I really really loved Mauritius. For those of you that do not know - Mauritius is an Island in between India and Africa. It is right of the east coast of Madagascar. Mauritius itself is only about 35 miles long but it has the most cultural diversity I have ever seen. You can go into a restaurant and see a Christian African women speaking french eating an India Dosa at a restaurant that serves Mauritius, French, Indian, African, and American food.
We docked in Port Louis, the biggest city of Mauritius. The city is on the west coast more than south. The first day 13 friends of mine and I took a van to Blue Bay because Thomas’s mom booked a hostel there and it was super cheap. Blue bay is in the south east corner of the island. That day, we got settled at the hostel and headed for the beach. On the way, Sarah, Tolan, Michael, Carson, and I stopped for some lunch. I had seen signs for pizza and sandwiches and they had made me crave american food. But, I know that my group was trying to eat some Mauritian food. Luckily, the restaurants have such an array of food that we were able to find a place that suited all of our taste buds. I had a chicken sandwich and fries - yum. Afterwards, we hopped on a bus and headed to the beach. Well, like you have learned in my past blogs, nothing ever goes completely smoothly. Our bus the broke down. It didn’t end up being that big of a deal, we just hopped on the next one about fifteen minutes later. When we finally got to the beach we met up with the rest of our group. Someone had approached us about snorkeling so we took their offer. We all hopped on a boat and went to the lagoon to snorkel. The fish were beautiful and the coral was sick. It was kind of an overcast day with a little rain but that didn’t ruin our day at all.
After snorkeling we headed back to the hostel to get cleaned up and such. There was free wifi so i got to skype with my rents. That made me really really happy and I think it made my marm and dad real happy too.
That night the town we were in was pretty dead. After all, it was a tuesday night. We had heard that there was a restaurant near us that had live music so we decided to check that out. We found it by asking another restaurant for directions and having them randomly call a free shuttle for us. It was super nice. There was live music and good food. I got a scrumptious hawaiian pizza. We were there for a while and then Carson, Michael, Tolan, Sarah, and I decided to call it a night because we had plans to get up early in the morning. The two couples and I shared a bedroom. Tolan, Sarah, and I even shared a bed haha. Fifth wheel is always fun :). They were chill about it though so it was all good.
The next morning we woke up around 6 because we had arranged with our Hostel ‘mom’ to take us around the island. The 6 of us squeezed into her little car because it was cheaper than getting a van.
Our first stop was at a hiking trail. We thought the trail took us to waterfalls but we never really found them. We did find about 6 inches of mud for about 40 feet though. We laughed about it and had a good time. Our hike was only about an hour long but we saw a bunch of frogs.
Next stop was the actual waterfalls. They were so pretty. First, we saw them from like high up and then decided to work our way down to them. We found our way and were able to climb on the top of the waterfalls and work our way down a little bit. They were so relaxing and fun. I really love waterfalls.
Third stop way at the red river gorge or something. It was just a really really nice view of the island. We were kind of on a tight schedule so we pulled a hiroshima and got out, took pictures, and went on our way. (I say ‘pull a hiroshima’ because in Japan max, lele, ryan, and I took a train to hiroshima, took a picture, and hopped back on the train)
Right by the gorge were the seven colored earth sand dunes. Overrated. I thought by seven color they meant like red, orange, yellow, green, blue, etc. But, apparently what they meant was mocha-brown, chocolate-brown, cappuccino-brown, etc. There were some hue turtles there though. They were pretty cool looking but a little ugly.
Next, we were headed for the beach. Tolan’s uncle lived in Mauritius and had recommend a beach called La Monde. It was easily the most beautiful beach I have ever seen in my life. The water was like bright bright bright blue and the sand was super white. We only had about an hour and a half there but we wished we had a week and a half. We got some food there. I had a burger and fries - it hit the spottttttt. Then, we just relaxed in the water because it was like 90 degrees outside.
We decided to ourselves some time at the end of the day to shop in Port Louis because we had heard good things. We left the beach at 2:30. We were told it takes an our to get back to Port Louis. We had to be back on the ship by 6 p.m. but that really means by 5 p.m. so that we are not late. Well, around 4:45 we realize that we are cutting it too close for comfort. There had been a traffic accident right outside Port Louis that had backed up traffic for miles and miles. We really had no idea what to do at this point. If we were late getting back at the ship then we would be getting dock time. What that means is that for every 15 minutes after 6 we are getting back on the ship that is 3 hours we have to stay on the ship at the next port. SO shitty if that happens. At this point traffic was bumper to bumper and we were about 4 or so miles away from the port. We decided to get out and walk since it seemed faster than driving. We walked for about twenty minutes and realized that traffic had started moving, it was still slow but now seemed faster than walking. We weren’t really sure waht to do. A taxi went by that had 2 of our staff in it - the psychologist and her friend. We flagged them down and they had one spot left so I hopped in there. My friends hopped in another taxi. For some reason i felt like if I showed up to the ship late with the psychologist it would look better than showing up with my friends. Long story short our taxi driver missed the turn for the port so we had to go out of our way and blah blah blah we got back to the ship around 5:20 and there was line to get through security that was like 30 feet long. We assumed we were screwed but, security luckily went fast and we got on the ship around 5:30. My friend’s taxi did not miss the turn so they were already on the ship by the time we pulled up to it. Thats karma for me bailing on them. oh well, it worked out.
Okay so I don’t even know if this story is going to make sense at all but it was really really funny at the time so I figure I will give it a try. A few days before Mauritius I had read on Wikitravel.com about the waterfalls. Wiki described them as ‘awkward to get to’ which my friends and I found really strange. We were all talking about like what could possibly be awkward about getting to waterfalls. We were like ‘why couldn’t they say difficult or confusing or even like misleading?” So, the night before we went to the waterfalls we were joking about it like ‘is everyone ready for this awkward walk to the waterfalls?’ We started discussing what could possibly make a walk awkward and we were like ‘maybe you walk through a nude beach on the way...thats awkward’ or ‘maybe you run into your ex-girlfriends like “uhh can’t go left [shreeek] thats awkward”. It was just really funny all together. We obviously joked about this for like a solid hour and completely killed it but it was entertaining for sure. So like I said, when we went looking for the waterfalls, that we didn’t find, the only awkward thing about the walk was that it was a really deep muddy path. Soo I don’t know what awkward situations we missed out on by not continuing all the way there.
I don’t really feel like proofreading this entry so if there are typos and such just ignore them. Currently, we are on our way to South Africa. The water is a little more rough than it has been in the past which is a bummer. Apparently around the cape of hope it is suppose to get really rough.
P.S. I LOVE EMAILS so email me :) jgpolitz@semesteratsea.net
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Ship life
Once again, ship life has been kind of uneventful. The weather has been so beautiful so everyone just lays out like usual :) :) Everyone on the ship takes a class called global studies. We had a global studies exam yesterday so uptil then everyone was cramming for that. I studied a ton because I bombed the last one.
The other day we crossed the equator! This means I am on the southern hemisphere which means its officially summer for us - even though it has felt like summer for the last month anyway. But, on ships, the day you cross the equator is called Neptune Day. Neptune day for us was Saturday so we didn’t have class. We were woken up by the crew dressed up in like warrior gear banging drums and chanting. Then, we went up to the 7th deck and went though ‘initiation’. Basically, fake fish guts were poured on us, we jump in the pool, and then we kiss a fish. It was a stupid little fun activity. The rest of the day was devoted to the head shavings. It is a tradition for people to shave their heads on Neptune day. Believe it or not about half of the 100 or so people that shaved their heads were girls. If the girls hair was long enough then it would be donated to locks of love. I did not shave my head because I am still trying to make new friends and look for my future husband. Shaving my head would have stopped me from doing both of those things. Some of the girls can pull off the bald look but others kind of creep me out. It took balls though, I will give them that.
That afternoon I took a nap and had a weird dream/nightmare that there were weird bald people walking around in the next port. Then, when I woke up I was totally freaked out that so many people had shaved heads.
We will be in Mauritius tomorrow. Mauritius is a small island, about 30 miles long, between India and Africa right next to Madagascar. It is suppose to be a very cultural island so I think it’ll be sweet. We are only there for one night and two days. My plan is to rent a bike with some friends and explore. I hope to find some water falls and other cool stuff. The second day I hope to go snorkeling in the morning and maybe to this sweet zip line park in the afternoon.
That is all for now, sorry for the delay on the India blog entry! Feel free to keep emailing me because I have a lot of time between ports from here on out. 63 days down, 43 days to go! Its so bitter sweet its not even funny.
Tomorrow is my sister’s birthday and friday is my brother’s birthday. It is crazy that we are all in different countries, and continents, right now! I love you Mallory and Gregory hope you both have great birthdays!!!!!
