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.

Mystery Port

Hey readers.  My apologies for not updating in a while.  I know I need to write about India and Neptune Day, but things have just been really busy.  They were both fun, but India was kind of exhausting so I think that is the reason I haven't written about it yet.  I'll write about hose two events tomorrow,  hopeuflly.  I also have to tell you guys about Singapore, which we're gang to for the day tomorrow.

 

I trust that you all, who have better access to news, know about the situation in Japan.  With the 8.9 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power plant that is now leaking radiation 200 miles north of Tokyo, ISE has decided we aren't going to Japan anymore.  I only know bits and pieces of the story because internet is so sparse on the ship, but I know it's bad.  The plant started to shake two days ago and people already have signs of radiation poisoning.  It's a bummer not to go, but it's probably for the best.  Japan is a place I can go back to in the future.  I'd be more likely to return there than some of the other ports we are now considering going to.  Plus, I'd rather go to Japan when it's safer and the country is ask at full strength so I can more fully enjoy the country and all it has to offer.

 

Dean Dan made the announcement today in Global Studies.  He is probably the only one on the ship who knows how to talk to a crowd and turn a bad situation into a positive, using just his words.  We should have a new port in a couple of days, once ISE works out all the logistical issues.  Right now, our potential new countries are: Taiwan, South Korea, or the Philippines (where most of our crew is from).  Any of them would be cool, especially South Korea.  The other options were to spend more time in China or Hawaii, which I hope is not the case.  This is the first time in my life where I have no idea where I'll be in three weeks.  It's really exciting actually.  It's a real adventure.  

 

The only thing bad is that now my itinerary shirt, with all the flags from our voyage on it, is now wrong.  My friend and I were joking that this is just a marketing ploy by SAS to get us all to buy more shirts.

Mauritius

Sorry this port entry is so short everyone. We were only in Mauritius for a day and I really didn’t do too much. Next stop is Asia and the rest of my entries should be pretty substantial and more than make up for this weak entry.

This week, I attended a world premier movie. Last Thursday, one of my professors, Jeffrey Kottler screened Dear Mr. Gacey, a movie based on one of his books. It was produced by the same producer who did Monster, and is based on a true story. A kid in one of Kottler’s classes a couple of years ago tried to get into the heads of serial killers and get them to confess their secrets. He developed relationships with seven of them at the same time by posing as people they would have been interested in, had they not been in prison. The movie focused on his relationship with John Gacey, the Clown Killer. There were no famous people in it, and the movie was OK at best. I may be a harsh critic because I don’t like Kottler, but other people seemed to share my reaction. It is cool that it was a true story and I was at the world premier though.

Today (2/27), we arrived in Mauritius, probably the most random place I have ever been. It’s a really small island southeast of Africa, past Madagascar and near Reunion. Because of the actions of the previous voyage (literally drinking the country dry, trashing some hotel rooms, and basically causing havoc…according to rumor), we only spent the day here. Also according to rumor, the Mauritian government has asked us not to come back, and because the itineraries were already in place, the government worked out a deal with ISE to only stay a day, and we’re the last voyage to go. I spent the day on a catamaran, sailing around the island and snorkeling over coral reefs. We took a bus through the capital city, Port Louis on our way to the catamaran. It’s a nice city, a little small and everything was closed on Sunday, but the locals were preparing for a Hindu festival for the God Shivah (spelling) so on our drive, we passed several people in white carrying elaborately decorated shrines. It was pretty cool. Also, their festival is coming up, and everything will be closed for four days so it’s probably good we only spent a day there. The city is kind of like a combination of Hawaii, Africa, and India (from what I hear). We passed a bunch of buildings and shops, some big, some small, some sugarcane fields, all while viewing the extinct volcanoes that are all round.

I went on the catamaran cruise with Semester at Sea so we were probably the only sober catamaran on the island that day. We sailed around and stopped over some coral reefs, about fifteen feet underwater. After snorkeling around for forty five minutes or so, we were treated to a BBQ lunch, probably the best food I have had on an SAS trip, and sailed to another spot, where the water was only a six feet deep, but had a strong undertow. Some people went to the beach, where the water was too shallow to swim, but me and some other people chose to hang out by the boat where we could swim in the water and jump off the boat into the ocean. People from the beach joined us an hour or so later and we spent another hour or so listening to music, jumping into the ocean, trying to pull ourselves back on the boat without using the ladder, and hanging out before heading back to the ship.

