On March 16, we stopped in Singapore for the day.  Singapore is a really small, independent city state, though it still has connections to Malaysia.  It has a reputation for being really strict, but it’s one of the biggest trading ports in the world.  People were nervous about the laws and punishments, but it was a great day.

            I spent the day hanging out with Steven and Stephen.  To be honest, hanging out with them was fun, as usual, but kind of felt like babysitting.  Steven gets so excited whenever we reach port and cannot wait to leave.  As soon as he was cleared to leave, he was running around the fifth deck trying to find the gangway and trying to get us to leave with them.  He bolted out of the ship and I had to get him to stop running off.  I had to keep track of Stephen too, but that will come later.  After clearing immigration in the cruise terminal, the three of us took a cab to

Orchard Street

, the shopping district in Singapore.  I’m not really a shopper, but I needed souvenirs and there really isn’t much to do in Singapore besides shopping and eating.  Everyone, including my friend who was from Singapore, said to just do that instead of the museums or SAS trips, to get the full experience.  After shopping in a mall for an hour so, we headed to the Hocker Center (spelling?) for lunch.  The center is famous in Singapore.  It’s basically a giant food court with hundreds of different places to order and eat.  The center was all Asian food.  I don’t like eating seafood, and I don’t really like to eat food where I don’t know what it is so the center was a little overwhelming.  The menus were too high for me to read and most of what was at eye level was in a different language so I was kind of stuck.  I found my way to a juice bar and ordered banana-pineapple milk, which was fresh, creamy, and really good.  I found a sign for a vegetarian restaurant, and since vegetarian is always a safe bet, I went there for lunch.  I asked a local girl behind me in line what she suggested and based on her recommendation, I had some vegetarian “chicken” rice and a spring roll.  I went back to the juice bar and had a dragon fruit and sour sop juice.  I have no idea what sour sop is, but the juice was bright purple (think Barney, the dinosaur from my childhood) and had large chunks of a bright purple fruit in it.  The drink was really sweet, but it was still good.  Juice is one of my favorite foods in the world so I was pretty happy with lunch. 

            The three of us found Mark and Timothy, the interport students from Singapore with some other SAS students, and we all traveled together.  We went to a temple, where supposedly some of the teeth of the Buddha are.  The temple was pretty, but I can’t tell you much about the inside because about half us, including myself, weren’t allowed in the temple because we were wearing shorts.  After the temple, the girls wanted to take the subway, or MRT, to the botanical gardens.  Stephen had apparently been to botanical gardens in most of the ports so far so he didn’t want to go back again.  He tried to get me to go somewhere else, but neither of us had a plan or knew where we were going, so despite his begging, I said we should probably stick with the group, especially because we wanted to meet them later.  We strolled through the gardens for an hour or so and then went to the Marina Sands Hotel, which was a very luxurious hotel with a roof garden that had great views of the city.  There was also an infinity pool on the top too.  Most people had to pay twenty dollars to get to the top, but Mark and Timothy have a friend from their days in the army who works in the hotel and he let us go for free.  Everyone male has to serve two years in the army in Singapore.  After spending time relaxing on the roof, we went to dinner at McDonalds.  I let Stephen and Steven know that I felt like a chaperone to them so I joked that because they were good all day, I took them to McDonalds.  After dinner we went shopping for snacks and headed back to the ship.  You have to get back to the ship by on ship time or you risk getting dock time, where you can’t leave the ship for a few hours in the next port, and I came too close for comfort in Singapore.  We had a lot of loops to go through for immigration so the line took forever.  We arrived at the terminal almost an hour before on ship time, which should have been more than enough, but  it took so long to go through immigration, I didn’t get back to the ship until past 8:30.  The LLCs said that whoever made it through immigration by on ship time was safe, and I made it through with five minutes to spare.  Everyone was really stressing and freaked out though.  It was intense and I think about a hundred people got dock time for being late, which is a lot more than usual.

            Singapore is a really nice.  It’s a lot like a clean, sort of sterile, New York City.  Everyone speaks English and it is really easy to get around.  However, I don’t think I could live there.  I don’t think there is a lot to do there.  I am not even sure what I would have done if we had more than one day in Singapore.  The laws aren’t bad though.  I broke two while I was there and didn’t get in trouble.  I jaywalked, because Mark and Timothy made us.  I also used a public toilet and the toilet wouldn’t flush, which is also an offense.   

Hawaii and the End of the Voyage

            After leaving Taiwan on the sixth, we had 11 days on the ship before reaching Hawaii.  Eleven days seemed like a lot, but it actually went by a lot faster than I had expected.   I had some journals to catch up on for classes, we had to give our Global Studies presentation on education in China (which was brutal, as all group projects end up being), I wanted to spend as much time with my friends as possible since it was getting close to the end of the trip, and I had all sorts of TV shows to watch from Vietnam.  In the end, I was able to finish 90% of my schoolwork before re reached Hawaii, making my last few days on the ship a piece of cake.  I had two papers to write, two tests, and a final presentation.  There was also an auction to raise money for the SAS alumni fund, which gives money for everything from scholarships to outreach programs to maintain of the MV Explorer.  Everything ended up being really expensive though.  Someone paid $1,600 to get off the ship first in San Diego, and boxes of Girl Scout cookies went for about $100 each.  There were all sorts of random things to bid on, like ringing the bell in San Diego, reserved space on the seventh deck for the last few days of the ship, surf lessons in San Diego, and vacation homes f or the weekend.  I went in for a house for the weekend in Wyoming with a group of friends because it would have only been $60 for a weekend getaway with virtually everything paid for, but the price went up way past our limit.  It all went to a good cause, but it was weird to see people spend so much after learning all about poverty in other countries and out duty to help others. We also had April 12 twice as we passed the International Date Line. I went through all 24 time zones this semester, but going through the dateline really seemed to mess up my watch and laptop (I have to keep resetting them). 

After eleven days, we finally reached Hilo, Hawaii, located on The Big Island, one of Hawaii’s many islands.  It’s a pretty small town, very rural compared to other spots in Hawaii like Honolulu o Maui.  Everyone was kind of tired and I have already been to Hilo so I was ready to just relax at this port.  Plus, the lava flows were inactive.  After getting off the ship, I went for a jog around with Elizabeth and Matt.  It was our goal to do more running in ports ever since South Africa, but that never really happened so this was only our second run.  This run was also a lot less intense than our Cape Town run; we ended up stopping a lot more and just taking in all the sights.  I then walked for about 45 minutes with Elizabeth to downtown Hilo, which had a lot of shops, similar to the boardwalk in any beach town.  We went out for lunch and then walked around a little more.  After stopping in one of Hilo’s candy shops for things like chocolate covered coffee beans and chocolate macadamia nuts, we found our way to a movie theater, which had movies for only $1.5.  Apparently, all of these movies were second run, but, thanks to the culture bubble we have been living in for the last three months, we had no idea.  We thought they were all new releases.  Elizabeth has a crush on Matt Damon so we saw The Adjustment Bureau, which was OK; I didn’t fall asleep, a good sign for a movie in my case.  We walked back to the ship and met everyone for dinner and went with everyone to a Mexican restaurant.  After dinner, we hung out on the beach for a while before coming back on the ship to relax.