The other day we crossed the equator! This means I am on the southern hemisphere which means its officially summer for us - even though it has felt like summer for the last month anyway. But, on ships, the day you cross the equator is called Neptune Day. Neptune day for us was Saturday so we didn’t have class. We were woken up by the crew dressed up in like warrior gear banging drums and chanting. Then, we went up to the 7th deck and went though ‘initiation’. Basically, fake fish guts were poured on us, we jump in the pool, and then we kiss a fish. It was a stupid little fun activity. The rest of the day was devoted to the head shavings. It is a tradition for people to shave their heads on Neptune day. Believe it or not about half of the 100 or so people that shaved their heads were girls. If the girls hair was long enough then it would be donated to locks of love. I did not shave my head because I am still trying to make new friends and look for my future husband. Shaving my head would have stopped me from doing both of those things. Some of the girls can pull off the bald look but others kind of creep me out. It took balls though, I will give them that.
That afternoon I took a nap and had a weird dream/nightmare that there were weird bald people walking around in the next port. Then, when I woke up I was totally freaked out that so many people had shaved heads.
We will be in Mauritius tomorrow. Mauritius is a small island, about 30 miles long, between India and Africa right next to Madagascar. It is suppose to be a very cultural island so I think it’ll be sweet. We are only there for one night and two days. My plan is to rent a bike with some friends and explore. I hope to find some water falls and other cool stuff. The second day I hope to go snorkeling in the morning and maybe to this sweet zip line park in the afternoon.
That is all for now, sorry for the delay on the India blog entry! Feel free to keep emailing me because I have a lot of time between ports from here on out. 63 days down, 43 days to go! Its so bitter sweet its not even funny.
Tomorrow is my sister’s birthday and friday is my brother’s birthday. It is crazy that we are all in different countries, and continents, right now! I love you Mallory and Gregory hope you both have great birthdays!!!!!
India
Namaste!
I just finished my traveling through India and it was quite an adventure. Independently traveling, compared to doing a Semester at Sea trip, is very exhausting and usually frustrating at times. This port was by far the most frustrating one to travel through. I was with four other people; Tolan. Sarah, Carson, and Thomas. We really wanted to see the Taj Mahal which is in Agra, northern India, but the ship docked in Chennai first and then Cochin – both of which are in Southern India. But, we booked a flight to Delhi for the second day and a flight from Varanasi on the second to last day. That left us the 12th, 13th, and 14th to travel.
Disclaimer: Due to the frustration my group and I had while we had while traveling, I am still a little bitter towards India. So, if you foresee your self taking any of my upcoming hostility toward India personally then maybe you should not read this post. Love, Jill.
Day 1 March 11th 2010
We arrived in Chennai, India. I once again had no idea what to expect. I was told it was gonna be hot, poor, and dirty. That was an understatement. I was also told that every American women is looked at as a slut when they get to India due to shows like Baywatch, so all women should have their knees and shoulders covered while traveling India. That was kind of an exaggeration.
Sarah and I decided to go on a hunt for an internet café while Greta was on a short SAS trip that was done in a few hours. We were told that the internet café was less than 3k away so we decided to walk. We walked, and walked, and got hounded by people, and walked some more. It was blistering hot and humid. i was wearing jean capris so my knees were covered. Needless to say, I was sweating my balls off. Anyways, No sign of an internet café or even much civilization at all was there. We saw Eric and Thomas go by in a rickshaw and decided to join them. They got off back at the ship and Sarah and I ventured with this rickshaw driver to an internet café. It was a journey but we eventually got there and they did not have wifi or the skype. Aka it was a completely worthless trip. I hate getting my hopes up and getting shot down when it comes to skyping!
Later that day Sarah and I went to meet up with Greta back at the ship. It was hard to want to leave the ship again and explore some more but we did it because we are only in India once. We stuck with the same rickshaw driver. He showed us around to all these shops, the big mall, a spot for lunch, and the beach. It was a nice day of exploring Chennai. I bought a few things but the best thing was the wild pair of pants I scored on. just kidding, but really they are wild. The last event of the night was checking out the beach. It was pretty nice but no one was in bathing suits, which i expected. There were mini carnival rides there for kids and snack stands in the parking lot. I got to ride a horse for a dollar. It was sweet. I can’t say Chennai, India had a crazy night life so we played it cool on the ship for the rest of the night.
Day 2 March 12th 2010
This morning began the most adventurous week of my life. We were late leaving for the airport to catch our flight to Delhi. Consequently, our taxi drive was fifty times crazier than it would have been if we weren’t running late. But, we made it to the airport on time, caught our flight, had a smooth ride, and got to Delhi safely. (By the way, I use to the term airport lightly because it didn’t actually have any terminals and the desks were all outside.) The airport had a tourist help desk that hooked us up with a ‘nice’ hotel and taxi driver to get us there. We were given the choice between two hotels - one cheap and one cheaper. We decided to go to the nicer of the two and that was a good decision. The hotel was called a Sheraton but it was farrrrr from it. Anyways, I am done bashing. The hotel gave us what we needed - a bed and a bathroom.
Before leaving the hotel we decided to talk to them about train tickets and such. Let me lay out the situation for you: We currently planned on going to Agra the next morning by train then spending the day there and taking the overnight train to Varanasi. In Varanasi we’d explore for the day, get a hotel for the night, and then catch our flight back to the ship the next afternoon. The problem was that we did not have a train ticket from Delhi to Agra and we were on the wait list for the overnight train to Varanasi. In addition to the fact that we did not book any other hotels. Basically, after spending way too much time in the hotel’s travel agent’s office we decided that we’d let the agent get us a driver to Agra and then back to Delhi and spend another night in Delhi. Then, take a flight from Delhi to Varanasi the next afternoon. The situation kind of sucked but we figured it was our only option. It still kind of left our plans in the air but alteast we had a plan B if we didn’t get on to the overnight train. Needless to say, we left the hotel travel agent’s office very frustrated. We needed to eat.
Next, we headed to get some food. We were all about finding a local restaurant to eat a good India meal at. We succeeded and had a great meal. Some sag chicken, paneer, chicken masala, naan, and more that i don’t know the name of. To be honest I was a little nervous about eating the food because I don’t have the most reliable stomach int he world and I know that I couldn't rely on India having the most reliable toilets either. But, no worries, my stomach was fine.
After lunch we were on a quest to find an instrument shop for Tolan. Tolan was determined to get a sweet instrument because he is totally musical and his parents gave him money for his bday to pick one. Long story short, he bartered the hell out of this one guy and got a Harmonium and 2 drums. We were told that the post office would have time to pack the instruments and get them ready to ship before they close. Well, we took them there and they began to pack them up. Don’t even begin to think that they used standard shipping boxes because they didn't. They wrapped the instruments in layers of bubble wrap and then HAND SEWED potato looking sacks around them. about 2 hours later they were done. At this point the post office was closed. COOL. We decided to just lug them around for the day and ship them in Agra. When we got to post office in Agra they told us that they needed to see inside the packages but they did not have an xray machine. There was no f’ing way we were letting them open these packages and then take the time to resew them up. We said forget it and we decided to just bring them onto the ship so that Tolan can just ship them when we get back to the U.S.A. Consequently, we were lugging these instruments around the next couple days, which isn’t as big of a damper as it may sound.
Later that evening, since the instrument ordeal took about 4 hours, we decided to go to a government run travel agent because we felt like the guy at the hotel was ripping us off (this becomes a common theme throughout the whole trip). We got the travel agency and the people running it were cool as hell. It was a guy and girl that were dating. The guy hooked us up with drivers, tour guides, hotels, and train tickets for the rest of our time in India. It was a little pricy but it was freak load of stress off our shoulders. They were suppose to close and go to a movie at 7 and we kept them there til like 8:30 with all our questions and little details so we decided to make it up to them by treating them to dinner. They picked the place and it was sweet. It was called Picodellis. It was totally modern and cool.
The last stop of the night was the movie theatre. We couldn’t be in India without seeing BOLLYWOOD MOVIE! The movie we saw was called Atitha. Before we got into the theatre the guards frisked us and took our camera batteries until after the movie. The movie ended up being pretty bad, especially since it was all in Hindi, but I am glad we went. The popcorn was banging though no doubt.
That night I had my first hallucination due to the Malaria meds I am on. I was sleeping next to my friend Carson. I woke up and I was positive that she was spooning with the bell boy from that hotel. I stared for a while, unsure if I should give them some time alone or maybe save Carson from this weird boy. I decided to reach over and touch him to make sure he was there. Needless to say, it was just Carson...alone.
Day 3 March 13th 2010
So today was one of the most frustrating days of my life so it will be very difficult to keep this entry G rated when it comes to my language. But, i will try my best.
First of all, we were off to Agra, where the Taj Mahal is. We only had that day until like 11 pm to spend in Agra so we were excited to get there and explore. The travel agents told us that it would take three hours tops to get to Agra. 7 HOURS LATER we arrived in Agra via stick shift car on the streets, not highways, of India. Oh, and we specifically said that we did not want a tour guide because we really wanted to be able to go around on our own and not just be tourists. Well, we got out of the car in Agra and there was our good ‘ol tour guide. HE SUCKED. We got to the Taj Mahal happy as can be (kinda). I won’t lie, it was really really beautiful - better than the pictures I had seen. The story about it is sweet too. Basically an emporer had the taj built for his wife when she died and her and his tombs are the only ones in the whole building. Everything about the Taj Mahal is symmetrical so that makes the architecture look awesome. We got there around 4:30 so we decided to stick around for sunset. Time went by, the sun went down, and we were STILL there. FYI there is nothing to do at the Taj after you’ve already taken all of the pictures you want and seen every inch of the mosc. Our tour guide conveniently lost his cell phone and told us to wait for him before we leave. Well, he never came back so we decided to head out. Luckily, or maybe unluckily, our tour guide was at the exit looking for us. We were pretty much fuming at him because he wasted a good part of our day. But, to think positively, if i was stranded somewhere for 2 hours in India I would definitely want it to be at the Taj Mahal.
