Water Is Never Water; Shit Is All In Your Head

Blog title is from my theology teacher. We were discussing the symbolism behind each of the above mentioned items. I love my teachers!

 

Days 67 through 72

I found out that I get to go to Guadalajara for summer school!!! I get to take 6 units, then I only have to take 15 in the fall instead of the 18 I had originally planned. It is hard to believe that I am halfway around the world and I am already planning yet another trip. I still have a pretty long summer, as I get 3 weeks before summer school then 6 weeks after. I not only get to stay with one of my sorority sisters, I also get to live with a host family! That means I get legitimate Mexican food for 6 weeks straight….YUMMY! I can’t wait! Anyways…

 

On day 70, we had no school because it was Africa Day! Before new countries we usually have a day off of school in which there are various seminars and informational presentations about the continent we are going to be visiting. We had Asia Day, now it was Africa day. The first seminar I went to was one for Invisible Children. For those of you who do not know what Invisible Children is, it is a project that was started to help the abducted child army members in Uganda. This was the organization that I got all of those books donated for my sophomore year. The girl making the presentation has been working with the organization since 2006, so she gave us more background on the NGO and she is holding an explorer seminar between South Africa and Uganda to show us the original short film that was made about the project as well as tell us how we can get more involved. If you want you know more about it (just a little advertisement), you can go to (I think) www.invisiblechildren.org.

 

After the Invisible Children seminar, I stayed in the Union for Professor Abel’s shark presentation. Now those of you who know me know that I am terrified of sharks, yet I am going to jump in a cage and swim around in the water with Great Whites. Reeeeeal smart right? I figured I should know a little bit more about these animals, and I really did like his talk. Professor Abel is incredibly knowledgeable in his field and knows pretty much everything there is to know about marine life. He does shark research of the coast of South Carolina and is so happy whenever anyone asks him a question about his work or his field.

 

After lunch, I went to spiritual dance, African style. Spiritual dance is headed by a woman named Jenny Finn, whom everyone absolutely loves. She is fun, quirky, and is always willing to talk to anyone. Spiritual dance is a way to get yourself grounded and to get yourself in touch with your body through movement. It sounds so very hippie-ish, but it is so much fun, and you feel so relaxed afterwards. It was really fun to dance to all of the African beats, and after the half an hour, my head was clear and my body was relaxed, so I sat in the Union again for our interport lecturers talk on South Africa. He talked about his growing up in South Africa, the World Cup coming to South Africa this year, and he answered questions. All it did was make me really excited to get there already! We have been able to see the coast of South Africa for two days, and it is such a tease! Most of us just feel like jumping out and swimming the 6 miles to shore or stealing a lifeboat, but we think that may break a rule in the voyagers handbook.

 

Later that night, we had a “South African” dinner. I put it in quotes because I don’t really know how South African it actually is, what with us being on the ship and all and only having limited ingredients. They did have a really good beef dish of some kind, which was a nice change from the pork or chicken.

 

Day 71 was also a rather exciting day, or shall I say night. It was crew appreciation day, as well as the crew talent show, which my extended family says is the best night of the year. Some of my favorite waiters (Alan, Darwin, and Mezram) were going to be performing, and I was so excited. Simone and I arrived in the Union at 7, 2 hours before the show, and people already had seats saved. We still managed to get seats in the third row right in the middle, so we still had a great view of all of the activities that were going on. Majority of the talents involved music, whether it was singing or dancing. Mezram, my favorite Jamaican waiter who is always singing while he works, did 3 short songs a capella style. It was so funny to see him in regular clothes, and let me tell you, the man is hip. He had baggy pants, a tank top, a hoodie, a hat, and light up sunglasses. It was such a change to see him in regular clothes for once! Darwin did a couple of different acts; he sang, he danced, he did it all. He and his band sang a few songs the entire audience knew, such as All The Small Things by Blink-182. By far my favorite performer of the night was Alan, who also happens to be my absolute favorite waiter on the ship. Hi played guitar in one song, drums in another, he danced, and he showed off some amazing bartending skills with a wine bottle. Alan is quite a wild thing when he is not in uniform, and I am pretty sure half of the girls on the ship are in love with him.

 

It is so much fun to see the entire crew let go, wear normal clothing, and just have fun. You can tell all the guys really know how to have a good time when they aren’t on duty, and it would be so fun to hang out with them when they aren’t working. It kind of makes you wonder what craziness goes on in the crew quarters, where they have their own stash of alcohol and no 3 beverage limit, a bunch of musical instruments and video games. They wait on me hand and foot and always greet me with hey beautiful or hey baby in the morning, and they spoil me rotten and bring me my favorite cereals or desserts. I need to tell my boyfriend he has some competition from these foreign men who have managed to steal my heart within the past 70 days.

 

Day 72, and I got to see about 100 dolphins swimming next to our ship this morning at breakfast! They were jumping out of the water and swimming past us into the horizon, and it was really awesome to see them out in the open ocean instead of at Sea World. We have logistical and cultural pre-port tonight before we get to South Africa tomorrow!!!! I can’t wait to blog about my adventures, as there are going to be a lot of them within the next 5 or 6 days. Table Mountain, Robben Island, shark diving, the game reserve, a township visit, and my Animal Whispers tour should make for some great adventures. South Africa here I come!!!!!

Looks Like We're Sleeping On The Beach!

Day 1 in Mauritius, day 65 of my voyage

Before I start writing about my days, here are 6 things you should probably know about Mauritius before you visit:

1.) Hotels are nazi’s when it comes to how many people you have staying in your room.

2.) Sleeping on the beach can be quite an experience if you have nothing but a towel to sleep under.

3.) Sugar cane rum beats any rum you have ever tasted and goes great with Coke.

4.) Traffic is ridiculous in Mauritius, and a 20 minute drive can take up to an hour and a half.

5.) Taxi drivers may not have their licenses.

6.) No matter how much bug spray with deet you have on, if you go in the jungle in the morning, you will get attacked and bitten by forces of bugs

Ok, so now that you know these six tips, I will give you the story behind these findings…

 

I woke up so excited because we were in MAURITIUS! It is a teeny tiny island off the coast of Madagascar that was purportedly one of the most beautiful places in the world, and I could not wait to see some of it. We planned a very busy two days in Mauritius, and I was excited to start my day. My SAS trip to the adventure park and beach left around 9:30, and we were headed to the adventure park first. There was a big group of us that all went together, and it was so much fun. There were two different courses, one easy one and one not so easy one. The easy one consisted of 7 bridges to cross that were a number of different heights above the ground. We all had harnesses on an had to attach or cable every time we went across, and it was really fun. The second course, on the other hand was ridiculously difficult. There were planks spaced out about 6 or 7 feet apart, and you had to get from one to the other by swinging on these ropes that were above the planks. There was a net made out of ropes to go across, there were logs to jump across, a short zipline, and a tightrope. It was incredibly physically demanding, and I was exhausted after. Not to mention that we had to do all of this while being attacked by swarms of mosquitoes. They were relentless, and you could look down and see big clumps of them on your legs at one time. We were constantly swatting at our legs and dancing trying to get them off of us, and it made things slightly miserable. By the end of our adventure, we were covered in mud and bug bites, and we were so happy to have lunch and head to the beach to cool off and relax. We had curried chicken and rice for lunch, then we were off to the beach of Flic en Flac. We got to the beach and laid out, swam a little bit, and saw a couple of SASers. A lot of people rented villas on the beach for the night, so there were people all along the beach. After relaxing for about an hour, we hopped back on our buses and headed back to the ship.