The next day, we woke up and went to Ken’s, a local restaurant, similar to IHOP that everyone said we had to go to.  After breakfast, I went with Steven, Elisabeth, Cass, and Ross to Rainbow Falls, which was about a half away on top of a hill surrounded by all sorts of trees.  It is pretty beautiful, but I think I had seen it before.  We drove back to Hilo where we ate lunch and a palm reader told me how amazing I am and how cool my life will be.  Courtney and I headed off to Starbucks for free Internet and then got back on the ship.  Alissa, my LLC, saw us and told us that it is our last time getting back on the ship, which was really, really depressing.  Las time I remember things moving really slowly.  Everyone was very laid back and no one was really in a hurry to get places.  I noticed this when we would go to restaurants and it would take 45 minutes to get our food, but that wasn’t the case this time in Hilo.  I don’t know if things have changed or I am just more patient.  Hilo is kind of like America lite.  It has all the benefits of being in America, but it isn’t as overwhelming as big cities like Los Angeles or New York.  It’s a good reentry into the United States. 

After Hawaii, it was time for everyone to buckle down and study for finals.  Finals were easier than finals at UVA so I still had a lot of time to hang out with everyone.  Somehow I managed to get A’s in all my classes (thanks in part to the wicked curve in Global Studies, and that the professor liked me).  I even got A’s in Kottler’s classes, though my final papers for him were pretty much all me telling him how horrible his classes were.  To celebrate the end of the voyage, we had the Alumni Ball, which was similar to specialty dining, which my friends and I had done a couple of weeks ago.  We dressed up, had a delicious six course meal, and had dancing at the very end.  Everyone got excited to dress up and take pictures.  It was a lot like prom.

The next few days involved a lot of saying goodbye.  A lot of people bought maps of the world and journals from the campus store and had people sign them, lie yearbooks.  I wasn’t going to do it, but I eventually bowed down to peer pressure and bought one at the last minute.  I am glad I did it though.  I have a bunch of signatures and messages from people, and it was only a fraction of the people I wanted, just the ones I could find.  I’m going to frame it and put it up on my wall. We stayed up all night on the least night and watched us come into San Diego, though I missed that part.  I watched sun rise, though it was really cloudy, but I think I fell asleep in my cabin for twenty minutes.  Saying goodbye to everyone was a lot harder than I expected.  We’d only been together three months, but everyone formed strong bonds really quickly and saying goodbye to people, some of whom you may never see again, was pretty rough.  After finally getting cleared to leave the ship in San Diego, I made it through customs and spent the night at Steven’s house with friends before meeting my family the next day.   

It’s nice to be back in America and have my own bed again, but I do miss the ship a lot.  I have to get used to doing my own dishes and making my own bed now that my Cabin Steward is gone.  After being on the ship for a few weeks, I sort of forgot what my life was like back home.  Living on the Explorer, with all of my friends so close and traveling around to different countries became all I knew.  I spent so much time with these people, I really became close to my group of friends and it’s weird not to see them every day.  I miss things like Second Lunch, watching How I Met Your Mother late at night (the slap bet I won) and always having people around to hang out with.  I could always walk around the ship and find people to hang out with.  We’ll keep in touch though; we have reunions planned and I text them a lot.  We are all on one large Facebook thread.  I also think I can handle any type of travel now (roads and cars in the USA don’t bother me anymore after India and Vietnam) and now I want to actually live in a foreign country for a while.  All in all, this semester has made me more eager to learn about the world and take advantage of any adventures in life and take any excuse to travel I can.  This semester was amazing and is by far one of the best things I have done in my life.   

Taiwan

            On April 4, we arrived in Keelung, Taiwan for three days.  This port was to replace our stop in Japan so I really had no idea what to expect.  Taiwan is technically a republic of China, but don’t say that to the Taiwanese; many of them want independence.  We arrived in Keelung and immediately got off the ship.  We left in a big group to search for an ATM, which was a lot harder than expected because not as many people speak English in Keelung than I experienced in China. Keelung is kind of a rundown city, but it was also hard to judge the city because it was rainy.  After finding money, we decided to head to Taipei, the capital city for the day, and maybe for the night.  I wasn’t sure if I was going to spend the night so I only packed the bare essentials in my backpack before taking the half hour bus ride to Taipei.  We traveled in a big group, but after having lunch in the really, really nice bus station, we split off since we were likely spending the night and wanted to do different stuff.  In the end, it ended up just being Me, Courtney, Cass, Kristin, Steen, Matt, and Ross who decided to stay.  We found a hostel for less than ten dollars a night with free internet, and decided to stay there.  That is where we met Kevin, a guy only a year or two older than us from Florida who moved to Taipei to teach English for a year.  His family adopted a child from China so he decided to come to Taiwan to learn Mandarin in order to teach his sister, very cool. 

            While Kevin went off to go apartment hunting, we went to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial.  I barely saw the inside of the memorial though.  As we walked around, we saw dozens of street performers dancing onside.  Courtney, Cass, and I danced with them in front of everyone.  They tried to do their own moves, but I mostly focused on trying to copy the pros’ moves.  We weren’t’ that good, but it was fun and the professional street performers seemed to enjoy our presence and congratulated us at the end.  We mainly walked around the memorial for a while before walking around Taipei and going to a craft store.  We then headed back to the hostel using the MRT and found an Italian restaurant, something I had missed throughout my time in Asia.  We went back to the hostel for a while, listening to new music in America while we waited for Kevin to come back.  We agreed to meet him later that night to go out to a nightclub, Luxi, which was supposed to be a great place to spend the evening in Taipei.  Before that, we went to a karaoke bar where we had a private room to sing for an hour and a half.  It was fun and no one was really self conscious at all.  We mostly did duets, and I rocked out to some Blink-182, TLC, and No Doubt, among others.  We then headed to the club, which wasn’t as crowded as I expected, but was full of lasers, which was really cool.  Courtney and I were hit on by so many people from Hong Kong and Malaysia (it’s a good story; ask me about it in person).  After a couple of hours at the club, we headed back to the hostel to hang out and didn’t go to sleep until 5 am.

            The next morning, we causally woke up, and walked around Taipei.  We ate this delicious egg dish from a street vender, and then went to an American restaurant for lunch.  It was fun to see other countries’ take on American food.  We saw a lot of burgers and fries on the menu and portions that were way bigger than I was used to seeing in other countries.  We just relaxed at the restaurant, talking to Kevin about life on Semester at Sea and learning about his life in Taiwan.  We were the first people his age he met who also American so I think he was eager to hang out with us.  After a couple hour lunch, we went to 228, a memorial in Taipei of a police massacre in the early twentieth century.  Next, we went to Taipei 101, the second tallest building in the world, next to that building in Dubai.  I went up a hundred stories in an elevator that only took half a minute to get to the top of.  I got to see some sweet views of the Taipei skyline before eating dinner at the food court at the bottom of the mall the tower is attached to.  We decided to head back to the ship that night to go hang gliding in the morning.  The bus ride is only about $1.50 USD to get to or from Keelung.  The best part was that Kevin came with us.  He slept in an internet cafe since he isn’t allowed on the ship and met him the next morning.

            Thursday morning, Courtney, Cass, Kristen, Ross, and I met Kevin outside the ship and tried to find the hang gliding place.  We finally figured out how to get there, and after making a few wrong turns, we finally made it to the company, right on top of a mountain.  It was there I found out that it wasn’t hang gliding, but rather paragliding.  I volunteered to go first, even though I had no idea what I was doing, but I was given harness and helmet.  I was strapped to a guy who was strapped to a parachute.  Once I was strapped in, I could barely stand up because the wind blew the open parachute around and the guy who tied me in had to hold us down.  My only instructions came from the guy who strapped me in and pointed to the edge of the mountain while telling me to just run.   I ran off the mountain and began to rise up.  I just sat down in my harness while the instructor flew us around, above the clouds over mountains and the ocean.  It was epic and lasted about ten minutes.  Once we all finished, we walked around the town a little more before heading back to Keelung.  We had lunch and then just decided to find a bar for drinks and to hang out since we only had a couple of hours left before we had to be back on the ship.  It was a lot harder to find a bar than we planned and we had to pass a lot of brothels along the way, but w found one and hug out there for an hour before heading back to the ship.  We said goodbye to Kevin and left for the United States.