All in all, a good day, but I can’t help but feel like I didn’t do as much as I could have in the country. We were only there for a day and a lot was closed, but I had hoped to explore the city. It was still a great though. I didn’t step on a sea urchin, something we were warned about several times, I got to snorkel and have a great lunch, I got to sail, something I have missed, and I got to do all this in a beautiful place. This place is one of the most beautiful places I have been. I felt like I was living in one of my desktop backgrounds with beautiful skies, beaches, and oceans. I also got to meet some new people. I really like how on SAS trips, you get to meet new people, rather than stick with your same group of friends. I am glad I got to visit the country, but I’m not sure how much else there really is to do there.

Next stop, a place where there should be plenty to do, India!

Festival for the Hindu God of Destruction, Shiva

Volcano

Pictures from the catamaran

South Africa

          Cape Town did not disappoint at all. Things started off rough when we were supposed to arrive in the V&A Harbor on the 17^th, but were delayed the whole day due to wind.  The winds were so bad, the pilot couldn’t take our ship in.  Everyone was really upset because the whole ship was really, really excited to go to Cape Town because there is just so much to do in South Africa.  We saw the city in the distance since that morning, but just never made it.  No one could say when the winds would die down enough to make it safe for us to go in, but as the day wore on, I started to lose hope.  It was kind of like a snow day:  no one had any plans, we had to make it up as we went along, we had no idea how long we’d be stuck form, we watched a lot of movies, and we ate a lot of food.  I watched The Hangover and The Karate Kid, and maybe some other movies too.  Everyone was also just so sick of each other, and so angry to be stuck on the ship, people were starting to lose their patience with everyone else.  Uno and Scattergories got pretty heated.  If we hadn’t gotten off the ship the next day, things would have gotten ugly on board.  At least lunch was good and they had an open mic night at the Union. 

          The winds finally died down enough Friday morning for the pilot to declare it was safe enough to take us in the harbor.  We finally docked and cleared immigration by 1:00pm, giving us a good amount of time in Cape Town.  My Habitat trip (along with several SAS trips) was canceled due to the time delays so I had the whole day free.  My trip was through SAS so I should get a refund; a lot of people booked safaris and such independently with plane tickets, and those people were just out of luck.  I spent the first day exploring the city with some friends.  Cape Town is a lot like Sydney; it’s right on the water, there is so much to do, it’s beautiful, quay is pronounced “key”, and all the locals have sweet accents.  There is a multitude of shops, street performers, restaurants, and even Robben Island all within walking distance of the ship.  We walked around, rode the Wheel of Excellence (a giant Ferris wheel with great views of the city), and I bought a new camera from the mall.  My new Sony Cybershot isn’t as nice as my old Cannon, but at least I finally have a camera again.  Now that I’m getting used to it, I like it more.  We checked out the grocery store, and Steven, Ross, and I all went out to dinner before heading back to the ship.  We went out to Longstreet that night, which is really just a downtown strip with a lot of bars and restaurants around.  Our first stop was just a small pub, then we went to Crowbar, which was apparently a “gangster’s bar” as described by one of the patrons (who also told us that our group was the first white people to be in the bar, and he advised us all to stick together so we weren’t mugged), and finally we just went to Fez, a club to just hang out and chill.  We took a taxi home, but on the way, we passed a couple of drunk British people probably coming from the U2 concert who were walking in the road.  I think they were trying to hail a cab, but when our driver didn’t stop, one of the guys put his hand out to hit the car and ended up smashing the mirror.  The mirror was completely smashed and our driver got out to get their information, and there was a screaming match between them because the British people wouldn’t take responsibility for it.  When other people got involved they tried to say how the cab driver hit them with his mirror, and then they brought up race saying how people are coming into this country and taking over (weird for white Europeans to say to our black cab driver in Africa).  We just sat there, not sure what to do, but we figured it was best to stay in the car and stick up for our driver if the police ever came.  The argument didn’t ever get too violent, but after ten minutes the driver seemed to just give up and took us home.  It was pretty bad.