 

After getting back to the ship, I threw my muddy tennis shoes in a garbage bag, then took a cold shower. We ate dinner on the ship, and once dinner was over and everyone was back from their trips, 11 of us hopped in a van/cab to head out to Blue Bay, where our hotel was and where our catamaran was leaving from. Upon arriving at the hotel around 9:30, we put our stuff in the rooms that three of the people had already checked into earlier in the day. We grabbed our sugar cane rum and headed down to the beach to hang out and have a good time. We hung out there for hours, playing music and singing, running around on the beach and in the water, and finally everyone was ready to go back to the hotel for a good nights sleep. Some of the girls had gone in already, so one room had 4 girls in it and the other room had 1 girl in it. Which meant that 9 of us still had to get in. Well, hotel security wouldn’t let any of us in. We stood there and talked to them for a while, and we knew there was no way we were sleeping in the hotel rooms. When I finally asked if I could just go upstairs and get my backpack, they wouldn’t let me, or any of us go in. Graham was able to go in because the room was under his name, and Brittany went with him as his plus one. Alli had gone in earlier when security wasn’t around, so she was also in the room. The guard finally allowed Shauna to go upstairs to get a backpack, and Graham ended up letting her sleep there and he came with the 6 of us that were stuck outside. The security guards told us we could sleep on the lounge chairs that were on the hotel’s private beach, so that is what we did.

 

We all set up our lounge chairs relatively close to one another and tried to fall asleep. I fished a towel out of the backpack Graham had brought down to use as a blanket, and while it helped, it was still cold. One thing I do have to say is that the stars were absolutely beautiful, and you could see the milky way and the southern cross, and so many other stars that I never seem to see at home. Eventually, the wind started to pick up and it got cold, so I managed to tuck my entire body under the towel to keep the wind out. Graham took one of the lounge chair cushions and propped it up to block the wind and tucked himself inside his shirt. All of us were laughing at what a story that night would make, and we were right. I slept intermittently throughout the night, but it definitely wasn’t the best night of sleep I’ve ever had.

 

Day 2 in Mauritius, day 66 of my voyage

Waking up at 6 to a little bit of light on the horizon was not something I planned on doing, but the sunrise that followed made it totally worth it. It was absolutely beautiful, and it was wonderful to see it from our lounge chairs we were sleeping on. We were all still tired from the restless night’s sleep, but once we were awake, there was no going back to sleep. We gathered up some leftover stuff from the beach (two of the boys lost their iPods the night before but we managed to find them) and went to the rooms that all of our stuff was in. Four of us used the breakfast vouchers and had breakfast in the restaurant while the others were getting ready, and we smuggled out some croissants and baguettes for the others to eat.

 

Once everyone was ready, we all hopped in our taxis and headed over to the jetty that our catamaran was leaving from. By the time everyone arrived, there were 18 of us getting on the catamaran that day. At first we thought we were the only group that was going, but a bunch of about 6 or 8 French people with a little boy pulled up right after we hopped on. We were all pretty worried about a 4 year old boy being on a catamaran around a bunch of college kids under the influence of alcohol, but his parents didn’t seem too worried at all.

 

We set sail and were told that it was a 3 hour ride to the island we were traveling to, then we would get about an hour total for two other parts of that area. The first three hours were a blast; we all relaxed, sat in the sun, had some drinks, sang songs with the French people, danced with the French people, and just generally had a good time. Once we got to the island, we didn’t actually go ashore but kind of sat in the middle of the water. We had the option of snorkeling for about 20 minutes or parasailing. My friend Bruck has a cast on his arm, so he can’t snorkel, and so I offered to parasail with him. It ended up being about 25 bucks a person, which is way cheaper than parasailing in Hawaii. We were in the air for a few minutes and it was absolutely gorgeous. I didn’t bring my camera with me because I didn’t want to break it for whatever reason, but one of our friends got some good pictures from down below.

 

After the parasailing adventure, we ate lunch (BBQ chicken!) and then got to go to another part of the island and do some shopping and swimming for 45 minutes. The water was a great temperature for swimming, and it was great to relax and cool off for a bit. We got back on our catamaran and headed back to where we started, another 2 hours away. By this point, basically everyone on the catamaran was somewhere within the range of slightly tipsy to drunk (with the exception of the 4 year old and our driver). Those French people can party hard! We hit shore around 4 and booked it to our taxis to make it back to the ship. Our drivers told us it would be about an hour ride with traffic, which still left us an hour to get to the ship. We got into Port Louis around 5:10, and our driver still seemed to have no idea where he was going. He stopped and asked a security guard how to get to our port, and we discovered that we had to turn around in rush hour traffic. Our driver goes up to an intersection, hooks a u-turn and we see a solid block of cars sitting in front of us. But that wasn’t the best part of this little adventure. A couple seconds later, a cop pulls up behind us on a motorcycle, our driver pulls over, and the cop walks up to the window. He asks our driver for his papers, then proceeds to count how many of us were in the van. Apparently, our driver didn’t have a license to be driving that many people or something, so we all got out of the car, didn’t pay him, and left him to deal with the cop. We began running down the streets of Mauritius, and we could see our ship at the dock a little ways away. We asked a cop how to get there and he pointed to a water taxi, which we all ran to and hopped in. We told the guy to go, and he wouldn’t leave until he had any amount of money, so that took another 3 minutes. This was the slowest water taxi ever, and we arrived at the ship 20 minutes before on ship time, but we still had to wait in the massive line behind all of the people. We made it on the ship with about 11 minutes to spare, and man, were we happy. I was surprised to find out that only 2 people ended up getting dock time, and all the people that were in the line behind us made it one the ship.

 

I really liked Mauritius. There is a blend of cultures, and we didn’t stand out quite like we did in other countries. English is the official language of the country, even though it isn’t used too often. Creole is used for everyday conversation, French is used for mass media, and English is used in politics. The only bad thing was the fact that the reputation of SAS wasn’t so hot on the island before we got there. And I wish we could have had just one more night in Mauritius to do a little bit more, as everything felt very rushed and I feel as though I didn’t get much of a feeling for the island. Mauritius would be a beautiful place for a vacation home, yet I definitely would not want to live on that tiny of an island.

All Hail Neptune Rex!

Days 59 through 64

From now on, we have roughly 6 days between each port. While it is nice to have a longer break between countries than just two days, things on the ship can get rather boring. I have gotten the opportunity to read quite a few books since I have been here, which has been absolutely great, considering when I’m at USD I barely have time to breathe, let alone read something I actually want to read. Unlike the other 6 day passages on the water, this one would hold much more excitement because of one special day known as Neptune Day.