            Even though I had no expectations for Taiwan, it ended up being one of my favorite ports.  We had the perfect sized group for traveling, and everything we did was so spontaneous.  I had no idea I was going to spend the night in Taipei (I didn’t even have a change of clothes with me) but it ended up being a highlight of the semester.  I learned that I don’t want to always have plans when I travel and I would rather just be free and open to new experiences.  The hostel was fun because that is where we met Kevin, which turned out to be fun for everyone.  It didn’t even matter that there was a Japanese monk in our room from Korea who was mean, racist, and smelled bad.  These are the types of experiences I wished I had had all semester.        

Hong Kong/China

After only two days of traveling, and recovery from the exhaustion of Vietnam, we arrived in Hong Kong on Saturday, March 26.  Hong Kong is technically part of Mainland China, but they have a lot of sovereignty over themselves.  They have their own government, laws, and currency.  They have Facebook and don’t have the One Child Policy.  They are a territory of China.  On the first day, I went on an FDP to a psychiatric ward in Hong Kong.  It was actually really nice.  The facilities were beautiful with staff that seemed responsible and caring, as well as state of the art equipment.  We discussed mental health in Hong Kong and the doctors told us that the daily stresses of life are pretty much the same in both HK and the USA.  Both countries are fast paced and people use a lot of technology in their daily lives.  Also, people are all trying to find relationships and are dedicated to their jobs.  In terms of mental health, we are pretty much the same.  After a tour of facilities, checking out the art made by the patients, and eating some good cookies, we I headed back to the ship. 

Cass was the only one of my friends to come with me so by the time we got back to the ship, everyone else was gone.  In the end, Cass, Ross, Caitlin, and I just walked around the city.  We found a park with a bunch of trees, bike paths, ponds, fountains, and pagodas.  It was really peaceful so we just sat around and relaxed for a while.  It was nice just to sit there and chill, watching everything go by.  We strolled through what ended up being some sort of zoo where we saw wild birds.  After getting some frozen yogurt, we headed back to the ship.

And everyone made it to the restaurant.  After going through all the trouble, it wasn’t really worth it though.  The food was kind of expensive and we kind of eat on a floating restaurant every day while at sea.  We stressed about getting there on time because we were supposed to met Courtney who was coming from a Semester at Sea trip and was just going to meet us at the restaurant.  We arrived forty five minutes late so we assumed she had just left when w couldn’t find her, but a half hour later, she arrived after taking some busses and a taxi to find us.  We got back to the ship around 11:30 and then Ross, Cass, Courtney, Stephen, and I decided to go to out to a street where there were hundreds of clubs and bars.  However, by the time we actually made it to bars, it was 1:00 and I was already really tired.  Stephen and I left about an hour later, not the most exciting night.

The next morning, I headed off with Emily and Anna to the airport to fly Hong Kong to Beijing.  Our flight left an hour late, but somehow arrived on time.  After checking into my hotel, I went out with some friends to dinner and just walked around Beijing.  We got back to the hotel around 9:30 and just hung out there for an hour or so before calling it a night.  Ports always leave me really tired and with so few days in between to relax, I’m willing to take any chances I can get for a good night’s sleep. 

The next day, we had breakfast in the hotel and formed into our groups for our tour.  I planned our tour with Stephen, Elizabeth, and Diane, and then found out that some other friends, Hannah, Caitlin, Stephanie, and Brittany.  Our group was really small, only about sixteen people, which was nice because we didn’t have to deal with the hustles of traveling in a big group.  Our first stop was the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, the sights of the Emperors and landmarks in Chinese history.  Our guide, Tony, or “Tony the Tiger” as he called himself, gave us a brief introduction to the history of the City and told us how one of the Emperor’s relatives (I think uncle or nephew) built the city in order to establish power and prevent himself from being forgotten about in history.  We also learned about the Dragon Lady, a concubine who worked her way to pretty much ruling all of China.  She even traded the Chinese Navy for the Summer Palace.  We walked through the City to see the extensiveness of the palace.  After about an hour of going through the different layers, and fighting our way through thousands of tourists who all wanted to take pictures of blonde Elisabeth, we went to lunch.  All of our lunches were pretty much the same, consisting of sweet and sour chicken or pork, an abundance of meat and vegetable dishes, all served on a lazy Susan. 

  We next drove to the Silk Market, a five story mall full of knock off items, everything from jade, to silk, to electronics, and clothes.  The place really looks like a giant warehouse full of various stands with women who shout at you and try and grab you to get you to look at their stuff.  I learned I am a really good bargainer.  Tony taught us some tricks to bargaining; you start out at ten percent of whatever they suggest for a starting price.  They will put their price on a calculator and you take the calculator and put your own price down.  You argue, and never go more than a third of what they suggest, threaten to walk away, and always be firm, and you should be fine.  I got so many death threats from the women there.  There was nothing I really wanted that day so I mainly just spent my time helping Elizabeth and Stephen buy stuff.  I could get stuff down to a quarter to a third of the original price.  One woman was dead serious when she said she would kill me and, as I helped Elizabeth bargain for a dress, the women tried to smother me with a silk dress to get me to stop bargaining.  I was proud of myself; apparently I made some people almost cry.  The market is fascinating.  It is really interesting to see how the saleswomen work and they like to perform all of these tests to prove their stuff is real.  I saw them try and scratch jade on glass to prove it is real, and burn clothes and jewelry to show how real it is.  I have no idea what this means so I don’t know if their tests are really that accurate.

After spending some time in the markets, we drove to the Great Wall.  We had dinner at a restaurant at the base and then got our sleeping bags, flashlights, and sleeping pads.  We walked about fifteen minutes to the top of the wall, next to a watchtower and set up camp.  It was really cold, our guide suggested it was about thirty degrees F.  We had some snacks and hung out on the wall for a while telling scary stories before sleeping out under the stars.  I slept in sweatpants, a sweatshirt, and a hat, and I was comfortable.  I think I just handle the cold better than most though.  We woke up when the sun began to rise, about five in the morning.  Seeing the sun rise over the mountains with the wall bordering them was absolutely surreal.  We hiked fifteen watchtowers, about five kilometers, which took us about an hour.  That was only 1/1000 of the wall though.  The wall is very hilly, full of uneven terrain, gun holes in the sides, random staircases, and holes throughout the ground.  I saw one hole, about four feet long, four feet wide, and four feet deep.  I was glad I avoided falling into the hole, but I then fell into the next one at the beginning of the next watchtower.  I rolled my ankle a little, but climbed out as my friends laughed at me. 

After finishing the hike, we went out to lunch.  After lunch, we drove through the Olympic green to see the Water Cube and the Bird’s Nest, where the 2008 Olympics were held.  I was impressed with the way China brought their A-game to the Olympics, even though everyone had doubts.  The two structures were amazing, and I wish we had time to actually get out of the bus and walk around the Green, but we had to keep on schedule and, according to our guide, there really isn’t much to see outside the Green. Our driver then took us to the Jade Market, which was pretty much the exact same as the silk market, complete with knock off goods and aggressive saleswomen.  The only real difference was that these women were a lot more intense than the women at the Silk Market.  They were a lot harder to bargain with.  When I successfully bargained, I did well; I just struck out a lot more than I did at the Silk Market.  After buying some souvenirs, we went to a Chinese acrobat show.  These guys did all sorts of things I never thought possible; it was really cool and like cirque du soleil.  We checked into our hotel and had free time in Beijing for the rest of the night.

