Messages from the red sea

So this week between India and Egypt has been extremely busy. First was the Sea Olympics then our sea social and just little things in between, like passing by Yemen and Djbouti (pronounced Da Booty). Now I am finally getting my blogs posted. Below I have first my India blog and then my sea Olympics blog. I have also posted some pictures (or am in the process of doing it) but I will warn you it’s not great quantities because of the number of minutes they take to download. I’m already on my second package since my original 250 minutes and I would prefer not to buy another one.
Typing up these blogs requires a great amount of time so I’m sorry if they seem slightly random or if there are some spelling and grammer mistakes. By the time I was finished I no longer wanted to go back through and read them.

Yo ho ho, a pirates life for me. Sea Olympics fall 2006

So, I must say, the Caribbean Sea rocked the Sea Olympics. But what else would you expect from Pirates? Of course we had to come out number one in the end. Although for a while it looked like we might not even place.
First of all for all let me explain the sea Olympics. Each hall on the ship is given a different Sea name. There is the Bering Sea, Caspian Sea, Arabian Sea, Red Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Yellow Sea, Baltic Sea, Caribbean Sea, and then all the adults and dependents were the Pacific Ocean. For the Sea Olympics you compete for the sea you live in and each sea wears a different color. Our color was black. It worked out perfect because I had a black shirt and capris, and we were the pirates. It would have been kinda awkward to be the pirates with the color pink.
The day started out with all seas gathering in the Union to do our cheers. There was so much energy. Everyone was yelling out chants and of course the typical “We’ve got spirit yes we do,” was uttered quite a few times. I was surprised with how many good chants there were. My favorite was probably the Red Sea. From what I understand they were the communists so their cheer contained lines about Mao Zedong and Hoc Chi Minh. I was really funny. They ended up getting first, the Caspian got second place, and we, the Caribbean Sea got first! WE came in the union grunting and pretending to row a boat then we all gathered in the middle and started our cheer. It went something like this:
“Yo ho ho, A pirates life for me,
We sail our ships across the seven seas,
And winning games, ARRRRRR! We do it easily,
‘cuz it’s yo ho ho, a pirates life for me.
We’ve got troves of gold, and parrots on our shoulders,
I bet you’ll never, ever meet anyone bold
So let me hear your jolly cheer for the pirates of the year,
For it’s Yo ho ho with our hooks high in the air,
ARRRRRRRRR!
Then we walked out of the union cheering walk the plank, walk the plank, over and over again.
The first event after the cheer was tug of war. Nearly everyone was up on the seventh deck watching because there was nothing else to do. Part of me really was really regretting not signing up for it. We sailed through the first couple rounds easily and then it came to the final championship against the Red Sea. I must say, it was difficult. I really thought for a while we might loose, but we didn’t. We came right out on top where we should be.
The whole day ended up really being a competition between us and the Caspian Sea. WE were always just a few points away from each other, then in the afternoon the Mediterranean Sea started to catch up too. We lost ping pong and volleyball but won Synchronized swimming and the wet suit relay. Then we lost the reverse scavenger hunt (which I was in, so disappointing) and the Caspian won in. That was awful. We placed in a few others and didn’t place in more than a few but it all came down to the last two events, the free styling contest and the Talent show.
The free styling contest was incredibly long and they had two older women adult passengers judging who admittedly didn’t know anything about free styling. I think they had someone next to them advising them though. The Arabian sea won the contest. Their guy was good, not amazing, but good. He could do it really fast. I’m really no judge because I couldn’t freestyle if I tried. We came in second, adding 10 more points to our score, and the Pacific Ocean came in third. There was no way the Pacific’s guy should have placed at all. He was really dirty. As an adult he should not have said some of the things he said. The only reason he placed is because the guy from the Mediterranean Sea, who he was in the championship against, rapped in Hebrew and it wasn’t even freestyle, he copied an actual rap.
I’d say the talent show was probably the best and most entertaining part of the day. WE had gotten our act together really late, we had only started practicing the day before because no one had taken leadership over it so finally Jess, Diana, Was, Sakib, Islam and Myself decided to put something together to give us a chance. We sat down and talked about it for an hour but kept going in circles. Finally we decided on a 3 part act with each part getting interrupted by Patrick pretending to be Roane (“The voice” on the intercom). Sakib wanted to do an Indian dance again for the first part. We all thought everyone would be sick of Indian dances since we’d just come from India and they did like 3 of them in pre port. He was stuck on it though. At first all 6 of us were supposed to do the dance but when we saw it us girls backed out. It was a weird 80’s Indian dance, not a really ethnic one, so the boys did the Indian dance and for the second dance us three girls did a Flamenco dance. Diana lives to dance. Being Puerto Rican everything Spanish is in her blood. She actually has a Salsa and Flamenco class on the ship so me and Jess had been learning Flamenco for a few weeks. She took the lead on the dance doing crazy choreography and using castinettes, while me and Jess just did the choreography we had already learned behind her. It’s funny because I was really nervous beforehand but when I got up there, I wasn’t nervous anymore. The last act was my favorite part. Our global studies studies teacher has the saying LOLA for our trip which means something along the line of Listen, Observe, Look, and Act. We decided to go with the idea of Lola and used Barry Manilows song “Copacabana” for our last act. Islam got up to the podium and said “ I think it’s time that we all remember Lola. After all, her name was Lola, and she was a showgirl.” With that everyone knew what was coming and started to cheer. The rest of us, joined by about 6 others from our Sea ran out on stage. We of course had to be showgirls so all of the boys had the dress in drag (except now I look back on the pictures and Sakib was not wearing his skirt). We did a few dance moves to the opening stanzas and when then words started we all split apart and Jonny, dressed in drag came dancing through the middle, he was our Lola. Everyone was laughing, it was great. In the end I thought we did a good job. There were only a few mistakes with the transitions of the music.
