Japan

Ohio Gozaimasu!
It started with backpacks, a little money, knowing only where we wanted to go, no plans, and the spirit of adventure. We were finally in Japan. I have been so excited for this port since the beginning of the voyage and even though it pretty much signified the coming of the end of the voyage, I was still looking forward to it and was happy the minute we stepped off the ship.

I was concentrating my time in Kansai, the region in southern Japan. This is the heart of the Japanese culture and history, scattered with castles and pavilions and the occasional Geisha if you’re lucky enough to spot them. We arrived in the very middle of cherry blossom season, which was amazing considering the cherry blossom season only lasts for two weeks. Everywhere we walked, the beautiful pink and white blossoms guided us like signs and when the wind would blow, the blossoms would dance around in the air, surrounding you in a flurry of polka dots. It was some of the prettiest scenery I’ve ever seen. Japanese people are some of the nicest we’ve ever encountered too. They were so helpful and kind and they were really impressed with my poor and out of practice Japanese and that I took the time to use their language instead of just finding someone who spoke English. The only bad part about Japan was how expensive it is. We found pretty inexpensive lodging and our train tickets weren’t that much but it was the food that really got me. The food was delicious, although I was already Japan’s biggest food fan before even getting there.
So to begin this adventure, Sean and I took off for Nara as soon as the ship was cleared and we made it through customs, which actually took the better part of the day unfortunately. But we eventually hopped on our first train (after spending quite a bit of time figuring out the train station and the systems and the tickets) and sped towards Nara, which boasts 8 UNESCO World Heritage sites and is home to the famous deer park. We arrived in the late afternoon and went straight for the deer park where hundreds of wild deer roam and come up to you and let you pet them, all granting you feed them of course. I brought a mini-box of cereal for them and they loved it. I had a crowd of like 7 deer around me who bit at my hips whenever my hand wasn’t feeding them. It was funny actually because whenever I walked up to the deer they would let me pet them until they figured out I had no more food and then they’d walk away but they wouldn’t even let Sean get near them. We walked through the park a bit under the Sakura (cherry blossoms), enjoying the beauty and people. We walked next to Todaiji Temple, the biggest wooden building in the world. It is home to the famous daibutsu (Giant Buddha), one of the largest bronze figures in the world. It was really cool to see and incredible when you think of how large it was and how much bronze it took to make and how long ago it was done. At the back of the hall there is a wooden column with a hole at the bottom that is exactly the size of one of the Buddha’s nostrils. It is believed that whoever can fit through the hole is ensured of enlightenment. Let me tell you something, that hole is tiny. I didn’t think it was possible for any adult to actually fit through when I saw little kids fitting through with no extra room to spare. But Sean made it through somehow so I was determined. Ladies with hips: I don’t recommend it. I’ll admit that I got stuck in the middle when the lower half of my body tried to get through. But somehow, someway, I managed to wriggle myself through and I crawled out the other side to a crowd of people clapping and cheering. I am currently awaiting enlightenment.
We walked through the forest surrounding the park and Todaiji, which was breath-taking in the setting sun. Sakura still surrounded us and hundreds of lanterns line the path through shrines and statues and deer, over bridges and up ancient stairs. It was really something to experience. We came to Kasuga-Taishi, the most important shrine in Nara tucked way back into the forest. They have lantern festivals there twice a year and to see them all would be spectacular. We walked across the city to take a train to Osaka, found a hotel and went to eat on the busy, lit streets that apparently are Blade Runner atmospheric (I’ve never seen it so I can’t give a personal account).

The next morning we woke up to take a train to Kyoto and find our ryokan that we had booked for the night. This was our splurge, to stay in a traditional ryokan with tatami mats and futons on the floor. It was worth it too, this was the coolest place I’ve ever stayed! It was such a beautiful room with paper-walls covered in paintings and the boys had a connecting room with sliding doors to separate from my room. There were little features everywhere that made it so cool. So we dropped off our bags and walked back to the station to catch a train to this little mountain town Kurama. This turned out to be both of our favorite parts of the trip. This town was wonderful. It was situated around a beautiful river running through the center of town. It was all so peaceful and so un-touristy. The houses and architecture and gardens and Sakura enclosed by the hills and dark green trees of the mountains. It was perfect. We just walked through the town soaking up everything about it. I went for an Onsen, a traditional Japanese outdoor bath, which was an amazing experience. It was a beautiful, stone bath like the size of seven or eight hot tubs (and the temperature of them too) but only two feet deep with wood around the outside. To sit there, naked in the open looking out at the mountainside under the cherry blossoms that would float down into the bath was indescribable. It was heaven on earth and the most peaceful I have ever been. It was incredible, I want to be back there right now. After I was done soaking up the serenity, Sean and I went for an amazing bowl of kitsune soba and o-cha at a little shop on the corner of town. It was delicious! We hopped the train back to Kyoto and walked back to our ryokan for a nap. Jordan met us there that night and we went out to explore Kyoto by night. The central Kyoto area is so much fun at night. There is so much going on, so many good things to eat and great people watching. We went to an arcade, which is a big form of entertainment in Japan so this arcade was crazy! They also have the fun photo booths everywhere so we had fun with those too. Our ryokan had an 11pm curfew so we grabbed a few snacks and drinks and stayed up late talking and reveling in Japan.

