If you think that our customs check in the United States is strict, then go visit Japan. After filling out stacks of visa papers, our entire ship had to get off in the morning and one-by-one get finger printed, face-to-face checked, and searched. After a couple of hours of waiting in long lines, we finally left the port and took a quick train to the main section of Kobe. Kobe is a beautiful Mecca of sky scrapers and reminded me of any big city back on the United States. It was extremely clean, easy to get around, and everyone was so friendly. First, a group of us decided to go to a sake factory and see how sake was made. We toured a museum that showed the process of fermenting sake from rice and at the end of the tour we got to try different kinds of cold sake. It was pretty neat to see and we got to drink a lot of free sake, so all-in-all pretty successful!
After Sake-ing, we headed to the bay to find a fun restaurant to get lunch/dinner. Naturally, everyone wanted some good quality Kobe beef, but after attempting a couple of Kobe restaurants that charged about $70 for a decent sized Kobe beef steak, we decided to find a restaurant that was a little more our budget and get normal, cheaper steaks. We ended up at a little saloon restaurant that had U.S. license plates all over the walls. The service was impeccable! We had a little button at our table and anytime we needed something, our waitress was there in a flash. She was really cute and didn’t really understand English, so we had a fun time pointing at all of the things we wanted. Once our meal was finished, we all paid and discovered that the Japanese do NOT accept any sort of tip. The tax is included in the meal itself and the prices are adjusted to have the tip included as well. The Japanese believe that their service is so good that they do not need a customer to leave an extra tip to insure the quality. We walked around the bay area after lunch for a while and found ourselves at a little carnival. We went on the Ferris wheel that overlooked downtown Kobe and the port and we rode on little mechanical pandas! Then we shopped at some of the little trolley stores and headed back to the ship to get ready for the night.
Some people decided to go to a nightclub in Osaka, but it was a 20 minute train ride away and the last train back to our port was at 12:30am, so a bunch of us ended up staying in Kobe and going out to a club there. We ended up going to an all you can drink for $15 USD nightclub that was pretty cool. It was a little crowded with SAS kids and the bar was almost impossible to get to due to everyone trying to get all of the drinks they could handle at once. We danced away the night and headed back to the ship in the early morning to get some sleep before we headed to Tokyo.
This morning we all got up to pack our bags and head on a bullet train to Tokyo. We got a little lost with all of the changing of trains that we ended up getting to the bullet train with little time to get on our train. We later realized that there were several trains going to Tokyo throughout the day, so we simply caught the next one that left about 20 minutes after the one we missed. Ali, Amanda, and I settled into our seats for our 2 and a half hour train ride to Tokyo. We arrived around 1:30 and made it our first priority to find a hotel. We went to a travel desk and found a hotel in the Shibuya district, which is the Times Square area of Tokyo. We stayed in the Tokyu Inn that was right across the street from the main train station, and right in the center of the square. Tokyo is absolutely huge and it has 30 different districts. We got to witness the busiest cross walk in the world. It had four different cross sections…your typical square cross walk that creates a box connecting the traffic lights, and then it also had cross walks that made an X across the street and attached to about three other streets to create the largest intersection I have ever seen! Every time the light changed for the cross-walks, a sea of business suites, black hair, and a couple random bright colored outfits worn by the tourists filled the pavement and for a good 10 minutes, that is all you could see. We found our hotel right away and set our stuff down and headed out to find a place to get lunch. We ended up at a little restaurant where we had mini hibachi grills on our table. The waiter brought our food out cold and helped us cook it on our table. Then we got little utensils that looked like mini-spatulas, and shoveled our food off of the heated surface and ate it.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Friday, May 1, 2009
Beijing and Shanghai, China!
Our flight from Hong Kong to Beijing wasn’t too long, and before we knew it we were stepping out into the frigid weather of Beijing. Our tour guide, Linda picked us up from the airport and we loaded into a van and headed to our hotel. We got into Beijing pretty late, around midnight actually. So, once we got to our hotel we were all pretty exhausted; we checked in and went to bed. The next morning we got up early, got breakfast, and headed out for a long day of sight-seeing around Beijing. We went to Tiananmen Square which is famous for many rebellions and rallies. After walking around the Square for a little while, we headed into the Forbidden City, where the Emperor used to live. It used to be strictly for Emperors and no one else was allowed to see the inside of the walls. It was extremely cold and none of us were prepared for the weather, so we made a quick pit stop at some souvenir stands and all bought large Russian looking fur hats with communist stars to keep us warm. We lingered around the Forbidden City for a little while to get some good pics and then moved on. Next we stopped to get lunch at a REAL Chinese restaurant where we ate dumplings, noodles, vegetables, all sorts of Chinese food, and large Chinese beers. After lunch, we headed to the Summer Palace, one of the many vacation spots of past Emperors. The Palace was gorgeous! It had a huge lake in the middle and beautiful boats floating across. We walked all around the area for a while and took in the beautiful scenery. After a long day of sightseeing and walking, we were pretty tired. Linda took us back to our hotel and we took a little nap. Later, we got ready to go out. First, we went to get some dinner. We walked for a while and finally settled on eating at a hotel. Authentic Chinese food is nothing like the Chinese food we eat back home and to be quite honest…it’s not that great. So, we got American food instead and then headed out to one of the main bar streets in Beijing. The street was really cool. It was lined with bars that had bright lights and signs all over them. They were all side by side and along a river. There weren’t too many people out, so we chilled at a little Reggae bar with some other SAS kids.
Today, we headed to the Great Wall! We made a few stops along the way at the Underground palace and the Sacred Way. It took us about two hours to get there and then we walked down several flights of stairs and ended up in an underground room filled with the tombs of Emperors and Empresses. There were piles of money on the tombs given by tourists and the Chinese as a payment of respect. Then, we headed to the Sacred way which was about 15 minutes away from the Underground palace. It was a path that was used by the Ancient Chinese who brought the Emperor’s tomb from Beijing to the Underground Palace on foot! The Sacred Way was lined with statues of warriors, elephants, and horses and at the end of the pathway was a large gate. We walked the whole path, which took around half an hour and then we headed back to the van to continue on to the Great Wall of China. We arrived a little before sundown, so we quickly trekked up the wall and found a good spot to watch the sunset. Once the sun was gone we headed to a restaurant at the base of the wall and ate dinner and got some drinks. Then, we prepared our stuff for the evening, got our sleeping bags, our clothes for the next day’s hike, and massive amounts of beer. We hiked up the wall with our little wind up flashlights and all our gear on our backs. It took about 30 minutes to get to the tower we were sleeping in. When we finally got there, we set up our sleeping bags in a circle and quickly got settled in because it was so cold. We sat around for a while drinking beer and having girl talk and slowly everyone began to pass out. It was difficult to sleep because of how cold it was, I kept waking up, but every time I opened my eyes I looked up and saw the brightest, most beautiful sky of stars I have ever seen! I thought I was dreaming until the next morning when everyone mentioned how amazing the sky looked. I have seriously never seen so many stars shining at the same time. The night was very interesting. We were very cold and had many layers on and we also had no form of a bathroom! So, you can only imagine how fun it was having to use the Great Wall as our toilet!
This morning, we got up at sunrise, had some granola and milk for breakfast, and cleaned up our area. We rolled up all of our sleeping bags, stuffed them in their bags and luckily, people came up to get all of the sleeping gear and food so we didn’t have to carry it on our 6 mile hike. We did however, have all of our stuff to carry along. We began our long hike, and what a long hike it was! We went through 30 tours and it took about an hour to get through 10 towers. The hike was great and very challenging. We were on the old part of the wall so there were some parts that were a little hard to walk on because of all the eroded rock. Also, at a lot of towers we had to climb up the steepest steps that seemed like they lasted forever. The trek was long, but so much fun and the scenery was beautiful. We Trekked partly in Beijing and partly in Mongolia. At the end of the hike, we got to cross a wooden bridge over a river/lake and zip line down to the bottom of the lake! After we zip lined, we at lunch at a restaurant at the bottom of the Wall. Then we got back in our van and headed back to Beijing. Once back in Beijing, Linda took us to the site of the 2008 Summer Olympics. We got to see the bird nest (Stadium used for the opening ceremonies and track), the bubbly arena for swimming and diving, and the gymnasium for gymnastics. She also showed us the building that was in the shape of the torch. It was pretty neat and there were a lot of tourists there (mostly Chinese).
