral and had the most amazing picnick lunch by the foutain. We bought fresh baguettes with meats and cheeses and some pastries and a bottle of sweet wine and just sat outside. It really was perfect. After meeting up wit Alex Goff (YAY!) made a plan to meet up later and then headed to the Plaza d'Espana. We were all really tired and grumpy from walking everywhere but I think everyone agreed once we got there that it was totally worth it. I've never seen such beautiful architecture in my entire life. Someone told us that one of the Star Wars movies was filmed there and I cana definitely see why. Intricate paintings on columns surround a central fountain with doves flying everywhere. Defintely and ideal movie set. At night we all headed to an underground Flamenco bar and saw some live music and local dancing. It was the perfect end to our Sevilla trip.
This morning we all tried to catch up on some of the sleep we missed out on while we were on th train back to Cadiz. Now its time to get back on the boat. We sail for one day tomorrow with a stop in Gibralter to refuel and then we'll be in Morocco on Monday!
I honestly can't believe this is only the first port, this trip has already been worth it.
Sea you later!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
SPAIN!!!
Docked in Cadiz, Spain this morning and Ive never been so happy to see land in my life! We got right on a train and after wandering for about 2 hours we finally found a Hostel in Sevilla! Its so beautiful here and we cant wait to explore! Ill make sure to update once we have had a chance to take a look around!
Ciao and Sea you later!
Ciao and Sea you later!
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Greetings from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean! After standing on the dock and waving goodbye to the parents of people I didn’t know, we finally set sail and started this crazy trip! I want to provide you with some terms I’ve learned so that all of you can be politically correct when talking about what’s going on out here!
- It’s the “deck”, not the “floor”
- It’s a “ship”, not a “boat”
- It’s a “voyage”, not a “cruise”
So there you have it, now you can all be sailors like me!
So the bad news first, I am apparently a victim of sea sickness. Although the food has been better than I expected, I ate about 2 meals in the first 3 days that haven’t returned for a second round. The “Union” where we have meetings is at the front of the boat and is quite possibly worse than the Madhatter’s tea cup ride at Disney World. I kept getting sick after being in there, but they broadcast all of the events going on in that room to TV’s in classrooms around the ship and even in my bedroom (which is pretty sweet since I have a class that technically takes place in there). I was psyched when I figured this out. Then this morning I discovered that there is another smaller classroom in which my International Management class takes place in that has similar effects of nausea. Not so psyched about this. Needless to say that after finding out I accidentally signed up for a course for business majors (uh oh) and sitting in that room for an hour I spent some quality time in my munchkin sized bathroom. Not a fun afternoon. But now I have my sea legs and I’m feeling a LOT better.
On the bright side, this thing is unreal!
THE BOAT: Being able to walk straight (although walking “straight” on a rocking ship is a relative term) from class to the pool is a pretty good life. They broadcast the Presidential Inauguration all across the ship and had a big celebration for him with cake and non-alcoholic champagnes (which I quickly discovered after my time celebrating in the Union can have the same negative effects on a ship as drinking alcoholic champagne has on land…again, not so good). But…BARACK OBAMA IS OUR PRESIDENT! And let me tell you, these professors are NOT shy about their views. If I had a dollar for every time one of them told us the world was so proud of us I might not have any loans left after this trip. Ok fine, that’s completely untrue, but the attitude and atmosphere here is awesome. I immediately befriended a guy who on the first day wore a shirt saying “the only bad plant is a Bush”. We got along just fine.
THE ROOM: My roommate’s name is Sonya. She’s from NJ and goes to University of Pittsburgh. Honestly, I’ve been in the room to sleep and shower and that’s about it (considering its size-pictures to come later-that’s really all you can do in here!).
CLASSES: So far, teachers could not be better. They are all so excited and have so many unbelievable stories to tell us. Classes won’t be easy, but it’s cool that we have so much time with our professors outside of class whether its meals or just hanging out on the ship. I think it will be a great experience to get to know them. AND one of my professors went to Madison! It’s called Service-Learning and it’s basically a class about how to set up volunteer programs in other countries, which for those of you who don’t know that’s exactly what I want to do. So I think that class will be great.