The next morning, breakfast was served to us in the ryokan and we ate in the common room with all the other travelers. It was really nice to meet them all and talk to them about their experiences and trade tips. After getting all ready then, we packed up our stuff and stocked up on picnic food at the grocery store. We went to Heian-jinga for cherry blossom viewing. It’s a beautiful garden to walk through and we found a seat by the lake and ate our picnic under the Sakura. After that we went back to pick up our stuff at the Three Sister’s Inn (highly recommended by the way) and head to the other side of town to find a guesthouse. Took a while to get there and get situated. But we were ready for another night exploration of Kyoto. This time we went by the guidebook’s recommended walking tours to see parts of the city we otherwise wouldn’t have. It was really fun and we ended up in Pontocho, a really fun street off the Kamo-gawa, the canal that runs through town. Walking through Kyoto at night is a really neat experience and you must do so if you’re in Japan. We found another really good restaurant and ate for a while, had some heated discussions and headed out to karaoke, also a must-do in Japan. We got back to our guesthouse late that night and had a good long sleep.

We left the next morning with all our gear on our backs again and headed out for a full day of sight-seeing. We first stopped at Nijo-jo, a ninja castle with nightingale floors that squeek when walked upon as a means of defense against intruders. It was surrounded by beautiful gardens holding tea ceremonies that all the women came out dressed in their kimonos for. It was a really beautiful sight and really fun to walk through the castle, built in the 15th century.  Next we headed to Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion. This was incredible! It literally was a floating golden pavilion on a lake surrounded again by beautiful gardens. There is a walk through the grounds and at the end you come to this little street lined with vendors selling mochi and sweets and tea. It was so much fun! We got green tea and Sakura flavored ice-cream which was delicious! I was in heaven. Until we tried to go to the famous zen garden, Ryoan-ji, and it was closed. That just means I’ll have to go back to Japan in the near future! We headed out to Kiyomizu-dera, a huge temple with sacred springs and a love shrine. We got there as the sun was setting and it’s at the top of this huge hill looking out over all of Kyoto so the views were magnificent. Not to mention the incredible display of Sakura they have. It’s a beautiful walk through the temple and we drank from a sacred spring that has flown for thousands of years and is believed to improve test scores. It was really funny to watch all these moms drag their kids up there and practically throw the water down their throats. I have my fingers crossed they’re right. The love shrine was already closed when we got there though which I was really bummed about. Just another reason to head back there soon. We walked back through Kyoto at dusk for another great meal and a shinkansen, bullet train, to Tokyo. My ears were popping it went so fast but it was dark out so we didn’t get to see the country whizzing by. We got there around midnight and out grand plan was to find a place to sleep and walk around to experience Tokyo night-life. But we were so exhausted that we just walked around for about an hour and hopped a train back to Yokohama to sleep on the ship. I have never been so tired in my life.

The next day I explored Yokohama by myself, just walking around taking it all in. I loved all of Japan. And I really can’t wait to go back there soon. It was more than I thought it could be and I fell in love with all of it. Its really hard to imagine that I’m already done with this trip pretty much. It has been a long time and I’m exhausted and I can’t wait to get back home but at the same time I can’t imagine not living on a ship and circling the world. It is going to be very weird. Well I’m on the ship now for 8 more days before Hawaii and I’m so excited! That sounds so funny to be so excited for Hawaii when I’ve just been to all these exotic locations but my boyfriend is coming to meet me there and I can’t wait! A little taste of home is going to be much appreciated now.

Sayonara!

China

Nee-how!