Unfortunately, the day did not get much better. The tour guides and rickshaw drivers have been notorious for bringing tourists to these Marble Emporium shops. Basically, they are huge stores with stuff from carpets to gadget at ridiculous prices. If they bring tourists to these stores they get a free t-shirt or something so they always do it. Well, we knew about this setup already so we specifically told our tour guide that we DO NOT want to go to any of those places we just want to go get spices and tea..........I am sure you can guess where our next stop was. ONE OF THOSE STUPID EMPORIUMS!!!! I wanted to murder this tour guide, as did all my friends. To top it off, we thought we had some more time to go shopping and maybe get some food but our tour guide then told us that we were an hour and a half from the train station and we have to be there two hours early. Aka we were now heading to the freakin’ train station. OUR WHOLE DAY CONSISTED OF A CAR RIDE, THE TAJ FOR WAY TOO LONG, AND A DUMB @$$ EMPORIUM.
So, we headed to the train station. I don’t know why I thought this train station would be even some what decent but it was NOT. AT ALL. We arrived at 9:30 pm. We walked to the ‘waiting room’. Our whole walk there we were dodging bird poop because the rafters of the station were COVERED with birds. Then, we got into the waiting room and I couldn’t help but notice a few RATS running around ...ew. An hour and a half later we were getting excited that our train would be there soon so we carried our stuff to the platform. We checked the train times and realized our train was running an hour late. (notice how everything is getting better and better as the day goes on) My friends were hungry so we looked for some food. I cant say i had much of an appetite at this point. At this point in our journey I was in a very bad mood but I knew everyone was so I tried not to express my anger, i just I kept quite. We found a food area and sat there. My friends ordered doll (a gravy based stew type thing) and some naan (bread). Well, when the ‘waiter’ brought out the doll he spilled it not all over my pants (that i planned to wear the rest of the trip) but also down the side of my backpack into my water bottle holder and onto my hat that was in the holder. Lucky for this Indian man he did not know the meaning of F*** you so i refrained from even saying it. But, I would really have liked to call my mom crying and get her to buy me a plane ticket back to my ship. After dinner we went back to the waiting room and propped our feet up on our bags so no rats touched us. Basically for every hour that went by the train delayed an hour. FINALLY at 2:45 am our train arrived. But, the train was about 40 cars long and of course we were at the wrong end so we had to sprint to the correct end with our backpacks and Tolan’s instruments. LUCKILY, we found our beds on the sleeper train and they were perfectly fine. That was definitely a sigh of relief. My friend Thomas was on the top bunk next to mine so I didn’t feel completely unsafe.
That night I had another Hallucination due to my malaria medicine. I woke up in the middle of the night and on the end of Thomas’s bed I could have swore there was a monkey. The same monkey I saw swinging from the rafters at the train station. I wasn’t sure what to do about it so I closed my eyes and fell asleep as fast as possible.
Day 4 March 14th, 2010
I woke up very confused, somehow forgetting that I was on a sleeper train in the middle of India. Originally, we thought the train was suppose to get to Varanasi at like noon. Therefore, we assumed that since it was 3 hours late to pick us up then it won’t be getting to Varanasi until like 3 pm. We were wrong, luckily. We talked to some India people on the train that let us know that our stop was coming up in about 25 minutes. This really really helped us considering there was no conductor or anyone telling us when to get off or even what station we were at when we stopped. It all worked out. We got off at the right stop and found our driver who for some reason thought our train was suppose to get in at 7 am so he was mad that we were so late? whatevs.
That day, we made it clear to our driver that we did not need a tour guide to show us around the city or take us to lunch - we wanted to explore on our own. So, for the rest of the afternoon we explored Varanasi. We were not in a very touristy area which was nice. When we walked down the dirt roads we were see a combination of MONKEYS (!!!), rickshaws, cars, bikes, and livestock on the roads. There were stray dogs walking around all over the place. The shops (i also use this word lightly because there were no doors, walls, lights, or air condition) along the sides of the road consisted of all sorts of stuff but mostly fabric, jewelry, shoes, and mini snack shacks. There was this one back alley of shops (which were really little huts) that we went down. As we walked down the India people would say stuff like “Hi Hello Lady, would you like some scarf?” and if you ignored them you would hear “Hi Hello? LADY? Hiii!”. All the huts had a sign that said ‘fixed price’ on it but the prices were far from fixed. Although stuff was already super cheap we still felt the need to barter the prices down because we knew they had hiked them up just because we were tourists. After shopping for a while we got lunch at a local place again. All the Indian food was kind of blending together - some mush, like pareer or masala, with some chicken, and some bread - either naan or roti. It was all usually good but it put our stomachs in a doozie (doozie is in my word dictionary - interesting)
After dinner we had plans to meet a guide back at our hotel because we were going on boat ride with him that evening. The boat ride was on the Ganges at sunset. I don’t know too much about the Ganges but what I do know is that it is the most sacred water for the Indians. They bath in this water, they wash their clothes, they drink it, they do everything in it. But, it is some of the dirtiest water ever - we were advised to not even make contact with it. Along this Ganges are these stairs called Ghats. They are just stairs that face the sun that run into the Ganges. As we boated down the river we would see people bathing on the ghats.
There is one famous spot on the Ganges called the burning site. At this spot there are fires built to burn the bodies of dead people. This is very symbolic in India. When someone dies they are suppose to be burned in a fire (just like a camp fire) for 24 hours. Their soul goes to heaven and then their bones and ash are tossed into the Ganges afterwards. Usually only the men related to the burning person watch the fire because tears are said to interrupt the soul going to heaven and since women are known to be more emotional, they do risk the chance of crying. These burning sites were really interesting.
The rest of the night consisted of us just walking around Varanasi some more and then heading back to the hotel. We had plans to wake up for the sunset so we knew not to stay up late.
Day Five: March 15th, 2010
Rise and Shine at 5:30 a.m. We headed back to the Ganges for another boat ride. This ride we went the opposite direction down the river so we saw some different ghats and such. Since it was morning there were a lot more people bathing and playing in the water to get ‘clean’. The sun rise was epic so I am glad we got to see it. Last night the mosquitos were horrific but they were not nearly as bad this morning. There were lots of monkeys on the ghats this morning along with some goats, cows, chickens, and puppies. I love puppies and it killed me that I couldn’t play with them!
After our boat ride we decided to walk down to the burning sites because you couldn’t see too much from the water. While we were there there was only one fire currently burning. We saw someone’s intestine’s in the middle of it. It really hit us that people are actually burned in these fires. I also saw a stray dog gnawing on a human bone :(. I learned that there are a few types of people that are not burned in the fires but rather just thrown right into the ganges. Two of these types of people are kids and pregnant women. The reason is along the lines of the idea that kids have not lived long enough to have a soul worth burning (or something) . And, consequently, since they do not burn kids then they will not burn a women with a child inside her either.
Next on the agenda was our city tour. We went to a University in Varanasi. It only costs about 8 dollars a year, believe it or not. We then checked out a few temples. I had expressed my interest in all the monkeys around India and how I loved to watch them. Because I had expressed that interest, our tour guide took us to the monkey temple. Well, this is where my relationship with monkeys went from love-love to love-hate. The walk way to the temple was filled with monkeys. No cages, no gates, no fences, NOTHING. Well, I saw a baby monkey eating a banana so I crouched down to watch it. Apparently its mommy didn’t like this because she began to SPRINT, if monkeys can sprint, at me. For those who know me very well know that I did a very obnoxious scream of horror and ran away. Luckily, I was safe. But, I didn’t like that one bit. Needless to say, we were not there much longer. I do find it crazy that monkeys’ bodies work so similar to ours. Like if a monkey wants a banana it just grabs a banana and peels it with it’s fingers. If you see a monkey- pay attention to how it sits. I noticed a bunch of these monkeys sitting on their butts and resting their arm on their knee just like a human would. Weird, So weird.
Last stop on the city tour was a silk shop. FINALLY a tour guide that wasn’t trying to rip us off. This was a wholesale shop that loved our business and had an actual fixed price that was very do-able. I’m not gonna go into details of what I bought here because a lot of you will be finding out around christmas time :)
It was now time to go back to Cochin, where the ship was. (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) We went to the airport and worked our flights out, luckily. After some confusion we all got onto the same flight to Mumbai (where our layover was). When we arrived in Mumbai we had a layover and then were heading to Cochin. Well, no one decided to tell us that there were two different airports in Mumbai so rather than having a leisurely layover we were actually completely freaking out trying to figure out where to go. We found it. We got on the plane. We got to Cochin. PHEW! One would think that we would go right to the ship to shower and sleep. But, no. We needed to go through immigration before getting back on the ship and the office closed at 8 p.m. It was now 10:30 p.m. so we had to stay in a hotel room that was about 10 minutes from our ship. It was kind of a tease but it could have been worst.