We were all pretty gross after spending the night on the Wall and hiking all day, so we decided to rent a hotel room for a couple hours back in Beijing and take showers and change. We had to get on the sleeper train that night to head to Shanghai, so we had a little time to kill. We got some food and arrived at the train station, which was absolute Chaos. There were so many people going in and out of the station it was hard to keep our group together, but we made it inside and Linda brought us to our terminal and we all said our goodbyes. Linda was such a fun tour guide and she loved us so much that she told us when she gets married she wants us to be her brides maids! Haha.
We loaded our sleeper trains about 15 minutes after we got there and settled into our little cubbyhole rooms that had four beds in them. They were pretty cute and comfortable enough. There were a ton of SAS students on the train with us and we had a great time! We got to Shanghai pretty early the next morning and had to get off quickly bc the train left again right after it dropped us off in Shanghai! Some people almost got stuck on the train because they didn’t get off quickly enough. From the train station, we had a bus bring us back to the port in Shanghai. We got on the ship in time for breakfast. After breakfast, we decided to meet up with one of Amanda’s guy friends, Rob, who was studying abroad in Shanghai. We met up with him for lunch in the Xiang district which was a little German looking shopping/restaurant area. It was so cute and we got lunch there and walked around. He took us to the business and finance district of Shanghai and we went up in one of the famous buildings that overlooks the city. It was really cool and looked like a giant space needle and it was pink! Then we attempted to go to the British quarter of Shanghai, however our taxi driver decided to drive us in circles for a while and take us the wrong way where we ended up in a lot of traffic, so we just got out and decided to try and find a new taxi. By this time, we had to head back to the ship for on-ship time, so we grabbed a new taxi who took us back to the port. It was a close call, but we got back on the ship in time!
Overall, beside the lack of good food, the lack of toilet seats (they like the holes with the little footings on each side), the lack of toilet paper, and the lack of etiquette (Chinese people spit everywhere!), the lack of English speakers, and the excessive amount of Chinese bargainers that yell “finish” at you when you are trying to bargain with them, China was really fun. I don’t know if I necessarily loved the country in general, but it was a good experience nonetheless.
Today, we headed to the Great Wall! We made a few stops along the way at the Underground palace and the Sacred Way. It took us about two hours to get there and then we walked down several flights of stairs and ended up in an underground room filled with the tombs of Emperors and Empresses. There were piles of money on the tombs given by tourists and the Chinese as a payment of respect. Then, we headed to the Sacred way which was about 15 minutes away from the Underground palace. It was a path that was used by the Ancient Chinese who brought the Emperor’s tomb from Beijing to the Underground Palace on foot! The Sacred Way was lined with statues of warriors, elephants, and horses and at the end of the pathway was a large gate. We walked the whole path, which took around half an hour and then we headed back to the van to continue on to the Great Wall of China. We arrived a little before sundown, so we quickly trekked up the wall and found a good spot to watch the sunset. Once the sun was gone we headed to a restaurant at the base of the wall and ate dinner and got some drinks. Then, we prepared our stuff for the evening, got our sleeping bags, our clothes for the next day’s hike, and massive amounts of beer. We hiked up the wall with our little wind up flashlights and all our gear on our backs. It took about 30 minutes to get to the tower we were sleeping in. When we finally got there, we set up our sleeping bags in a circle and quickly got settled in because it was so cold. We sat around for a while drinking beer and having girl talk and slowly everyone began to pass out. It was difficult to sleep because of how cold it was, I kept waking up, but every time I opened my eyes I looked up and saw the brightest, most beautiful sky of stars I have ever seen! I thought I was dreaming until the next morning when everyone mentioned how amazing the sky looked. I have seriously never seen so many stars shining at the same time. The night was very interesting. We were very cold and had many layers on and we also had no form of a bathroom! So, you can only imagine how fun it was having to use the Great Wall as our toilet!
This morning, we got up at sunrise, had some granola and milk for breakfast, and cleaned up our area. We rolled up all of our sleeping bags, stuffed them in their bags and luckily, people came up to get all of the sleeping gear and food so we didn’t have to carry it on our 6 mile hike. We did however, have all of our stuff to carry along. We began our long hike, and what a long hike it was! We went through 30 tours and it took about an hour to get through 10 towers. The hike was great and very challenging. We were on the old part of the wall so there were some parts that were a little hard to walk on because of all the eroded rock. Also, at a lot of towers we had to climb up the steepest steps that seemed like they lasted forever. The trek was long, but so much fun and the scenery was beautiful. We Trekked partly in Beijing and partly in Mongolia. At the end of the hike, we got to cross a wooden bridge over a river/lake and zip line down to the bottom of the lake! After we zip lined, we at lunch at a restaurant at the bottom of the Wall. Then we got back in our van and headed back to Beijing. Once back in Beijing, Linda took us to the site of the 2008 Summer Olympics. We got to see the bird nest (Stadium used for the opening ceremonies and track), the bubbly arena for swimming and diving, and the gymnasium for gymnastics. She also showed us the building that was in the shape of the torch. It was pretty neat and there were a lot of tourists there (mostly Chinese).
We were all pretty gross after spending the night on the Wall and hiking all day, so we decided to rent a hotel room for a couple hours back in Beijing and take showers and change. We had to get on the sleeper train that night to head to Shanghai, so we had a little time to kill. We got some food and arrived at the train station, which was absolute Chaos. There were so many people going in and out of the station it was hard to keep our group together, but we made it inside and Linda brought us to our terminal and we all said our goodbyes. Linda was such a fun tour guide and she loved us so much that she told us when she gets married she wants us to be her brides maids! Haha.
We loaded our sleeper trains about 15 minutes after we got there and settled into our little cubbyhole rooms that had four beds in them. They were pretty cute and comfortable enough. There were a ton of SAS students on the train with us and we had a great time! We got to Shanghai pretty early the next morning and had to get off quickly bc the train left again right after it dropped us off in Shanghai! Some people almost got stuck on the train because they didn’t get off quickly enough. From the train station, we had a bus bring us back to the port in Shanghai. We got on the ship in time for breakfast. After breakfast, we decided to meet up with one of Amanda’s guy friends, Rob, who was studying abroad in Shanghai. We met up with him for lunch in the Xiang district which was a little German looking shopping/restaurant area. It was so cute and we got lunch there and walked around. He took us to the business and finance district of Shanghai and we went up in one of the famous buildings that overlooks the city. It was really cool and looked like a giant space needle and it was pink! Then we attempted to go to the British quarter of Shanghai, however our taxi driver decided to drive us in circles for a while and take us the wrong way where we ended up in a lot of traffic, so we just got out and decided to try and find a new taxi. By this time, we had to head back to the ship for on-ship time, so we grabbed a new taxi who took us back to the port. It was a close call, but we got back on the ship in time!
Overall, beside the lack of good food, the lack of toilet seats (they like the holes with the little footings on each side), the lack of toilet paper, and the lack of etiquette (Chinese people spit everywhere!), the lack of English speakers, and the excessive amount of Chinese bargainers that yell “finish” at you when you are trying to bargain with them, China was really fun. I don’t know if I necessarily loved the country in general, but it was a good experience nonetheless.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Hong Kong!
March 29th
Today we arrived in Hong Kong. Pulling into the port was one of the coolest things I have seen! It is the prettiest, most photographed port in the world. Its lined with skyscrapers with all sorts of beautiful lights and colors and all different shapes and sizes. We got in around 8am as usual and had to wait a couple hours to be cleared and go through our routine diplomatic briefing. Once we got off the ship, we were free to explore the vast jungle of skyscrapers. First, we had to take a ferry from our port of Kowloon to the actual island of Hong Kong. We decided the best way to go about this would be to take a city tour. Me and two of my Bucknell friends, Sarah and MaryKate, hopped on a bus that took us to four must-see spots around Hong Kong and four must-see spots on the island of Kowloon. We were on a double-decker bus complete with headphones and English commentary on what we were seeing around us, so we definitely stood out as tourists. Our first stop was a mountain called Victoria Peak. We took a tram up a crazy railway to the top where you can find the best views of Hong Kong on a clear day. Naturally, it was not a clear day so we didn’t get to see the best of the best, but we did see the whole city and it was fantastic. We had lunch at the top of the peak and perused through the multiple gift stores. Our next stop took us to the Zoological and Botanical Gardens where we saw monkeys swinging around and playing with each other and millions of colorful, beautiful flowers. We got a little lost and it took us an extra half-hour to find our bus stop, but we hopped back on and headed to the high-end shopping district of Hong Kong. No worries parents, we decided to stay on the bus for this stop! Once our Hong Kong tour was over, we were back where we started at the Ferry, which we took to get back over to Kowloon and continue the bus tour on a different bus. After many attempts to find the right bus stop, we got on and headed to the market area of Kowloon. We saw a women’s market exclusive only to women obviously and a goldfish market exclusive to only those interested in purchasing a pet goldfish (weird, I know). After spotting an H&M and begging the bus driver to stop just for us, we hopped off to do some damage at the 3 story H&M. Later, we caught back up with the bus and headed back to the ship to get dinner. There is a lightshow that plays every night in Hong Kong at 8pm. They light up all of the buildings across the skyline and do a laser show. Our ship just so happened to have the best view of it, so we all got onboard and watched it off the back of the ship. It was amazing!