A lot of the other acts after us, and even before us (we went 4th) were really good. The trend of the night seemed to be make fun of Roane (because she always messes up on the intercom) and Professor Farkas (because no one likes him). I guess they didn’t realize Professor Farkas was going to be one of the judges. One Seas act was solely a comedy act that made fun of some professors and the two I previously mentioned. A lot of the seas’ acts were really sexual too. I couldn’t believe some of the stuff I saw. My favorite act of the night was by the kids in the Pacific Ocean. They put together an incredible stomp act. Everyone gave them a standing ovation in the end.
When it got to the end they tallied up all of the scores and Dean Viera got up to announce the winners. First the talent show: “third place goes to…. The Pacific Ocean.” This is where I got really confused because I liked them the best, I thought for sure they would get first. “second place goes to… the Mediterranean.” Again I was confused, they had gone right before us and I liked them second best. We couldn’t believe we had to follow their act. “First place goes to……… The Caribbean Sea!” What the heck?!?! Did I just hear that right? Me and Jess looked at each other like we couldn’t understand what he just said, but then confusion led way to excitement and we both jumped into the air and cheered with the rest of our Sea. We had actually won the talent show. I had helped create an act that won. The only way we can figure that we beat some of the other acts out was because our act had actual talent and it was clean. We didn’t have anything sexual and we didn’t really make fun of anyone.
Next came the announcement of the overall winner. “In third place is…. The Mediterranean Sea.” Ok so we still have a chance, first or second, first or second. “ In second place is……. The Caspian Sea.” You know what that means… I looked over at Taren and then at Jess, we knew what was coming. Everyone in the sea had their hands perched on their chairs, ready to jump up. “In first place is…… the Caribbean Sea!” AHHHHHHH!!!!! We all jumped into the air, hugged each other, and yelled. It was a great feeling. You only get one chance to win the SAS Sea Olympics and we did it. Now, we get to get off the ship first in Ft. Lauderdale and we get a Party. Winning really was a great feeling. We ended up with 91 points. The Caspian was right behind us with 84, so if we hadn’t one the talent show, we wouldn’t have gotten first place. I think it was the Aegean Sea that came in last with I believe 15 points (they only have 22 people on their Sea though) and the Yellow sea was just past them with I think 20 points. All the other seas were somewhere in the middle.
So now we’ll continue on our way to Egypt. We must of gone pretty far today (sea Olympics day) because the Captain put on all four engines and we were going 39 knots. The ship actually had a semi rooster tail in the back. Maybe tomorrow we’ll see some more dolphins jumping like this morning. That would be pretty cool.

India: Chennai, Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur

India was absolutely amazing, at least for me it was. A lot of others on the trip really didn’t like it and were especially disappointed with the Taj trips. I will admit, I don’t know where all the money we spent went because everything is dirt cheap in India, and then our tour guides were absolutely awful. But at least for my trip, the trip it’s self was absolutely amazing. I’ll start from the beginning when we got to Chennai.
It took forever to get off the ship. I was getting really impatient too because I had to be back in the union to meet for my trip at 2:30 but this was going to be the only day I could see Chennai. Rachael, Robbie, Emily, Nathan and I left the ship I’d say around two and as soon as we walked out of the gate we were bombarded by auto rickshaw drivers. This was slightly to our advantage because that was exactly what we wanted to take, but it was still overwhelming. When ended up agreeing to pay 100 rupees each (which is still way to much; 45 rupees= $1). We got two rickshaws because there was no way we were going to all fit into one.
Ok for future reference if you ever ride in an Auto rickshaw in India (which is highly likely if you go) the drivers are not going to take you where you want to go no matter how insistent you are. We asked to go to a flower market but instead were first taken to an overpriced rug/antique/jewelry/fabric store and then to a Sari store. You see, they get commission for taking tourists to these places. Finally after the Sari store we just asked to get taken back to the ship. It was definitely an experience, and afterwards I have to look back on it and smile, but it was slightly frustrating at the time.
The flight up to Delhi was different from any flight I’ve taken in America. The beverage service consisted of a juice box and they played 3 Indian songs in a loop over the intercom system for the entire flight. The Delhi airport was very crude for a major international airport. All planes park out on the tarmac and you have to take a shuttle to the terminal, and the baggage claim carousels are basically a belt covered in slabs of rubber.
The hotel we stayed in the first night, along with all of the other Taj Mahal trips, was REALLY nice. Costumed men opened the door for us and as soon as we walked through there were women to mark our foreheads with Bindis and they gave us flower lays. One thing I’ve noticed in the hotels in the countries we’ve gone to so far is they really give you everything you need. While in America you are lucky to get a small bottle of shampoo and soap in India we were given shampoo, soap, talc, q-tips, sewing kits, band aids, slippers, you name it, it was there.
The second morning we had to be down in the lobby by 4:30 to catch a train to Agra. I was amazed by how dirty the train station was, although, after all I’ve learned about India I really shouldn’t have been. There was garbage all over the ground and homeless people sleeping on every open surface.