Day Six: March 16th, 2010
We finally reached our last day of India. I thought I would never see the day. My stomach was A little confused so I wasn’t really trying to go anywhere. But, once again I figured that I was only going to be India once, EVER. (sorry for the pessimism)
Anyways, I went out with Greta, Sarah, and our new friend uhh Kayla? I think that was her name. Cochin is a set of islands so we decided to take a ferry over to another island to do some shopping and get stamps. Well, after about a half hour we were uncomfortably hot and didn’t really see anywhere to shop so we got stamps and called it a day.
After getting back to the ship I realized I still had 2,000 ruppies which is about $40. I did not want to leave India with that much India money because I would never have any use for it, ever. Consequently, I had to get back off the ship to find a money exchange place. OF COURSE this was not a simple task. I took a rickshaw (a motor scooter w/ a cart built onto it). The first bank we went to did not have any U.S. dollars. They recommended another bank. The rickshaw driver had quite some trouble finding this bank but eventually we got there. When I got there they told me they were able to do it. They took about a half hour to figure out how many U.S. dollars to give me. Then, 20 minutes later they realized that in the whole bank they only had four 5 dollar bills and six 1 dollar bills - I needed 40 dollars. So whatever. I decided to just exchange some of my money for that 26 dollars and then just go shopping with my extra ruppies because I did not have the tolerance to try to find another place. Well, once again, my driver took me to all those stupid freaking emporium shops. I did not have much patience so when I saw the emporium coming up on the road I would be like I DON’T WANT TO GO THERE SO DO NOT STOP. He got the point. Finally, I just told him to take me back to the ship. Beleive it or not something convenient actually happened - on the way back to the ship we passed an outdoor market, which I wanted to go to initially, and we stopped there. I spent the rest of my money and FINALLY headed back to the ship. The rickshaw driver knew I was a female tourist so he totally tried to rip me off but I was ready for it so I gave him the amount of money I had thought was legit and ran onto the ship before he could do anything about it. THE END.
PEACE OUT INDIA
I just finished my traveling through India and it was quite an adventure. Independently traveling, compared to doing a Semester at Sea trip, is very exhausting and usually frustrating at times. This port was by far the most frustrating one to travel through. I was with four other people; Tolan. Sarah, Carson, and Thomas. We really wanted to see the Taj Mahal which is in Agra, northern India, but the ship docked in Chennai first and then Cochin – both of which are in Southern India. But, we booked a flight to Delhi for the second day and a flight from Varanasi on the second to last day. That left us the 12th, 13th, and 14th to travel.
Disclaimer: Due to the frustration my group and I had while we had while traveling, I am still a little bitter towards India. So, if you foresee your self taking any of my upcoming hostility toward India personally then maybe you should not read this post. Love, Jill.
Day 1 March 11th 2010
We arrived in Chennai, India. I once again had no idea what to expect. I was told it was gonna be hot, poor, and dirty. That was an understatement. I was also told that every American women is looked at as a slut when they get to India due to shows like Baywatch, so all women should have their knees and shoulders covered while traveling India. That was kind of an exaggeration.
Sarah and I decided to go on a hunt for an internet café while Greta was on a short SAS trip that was done in a few hours. We were told that the internet café was less than 3k away so we decided to walk. We walked, and walked, and got hounded by people, and walked some more. It was blistering hot and humid. i was wearing jean capris so my knees were covered. Needless to say, I was sweating my balls off. Anyways, No sign of an internet café or even much civilization at all was there. We saw Eric and Thomas go by in a rickshaw and decided to join them. They got off back at the ship and Sarah and I ventured with this rickshaw driver to an internet café. It was a journey but we eventually got there and they did not have wifi or the skype. Aka it was a completely worthless trip. I hate getting my hopes up and getting shot down when it comes to skyping!
Later that day Sarah and I went to meet up with Greta back at the ship. It was hard to want to leave the ship again and explore some more but we did it because we are only in India once. We stuck with the same rickshaw driver. He showed us around to all these shops, the big mall, a spot for lunch, and the beach. It was a nice day of exploring Chennai. I bought a few things but the best thing was the wild pair of pants I scored on. just kidding, but really they are wild. The last event of the night was checking out the beach. It was pretty nice but no one was in bathing suits, which i expected. There were mini carnival rides there for kids and snack stands in the parking lot. I got to ride a horse for a dollar. It was sweet. I can’t say Chennai, India had a crazy night life so we played it cool on the ship for the rest of the night.
Day 2 March 12th 2010
This morning began the most adventurous week of my life. We were late leaving for the airport to catch our flight to Delhi. Consequently, our taxi drive was fifty times crazier than it would have been if we weren’t running late. But, we made it to the airport on time, caught our flight, had a smooth ride, and got to Delhi safely. (By the way, I use to the term airport lightly because it didn’t actually have any terminals and the desks were all outside.) The airport had a tourist help desk that hooked us up with a ‘nice’ hotel and taxi driver to get us there. We were given the choice between two hotels - one cheap and one cheaper. We decided to go to the nicer of the two and that was a good decision. The hotel was called a Sheraton but it was farrrrr from it. Anyways, I am done bashing. The hotel gave us what we needed - a bed and a bathroom.
Before leaving the hotel we decided to talk to them about train tickets and such. Let me lay out the situation for you: We currently planned on going to Agra the next morning by train then spending the day there and taking the overnight train to Varanasi. In Varanasi we’d explore for the day, get a hotel for the night, and then catch our flight back to the ship the next afternoon. The problem was that we did not have a train ticket from Delhi to Agra and we were on the wait list for the overnight train to Varanasi. In addition to the fact that we did not book any other hotels. Basically, after spending way too much time in the hotel’s travel agent’s office we decided that we’d let the agent get us a driver to Agra and then back to Delhi and spend another night in Delhi. Then, take a flight from Delhi to Varanasi the next afternoon. The situation kind of sucked but we figured it was our only option. It still kind of left our plans in the air but alteast we had a plan B if we didn’t get on to the overnight train. Needless to say, we left the hotel travel agent’s office very frustrated. We needed to eat.
Next, we headed to get some food. We were all about finding a local restaurant to eat a good India meal at. We succeeded and had a great meal. Some sag chicken, paneer, chicken masala, naan, and more that i don’t know the name of. To be honest I was a little nervous about eating the food because I don’t have the most reliable stomach int he world and I know that I couldn't rely on India having the most reliable toilets either. But, no worries, my stomach was fine.
After lunch we were on a quest to find an instrument shop for Tolan. Tolan was determined to get a sweet instrument because he is totally musical and his parents gave him money for his bday to pick one. Long story short, he bartered the hell out of this one guy and got a Harmonium and 2 drums. We were told that the post office would have time to pack the instruments and get them ready to ship before they close. Well, we took them there and they began to pack them up. Don’t even begin to think that they used standard shipping boxes because they didn't. They wrapped the instruments in layers of bubble wrap and then HAND SEWED potato looking sacks around them. about 2 hours later they were done. At this point the post office was closed. COOL. We decided to just lug them around for the day and ship them in Agra. When we got to post office in Agra they told us that they needed to see inside the packages but they did not have an xray machine. There was no f’ing way we were letting them open these packages and then take the time to resew them up. We said forget it and we decided to just bring them onto the ship so that Tolan can just ship them when we get back to the U.S.A. Consequently, we were lugging these instruments around the next couple days, which isn’t as big of a damper as it may sound.
Later that evening, since the instrument ordeal took about 4 hours, we decided to go to a government run travel agent because we felt like the guy at the hotel was ripping us off (this becomes a common theme throughout the whole trip). We got the travel agency and the people running it were cool as hell. It was a guy and girl that were dating. The guy hooked us up with drivers, tour guides, hotels, and train tickets for the rest of our time in India. It was a little pricy but it was freak load of stress off our shoulders. They were suppose to close and go to a movie at 7 and we kept them there til like 8:30 with all our questions and little details so we decided to make it up to them by treating them to dinner. They picked the place and it was sweet. It was called Picodellis. It was totally modern and cool.
The last stop of the night was the movie theatre. We couldn’t be in India without seeing BOLLYWOOD MOVIE! The movie we saw was called Atitha. Before we got into the theatre the guards frisked us and took our camera batteries until after the movie. The movie ended up being pretty bad, especially since it was all in Hindi, but I am glad we went. The popcorn was banging though no doubt.
That night I had my first hallucination due to the Malaria meds I am on. I was sleeping next to my friend Carson. I woke up and I was positive that she was spooning with the bell boy from that hotel. I stared for a while, unsure if I should give them some time alone or maybe save Carson from this weird boy. I decided to reach over and touch him to make sure he was there. Needless to say, it was just Carson...alone.
Day 3 March 13th 2010
So today was one of the most frustrating days of my life so it will be very difficult to keep this entry G rated when it comes to my language. But, i will try my best.