We met after breakfast the next morning in the hotel and visited the Drum Tower.  It is a tower in the heart of Beijing, full of various drums, al with their own, unique sound, that are sounded to signify the changing months of the years, as well as various times of the day.  We learned a little about the history of the Tower and were given a private drum show.  We then took rickshaws to a hutong neighborhood in Beijing.  Hutongs are traditional neighborhoods in China, kind of like residential suburbs.  These are traditional neighborhoods where people still live; they are very communal, but the government is slowly getting rid of them as they try and put up buildings over them and force people to move into the heart of Beijing in high-rises.  We learned a brief history, as well as various traditions and customs in the neighborhoods, and ended our tour at a local’s house where a woman showed us how to make Chinese dumplings and served us lunch.  We could all try our hand at folding the dumplings, which I learned is a lot harder than I thought.  If you don’t fold them correctly, all the filling will fall out and the woman will yell at you.  We then went to a building, which turned out to be a tea shop.  We participated in a traditional Chinese tea ceremony where we learned about the medicinal properties of tea, learned about many of the customs related to tea (for example, men and women hold their tea cups differently), and had the chance to sample many different teas.  I do not normally like tea, but these were very good.  They had one made from dried fruit, which tasted just like juice.  After tea, we went to the zoo, where we saw panda bears.  They are cute, but I don’t really like zoos so I didn’t get as excited as half the girls on our trip.  We finally drove to the Sumer Palace, where the Emperors stayed for half the year.  It is older than the Forbidden City, but seems less ornate and colorful.  We walked through it and learned about the Dragon Lady, who traded the entire Chinese navy for the Summer Palace (which eventually cost them Taiwan to the Japanese) in her quest for power in China.  After touring the Palace, we boarded a sleeper train to Xi’an, where Stephen and I shared a cabin with an old, Chinese couple.  

We arrived early in the morning in Xi’an and immediately headed to the Terracotta Warriors.  I had some trouble seeing them because you have to see them from above, but they are life size and all have individual features, like humans.  It was fun just to be there and learn the history of the Warriors.  The tomb where the Emperor is buried not only has all three thousand warriors, but also an elaborate tomb that is like a parallel universe.  We went to a Chinese buffet for lunch and then walked along the Old City Wall, a wall protecting the city from invaders.  We walked along the wall, saw some buildings with amazing Asian architecture, and then saw the gardens next to the wall, which was very tranquil.  We then boarded another sleeper train to head to Shanghai. 

The next morning, we finally made it back on the ship, which was a nightmare because we had to deal with Chinese immigrations.  Getting back off the ship was also rough because Immigrations had to take all of our passports and make copies of them before we could leave the ship again.  I didn’t get off the ship until now, so all I really had time to do was walk around Shanghai.  Shanghai is really developed, but it is still a beautiful city.  We just walked around to see Oriental Pearl Tower, that yellow and red telecommunications tower in the financial district of Shanghai.  After walking around for a few hours, we had to head back to the ship to leave tor Taiwan. I wish I had more time in Shanghai because I know there is so much to do there, and the nightlife is supposed to be great, but I know I’ll be back there one day.

China was one of my favorite ports because I walls always so busy and it has such a rich history and culture.  I liked the country a lot more than I expected to.      

  Cass was the only one of my friends to come with me so by the time we got back to the ship, everyone else was gone.  In the end, Cass, Ross, Caitlin, and I just walked around the city.  We found a park with a bunch of trees, bike paths, ponds, fountains, and pagodas.  It was really peaceful so we just sat around and relaxed for a while.  It was nice just to sit there and chill, watching everything go by.  We strolled through what ended up being some sort of zoo where we saw wild birds.  After getting some frozen yogurt, we headed back to the ship.

And everyone made it to the restaurant.  After going through all the trouble, it wasn’t really worth it though.  The food was kind of expensive and we kind of eat on a floating restaurant every day while at sea.  We stressed about getting there on time because we were supposed to met Courtney who was coming from a Semester at Sea trip and was just going to meet us at the restaurant.  We arrived forty five minutes late so we assumed she had just left when w couldn’t find her, but a half hour later, she arrived after taking some busses and a taxi to find us.  We got back to the ship around 11:30 and then Ross, Cass, Courtney, Stephen, and I decided to go to out to a street where there were hundreds of clubs and bars.  However, by the time we actually made it to bars, it was 1:00 and I was already really tired.  Stephen and I left about an hour later, not the most exciting night.

The next morning, I headed off with Emily and Anna to the airport to fly Hong Kong to Beijing.  Our flight left an hour late, but somehow arrived on time.  After checking into my hotel, I went out with some friends to dinner and just walked around Beijing.  We got back to the hotel around 9:30 and just hung out there for an hour or so before calling it a night.  Ports always leave me really tired and with so few days in between to relax, I’m willing to take any chances I can get for a good night’s sleep. 

The next day, we had breakfast in the hotel and formed into our groups for our tour.  I planned our tour with Stephen, Elizabeth, and Diane, and then found out that some other friends, Hannah, Caitlin, Stephanie, and Brittany.  Our group was really small, only about sixteen people, which was nice because we didn’t have to deal with the hustles of traveling in a big group.  Our first stop was the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, the sights of the Emperors and landmarks in Chinese history.  Our guide, Tony, or “Tony the Tiger” as he called himself, gave us a brief introduction to the history of the City and told us how one of the Emperor’s relatives (I think uncle or nephew) built the city in order to establish power and prevent himself from being forgotten about in history.  We also learned about the Dragon Lady, a concubine who worked her way to pretty much ruling all of China.  She even traded the Chinese Navy for the Summer Palace.  We walked through the City to see the extensiveness of the palace.  After about an hour of going through the different layers, and fighting our way through thousands of tourists who all wanted to take pictures of blonde Elisabeth, we went to lunch.  All of our lunches were pretty much the same, consisting of sweet and sour chicken or pork, an abundance of meat and vegetable dishes, all served on a lazy Susan. 

After lunch, we drove through the Olympic green to see the Water Cube and the Bird’s Nest, where the 2008 Olympics were held.  I was impressed with the way China brought their A-game to the Olympics, even though everyone had doubts.  The two structures were amazing, and I wish we had time to actually get out of the bus and walk around the Green, but we had to keep on schedule and, according to our guide, there really isn’t much to see outside the Green.  We drove to the Silk Market, a five story mall full of knock off items, everything from jade, to silk, to electronics, and clothes.  The place really looks like a giant warehouse full of various stands with women who shout at you and try and grab you to get you to look at their stuff.  I learned I am a really good bargainer.  Tony taught us some tricks to bargaining; you start out at ten percent of whatever they suggest for a starting price.  They will put their price on a calculator and you take the calculator and put your own price down.  You argue, and never go more than a third of what they suggest, threaten to walk away, and always be firm, and you should be fine.  I got so many death threats from the women there.  There was nothing I really wanted that day so I mainly just spent my time helping Elizabeth and Stephen buy stuff.  I could get stuff down to a quarter to a third of the original price.  One woman was dead serious when she said she would kill me and, as I helped Elizabeth bargain for a dress, the women tried to smother me with a silk dress to get me to stop bargaining.  The market is fascinating.  It is really interesting to see how the saleswomen work and they like to perform all of these tests to prove their stuff is real.  I saw them try and scratch jade on glass to prove it is real, and burn clothes and jewelry to show how real it is.  I have no idea what this means so I don’t know if their tests are really that accurate.