Our cabin on the train was first class and air conditioned. I’ve heard about some of the other trips that got stuck in the low class cars with open windows and cow feed. I can only imagine how much that would have sucked. The smell was probably more than they could handle and the heat immense. See, we were lucky enough to go to India during the hottest October in 100 years. It was in the 90’s everyday and shade was hard to come by.
As soon as we got off the train in Agra we were rushed off to our buses and hurried to the Taj Mahal. You can’t actually drive right up to the gate of the Taj. The set up isn’t westernized in any way. There are no parking lots and there was just a single man at the gate collecting “admit one” tickets. We actually had to walk for a good 10 minutes from the bus before we reached the gate. Good news for the hawkers, bad news for us. Literally, as soon as we stepped off the bus we were hounded by men and children selling postcards, jewelry, t-shirts, glass pens, picture books, etc. It was really annoying to have them not leave your side as we walked and walked and walked. They all congregate to me too because I can’t be mean to them. Especially the kids.
The Taj Mahal was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever beheld. For those of you that are confused of the function of the Taj Mahal due to misleading movies such as Aladdin, the Taj Mahal is not a Palace and it is not a mosque, it is a Tomb. The Taj was commissioned by Sha Jahan to be the tomb for is favorite wife Mum Taz Mahal. He had planned on building an identical tomb of black marble across the river for himself but he was imprisoned by his son before the Taj Mahal was even finished. He actually never was able to see the Taj Mahal up close, only from his window in Agra Fort a few miles away. Today both Sha Jahan and Mum Taz have tombs inside of the Taj Mahal.
Leading up to the Taj from the entrance gate are 2 pools separated in the middle by a large platform, and surrounding them are several green gardens. They were actually cutting the lawn while we were there using two cows pulling the lawn clipper.
This might sound strange but for some reason I thought the Taj would be bigger. Not to confuse you, it’s still enormous, but it was smaller than I thought. Especially from the inside.
To get up to the actual building you have to climb up two platforms. On the second platform you either have to take off your shoes or wear little footies over them. From far away you would never be able to tell but there is a great amount of carving and stone inlay decorating the surface. All around the main entrance is black inlayed Arabic writing (on the inside the entire Koran is inlayed), and then decorating the lower part are multi colored inlayed flowers and carved flowers. It’s incredibly beautiful. Pictures could never do it justice.
We got to spend a grand total of an hour at the Taj. It’s amazing because that is the main reason people paid $1000 to go on this trip. $1000 for a whole hour at the Taj. All of the Delhi/Agra/ Taj Mahal trips actually got to go to the Taj twice, one at sunrise and once at sunset be we only got to go once, while the sun was out.
After leaving the Taj and fending off the Hawkers, one of which seriously followed me for the entire 10 minutes trying to sell me jewelry the he assured me was real marble but I knew wasn’t, we went to Agra fort. The place I mentioned before where Sha Jahan was imprisoned by his son. In fact the Red Fort wasn’t really a prison, Sha Jahan was more of kept under house arrest. It has living quarters and even a mosque. Surrounding the area where the Sha was kept the windows are made out of incredible lattice work carved right out of the sandstone. If you look over the edge you can see a bunch of not so beautiful gardens with bright green a blue parrots flying from tree to tree.
After lunch we took an hour drive to the abandoned city of Fatepur Sikri. I had been the emperors palace for 4 years but it was hard to get water to the top of the hill it was built on so it was abandoned. It was a really incredible complex, made entirely of red sandstone (except for one tomb made out of white marble which I didn’t get to see), I wish I could have seen more of it. We only got 20 minutes and we were forced to follow our tour guide around like cattle the entire time.
My favorite building was the audience hall. There was a single pillar in the middle which had 4 beams about 12 feet up leading to it and the emperor would sit on the top and all those that wanted to talk to him stood on the ground.
All around us there were men chipping away at sandstone. We didn’t know what they were doing until we were leaving. They were making a Fatepur souvenir, little square of sandstone with carvings into them like flowers or elephants. I had to buy one.
After leaving Fatepur Sikri we had a 5 hour drive to Jaipur. It was cramped and bad, but it could have been worse. The scenery all seemed the same after awhile, deserty land punctuated by trees and occasional hills. One thing I never knew was that Rajasthan (the state Jaipur is in) is know for it’s Camels. They’re everywhere. Not roaming free of course, they all have owners, but instead of cows pulling carts there were camels. And there were camels tied to trees or just having people ride them. It was fascinating.
Our hotel was one of the best parts of Jaipur. It was called a 5 star ethnic village resort. We were greeted by a group of men playing traditional instruments and a little girl they gave up bindis on our foreheads. As soon as we walked through the gate the first thing we saw was an enormous painted elephant. I don’t think you see those at every hotel. For hotel rooms we all had mud huts, not mud huts as in really primitive, they were still hotel rooms, but they were like mud bungalows. The first thing I can say is you know your in India when at your 5 star resort the power goes off every half an hour. WE got used to it after awhile.
The night we got to the hotel there was also a wedding going on. The bride was American and the groom was from America but his family and his ethnicity were Indian. I now know that I love Indian weddings, it’s like one big party. The groom rode in on an elephant while all the guests danced to Indian Music, then during the service they let off fire works.