We started off our whirlwind adventure in Hong Kong for a day and what a way to start a trip. Hong Kong blew my mind. I had no idea what it was like to start with but whatever I had imagined was nothing close to what the HK experience was. It was incredible. I’m seriously still in awe of that place. The Harbor is beautiful itself and coming into the city hit you like a ton of bricks. I saw Starbucks for the first time in months and almost cried. The Rugby Sevens was going on right when we were there which is a huge rugby tournament with teams from all over the world. I’m a big fan now by the way after being in South Africa. Let me just tell you that my fist sight after exiting the mall you have to walk through to get off the ship (yes mom, they forced me to walk through the mall several times to get on and off the ship. So really it wasn’t my fault;) were some players from the New Zealand All Blacks. I almost screamed, I think I let out a little squeak actually. We knew it was going to be a good trip. We took the Star Ferry across the pretty harbor lined with yachts and vessels to the main part of the island and drove across to the other side of the island. The drive was so beautiful through hills, next to the water. It reminded me of driving through the pretty streets of San Francisco in the really wealthy parts. We headed first to Stanley Market, which is a fun little windy market packed with good things to buy along the waterfront. We wandered through there for a while and then found a hole-in-the-wall restaurant for our first authentic Chinese meal. Delicious! And not as different from Chinese food at home as I thought it would be. So we ate there for a while, watching rugby on the television and enjoying our super-yummy food. We headed back to the mainland to explore the heart of Hong Kong. Tall buildings and flashing lights lined the streets and I was blown away by the sheer intensity of the atmosphere. It was awesome! We walked through super-modern architecture and malls and streets, got some traditional Chinese foot massages that put me in a good Zen for the rest of the day. After as much as we could take of this bustling center of the world (or so it seemed) we headed back to the ship for to pack up for our big trips the next day and grab some free food off the ship. At 8pm every night, Hong Kong puts on a lightshow in the harbor that you can watch from the ship. It was really neat, all the buildings have lights and screens and the harbor goes crazy. There’s music playing and lights going crazy in all these cool patterns. It was really cool that they do that. That night we headed out for a crazy Hong Kong night out on the town. The rugby teams were all out, there were tons of SASers, and lots of good times being had; a night to remember for sure.

The next morning we headed out bright and early for our big Tsinghua University visit to Beijing. We were really excited for this because a lot of SAS alum had rated this their favorite experience and I was really looking forward to everything on the itinerary. I was also with Michelle, Erin and Megan so we knew it was going to be a blast. The first day was spent mainly traveling. Our flight to Beijing was awesome though, a full meal plus a mini-container of Haagen-Dazs per person, doesn’t get better than that. We got into Beijing late in the afternoon and passed by the Bird’s Nest from the Olympics this summer. Very cool. We then headed to a restaurant for Peking duck (delicious) and went to our hotel. We were supposed to stay at the University but apparently their guesthouses were full so they put us up in this other hotel in the middle of nowhere, I mean in the absolute middle of nowhere. There was nothing to do anywhere and no one spoke English at the hotel and our guide peaced out as soon as we were checked in so we just kind of walked around stupidly looking for anything we could find, which was nothing. So that night ended with us watching Wild Hog in Chinese on our little TV that took us an hour to figure out how to work. O well, Erin was my roomie so I was happy. It’s a good thing we got sleep that night too cause we were going to need it the next day.

We woke up and headed out to the Great Wall. We were all so excited! I have definitely been looking forward to climbing it for a long time. So we started the climb. It shouldn’t be called the Great Wall, it should be called the Great Staircase. It was rough! Old Chinese people were passing us on all sides, they weren’t even out of breath while we were panting and huffing like mad. The funniest thing though were the old men who were passing us with cigarettes in their mouths, just smoking away. We kept going though, despite the humiliation that 80-year olds were showing us, taking photo shoot and dancing breaks every now and then and telling ourselves the view that made it worth it was just up around the next tower. However, once we actually got to the top, there was no wall. You know how when you see pictures of the Great Wall it’s winding through the mountains of Beijing and you can see it go on for what seems like forever? Well there was no wall. It just went back down the other side from where we were. We were heated! We had climbed all that way to see nothing basically! So we angrily huffed down the wall (we actually ran for most of it which seems absurd but made sense when we were doing it) and found our tour guide to ask her what that was that we just did. She said that it was the newly restored portion of the wall and that it was the closest to where we were coming from and she didn’t understand why we wanted to see what we were describing. It was incredibly frustrating. They took us to lunch afterwards inside a shopping center (which usually happens on guided tours: they take you somewhere you can spend your money and there’s usually commission for them involved) and plotted how we were going to remedy this situation. We went next to the Summer Palace to wander around the beautiful gardens and buildings. We walked through the Long Corridor and climbed the Tower of Buddhist Incense. It was really beautiful. Oh, let me explain something. Everywhere we went, people would come up and take pictures of us. There is no way I can explain this situation. It was mayhem. We were celebrities. If we just stopped somewhere, out of the way to sit and rest or something, entire tour groups would come and take pictures with us. I mean they would surround us with their cameras and then take turns jumping in with us. By the end of the trip we were running from them when they came at us with their cameras. As for me, a 6-foot tall white girl walking around China is quite a rare thing apparently. Wherever I went, people would stop and point and smile. It was very creepy. I’m definitely looking forward to returning to the states and not being able to see over the heads of the general population. So after our Summer Palace experience, we were to have our first University exposure. Our whole trip was entitled Beijing: Tsinghua University, and we were supposed to be spending most of our time with the students. We got to Tsinghua University, the most prestigious university in China I heard, and got matched up with some students. They thought there were only going to be 25 of us, but there were over a hundred so about ten of us went with each Chinese student. They gave us a tour of their campus (it was funny to feel like I was in high school again touring college campuses) and then we ate with them in one of the dining areas. And that was it. That was our entire University trip. We went back to our hotel that night and fell asleep fast.