          The next day, we got up early to hike Table Mountain.  I had a homestay at 2 so I was in a bit of a time crunch, but my friends, who are awesome, worked with me and we just went earlier.  Table Mountain is best in the morning anyway because it isn’t as hot and the winds haven’t picked up as much, and sometimes the top of the mountain and the cable cars are closed due to winds.  The mountain is really steep and the trail is pretty much all rocks.  It’s definitely doable; the hike is supposed to take 2-3 hours, but my group finished it in a little less than two hours.  We had amazing views of the city the whole time, and the last bit of the hike is above the cloud cover.  I would just look out and be amazed that we climbed that much in such a short period of time.  We got to the top and took pictures of the city (the clouds are crazy because a lot of the time they are just over Table Mountain and would just blow around so sometimes they would cover up our views of the city, and two minutes later, it would be clear).  After eating at the cafe, me and this girl Erin, who joined our hike and also went on my homestay left the others and frantically headed back down to the ship.  We had less than an hour to take the cable cars down and get a cab back home, but somehow we made it with fifteen minutes to spare and we both made it to the homestay.

            We stayed in a township, where blacks were segregated to during Apartheid.  I think SAS put us in a wealthier township because it was way nicer than I expected.  We arrived in the township and played with the children while we wanted for our “moms” to pick us up.  I stayed with another guy from Semester at Sea with a woman, her husband, and their five children.  Their house was nice; they had electricity, running water, a kitchen, nice couches, and a TV.  I don’t know what I was expecting when I arrived at the township (maybe something like the favellas of Brazil) but I was pleasantly surprised.  Our mom owned a takeout place in the Township.  It was an old storage unit she converted into a food stand so we tried some of her food and then met her husband who owned a barber ship.  It didn’t sound like any of those businesses were very successful so I’m not sure how they can afford such a nice house.  Our father took us to Zoli’s, a market in the township, here a soda company was offering prizes if people got up and danced, and he then showed us the memorials for the Gugulethu Seven and Amy Beihl.  We played soccer with the kids and then hung out at home eating dinner with our family and watching TV.  Apparently their favorite shows are Oprah Winfrey and The Biggest Loser.  It was a very relaxing night (though I did get locked in the bathroom because it didn’t have a doorknob).

          The next morning we left the township and got back to the ship by 10:30.  I went out with Russ and Elizabeth to visit the Aquarium (nothing special, aside from seeing some penguins), do some more exploring around Cape Town, and walk along the beach.  Ports can be pretty exhausting since you want to see/do/experience everything so it’s nice to have a day just to casually walk around without having plans.  We had lunch on the waterfront and walked Clifton Beach (a beach with no wind) and finally returned to the ship for dinner.  We went to look for Internet, which didn’t really work.  There was a restaurant that had Wi-Fi, but their network was down so we just sat there, listened to music, ordered some food, and tried to connect to some other networks.  It was not very successful, but still fun.  

          I had an early night that night because I woke up at 4:45am the next morning to go cage diving.  I was supposed to do it on the first day, but that didn’t work out so I was worried I wouldn’t make it.  One of my friends was going and she invited me, which worked out better because I wouldn’t have made it otherwise, especially since we missed that first day.  We drove for two hours outside of Cape Town where we ate breakfast and learned a little about Great White Sharks, who are not aggressive towards humans at all and are actually in danger because of humans.  One of the biggest problems is shark fin soup, where the fin is removed, but the shark is tossed back into the water, where it usually just dies.  We boarded a catamaran and drove for a few minutes on incredibly choppy, though incredibly fun water to get to Shark Alley, where the sharks often hang out.  They chummed the water and poured fish oil in the water to attract sharks, so it was kind of weird to swim in it.  Here were people on our boat on holiday from all over who were seasick/hangover so they ended up throwing up in the ocean, which again I dove in.  We were fitted with wetsuits, boots, and masks, and board the cage in groups of seven.  Everyone in the group gets into one giant cage, and just dives down when they tell you to in order to see a shark.  The chum helps attract sharks, and the guides also throw black bouys on lines in the water to look like seals.  The water was only 56 degrees Fahrenheit, but it was so worth it.  I saw three sharks and our group as a whole saw seven.  I looked down into the water and I saw a shark look right at me and open his mouth.  The whole experience felt very natural because they weren’t making the sharks grab onto a piece of meat and thrash around just for a good show.  We saw sharks as they really are, which may not be exciting at times for some people because they just swam around, but I loved every minute of it.  When we weren’t in the water, you could still see sharks from the top of the boat.  On our way back, we drove to Geyser Rock, to see an island that was covered with 50,000 cape fur seals.  You couldn’t see land because there were just so many seals.  The island smelled like the zoo, but it was so cool.  After we were back on land and ready to go, our driver took us to a village where we could go shopping and took us to KFC, which is way better than it is in the states and apparently provides scholarships for South African students to go to college, so it’s really popular with the locals.  I talked to our driver on the way home and had a relaxing night talking to people on the ship and writing post cards.  I needed a little time to myself just to relax.

