World Travels!

Japan

2009-04-16T03:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-16T03:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-28T01:12:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-27T07:27:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-21T07:08:00.000-07:00

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

India

2009-03-21T07:07:00.000-07:00

Me at the Taj Mahal, Agra, India

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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."

2009-03-21T07:01:00.000-07:00

Me floating a candle down the Ganges at dawn, Varanasi, India

India

2009-03-21T07:00:00.001-07:00

The children who came to meet us after leaving the silk factory, Varanasi, India

Mauritius

2009-03-21T07:00:00.000-07:00

Sean and I in Mauritius

Mauritius

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The view from our chairs on the beach, Ile des Deux Cocos, Mauritius

Sea Olympics

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Captain Jeremy as King Neptune. Priceless. This one is for you Mark F!

South Africa

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My favorite picture of all, a mama Giraffe nuzzling her babies. Pilanesberg, South Africa

South Africa

2009-03-21T06:55:00.000-07:00

This is a great lion story. They don't allow children under the age of 6 on safari for the sole reason that a baby's cry attracts the animals to it because they recognize it as prey. So in the car in front of us when we stopped to view the lions, there was a baby who started to cry. As soon as it started to cry, the lion who was laying under a tree napping got up and started walking towards the car. The mom immediately rolled up the window but the lion walked right up to their car and sniffed around it and then walked back to his tree. Pretty cool! I was personally hoping for it to jump on the car. Pilanesberg, South Africa

South Africa

2009-03-21T06:48:00.001-07:00

Zebra and a giraffe in the background, Pilanesberg, South Africa

South Africa

2009-03-21T06:48:00.000-07:00

The first lions we saw. This one walked right up next to our vehicle, very exciting! Pilanesberg, South Africa

South Africa

2009-03-21T06:46:00.000-07:00

White Rhino on safari in Pilanesburg, South Africa

South Africa

2009-03-21T06:44:00.000-07:00

On the way down the mountain in the cable car when the clouds finally cleared, the beautiful view of Cape Town, South Africa

South Africa

2009-03-21T06:39:00.000-07:00

Me at the top of Table Mountain in the clouds; Cape Town, South Africa

Namibia

2009-03-21T06:38:00.000-07:00

This picture doesn't need words, I am flying over Swakopmund, Namibia

Namibia

2009-03-21T06:37:00.000-07:00

The seal that came on our boat ride through Walvis Bay, Namibia

Namibia

2009-03-21T06:36:00.000-07:00

Vanessa and I looking out over Walvis Bay after hiking the dunes, Namibia

Namibia

2009-03-21T06:35:00.000-07:00

Me with some of the choir girls who came to welcome us in Walvis Bay, Namibia

2009-03-21T06:32:00.000-07:00

Morocco

2009-03-21T06:31:00.000-07:00

Riding camels through the Palm Groves, Marrakech, Morocco

Picture Catch-Up!

2009-03-21T06:07:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!

So since reformatting and posting tens of pictures for each country takes forever and I am quickly running out of time for everything I need to do, I decided to only post a choice few for each port. So here for your enjoyment are the highlights of my experiences so far.

Love

P.S. Sorry if there are comments on here that I haven't replied to but I will as soon as I get some internet around here. Ciao!

2009-03-14T19:49:00.000-07:00

India is a different world. In an incomplete list, it was beautiful, sad, touching, dirty, heartbreaking, and unforgettable. I think it’s impossible to go to India and not come back a changed person. There are images I can’t get out of my head and moments I hope I never forget. It was an overload for my senses and I was overwhelmed for parts of it. I saw incredible things that took my breath away. I am so glad I did what I did and I wouldn’t have traded it for anything, but by the end of our trip, I was glad to be done. There are parts I would love to see again and places where I would love to spend more time but for now, I am perfectly content to make India a one-time destination. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world and I’m so grateful for everything that I’ve seen and done so far so thank you to everyone who helped me get here! In most of the other ports, I fell in love immediately with them, but I loved India in a different way. Let me explain.