Woke up bright and early for a big day in Beijing. It is cold in China too! I forgot to mention that, but we were freezing the whole time. Everyone had their big coats and hats and gloves and you could always see your breath. We went first to Tiananmen Square; actually we were run through it by the lady who was leading us so we didn’t really have a chance to appreciate it. I mean really it’s just a big square but I would have like a little time to just take it in. We were then let loose in the Forbidden City. Literally, we were let loose. They showed us the gate and told us to meet at the other side in two hours, and we had to give ourselves a tour and educate ourselves on what we were seeing. This would have been a nice place to have a guided tour because we really didn’t know what we were seeing. But we still managed to find our way around and read any English sign we could find, which aren’t as abundant you’d think. We saw the halls and offices and bedrooms of the Ming Dynasty. We had tea in the teahouse. We walked through the gorgeous gardens with statues and temples and shrines. It was really beautiful. After meeting the group at the other side of the city, we all went to the Temple of Heaven. Again, we were let loose to explore on our own. We walked on the Emperor’s walk, stood on the Heavenly Center Stone, and saw inside the Imperial Vault of Heaven. Being done with this cultural site, we met our group at the East gate and walked out through the park outside the Temple. Walking through the park we started to hear music and saw a huge gathering of people ahead of us. The closer we got, we saw that they were dancing! Just people, of all ages, dancing to music in the park. It was really cool. Then they took us to the famous Pearl Market and let us loose for a few hours. It was really fun to look around at all the pearls. There was one store that had pictures all over the walls of famous people buying pearls from there including Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Barbara Bush, and tons of other prominent people. It was really cool and I got some good stuff. That night was another night of early sleeping cause with all our planning and scheming we had managed to get out tour guide to arrange a car at 5 am the next morning to take me, Michelle, Erin, and Megan back to another part of the Great Wall so that we could see what we wanted to see. This was our trip and we weren’t going to settle for anything less than what we deserved.

On the drive the next morning, we were tired and still sore from our first Great Wall climb but we were ready to get it done our way. We drove ten minutes past where we went the first day, which made us pretty frustrating. But we got out of the car, in the biting cold air and headed toward the wall entrance. We were the first people on the wall that day, right after sunrise. It was incredible. That was a magical morning. We climbed again to the top (a little longer of a hike), looking out at the snaking wall winding through the hills and mountains on the Chinese mountainside in the brisk morning dew. It really was amazing and now we're the only people from SAS to say that we climbed the Great Wall, twice! We saw a group of Chinese senior citizens coming up at the bottom though and knew we had to hurry. Sure enough, they were right on our tails about a half hour later. We still beat them to the top though because Megan and I broke out into a run as soon as they took over Erin and Michelle. The views were spectacular, totally worth all our planning and frustration and money we spent to get to this spot. In order to save time, we took a mini-car down the wall to the bottom. That whole morning was spectacular. We headed back in the car to meet the rest of our group at the Shanghai Zoo to see the giant pandas. They were super cute but all of them were passed out so I didn’t get to see any of them playing☹ Next we headed to the sight of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and got to go into the Birds Nest and the Water Cube. That was really cool to see. My friends and I had our own mini-Olympics on the field in the Birds Nest, super fun! We next went to the airport and caught our flight back to Shanghai.

Sleeping in the next morning was a must. It was a low-key day, we were incredibly tired and just spent the day walking around Shanghai, hitting up the markets and streets to explore. We took off from the port among the beautiful lights of the buildings on the shore. It was almost as cool as Hong Kong. So we had a really good time in China because we made it so but our trip was not what it was supposed to be. I don’t know if I’d head back to China, definitely not among one of my faves but still a good experience.

Peace and Love all,

al

Viet Nam

Viet Nam was spectacular. The people were so friendly and welcoming, you never would guess that we fought one of the most gruesome wars with them not so long ago. It was some of the worst heat I’ve ever encountered but it was a beautiful country with great culture and awesome food.

A lot of parents came to meet their kids at Ho Chi Minh and travel around Vietnam with them. We were welcomed in the morning with them down on the dock waving to all of us and with a group of Vietnamese women holding a welcome sign. It was so good to see parents again but it made all of us who didn’t have parents there really sad and kind of bitter. Michelle’s parents made the trip though so I got a hug from a mom and dad at least.

The first day was spent exploring the city, but we had a specific agenda. We hit up the Chinese market first to buy really inexpensive and beautiful silks and materials and walk through the narrow, crowded, hot stalls with people bombarding us from all sides trying to get us to buy their wares. It was great. Unfortunately, our first meal in Viet Nam was not so great. I think we just picked a really bad restaurant because we paid far too much for not so great food. Oh well, it happens. The next goal was to find a good tailor to make our dresses. And we found a really good one. If you’re ever in Viet Nam, look up Tam Silk on Pasteur Street. I’m so thrilled with how mine turned out! The rest of that day and into the evening was spent walking the streets, experiencing the crazy Ben Thanh market and getting swept away by the evening market. It was such a fun day! Everyone realized how much they loved the country within the first couple hours of being there, you just can’t help it.