THE PEOPLE: Picture a freshman dorm in which you had to be screened to be insane enough to hop on a boat and travel around the world with 700 strangers. There you have it ladies and gentleman, the students on the MV Explorer. People are ready to talk about everything and anything. Also I’m not the only one who was told to bring games aboard for the slow times on the ship, so after listening to a kid with perfect pitch play every single song we could hum at him, a few of us played an intense game of Uno followed by and even more intense game of Slapjack until about 2am. I know it was 2am for two reasons:
#1) The bartenders came over and gave us free popcorn since we were the only people not in our cabins at this hour (I think that’s the only free thing I’ll be getting on this boat, so we decided that staying up late is the trick to snag some free goods)
#2) They broadcast the time change across the TV’s on the ship because for the next SIX nights we lose and hour of sleep EVERY night. We decided last night that we are circumnavigating the globe in the wrong direction. Apparently there’s even a spot somewhere along the route where we lose SIX hours in one night! I think eve trying to sleep that night is counterproductive.
There are also dance classes at night and so far we’ve learned how to swing dance and salsa. The boys on the ship definitely show up to take advantage of the 3:1 ratio they have in their advantage. Last night a bunch of us decided to sleep out on the deck. After spending the night telling riddles and jokes and making up songs with a harmonica (yes, this really is a floating summer camp) we finally tried to sleep. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful since it got really cold up there and a deck chair is only comfy to nap on when you’re tanning, so at about 4am we turned in. All of us needed some BIG naps today but it was definitely a good time. The stars out here are so bright!
SEA you later!
- It’s the “deck”, not the “floor”
- It’s a “ship”, not a “boat”
- It’s a “voyage”, not a “cruise”
So there you have it, now you can all be sailors like me!
So the bad news first, I am apparently a victim of sea sickness. Although the food has been better than I expected, I ate about 2 meals in the first 3 days that haven’t returned for a second round. The “Union” where we have meetings is at the front of the boat and is quite possibly worse than the Madhatter’s tea cup ride at Disney World. I kept getting sick after being in there, but they broadcast all of the events going on in that room to TV’s in classrooms around the ship and even in my bedroom (which is pretty sweet since I have a class that technically takes place in there). I was psyched when I figured this out. Then this morning I discovered that there is another smaller classroom in which my International Management class takes place in that has similar effects of nausea. Not so psyched about this. Needless to say that after finding out I accidentally signed up for a course for business majors (uh oh) and sitting in that room for an hour I spent some quality time in my munchkin sized bathroom. Not a fun afternoon. But now I have my sea legs and I’m feeling a LOT better.
On the bright side, this thing is unreal!
THE BOAT: Being able to walk straight (although walking “straight” on a rocking ship is a relative term) from class to the pool is a pretty good life. They broadcast the Presidential Inauguration all across the ship and had a big celebration for him with cake and non-alcoholic champagnes (which I quickly discovered after my time celebrating in the Union can have the same negative effects on a ship as drinking alcoholic champagne has on land…again, not so good). But…BARACK OBAMA IS OUR PRESIDENT! And let me tell you, these professors are NOT shy about their views. If I had a dollar for every time one of them told us the world was so proud of us I might not have any loans left after this trip. Ok fine, that’s completely untrue, but the attitude and atmosphere here is awesome. I immediately befriended a guy who on the first day wore a shirt saying “the only bad plant is a Bush”. We got along just fine.
THE ROOM: My roommate’s name is Sonya. She’s from NJ and goes to University of Pittsburgh. Honestly, I’ve been in the room to sleep and shower and that’s about it (considering its size-pictures to come later-that’s really all you can do in here!).
CLASSES: So far, teachers could not be better. They are all so excited and have so many unbelievable stories to tell us. Classes won’t be easy, but it’s cool that we have so much time with our professors outside of class whether its meals or just hanging out on the ship. I think it will be a great experience to get to know them. AND one of my professors went to Madison! It’s called Service-Learning and it’s basically a class about how to set up volunteer programs in other countries, which for those of you who don’t know that’s exactly what I want to do. So I think that class will be great.
THE PEOPLE: Picture a freshman dorm in which you had to be screened to be insane enough to hop on a boat and travel around the world with 700 strangers. There you have it ladies and gentleman, the students on the MV Explorer. People are ready to talk about everything and anything. Also I’m not the only one who was told to bring games aboard for the slow times on the ship, so after listening to a kid with perfect pitch play every single song we could hum at him, a few of us played an intense game of Uno followed by and even more intense game of Slapjack until about 2am. I know it was 2am for two reasons:
#1) The bartenders came over and gave us free popcorn since we were the only people not in our cabins at this hour (I think that’s the only free thing I’ll be getting on this boat, so we decided that staying up late is the trick to snag some free goods)
#2) They broadcast the time change across the TV’s on the ship because for the next SIX nights we lose and hour of sleep EVERY night. We decided last night that we are circumnavigating the globe in the wrong direction. Apparently there’s even a spot somewhere along the route where we lose SIX hours in one night! I think eve trying to sleep that night is counterproductive.