We started in Chennai in the South of India on the 5th. Chennai is an extremely dirty and polluted city (all of India was incredible polluted but Chennai was the worst in my opinion). I wore a white shirt the first day (not smart) and by the first half of the day during which I had spent a significant amount of time indoors, the shirt had turned black. When you came in and washed your hands and face the sink was black. I can’t even imagine what my lungs must look like now after breathing all that. They even kept all the doors on the ship to the decks closed because the air was so polluted. The streets had their own problems: men would just go to the bathroom whenever they felt like it on a wall, there were piles and piles of garbage lining the streets everywhere, cows and bulls would be rummaging through it, children and adults too. It was really hard to see.

I should explain a little before I go on. For each of our classes, we are required to complete a certain number of faculty directed trips in each port and then usually write up a paper for each. It’s a great opportunity to see things and go places that would usually be impossibly to do on your own. There are school visits and orphanage visits and opportunities to go to places like the Coca-Cola plant and the Nike factory. So the first day I had scheduled a Working Women’s Forum to learn about microfinance in India and see how it impacts the lives of women there. However it wasn’t until later in the afternoon so we decided to knock some shopping out of the way.

We went to Spencer mall where they had most everything in one place. The main form of transportation in India are auto-rickshaws, which are basically three wheeled motorbikes that have a two-and-a-half foot long bench in the back for you to sit on. We managed to squeeze three girls (hips and all) onto one. The driving in India is a different story completely. There is pretty much only two apparent rules that I could figure out: 1) Cows have the right of way (they are holy in Hinduism) and 2) if there is any sort of spot or opening in the flow of the traffic, fill it. Cows and cars and motorbikes and rickshaws and carts and walkers all trying to get to the same place practically on top of each other, it was crazy. Apparently if you hit someone with your rickshaw it’s no big deal either (true story). It was even crazier than the driving in Morocco. We have a new saying: India makes Morocco look like Spain. We find ourselves quite hilarious. Indian rickshaw drivers are notorious for ripping you off too. You find yourself agreeing to one price in the beginning and then find that the driver is demanding a higher price when you reach the destination or that he tries to make you pay it in American cash (yes, our driver tried to get us to pay $150 each in American cash to him for a 20 minute ride). They also stop at various locations on the way to your destination and make you buy something from their friend’s store or tell you where you want to go is closed and try and take you somewhere else. But they had warned us about all this in pre-port so we had come prepared.

Eventually making it to the plaza, Laura and I bought sarees and wore them the whole day. We got so many compliments on them and even got told a few times that we look Indian! It was really fun and I really wish I could wear it back in the States, I might start a new trend. Not wanting to be late, we were planning on leaving with ample time to get me to my FDP. But then one of the girls we were with decided to go off on her own and make us look for her because we couldn’t leave anyone alone. So by the time we found her we were rushing to find a rickshaw back to the ship. After haggling over price for like 10 minutes and convincing him to take us straight to the ship (this was a particularly ornery driver) he got us on our way… only to drop us off at the wrong quay extremely far from where we needed to be. I am panicking at this point but he wouldn’t take us to where we needed to go and called us cheap after we paid him 50 rupees more than we had originally agreed upon, driving away and leaving us with no idea how to get back. This nice bicycle rickshaw driver came over to us and offered to take us to our quay. Well at this point I’m with Jordan and Laura and none of us are tiny and the bike rickshaws are half the size of the auto rickshaws. Somehow, piled on top of each other with all our bags, we miraculously managed to all get on it. The driver was about 6” shorter than me and 1/3 the size and I was one of the smaller of our group just to give you an idea what this poor guy was up against. He started pedaling away at an embarrassingly slow speed, I knew I wasn’t going to make it at this point. So we sat back and “enjoyed” the ride. We were practically sitting in a flower planter box (the auto-rickshaws at least had a covering) right up next to all the traffic whizzing by us. I’m pretty sure we all thought we were going to die at some point or another. Everyone we passed laughed at the spectacle. At one point Jordan had to get off and help the driver push us up a hill in the middle of the street. Epic. Laura and I were laughing so hard, it was the funniest thing I have ever seen. My bus passed us as we pulled into the gate but I didn’t even mind anymore. We paid him three times the amount we had given the auto-rickshaw driver just because he worked so hard. We were all dripping sweat by the end of that little jaunt.