Not quite tired enough after dinner me and Rachel decided to explore the resort, see what kinds of goodies we could find around the corner. Kind of off in the distance we heard some drumming and music so we decided to follow it. We stumbled upon the ethic village part of the resort. Because we were staying in the hotel we got in for free but it was the type of thing Indian families can go to for entertainment at night. We were actually really confused. We didn’t know if we should be there or not and we were the only white people that we could see. There were women dancing with pots on their heads, camel and elephant rides. Magicians, carnival games. We stumbled upon a really bad maze that we found our way through in a few seconds and then we came upon a really big slide that they made look like a tree. I’m 21, but the slide was still so much fun I had to go on it twice. I’m sure the 8 year olds behind me appreciated me taking over their toy. As we were walking back to the resort we saw a lady doing henna. We were tempted to get it right then, but decided to wait until the next day when we had more time to let it dry (it takes over an hour).
The next day we got to sleep in. We didn’t have to be up until 5:45 although the front desk decided to give us our wake up call half and hour early. We took the bus about 45 minutes away to Amber Fort. Here we got to ride Elephants from the bottom of the hill up to the fort. That was basically the whole reason people picked our trip over any of the other Taj trips. I know that’s why I did.
Riding an elephant wasn’t actually as scary as I thought it would be, although a few times I did feel like our seat was going to slip right over the side and we would end up riding below the elephant. While riding up there are photographers that stand on the side of the road and take your picture and then make you promise that you’ll only buy pictures from them. Getting pictures from only one photographer was pretty difficult when every photographer on the way up is taking your picture and you have no real control. One of the photographers followed me all the way from the top of the fort to the bus. I knew I could get the pictures for really cheap because If I don’t buy them what else are they going to do with them? Profit is zero.
After we got off the elephants we all groups together to go into the fort. I was amazed at the fearlessness of the monkeys there. At the Taj Mahal they pretty much just sat there and ignored you but at the Amber Fort I watched one monkey chase an entire family away from where they were eating lunch. Later I was amazed at a European woman who tried the pet a monkey. The word idiot was running through my mind the whole time. She didn’t speak English so there was nothing I could say to her.
The Amber fort was really beautiful but reminded me of every other piece of architecture I had already seen. The few was pretty amazing though. The fort was built on the top of a hill and it was surrounded by other hills which all had fortified walls running along the ridges. It really reminded me of the great wall of China.
Just like the rickshaw drivers in Chennai, our tour guides took us to the worst stores because they got commission. The first one was a factory where they made Persian rugs, the smallest and cheapest of which was $200. People actually bought some though. I wish I had that kind of money. In the same complex they had another textile shop which sold stamped scarves, comforters, silk scarves, pillow covers, and sari’s. Nearly every girl on our trip bought a Sari, including myself. The theme for our Ambassadors ball is “A Night in Bollywood” so we’re all going to wear them for that. The sari I bought is made of silk and it’s turquoise with pinkish purple and gold lining the edges. I paid $55 for it which I think was probably still to much. You can get much cheaper and not as nice ones on the street for like $6 months, but it’s beautiful and I can use it as fabric to make a dress or something back in the states.
After the rug shop was an even worse jewelry and antiques shop. No one wanted to be there, we all wanted to go to a street market and our guides would not let us go. Finally it took a group of us and our trip leader ganging up on them to make them change their mind. After the jewelry store we went to the city palace where the Maharaja lives and they gave us the choice to go in the museum or go shopping. Me, Rachael, Michelle and Amber went into the Museum for about 10 minutes, got bored and then went out shopping. At first the shop keepers definitely thought we were dumb and tried to rip us off. 500 rupees for a purse! That’s way to much, eventually we were able to get them down though and it usually involved attempting to leave several times. AS they saw any profit walk out the door they were willing to cave.
After shopping we just went back to the hotel. I honestly was wishing I had gotten henna the night before because the line was crazy. All of the SAS girls wanted it so I waited for over an hour. Then after we got it we had to let it dry for an hour so me and Rachael just went back to our room and turned on the TV. We watched some really interesting Indian Music videos, and when I say really interesting I mean really funny. By the time our henna had dried it was almost 11 and we still wanted to ride a camel so we practically ran back over to the park.
Unlike riding the elephant, riding the camel was scary. When the camel stands up you nearly slide ride off of the back. When he’s walking you tilt from side to side. I was thoroughly convinced that I was going to fall off because all that I had to grab onto was Rachael’s tank top and I had dried crusty henna on my fingertips so it was hard to hold on. Then, when the camel sat down we nearly fell of the front. It was definitely an interesting experience. We got to ride both an elephant and a camel in the same day.
The next morning was our earliest wake up call yet, 3:00. It was hard, I must admit, then when we got to the train station it was completely crowded, and we were the only white people so all of the Indian men were staring at us.
This time we ended up on a second class air conditioned sleeper train. Sleeper sounds nice right? You can sleep. Well, if we hadn’t been extremely conscious of anything that could be living in the blankets pillows and sheets it may have been really comfortable, but because we were we took everything off of the beds and slept on the blue vinyl mattresses using our bags as pillows and shawls as blankets. It was extremely uncomfortable, and boy was I surprised when I found out it wasn’t a 3 hour ride like I had thought, but a 6.5 hour ride. It was Ok while we were tired and laying down, but when we weren’t tired any more there was no place to sit up.
Our tour of Delhi was disappointing. It mostly consisted of our guide pointing out things to us through the window. We did actually stop at the Gandhi museum. It was really cool, like being in history. The museum is housed in Gandhi’s actual house and out on the grounds is where he was assassinated. The actually have an entire path with fake footsteps leading up to the spot where he was killed which was commemorated with a marker. The item which I was most excited to see was Gandhi’s glasses. When I think of Gandhi I picture glasses so it was really exciting to see them in person.