Later, we got ready and headed out to experience the Hong Kong nightlife. Luckily for us, the Rugby Sevens was going on while we were in Hong Kong, which is like the biggest rugby championships in the world. So, a million beautiful foreign muscular rugby players were all over Hong Kong as well. We ended up at a long street known as the center of Hong Kong nightlife. It is lined with fun bars, and everyone brings the party out into the street. The streets were packed with SAS kids mixed with rugby players from all over the world! This night was probably one of the most fun we have had on this trip…and trust me, we have had some very fun nights.
The next day, we had all morning in Hong Kong before our evening flight to mainland China. Without any plans I somehow found myself looking for a ferry to get to a small island called Macau. Macau is a Portuguese-owned island that is known as the “Las Vegas” of the east. However, the gambling I was looking to do had nothing to do with winning or losing my money; Instead, I decided to gamble my life by BUNGEE JUMPING off of the tallest bungee jump in the world. And yes, I have video and photo proof! But, the bungee jumping is not the only highlight of this story, we had quite a fun time just trying to get there in the first place. We started off the morning by trying to find the Ferry station, which eventually we found located in a mall…who woulda thought? So after a good half-hour looking for the ferry, we finally arrived, bought our tickets and got to the check-in counter just in time to find out that without a passport we could not board the ferry. Ferries from Hong Kong to Macau run every 30 minutes, so determined to make the next Ferry, we sprinted back to the boat (about a 15 minute walk itself), retrieved our passports, and sprinted back with about 30 seconds to spare. However, the gate to the ferry was already closed and the ticket taker had no intention of letting us on. After begging and pleading to let us on the ferry, he finally gave in and we sprinted on. We had an hour ferry ride ahead of us to sit and ponder what we just went through all the trouble to do. We got to Macau and had to go through customs, find a driver to get us to Macau tower, and reassure each other that what we were about to do was totally worth it. When we got to the tower, we looked up and saw what looked like a small object flying off the side of the needle-point building. We entered, our hearts pounding, palms sweating and got in the elevator which took us to the top floor, the 85th floor! We were all antsy, terrified really…but we signed our lives away anyways. We had to go in the order of our weight, so my friend Danny was first, followed by Hayley, Lindsay, me, then Rachel. Being the third one to go just made the whole nervous process worse. One by one, I saw the people in front of my drop off the side of the ledge, fall for what seemed like ages, and safely land on a blow up mat at the bottom. Finally, it was my time. I saw on a table where I got my legs wrapped with towels and nylon straps. Once all suited up, I had to hop over to a small ledge on the side of the skyscraper. I was hooked by my feet to a jumble of cords and my safety belt that connected me to the large building was unhooked from behind me. I gave the videographer my last words and attempted to smile for one last picture, then I heard 5,4,3,2, GOOOOO! I leaned forward and suddenly my body went into total shock and my brain received a message informing me of my death! Luckily, as quickly as this feeling consumed me, it was gone and I found myself free falling through the air overlooking the bay and several Vegas-like buildings. I actually was enjoying myself! When I made it to the end, I was jolted back up about a third of the way and then slowly lowered back down to the blow up mat. It was probably the scariest part of the whole process. Hanging upside down for a good 5 minutes is not necessarily the best feeling in the world. My body was beginning to go numb because all of my blood was pooling in my head, and my feet felt like they were slipping through the towels that were securing me to the rope. Finally, I locked hands with the guy at on the mat and he lowered me to safety. At first, I was a little confused at how I felt about what I just did, but after a few minutes of being grounded, I realized it was probably one of the most liberating, adrenaline pumping experience I have ever had! I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an adventure.
Today we arrived in Hong Kong. Pulling into the port was one of the coolest things I have seen! It is the prettiest, most photographed port in the world. Its lined with skyscrapers with all sorts of beautiful lights and colors and all different shapes and sizes. We got in around 8am as usual and had to wait a couple hours to be cleared and go through our routine diplomatic briefing. Once we got off the ship, we were free to explore the vast jungle of skyscrapers. First, we had to take a ferry from our port of Kowloon to the actual island of Hong Kong. We decided the best way to go about this would be to take a city tour. Me and two of my Bucknell friends, Sarah and MaryKate, hopped on a bus that took us to four must-see spots around Hong Kong and four must-see spots on the island of Kowloon. We were on a double-decker bus complete with headphones and English commentary on what we were seeing around us, so we definitely stood out as tourists. Our first stop was a mountain called Victoria Peak. We took a tram up a crazy railway to the top where you can find the best views of Hong Kong on a clear day. Naturally, it was not a clear day so we didn’t get to see the best of the best, but we did see the whole city and it was fantastic. We had lunch at the top of the peak and perused through the multiple gift stores. Our next stop took us to the Zoological and Botanical Gardens where we saw monkeys swinging around and playing with each other and millions of colorful, beautiful flowers. We got a little lost and it took us an extra half-hour to find our bus stop, but we hopped back on and headed to the high-end shopping district of Hong Kong. No worries parents, we decided to stay on the bus for this stop! Once our Hong Kong tour was over, we were back where we started at the Ferry, which we took to get back over to Kowloon and continue the bus tour on a different bus. After many attempts to find the right bus stop, we got on and headed to the market area of Kowloon. We saw a women’s market exclusive only to women obviously and a goldfish market exclusive to only those interested in purchasing a pet goldfish (weird, I know). After spotting an H&M and begging the bus driver to stop just for us, we hopped off to do some damage at the 3 story H&M. Later, we caught back up with the bus and headed back to the ship to get dinner. There is a lightshow that plays every night in Hong Kong at 8pm. They light up all of the buildings across the skyline and do a laser show. Our ship just so happened to have the best view of it, so we all got onboard and watched it off the back of the ship. It was amazing!
Later, we got ready and headed out to experience the Hong Kong nightlife. Luckily for us, the Rugby Sevens was going on while we were in Hong Kong, which is like the biggest rugby championships in the world. So, a million beautiful foreign muscular rugby players were all over Hong Kong as well. We ended up at a long street known as the center of Hong Kong nightlife. It is lined with fun bars, and everyone brings the party out into the street. The streets were packed with SAS kids mixed with rugby players from all over the world! This night was probably one of the most fun we have had on this trip…and trust me, we have had some very fun nights.
The next day, we had all morning in Hong Kong before our evening flight to mainland China. Without any plans I somehow found myself looking for a ferry to get to a small island called Macau. Macau is a Portuguese-owned island that is known as the “Las Vegas” of the east. However, the gambling I was looking to do had nothing to do with winning or losing my money; Instead, I decided to gamble my life by BUNGEE JUMPING off of the tallest bungee jump in the world. And yes, I have video and photo proof! But, the bungee jumping is not the only highlight of this story, we had quite a fun time just trying to get there in the first place. We started off the morning by trying to find the Ferry station, which eventually we found located in a mall…who woulda thought? So after a good half-hour looking for the ferry, we finally arrived, bought our tickets and got to the check-in counter just in time to find out that without a passport we could not board the ferry. Ferries from Hong Kong to Macau run every 30 minutes, so determined to make the next Ferry, we sprinted back to the boat (about a 15 minute walk itself), retrieved our passports, and sprinted back with about 30 seconds to spare. However, the gate to the ferry was already closed and the ticket taker had no intention of letting us on. After begging and pleading to let us on the ferry, he finally gave in and we sprinted on. We had an hour ferry ride ahead of us to sit and ponder what we just went through all the trouble to do. We got to Macau and had to go through customs, find a driver to get us to Macau tower, and reassure each other that what we were about to do was totally worth it. When we got to the tower, we looked up and saw what looked like a small object flying off the side of the needle-point building. We entered, our hearts pounding, palms sweating and got in the elevator which took us to the top floor, the 85th floor! We were all antsy, terrified really…but we signed our lives away anyways. We had to go in the order of our weight, so my friend Danny was first, followed by Hayley, Lindsay, me, then Rachel. Being the third one to go just made the whole nervous process worse. One by one, I saw the people in front of my drop off the side of the ledge, fall for what seemed like ages, and safely land on a blow up mat at the bottom. Finally, it was my time. I saw on a table where I got my legs wrapped with towels and nylon straps. Once all suited up, I had to hop over to a small ledge on the side of the skyscraper. I was hooked by my feet to a jumble of cords and my safety belt that connected me to the large building was unhooked from behind me. I gave the videographer my last words and attempted to smile for one last picture, then I heard 5,4,3,2, GOOOOO! I leaned forward and suddenly my body went into total shock and my brain received a message informing me of my death! Luckily, as quickly as this feeling consumed me, it was gone and I found myself free falling through the air overlooking the bay and several Vegas-like buildings. I actually was enjoying myself! When I made it to the end, I was jolted back up about a third of the way and then slowly lowered back down to the blow up mat. It was probably the scariest part of the whole process. Hanging upside down for a good 5 minutes is not necessarily the best feeling in the world. My body was beginning to go numb because all of my blood was pooling in my head, and my feet felt like they were slipping through the towels that were securing me to the rope. Finally, I locked hands with the guy at on the mat and he lowered me to safety. At first, I was a little confused at how I felt about what I just did, but after a few minutes of being grounded, I realized it was probably one of the most liberating, adrenaline pumping experience I have ever had! I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an adventure.