After spending some time in the markets, we drove to the Great Wall.  We had dinner at a restaurant at the base and then got our sleeping bags, flashlights, and sleeping pads.  We walked about fifteen minutes to the top of the wall, next to a watchtower and set up camp.  It was really cold, our guide suggested it was about thirty degrees F.  We had some snacks and hung out on the wall for a while telling scary stories before sleeping out under the stars.  I slept in sweatpants, a sweatshirt, and a hat, and I was comfortable.  I think I just handle the cold better than most though.  We woke up when the sun began to rise, about five in the morning.  Seeing the sun rise over the mountains with the wall bordering them was absolutely surreal.  We hiked fifteen watchtowers, about five kilometers, which took us about an hour.  That was only 1/1000 of the wall though.  The wall is very hilly, full of uneven terrain, gun holes in the sides, random staircases, and holes throughout the ground.  I saw one hole, about four feet long, four feet wide, and four feet deep.  I was glad I avoided falling into the hole, but I then fell into the next one at the beginning of the next watchtower.  I rolled my ankle a little, but climbed out as my friends laughed at me. 

After finishing the hike, we went to a hutting village, a traditional Chinese neighborhood, which are slowly being destroyed by the government as people are forced to live in high-rises in the hearts of the cities.  We learned how to make dumplings, which is a lot harder than I had expected because there is a very complex folding technique to it.  After lunch, we continued on a rickshaw ride through the village and visited a Chinese tea shop.  We sampled traditional Chinese teas, learned about the culture of tea in China, learned the medicinal properties of tea, and had the chance to buy some tea.  I do not morally like tea, but this was really good.  They had this one tea that was made from dried fruit, which tasted just like juice.  We then went to the Jade Market, which is the same thing as the silk market.  The saleswomen were a lot tougher than at the Silk Market.  When I was able to bargain, I did really well, but I struck out a lot more.  Afterwards, we went to an acrobat show, which was really cool, and a lot like cirque du soleil.  We then boarded a sleeper train to Xi’an, where Stephen and I shared a car with an old Chinese couple. 

We arrived early in the morning in Xi’an and immediately headed to the Terracotta Warriors.  I had some trouble seeing them because you have to see them from above, but they are life size and all have individual features, like humans.  It was fun just to be there and learn the history of the Warriors.  The tomb where the Emperor is buried not only has all three thousand warriors, but also an elaborate tomb that is like a parallel universe.  We went to a Chinese buffet for lunch and then walked along the Old City Wall, a wall protecting the city from invaders.  We walked along the wall, saw some buildings with amazing Asian architecture, and then saw the gardens next to the wall, which was very tranquil.  We then boarded another sleeper train to head to Shanghai. 

The next morning, we finally made it back on the ship, which was a nightmare because we had to deal with Chinese immigrations.  Getting back off the ship was also rough because Immigrations had to take all of our passports and make copies of them before we could leave the ship again.  I didn’t get off the ship until now, so all I really had time to do was walk around Shanghai.  Shanghai is really developed, but it is still a beautiful city.  We just walked around to see Oriental Pearl Tower, that yellow and red telecommunications tower in the financial district of Shanghai.  After walking around for a few hours, we had to head back to the ship to leave tor Taiwan. I wish I had more time in Shanghai because I know there is so much to do there, and the nightlife is supposed to be great, but I know I’ll be back there one day.

China was one of my favorite ports because I walls always so busy and it has such a rich history and culture.  I knew a good amount about china before this trip, but everything seemed so alive when I was actually there.  I really liked Beijing and will definitely be back in the future.  Plus, I didn't fall for one of the Chinese tea scammers.  I liked the country a lot more than I expected to.      

   

Vietnam

            On March 19, we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam for five days.  The first day, I went with SAS to the Cu Chi Tunnels, about an hour and a half from Saigon.  We stopped for lunch, where I learned that Vietnamese food was a lot of seafood.  I tried it all, but I was not too impressed.  I’ve never been a seafood person, but I tried everything with an open mind.  The tunnels are a system of underground tunnels built by the Vietnamese in 1920.  They took twenty years to complete, but they served as a secret network for the army during their wars with France and in the Vietnam War.  The Americans had no idea and even built an army base right over one of the tunnel systems.  Our tour guide took us to a patch of dirt, which turned out to be a cover for a board.  I got to take out the dirt and leaf covered board and climb in the tunnel inside, covering my tracks behind me.  It was dark and squishy at the bottom, but bigger than I had expected.  A lot of the tunnels had to be expanded for American tourists to fit though.  We spent the next hour seeing all the different traps and weapons used by the Vietnamese army.  I was amazed they could build the whole tunnel system by hand and came up with subtle, yet affective traps.  We got to crawl through a tunnel for a little while, which was fun, but I couldn’t imagine doing it in total darkness during war time.  I went with friends for sushi that night to celebrate Kristin’s twenty first birthdays.  The restaurant was tricky because there was a bigger language barrier than in any other country we’ve been in so far.  It took forever for us to get our food.  However, I tried sushi for the first time.  I had something called a heart attack role, which was just spicy tuna with sesame seeds.  It was a lot better than I thought it would be, but I still hate seafood.  We then went out for a quick drink at a bar.  Dinner and drinks were only about 170,000 dong, or *.50 USD, and we didn’t even leave the pier. 

            The next morning, I got up early to fly out to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, though Saigon is the biggest city.  I went with a tour company advertised on FaceBook so everything was all arranged for us already.  Once we got to the city, we went out for lunch, which again hard because of the language barrier, and arrived at the Friendship village, a community for those affected by Agent Orange.  Our group arrived late and the other group of Semester at Sea students were already playing games and singing songs with the kids.  We toured the classrooms, where volunteers tried to teach the kids basic life skills, like washing their hands.  The kids all have severe mental and physical disabilities so teaching them how to wash their hands can take up to five months.  However, they have learned how to make beautiful crafts, where all the proceeds went to the village.  After touring the classrooms, we went to a conference room where someone was supposed to talk to us about Agent Orange.  However, his translator was horrible and no one could understand what she said.  The village was excited that we came and had reporters from local news channels there so some SAS students may be on Vietnamese TV.  I wasn’t interviewed, but I may be in some group shots.  After leaving the village, we checked into our hotels and had the night free.  I went to dinner with Russ and his roommate, David, took a rickshaw to a night market, and came back to the hotel to chill out for the night.  Our hotel had free internet so I just used its computers to research classes for next semester, not very exciting.