We got back to the ship at 12:30 that night. I was so beat but I had to meet at 6:40 am for another SAS trip in the morning to Kancheepuram and Mammalapuram.
Kancheepuram is a town about 2 hours south of Chennai. It’s known for it’s silk but e went to see it’s Hindu temples. The first place we went was a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva. Outside of the doorway are two statues of Nandi the bull which is Shiva’s transport.
Of all religions I’ve encountered so far Hinduism is the most strange. How anyone can follow it is beyond me. And I mean this litterally and physically. It's very confusing. As soon as we walked into the building I felt an evil presence. It felt wrong. To my left were dozens of Hindu priests chanting into a microphone which was announced outward trough loudspeakers around the complex, and to my right was an alter where flowers and fruit were placed. Straight in front of me was the womb chamber where the main statue of Shiva is housed and no non-Hindus are allowed inside. As we walked around the temple there was literally dozens of statues of Shiva, mostly in lingam form but one was a dancing Shiva. I will say, I was happy to leave.
Afterwards we visited two older temples which were still in use, but not to the same degree as the first. The second one was dedicated to Vishnu and the third one I believe was also dedicated to Shiva.
After lunch we drove an hour and a half out to the coast to Mamalapuram. Unlike Kancheepuram, I really liked mamalapuram. It’s a world heritage sites and all of the structures are not in use. The carvings were crazy at the first part we stopped at. I had seen pictures of this wall of relief’s before, but I thought the entire wall was maybe my height not that the elephant alone was life sized.
The hawkers were particularly made at Mamalapuram. I would say more so than anywhere else in India I went to. Me and Emily were literally running away from them and they ran after us. They REALLY wanted our money.
The second part of Mamalapuram we stopped at was a series of temples and statues all carved out of a single rock. It was incredible, and a great photo opportunity. Me, Laura, and Emily took pictures in the temples, under the elephant, riding the bull, jumping into the air. It was a lot of fun.
Our last stop was the shore temple. A lot of new pieces were unearthed in the sand at this site when the Tsunami hit a year and a half ago, nothing really spectacular though. By this time me, Emily and Laura were so templed out we decided to skip the temple (we could see it from a distance) and go down on the beach instead.
Touching the Bay of Bengal felt so great. It was really warm. We were surrounded by Indian families, but none of them were going in the water. The farthest in they would go is their feet.

Overall I really liked India. I would go back, it think…..

Burma: An Unexpected Suprise

I got back from a trip early today so I thought I’d post a blog. Also for anyone who is wondering I will post more pics of Vietnam. Last time the computer quit downloading them and I don’t have them handy at the moment.

So far Burma has been absolutely amazing. I would say the people are nicer here than any other country we’ve been to so far. If you look in their direction they’ll always smile at you and their always willing to help, especially the many boys who bought the traditional skirt all the men wear here. The boys just can’t tie it right. Today we were walking through the market in Twante and Matts practically fell off of him. All the women sitting at their fruit stalls were cracking up.
Pulling into port on Saturday night but not being able to get off until yesterday morning was torture. Right around global studies time we noticed that the water around the ship had turned from blue to a milky brown color reminiscent of the river in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. When we finally spotted land it was like something straight out of National Geographic. There were bright green rice fields as far as the eye could see. Houses built on stilts dotted the shoreline and men paddling small canoe like boats sailed by. We pulled into port at four. I was in class but I was able to look out our window and see a huge sign tied to a cargo container that read “Welcome to Myanmar Semester at Sea.” This was the first country since Japan that gave us a somewhat warm welcome.
Yesterday I was blessed to be one of 200 people on a city orientation. I actually like going on SAS trips but when the group is huge it gets overwhelming. I was glad when the huge group got broken into three smaller groups and we all went to the different sights at different times.
The ship is ported about an hour out of Yangon. The drive there is really pretty but the ship shuttle only leaves from the ship on even hours and our stop in town on odd hours so it’s hard to get between the two (that’s why I got stuck here this evening). Our first stop on the tour was to the colonial area of town. We got out and walked through the area for about a half a mile and then met up with the bus. I was surprised by the conditions of the buildings. I knew they would be bad, but I didn’t know they would be that bad. I don’t think building maintenance exists in Burma. Water has really taken its toll. Nearly every building is water stained and it pained me to see such beautiful old buildings with plants growing out of every crack.
Next we went to a tea shop. It wasn’t that exciting and nothing happened so I will leave it at this mention. After the tea shop we went to the NATIONAL museum. Their national museum was equivalent to 4 stories of high school gyms with partitioned. I was amazed that so many precious old artifacts were left right out in the open for people to touch as they pleased. Overall the museum wasn’t to interesting either. I’m glad we only spent 20 minutes at it.
Before lunch we made a stop at the Scott Market. Now, if you read my Vietnam blog you will have read about the glorious Ben Tanh market, I honestly liked the Scott market better. It was amazing. Art, jewelry, fabric, teak, jade, they had everything. I exchanged some US money for Kyat (national rate is 450 kyat to the dollar, I got 1300 kyat to the dollar J ) and then bought some paintings. I got three water color paintings for $5. They’re really pretty too. I’m excited to go back later this week and spend a deal of time there.
After lunch we were taken to see the second largest reclining Buddha in the world. We weren’t allowed to wear shoes or socks in the building so we had to take them off on the bus then walk out on the dirty pavement until we got under the cover. I honestly wasn’t prepared for what I saw in the building. I knew the Buddha was big, I didn’t know it was that BIG. Since it was laying down I would estimate it was about 40 ft. from where its shoulder was propped up to the top of its head, and it was at least 100 ft long.