Viet Nam!
Going to ‘Nam, the only thing that I really had in my mind were the Vietnam war and all of the Vietnamese people that I am familiar with back home. I will say the first day in Ho Chi Minh I did a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels which were used during the Vietnam War. After our ship was cleared in Ho Chi Minh we hopped on a bus to head out to the Cu Chi Tunnels. We first stopped at a cemetery filled with the tombs of Viet Cong soldiers who did during the war. Not only were there soldiers in these graves, but children as young as 4 years old. It was sad to see the enormous expanse of land filled with tombstones from the result of an unfortunate war. We walked around the cemetery for a little while and then got back on the bus to head to lunch. At lunch we were served family sized plates of traditional Vietnamese food. Since I gave up meat for lent, I was given the vegetarian portions (still in family size). I had A LOT to eat! The food was pretty good though and I did a good amount of damage to it. Next, we headed to the Cu Chi tunnels where we watched a war propaganda video that was pretty disturbing. It talked about honoring Viet Cong who had killed the most Americans during the war. It also discussed how unfortunate it was that the U.S. had to start such an atrocity, which was difficult to listen to. Regardless, we walked around paths and were shown where the Viet Cong hid in the underground tunnels. Then we go to tour one of the tunnels that was partly expanded for tourists. We went through the expanded part which was actually still a pretty tight fit and then some of us chose to keep going in the smaller part where we had to crawl on all fours and still barely fit through the tight, congested tunnels! It was really neat though and we came out covered in dust and grime. After cleaning ourselves off a little bit we go to try shooting the AK-47’s that were used by the Viet Cong in the war. They were extremely loud and were hard to shoot. The kickback was strong and sort of bruised our shoulders. Then, it was about time to head back. We left the Cu Chi tunnels and on our way back to the ship, our tour guide Tien told us all about the Vietnamese culture. When we got back to the ship, the line was pretty long to get on, so Me and my friend Marley decided to venture out into the city instead. We walked out of the port where we were bombarded by Vietnamese motorcycle taxi drivers. They literally followed us down the street half a mile until finally a nice Australian women, who lives in Vietnam and teaches at a college, fended them off for us. She told us to come in her taxi with her and she would take us to the main area where we could find cheap DVD’s and knockoff designer accessories. She warned us about getting ripped off by taxi drivers and vendors and used our own taxi driver as an example when he refused to turn on the meter until she yelled at him profusely in Vietnamese and he finally complied. We got to the center and she took us straight to a DVD store where I found the biggest selection of DVD’s for about 75 cents a movie! We definitely took advantage of the selection and the price and both walked away with about 25 movies each!! Then we wandered around the streets and found a little market where we got Vietnamese rice hats and North Face travel backpacks!
We got back to the boat just in time to see everyone getting ready to go out. Marley and I quickly got ready and met everyone at a rooftop bar called the REX that was located in the notorious Rex Hotel (Known for accommodating important Americans such as past presidents and famous actors and actresses). The bar overlooked Ho Chi Minh and had some pretty elaborate decorations. We spent some time hanging out up there and decided to leave to meet up with the rest of our SAS friends at a club called Apocalypse, which was really fun.
This morning, we got up early to catch a bus to the Mekong Delta. The Mekong is a floating market about a couple hours outside the city. First, we stopped at a beautiful temple followed by a walk through a typical Vietnamese market. The market was probably the smelliest, grossest thing I have seen in a while. There was raw meat hanging from hooks with all sorts of bugs around it, live fish flopping around in buckets, and all sorts of browned vegetables and mushy fruits. The smells were intolerable even to the locals, who wore facemasks. The only notable thing about the market were the adorable kids that sat in the laps of there mothers and grandmothers as they attempted to sell their rotten goods. After leaving the market relieved to be able to breath again, we arrived at a dock where we boarded a wooden boat and headed down the Saigon river. We went to a couple islands before getting to the Mekong including Unicorn Island where we listened to local Vietnamese musicians sing and play rare instruments and Coconut Island where we saw how coconut candy was made. We also tried honey tea and got to hold a boa constrictor. After playing with the snake, we hopped on little canoes manned by 2 women (one on each end of the canoe) They navigated us through the delta where we ran into clusters of empty canoes and occasionally passed other tourists along the way. After about half an hour of sightseeing we ended up at a dock where our wooden boat was and hopped off of the canoes to get back on our boat. The Mekong was quite a let down. We actually saw no floating markets and were pretty disappointed with the trip. When we got back, me, lili, and Marley decided to go to some more markets around the port. We got some souvenir t-shirts and ate some dinner and decided to head back and get some rest.
Today, me and a group of my friends decided to rent a van and go to a beach town about 3 hours outside of Saigon. There were 12 of us (7 girls and 5 boys) who went. Our driver was quite possibly the slowest driver in the history of drivers and it ended up taking us 5 hours to get to the place called Mui Ne. So we got there around nighttime and decided to get some dinner and find a hotel. We stayed at a very nice hotel where we rented 3 rooms and a villa for about $9USD per person! (including breakfast). We went to a small bar called Pongo that night and ended up coming back to the hotel and hanging out in the Villa because of the lack of nightlife. The next morning we got some breakfast and decided to rent motorbikes for the day to drive around the town and find some nice beaches. We ended up at a very secluded beach with beautiful views and a little restaurant that brought your food to you in your cabana. We met some local Vietnamese guys who were playing on the beach and the boys taught them how to chicken fight and then they all played soccer together. We hung out for a couple hours and decided to head back to the hotel to meet our driver. On our way back we stopped at a couple scenic spots to take pictures. A bunch of little kids approached us to sell seashells and gave us free seashell key chains that said Mui Ne. They were so cute and when we handed them some money, a new group of kids appeared and we found ourselves surrounded by children trying to get money from us! Finally, we had to just get on our motorbikes and drive off before we got mauled. Back at the hotel, we checked out of our rooms and headed back to the city around 5pm. We got back to Saigon in 3 hours (what it should have taken to get to Mui Ne in the first place) and got back on the ship for the night.
This morning, I got up early to go visit a school for blind children. We got a brief description of how the school came to be and what age group of students are found in it, then we were given a tour of each classroom. We got to hang out in each classroom and play with the kids. We brought them little gifts such as play dough, kazoos, stuffed animals, and balls to play with. It was a little difficult to hang out with the children because with the language barrier and the sight barrier, there was almost not much that could be said or done. The teachers spoke English though and they were able to tell the kids some things for us. We watched the kids write in brail, which they did so quickly and they also sang Vietnamese and English songs for us. We sang songs such as Old McDonalds Farm, The Wheels on the Bus, and Twinkle twinkle little star with them. They were very happy children and we visited with kids aging from 5-16. The 16 year olds were more fluent in English but much shyer than the younger kids who were jumping around and laughing and singing. After a couple hours at the school, we went into the rec center where some of the older kids performed music for us. They were really good and we really enjoyed watching them. After they performed, they taught us how to play some of their rare instruments which were really difficult to play. We left the school around noon and I met up with my friends back at the ship to get lunch and spend our last day in Ho Chi Minh. We decided to go visit the War Remnants museum which houses pictures and relics of the Vietnam War. It was extremely hard to see some of the images that were in the museum. The depictions of American soldiers killing Vietnamese women and children or the piles of dead Vietnamese were frightening and sad. Also, there was a large area devoted just to Agent Orange and the results of this deadly chemical, not only on those who were directly hit by the chemical but the offspring of those exposed to it. They showed pictures of all the deformations of the children of Vietnamese as well as Americans who had been greatly exposed to the chemical during the war. The whole thing was tragic and it was definitely a huge insight to the other side of the story (how the Vietnamese view what happened). After leaving the museum, we had a little time to walk around the rest of the city before we had to head back to the ship. Vietnam is a beautiful country and very diverse. For the most part, the people are friendly and speak a few words of English. The traffic is something that I have never seen before in the sense that they have no rules when it comes to driving and because so many people drive motorbikes, it gets quite chaotic. A couple SAS kids got pretty injured due to motorbike wrecks and I am honestly surprised no one got hit by cars or bikes because crossing the street was like the game Frogger. You had to basically dodge cars and bikes and use the smallest gap in traffic to get to the other side! Yikes.