             The next morning, I got up early for a three hour drive to Ha Long Bay, one of the natural wonders of the world.  The drive there was kind of rough, a good number of the people in the back were more concerned with getting drunk at 9 in the morning while the rest of us were really annoyed with them.  The tour company we booked with was also kind of disorganized; they wouldn’t let us pick our groups for the hotels and they wouldn’t let us pick who we wanted on our boats for the cruise along Ha Long Bay.  All that aside, once we reached the town of Ha Long, we boarded a ferry for our junkboat cruise.  I’m not sure why they are called junkboats because they are so nice; they remind me of luxurious pirate ships.  There was a nice dining room and the cabins were bigger than the ones we have on the ship.  Even though I didn’t pick my boat, I still knew more than half of the people on it, one of the good things about doing SAS for two months.  We were served a seafood lunch by the crew and then explored some caves.  I expected this to be a quick tour of some private caves, but these caves were more like caverns and there were tourists from all over the world walking through them.  Ha Long means “descending dragon” and the whole bay is dotted with tiny, mountainous, islands resembling a dragon.  We walked through the caves, took what was probably an illegal short cut through one of the tunnels, and after an hour, we went kayaking on the bay.  David and I were a pretty good team, even though David was sick all trip with food poisoning.  We went back on our junkboat where we could go swimming in the bay.  Some people jumped off the top of the boat into the water, about twenty feet, but I hate the feeling of free falling so I just jumped in off the side of the boat.  The water is clear, but really, really, cold and also salty.  It’s also apparently pretty dirty so I probably got some sort of parasite, but it was all worth it.  The crew kept making me jump back in and do tricks in the air.  We started to cruise around the bay, and we all ate dinner, followed by karaoke and dancing for the rest of the evening. There was some thick fog covering the bay.  I’ve never seen anything like it before.  My vision has never been so obscured in the outside before; it was pretty eerie, but really cool. 

            The next day, we ate breakfast, and saw some more sites along the bay, including a floating school.  The bay was beautiful in the daylight.  With all the fog surrounding he rock islands, it reminded people of the planet in Avatar, but I don’t remember why.  Around 11, we left Ha Long Bay, went for another seafood lunch, and drove back to Hanoi for our flight back to Saigon.  I hung out with Russ, David, and Allie in the airport, where we ate some “instant noodles” that turned out to be Ramen with sketchy pikes of meat.  Our flight was delayed, which was bad because the same bunch of people that had been annoying everyone all trip by being loud and drunk were worse on the plane.  They bought so much alcohol on the plane, they were horrible.  They were loud and disrespectful to everyone.  I ended up switching seats with someone because I couldn’t sit near them anymore.  I have no idea how they didn’t get kicked off the plane.  Allie says flying is still considered pretty luxurious in some countries, and their actions were just disrespectful and probably freaked some passengers out.  If those people acted like that in the US, it would not fly with anyone.  The rest of us were just embarrassed and tried to ignore the ten percent of the ship that Dean Dan says “don’t get it.”  We got back on the ship around 11:30, but Russ, Allie, and I were hungry from not really eating dinner so we took a taxi around midnight for some Korean food because that was the only place close by that was still open.  We hung out until two eating pork buns, beef and pineapple fried rice, and chicken and rice.  It was a pretty great end to the evening.

            The next morning, I went out to the market with Russ and David for souvenir shopping.  I think my bargaining skills have gotten pretty sharp on this voyage; bargaining is really fun for me and I wish we could do it more in the US.  DVDs were so cheap here too.  I bought all of the seasons of 30 Rock, Scrubs, and How I Met Your Mother for $30.00 USD in total.  I also bought eleven DVDs for seven dollars.  My first DVD, Saw 3D was in some European language I couldn’t identify, but it was worth the gamble and my TV shows seem to work so far.  Russ and I went out to the War museum in the afternoon.  It would have been cool to get the perspective on the war from Vietnam’s perspective, but I didn’t really learn anything.  It isn’t the museum’s fault though; I just don’t ever get much out of museums.  They are always full of pictures or other things that are too far away for me to really see well and captions that I can’t read.  I tend to just float around and look at the pictures.  The weapons were interesting, but I didn’t learn anything from it, aside from the fact that Cuba supported Vietnam during the war.  Russ and I concluded the day by just walking around Saigon before going back to the ship.

            Vietnam was very friendly and a lot more developed than I had expected.  People warned us about crossing the streets because there are no crosswalks, you just cross and the motorcycles go around you, as long as you just keep going and do not stop in the streets.  It really isn’t bad though.  I never thought my life was in danger while crossing the streets.  It’s really exciting actually; my friend compared crossing the streets to a game of Frogger.  I rode a motorbike taxi around a couple of times too.  It’s weird being so open with the road, but exciting.  It was fun to do once, but I don’t really want to do it again. 

Now we only have two days at sea until china.  I can’t believe how fast this whole semester is going.  I do not want this to end.

Singapore

            On March 16, we stopped in Singapore for the day.  Singapore is a really small, independent city state, though it still has connections to Malaysia.  It has a reputation for being really strict, but it’s one of the biggest trading ports in the world.  People were nervous about the laws and punishments, but it was a great day.

            I spent the day hanging out with Steven and Stephen.  To be honest, hanging out with them was fun, as usual, but kind of felt like babysitting.  Steven gets so excited whenever we reach port and cannot wait to leave.  As soon as he was cleared to leave, he was running around the fifth deck trying to find the gangway and trying to get us to leave with them.  He bolted out of the ship and I had to get him to stop running off.  I had to keep track of Stephen too, but that will come later.  After clearing immigration in the cruise terminal, the three of us took a cab to

Orchard Street

, the shopping district in Singapore.  I’m not really a shopper, but I needed souvenirs and there really isn’t much to do in Singapore besides shopping and eating.  Everyone, including my friend who was from Singapore, said to just do that instead of the museums or SAS trips, to get the full experience.  After shopping in a mall for an hour so, we headed to the Hocker Center (spelling?) for lunch.  The center is famous in Singapore.  It’s basically a giant food court with hundreds of different places to order and eat.  The center was all Asian food.  I don’t like eating seafood, and I don’t really like to eat food where I don’t know what it is so the center was a little overwhelming.  The menus were too high for me to read and most of what was at eye level was in a different language so I was kind of stuck.  I found my way to a juice bar and ordered banana-pineapple milk, which was fresh, creamy, and really good.  I found a sign for a vegetarian restaurant, and since vegetarian is always a safe bet, I went there for lunch.  I asked a local girl behind me in line what she suggested and based on her recommendation, I had some vegetarian “chicken” rice and a spring roll.  I went back to the juice bar and had a dragon fruit and sour sop juice.  I have no idea what sour sop is, but the juice was bright purple (think Barney, the dinosaur from my childhood) and had large chunks of a bright purple fruit in it.  The drink was really sweet, but it was still good.  Juice is one of my favorite foods in the world so I was pretty happy with lunch. 

            The three of us found Mark and Timothy, the interport students from Singapore with some other SAS students, and we all traveled together.  We went to a temple, where supposedly some of the teeth of the Buddha are.  The temple was pretty, but I can’t tell you much about the inside because about half us, including myself, weren’t allowed in the temple because we were wearing shorts.  After the temple, the girls wanted to take the subway, or MRT, to the botanical gardens.  Stephen had apparently been to botanical gardens in most of the ports so far so he didn’t want to go back again.  He tried to get me to go somewhere else, but neither of us had a plan or knew where we were going, so despite his begging, I said we should probably stick with the group, especially because we wanted to meet them later.  We strolled through the gardens for an hour or so and then went to the Marina Sands Hotel, which was a very luxurious hotel with a roof garden that had great views of the city.  There was also an infinity pool on the top too.  Most people had to pay twenty dollars to get to the top, but Mark and Timothy have a friend from their days in the army who works in the hotel and he let us go for free.  Everyone male has to serve two years in the army in Singapore.  After spending time relaxing on the roof, we went to dinner at McDonalds.  I let Stephen and Steven know that I felt like a chaperone to them so I joked that because they were good all day, I took them to McDonalds.  After dinner we went shopping for snacks and headed back to the ship.  You have to get back to the ship by on ship time or you risk getting dock time, where you can’t leave the ship for a few hours in the next port, and I came too close for comfort in Singapore.  We had a lot of loops to go through for immigration so the line took forever.  We arrived at the terminal almost an hour before on ship time, which should have been more than enough, but  it took so long to go through immigration, I didn’t get back to the ship until past 8:30.  The LLCs said that whoever made it through immigration by on ship time was safe, and I made it through with five minutes to spare.  Everyone was really stressing and freaked out though.  It was intense and I think about a hundred people got dock time for being late, which is a lot more than usual.