 

Neptune Day is the day the ship crosses the equator, and all of the passengers go from being “pollywogs” to “shellbacks”. This is how Neptune Day went down: I woke up early for breakfast, along with the rest of my friends. Around 7:30, I heard the rumor that people were getting woken up, so I ran down to deck 3 with my camera in hand. When I got down there, lo and behold, there were about 8 crew members with their faces painted going down the hall with whistles and drums, banging on all of the doors, and making a racket. They went through the halls twice, making sure everyone was wide awake and up for breakfast. The actual festivities didn’t start until 9 am up on the 7^th deck. The group of us made our way up there, and King Neptune Rex himself was waiting for us. King Neptune was our executive dean, and he had on a white robe and his face was painted. He also had a royal court with him, who were going to administer the various tests to the students to see if they were worthy of becoming trusty shellbacks (and yes I am trying to make this as cheesy as possible so you understand how cheesy it was on the day it happened). We had to take an oath, and the testing began. It began with getting fish guts dumped on our heads, then jumping into the swimming pool, then getting out and kissing a fish and King Neptune’s ring. After, the really brave people shaved their heads. I considered it for about .25 seconds, then decided against it, as I know mom would have killed me when I got home. I was incredibly surprised at the amount of girls that shaved their heads or chopped their hair really short. There had to be at least 20, if not more. Some of the girls got mohawks, some donated their hair to locks of love before shaving their heads, and others went totally bald. There was even a little lifelong learner that shaved her head! If I ever come back on SAS, I am definitely shaving my head on Neptune Day, no matter what anyone says. After the excitement of the head-shaving and fish guts, it was time for lunch. It was one of the greatest days ever, as we got BBQ for lunch. It is such a welcome change to actually eat some really good food on the ship. After the events, a group of us caught some rays on the observation deck, as we didn’t have classes.

 

On a completely different note, we had our second global studies exam between India and Mauritius, and it was definitely more difficult than the first. I still know I did totally fine, so I’m not worried. I absolutely can’t believe we only have four countries left and then I am going to be home. Mauritius is like our “spring break”, as we get to spend two short days on a tropical island with no school and friends. During preport for Mauritius, we got the lecture about being respectable, as past SAS voyages basically got to the island and the proceeded to wreak havoc, which is why our stay in Mauritius was so short. Some people had even tried to book hotels and been denied because the hotels knew the students were from SAS. Essentially, Mauritius hates SAS, and I have a feeling that it may not be a port SAS stops at for much longer.

 

There isn’t much else to report about my in between time between ports, so I will just make this one short and sweet. I will be writing again soon after Mauritius!

You Want Ali Baba Pants?

Day 4 in India, day 56 of my voyage

We got to sleep in today! Our wake up call came at 6 am, as we had a very busy day in Jaipur. Our first stop was at the Hawa Majal, or Palace of Winds. It was built in 1799 to house the emperor. We only got to see the outside, which is five stories tall and covered with intricate lattice work. It is said that this lattice work was created for the palace ladies to look out onto the streets without being seen, as they still observed the practice of keeping women’s faces covered. Like many building in India, it was built with red and pink sandstone. After the Palace of Winds, we were off for the highlight of the day: Amber Fort. We weren’t really excited to see the fort, we were more excited for our mode of transportation to the fort once we got to the base of the hill it was built on.

 

Upon arriving at the fort, our guide bought us our tickets, and we starting standing in line for our ride to the fort. Eventually, Cara and I made it to the front of the line and up onto the platform, and our mode of transportation walked up. She was a big grey elephant, and her face was still painted from the Elephant Festival that had taken place the week before. We climbed on the saddle type thing on her back, and we were off. It was about a 20 or 25 minute ride up to the top of the fort, and it was a very enjoyable experience. She was a very calm elephant, and her owner was hilarious. Once we got to the top, we had a tour of the fort, took some more pictures, then we were off to a jewelry place. The jewelry place specialized in precious and semiprecious stones, and quite a few people bought some things. The most annoying thing was the fact that we spent an hour and a half in the jewelry store, but we only got to spend an hour at the Taj. Why? Because our tour guide gets commission for products that get bought at the jewelry store by the people he brings there. This is how India works. If autorickshaw drivers or tour guides take tourists to certain stores and the tourists buy things, the guide or drivers get commission. So our tour guide was getting a BIG commission because a bunch of people bought jewelry.

 

We headed to lunch at a little restaurant, then we had 3 more locations to get to before we were done for the day. First, we headed to the Jantar Mantar, or the observatory. Here we got to see the biggest sundial in the world. They had a bunch of crazy tools for telling time and the location of the stars. Some of the instruments were also used for astrology. There were things that told you what specific zodiac sign you were in, there were others that told you where the moon was located, and others that did even more. After the observatory we headed to the City Palace, where we got to see some old relics from earlier days, such as weapons, chess sets, and clothing. After these two places we headed to a rug factory to see exactly how the beautiful hand-woven rugs are made. A small one takes 4 months to complete, and we got to watch one of the craftsmen sit there and tie the knots in the rug. A few of the people bought the smallest rugs, which started at $160, but you can bargain them down to $100. All of them were made with cashmere thread and were SO soft to touch. We also got to go upstairs to their textile store, where they sold everything from saris to placemat sets to table runners, all made from beautiful and bright materials.

 

After the rug store, we headed back to our hotel. Dinner wasn’t for another two hours, so Cara and I hopped in an autorickshaw and headed to a market. Markets in India tend to be outdoors, and there are usually a ton of people. One of the more popular stores we saw was a bangle store. Bangles (for those who don’t know) are the bracelets that are loose on your wrist and jingle when you move your arm. There were entire stores full of these bracelets. There were cabinets going up to the ceiling holding bangles of every size, color, and noisiness you can imagine. We wandered amongst all of the shops, dodging a cow wandering along the sidewalk every now and then. Yes, cows just wander about. Cows are sacred in the Hindu religion, so they do not kill them or eat them, and they can roam pretty much wherever they like. We had to go around one while we were in our bus because a cow was lying in the middle of the road. Anyways, Cara and I did a bit of shopping, then we headed back to the hotel for dinner and bed, since we had yet another really early morning the next day.

 

Day 5 in India, day 57 of my voyage

Our flight left at 8:10, so we got a wake up call at 5 and were out of the hotel by 6. We had a flight layover in Mumbai, which ended up getting delayed, so by the time all of our traveling was done, we got back to the ship around 3:30. After going to immigration, we waited in line to get back on the ship. An Indian immigration officer came up to me and started asking me all these questions, like my name, am I on the ship, how long have I been on the ship, etc. Eventually I realized that he thought I was Indian and that I was trying to get on the ship. This was the fifth time throughout my time in India that I had been mistaken for an Indian, which still amazes me, as I don’t think I look Indian at all.

 

Once I was back on the ship, Cara and I had hot dogs upstairs, then I showered and waited for the others to get back. Once Graham and Shauna got back, we decided we wanted to try and go see a movie. Originally, we planned on trying to find a movie theater that was showing Alice in Wonderland, since Shauna and I were both dying to see it. When we couldn’t find a theater that was showing it, we decided to see My Name Is Khan, which was in Hindi and did not have subtitles. Despite the obvious issues with the language barrier, the three of us understood perfectly what was going on in the movie, and we all loved it. It made us laugh and cry and gave us a bit of insight into what other nations might think of the United States at times, especially after 9/11.  There were about 10 other SASers there as well, and we definitely got some strange looks when the lights came on after the movie. After, we headed back to the ship and went to bed, to prepare for one final day of bargain shopping before sailing on the big blue ocean again.