We went to wash off the sweat and dirt and grime and to come up with a plan for the rest of the day. After some lunch, Sean Jordan and I went to St. Thomas Basilica, one of only three churches in the world to be built over the remains of an apostle of Jesus Christ. The other two are St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and Santiago de Compostela Cathedral (St. James Cathedral) in Galicia, Spain. It was an amazing experience. The church is more renowned for it’s significance than it’s aesthetic qualities but it was still very cool to see. We spent the rest of the day sightseeing around Chennai and shopping (I was forced) and then going to a lovely dinner. I’m not a big fan of Indian food but the food I tried there was really good. The interesting thing though was that I was the only woman in that restaurant, literally the only female. And it didn’t even matter, it was like I didn’t exist. The waiters wouldn’t listen to me when I ordered so the boys had to repeat my order and when the food did come, the boys were brought out first and it was almost 15 minutes before they brought out mine. It was very weird. So after dinner we headed back to the ship to pack. I wore my saree all day :)

We had to leave at 4 the next morning to catch our flight to Delhi. That morning went by in a blur, we were all so tired and we took another flight to Varanasi as soon as we got to Delhi. It was a long day. But as soon as we got into Varanasi they took us to a silk factory and we got to learn and watch how they hand-weave the silks on machines that they have been using for over 200 years. And then they let us loose to buy these beautiful, incredible hand-made silks… I don’t want to talk about it anymore. We came out to all these children waiting by the bus who asked for chocolate and pens, but no one had any. They really wanted to take pictures with us too so we got a couple good ones. After we all loaded ourselves and our newly acquired packages onto the buses they took us to the middle of the city where there were 70 rickshaws (the bicycle ones) waiting for all of us. Sean and I found our driver and our entourage took off. I don’t think Varanasi had ever seen such sights. 140 American students parading in a long line of rickshaws through the city; quite the picture eh? So we trekked down to the banks of the Ganga, the holy river Ganges to witness the evening prayer ceremonies. It was a very special thing to see. There were women and children everywhere selling little candle and flower baskets. You are supposed to light the candle and float it down the Ganga for luck so I lit one for both my parents, it was a very special experience. We were all exhausted by the end of the night so back at the hotel everyone passed out pretty quickly.

The next morning we got to wake up very early and go back down to the Ganges to take a boat ride down it at dawn and watch the sunrise and the people bathing in it, a ritual that has continued for many years. We also saw the cremation sites with shrouded bodies waiting for their turn to return to ashes and be given to the Ganga. It was incredible. It was beautiful. It held some sort of captive draw. The boat ride was one of my favorite experiences of the voyage. After it was over we took a walking tour through Varanasi and then headed to Sarnath, an ancient city where the Buddha preached his first sermon. It is called the birthplace of Buddhism and there is a temple and garden dedicated to the Buddha. We took off for our flight back to Delhi late that afternoon and only had time to drive by the Gate of India, a huge stone gate tower that was erected after WWII, and visit a magnificent temple that lit up under the night sky, took my breath away. Our hotel that night was awesome, lines with shops and a club and a swank restaurant, we all stayed up far too late despite being dead on our feet. It was really fun though.