The differences between Buddha statues in Burma and Buddha statues in say Japan and China are enormous. In Japan they leave the Buddha’s as they are so if you look at Buddha statues now they are singularly colored, usually bronze, black, or gold. In Burma the Buddha’s look like cartoon characters. He is usually always wearing a gold robe and has pure white skin with black hair and pink lips and nails.
Our last big stop was at the Schwedagon Pagoda which is the holiest Buddhist place in Myanmar. The golden stupa is so big that you can see it on the horizon for several miles. The government also prohibits the building of any skyscrapers near it so that it is the only thing that sticks out.
Again we were made to take of our socks and shoes. We took an elevator up to the level of the pagoda and then were able to break off from the group after we were told to meet up in an hour. First I must let you know that the Shwedagon Paya isn’t just a single stupa (a stupa serves the same purpose as the Chinese and Japanese pagoda, which if you don’t know is holding a relic of the Buddha) but its multiple stupas. So many that I couldn’t even begin to count. There are also hundreds of Buddha statues hidden in every nook and cranny. The main stupa is so big that it took me nearly the whole hour to walk around it. I may have taken me less time if I hadn’t gotten confused (all sides look the same). The day we were there was some special holy day so there was a lot of people, a lot of monks.
I must say I have a fascination with Buddhist monks. I can’t explain why but I just like the watch them and every time I see one I have an extreme urge to take a picture. Here in Burma every guy is required to be a monk for a period before he turns 18 and a period afterwards, so let me just say, there are a lot of monks. I was actually able to talk to one at the Pagoda. He was 20 years old and had been a monk for 6 years. He spoke English incredibly well and he’d only been learning it for 6 months. I couldn’t believe it, but let me tell you I was so fascinated by what he was saying that I forgot to take a picture. What a disappointment.
Id say the highlight of our adventure yesterday was the drive back to the ship. We happened to get on the great bus with broken headlights so we had to drive back to the ship in the blackness of night. I will admit it was scary. We were all picturing the bus flipping over the side of the road. However we must have had a very talented driver because we did get back, just an hour later than originally planned.
Today was a really awesome day. Since I didn’t go on a big trip here I specifically chose day trips that would get me out of Yangon. Twante is a delta town across the river and about 25 miles from the city. We rode on a passenger ferry across the river. It was really crowded and awkward because they whole time all of the Burmese on our deck were staring at us. I think they had even more reason to look because SAS’s camera guy Andy was on our trip carrying his huge camera. They probably though it were movie stars or something.
From when we docked it took us about an hour to get to Twante. The first thing we did was explore a market. When we got off the bus the first thing we saw were baskets of baby ducks. Of course all of the SAS students rushed over to take pictures but it’s sad to think that these cute little ducks are just being raised to be eaten. Later as we walked around the market we saw a group of live adult ducks whose necks had been broken so that they could be sold and eaten. One tried to fly away but it just kind of flopped around.
As we were walking around they muddy streets it was interesting to take in all that was around us (excluding the awful smell). Women were selling flowers and fruit, men sold baskets and clothing. There were donkey carts and dogs all over the streets and little kids wandering holding parasols. At this same time we found out that the Burman airforce really does exist. Fighter pilots were doing test runs right over our heads.
After the market we walked along the canal and up a small road to a pottery workshop. All of the buildings in the area are made out of thatch, including the workshop. Men, women and even kids were all helping to make the pots which came in all different shapes and sizes. One little baby so so cute, he was asleep rocking in a hammock. All of the other kids were cute too. I probably got more pictures of kids today than I’ve ever gotten. Another interesting thing that I’ve forgotten to mention so far is all of the women and children wear a yellow paste on their face. We were told it’s used for sunscreen but I think it has another function as well.
After the pottery workshop we got back on the bus and drove to a monastery orphanage. When we arrived all of the kids (probably around 100) were lined up according to age in different lines. The monk blew his whistle and they would move their arms into different positions and then they started to sing a song. It was cute to watch the toddlers on the end as they just stood wide eyed as the others sang. When they finished we were able to pass out toys and candy. It really brings you down to earth because they say thank you for every little thing and they keep their hands folded by their mouths even after you give them something. After wards we were able to “talk” to and play with the kids. The only ones that really knew English were the older girls so it was hard to communicate with the younger ones. We did kick the ball around for a little while though.

The trip got back at 2:30 so since then I’ve been working on catching up. I’m still on the third day of Vietnam in my regular journal and I have a paper due the day after Burma that I need to to cracking on. Tomorrow I get to go to Bago, a town about 2 hours from Yangon. Since this is only two days worth of adventures I can only imagine what my next one will be like.

Vietnam

Vietnam was amazing! My favorite country so far, and the first country without a McDonalds.
Let me just say Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City) is crazy! Out of a population of 8 million, there are 3 million motor bikes and a great number of them are for hire. As soon as we walked out of the gate at the port, we were rushed with offers for rides.