 

Day 6 in India, day 58 of my voyage

Last day in India! Alli, Shauna, Graham and I got up and hopped in an autorickshaw and went to a market in a fishing village. It was the perfect place to find last minutes knick-knacks, clothes, souvenirs, and gifts. We went into a jewelry store since Shauna still wanted a ring from India, and then we just wandered around. Graham was on a mission to find “pajamas”, which is the name of a traditional men’s outfit in India. It consists of a knee length shirt with slits up the sides to the hip and long pants. They look ridiculously comfy, and he finally managed to find a set at one store. Along with Graham’s pants, Shauna and I found “Ali Baba” pants. They are really difficult to describe unless you have seen Aladdin and know what pants he wears. They have elastic at the bottom of the legs and are worn around the middle of your calves, and the crotch of the pants hangs really low, so they almost look like a dress when you wear them. They are absolutely the comfiest pair of pants I have ever worn, and I have every intention of wearing mine when I get off the ship in May. We had a final Indian lunch, then had our rickshaw driver take us to find henna. We were originally looking for a place to get henna done, but we couldn’t find one, so our driver found us a place to buy our own tubes of henna to do on the ship. After that, it was back home to the ship for us.

 

We got back to the ship, had some dinner, then had a henna party while listening to Indian music. It was a great way to end my trip in India, and I really hope I get to go back and explore of this wonderful country. Anything I said in my blog cannot accurately describe the country, as it is one of the ones that I truly cannot find words to describe. All of the people are incredibly welcoming, and you cannot go anywhere without getting a smile and a wave. One of the most interesting things I found was that India has some of the poorest people in the world, yet they are also some of the happiest people I have ever seen. It just goes to show you that money doesn’t necessarily equal happiness, no matter how easy it may make your life. India is the definition of poverty. As I said a little earlier, there are little shantytowns everywhere, there are people sleeping all over the streets at night, and there is trash everywhere. Over half of the population is living on less than $2 a day. Yet somehow, none of this takes away from the enchantment of the country. The children love foreigners and love giving high fives, and the parents don’t mind you touching and talking to their babies at all. People have no shame about coming up and asking to take a picture with you, and they get so excited when you say yes. There is so much culture and so much love for culture that it can be overwhelming. India is one of the oldest countries in the world, and the traditions have been carried out for thousands of years. So far, India has by far been my favorite port, and the only one I feel truly compelled to go back to at some point in my life. Everyone who has a chance really should visit this absolutely amazing place that holds almost 1/5 of the world’s population, as you can learn a lot by just visiting for 5 or 6 days. I am really going to make it a goal of mine to go back for a longer amount of time and really get to know people and explore in places I didn’t get to see this time around.

What's That Smell? That Would Be India

Day 1 in India, day 53 of my voyage

I had heard that the sunrise in India was one of the most beautiful, so I woke up at 6 to catch it. Most of the time, the sun will rise over land of some kind, but because we were still out in the middle of the ocean, it looked like an ordinary sunrise. I have come to appreciate the beauty of the sunrise over the water, even though I have to get up really early to see them. We were finally starting to see boats out in the water, which meant that we were definitely getting closer to land. We had lost our naval escort 2 or 3 days before, and I thought it was interesting that they never even mentioned anything about our naval escort on the ship. No announcement was ever made about the terror threat in the strait, we found out about the escort from the teachers for the most part. Anyways…I sat outside for an hour and read my book, then went and got my breakfast at 7. I claimed a table outside and was sitting by myself reading my book and eating (like I tend to do at home) when a teacher came up and asked if he could sit with me. I had never seen him before, and he introduced himself as Richard. All of the teachers tend to introduce themselves by their first names, which I think is really cool. So anyways, he is from New York and teaches in the SUNY system, and what was most surprising was that he knew where Stockton was. How did he know where and what Stockton was? “They grow a lot of weed there!” Apparently this was something he had heard from one of his students in the past, and I just thought it was amusing. I sat with him for about 5 minutes before my psychology professor came and sat with us, then two other staff members sat with us too. So it was me and 4 other staff members at breakfast. It was incredibly enjoyable and all of them are so wonderful and knowledgeable in their fields.

 

After breakfast, we had to sit and wait for immigration stuff and for us to finally dock. We finally were able to see land, and everyone got really excited. As we pulled into the harbor, I didn’t smell the distinct smell everyone said I would. This was a little bit surprising to me, but it was much better than smelling stinkiness. From what I heard, one would be able to smell India before they saw it. Anyways, the immigration officers finally sorted everything out, and they began calling the seas to get their passports. About an hour later, the ship was cleared, and we were able to get off the ship. Day one was a day for Alli, Shauna, Graham, and me to hang out before we all left for our individual trips the next day. Our idea was just to wander around Chennai and see what we could find, maybe do a little shopping, go see a temple.

 

The second we stepped off the ship, we were bombarded by autorickshaw drivers. All of them wanted to drive us around and said they would give us a good price for the day. We finally picked one and had him take us to the city center first. Once we got there, he said he would wait for us and take us to other places as well. Our driver took us to this arts emporium, which we didn’t really care to go to, but we went inside and looked around anyways (In India, rickshaw drivers get commission if they take you to certain stores and you buy things.). We first went into the jewelry section. Shauna is obsessed with rings, so she was looking at them, and the salesman began talking to us. He asked where all of us were from, and when I said California, he kind of looked at me with a slightly confused expression and said “You’re not Indian?” I laughed and said no, and he apologized and thought he offended me, which he definitely didn’t. Of all the nationalities I have been associated with, I have never gotten Indian before. When we left the store, he said “Bye Indian girl!” We went across the street and walked around the city center for a bit, then got back in our rickshaw and had him take us to the Sheraton, where we were going to eat lunch. We were told to be wary of street food, and instead of spending time trying to find somewhere where we wouldn’t end up sick, we just went to the Sheraton, where they had a wonderful lunch buffet. I had curry and rice, dal, paneer, and other yummy Indian food, and a few American foods as well.

 

After lunch, we had our driver take us to a Hindu temple. The outside of it was absolutely amazing, and I have never seen anything quite like it. It was shaped like a really tall pyramid, and there were figures carved all over it. We didn’t get to go inside, but the outside of it was really cool. This was also our first real experience with people on the streets who wanted to sell us things. I had a man who wanted to sell me a drum follow me for the two blocks we were walking, and it did get a little annoying after a while. I also found it amusing that to get the attention of one of us girls he would say “Hey sexy!” After we walked around here for a little bit, our driver took us to Spencer Plaza, a big indoor market not unlike those in China and Vietnam. Outside of the plaza, there was a snake charmer, so we watched him do his thing with two cobras he had in baskets, then we were on our way again. We did a bit of shopping at Spencer Plaza, then went to the post office to mail some stuff. Outside the post office, there were a big group of kids that were so excited to see us. We would take their pictures, and they would look at them and laugh so hard. All the kids had tattered clothes and were running around barefoot, and there was one boy that was wearing no clothes at all, which was fine because it was ridiculously hot outside. The little boy with no clothes was also carrying around the most adorable little puppy I have ever seen, and we got a few really good pictures of him holding it.