            Singapore is a really nice.  It’s a lot like a clean, sort of sterile, New York City.  Everyone speaks English and it is really easy to get around.  However, I don’t think I could live there.  I don’t think there is a lot to do there.  I am not even sure what I would have done if we had more than one day in Singapore.  The laws aren’t bad though.  I broke two while I was there and didn’t get in trouble.  I jaywalked, because Mark and Timothy made us.  I also used a public toilet and the toilet wouldn’t flush, which is also an offense. 

Neptune Day

            March 12, 2011 marked Neptune day for the Spring ’11 SAS Voyage.  Neptune Day is a nautical tradition marking when a ship crosses the equator.  For SAS, Neptune Day depends on the Captain’s availability, so even though we’ve already crossed the equator a few times and I’m not even sure we did on this day, it was still a good time and I’m not complaining.  I woke up to the crew banging instruments and knocking on doors at 7:30 in the morning to get everyone up.  Around 9, the actual ceremony started.  Our deans all dressed up in ancient Roman costumes and Captain Jeremy dressed in a toga and was completely painted green to be the Roman god of the waters, Neptune.  The opening ceremony may have been cheesy, but it was still great.

            The ceremony to go from a pollywog to a shellback put everyone through the ringer.  People who wanted to participate got into the side pools in pairs, where the crew poured fish guts on top of us.  Dr. Bill would never approve of this so all we had to deal with was green water that I think was mixed with fish oil.  After the pouring, we jumped into the pool, which was also green and fishy, and swim to the deck.  When we got to the deck, we had to kiss the rings of the Captain and our Academic Dean, Lisa Reilly, who was the Roman God Minerva.  I got to shake Dean Dan’s hand to finally earn my certificate of honor.  The other nautical tradition, which was optional for SAS, is to shave your head once you cross the equator.  My hair grows pretty fast so it was really just like a free haircut for me.  After waiting in the really unorganized mob by the pool bar, my friend Jake finally shaved my head.  A lot of the hair was donated to Lochs of Love, but I think my hair was too short for it to be donated. I think Jake did a good job.  There were a couple of hairs that didn’t get cut, but for the most part, it looked pretty good.  Barely a week later, my hair is back to a normal length, and according to Elizabeth, it’s really soft.

            After completing the ceremony, I went to Professor Hon’s (who is also my “father” in my Extended Family) talk on the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan, which was really interesting because with the internet, I didn’t know a whole lot about the situation, and I know nothing on geology.  In case you readers haven’t heard, we are no longer going to Japan and are going to Taiwan instead.  After the talk it was taco day, which was amazing, and then took sea wide photos, as well as an all ship photo.  At night, everyone met with their cultural reflections groups, which are small groups which meet and just talk about the countries and our experiences so far.  Other than that, the day was free, which was a much needed rest from school.  It was especially nice because India was so exhausting, and it was only three more days until Singapore!

Crew waking us up in the morning

The pool and everyone ready for the ceremony

Neptune's Court

Captain Jeremy as Neptune

More Court pictures

Emily and I afer going through the ceremony

Mid head shaving

Stephanie and I at the end.

Long Overdue Post about India

            Sorry this is so late.  India was less than two weeks ago, though it feels like it’s been years.  Time passes really strangely on this ship.  Everything goes by so fast, but then things that happened yesterday feel like months ago.  We’re currently in the Mekong River approaching Vietnam, and I’m just now writing about India.

            On March 6, we pulled into Chennai (formally, Madras), India for six days.  Pre-port was really intense.  They told us how crowded, dirty, poor, smelly, and simply how different India was from the United States, and virtually anywhere else we would be visiting on our voyage. I had no idea what to expect.  By the time we all passed through immigration, and the ship was cleared, we headed out.  Once I got off the pier, I instantly noticed the heat, which was hot, but not as bad as I was expecting, but also the incredible amount of traffic in the city.  There are cars on the roads, but there are a lot more auto-rickshaws (or tuck tucks), which are pretty much like fast golf carts that go on highways.  There are also a lot of people on motorcycles, and a lot of them, even the women who hold sleeping babies while they ride, are not wearing helmets.  There are lanes in the road, but they are not followed at all.  A driver told us that they are mainly formalities and there are no rules for driving.  There must be some informal rules though, or everyone would be dead by now. 

            Chennai is one of the largest cities in India, and is mainly a business city.  My friend, Steven’s dad happened to be in the city that day so he took us all out to lunch.  He had a SUV and driver, but there were too many of us so some of us followed in the tuck tucks.  That is what I always used because they are more fun.  Riding around them is like being in a game of MarioKart.  There are really no rules.  The driver just weaves in and out of other cars, going fast whenever they can get some empty space.  I constantly stuck my head outside the open car to see what was going on, and always felt like it was going to be cut off.  Those things are amazing and I want to bring one home and drive it back in the U.S.

            To show us around Chennai, we stopped at the fish market to walk around.  It was cool to see people out and about, but it was pretty similar to other markets I’ve been to in other countries.  We also stopped at a Catholic Church, where St. Thomas, the Apostle is buried.  There are only three churches like that in the world, Spain, Italy, and India.  We walked through the church’s exhibit and saw what were supposed to be his bones.  It was kind of touristy. 

            We then went to a really nice hotel for a feast of Indian food, which we ate with our hands.  I cannot explain how nice it is to not eat ship food once you get into port.  India was my favorite port, food wise, and it was kind of comforting to see other Americans again.  After eating way too much, we split into groups.   While one group took the SUV to take Steven’s father back and go shopping, the rest of us took the rickshaws back into town and went shopping.  At pre-port, they told us that the rickshaws are a good way to get around, but that you may end up “at the driver’s brothers shop first.”  This means that the driers will take you where you want to go, eventually, but they will usually first take you to some other store, where they get a kickback from whatever people purchase.  Emily, Cas, Stephen, Ross, and I went souvenir shopping, and had this exact experience.  Drivers stop and tell you to get out for a little while.  While the girls were shopping for dresses and saris, all of us guys were pretty bored and eventually each bought Indian shirts.  We went to the beach to walk around for a little while, and played a carnival game where you got to shoot a gun at balloons.  Stephen and I had to head back early for another activity so we had the driver take us back to the ship.  Our original deal was fifty rupees a person, but when we got back to the ship, our driver tried to make us each pay 500.  I was willing to pay up to seventy, but once he started to yell at us, I changed my mind.  I tried to just get out of the car once he started yelling, but I wasn’t sure what Stephen was going to do or if he was going to follow me so I got back in.  After a lot of arguing and yelling and him saying something about the cost of petrol, I needed up paying my fifty and Stephen paid 150. Fifty rupees is only about a dollar, and our driver did about ten dollars worth of work for us, but I don’t like it when drivers change their minds at the end.  He made the deal and should stick to it. Agreeing to pay more only encourages drivers to try and rip off more tourists in the future, which is not OK.  Also, he started yelling at us, which really turned us off to paying more. After we finally got back to the ship, it was immediately time to go to the Welcome Reception.  I didn’t even have time to go back on the ship before I headed off to a hotel where we were greeted by drummers, dancers, and women who put flowers around our necks. Once inside, we were welcomed by people from the universities in the area with speeches, food, dancing, and vendors.  It was pretty relaxing just to eat and talk with local Indians.  I even got a henna tattoo on my wrist.  I now know I wouldn’t like a real tattoo because by the second day, I was already sick of it on my hand.  Every time I looked down, I wondered why I was bleeding, but then remembered it was just ink.  Luckily, it’s gone.  It faded after about a week.