The next morning was another early wake-up call to for a train to Agra. The train station was an experience in itself. There were homeless people sleeping everywhere and the dirt was everywhere. We all stood for 45 minutes waiting for the train cause no one wanted to sit or put their bags down. On the train, we pretty much took up our own whole car so everyone passed out. I was expecting Agra to be a lot more developed and clean since it was the main tourist attraction site in India, but it was just as dirty as Varanasi. We spent the morning at Fatehpur Sikri, a UNESCO World Heritage Site built in the 14th century by the Mughal emperor Akbar. The only remaining structure of the ancient city is the fort built by the emperor. It was an amazing structure and really neat to tour. I was just super anxious to get to the Taj Mahal though, I have wanted to visit there for so long! First they took us though to this carpet factory where we got to learn about how they hand-wove the carpets, some made of pure silk. They were beautiful and intricate and I would have bought one if the cheapest one wasn’t $250USD!!! It baffles me that they would take a bunch of college students to a place that sold carpets up to $20,000USD and expect us to buy. Then they made us go to lunch. I just wanted to get to the Taj! Finally, after what seemed like forever, we made it. It was the most beautiful, incredible thing I have ever seen. There aren’t words to describe it, it is the single greatest act of love by man on this earth. It looked fake it was so amazing. I could have spent an entire day there, it was so magical. I would love to go back there one day just to be near its splendor again. It was funny too, all these people were coming up to us asking to take pictures with us! We felt like celebrities. It was funny though, of course we made the most of it. That was a full day, a beautiful day and I fell right asleep again on the train ride back to Delhi. I even fell asleep in all my clothes on my bed when we got to the room.

We flew back to Chennai the next morning and got some last minute shopping done before heading back to the ship, showering and falling right asleep again. The next day we had no classes either, it’s a designated rest day after India. I feel like there was so much to this trip in paticular that writing wouldn't do it justice. So even though this was the biggest port to me, in terms of difference and change and growth, this is one of the shorter blogs because I just can't capture it in writing. India is something you must experience for yourself so I leave you to one day make that discovery if you so chose. All in all it was an amazing experience, I wouldn’t have traded it for anything. I feel so grateful for my own life and for the things I’ve seen. This is such an incredible journey.

Love to you all,
Ally

2009-03-04T06:42:00.000-08:00

The rooms were tucked away in the open hallways up around the courtyard

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Looking up from the courtyard...

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And this is as soon as you walk through the door of the sketch alley... the courtyard of the Riad Aladdan

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The alley and shady entrance way to our Riad

2009-03-04T06:23:00.000-08:00

The Streets of Marrakech

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Marrakech

2009-03-04T06:14:00.000-08:00

Coming into Marrakech

2009-03-04T06:10:00.000-08:00

Jordan, me, Jen, Sean, and Colin getting ready for the train to Marrakech

2009-03-04T06:05:00.000-08:00

Walking through the streets of Casablanca. Yes, that is me in a headscarf and yes, I did wear it most of the time in Morocco. I like to blend in with the locale

Ship Photos!

2009-03-03T20:28:00.002-08:00

The view - I would have died without this window. You can see the sunrise in the morning and the sunset at night. Incredible.

2009-03-03T20:28:00.001-08:00

My side, my bed, my map of the World

2009-03-03T20:28:00.000-08:00

Our Room

2009-03-03T20:26:00.002-08:00

Our ship in the Atlantic Ocean

2009-03-03T20:26:00.001-08:00

The door to 4159... My room

2009-03-03T20:26:00.000-08:00

Sunset on the Indian Ocean

2009-03-01T02:09:00.000-08:00

"You gather the idea that Mauritius was made first, and then heaven; and that heaven was copied after Mauritius."~ Mark Twain from Following the Equator, his personal travelogue.

Just found this quote and I'm pretty sure it adequately describes Mauritius from my point of view as well.