 

After the post office, we were headed back to the ship, and I had the welcome reception to go to. We made it back just in time, and Victoria and I were on the bus and ready to go. When we got to the welcome reception, we were greeted by a large number of male Indian students, and there were a few females there as well. All of the students spoke excellent English, although it was still sometimes hard to understand them. We got dinner, and then we got to watch a dance performance. The dancing was amazing and incredibly beautiful, and it was interesting to see how intricate their dances are. Each different way they position their hands means something different and their eyes also tell part of the story depending on which way they are looking. We sat and watched their performance, spoke with students, and got henna tattoos on our hands. Henna is usually applied to women’s hands before a wedding, and the artists are absolutely unbelievable. I got a really cool design on my hand, and it took all of two minutes. If only it took that short amount of time to do a real tattoo! After the reception, I packed for my next three days in Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur, then went to bed as I had to be in the union at 3:30 am.

 

Day 2 in India, day 54 of my voyage

3:30 am is WAY too early to be awake, no matter what the reason. We had to put all of our liquids in Ziploc bags and then they went into a giant communal duffel bag because India is ridiculously strict when it comes to carrying on liquids. We hopped on our rather worn-out looking buses and were off to the airport. We arrived, got our boarding passes, went through security (which consisted of a very thorough patdown), and waited for our flight. Our flight took about 2 hours I think, and we landed in Delhi. In India, you step off the plane right onto the tarmac; they don’t take you right up to the terminal. So we had to hop on a shuttle to get taken to baggage claim. We got our bags, then met our tour guides. Our guides name was Tajuddin, or Taj for short, which made his name really easy to remember. We got greeted with leis at the bus (which apparently isn’t something one only finds in Hawaii) and we loaded our stuff and were off through the maddening traffic of New Delhi. Traffic near the airport was absolutely ridiculous, and it took us forever to just go a few miles. Our original plan was to check in at the hotel, then go to lunch. Our rooms weren’t all ready yet, so it was decided that we would drive around to a couple of sights and then have lunch and then check into the hotel. We drove around on the bus, Taj pointed some stuff out ( I honestly can’t remember all the crazy names), and we headed to lunch. The one thing I learned really quickly on Semester at Sea trips is the fact that wherever you go for meals, it is always buffet style. I had some really great tandoori chicken, lollypop chicken (not sure why this is the name), and some really good ice cream.

 

After lunch we went to check in to our hotel. Another thing I quickly learned about SAS trips is that you pretty much always stay in nice hotels. This hotel was definitely one of the nicest hotels I have ever stayed at, with gates and armed guards at the front, a massive bathroom and tub, and really soft beds. It was called the Shangri-La, and it was simply beautiful. My roommates name was Allison, and we got along fabulously, mostly because we both have the same sarcastic sense of humor. We got to lay down for about half an hour, then we were off on yet another tour. We went to see the India Gate, which is the national monument of India, and also one of the largest war memorials in the country. It has the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier that rests beneath it, and there in constantly a flame burning there as well. After the India Gate, we went to another fort/tomb. Part of it looked like a mini and red version of the Taj Majal, and there was a large park all around it. We got to wander around, take some pictures, then it was off to Raj Ghat, that park where Gandhi was cremated. It was a huge park, and we happened to be there right at sunset. India is so hazy from pollution and stuff that the colors of the sun are really vivid at sunrise and sunset, so the sunset was absolutely beautiful. Next, we hopped back on the bus and were headed to see the outside of the Red Fort. Every building in India seems to be made from either sandstone or white marble, and this one was sandstone. It was a burnt red color and was really cool. It amazes me that they were able to build structures such as these without modern technology (I think I said this about something else in one of my previous blogs). After the Red Fort, it was back to the hotel for dinner then free time (or in my case, bed) Dinner was absolutely amazing. There was a really good buffet, with absolutely every kind of food you can think of. One plate even said tenderloin steak, and we found out after that when they say steak in India they mean water buffalo, not beef. I must say, I liked the water buffalo even more than I like steak. Yet another thing about India, they eat dinner ridiculously late. 7:30 is an early dinner for them, so we were eating dinner at a normal time, or 9 pm. After dinner, Allison and I headed to our room to shower and go to bed.

 

Day 3 in India, day 55 of my voyage

Our wake up call came at 4 am, so it was yet another bright and early day for all of us. We ate a small and quick breakfast in the hotel, then we headed to the train station to catch an early train into Agra. I had heard some interesting stories about train stations in India, and most of them turned out to be completely true. There were people sleeping in piles in the shelter outside the station, kids were begging for money, and there were families all waiting for the trains. People will throw their trash in the areas between the tracks and run across (or use them as a bathroom) without a thought. We had to wait about half an hour before we boarded our train, and when the train rolled up we were all very surprised. We were booked for the “first class” air conditioned section of the train, which looked like one of our cheapest, oldest, air conditioned cars. The second class cars for had metal seats and rail to hold onto and no air conditioning. Pretty much all of us slept on our train ride, as it was a full two hours and we were exhausted. I did get a bit of time to look out of the window, and I really got to see things that I hardly ever see in the US. There were little shantytowns everywhere, with sticks holding a tarp up as a roof, and trash everywhere. We saw little kids running around with no clothes on and their little malnutritioned bellies sticking out really far and there were dogs rummaging in the trash for food everywhere.

 

Upon arriving in Agra, we were going to a hotel (not one we were staying at) to have a real breakfast. We ate breakfast, then headed back to the buses for our trip to the Taj. Upon arriving at the Taj Majal, we were told that we were going to have an hour to explore. There was quite a bit of uproar at the fact that we only had an hour to explore the park and the area around the Taj, but we didn’t have much of a choice. We still had to go to Fort Agra in the afternoon, and we also had a 5 hour drive to Jaipur that night. Anyways, our tour guide got our tickets for the Taj, and we waited in the security line, then we were finally able to go in. Before we got to explore the park a little bit, our guide gave us a quick bit of history about the Taj. Just some quick facts: It was built as a tomb for Shah Jahan’s wife, and he was eventually laid to rest beside her. It was started in 1632 and finished in 1653. The structure is made of pure white marble and inlaid with semi-precious stones, such as turquoise and lapis lazuli. They used over 1,000 elephants to transport all the marble and stones, and over 20,000 people worked on the structure. There are inscriptions from the Qur’ran carved into the marble as a decorative element. To this day, the Taj Majal is the most symmetrical structure in the world. Shah Jahan was so obsessed with symmetry that he wanted to build an exact replica of the Taj Majal in pure black marble across the river, but he died before the structure could be started.

 

Anything I write or any pictures you may see will never be able to do the Taj Majal justice. It is something that must be seen in person in order to truly see the grandeur of the entire structure and the surrounding areas. We had to wear booties or go barefoot while walking on the white marble in order not to dirty it. The entire thing is absolutely magnificent, and every single one of us was in absolute awe of how perfect it was. From far away, it looks like plain white marble, but once you get closer, one can see the carvings, reliefs, and stones that are set into the building that make it truly beautiful. Our hour was up way too fast, and I could have just sat for hours to watch people coming in and out of the complex.

 

After the Taj Majal, we were headed to visit Fort Agra. Fort Agra was where important men in Indian society lived (such as Shah Jahan), and it also housed the national mint and treasury. It used to be the capital way back in the 1500’s. The fort houses gardens, living quarters, and the prison cell where Shah Jahan was ultimately imprisoned by his own son. There were monkeys running around and eating bananas while we were there, and there were so many people around. Most of the fort was built from red sandstone, but there were still some areas made from white marble, such as Shah Jahan’s prison cell. Fort Agra was really cool to see, but I would have rather spent more time at the Taj and less time here.