The next morning I took off for my Mekong Delta trip. The Mekong Delta is the largest river in Southeast Asia and a center of activity for Vietnamese people. We took a long bus ride there and hopped off at the river to take a boat ride exploration down it. It wasn’t as beautiful as some of the other places we’ve been but you can see so deeply into the culture just from observing. We saw how the people lived on the river and off of it, how they interacted with it, how they used it and how it sustained them. It was really extraordinary. They took us to a place where we got to watch them make popped rice candy (similar to rice krispies), coconut candies, and rice paper. They served us tea (nearly unbearable in the stifling heat) and snacks and we were on our way again. Boats carrying families laden with everything from pineapples to baskets to watermelon to lettuce to a fresh-cooked meal passed us. Children would peak out from the windows and wave, we saw people asleep in hammocks on their boats, taking a break from a day’s work on the river. And everywhere, the activity we saw was just people going about their lives, making it day to day.
We got back on the buses and headed to our hotel. To get there we had to take a ferry, which meant we all had to get off the bus and walk amidst the mopeds and motorcycles vying for space. We have ferries at home but imagine all the cars on the bottom floor right, and then replace them with about five motorcycles for every car. It was crazy! That’s another thing about Viet Nam, is the motorcycles everywhere. The driving isn’t as unorganized as some other places but the main form of transportation is by motorbike so you kind of take your life into your hands when you get onto one. I only thought I was going to die a few times. The real danger is in crossing the street because they just keep coming and there’s no break in the sea of motorbikes. You just have to walk out in the middle and keep reminding yourself that they drive around you. It took a couple days but put me on the corner of any street now and I’ll cross it like a pro. So we got to our hotel and settled in and a few hours later went to dinner at a lovely outdoor restaurant on the banks of the river. We were staying in Can Tho which is a city right near on the Mekong.

The next morning we got up early to go experience the floating market on the Mekong, a convention that has taken place for centuries. People load up everything they have to sell and their families onto their boats and take off for this market and stay there and live there on their boats until all their goods are sold and go back home to do it over again. It was so fascinating. On long bamboo poles sticking straight up from the boats would be attached whatever that boat was selling, for example lettuce would be strapped to the pole, so you can look at the poles and find whatever you need to buy. We came across the fruit boats and bought delicious fresh fruits that they cut up for us right there. That was a really wonderful morning and we got to see so much of the local culture. This isn’t a tourist attraction, it’s a way of life that we got to peek into. These people are there to go about their business and provide for their families. I’m so glad I got to see this.
We went back to the hotel to eat lunch and grab our stuff and head back to the ship.

That next day I let myself sleep in a bit and then planned on heading out by myself to explore some of the historical attractions in Ho Chi Minh (still called Saigon by most people). Sean found me right when I was leaving so he joined me and we had a fabulous day. We first went to the War Remnants Museum, probably the most famous attraction in the city. It was an intense, emotional experience but I think something everyone should see. It was really interesting to see the way it was perceived here vs. what we learn about in the states, which I discovered was not very much. The things I saw there were unbelievable, for the first time in my life I saw the depth and immensity of human cruelty. I saw things that I can’t bring myself to write about. It made me very aware of being an American as well, which is something I had never felt that strongly. It was again, a very intense experience. My friend’s dad put it in perspective, “It’s like going to the Holocaust museum, if you are German.” He is right I imagine.

After that we needed some food in our stomachs, although come to think of it I don’t know how we brought ourselves to eat anything. But we got some wonderful Pho and then went to the Ben Thanh market for some more wandering of the vast marketplace. I picked up my dresses from the tailor later and was so happy with them that I had to go out that night in one of them. En route however, I incurred the infamous motorcycle burn on my leg apparently from getting on it the wrong way (a rookie mistake). Let me tell you, IT HURTS! But I’m alive and at least I’ll come away with a few scars and some good stories from Viet Nam. That night we sat down at one of the many street eateries that pop up at the night market and sat and ate amazing food and talked for hours, people watching and soaking up the culture. Those are my favorite experiences.

I had an early next morning going to the Hy Vong 8 School for deaf children. Before 1989, there were no schools for disabled children in Ho Chi Minh. The Hy Vong 8 School was set up and now provides classes and opportunities for deaf children. We went to visit the school and were greeted with some prepared dances by the kids and then got to play with them a little bit there. They were so cute and friendly and fun loving. We each got a child to buddy up with and headed out to the zoo with them. Most of the kids were young, like 5 years old, but the guy I got paired up with was 21! It was kind of funny actually because while I was watching all my friends running around chasing their kids, Tan, my guy, was kind of in charge and went around making sure the kids behaved. It was really interesting communicating with them because there was a double-language barrier, our inability to speak Vietnamese and their inability to hear. But somehow we all found our way and it was a really great day. We had some free time in the park after seeing the animals and got to just hang out with them and play some games with them. A lot of the older kids were really into hip-hop and were really great dancers. None of us had skills that could even compare. We eventually exchanged information and said goodbye to our new friends.