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Sea Olympics

2009-03-01T00:52:00.000-08:00

Mayhem. One word that describes it all. The Sea Olympics. All the seas have been preparing for weeks, making flags, practicing their synchronized swimming routines, making cheers, and mentally preparing to win. The stakes were high –the winning sea gets off the ship 1st in Florida. It started the night we got back from Mauritius with a bbq on the deck and the opening ceremonies. Everyone was going crazy. It reminded me of homecoming except with 10 competing groups instead of 4. Our sea, the Arabian sea was the only one to make matching shirts for everyone. After the opening ceremonies, they played Slumdog Millionaire for us! It was such a good movie and right before we get to India too (3 more days!). All the Olympic competitions were scheduled for the next day (no classes!) but I ended up sleeping for half the day because my roommate kept me awake all night coughing. Seriously, I don’t know how she breathed because she coughed the ENTIRE night and kept going in and out of the room. I was heated, needless to say, I love my sleep. So at around 1 when my friends were getting worried because they hadn’t seen me anywhere, they came and dragged me out of bed to go lay out on the top deck. Vanessa and I judged the mashed potato sculpting contest, one of many events. There was also volleyball, dodgeball, flip-cup, limbo, Sudoku, spelling bee, tug-o-war, a work-out relay, a photo scavenger hunt, and lots more I can’t remember. Synchronized swimming was the most fun to watch though. Imagine hundreds of college kids stuck on a ship making up dance routines in water. Hilarious. During closing ceremonies at the end of the night, we found out our sea tied in a 3-way for 3rd place! So mommy I’ll be the third sea off the ship in Florida, yay! We finished the day with an epic flip-flop battle throughout the ship and family Office night where all our friends cram into our cabin and we watch episodes of the Office on a computer for hours. Great day and night and now were off to India in 3 days…I can’t believe it.

Ok now its really homework time and I probably won’t get to South Africa blogging until tonight (which is morning for y’all anyways).

Love!

Ile Des Deux Cocos; Mauritius

2009-03-01T00:32:00.000-08:00

Bonzeur (Hello in Creole)

We just left paradise. I cannot even believe how lucky we are for that experience. The most incredible, beautiful, romantic place I have ever been to! We started the morning with an hour and a half bus ride from Port Louis to the other side of the island. Bus ride = not a whole lot of fun. It was hot and cramped, but Sean and I can make any situation fun and we got to drive through the green beautiful hills past the sugar cane fields and tea plantations and learn more about the history and economy and languages of Mauritius. When the clouds sank away behind us, choosing to stay on the green jagged mountaintops, we reached the south side of the island and drove off the main road onto a little pathway surrounded on either side by sugarcane stalks as tall as the bus. This path turned out to the prettiest little opening looking out at the sparkling water all different shades of blue. To the right and left, coves housed mansions on the beach with sailboats dotting the water line. Far out from the clear blue water you could see the surf breaking beyond the island cove entrance. The water below us on the dock was so clear you could see the coral designs and fin patterns of the fish that swam in and out of the reef. Across the way, this beautiful tiny island faced us amidst the diamonds glinting off the water surface. You could see only one villa on it and chairs scattered among the trees lining the beach. We were ecstatic; this was our private island for the day: Ile des Deux Cocos. We were shuttled across the cove in glass-bottomed boats to paradise. There were covered cabanas with pillows and couches for us to nap in, lounge chairs in the shade of coconut trees, and white sand outlining the clear blue of the water. I have never seen the color blues that I did on that island; clear water turned turquoise the farther out you went and the dark blue patches told you where the coral reefs were. You could see the white sand reflected underneath the bright aquamarine out by the snorkeling bay right next to the darker sky blue of the current framed by the white surf 20 meters out. We found our chairs, got our drinks and laid back to look out at our view, truly believing we had just found heaven. The whole day was spent in the sun, playing in the water and snorkeling among the coral reefs, laying in the white sand and napping in the shade. Sean and I swam out to the turquoise strip of water just to feel it and found out how strong the current really was. We swam hard for about 15 minutes not moving anywhere and my muscles are still sore. A buffet lunch was served to us of fresh-grilled lamb, tuna, marlin, and prawns. Dessert was a buffet of fresh island fruit (with coconut!!!). The whole day was incredible. I’m having my honeymoon there for sure, we found out you can rent the villa and practically have the whole island to yourself (staff included). Everyone was so sad to leave, we could have spent so much more time enjoying the finest Mauritius had to offer. It was paradise at its best. Nothing about that day can be thought of without smiling.