I went out with Rachel, Jennifer, Izumi, and out interport student Tien and her friend Coy. It was really nice to have people who know where their going and speak the language to show us around. We decided to walk from the port to the Ben Tanh market. It was actually pretty close, only a 15 minute walk during which we had to dodge through the heavy motor bike traffic several times (crosswalks are few and far between except for in heavily tourist areas). By the end of our time in Saigon we were absolute pros at crossing the street, just remember don’t stop, just keep going even if there’s something coming at you, they’ll just honk and go around. That’s another thing, I firmly believe that car companies put horns in cars specifically for Vietnam, all other countries just benefit from this action, but seriously in Vietnam they are truly needed. One of our tour guides described it this way. In some countries like England and Australia they drive on the left side of the road, in other countries like the US they drive on the right side of the road, then in Vietnam they drive on both side of the road .
Ok, so back to the first day. We made it to the market and it was so overwhelming. It was crowded and full of color. It took some time just to be able to absorb it all. Tien and Coy showed us a shop where we could get out dresses made and then we went back into the market to buy our material. I got three yards of fabric for $11 and the dress cost $10 to get made. Not bad for a personalized dress. Afterwards we split up and explored the market. I bought my Northface backpack. I wasn’t going to buy it on the first day but I got a good deal so I couldn’t pass it up. I was also able to get a Coach handbag that seriously looks real. Like some of the bags look blatantly fake but this one you can’t tell at all.
That night I went you to dinner with the 3 Rachel’s and Justin to a Vietnamese restaurant. It was authentic, like we were seriously sitting next to tanks of lobster, shark, and quite possibly the ugliest fish I have seen in my life. I decided to be adventurous with what I ordered, I mean hey how often are you in Vietnam so I ordered Pigeon. It tasted like duck, not bad, but pigeons aren’t the meatiest bird so it definitely wasn’t filling. After dinner we went to see if the Ben Tanh was still open, it wasn’t, it closes at 6pm but when the Ben Tanh closes an outdoor night market which is just as good or better opens around it (Ben Tanh is an indoor market). You can buy anything, a new outfit, shoes, purses, Columbia jackets, jewelry, wooden boxes, belts, wallets, you name it a stall will probably have it. It was crazy. There were also a ton of outdoor restaurants set up so if you ever go to Saigon you should definitely give one of the restaurants a try.
On the second day I was able to do a service visit to a school for the deaf and we took the kids to the zoo. When we got to the school the kids did some dances for us which was pretty interesting because they couldn’t hear the music. Afterwards we got to sit down and “talk” to the kids and draw with the younger ones. The kindergartners were SO adorable. There was one little boy that had the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen. I ended up playing tic tac toe for a half and hour with a little girl who’s name I do not remember because it was strange but it started with a K so that’s what I’ll call her.
Unfortunately we couldn’t bring the Kindergartners to the zoo. I was kinda bummed because I would have loved to have seen their faces. We all got partnered up with a student to watch over. I got partnered up with K. I was cool with it because at this point she was still a sweet 10 year old girl but later……. As soon as we left the school it started to pour rain. That’s what we get for going to Vietnam during monsoon season. It was still raining when we got to the zoo so we ate lunch first. The box lunches from the ship are nothing spectacular. Bologna sandwiches, and apple, Oreos, Capri sun, ect. K refused to eat anything but her chicken drumstick and then wanted to carry around her food the rest of the day. The rain wasn’t giving up so we eventually ventured out covering our heads with the few umbrellas, boxes, unfolded ponchos, whatever we could find. This is when K turned into the evil child. WE stopped at a outdoor where there were bears. One of the bears was really cute, it kept standing up and doing tricks for us. K took the apple out of her lunch box, threw it at the bear and hit it on the head. Poor bear.
My favorite animal at the zoo were the elephants. You could reach over and feed them peanuts. I felt bad for them because there were 5 elephants in a small space, but it sure was fun to feed them.
It was kind of funny, it rained the entire time we were at the zoo, but the moment before we got on the bus to leave it stopped, and it didn’t rain the rest of the day.
When we got back to the ship me and Rachel went out to the Market again. I bought so many things, I was loaded down (they weren’t all for me), and you must understand that even though I bought a ton of things, items in Vietnam are so cheap I only spent $20 max, but I’m sure less.
After eating Asian food every day we’ve been in a country so far we decided to go for some Pizza. Let me say, when you haven’t had Pizza in over a month, it tastes VERY good. Thank goodness for Vietnam too, we were able to get a large pizza and garlic bread for $5.
Besides food and goods, services are also very cheap in Vietnam. Since the day had already been so good with an amazing service visit, good shopping, and pizza we decided to end it with a pedicure and massage. For $19 US I got a pedicure and a 75 minute shiatsu massage. The massage was absolutely amazing. It was full body from a scalp massage to the soles of my feet. She even walked on my back. I must say it feels awkward to have nothing but a towel covering you, but eventually you get over it. The same massage would run over $100 in the states so I’m pretty satisfied with my good deal.
The next day I went on an SAS trip to the Cao Dai temple and Cu Chi Tunnels. Originally I had just planned on going to the tunnels but those trips filled up so I was forced to go on the trip with the Cao Dai temple. At first I was disappointed, but not I’m so glad I went. I actually liked the temple more than the tunnels. Cao Dai is a religion that was started in the early 20th century which is a weird combination of all religions. The founder believed that Jesus, the Buddha, and Mohammad were all the same person and the core teaching is being harmonious with nature, like many other Asian religions. The temple we went to is the main temple for all of Cao Dai. It is built on a complex of 100 acres. The temple itself is very unique, very colorful. The primary color is goldenrod but it is accented with bright pinks, blues, greens, yellow, and white. The symbol of the religion is the left eye so there is a left eye on all of the window openings, and since the religion is a mix of all religions there is a dome on the top for Islam, bell towers for Catholicism, and towers topped with Hindu deities.