After getting back to the ship I had some things to finish up in the city so I took off by myself for a goodbye tour of Ho Chi Minh. I went to the General Post Office, a beautiful historical building unchanged since 1880, stopped by the Notre Dame Cathedral, a reminder of French rule and influence, and finished up my shopping around the markets and busy streets. It was a great day, a great country in whole.
I really truly couldn’t help but love Viet Nam and all the people there. It was such a touching, wonderful experience. All of Southeast Asia has been fantastic and I look forward to returning someday. One thing I wish I had done was go to Cambodia, I heard fantastic things about it so for you future SASers out there, I recommend taking a good look at that. Personally, I can’t wait to go there myself. But for now I have to prepare for Hong Kong in the morning. It seems impossible that I am already in China and have to gear up for another country and cultural experience. I am excited of course, but a little time to rest in between ports would be nice. I caught a nasty cold in Viet Nam so I’m trying to battle that as well.
Hope all is well at home! Love and Peace

Thailand

Thailand was a different trip. I felt like I took a brief break from SAS to walk down the wildest streets in the world, ride through the most lush and green jungle on elephants and canoes, and lay on some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. It was like taking a mini-vacation in the middle of this intense life adventure. A much-needed break after India I might add.

We arrived in Laem Chebang on Sunday morning and immediately got off the ship onto party buses. Laem Chebang is two hours outside of Bangkok so we had a bit of a drive in front of us. I wasn’t on an SAS trip for this port, I was on an independently arranged trip with an identical itinerary to the SAS one headed to the island of Phuket. I was with my friend Laura whose 21st birthday was the night we were staying in Bangkok, our last night in Thailand. So we pretty much made our whole trip into her 6-day birthday celebration, started appropriately with out pink party bus to Bangkok. Clearing the ship took a lot longer than we thought so by the time we got into Bangkok, we only had time to take a river boat to an amazing restaurant before catching our flight to Phuket. Bangkok is an amazing city. First of all, it is a city built on water with canals and boat taxis everywhere. They call it the Venice of the East. They love the king too. The king of Thailand is one of the most popular men in the world, I’m sure, because on every corner and every billboard and every overpass and every car and every store window and every street there is a picture or sticker of the king and sometimes the queen too. “Long live the king” bracelets and posters and t-shirts are everywhere. They love their king. It is actually a serious crime to insult the monarchy. If you do so in any way, they throw you in jail. They seriously love their king. It was really cool to look out over the highways (yes! They actually had highways there! It had been a while since I’d seen one and sadly it really excited me) and see amongst the tall buildings gold onion domes of temples and giant golden Buddha statues sitting in the middle of the modern city. Bright hot pink taxis glittered amongst the other brightly colored cars, they really loved brightly colored taxis with lots of decorations and stickers. The only problem with their super cool taxis though is that no driver knows where anything is in the city. No joke, we knew where we wanted to go and had the hotel write out in Thai the name and address of the places (which were extremely well-known, popular places) and would always ask if they knew where it was before we got in but every single time we would end up driving around and around for ever usually stuck in the horrendous Bangkok traffic while the driver would get out and ask around where this place was that we needed to get to. Extremely frustrating. But that was only one drawback from the bustling city.
Let me just take a moment for the food in Thailand. Oh. My. Goodness. My mouth is still watering thinking about it. It was delicious, that doesn’t even sound right. It is like heaven in your mouth. I don’t think I’ll ever get over it. Seriously, I can’t get over it. Its nothing like Thai food in the states, it is so much better than that. I would go back in a heartbeat just to eat one meal there.

Anyways, back to my adventures. So we had an uneventful flight to Phuket, grabbed our bags and took another long drive to our hotel. Oh the other really cool thing was they had welcome banners everywhere we went which made us feel super special. One was waiting outside the ship, another was in the airport when we landed, and another at the hotel. Our hotel was awesome and Laura and I roomed together which made it even more fun. The first night we went out to explore Patong Beach where we were staying and wow, did we get a lot of it. Bars, hookers, ping-pong shows, strippers, sex tourism, music everywhere. It was insane. I’ve never seen anything like this. The only thing I might compare it to would be Bourbon Street, New Orleans. But even that was tame compared to this. It was a really fun atmosphere and my girlfriends and I had such a good time. I can’t divulge any stories from our night outings but just know that they were ones to remember.