I’ll finish the South Africa blog today and post it as soon as I write a couple papers (yes, I still have to do school). I just had to write about Mauritius first because I cannot get over how beautiful it was and South Africa is a lot to write about.

Love &peace,

Ally

At the Top!

2009-02-24T09:38:00.000-08:00

Ben, Jordan, Sean, Colin & I at the top of the Cathedral

2009-02-24T09:37:00.000-08:00

2009-02-24T09:36:00.001-08:00

Catedral de Seville

2009-02-24T09:36:00.000-08:00

View from the top of the Cathedral (a whole 39 story hike up with backpacks)

Catedral de Seville a Noche

2009-02-24T09:34:00.000-08:00

Partido de Futbol

2009-02-24T09:32:00.001-08:00

At the Game...

2009-02-24T09:32:00.000-08:00

Ben and I at the Seville FC vs. Valencia FC Game on my birthday night!

Seville orange experience

2009-02-24T09:31:00.000-08:00

These were the AWFUL oranges from the streets of Seville. Funny story to follow about these from South Africa

Cadiz

2009-02-24T09:28:00.000-08:00

These are the remains of an ancient castle in Cadiz used for guarding against pirates and foreign attacks

Catedral de Cadiz

2009-02-24T09:26:00.001-08:00

Calle en Seville

2009-02-24T09:26:00.000-08:00

Puerto de Cadiz

2009-02-24T09:25:00.000-08:00

MVExplorer

2009-02-24T09:23:00.000-08:00

Namibia

2009-02-24T05:20:00.000-08:00

Ok, ok, I’m back now and even though this blog is way late, well here ya go. Namibia is incredible. I know I keep saying that about every place but it just keeps getting better and better. I don’t even know how the rest of the trip can top this but I have a feeling it will. My expectations for Namibia were so different than my experiences. The best surprise of my life, I might add. I had never even really heard anything about Namibia before except that is where Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt decided to have Shiloh. Other than that, Namibia held nothing for me. I honestly thought that there was nothing there. Alright, so we arrive into Namibia on Valentines Day and listen to our first Diplomatic briefing. In most of the ports, we have officials and diplomats come (usually from the Embassy) onto our ship and talk to us about some of the logistics of the country. This was the first time they had done it though and it pretty much scared us to death. They told us how we need to always watch our things and need to be wary of everyone you meet etc. This is important information that we all need to hear during pre-port but sometimes they over-do it to the point where we are so fearful of everything that it closes us off from experiences. So it was a mixture of that and almost non-interest that I had coming into Namibia; not the greatest way to start off a trip. After that was over, we were greeted by a girl’s choir from Windhoek (capital of Namibia) singing and dancing for us down on the dock. Their voices were amazing. What a way to get welcomed to Namibia! I wish I had a way to record it and let you all hear because it was so beautiful. It brought tears to my eyes because it felt so beautiful and untouched. I can’t describe it but it felt like Africa; this welcoming, open, inclusive, fragile but strong. I felt like I was home. I hadn’t even felt “homey”in Europe but here it was completely different. It really makes you think; our voyage is themed migrations and in all my classes there is a focus on evolution and how our species came from Africa, and there I did feel like I belonged. Interesting ya? Well these girls were amazing. They were wearing hand-made dresses and had moves like you wouldn’t believe. We got to meet them and hang out with them afterwards and they were so sweet and friendly. They had no reservations about making you their new best friend. It was heart-warming. We are incredibly lucky to have met them and had this experience. After that I walked around Walvis Bay with Jordan and Faith a little and leaving the port we discovered that a bunch of vendors had set up camp right outside the port gates. They had mostly come from the Northern parts of Namibia with their hand-made art and traditional crafts to sell to us because apparently word travels that a huge ship with lots of students was coming to buy things. What they had for sale was beautiful! Hand-carved chests with the Big Five, traditional masks, bowls, carvings, statues, jewelry, and so much more. I wanted to buy it all and had I been able to fit more into my hands I would have. We wanted to eat first and had to get cash out so while Jordan and I were in the ATM, Faith met this woman outside of the bank and got to talking and asked where we should go to eat. She pointed us in the right