          For my final day in Cape Town, I went for a run with Elizabeth, and then headed out to Robben Island with Russ.  Robben Island was a prison for political prisoners in South Africa from the sixties until 1991.  Nelson Mandela served 18 of his 27 year sentence on Robben Island.  We toured the prison and the island, but I was sort of disappointed.  We got a tour of the prison from an ex prisoner, which was impressive because I don’t think I would be able to give tours in a place that was such a horrific portion of my life, but we didn’t learn much about the history of the jail or about Nelson Mandela and Apartheid.  There were so many tour groups that the whole thing felt really rushed.  I think the island has just become too touristy.  The ferry back to Cape Town left later than we planned, so we didn’t have time to eat a real lunch before our next visit, so our last meal in Cape Town wasn’t South African, but McDonald’s.  It was also a lot nicer/better than the McDonald’s we have at home though.  Then we went to Cape Town Stadium, where the World Cup was and where the U2 concert was just a few days ago.  I tried to get tickets to the concert, but it didn’t work out so I was glad to finally get into the stadium.  We toured the whole stadium, everything from the bleachers to the VIP boxes to the media room to the locker rooms (that last part was kind of weird).  I like when the World Cup or Olympics goes to somewhat more developing countries, like South Africa or Brazil because it gives these countries chances to improve and show the world how amazing they are.  Plus, it pours so much money into these countries, which a good thing.  People were really worried that South Africa wouldn’t be able to handle the World Cup, but their stadium was really nice and it proved that they are a strong country.  After the stadium tour, we just went souvenir shipping to spend our last rand and headed back to the ship.  I was really worried about that day in Cape Town because we had so much we wanted to do, but no firm plans to do any of it.  Russ and I tried to get tickets for Robben Island a few days ago, but all the tickets for Tuesday were sold out, but luckily we arrived early and there were cancelations for the early ferry.  We wanted to visit the stadium, but tours had just opened up that day because they were cleaning up after the U2 concert, and we weren’t sure how crowded they would be or how much the tours would cost.  It ended up being a really great day because everything worked out, and it was taco night on the ship, which was incredible.  I then spent most of the night hanging out with people and not studying for my stress management test the next day.  I’ve read all the chapters so I don’t think it will be bad, plus I hate my professor and find both of the classes I’m in with him boring and a waste of my time because we don’t learn.  What kind of teacher schedules a midterm the day we get back from port?

          Life is pretty great on ship, I really can’t complain.  I will be back in Cape Town for sure one day.  There was just so much I didn’t get to do, like visiting the winelands, rappelling down Table Mountain, and hiking Lion’s Head, just to name a few.  It’s by far the most livable place we’ve been to so far, though it’s got a lot of work to do before I move here.  I love the city, but there is just so much inequality among the races and socioeconomic groups.  Their health care system needs work, and the government doesn’t support the people.  Plus, there’s major conflict between the ANC and the Democratic Alliance, all vying for control of South Africa.  I think this country will become very strong in the future though, and I will be back for sure. 

Four days until Mauritius...

Table Mountain

Base of Table Mountain

From the top of Table Mountain

Penguins

V&A Waterfront (where we docked)

Geyser Rock full of Cape Fur Seals

Robben Islan

World Cup Stadium