The next morning bright and early, we left for a day in the jungle. We headed north to the Khao Sok National Forest, which remains from a jungle older and more diverse than the Amazon. Our first stop in this incredible place is to ride elephants through the forest. Laura and I were one of the last elephant groups to go because I got distracted by the baby monkey they had. It was chained to a tree and broke my heart but it was the sweetest, cutest thing ever. Actually it was kind of a brat but I loved it anyways. It would jump onto us from its tree and then jump from person to person, trying to take a hat or sunglasses. Sometimes it would tire out and then just hug whoever it was on. A couple of us sat down on the ground next to us and started to pet it and feed it with its baby bottle. It calmed down immediately then and would curl up in someones lap or grab onto a leg with hands and feet and just lay there, licking your leg. If someone sat down that he didn’t like though he would jump up and start attacking them and then run back to cuddle in a lap like he hadn’t done anything wrong. He was the cutest thing I have ever seen. So when they could finally tear me away from the monkey, we got on our elephant to trek through the jungle. This was such a cool experience. I still can’t believe I did that. On the way up we rode in the bench on top of Samoon, our elephant. The scenery surrounding us was unbelievable. Lush greens and trees and rocks created our pathway and the train of elephants was beautiful. On the way back down, they let us ride on the neck which we thought looked so cool when we saw people coming down. However, one word of advice: make sure you get an elephant with a big neck. You might think that all elephants have big necks and its true, but when you’re trying to squeeze two big American girls onto an Asian elephant’s neck in front of the bench and behind the ears, it gets a bit tight. Laura and I barely fit, we were right on each other sweating like mad. They wanted my legs behind Samoon’s ears but to do that I had to lean forward so that I was practically sitting on its forehead with nothing in front of me (I had the privilege of sitting in the front). Then everytime Samoon would flap his ears, it would slap me on the legs. We must have looked like a circus act. And it wasn’t funny at all but we were laughing so hard we couldn’t breathe because everytime the elephant would move I was lurched forward and she would have to grab the back of my shirt to keep my from plummeting to my death on the slippery rocks underneath while holding on to the bench behind her to keep us both from falling. We also kept sliding off his neck to one side or the other so it was a fight to stay on the elephant. No one else had as many problems as we did and I’m still trying to figure out why. It got even tighter when our guide decided to sit in front of us. I don’t really want to talk about that part. So after we lived through our near-death elephant experience, we thanked God for our lives and headed to lunch. It was an outdoor restaurant with fresh coconuts with the top whacked off to drink out of and fried bananas galore. After thoroughly stuffing ourselves, we headed towards our next adventure. We got in our swimsuits and drove down to the river to climb into two-person canoes and canoe down the Khao Sok river. This was possibly my favorite experience in Thailand. We just laid back and took in the steep stone cliffs that jutted up randomly on all sides, covered in side-ways growing trees and white pumpkin vines, the overhanging trees that made a beautiful canopy overhead, the lush tropical jungle on either side of us, and the sounds of nature telling us their story. It was the single most relaxed and peaceful time in my life. I loved it. It got even more magical when thunder boomed from far away and moved towards us with every raindrop that started to fall on us. It was warm and refreshing. It was a humbling experience; I was just a powerless human on a small float in the middle of nature in all her glory. It was breathtaking. We finished our journey right before the heavy rains came. I loved it, the rain. It reminded me of home and we all fell asleep on the way back to the hotel to the sound of it pounding away outside our little van. That night, Laura and I got a two-hour massage for practically nothing. It was incredible. Wow is all I can say. Thai massage is part pain, part relaxation and a whole lot of, “Wow, I didn’t know my body could move like that!” It was incredible. We went and walked along the beach for a little bit to see the night market and then just went back and had the best sleep ever.