We got back to the boat just in time to see everyone getting ready to go out. Marley and I quickly got ready and met everyone at a rooftop bar called the REX that was located in the notorious Rex Hotel (Known for accommodating important Americans such as past presidents and famous actors and actresses). The bar overlooked Ho Chi Minh and had some pretty elaborate decorations. We spent some time hanging out up there and decided to leave to meet up with the rest of our SAS friends at a club called Apocalypse, which was really fun.
This morning, we got up early to catch a bus to the Mekong Delta. The Mekong is a floating market about a couple hours outside the city. First, we stopped at a beautiful temple followed by a walk through a typical Vietnamese market. The market was probably the smelliest, grossest thing I have seen in a while. There was raw meat hanging from hooks with all sorts of bugs around it, live fish flopping around in buckets, and all sorts of browned vegetables and mushy fruits. The smells were intolerable even to the locals, who wore facemasks. The only notable thing about the market were the adorable kids that sat in the laps of there mothers and grandmothers as they attempted to sell their rotten goods. After leaving the market relieved to be able to breath again, we arrived at a dock where we boarded a wooden boat and headed down the Saigon river. We went to a couple islands before getting to the Mekong including Unicorn Island where we listened to local Vietnamese musicians sing and play rare instruments and Coconut Island where we saw how coconut candy was made. We also tried honey tea and got to hold a boa constrictor. After playing with the snake, we hopped on little canoes manned by 2 women (one on each end of the canoe) They navigated us through the delta where we ran into clusters of empty canoes and occasionally passed other tourists along the way. After about half an hour of sightseeing we ended up at a dock where our wooden boat was and hopped off of the canoes to get back on our boat. The Mekong was quite a let down. We actually saw no floating markets and were pretty disappointed with the trip. When we got back, me, lili, and Marley decided to go to some more markets around the port. We got some souvenir t-shirts and ate some dinner and decided to head back and get some rest.
Today, me and a group of my friends decided to rent a van and go to a beach town about 3 hours outside of Saigon. There were 12 of us (7 girls and 5 boys) who went. Our driver was quite possibly the slowest driver in the history of drivers and it ended up taking us 5 hours to get to the place called Mui Ne. So we got there around nighttime and decided to get some dinner and find a hotel. We stayed at a very nice hotel where we rented 3 rooms and a villa for about $9USD per person! (including breakfast). We went to a small bar called Pongo that night and ended up coming back to the hotel and hanging out in the Villa because of the lack of nightlife. The next morning we got some breakfast and decided to rent motorbikes for the day to drive around the town and find some nice beaches. We ended up at a very secluded beach with beautiful views and a little restaurant that brought your food to you in your cabana. We met some local Vietnamese guys who were playing on the beach and the boys taught them how to chicken fight and then they all played soccer together. We hung out for a couple hours and decided to head back to the hotel to meet our driver. On our way back we stopped at a couple scenic spots to take pictures. A bunch of little kids approached us to sell seashells and gave us free seashell key chains that said Mui Ne. They were so cute and when we handed them some money, a new group of kids appeared and we found ourselves surrounded by children trying to get money from us! Finally, we had to just get on our motorbikes and drive off before we got mauled. Back at the hotel, we checked out of our rooms and headed back to the city around 5pm. We got back to Saigon in 3 hours (what it should have taken to get to Mui Ne in the first place) and got back on the ship for the night.
This morning, I got up early to go visit a school for blind children. We got a brief description of how the school came to be and what age group of students are found in it, then we were given a tour of each classroom. We got to hang out in each classroom and play with the kids. We brought them little gifts such as play dough, kazoos, stuffed animals, and balls to play with. It was a little difficult to hang out with the children because with the language barrier and the sight barrier, there was almost not much that could be said or done. The teachers spoke English though and they were able to tell the kids some things for us. We watched the kids write in brail, which they did so quickly and they also sang Vietnamese and English songs for us. We sang songs such as Old McDonalds Farm, The Wheels on the Bus, and Twinkle twinkle little star with them. They were very happy children and we visited with kids aging from 5-16. The 16 year olds were more fluent in English but much shyer than the younger kids who were jumping around and laughing and singing. After a couple hours at the school, we went into the rec center where some of the older kids performed music for us. They were really good and we really enjoyed watching them. After they performed, they taught us how to play some of their rare instruments which were really difficult to play. We left the school around noon and I met up with my friends back at the ship to get lunch and spend our last day in Ho Chi Minh. We decided to go visit the War Remnants museum which houses pictures and relics of the Vietnam War. It was extremely hard to see some of the images that were in the museum. The depictions of American soldiers killing Vietnamese women and children or the piles of dead Vietnamese were frightening and sad. Also, there was a large area devoted just to Agent Orange and the results of this deadly chemical, not only on those who were directly hit by the chemical but the offspring of those exposed to it. They showed pictures of all the deformations of the children of Vietnamese as well as Americans who had been greatly exposed to the chemical during the war. The whole thing was tragic and it was definitely a huge insight to the other side of the story (how the Vietnamese view what happened). After leaving the museum, we had a little time to walk around the rest of the city before we had to head back to the ship. Vietnam is a beautiful country and very diverse. For the most part, the people are friendly and speak a few words of English. The traffic is something that I have never seen before in the sense that they have no rules when it comes to driving and because so many people drive motorbikes, it gets quite chaotic. A couple SAS kids got pretty injured due to motorbike wrecks and I am honestly surprised no one got hit by cars or bikes because crossing the street was like the game Frogger. You had to basically dodge cars and bikes and use the smallest gap in traffic to get to the other side! Yikes.
Friday, April 3, 2009
THAILAND!
I know I say every place is my favorite...but I think Thailand might have jumped into first place. It was kind of our Spring Break trip, but it was great!!
We were in Thailand for 5 amazing days. When we got off the ship we had buses take us to Bangkok about two hours away from port. We flew to Phuket around 4pm and because there were sooo many people on the flight, I got upgraded to first class!!! There were literally 70 rows in economy. We were on a 757 and I was seated UPSTAIRS!! It was pretty neat. Once we got to Phuket which was an hour flight, we got off and drove another hour to our hotel. It was called Duangjitt Hotel, a 5-star beautiful resort complex. We checked in and got settled and had the rest of the night free. There was a great nightlife scene in Phuket…actually maybe a little too much of a nightlife scene. Don’t worry though, Thailand is a very safe area. The only thing a little sketchy is that Thailand is kinda famous for Thai hookers and sex slaves. Sooo we did see a lot of sketchy business men (like Americans, Australians...) head into back alley rooms with little Thai women, probably not much older than us! It was a little shocking at first but they are literally everywhere, and we were warned before we got to Thailand.
The first night, a big group of us went to a nice restaurant and had our first authentic Thai meal! It was absolutely delicious and we all got Mai Thais as well to celebrate our first night in Thailand=) Then we hopped in Tuk Tuk's (Thai Taxis) and headed to downtown Patong which is where all of the bars are. We walked around and checked out the scene first and then hit up a couple bars and headed to a margarita bar called Coyotez and drank 2 for 1 Margaritas and listened to a Thai band play for the crowd. We also did some dancing and met an Irish couple probably in their early 50’s, who became our makeshift parents of the trip…haha, they were extremely sweet people and told us all about there travels and bought us drinks and danced with us! It was great and so much fun. Then we went down Patong street where it is literally a long street just lined with buildings filled with a bunch of bars. There were all sorts of themes and one of them was an Ice bar. Literally you walk into a giant freezer room all made of Ice, the table, the bar stools, the shot glasses! You get to wear a huge Eskimo jacket, but it is still freeeeezing cold. We could only stay in the room for one shot and had to leave because we were all too cold to stay. We did a little bit of night market shopping where I got a beautiful fan that has hand painted scenery of a Thai village on it. We got a bunch of trinkets here and there, and it was a little confusing with the exchange rate, so I hope we didn't get ripped off too much, but honestly getting “ripped off” in Thailand is paying 5 dollars for a T-shirt instead of the original 10 dollars that the vendors want you to pay, and apparently the T-shirt is really worth $2 USD. The exchange rate for Baht (Thai money) is 1 USD to 34 Baht, so it was a little difficult to put the exact calculation in our heads! But I got a lot of really neat things!