First of all, we were off to Agra, where the Taj Mahal is. We only had that day until like 11 pm to spend in Agra so we were excited to get there and explore. The travel agents told us that it would take three hours tops to get to Agra. 7 HOURS LATER we arrived in Agra via stick shift car on the streets, not highways, of India. Oh, and we specifically said that we did not want a tour guide because we really wanted to be able to go around on our own and not just be tourists. Well, we got out of the car in Agra and there was our good ‘ol tour guide. HE SUCKED. We got to the Taj Mahal happy as can be (kinda). I won’t lie, it was really really beautiful - better than the pictures I had seen. The story about it is sweet too. Basically an emporer had the taj built for his wife when she died and her and his tombs are the only ones in the whole building. Everything about the Taj Mahal is symmetrical so that makes the architecture look awesome. We got there around 4:30 so we decided to stick around for sunset. Time went by, the sun went down, and we were STILL there. FYI there is nothing to do at the Taj after you’ve already taken all of the pictures you want and seen every inch of the mosc. Our tour guide conveniently lost his cell phone and told us to wait for him before we leave. Well, he never came back so we decided to head out. Luckily, or maybe unluckily, our tour guide was at the exit looking for us. We were pretty much fuming at him because he wasted a good part of our day. But, to think positively, if i was stranded somewhere for 2 hours in India I would definitely want it to be at the Taj Mahal.
Unfortunately, the day did not get much better. The tour guides and rickshaw drivers have been notorious for bringing tourists to these Marble Emporium shops. Basically, they are huge stores with stuff from carpets to gadget at ridiculous prices. If they bring tourists to these stores they get a free t-shirt or something so they always do it. Well, we knew about this setup already so we specifically told our tour guide that we DO NOT want to go to any of those places we just want to go get spices and tea..........I am sure you can guess where our next stop was. ONE OF THOSE STUPID EMPORIUMS!!!! I wanted to murder this tour guide, as did all my friends. To top it off, we thought we had some more time to go shopping and maybe get some food but our tour guide then told us that we were an hour and a half from the train station and we have to be there two hours early. Aka we were now heading to the freakin’ train station. OUR WHOLE DAY CONSISTED OF A CAR RIDE, THE TAJ FOR WAY TOO LONG, AND A DUMB @$$ EMPORIUM.
So, we headed to the train station. I don’t know why I thought this train station would be even some what decent but it was NOT. AT ALL. We arrived at 9:30 pm. We walked to the ‘waiting room’. Our whole walk there we were dodging bird poop because the rafters of the station were COVERED with birds. Then, we got into the waiting room and I couldn’t help but notice a few RATS running around ...ew. An hour and a half later we were getting excited that our train would be there soon so we carried our stuff to the platform. We checked the train times and realized our train was running an hour late. (notice how everything is getting better and better as the day goes on) My friends were hungry so we looked for some food. I cant say i had much of an appetite at this point. At this point in our journey I was in a very bad mood but I knew everyone was so I tried not to express my anger, i just I kept quite. We found a food area and sat there. My friends ordered doll (a gravy based stew type thing) and some naan (bread). Well, when the ‘waiter’ brought out the doll he spilled it not all over my pants (that i planned to wear the rest of the trip) but also down the side of my backpack into my water bottle holder and onto my hat that was in the holder. Lucky for this Indian man he did not know the meaning of F*** you so i refrained from even saying it. But, I would really have liked to call my mom crying and get her to buy me a plane ticket back to my ship. After dinner we went back to the waiting room and propped our feet up on our bags so no rats touched us. Basically for every hour that went by the train delayed an hour. FINALLY at 2:45 am our train arrived. But, the train was about 40 cars long and of course we were at the wrong end so we had to sprint to the correct end with our backpacks and Tolan’s instruments. LUCKILY, we found our beds on the sleeper train and they were perfectly fine. That was definitely a sigh of relief. My friend Thomas was on the top bunk next to mine so I didn’t feel completely unsafe.
That night I had another Hallucination due to my malaria medicine. I woke up in the middle of the night and on the end of Thomas’s bed I could have swore there was a monkey. The same monkey I saw swinging from the rafters at the train station. I wasn’t sure what to do about it so I closed my eyes and fell asleep as fast as possible.
Day 4 March 14th, 2010
I woke up very confused, somehow forgetting that I was on a sleeper train in the middle of India. Originally, we thought the train was suppose to get to Varanasi at like noon. Therefore, we assumed that since it was 3 hours late to pick us up then it won’t be getting to Varanasi until like 3 pm. We were wrong, luckily. We talked to some India people on the train that let us know that our stop was coming up in about 25 minutes. This really really helped us considering there was no conductor or anyone telling us when to get off or even what station we were at when we stopped. It all worked out. We got off at the right stop and found our driver who for some reason thought our train was suppose to get in at 7 am so he was mad that we were so late? whatevs.
That day, we made it clear to our driver that we did not need a tour guide to show us around the city or take us to lunch - we wanted to explore on our own. So, for the rest of the afternoon we explored Varanasi. We were not in a very touristy area which was nice. When we walked down the dirt roads we were see a combination of MONKEYS (!!!), rickshaws, cars, bikes, and livestock on the roads. There were stray dogs walking around all over the place. The shops (i also use this word lightly because there were no doors, walls, lights, or air condition) along the sides of the road consisted of all sorts of stuff but mostly fabric, jewelry, shoes, and mini snack shacks. There was this one back alley of shops (which were really little huts) that we went down. As we walked down the India people would say stuff like “Hi Hello Lady, would you like some scarf?” and if you ignored them you would hear “Hi Hello? LADY? Hiii!”. All the huts had a sign that said ‘fixed price’ on it but the prices were far from fixed. Although stuff was already super cheap we still felt the need to barter the prices down because we knew they had hiked them up just because we were tourists. After shopping for a while we got lunch at a local place again. All the Indian food was kind of blending together - some mush, like pareer or masala, with some chicken, and some bread - either naan or roti. It was all usually good but it put our stomachs in a doozie (doozie is in my word dictionary - interesting)
After dinner we had plans to meet a guide back at our hotel because we were going on boat ride with him that evening. The boat ride was on the Ganges at sunset. I don’t know too much about the Ganges but what I do know is that it is the most sacred water for the Indians. They bath in this water, they wash their clothes, they drink it, they do everything in it. But, it is some of the dirtiest water ever - we were advised to not even make contact with it. Along this Ganges are these stairs called Ghats. They are just stairs that face the sun that run into the Ganges. As we boated down the river we would see people bathing on the ghats.
There is one famous spot on the Ganges called the burning site. At this spot there are fires built to burn the bodies of dead people. This is very symbolic in India. When someone dies they are suppose to be burned in a fire (just like a camp fire) for 24 hours. Their soul goes to heaven and then their bones and ash are tossed into the Ganges afterwards. Usually only the men related to the burning person watch the fire because tears are said to interrupt the soul going to heaven and since women are known to be more emotional, they do risk the chance of crying. These burning sites were really interesting.
The rest of the night consisted of us just walking around Varanasi some more and then heading back to the hotel. We had plans to wake up for the sunset so we knew not to stay up late.
Day Five: March 15th, 2010
Rise and Shine at 5:30 a.m. We headed back to the Ganges for another boat ride. This ride we went the opposite direction down the river so we saw some different ghats and such. Since it was morning there were a lot more people bathing and playing in the water to get ‘clean’. The sun rise was epic so I am glad we got to see it. Last night the mosquitos were horrific but they were not nearly as bad this morning. There were lots of monkeys on the ghats this morning along with some goats, cows, chickens, and puppies. I love puppies and it killed me that I couldn’t play with them!
After our boat ride we decided to walk down to the burning sites because you couldn’t see too much from the water. While we were there there was only one fire currently burning. We saw someone’s intestine’s in the middle of it. It really hit us that people are actually burned in these fires. I also saw a stray dog gnawing on a human bone :(. I learned that there are a few types of people that are not burned in the fires but rather just thrown right into the ganges. Two of these types of people are kids and pregnant women. The reason is along the lines of the idea that kids have not lived long enough to have a soul worth burning (or something) . And, consequently, since they do not burn kids then they will not burn a women with a child inside her either.
Next on the agenda was our city tour. We went to a University in Varanasi. It only costs about 8 dollars a year, believe it or not. We then checked out a few temples. I had expressed my interest in all the monkeys around India and how I loved to watch them. Because I had expressed that interest, our tour guide took us to the monkey temple. Well, this is where my relationship with monkeys went from love-love to love-hate. The walk way to the temple was filled with monkeys. No cages, no gates, no fences, NOTHING. Well, I saw a baby monkey eating a banana so I crouched down to watch it. Apparently its mommy didn’t like this because she began to SPRINT, if monkeys can sprint, at me. For those who know me very well know that I did a very obnoxious scream of horror and ran away. Luckily, I was safe. But, I didn’t like that one bit. Needless to say, we were not there much longer. I do find it crazy that monkeys’ bodies work so similar to ours. Like if a monkey wants a banana it just grabs a banana and peels it with it’s fingers. If you see a monkey- pay attention to how it sits. I noticed a bunch of these monkeys sitting on their butts and resting their arm on their knee just like a human would. Weird, So weird.