There are also dance classes at night and so far we’ve learned how to swing dance and salsa. The boys on the ship definitely show up to take advantage of the 3:1 ratio they have in their advantage. Last night a bunch of us decided to sleep out on the deck. After spending the night telling riddles and jokes and making up songs with a harmonica (yes, this really is a floating summer camp) we finally tried to sleep. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful since it got really cold up there and a deck chair is only comfy to nap on when you’re tanning, so at about 4am we turned in. All of us needed some BIG naps today but it was definitely a good time. The stars out here are so bright!
SEA you later!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Road Rules
Yesterday I got a flat tire and was able to change it myself. Sadly, this picture is not what I looked like while doing it. Still, I think now I'm ready to take on the world.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Virgin Seas: The Itinerary
There's a scene in "Armageddon" where Oscar (Owen Wilson) turns to A.J. (Ben Affleck) during the space shuttle take off of their mission to save to world and says:
"I'm, like, 98% excited, and maybe 2% scared. Or maybe it's backwards. Maybe I'm 98% scared, and, like, 2% excited. But that's that makes it so great---I'm so confused!"
I'm not off to save the planet, but I get you, Owen.
With that said, here it is. The final itinerary:
Nassau, Bahamas
Depart-Monday19 January-1700
Cadiz, Spain
Arrive-Wednesdau 1/28
Depart-Saturday 1/31
Casablanca, Morocco
Arrive-Monday 2/2
Depart-Thursday 2/5
Walvis Bay, Namibia
Arrive-Saturday 2/14
Depart-Monday 2/16
Cape Town, South Africa
Arrive-Wednesday 2/18
Depart-Sunday 2/22
Port Louis, Mauritius
Arrive-Friday 2/27
Depart-Friday 2/27
Chennai, India
Arrive-Thursday 3/5
Depart-Monday 3/9
Laem Chabang (Bangkok), Thailand
Arrive-Sunday 3/15
Depart-Thursday 3/19
Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
Arrive-Sunday 3/22
Depart-Friday 3/27
Hong Kong/Shanghai, China
Arrive-Sunday 3/29
Depart-Friday 4/3
Kobe/Yokohama, Japan
Arrive-Monday 4/6 (AND TURN 21!!!)
Depart-Friday 4/10
(Cross International dateline, add one day)
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Arrive-Sunday 4/19
Depart-Monday 4/20
Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala(Antigua, Guatemala City)
Arrive-Tuesday 4/28
Depart-Thursday 4/30
(Transit Panama Canal - Sunday, 03 May)
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA
Arrive-Wednesday 5/6
What a trip.
"I'm, like, 98% excited, and maybe 2% scared. Or maybe it's backwards. Maybe I'm 98% scared, and, like, 2% excited. But that's that makes it so great---I'm so confused!"
I'm not off to save the planet, but I get you, Owen.
With that said, here it is. The final itinerary:
Nassau, Bahamas
Depart-Monday19 January-1700
Cadiz, Spain
Arrive-Wednesdau 1/28
Depart-Saturday 1/31
Casablanca, Morocco
Arrive-Monday 2/2
Depart-Thursday 2/5
Walvis Bay, Namibia
Arrive-Saturday 2/14
Depart-Monday 2/16
Cape Town, South Africa
Arrive-Wednesday 2/18
Depart-Sunday 2/22
Port Louis, Mauritius
Arrive-Friday 2/27
Depart-Friday 2/27
Chennai, India
Arrive-Thursday 3/5
Depart-Monday 3/9
Laem Chabang (Bangkok), Thailand
Arrive-Sunday 3/15
Depart-Thursday 3/19
Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
Arrive-Sunday 3/22
Depart-Friday 3/27
Hong Kong/Shanghai, China
Arrive-Sunday 3/29
Depart-Friday 4/3
Kobe/Yokohama, Japan
Arrive-Monday 4/6 (AND TURN 21!!!)
Depart-Friday 4/10
(Cross International dateline, add one day)
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Arrive-Sunday 4/19
Depart-Monday 4/20
Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala(Antigua, Guatemala City)
Arrive-Tuesday 4/28
Depart-Thursday 4/30
(Transit Panama Canal - Sunday, 03 May)
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA
Arrive-Wednesday 5/6
What a trip.
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