The next morning was a boat excursion day. We got on two big boats laid out with fresh fruits and sailed through the Phang Nga Bay. The Jade waters surround hundreds of islands that rise straight out of the water in shapes that looked like they had been hand-carved, like they didn’t belong there because they were so incredible. It was beautifully breathtaking. We just sat there in silence looking out at the natural wonders around us. That was another peaceful feeling that I can’t forget. Small wooden fishing boats and big wooden pirate ship-looking vessels made for tourists dotted the sea of green. The jagged rocks that formed the bottom of the islands hung above the gentle water. We first stopped at James Bond Island (Ko Tapu), which is called so because the island, which rises straight up and tapers at the bottom and is about 20 meters tall, was featured in The Man with the Golden Gun (Tomorrow Never Dies also has a scene filmed in Phang Nga Bay).  Took some good James Bond style pictures there and then headed to the island of Koh Hong to canoe around the rocks and caves. It was so cool to squeeze in between these different colored rock formations that created little pathways perfect size for a canoe to fit through. The colors were amazing. The foliage on the islands was like nothing I’d ever seen. They took us through caves where we had to lay down and flatten ourselves on the canoe to fit through while the stalactites that hung inches from our faces looked ready to stab us at any moment. How we actually fit I’ll never know but we emerged to the prettiest lagoons you can imagine. It felt like we had just discovered these hidden paradises that were completely untouched before our arrival. So striking! After spending our time “oohing” and “awing” we squeezed our way through the caves back to the boat and took a swimming break. We of course jumped off the top of the boat into the warm emerald water underneath. After we had our thrill of swimming, we stopped at Koh Panak where we got back into the canoes and headed into more caves. They didn’t tell us what this adventure was so when it just kept getting darker as we paddled deeper into the caves and there was no light on the other side and our guide handed us a flashlight we knew we were in for it. Above our heads hundreds of bats hung from the ceilings not too far above our heads. We kept feeling raindrop like things falling on our heads and didn’t want to ask what it really was. Then the bats started to wake up. I don’t know if it was all the noise that 100 college students in a dark confined space can make or the light from our flashlights interrupting their sleep but they started screeching and flying around. I am not a fan of bats but I managed not to freak out. It was definitely time to move onto our next location. After an amazing fresh lunch served on board en route to Ko Wa Yai, we spent some quality time laying on the beach and soaking up the sun. The heat there is another story, it was a great day though. On the way back to Phuket, another afternoon rain shower began and I fell into another great nap. Back at the hotel we began the celebrations for Laura’s birthday. We met all our friends at a great restaurant that looked like it was in a tree. Amazing food and some delicious cocktails later (it was her 21st), we hit up the streets of Patong to do some birthday damage. We actually started the night at celebrating St. Patrick’s Day but as soon as midnight hit it was crazy birthday time. While the details of that night will forever remain inaccessible to those who were not present, I can tell you that I celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in an Irish bar with Irishmen and Thai strippers in Thaiand and my good friend’s 21st birthday with Asian breakdancers, Australian men, our hotel pool and the security guard. It was a packed night and one for the books for sure.

Luckily the next day was just a traveling day. We woke up and got the last of our Thai massages (I’m really going to miss those) and some Starbucks (I can’t express to you the joy I had when I saw the sign). We finished up some shopping, got our stuff together and boarded our flight back to Bangkok. We had plans to meet up with our friends at a well-known and highly recommended restaurant as soon as we got into Bangkok (they had been there for a couple days) so we only dropped our stuff and rushed to find a taxi there. This is where we first experienced the frustration of taxis in Thailand. It was infuriating actually. So we wasted an hour of our precious time sitting in the taxi while he tried to find this place and with no luck so just had him take us back to our hotel. Our friends met us there and we went out to a lovely seafood dinner. After we had finished eating and all the girls had gotten ready for Laura’s big night, we headed to the most exclusive bar in Thailand. It is on the rooftop of a beautiful hotel and looks out over the whole city. They are really selective about who they let in though, if boys were wearing shorts they were turned away and if girls were wearing pants or open-toed shoes they were turned away. The view from the top was really amazing. We didn’t stay long though because you had to buy something off their very expensive menu in order to stay but we got some nice pictures. After that the girls wanted to head to the craziest street in Bangkok but the boys weren’t up for it so we found a disco tech and danced the night away with people from all over the world. Em and Vanessa stayed with Laura and I that night so we had a big sleepover to end our night adventures in Thailand.

The next morning we took a boat-tour through the canals of Bangkok and then headed to the Grand Palace. It was incredible. Gold and jewels and colors sparkled on the astonishing architecture and design of the palace. We saw the famed Emerald Buddha atop mounds of golden structures. I wish I had been in a better frame of mind to enjoy all that was before me but it was miserable hot, I’ve never felt so close to dying of heat (this was before Vietnam) and there was a dress code so we had to be mostly covered and I was so tired from all the constant traveling and lack of sleep. I was not a happy camper but it was still incredible to see. I can’t wait to go back. We took the long bus ride back to the ship and I fell right asleep…

Good times in Thailand, I absolutely loved it there. It was some of the most beautiful, breath-taking sights I have ever witnessed and some of the best times I’ve ever had. The people there are so friendly and wonderful. It really was incredible. It’s very weird though, it was only last week that I was there and already it feels like another lifetime. We just left Viet Nam (I didn’t have a chance to finish this before) and I don’t even believe myself that I was in Thailand just one week ago, let alone Africa last month. This is an amazing trip and an amazing experience but it goes by too fast. I just looked at my calendar on my wall and in the span of 5 weeks I’ll have done India, Thailand, Viet Nam, China and Japan. That’s madness. I only scratched the surface of the places I’ve been to.

Off to write about Viet Nam now! I got a bad cold/the flu in Viet Nam so my head is not normal right now and I apologize if my writing reflects that. Love!

Thailand

Laura and I riding on the neck of our elephant, Samoon, in the Khoa Sok National Park, Bangkok, Thailand

India

Me at the Taj Mahal, Agra, India

Me at the birthplace of Buddhism, Isipatana - Deer Park in Sarnath where the Buddha preached his first sermon. I hope you can read the sign, it says, "MAY YOU ALL BE HAPPY WITH THE BLESSINGS OF THE TRIPLE GEM THE BUDDHA, DHAMMA, AND SANGHA."