The second day, we were taken to the Phuket Sea in the Strait of Malacca where we got on a Thai boat and cruised to Sea caves where we kayaked into the caves and saw bats and stalagmites and stalactites and we had to lie down on the kayaks to get under the rocks of the caves because the tide rises. We kayaked into lagoons and fed monkeys bananas and saw beautiful cliffs and swam in the lagoon. Then we got on the boat and had some of the most amazing Thai food I have ever had, like fried pineapple and Thai noodles with sweet chili sauce! Then we were taken to a beach where we swam and jumped off the boat, and of course I flipped off the boat and swam like a little fish all afternoon. Me and my friend Marley were in the water so much that the guides started calling us dolphins!! haha. We hung out at the beach for a while and I played soccer with the locals! They were pretty impressed with my skills and we played with a soccer ball made out of palm leaves, it was weird but really fun.
Then we headed back to our hotel and the rest of the afternoon we went shopping in the markets and of course got mesmerized by all of the cool trinkets. We stopped at a tailor and made dresses and skirts made! I got a light green a-line silk skirt that is high wasted. It is SO cute!! That night we went out again and we went to a club called Tiger, it was a jungle themed night club and it was soo much fun! we danced the night away.
The next morning we went trekking in the jungle and got to see all the really cool nature of Thai jungles, like rubber trees, elephant mushrooms that literally look like human ears and feel like human skin...so strange. It was extremely hot! and all of us were dripping in sweat. We got to trek through streams and take little man-made bamboo rafts across the rivers. Then we went back to a pavilion and had another great thai meal. After lunch, we went canoeing down a river and saw more amazing scenery like giant cliffs and beautiful trees, about 2/3 down the river a HUGE monsoon passed through and we all got absolutely soaked! It was great!! We were all so hot before that it was really refreshing, but after the pouring rain we were all very cold. After the canoeing we got to ride elephants that took us on a trip through the jungle. We heard an elephant fart which is seriously the craziest thing ive ever heard come out of an animal. Literally sounded like a giants stomach just growled. It was soooo loud and long and everyone was just cracking up for like 15 minutes. We also got to feed the elephants which was really cool too. After our adventure, we had a 3 hour drive back to the hotel. Everyone was dirty, sweaty and wet...you can imagine how great our bus smelled/ looked!
That night we went out YET again but obviously because it was St. Paddy's day! There was an Irish Pub called Molly Malones that was having a huge St. Paddy's day party, so We all put on our green and went to Molly's and drank Thai beer and had so much fun. We ended up going back to Long street and hitting up some more random bars and we ran into our Irish couple that we met the first night and we had some drinks with them and continued to wander around. We bought some fedoras and wore them around the rest of the night. Needless to say we were out till around 4:30ish all three nights and had to get up for our day trips around 6:30 every morning! I know I know, prob not the best idea, but we honestly wanted to get as much as possible out of Thailand, so we decided sleep could wait for the boat. We did EVERYTHING we could possibly have done in Phuket and had such a great time. Even though we were all sleep deprived, I really think everyone was just so excited to be in Thailand that sleeping wasn't even an option.
Our fourth day we flew back to bangkok and got in around 6pm. A group of 7 of us decided to take a Thai cooking class at the famous Blue Elephant cooking school (look it up on the internet). They only do two classes a day and one is in the morning and one in the afternoon, but they decided to create a night glass just for us!! We went at 8pm and learned how to cook spring rolls, fried rice, and pad thai. I will have to make you a thai dinner when I get home. After we watched a demonstration we went to the kitchen and made the dishes ourselves. AFter we made all our dishes, we got certificates of graduation and aprons, ingredients, and bags. Then we went downstairs to the restaurant part and they had our whole meal spread out on the table for us to eat! It was so much fun and such a great experience! My food was great, I am such a good cook=) After that, we went to a jazz bar located on the 60th floor of a hotel that overlooked entire city of Bangkok. It was soo pretty. We also went to an area called RCA which was a street lined with nice clubs. We didn't stay long and decided to go back to the hotel and get some sleep.
Today we went to the grand palace and saw the emerald Buddha and all of the beautiful temples. They were so colorful and pretty. We also saw monks and gaurds and weapons used by the guards. The palace was amazing and after that we had a little time to do some last minute shopping and then we gathered all our stuff together and headed back to the ship!
My trip was amazing and I will miss Thailand!!
We were in Thailand for 5 amazing days. When we got off the ship we had buses take us to Bangkok about two hours away from port. We flew to Phuket around 4pm and because there were sooo many people on the flight, I got upgraded to first class!!! There were literally 70 rows in economy. We were on a 757 and I was seated UPSTAIRS!! It was pretty neat. Once we got to Phuket which was an hour flight, we got off and drove another hour to our hotel. It was called Duangjitt Hotel, a 5-star beautiful resort complex. We checked in and got settled and had the rest of the night free. There was a great nightlife scene in Phuket…actually maybe a little too much of a nightlife scene. Don’t worry though, Thailand is a very safe area. The only thing a little sketchy is that Thailand is kinda famous for Thai hookers and sex slaves. Sooo we did see a lot of sketchy business men (like Americans, Australians...) head into back alley rooms with little Thai women, probably not much older than us! It was a little shocking at first but they are literally everywhere, and we were warned before we got to Thailand.
The first night, a big group of us went to a nice restaurant and had our first authentic Thai meal! It was absolutely delicious and we all got Mai Thais as well to celebrate our first night in Thailand=) Then we hopped in Tuk Tuk's (Thai Taxis) and headed to downtown Patong which is where all of the bars are. We walked around and checked out the scene first and then hit up a couple bars and headed to a margarita bar called Coyotez and drank 2 for 1 Margaritas and listened to a Thai band play for the crowd. We also did some dancing and met an Irish couple probably in their early 50’s, who became our makeshift parents of the trip…haha, they were extremely sweet people and told us all about there travels and bought us drinks and danced with us! It was great and so much fun. Then we went down Patong street where it is literally a long street just lined with buildings filled with a bunch of bars. There were all sorts of themes and one of them was an Ice bar. Literally you walk into a giant freezer room all made of Ice, the table, the bar stools, the shot glasses! You get to wear a huge Eskimo jacket, but it is still freeeeezing cold. We could only stay in the room for one shot and had to leave because we were all too cold to stay. We did a little bit of night market shopping where I got a beautiful fan that has hand painted scenery of a Thai village on it. We got a bunch of trinkets here and there, and it was a little confusing with the exchange rate, so I hope we didn't get ripped off too much, but honestly getting “ripped off” in Thailand is paying 5 dollars for a T-shirt instead of the original 10 dollars that the vendors want you to pay, and apparently the T-shirt is really worth $2 USD. The exchange rate for Baht (Thai money) is 1 USD to 34 Baht, so it was a little difficult to put the exact calculation in our heads! But I got a lot of really neat things!
The second day, we were taken to the Phuket Sea in the Strait of Malacca where we got on a Thai boat and cruised to Sea caves where we kayaked into the caves and saw bats and stalagmites and stalactites and we had to lie down on the kayaks to get under the rocks of the caves because the tide rises. We kayaked into lagoons and fed monkeys bananas and saw beautiful cliffs and swam in the lagoon. Then we got on the boat and had some of the most amazing Thai food I have ever had, like fried pineapple and Thai noodles with sweet chili sauce! Then we were taken to a beach where we swam and jumped off the boat, and of course I flipped off the boat and swam like a little fish all afternoon. Me and my friend Marley were in the water so much that the guides started calling us dolphins!! haha. We hung out at the beach for a while and I played soccer with the locals! They were pretty impressed with my skills and we played with a soccer ball made out of palm leaves, it was weird but really fun.
Then we headed back to our hotel and the rest of the afternoon we went shopping in the markets and of course got mesmerized by all of the cool trinkets. We stopped at a tailor and made dresses and skirts made! I got a light green a-line silk skirt that is high wasted. It is SO cute!! That night we went out again and we went to a club called Tiger, it was a jungle themed night club and it was soo much fun! we danced the night away.