Last stop on the city tour was a silk shop. FINALLY a tour guide that wasn’t trying to rip us off. This was a wholesale shop that loved our business and had an actual fixed price that was very do-able. I’m not gonna go into details of what I bought here because a lot of you will be finding out around christmas time :)
It was now time to go back to Cochin, where the ship was. (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) We went to the airport and worked our flights out, luckily. After some confusion we all got onto the same flight to Mumbai (where our layover was). When we arrived in Mumbai we had a layover and then were heading to Cochin. Well, no one decided to tell us that there were two different airports in Mumbai so rather than having a leisurely layover we were actually completely freaking out trying to figure out where to go. We found it. We got on the plane. We got to Cochin. PHEW! One would think that we would go right to the ship to shower and sleep. But, no. We needed to go through immigration before getting back on the ship and the office closed at 8 p.m. It was now 10:30 p.m. so we had to stay in a hotel room that was about 10 minutes from our ship. It was kind of a tease but it could have been worst.
Day Six: March 16th, 2010
We finally reached our last day of India. I thought I would never see the day. My stomach was A little confused so I wasn’t really trying to go anywhere. But, once again I figured that I was only going to be India once, EVER. (sorry for the pessimism)
Anyways, I went out with Greta, Sarah, and our new friend uhh Kayla? I think that was her name. Cochin is a set of islands so we decided to take a ferry over to another island to do some shopping and get stamps. Well, after about a half hour we were uncomfortably hot and didn’t really see anywhere to shop so we got stamps and called it a day.
After getting back to the ship I realized I still had 2,000 ruppies which is about $40. I did not want to leave India with that much India money because I would never have any use for it, ever. Consequently, I had to get back off the ship to find a money exchange place. OF COURSE this was not a simple task. I took a rickshaw (a motor scooter w/ a cart built onto it). The first bank we went to did not have any U.S. dollars. They recommended another bank. The rickshaw driver had quite some trouble finding this bank but eventually we got there. When I got there they told me they were able to do it. They took about a half hour to figure out how many U.S. dollars to give me. Then, 20 minutes later they realized that in the whole bank they only had four 5 dollar bills and six 1 dollar bills - I needed 40 dollars. So whatever. I decided to just exchange some of my money for that 26 dollars and then just go shopping with my extra ruppies because I did not have the tolerance to try to find another place. Well, once again, my driver took me to all those stupid freaking emporium shops. I did not have much patience so when I saw the emporium coming up on the road I would be like I DON’T WANT TO GO THERE SO DO NOT STOP. He got the point. Finally, I just told him to take me back to the ship. Beleive it or not something convenient actually happened - on the way back to the ship we passed an outdoor market, which I wanted to go to initially, and we stopped there. I spent the rest of my money and FINALLY headed back to the ship. The rickshaw driver knew I was a female tourist so he totally tried to rip me off but I was ready for it so I gave him the amount of money I had thought was legit and ran onto the ship before he could do anything about it. THE END.
PEACE OUT INDIA
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
By the Beautiful Sea
So, life on the boat between Vietnam and India has been very good. I have had some school work (a very minimal amount compared to what i would have if i was home) but other than that I have just been working on my tan, trying to shed some pounds I gained in Vietnam, and catching up on sleep. I bought a ton of DVDs in Vietnam so I have also been watching those - particularly every season of Entourage.
Saturday was taco day!!!! All that means is that we were served tacos for lunch. At home I don’t even eat tacos but damnnn did they hit the spot after not being offered them for months!
On Sunday we had no class because it was the Sea Olympics. The Sea Olympics were super fun. We were divided into different seas based on where our ‘dorm’ room is located. I was on the Yellow Sea team. My events were dodgeball and a wheelbarrow race. I am embarrassed to say that i was SO sore the next day from wheelbarrowing for only like maybe a minute and a half. But yeah it was a good time. We all dressed up in our colors and made up cheers and had a lip-sync. I felt like i was back at Walton Farm. I LOVED olympic day in elementary school so I am not complaing. Anyways, the best part of the Sea Olympics was the bbq for dinner. I can’t even explain to you how good a cheese burger and ribs tasted after being used to the same old food (pasta, potatoes, pears, plain salad, and stale bread) every day in the caf.
Other than that nothing else is too exciting on the ship. The weather has been very hot in the 90’s but the humidity is going down, luckily. FINALLY my laundry got done. I haven’t had my laundry done since before Japan so not only were my tshirts and shorts dirty but also all of my winter clothes. No worries though, everything is clean now.
Tomorrow I will be in INDIA! We are arriving in Chennai in the morning. My plans are for my friends and i to fly up to Delhi and spend the day and night there. Then, take a train to Agra where the Taj Mahal is. That night my friends and I hope to take a sleeper train to Varanasi but currently we are on the waitlist for that...pray for us, we need to get on that train! We will then spend the day and night in Varanasi because its suppose to be a really different city. Then, we will fly to Cochin and meet back up with the boat.
I will update again after India!!!!!
Saturday was taco day!!!! All that means is that we were served tacos for lunch. At home I don’t even eat tacos but damnnn did they hit the spot after not being offered them for months!
On Sunday we had no class because it was the Sea Olympics. The Sea Olympics were super fun. We were divided into different seas based on where our ‘dorm’ room is located. I was on the Yellow Sea team. My events were dodgeball and a wheelbarrow race. I am embarrassed to say that i was SO sore the next day from wheelbarrowing for only like maybe a minute and a half. But yeah it was a good time. We all dressed up in our colors and made up cheers and had a lip-sync. I felt like i was back at Walton Farm. I LOVED olympic day in elementary school so I am not complaing. Anyways, the best part of the Sea Olympics was the bbq for dinner. I can’t even explain to you how good a cheese burger and ribs tasted after being used to the same old food (pasta, potatoes, pears, plain salad, and stale bread) every day in the caf.
Other than that nothing else is too exciting on the ship. The weather has been very hot in the 90’s but the humidity is going down, luckily. FINALLY my laundry got done. I haven’t had my laundry done since before Japan so not only were my tshirts and shorts dirty but also all of my winter clothes. No worries though, everything is clean now.
Tomorrow I will be in INDIA! We are arriving in Chennai in the morning. My plans are for my friends and i to fly up to Delhi and spend the day and night there. Then, take a train to Agra where the Taj Mahal is. That night my friends and I hope to take a sleeper train to Varanasi but currently we are on the waitlist for that...pray for us, we need to get on that train! We will then spend the day and night in Varanasi because its suppose to be a really different city. Then, we will fly to Cochin and meet back up with the boat.
I will update again after India!!!!!
Friday, March 5, 2010
Vietnam
GOOOOOD MORNING VIETNAM!!
So I have officially experienced a culture shock. It was in Vietnam. After visiting Vietnam I realized that China and Japan seem more like America with everything in a different language rather than a whole different country.
Anyways, Vietnam was insane. I never have any expectations for any of the countries we go to because I have legitimately no idea what to expect.
Day one: February 26th 2010
We arrive in Ho Chi Minh City. Sarah, Greta, Chloe, Kristin, Chris, and I left the boat together to explore the city. As soon as we got to the main street we were hounded by the local people wanting to give us motor bike and taxi rides. That seemed to be a trend every time we got to this road.
Let me set the stage: 6 americans walk onto the main streets of Ho Chi Minh City. It is at least 95 degrees out with a humidity of at least 170% (give or take). We have backpacks on and money belts hiding under our clothes. Most of us are wearing flip flops because of how hot it was. After an hour or less we were dripping in sweat, our feet were filthy, and our backs were drenched from having our backpacks on. OH and the food we heard we HAD to eat was Pho which is pretty much vietnamese soup (hot).
The most eventful thing that happened that day was crossing the street. There are no traffic patterns at all- maybe 5 street lights that people don’t acknowledge, you can pass at anytime, no stop signs. Basically no rules. There are also at least 45 motor bikes to every car on the road. The rule of thumb when crossing as a pedestrian is to use caution but know that the motor bikes are going to avoid you - do not swerve to avoid them. We were told “it is going to seem like you are about to be hit but chances are the motor bike will go around you” i don’t know if that was suppose to be reassuring advice or not.
The day itself was not too eventful but still very fun. Sarah, Greta, and I split from the group to explore the city ourselves. We saw things such was the Ben Thanh Market. Other than that we just walked and absorbed the culture, the smells (yuck), and the people. It was very strange compared to America. I saw poor people but not many people that looked ‘rich’. There was a very limited amount of westernization compared to China and Japan. I saw one Nike store, one Adidas store, and two KFCs. But other than that it was all small shops and local restaurants owned by people just trying to get by. The weird thing was that the vietnamese spoke a lot more english than the Chinese and Japanese. I met one girl that wanted me to teach her american slang words. I started easy and taught her “yo, what’s up?” When the next customer walked into the store she greeted them saying “yo, what’s up?” and they got a kick out of it. She was really happy. At one point she whispered in my ear saying “i want an american accent and will pay you money to help me get one”. I wish i could have helped but that’s kind of a hard request to fulfill.