 

Now it was time for a 5 hour drive to Jaipur with a stop in Fatehpur Sikri, the former capital, on the way. We stopped for a buffet lunch at the same place we had breakfast, then were on our way. About 2 hours in, we stopped at Fatehpur Sikri, which looked similar to Agra Fort in that it was square and made of red sandstone. It housed the emperor at the time it was built, and was made the capital. It was abandoned after only 14 years because of a lack of water supply, even though it took 15 years to build. While touring the fort, we saw a rather curious individual. It was a man in a small loincloth, and he wanted us to pay to see him jump into a pool of absolutely disgusting water. It was so green and gross, and no one from our group paid to see him do it. I was amazed at the lengths people would go to get money from tourists. After Fatehpur Sikri, we stopped at a rest stop to use the bathroom and buy snacks, and we continued on towards Jaipur. Cara had bought a can of Pringles and I bought a sleeve of Oreos, so we were set on snacks until we reached our hotel and had dinner.

 

After finally arriving at the Ramada in Jaipur, we checked in around 9 and had dinner, which was absolutely fabulous once again. Every place I ate at had great food, and I was never disappointed. After dinner, Allison and I went up to our room, showered, climbed into bed, and watched Ratatouille on TV and ate Oreos. It was an absolutely wonderful way to spend a night relaxing, as we had yet another early morning the next morning.

There Is A Slug In My Salad

Yes, Shauna found a slug in her salad at lunch on day. Hilarity ensued.

 

Days 45 through 52

Finally, a point to breathe after the rapid machine gun fire that was East Asia. Having only two days in between ports is really stressful, and it also contributes to the reason why it’s taking so long for me to catch up on my blogs. Now that we are out of the cold, deck 7 is packed everyday with people hoping to catch some rays. I myself prefer the quiet of deck 5, and I can usually go out as early as 10:45 and lay out until lunch, after which I reassume my position in my deck chair until I have class as 2. Our global studies teacher came up one day and said “Well don’t you guys have a tough life! The sun is shining, you’re getting a tan, and you’re sailing around the world! And you’re in school right now! Life doesn’t get much better!” He is right on that count. Life really doesn’t get any better than ship life (minus the food…the food off the ship is way better).

Speaking of food, 8 of us scheduled ourselves a “special occasion” dinner for Shauna’s 21^st, since we couldn’t exactly celebrate the traditional way college students normally celebrate turning 21. We wore cute outfits and the boys wore slacks and button downs (and all looked very dapper and handsome might I add), and we ate in one of the classrooms that they convert into the special dining room just for the fancy dinners. We sat down to a wonderful 5 course meal and a glass of champagne. We had soup, seafood appetizers, Caesar salad, sirloin steak, and mud pie. It was an absolutely phenomenal dinner, and we are thinking about doing one more at the end of the voyage as a goodbye.  

 

 Classes are still going well, I still like them almost as much as I did at the beginning. J Global studies should be interesting in the week leading up to India, as we have interport students who are talking to us about some stuff to do within India once we get there. I am really excited for India, as it is going to be completely different from all of the other places that I have been to. I have already been warned about four main things:

1.) The dirtiness

2.) The poverty

3.) The smell

4.)Male attention

Women are supposed to cover up their knees and shoulders, mostly because men will stare at us, not necessarily because of cultural reasons. When it comes to the smell, most people I have talked to said it is a definite sign that you are in India. Along with the smell comes the dirtiness; there is trash everywhere from what I have heard and seen in pictures. As for dirtiness, everyone says to wear crappy clothes in India then throw them away because they will get so dirty and smelly. We shall see how these predictions pan out. Other than global studies, we have been talking about mental health in India, the family in India, and a bajillion other things that all relate to India. This is definitely one of my favorite parts about this trip; the fact that we get to learn so much about every country from different aspects depending on what classes we are taking.

 

So on March 7^th, we didn’t have classes. This was due to the Sea Olympics that were to take place that day. The ship has each deck divided into seas, so these would be our teams for the Olympic events. Each sea has a specific color (we were orange), and we create a banner and a cheer. The night of the 6^th was the opening ceremonies, in which each team does their cheer, the torch is brought in and the games are declared officially open. What would the seas be competing for? The winning team would be the first sea off the ship at the end of the voyage, to which most people booed. No one is going to want to get off the ship by the time we are done.

 

The sun rose on the day of the sea Olympics to find everyone up and in their sea colors and ready to go. I had signed up for the salty whistle, which consisted of eating ten saltine crackers then whistling. I didn’t place at all, but it was just fun to watch everyone eat the crackers. My friend Shauna beat everyone, and it was great to see the look of disbelief on the boys’ faces when she was first. We also had the singing SASers (lip-syncing competition), Nail the Sailor (dodgeball), Pirate’s Pull (tug-o-war), Extreme Musical Chairs, Crab Soccer, and a Relay Race. The day was an absolute blast, but the main highlight was dinner. I know I have said this a billion times before, but ship food sucks after two months of eating the same thing. So we were all absolutely ecstatic to see that we were getting BBQ for dinner! We had burgers and ribs and corn on the cob and potatoes and a really yummy dessert. We all ate an absolute ton (the ribs we to die for), then felt rather full and slightly sick afterwards. Later, it was time for the closing ceremonies and the announcements for who the winners would be. All of the seas gathered in their respective areas in the Union, everyone did their cheers again, and it was announced that the Red Sea were the champions of the day. I’m pretty sure we got 5^th or 6^th, which was pretty good, since we had been in last all day up until the last few events. It is nice that they break up our long stretches of class with a day off here and there, and they plan fun activities for us as well. On the way from India to Mauritius we have Neptune Day, which is the day we cross the equator and have the day off of classes. These days are also days to just relax and get some sun, which is so nice, but incredibly warm in this equatorial heat.

 

In other news, I am exactly halfway done with my voyage. It is the most bittersweet feeling ever. Sweet because I get to see all of my family, friends, and sisters when I get home. Despite the fact that I am on this trip and having the time of my life, I do miss everyone at home. I’m missing events, birthday’s, holidays, etc. And while I wish I were home to experience all of these things, I wouldn’t trade this experience for the world. Why is being halfway done somewhat bitter? It’s bitter because this is the greatest thing I have ever done. No one will ever really understand the impact it has on someone’s life until they do it themselves. I have made friends that I have known since day 6 of this trip, and I feel like I have known them forever. We travel together, eat together, tan together, blog together. We know little nuances about each other, we have inside jokes, we finish each other’s sentences. We have shared almost every aspect of this trip together, except for some trips we have done separately. We are always happy when a trip is over and we can come back together on the ship. When I am beginning to feel shipsick, I can’t call one of my friends from home; it has to be a member of Team Awesome, because they are the only ones who are really going to understand how I am feeling. We’ve made enough memories already to last us a lifetime, and I can’t wait to make more before this journey is over. I have seen places most people only dream of seeing, and by the time I am done, I will be a part of 1% of the world population that has circumnavigated the globe. The places I have seen and the people I have met have already had an impact on my life, and I know that once it is over and everything sinks in, that impact will grow exponentially. Semester at Sea has a higher rate of people who continue to travel after college than any other study abroad program, and I hope that rings true for me. I got the travel bug when I first went to Europe for 3 weeks in high school, and almost exactly 4 years later, I am doing this. Who’s to say where I will want to go 4 years from now? My global studies teacher has travel tips that he gives us, and my personal favorite is not to let your age get higher than the number of countries you have visited. While I am a few behind at this point, hopefully I can catch up someday. Being able to actually look at what you are studying and to see it applied in real life in other countries is incredibly rewarding, and I think that anyone and everyone who has an opportunity to do this should. I am incredibly thankful to my parents for sending me on this trip, and I wish they would do it as lifelong learners when they retire. J  Speaking of lifelong learners, I want to start saving when I get home so I can do this again when I’m older. I should be like my dad and start saving silver change….it would add up to be quite a large amount over the next 40 or so years.