The next morning we went trekking in the jungle and got to see all the really cool nature of Thai jungles, like rubber trees, elephant mushrooms that literally look like human ears and feel like human skin...so strange. It was extremely hot! and all of us were dripping in sweat. We got to trek through streams and take little man-made bamboo rafts across the rivers. Then we went back to a pavilion and had another great thai meal. After lunch, we went canoeing down a river and saw more amazing scenery like giant cliffs and beautiful trees, about 2/3 down the river a HUGE monsoon passed through and we all got absolutely soaked! It was great!! We were all so hot before that it was really refreshing, but after the pouring rain we were all very cold. After the canoeing we got to ride elephants that took us on a trip through the jungle. We heard an elephant fart which is seriously the craziest thing ive ever heard come out of an animal. Literally sounded like a giants stomach just growled. It was soooo loud and long and everyone was just cracking up for like 15 minutes. We also got to feed the elephants which was really cool too. After our adventure, we had a 3 hour drive back to the hotel. Everyone was dirty, sweaty and wet...you can imagine how great our bus smelled/ looked!
That night we went out YET again but obviously because it was St. Paddy's day! There was an Irish Pub called Molly Malones that was having a huge St. Paddy's day party, so We all put on our green and went to Molly's and drank Thai beer and had so much fun. We ended up going back to Long street and hitting up some more random bars and we ran into our Irish couple that we met the first night and we had some drinks with them and continued to wander around. We bought some fedoras and wore them around the rest of the night. Needless to say we were out till around 4:30ish all three nights and had to get up for our day trips around 6:30 every morning! I know I know, prob not the best idea, but we honestly wanted to get as much as possible out of Thailand, so we decided sleep could wait for the boat. We did EVERYTHING we could possibly have done in Phuket and had such a great time. Even though we were all sleep deprived, I really think everyone was just so excited to be in Thailand that sleeping wasn't even an option.
Our fourth day we flew back to bangkok and got in around 6pm. A group of 7 of us decided to take a Thai cooking class at the famous Blue Elephant cooking school (look it up on the internet). They only do two classes a day and one is in the morning and one in the afternoon, but they decided to create a night glass just for us!! We went at 8pm and learned how to cook spring rolls, fried rice, and pad thai. I will have to make you a thai dinner when I get home. After we watched a demonstration we went to the kitchen and made the dishes ourselves. AFter we made all our dishes, we got certificates of graduation and aprons, ingredients, and bags. Then we went downstairs to the restaurant part and they had our whole meal spread out on the table for us to eat! It was so much fun and such a great experience! My food was great, I am such a good cook=) After that, we went to a jazz bar located on the 60th floor of a hotel that overlooked entire city of Bangkok. It was soo pretty. We also went to an area called RCA which was a street lined with nice clubs. We didn't stay long and decided to go back to the hotel and get some sleep.
Today we went to the grand palace and saw the emerald Buddha and all of the beautiful temples. They were so colorful and pretty. We also saw monks and gaurds and weapons used by the guards. The palace was amazing and after that we had a little time to do some last minute shopping and then we gathered all our stuff together and headed back to the ship!
My trip was amazing and I will miss Thailand!!
INDIA!
March 5
India has probably been the most eye opening trip we have had so far. The amount of immense poverty in this country is hard to witness. We got off of the ship in Chennai and buses took us straight to the airport to head to Delhi. When we arrived at the airport, we were flooded with beggars and vendors who were relentless to get a penny out of us. We were told before leaving the ship that we should be wary of giving money to the poor because in many cases it is a sham. Apparently, many Indians are scam artists and use little kids to acquire money from naïve tourists. These kids are exploited and in the end do not get any of that money. So in order to avoid this happening, we were warned to not give to any of the beggars. It was hard to ignore their little innocent faces, but we did…and we entered the airport without looking back.
Our flight to Delhi was pretty nice. The plane was big and we were served lunch and dessert and coffee; much better than American flights! The attendants were very nice and extremely accommodating to us. We had about 84 or so students on our trip, so we basically took up the whole plane. When we arrived in Delhi, we took buses to our hotel and got settled in. That night we went to an Indian restaurant called Alpha Spice. On our way there we got a little lost and headed down a street that ended with a huge tented pavilion. We walked in thinking it was some kind of bazaar and it turned out that it was a wedding being set up, so we quickly turned around and headed back to our hotel where we had the concierge walk us to the restaurant. The food was really great and we had some of the best liter beers I have ever had called King Fisher. After our meal, we walked back to our hotel and it had a rooftop bar that everyone hung out on. In the distance, we saw a fireworks show and assumed it was probably from the wedding we walked in on earlier.
March 6
The next morning we woke up early to do a tour of Delhi. We saw a huge monument devoted to Indian soldiers who fought in WWII and a fort that was used by Indian soldiers. Then we drove for two hours and had lunch at a random restaurant in the middle of nowhere. We had a huge buffet lunch of Indian curry and naan (which is bread) and hopped back on the bus for another three hours of driving to Agra. We arrived in Agra that night and were taken to a store that had Sari’s, jewelry, and other touristy trinkets. After everyone shopped a little bit, we checked-in to our hotel. That night we ate dinner at the hotel in a rotating restaurant called Merry-Go-Round. It was pretty neat and we got a good view of Agra and could kind of see the Taj Mahal in the distance. After dinner we decided to check out a Bollywood film. We went to the nearest mall and saw a movie called B13 which was a horror movie in Hindi! It was interesting to see, but we couldn’t really understand it all. The seats in the movie theater were like Lazy boy chairs! They were so comfortable and reclined all the way back. In the middle of the movie, there was intermission where waiters came around and asked if we would like to order any food! It was crazy!!
March 7
Early in the morning we headed over to the Taj Mahal in our horse and buggy. We arrived around 6:30am and it was absolutely beautiful! We walked around and took a billion pictures of each other in front of the Taj and walked in barefoot to see the tomb. We were there for a couple of hours and then we went back to the hotel to eat breakfast and check out. Our next stop was Jaipur and it was about 6 hours away! Before we left Agra we visited another fort called Agra Fort. It was huge and adorned with beautiful decoration which seemed so strange for being a fort. You could see the Taj from the fort windows and it was really cool.
After being on a bus for what seemed like ages…we finally arrived in Jaipur around 10pm. When we got to the hotel, they had set up a puppet show and dinner outside for our group. The puppet show was really cute and a little Indian boy was the star of the show. He danced all night and was absolutely adorable. We had our dinner and then the Indians told us about a special Hindi holiday of changing of the seasons. They took colorful clay and threw it all around and everyone got doused in a rainbow of colors. It dyed my white v-neck hot pink!
March 8
This morning was filled with more touring of forts and a long day on a bus, so me and 4 other girls decided we would rather do our own thing since it was our last day in India. We went and got full body aromatherapy massages for 70 minutes and we paid $15 dollars!! Then we got manicures and pedicures and went to a bazaar and shopped all afternoon. The bazaars were really fun and we got to bargain a lot! Then we took our little rickshaw (which were really motor scooters with a hood on it) back to our hotel, where we met up with the rest of our group and decided to go to an Italian restaurant for dinner. There we all got amazing pizzas and it was probably some of the best Italian food I have had…and it was in India!!! After dinner we found a little book/DVD store that we checked out. I bought a DVD of the highest grossing Bollywood film ever made called Om Shanti Om. I watched it on the ship and it is excellent!!!
March 9
Our last morning in India was short lived. We woke up at 4am and headed to the airport around 5am. When we got to the airport we got right on our plane and headed back to the ship. Through all the sightseeing, the most memorable sights were actually those we witnessed outside the forts, outside the Taj…they were the images of those in poverty, the stray sickly animals, the roaming cows that held up traffic in the streets, and those on the sidewalks missing limbs that really stuck in my mind. India is dealing with such extremes in terms of the gap between the wealthy and the poor. Although there middle class is growing rapidly, the population of India is just too large for it to make a difference. Being unable to really help these people is a concept that is a little difficult to understand. Seeing such a different way of life really puts your own life in perspective. We witnessed families of 4 and 5 stuffed on one tiny motorcycle riding around, families huddled together on the street around small fires, small dogs eating scraps and dust off of the ground, and large cows in packs of 10 or 11 trotting around town. India was dirty, poor, unsanitary, and unsafe but the potential that this country has to be a leading market industry is absolutely incredible!