The conversion of money was 1 dollar = about 20,000 dong. American money was widely accepted. When it came to bartering there you could really tell that a dollar goes a lot further there than it does at home. I would be trying to barter for say a purse and they would start at $14 and i would say $10 and they would say $13.50. In China and Japan they were a lot more flexible.
That night a bunch of us decided to explore the night life of Ho Chi Minh City. We went to the Rex Hotel which was a really nice hotel in the middle of the city that had a bar and restaurant on the roof. When we got there it was amazing. There was a band playing, a cool breeze, and a sweet view of the city. The combination of the three made it super cool and very enjoyable to be up there. We combined tables with a bunch of other SAS kids and mingled with them. After eating and relaxing for a little while, Sarah and I decided to head out to this ‘awesome bar with pool tables and lots to do’ because ‘they were gonna be tons of people there’. We got there and it was a dud. We knew for a fact people were going to this club called apocalypse now so we decided to venture over there. What better way to venture than on a MOTOR BIKE?!
OKAY SO the motor bike ride was wild. Sarah and I hopped on this back of this bike (with helmets on!) and took a ride around town. It was wild because of the lack of traffic patterns. Sarah was gripping the guys shoulders with her life and he found that very funny (i know this because he was giggling).
Day two: February 27th 2010
Today I did not have any plans but Sarah, Greta, and Chloe were all going on the Semester at Sea trip to the Mekong Delta. I like doing stuff independently but a lot of the SAS students had gone to Cambodia for the rest of our time in port so I knew it would be hard to find someone to travel independently with. Consequently, i tried to get onto the SAS Mekong Delta trip and I succeeded. I’m very happy with my decision to join the trip.
The Mekong Delta is the main water river way through Vietnam from I think China and then goes to the ocean. That might not be true at all but its a famous water way that is the home of a lot of people on boats, the majority of fishing, a floating market, and more.
We took a bus there, checked out some markets that were sort of disturbing due to the mistreatment of fish (beating them to death with a log), and then hopped on a boat to travel down the delta. On the boat we were served coconut water from a coconut. It was pretty good i thought. We then got our coconuts broken open and ate the coconut inside.
Our first stop from the boat was the coconut candy ‘factory’. This is where a culture shock came for me at least. We walked into this factory and it consisted of 2 older pieces of machinery, about 10 workers, and it was under a pavilion. The machines grinded the coconut and then melted and stirred it. The machines were fueled by the outside shell of the coconut. They were very proud of the fact that no part of the coconut was being wasted. It honestly was something to be proud of. The workers were putting the soft candy on sheets of waxed paper and then manually folding the wrappers around it when it was hard. I bought tons of the candy is all different flavors so if anyone reading this is interested in some feel free to let me know because i bought it for my family, forgetting that my dad is allergic (hahahah) and my brother doesn’t like it. aka i have extra!
Second stop was lunch. Our tour guide described what our lunch was while we were on the bus but i couldn’t hear him completely clearly. All i heard was something like ‘fish wrapped in elephant and deer”. There was alot of noise on the bus and some of you know I can’t hear very well when there are too many noises in the room (aka in south side at mason). We got there and lunch was actually a type of fish that’s shape was similar to an elephant’s ear. THAT WAS A RELEIF. Kind of. It came out on a stick with face and scales still attached. It was very good though. There were many other dishes served with it that were all pretty good also. Because it was so hot out no one really had too much of an appetite.
Third stop was at the little boats. I don’t know their actual names but there were two people on these boats with paddles and four of us hopped in for a nice ride around. It was relaxing but like on the streets of vietnam - the ‘traffic patterns’ were a little wild. We were told to keep our fingers off the edge of the boat and thank god we did that because other boats were bumping into us left and right.
That was the extent of the Mekong Delta for me. We boated back to where the bus was parked and then headed back to Ho Chi Minh City.
That night we went back to the Rex Hotel for food and drinks. There was an all you can eat buffet for like 30 dollars and I was totally into that. It had like EVERYTHING from sushi to fruit and ribs. Holllla
Day Three: February 28th 2010
So there was a few big trips to Cambodia through SAS. About 80% of the ship was on them, or at least it felt like that. Chloe and I were two people that were not on it. We were loving Ho Chi Minh City but knew we had to go away to somewhere else at some point. Luckily, we found some of our guy friends that wanted to go away also so we headed to a travel agent and booked a van to Mui Ne, a really nice beach about four hours away, along with a hotel and a ride back. The van was coming at 7:30 p.m. to take us there.
The rest of our day was free so Chloe and I decided to continue to explore Ho Chi Minh City. We finally tried Pho. It was very delicious. We didn’t do too much the rest of the day because Chloe was not feeling great but I did get a massage. It was 13 dollars for one hour and it was wonderful. I was excited for it to be way different than a massage in America but it really wasn’t. No, I did not get a happy ending. But yes, i know of people that did!
One cool thing we did today was design our own dresses to be made. Originally, I wasn’t planning on getting a dress made but i saw a cute one in a magazine and figured i might as well! I chose the design - a flowy cotton dress that had pockets and one strap that went diagonal across my chest. Its hard to explain but I think I like it. Plus, i had a blast designing it and getting it fitted.
That night Chloe (boulder), Kristin (Georgia), Chris (Florida), Scott (Connecticut), Jeremy (Alaska), and I headed to Mui Ne via private van. It took about four hours. When we arrive we put our stuff in our hotel. Our hotel looked like a little bit like it was in a jungle. We had three rooms that were all along the same outside walkway. It was really nice for only forty dollars a night. We decided to make the most of our time and go out that night. We got changed and walked down the road to an outside bar. It was lit up by Christmas lights and was really super cool. It was right on the water and had music playing. We hung out there until about 2 a.m. and then decided to head back to our hotel and go in the pool. The pool felt great and there were some Korean girls swimming that we made friends with.
Day Four: February 29th 2010
We woke up today at 7:30 thanks to a wake up call from the guys. Apparently, we were sleeping in too much for their taste. The hotel provided a really nice breakfast by the beach. There was plenty of food and even an egg cooker. All the food was great.
After breakfast we grabbed our stuff and went to find a nice beach to hang out on all day. Our ride home was not coming until 8 p.m. There was a main street in Mui Ne that had shops, travel agents, and restaurants. We saw a travel agent that had a sign about wind kiting. A bunch of guys from Turkey were running the kite place on the beach and they let us use the trainer kites for free. It was pretty funny - nothing too eventful. We then ventured down the beach a little while and found a nice spot by a resort that we were not staying at.
The rest of the day consisted of laying out, tossing a football around, getting some lunch & drinks, etc. The one really cool thing we did was play soccer with some little Vietnamese boys that were on the beach. They were actually pretty good at soccer and had a blast playing with us. We gave them the soccer ball after the game and I think it made their day!
After the beach we got some dinner and headed back to the ship. When we got back to the ship we all just crashed.
It seemed like a super short beach trip but it was such a nice get-a-way. I am glad we did it since it was really cheap and really fun.
Day Five: March 1st 2010
Today I woke up at 6 am so I could skype with the ‘rent before I got back on the ship. I was exhausted to say the least but its always worth it when it comes to hearing from the fam for sure.
The rest of the day was just another day in Ho Chi Minh. Kristin and I walked around with the intentions of shopping at Ben Thanh market, finding a post office, getting good food, and picking up our dresses. We did all of that and it took way longer than we thought. Luckily, we ran out of Dong ($$) so we had to stop shopping!
Boat life: March 2nd to 10th
So far so good. We have like 7 days of classes until we get to India...rough life, i know. I do actually have a ton of work to do so I have to minimize my laying out in the sun time and maximize my school work time.
Get this: Today in Marine Biology we got twenty minutes in the beginning of class to observe the ocean. Then, when there was like 20 minutes left we got let out of class because of a dolphin siting! Then, in my next class my teacher told us to keep our eyes on the ocean for sea snakes and dolphins and if we see either of those we should interrupt class so we all get run out on the deck and look at them!
So I have officially experienced a culture shock. It was in Vietnam. After visiting Vietnam I realized that China and Japan seem more like America with everything in a different language rather than a whole different country.
Anyways, Vietnam was insane. I never have any expectations for any of the countries we go to because I have legitimately no idea what to expect.
Day one: February 26th 2010
We arrive in Ho Chi Minh City. Sarah, Greta, Chloe, Kristin, Chris, and I left the boat together to explore the city. As soon as we got to the main street we were hounded by the local people wanting to give us motor bike and taxi rides. That seemed to be a trend every time we got to this road.
Let me set the stage: 6 americans walk onto the main streets of Ho Chi Minh City. It is at least 95 degrees out with a humidity of at least 170% (give or take). We have backpacks on and money belts hiding under our clothes. Most of us are wearing flip flops because of how hot it was. After an hour or less we were dripping in sweat, our feet were filthy, and our backs were drenched from having our backpacks on. OH and the food we heard we HAD to eat was Pho which is pretty much vietnamese soup (hot).