 

We had India preport on day 52, and it was pretty much exactly what I expected. It was basically a bunch of warnings on how dangerous India is and how important it is that we do everything SAS tells us so nothing happens to any of us. My psychology teacher, who has lived in India for a collective total of 2 years, essentially says that SAS is rather paranoid and that India isn’t nearly as bad as they say. We shall see how this goes. I’m going on the SAS trip to the Taj Majal and Jaipur, so we shall see how well this goes. I hope I have a good group and good group leaders, as having inadequate ones can be a not so great experience from what I have heard in the past. I will be writing again after India!

 

I'm About To Have So Much Dong In My Pants It's Ridiculous

The wonderful an inspiring blog title comes from the name of Vietnam's currency. There were so many jokes being thrown around (but what do you expect with dirty minded college students), even the teachers were in on it! Anyways....

 

Day 1 in Vietnam, day 40 of my voyage

First day in Vietnam, and let me tell you, it is HOT. 90+ degrees with an absolute ton of humidity. You walk outside and immediately feel like turning around and walking straight back to your room for another shower. Graham was headed to Cambodia, and the girls and I were on a mission. We wanted to visit the market (which I would do many times in the days following), get dresses made, go to the War Remnants museum, and get manicures and pedicures. We started with finding an ATM, which everyone needed. We then headed to the market just to get a feel for where it was and to see what we would find there. When we got there, we discovered that it was a massive indoor market. They had everything you could imagine, just like most of the markets in Asia. Most things were pretty cheap, but it was more difficult to bargain for them here than it was in China. I didn’t buy anything this time around, as I wanted to look at other places, and I also knew I would be back at least 2 or 3 more times, since I had no plans in Vietnam other than one FDP.

 

After leaving the market, we set out to find a tailor so we could get some dresses made. But first, some refueling was desperately needed. Breakfast had work off hours before, which meant it was lunchtime! We headed for a place called Pho (pronounced “fu”, like the beginning of a particular 4 letter word) 2000, which was supposed to be pretty good. We sat down, ordered refreshing Cokes and pho, and waited for our food to arrive. Pho is one of the main dishes in Vietnam, and it was really good. It is a soup with noodles, a meat, green onions, bean sprouts, and then they give you other things to add such as lime, cilantro, mint leaves, and ridiculously hot peppers. I got beef pho, and let me tell you, it was excellent. It can be a bit difficult to eat with chopsticks, but it is so worth it. It was really yummy, and a “regular” size bowl could have fed me for lunch and dinner.

 

Anyways, back to the adventure of finding a decent tailor.,, The first few places we went to wanted to charge us ridiculously high prices, and we knew we could get them for cheaper in the US. Finally, we walked in to one place, inquired about prices, and we were off. We were looking through magazines, at fabrics, getting measured, and generally having a good time. Once everything was measured and down-payments made, we were told to come back on our last day in Vietnam to pick them up. Our next venture was to the War Remnants Museum before it closed for the day. We hopped in a cab and were there relatively quickly.

 

It costs 15,000 dong to go into the war museum, which is equivalent to about 75 cents. The first thing one notices after walking into the courtyard are the old U.S. Air Force planes and the infamous tank. It is a Northern Vietnamese tank that crashed through the gates of the Unification Palace at the Fall of Saigon, signaling the end of the war and the Northern Vietnamese victory. Anyways, we walked into the museum and began looking around. We were told to go upstairs, where there was a bit more to see about the history of the Vietnam War. The photos were very generic, showing political leaders and other people who were influential in the beginning of the war. As we moved through the rooms, attention was quickly drawn to the actual war itself and the atrocities committed against the Vietnamese by the Americans. Many of the photos were incredibly gruesome, and one of the things that struck me the most was the simple fact that the men in the pictures looked like they enjoyed what they were doing. There are photos of men holding guns to crying children’s heads who are no more than 4 years old, soldiers standing next to a dead body crushed by a tank with a smile on their faces…but what struck me the most were two photos: one photo of two dead Vietnamese men and the heads of two others on the ground. Kneeling behind them are 5 or so American soldiers, and one has a slight grin on his face and he looks like he is holding the hair of one of the disembodied heads on the ground. The other is of another American soldier holding what is left of a Vietnamese man…all that is left are a few innards, some shirt, part of what looks like an arm, and a head. These were both incredibly disturbing and difficult photos to look at, especially because of what America is “supposed” to stand for. The museum had bits of the US constitution posted next to some of the photos, which was interesting to me because in looking at the quotes and the photos it was easy to see how we created a nation of hypocrisy when we committed these various crimes against the Vietnamese.

 

The most difficult thing about the museum was believing that we could do that to these people. Majority of the people killed in Vietnam by the United States were innocent civilians who had nothing to do with the military at all. There are many people who I’m sure would have said “this is war” or “all is fair in love and war” and would still say it today, but that doesn’t make what we did to innocent people right by any means. The use of agent orange was completely appalling to me. The photos of the children affected by the chemical are heartbreaking; limbs grow crooked, Siamese twins occur, we even saw deformed fetuses in a jar of formaldehyde. It was sick. Outside they showed us the “tiger cages” in which prisoners were kept. They were barbed wire cages about the size of a coffin, and 2 or 3 people would fit in 1 of them. They couldn’t stand or sit properly, they had to cower unless they wanted to be stuck by the sharp wire. The methods of torture were very hard to read about, such as punching out the teeth or prisoners with a chisel.

 

Besides all of the war pictures and gruesomeness displayed in the museum, there was also an entire section devoted to children’s drawings about peace. I thought it showed an interesting side to the Vietnam War, one that they definitely do not show us in our history classes in high school or even college. Granted, the museum did have an incredible bias and did not show any of the things the Vietnamese did to US soldiers, but one can imagine and get a general idea from what was seen in the museum. After hearing the vets speak about the war and seeing the museum, I find it difficult to see why the US got so involved in Vietnam in the first place. But hey, that’s politics and the government for you. Being able to learn about these events in the history of the United States from two sides is so much more satisfying than only learning about it from one, as I learned after seeing Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima within a week of one another. It creates a slight internal battle to adapt the old information to the new information one has learned, especially if the information is something too gruesome for us to fathom or if it is something that does not show the US living up to its constitutional ideals.