direction and we started walking, and she started following us. Apparently she had invited herself to lunch with us. That was fine, we like meeting locals. Her name is Agnes and she has all our addresses so ma, watch out if you get a visitor from Namibia at your door! She was really nice and we found out she was a preschool teacher and has a son. It was fun but at the end when we got the check she looked at Faith and was like, “You pay for me, ok?”Faith didn’t really know what to do so she was like ok. Interesting but ok whatev. We went back to the vendors and bought lots of stuff and then they had an FDP so they had to go. I went back to the ship to rest a bit and as soon as I get in the door Vanessa comes and finds me and we went to explore some more. We met these guys who showed us around the city and it was an amazing tour that I’m pretty sure SAS couldn’t have beat. We even got to see the townships where all the poor people live. It’s kind of like seeing the projects or ghettos. All the people were waving at us and saying hello and the kids were running around us playing. Some people looked at us like they had never seen white people before. Incredibly fascinating. Pumla and Savaci, our new African brothers, were awesome and so nice. They were just interested in learning about our culture and sharing theirs with us. We were kind of sketched at first but it turned out to be amazing. We went back to the ship after a long day to get all dressed up and meet our friends for a Valentine’s Dinner. We had heard about this great restaurant called the Raft so we hailed a cab and went. About twenty minutes later we pull up to this circular hut in the middle of the water with lights all around it and the sun going down behind it. It was beautiful and the food inside was good too! We sat around for hours eating fondue, Kudu, Springbuck and drinking incredible South African wine. It was an incredibly romantical night haha. The girls kept missing our boyfriends though so we caved and gave them a call on the cell. Neither Vanessa or I can talk to ours though (they happen to be in the Dominican Republic and the Bering Sea respectively) so a voicemail had to suffice. At the end of the night, happy and full and in love with Africa, we pile 6 people into one of their small taxis (another taxi driver tried to steal me too!) and head back to the ship for a sleepover on the deck. We thought this would be the best place to do it because it’s hot and there’s no wind. We were stoked. We started off the night with 5 of us sleeping outside and only 3 woke up together. We also discovered that it gets very cold in the middle of the night and that it often rains. Not so fun after all but a good start to Namibia.
The next morning, Vanessa and I had a Sea and Sand dune trip. I don’t think we really knew what we were doing but we were excited to go anyway! Jordan managed to snag a last-minute spot on the trip too. The first half of the day was spent on a boat in Sandwich Harbor where seals played in the water around us and dolphins swam next to us and pelicans flew above us trying to match our speed. Seals would climb onto the boat too and we got to pet them and watch our guide feed them. We drove next to this seal island too where all the seals were laying out and playing and the little ones were swimming in and around the waves. It was so much fun and beautiful views too. We didn’t want to leave the boat but we finally came to the other side of the harbor where there were 6 Land Rovers waiting for all of us. We got in Harmon’s (pronounced Ar-mOn) rover and drove all around the beach and next to the Dunes. A few days before our arrival there a whale had washed up on the shore. Everyone tried to save it but it died after a couple days because it’s lung had collapsed on him. So we came across part of its ripped off jaw bone and 50 meters further down, the whole whale itself. I haven’t ever seen a whale that close and it was weird. He was huge and it was so sad, you couldn’t even see it’s original face because its tongue had swelled up to such an enormous size. We got to touch it too. So that was kind of depressing, some jerk climbed on top of it too and I was about to punch him in the face. But we kept driving down the surf and eventually we were driving through the dunes up and down, it was like a Disneyland ride! Harmon busted out Red Hot Chile Peppers and the new Coldplay so Vanessa and I were singing it at the top of our lungs in between fits of laughing, driving through the dunes and holding on for dear life. We stopped for a picnic lunch on the beach of oysters and champagne and got to watch the dolphins swimming