The most eventful thing that happened that day was crossing the street. There are no traffic patterns at all- maybe 5 street lights that people don’t acknowledge, you can pass at anytime, no stop signs. Basically no rules. There are also at least 45 motor bikes to every car on the road. The rule of thumb when crossing as a pedestrian is to use caution but know that the motor bikes are going to avoid you - do not swerve to avoid them. We were told “it is going to seem like you are about to be hit but chances are the motor bike will go around you” i don’t know if that was suppose to be reassuring advice or not.
The day itself was not too eventful but still very fun. Sarah, Greta, and I split from the group to explore the city ourselves. We saw things such was the Ben Thanh Market. Other than that we just walked and absorbed the culture, the smells (yuck), and the people. It was very strange compared to America. I saw poor people but not many people that looked ‘rich’. There was a very limited amount of westernization compared to China and Japan. I saw one Nike store, one Adidas store, and two KFCs. But other than that it was all small shops and local restaurants owned by people just trying to get by. The weird thing was that the vietnamese spoke a lot more english than the Chinese and Japanese. I met one girl that wanted me to teach her american slang words. I started easy and taught her “yo, what’s up?” When the next customer walked into the store she greeted them saying “yo, what’s up?” and they got a kick out of it. She was really happy. At one point she whispered in my ear saying “i want an american accent and will pay you money to help me get one”. I wish i could have helped but that’s kind of a hard request to fulfill.
The conversion of money was 1 dollar = about 20,000 dong. American money was widely accepted. When it came to bartering there you could really tell that a dollar goes a lot further there than it does at home. I would be trying to barter for say a purse and they would start at $14 and i would say $10 and they would say $13.50. In China and Japan they were a lot more flexible.
That night a bunch of us decided to explore the night life of Ho Chi Minh City. We went to the Rex Hotel which was a really nice hotel in the middle of the city that had a bar and restaurant on the roof. When we got there it was amazing. There was a band playing, a cool breeze, and a sweet view of the city. The combination of the three made it super cool and very enjoyable to be up there. We combined tables with a bunch of other SAS kids and mingled with them. After eating and relaxing for a little while, Sarah and I decided to head out to this ‘awesome bar with pool tables and lots to do’ because ‘they were gonna be tons of people there’. We got there and it was a dud. We knew for a fact people were going to this club called apocalypse now so we decided to venture over there. What better way to venture than on a MOTOR BIKE?!
OKAY SO the motor bike ride was wild. Sarah and I hopped on this back of this bike (with helmets on!) and took a ride around town. It was wild because of the lack of traffic patterns. Sarah was gripping the guys shoulders with her life and he found that very funny (i know this because he was giggling).
Day two: February 27th 2010
Today I did not have any plans but Sarah, Greta, and Chloe were all going on the Semester at Sea trip to the Mekong Delta. I like doing stuff independently but a lot of the SAS students had gone to Cambodia for the rest of our time in port so I knew it would be hard to find someone to travel independently with. Consequently, i tried to get onto the SAS Mekong Delta trip and I succeeded. I’m very happy with my decision to join the trip.
The Mekong Delta is the main water river way through Vietnam from I think China and then goes to the ocean. That might not be true at all but its a famous water way that is the home of a lot of people on boats, the majority of fishing, a floating market, and more.
We took a bus there, checked out some markets that were sort of disturbing due to the mistreatment of fish (beating them to death with a log), and then hopped on a boat to travel down the delta. On the boat we were served coconut water from a coconut. It was pretty good i thought. We then got our coconuts broken open and ate the coconut inside.
Our first stop from the boat was the coconut candy ‘factory’. This is where a culture shock came for me at least. We walked into this factory and it consisted of 2 older pieces of machinery, about 10 workers, and it was under a pavilion. The machines grinded the coconut and then melted and stirred it. The machines were fueled by the outside shell of the coconut. They were very proud of the fact that no part of the coconut was being wasted. It honestly was something to be proud of. The workers were putting the soft candy on sheets of waxed paper and then manually folding the wrappers around it when it was hard. I bought tons of the candy is all different flavors so if anyone reading this is interested in some feel free to let me know because i bought it for my family, forgetting that my dad is allergic (hahahah) and my brother doesn’t like it. aka i have extra!
Second stop was lunch. Our tour guide described what our lunch was while we were on the bus but i couldn’t hear him completely clearly. All i heard was something like ‘fish wrapped in elephant and deer”. There was alot of noise on the bus and some of you know I can’t hear very well when there are too many noises in the room (aka in south side at mason). We got there and lunch was actually a type of fish that’s shape was similar to an elephant’s ear. THAT WAS A RELEIF. Kind of. It came out on a stick with face and scales still attached. It was very good though. There were many other dishes served with it that were all pretty good also. Because it was so hot out no one really had too much of an appetite.
Third stop was at the little boats. I don’t know their actual names but there were two people on these boats with paddles and four of us hopped in for a nice ride around. It was relaxing but like on the streets of vietnam - the ‘traffic patterns’ were a little wild. We were told to keep our fingers off the edge of the boat and thank god we did that because other boats were bumping into us left and right.
That was the extent of the Mekong Delta for me. We boated back to where the bus was parked and then headed back to Ho Chi Minh City.
That night we went back to the Rex Hotel for food and drinks. There was an all you can eat buffet for like 30 dollars and I was totally into that. It had like EVERYTHING from sushi to fruit and ribs. Holllla
Day Three: February 28th 2010
So there was a few big trips to Cambodia through SAS. About 80% of the ship was on them, or at least it felt like that. Chloe and I were two people that were not on it. We were loving Ho Chi Minh City but knew we had to go away to somewhere else at some point. Luckily, we found some of our guy friends that wanted to go away also so we headed to a travel agent and booked a van to Mui Ne, a really nice beach about four hours away, along with a hotel and a ride back. The van was coming at 7:30 p.m. to take us there.
The rest of our day was free so Chloe and I decided to continue to explore Ho Chi Minh City. We finally tried Pho. It was very delicious. We didn’t do too much the rest of the day because Chloe was not feeling great but I did get a massage. It was 13 dollars for one hour and it was wonderful. I was excited for it to be way different than a massage in America but it really wasn’t. No, I did not get a happy ending. But yes, i know of people that did!
One cool thing we did today was design our own dresses to be made. Originally, I wasn’t planning on getting a dress made but i saw a cute one in a magazine and figured i might as well! I chose the design - a flowy cotton dress that had pockets and one strap that went diagonal across my chest. Its hard to explain but I think I like it. Plus, i had a blast designing it and getting it fitted.
That night Chloe (boulder), Kristin (Georgia), Chris (Florida), Scott (Connecticut), Jeremy (Alaska), and I headed to Mui Ne via private van. It took about four hours. When we arrive we put our stuff in our hotel. Our hotel looked like a little bit like it was in a jungle. We had three rooms that were all along the same outside walkway. It was really nice for only forty dollars a night. We decided to make the most of our time and go out that night. We got changed and walked down the road to an outside bar. It was lit up by Christmas lights and was really super cool. It was right on the water and had music playing. We hung out there until about 2 a.m. and then decided to head back to our hotel and go in the pool. The pool felt great and there were some Korean girls swimming that we made friends with.
Day Four: February 29th 2010
We woke up today at 7:30 thanks to a wake up call from the guys. Apparently, we were sleeping in too much for their taste. The hotel provided a really nice breakfast by the beach. There was plenty of food and even an egg cooker. All the food was great.
After breakfast we grabbed our stuff and went to find a nice beach to hang out on all day. Our ride home was not coming until 8 p.m. There was a main street in Mui Ne that had shops, travel agents, and restaurants. We saw a travel agent that had a sign about wind kiting. A bunch of guys from Turkey were running the kite place on the beach and they let us use the trainer kites for free. It was pretty funny - nothing too eventful. We then ventured down the beach a little while and found a nice spot by a resort that we were not staying at.
The rest of the day consisted of laying out, tossing a football around, getting some lunch & drinks, etc. The one really cool thing we did was play soccer with some little Vietnamese boys that were on the beach. They were actually pretty good at soccer and had a blast playing with us. We gave them the soccer ball after the game and I think it made their day!
After the beach we got some dinner and headed back to the ship. When we got back to the ship we all just crashed.
It seemed like a super short beach trip but it was such a nice get-a-way. I am glad we did it since it was really cheap and really fun.
Day Five: March 1st 2010
Today I woke up at 6 am so I could skype with the ‘rent before I got back on the ship. I was exhausted to say the least but its always worth it when it comes to hearing from the fam for sure.
The rest of the day was just another day in Ho Chi Minh. Kristin and I walked around with the intentions of shopping at Ben Thanh market, finding a post office, getting good food, and picking up our dresses. We did all of that and it took way longer than we thought. Luckily, we ran out of Dong ($$) so we had to stop shopping!
Boat life: March 2nd to 10th
So far so good. We have like 7 days of classes until we get to India...rough life, i know. I do actually have a ton of work to do so I have to minimize my laying out in the sun time and maximize my school work time.
Get this: Today in Marine Biology we got twenty minutes in the beginning of class to observe the ocean. Then, when there was like 20 minutes left we got let out of class because of a dolphin siting! Then, in my next class my teacher told us to keep our eyes on the ocean for sea snakes and dolphins and if we see either of those we should interrupt class so we all get run out on the deck and look at them!
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