 

After the museum, we set off in search of cheap manicure and pedicures. We found a place rather quickly, and they were 5 bucks a piece. I only got a pedicure, and it only cost me 5 bucks. It was nice to just sit and relax for a little while after walking around all day in the humid heat. After pedicures, we headed back to the ship, where we ate dinner, showered, and got ready for the night. Everyone from Semester at Sea was headed to a little bar called Apocalypse Now that does get togethers for SAS every voyage. Brittany and Victoria and I went and hung out for a while, then headed back to the ship around 12:30. We had to be ready to go at 7:30 for our Cu Chi tunnels and Cao Dai temple trip the next day, so it was straight to bed when I got home.

 

Day 2 in Vietnam, day 41 of my voyage

Woke up bright and early for my FDP, but I didn’t mind because I was so excited. We had an hour and a half drive to the temple, which was where we were headed first in our day. Cao Dai is a religion which basically combines all the other religions from the world to make one awesome ball of religiosity. They follow a Catholic hierarchy, believe in reincarnation like the Buddhists, and take other stuff from Confucianism, Taoism, and on and on. Overall, the religion makes sense (at least to me), and they have the most awesomely colorful temple I have ever seen in my life. All of the followers of the religion wear white, and higher priests of the three main religions wear red, blue, or yellow. The inside is really difficult to describe unless you actually see it for yourself, but I can try a little bit. The ceiling is painted like the daytime sky, and they have tiny little lights that twinkle like little stars. There are pillars with beautiful carved and painted dragons, and the floor is all tile. There is an altar up at the very front, and one can smell incense the second you walk in. In order to observe what is going on down below, there was a second story where the singers sat and there were balconies all along the side of the church. The windows on the first floor are intricate, and they all have a triangle in the middle with the Great Eye, which is their main symbol. These details are completely inadequate and cannot possibly begin to give you a picture of what the actual place looks like, but they can get you started. Anyways, we got to go while an actual service was taking place, and it was amazing. There are 4 times of the day to worship: 6 a.m., noon, 6 p.m., and midnight. The members try to attend as many services throughout the day as they can.

 

After the temple, we had another hour and a half drive to the Cu Chi tunnels. We stopped for lunch, then continued on. When we got there, we got a brief history of the tunnels before crawling through them. They tunnels were underground shelters that were used during the Vietnam War. The Vietnamese dug a series of tunnels at three different levels, and there were anywhere from 20 to 30 of them living in an area at one time. They had wells for water and an area that was designated as the bathroom. They had hidden air vents under termite colonies and secret escape routes into the river. They set simple (yet effective) booby traps both outside and inside the tunnels for the Americans to fall into. Once the little introduction about the tunnels was complete, we got to see the entrances and se got to crawl through a tunnel. Then entrances were often hidden; a piece of wood would be laid over the hole in the ground and covered with leaves, and there would be specific markers around it to show where they were. Once in a while, and American would find the entrance and alert the rest of the troops, then they would send the smallest soldier into the tunnels.

 

It was finally time to crawl through the tunnels. Our guide told us that the tunnels we were going through were the “American-sized” tunnels, which meant that they had been widened. His explanation as to why the tunnels had to be widened? McDonalds was the answer, according to our laughing guide. He then motioned for us to go down the steps and crawl into a small hole. Some people in our group were slightly claustrophobic, which was a bit of a problem for them. About halfway through the tunnels, some people in our group decided to stop in the middle of the tunnels and take pictures, which caused quite a bit of irritation among those stuck squatting in the tunnels behind them. Once we got out of the tunnels, we got to see some of the weapons and tanks they used in the war. At the tunnels, they also have a shooting range where you can shoot everything from an AK-47 to an M-16 Carbine to a Colt 45. I went for the AK-47, and I got to shoot ten bullets at a target about 100 yards away. The guy that was helping us showed me how to hold the gun, even though I had a pretty solid idea anyways, and he told me to close one eye and get ready to shoot. I told him I didn’t need to close my eye and he just shrugged and let me at it. I hit the target 8 out of the 10 times, which I didn’t think was too bad for that only being the first time I ever shot anything other than a paintball gun. The guy turned to me with a slight look of awe and said “How did you do that with both eyes open?” I just laughed a bit at his statement and shrugged my shoulders like I didn’t know, and he just shook his head in disbelief. It was priceless. After the shooting range, we hopped back on the bus and headed back to the ship. Semester at Sea trips tend to involve a lot of travel time and less time exploring the actual places, which sucks a little bit.

 

Victoria and Brittany and I got back to the ship, showered, and headed out to the night market, which is right next to the regular market we had visited the day before. They had all the t-shirts and fun stuff as the normal market, but it was much cooler and it was a little bit easier to bargain. The food smelled phenomenal, and we spent about an hour at the market getting a few things. I am most excited about my t-shirt that says “Good Morning Vietnam” on the front. They have quirky t-shirts everywhere, and you can usually get them for only one or two bucks.

 

Days 3, 4, and 5 in Vietnam, days 42, 43, and 44 of my voyage

So I decided to combine the last three days into one section, as going through each day would be rather pointless, since I did pretty much the same thing each day for the most part. But before I go into specifics, let me elaborate on walking in Vietnam…

 

When walking in Vietnam, one must always be on constant alert. The motorbikes often drive on the sidewalk, and will simply honk when they want you to move out of their way. The real fun in Vietnam occurs when you cross the street. If any of you wonderful readers have ever played Frogger, you get the idea, except you don’t really have the option to jump backwards. There is a constant flow of traffic and many of the intersections do not have traffic signals, so one must wait for somewhat of a gap, take a deep breath, and plunge in. The trick is to walk confidently and not hesitate or sprint. They are such skilled driver on their motorcycles that they will all scoot around you. It was absolute chaos, and every once in a while you would get honked at and have to stop to avoid being hit. I have never seen so many motorcycles in one place in my entire life, and I really hope that I won’t ever have to cross a street like that again. Anyways, back to the narrative…

 

 On the third day, everyone was gone on trips except for Becca and I, so we spent the day wandering around HCMC (Ho Chi Minh City). We went back to the market, and just walked the streets basically all day. We found an entire street that sells DVD’s and we spent ages there getting pirated DVD’s. We came back to the ship and cooled off since it was so hot outside and tested all of our DVD’s on our computers to see if they all worked, and most of them did. I bought every Disney movie ever made for 40 bucks, which (in my opinion) is a pretty good deal. That night, Graham got back from Cambodia, so he and I watched a movie then went to bed early.

 

Day four was another exploring day for a few of us, so we did pretty much the same thing as the day before, and we came back and met the other girls when they got back from their trip. It was a relaxing and warm day, and I also got to go use some internet time and make some phone calls in the internet café that was right next to our ship.

 

Day five was the last day to get last minute stuff done. Some of the girls had to get stamps, and we also had to go pick up our dresses that we had gotten made. We went to the tailor, and all of our dresses fit and looked great!!! I am so excited to wear mine when I get back, and I may wear it for the Ambassadors Ball at the end of the voyage as well. We got back on the ship and said our one final goodbye to Vietnam. Vietnam is the one place so far I really want to go back to, as I still want to go visit the north and see more of the country, since I was basically stuck in the same city for 5 straight days. Now we have 8 days at sea before we hit India, but we at least have the Sea Olympics to look forward to!