            The next day, I went on a three day long home stay to stay with local families in Chennai.  It was organized by the Rotary Club, which I realized before I got there, would mean that everyone would be petty rich and a lot better off than most people in India.  Michael and I met our host family, one man named Varun, who was probably in his sixties.  I later found out he was divorced (a big scandal in India), his children lived in the United States, and he worked in the glass industry.  He took us to his office, then out to lunch at a country club with his friend Varcia.  She was a doctor specializing in nutrition that has spent time in the US, and even spoke on the MV Explorer one year.  You had to wear collared shirts to get into the club and neither Michal nor I looked the part so Varun bought us each polo shirts with the club’s name on it.  After lunch, Varcia took us on a walk around the downtown section of Chennai.  This was more of what I expected from India.  It was absolutely packed and had so many smells I could not identify each one.  Varcia walked into oncoming traffic like it was no big deal, and we had no choice but to follow her.  At one point, I was walking in the street and had a car in front of me, an auto rickshaw behind me, a motorcycle on my right and a cow on my left.  I was boxed in, but still had to keep walking.  We saw some temples, and Michael was really into shopping so we did a lot of that.  At dusk, we headed to a hotel, where the Rotary Club put on a reception for us.  Everyone from the home stay was there, as well as people who were on a service project through the Rotary Club.  Dean Dan spoke, which was awesome, and then my professor, Jeffrey Kottler spoke, which was not awesome.  He spoke about nothing, but somehow tried to make himself sound so important.  It was a horrible surprise to find him there.  After a lot of speeches and dancing, we hung out, had dinner, and went back home.  Varun lived about an hour away from Chennai, in an apartment with three bedrooms, though he lived alone.  We all had our own rooms, but after we talked for a little while, I went straight to bed. 

            The next morning, we woke up, to some delicious chai tea.  I don’t even like tea, but there were so many fresh spices in it, plus it was basically all milk and sugar, it was amazing.  We went out to breakfast, and then SAS had a bus tour for us to Mahabalipuram (spelling, courtesy of Jack), an ancient site with rock carvings of Hindi history.  There was also a giant boulder called the Butterball.  People tried to sell us stuff, and some people still let themselves get suckered into buying their overpriced gifts.  We went to lunch, and then tried to go to Crocodile Park, but apparently that day, one of the employees died of natural causes so we couldn’t go.  We visited an art museum instead.  Varcia picked us up around five and dropped us off at Varun’s office.  Michael wanted to go shopping again, and Varun didn’t know anything else to do with us so he took us to some stores.  I think I was tired, dehydrated, and bored of shopping so I was in a pretty bad mood, which I think made my stomach start to hurt.  We finally finished and Varun took us out to dinner, which put me in a lot better of a mood.  The three of us had a good conversation about the caste system in India, which was not as overt as I had expected it to be.  Varun described it as a system that had worn out its utility.  However, he says it is no longer as difficult for people to have jobs or associate with other people who are outside their caste.  Young people are mostly against it and the system may only really be a problem in more rural or traditional areas of India.  He isn’t sure if it will ever die out though.  The caste system didn’t seem very different from our class system in the U.S. though. While India may have de jure segregation, we still have de facto segregation.  People still tend to stick with others from their class and look down on the people below them.  CEOs will stick together and look down on their employees, who will in turn stick together and not really associate with garbage men.  He tried to take us to a Bollywood movie, but the theater wasn’t showing one that night so we went back to his place, which was really nice, and I pretty much went straight to bed again. 

            The next morning, he took us back to the ship around 11 because I was supposed to meet people in the afternoon, and I hate bailing out on my plans.  Our hosts were allowed to go on a tour of the ship, but Varun didn’t have his passport, and therefore couldn’t get past the tough Indian security.  I don’t think he really wanted to go though.  After lunch, I traveled with a few friends to a zoo, which turned out to be an hour and a half away from the pier.  The zoo was the worst zoo I’ve ever seen.  There were only a couple of ducks and apparently some white tigers.  While some people went on a bike ride around the zoo, I hung out with Stephen and JD.  There were elephants to ride, but they never showed up.  After the zoo failure, we tried to visit a temple, but we got there too late and it was closed.  We just went to an amazing Indian dinner for really cheap and headed back to the ship.

            The next morning, I took a cooking class on Indian vegetarian cooking.  70% of India is vegetarian so a lot of the food is vegetarian.  Our host was an Indian chef who has written several cookbooks and has hosted several Indian cooking shows on Indian TV.  We watched her cook a lot of dishes, tried our hands at coking a few dishes, learned about some of the food customs in India as well as the medicinal purposes behind the foods, and finally ate a delicious Indian lunch.  After getting back to the ship in the afternoon, I went souvenir shopping with Kim for a few hours, went back to the ship for dinner, and finally went to a Bollywood movie late at night.  The movie was about an Indian man trying to play cricket.  As usual, I fell asleep for most of the movie, even though there was a lot of singing, dancing, great music in the background, and unique cinematography.   The movie didn’t start until 10:30 and I can never see a movie in the States without falling asleep anyways so I wasn’t surprised.  The parts I saw were really cool though. 

            Friday, we went to the mall in the morning because we had nothing else really to do.  We had to argue with the rickshaw drivers again, and Elizabeth, Kristin, Matt, and I went to an orphanage in the afternoon.  The Bala Mandir orphanage houses orphans and kids whose parents cannot take care of them.  It houses kids of all ages.  It was started in 1949 by disciples of Gandhi.  These freedom fighters talked to Gandhi while he was in jail.  They asked him what they should do and he suggested they start an orphanage.  We brought a bunch of toys for the kids and we just played with them for a couple of hours.  I tried to teach some of the kids Tick Tack Toe because it is pretty easy, but they didn’t really get it.  They got the concept I think, but every time I put an X in a spot, they would just put another X in a different spot in the grid.  Matt had been giving piggyback rides for a couple of hours and was out of breath so I tried to take over for him. Ultimately, I had one kid on my shoulders and one kid who climbed onto my chest.  I ran around with them for a while and they seemed to enjoy it.  I’m not the best with kids but apparently I can be around them for a little while at least.  We made a donation of the toys, toothbrushes, our spare rupees to the orphanage, took a group picture, and headed back to the ship just in time to not get dock time.

            India was cool because I had a pretty good, non touristy experience.  I spent a good amount of time in Chennai and was always busy.  I also got to know Ajay and Ashoke (I’m not sure of the spelling), the two interport students form India.  My friends and I hung out with them pretty much all week and really got to know them.  They really liked the ship and were sad to leave.  Ashoke said he was going to fly to San Diego to see us when we’re finished, which would be awesome.  India was also pretty tiring.  There are so many people and you constantly have to argue and yell with the drivers.  The traffic is horrible, and the whole port was amazing, but pretty stressful.  I want to go back to every port we’ve visited so far, but I really want to go to North India and see all the sites there, like the Taj.  Next time I go back, I’m giving myself a long time, so I don’t have to rush and I can really take in everything the country has to offer.  Plus, the food was amazing.  This port is my favorite, food wise.