India has probably been the most eye opening trip we have had so far. The amount of immense poverty in this country is hard to witness. We got off of the ship in Chennai and buses took us straight to the airport to head to Delhi. When we arrived at the airport, we were flooded with beggars and vendors who were relentless to get a penny out of us. We were told before leaving the ship that we should be wary of giving money to the poor because in many cases it is a sham. Apparently, many Indians are scam artists and use little kids to acquire money from naïve tourists. These kids are exploited and in the end do not get any of that money. So in order to avoid this happening, we were warned to not give to any of the beggars. It was hard to ignore their little innocent faces, but we did…and we entered the airport without looking back.
Our flight to Delhi was pretty nice. The plane was big and we were served lunch and dessert and coffee; much better than American flights! The attendants were very nice and extremely accommodating to us. We had about 84 or so students on our trip, so we basically took up the whole plane. When we arrived in Delhi, we took buses to our hotel and got settled in. That night we went to an Indian restaurant called Alpha Spice. On our way there we got a little lost and headed down a street that ended with a huge tented pavilion. We walked in thinking it was some kind of bazaar and it turned out that it was a wedding being set up, so we quickly turned around and headed back to our hotel where we had the concierge walk us to the restaurant. The food was really great and we had some of the best liter beers I have ever had called King Fisher. After our meal, we walked back to our hotel and it had a rooftop bar that everyone hung out on. In the distance, we saw a fireworks show and assumed it was probably from the wedding we walked in on earlier.
March 6
The next morning we woke up early to do a tour of Delhi. We saw a huge monument devoted to Indian soldiers who fought in WWII and a fort that was used by Indian soldiers. Then we drove for two hours and had lunch at a random restaurant in the middle of nowhere. We had a huge buffet lunch of Indian curry and naan (which is bread) and hopped back on the bus for another three hours of driving to Agra. We arrived in Agra that night and were taken to a store that had Sari’s, jewelry, and other touristy trinkets. After everyone shopped a little bit, we checked-in to our hotel. That night we ate dinner at the hotel in a rotating restaurant called Merry-Go-Round. It was pretty neat and we got a good view of Agra and could kind of see the Taj Mahal in the distance. After dinner we decided to check out a Bollywood film. We went to the nearest mall and saw a movie called B13 which was a horror movie in Hindi! It was interesting to see, but we couldn’t really understand it all. The seats in the movie theater were like Lazy boy chairs! They were so comfortable and reclined all the way back. In the middle of the movie, there was intermission where waiters came around and asked if we would like to order any food! It was crazy!!
March 7
Early in the morning we headed over to the Taj Mahal in our horse and buggy. We arrived around 6:30am and it was absolutely beautiful! We walked around and took a billion pictures of each other in front of the Taj and walked in barefoot to see the tomb. We were there for a couple of hours and then we went back to the hotel to eat breakfast and check out. Our next stop was Jaipur and it was about 6 hours away! Before we left Agra we visited another fort called Agra Fort. It was huge and adorned with beautiful decoration which seemed so strange for being a fort. You could see the Taj from the fort windows and it was really cool.
After being on a bus for what seemed like ages…we finally arrived in Jaipur around 10pm. When we got to the hotel, they had set up a puppet show and dinner outside for our group. The puppet show was really cute and a little Indian boy was the star of the show. He danced all night and was absolutely adorable. We had our dinner and then the Indians told us about a special Hindi holiday of changing of the seasons. They took colorful clay and threw it all around and everyone got doused in a rainbow of colors. It dyed my white v-neck hot pink!
March 8
This morning was filled with more touring of forts and a long day on a bus, so me and 4 other girls decided we would rather do our own thing since it was our last day in India. We went and got full body aromatherapy massages for 70 minutes and we paid $15 dollars!! Then we got manicures and pedicures and went to a bazaar and shopped all afternoon. The bazaars were really fun and we got to bargain a lot! Then we took our little rickshaw (which were really motor scooters with a hood on it) back to our hotel, where we met up with the rest of our group and decided to go to an Italian restaurant for dinner. There we all got amazing pizzas and it was probably some of the best Italian food I have had…and it was in India!!! After dinner we found a little book/DVD store that we checked out. I bought a DVD of the highest grossing Bollywood film ever made called Om Shanti Om. I watched it on the ship and it is excellent!!!
March 9
Our last morning in India was short lived. We woke up at 4am and headed to the airport around 5am. When we got to the airport we got right on our plane and headed back to the ship. Through all the sightseeing, the most memorable sights were actually those we witnessed outside the forts, outside the Taj…they were the images of those in poverty, the stray sickly animals, the roaming cows that held up traffic in the streets, and those on the sidewalks missing limbs that really stuck in my mind. India is dealing with such extremes in terms of the gap between the wealthy and the poor. Although there middle class is growing rapidly, the population of India is just too large for it to make a difference. Being unable to really help these people is a concept that is a little difficult to understand. Seeing such a different way of life really puts your own life in perspective. We witnessed families of 4 and 5 stuffed on one tiny motorcycle riding around, families huddled together on the street around small fires, small dogs eating scraps and dust off of the ground, and large cows in packs of 10 or 11 trotting around town. India was dirty, poor, unsanitary, and unsafe but the potential that this country has to be a leading market industry is absolutely incredible!
Sea Olympics=)
The night we left Mauritius, we had our opening ceremonies for what the MV Explorer calls: Sea Olympics! It is much like “Greek Week” back at school except it is not only for sororities or fraternities, EVERYONE is involved on the ship.
Opening ceremonies was filled with chants, songs, mascots, and attendance. Everyone crammed into the union in their team colors and prepared for the next day full of competition. My team was the Adriatic Sea (Everyone represents a Sea instead of being called a team. There was the Aegean, Baltic, Yellow, Red, Bering, Arabian, Mediterranean, Caribbean, and Oddies-C←who was represented by the adults). The Adriatic Sea color was PINK of course and we were called the Pink Panthers.
The next day was a day filled with all sorts of events. We started out with Volleyball which went on throughout the day, then we had events such as relays, tug-o-war, spelling bee, Pictionary, Sudoku, hula hoop, Dodge ball, flip cup, limbo, potato sculpting contest, and lastly synchronized swimming. Throughout the day these events took place and we all had a blast. Everyone got really into it. Of course the Pink team was placing in every event and we were doing an amazing job! I was part of the relay (I had to pass oranges down a line only using my neck and run to tag the people doing the 3-legged race and I also played flip cup!)
We ended the day with synchronized swimming, which was actually amazing! It was so fun to watch and people got really creative. The Oddies-C swim was great because all of the adult men (our teachers, lifelong learners, etc) dressed up as women by stuffing balloons up their shirts as boobs and wearing makeup and shower caps! It was absolutely hilarious. After the synchronized swimming ended, we all had about 2 hours before we gathered back in the Union to determine the winner. In the end, it was the Adriatic Sea that took the gold! We were all ecstatic and got a trophy and took a lot of pictures of our group. One of our prizes is getting off the ship first when we arrive back home in Ft. Lauderdale! In the end, we received 5 gold medals, 7 silver medals, and 1 bronze medal! It was a great day, but we were all exhausted and everyone pretty much passed out after that day.
Opening ceremonies was filled with chants, songs, mascots, and attendance. Everyone crammed into the union in their team colors and prepared for the next day full of competition. My team was the Adriatic Sea (Everyone represents a Sea instead of being called a team. There was the Aegean, Baltic, Yellow, Red, Bering, Arabian, Mediterranean, Caribbean, and Oddies-C←who was represented by the adults). The Adriatic Sea color was PINK of course and we were called the Pink Panthers.
The next day was a day filled with all sorts of events. We started out with Volleyball which went on throughout the day, then we had events such as relays, tug-o-war, spelling bee, Pictionary, Sudoku, hula hoop, Dodge ball, flip cup, limbo, potato sculpting contest, and lastly synchronized swimming. Throughout the day these events took place and we all had a blast. Everyone got really into it. Of course the Pink team was placing in every event and we were doing an amazing job! I was part of the relay (I had to pass oranges down a line only using my neck and run to tag the people doing the 3-legged race and I also played flip cup!)
We ended the day with synchronized swimming, which was actually amazing! It was so fun to watch and people got really creative. The Oddies-C swim was great because all of the adult men (our teachers, lifelong learners, etc) dressed up as women by stuffing balloons up their shirts as boobs and wearing makeup and shower caps! It was absolutely hilarious. After the synchronized swimming ended, we all had about 2 hours before we gathered back in the Union to determine the winner. In the end, it was the Adriatic Sea that took the gold! We were all ecstatic and got a trophy and took a lot of pictures of our group. One of our prizes is getting off the ship first when we arrive back home in Ft. Lauderdale! In the end, we received 5 gold medals, 7 silver medals, and 1 bronze medal! It was a great day, but we were all exhausted and everyone pretty much passed out after that day.
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