We were at the temple during one of their masses. It was very interesting. Tourists are allowed on an upper balcony to watch so we got a great view of all that was going on. The women and a lot of the men dress in white robes with white head coverings, and then some of the other men dress in brightly colored robes and head coverings. They all sit cross legged on the floor, chanting, and when the gong is rung they all bow. I don’t understand the religion at all but it was very interesting to watch.
The drive to the temple alone was worth it. The town that the temple is in is about an hour past the turn off for the tunnels right on the border with Cambodia. Along the road rice fields stretched for miles. I saw hundreds of cows, water buffalo, and I’m pretty sure I saw a couple cebu’s.
I honestly wasn’t to impressed by the tunnels. Not to say the tunnels themselves weren’t very impressive, just the whole tour was boring. For those of you who don’t know, the Cu Chi tunnels are a series of underground tunnels used by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam war. They were so well hidden that the US even built a military base over one section of them. Since we were in Vietnam obviously the view of the war portrayed to us was very one sided. We were even followed around the whole time by a soldier dressed as Viet Cong. At one point of the tour you are given the option to shoot an AK 47 (at a target of course). I now know why my grandpa is going deaf. Those suckers are LOUD. I could hardly hear out of my left ear for 5 minutes afterwards and I was wearing earplugs.
Actually crawling through the tunnels was pretty difficult. We had to climb down a couple levels to get to a small tunnel where you either had to crouch, squat, or crawl to get through. To make matters more difficult it was pitch black. I started out crouching, then went to a squat and ended up in a crawl. My leg muscles were definitely getting a workout. I was so happy to breath fresh air again when we got out. The whole reason I went to the tunnels was so that I could crawl through them and it lasted a grand total of 5 minutes. If I were to do Vietnam over again with this knowledge I don’t think I would have gone to the tunnels.
On Saturday I went on an SAS trip to the Mekong Delta. Unlike the tunnels, this trip was completely worth it. There were so many different pieces to the trip I don’t even know where to start. We took a big open air boat out to Unicorn Island (there are four Islands, Unicorn, Turtle, Phoenix, and Dragon. All of the boats have eyes painted under the front tip. In the past these eyes were there to scare away the crocodiles but now there are no more crocodiles so it’s just carrying on the tradition. On the island we walked on a trail through the topical plants to get to a farm where we were served fruit and they played traditional music for us. I don’t like pineapple, but I liked the pineapple they gave us, we also had Lychee (I don’t know if I spelled it right), a fruit kind of like a grape but much better tasting that’s incased in a spiky red “shell,” we had these little extremely yellow bananas that were very good, papaya that was bad, and this awful little brown fruit. It was disgusting.
Then we got into small canoelike row boats and went through the canals on the Island. There were 4 of us in the boat plus the two Vietnamese women who were rowing. I was sure to sit in the back so I could get some cool pictures of everyone ahead of me wearing their rice hats. The canal seemed to go on forever. The water was dirty brown and there were large palms and other tropical vegetation lining the canal side. It must be a popular tourist area because we passed several other boats rowing back up the canal.
At the end of the canal we got on another motor boat which took us up a small canal to a coconut plantation. We got to watch coconut candy being made and then we got to buy it  Then they set us down and gave us tea and rice wine (both were awful, but that’s from my perspective not liking tea or alcohol). As we were sitting drinking our tea suddenly a women appeared with a python. Everyone jumped at the chance to get a picture. The python must be pretty used to it because it pretty much just chilled there as it was passed from shoulder to shoulder.
Our last stop was at a restaurant for lunch. Our first dish was elephant ear fish. It was literally looking at me. They placed the whole cooked fish on a stand in the middle of the table. A woman came and sliced it into pieces and rapped it into rolls for us. I didn’t like the rolls very much but the fish itself was very good. I don’t even like fish but it didn’t taste like your typical fish. I honestly don’t remember the rest of the food we had, I just remember it was really good, and as soon as we were done we were informed that there was a water buffalo right outside of our hut. He was enjoying himself, wallowing in the water. I couldn’t help but think of the Vegitales song, “everybody has a water buffalo, yours is fast but mine is slow…” It was stuck in my head for the rest of the day.
Our last day in port was the only day it didn’t rain. Me and Rachel went out to see if there were any last minute things we “needed.” We went to the Rex Hotel for lunch and seriously, got a 7 course meal for $8. They even taught us how to make a grapefruit and meat salad, which was not tasty in my opinion, but hey, we got to make it ourselves.
We ended our time in Vietnam with one last ride on a motor bike. After being traumatized by my first ride on the first day I decided to try it again. The second guy was much worse than the first. He would go really slow and wobble back and forth and then he would go so fast we were passing everyone around us and nearly hitting other motor bikes as they dodged in front of us. Needless to say I was so happy to finally see the ship in the distance.
Overall I REALLY liked Vietnam. If I could do it over though I would definitely go to Cambodia and see Angkor. Everyone who went said it was absolutely amazing and I was VERY jealous. Then I would go on the Mekong trip.
We stopped in Singapore last night to refuel. It was cool to see the lights of the city in the distance. Right now we’re booking it through the straights of Malacca. It’s foggy outside so we can’t see anything, but there’s supposed to be pirates in this area so we’re getting through it as fast as we can.
Next is Myanmar. I’m excited although I wish I was going to either Inle Lake or Bagan. I can’t wait for India when I finally have a big trip to look forward to again.