along the waves. Jordan of course jumped in after them and tried to swim with them but no luck. While they were setting up for lunch, Vanessa and I hiked up a dune to get the full view. Incredible. And totally worth hiking in the desert sun on sand. We kept driving up and down the dunes and even drove down backwards on some of them and came to the top of this dune where you could run and jump off and you went so far because the dune was super steep. I’ll post pics I promise! I thought I had it figured out but most are still too big to post. By this time, Harmon had become our good friend and so we made dinner plans with him because his girlfriend owns a restaurant called Harry Peppers that we had heard good things about. So driving back to the office, we got to see the salt flats by the harbor. They turned the water on top of the salt bright pink and we tasted the salt –intense! It was a huge day and we were all wiped out from the sun and activity but we went to gather the crew and head to Harry Peppers. We ended up being late and Harmon wasn’t there when we arrived but the waiter called him and he came back to meet us. We had an awesome dinner (again). We had a big day ahead of us, but still wanted to see Namibia at night so Harmon had the waiter escort us out to a little local bar. It was awesome! And really funny because they pay American music in all the clubs where we’ve been so far. We met some fun people out and then headed back to the ship for what could possibly be out last night of life. We were skydiving the next morning. Woke up to clouds and were bummed cause we thought they might cancel it. We were already late and I’m pretty sure we got the only taxi driver in the country who lost on the way to the airport and drove at least 30 km slower than everyone else. We made it though, and they got all signed in and suited up and proceeded to freak out for the rest of the time. They had to drive you out into the middle of the desert where there was a tin roof we could sit under and then a room where they kept all their gear. They could only take up two people at a time and we were a group of like 25 kids so it took a long time and we were just hanging out in the desert with the skydiving guys who are so cool. Mias was my partner and were now Facebook friends, watch out! I don’t think I said two words the entire day. My friends were all worried cause they had never heard me not talk for more than a few minutes, go figure. But soon it was my turn and there wasn’t anything I could do. I got strapped up and we got into the plane. Mias had to hold my hand the whole time and tried to get me not to think about it but the plane just kept going higher and higher! Well my videographer got out to the edge first and just hung onto the wing outside the plane like no big deal, all of a sudden I was on the edge of the plane looking out over the desert and dunes and the ocean. And then I was gone. Flying. Floating. I don’t even know. It was incredible though. He let me fly the chute a little and we had a perfect landing. I was so excited afterwards! It was so incredible. Ah I can’t even describe it! I was so happy the rest of the day. It was already after 5 by the time the taxi came to get us at the place and we were at least 45 minutes from Walvis Bay and the ship and if were 0-15 minutes late to get onto the ship we get 3 hours of dock time in the next port. We were all so happy though and our driver was awesome and sped and we got the to the gate with 7 minutes to spare but the guard wouldn’t let us in cause the taxi didn’t have a port pass so we had to bride the official to let us in the gate to the ship. We handed him all the cash we had and the driver got us as far as he could go and we got out and booked it, I mean ran hard-core with all our bags to the ship and up the gangway and we made it in time! it was a miracle and the best day ever. Ah, I love Namibia. I want more time to explore Swakopmund (where the airport is). Ok now I need a writing break and then its blog South Africa!!! Be excited, safari stories to come.
Miss you all and love you so much!

Photos!

2009-02-17T23:08:00.000-08:00

Yaya! I figured out how to manipulate my photos an email so that I can send them to my blog! I'm off to South Africa now to hike Table Mountain and then I leave for safari tomorrow but know that more are coming soon! Love and peace,
Alex

Cadiz Photos

2009-02-17T23:01:00.000-08:00

View from the top of the Catedral de Cadiz

Flying Free

2009-02-16T12:55:00.000-08:00

Blog coming tomorrow about Namibia but I just had to drop a little line...

I jumped out of a plane today over the Namib Desert at 10,000 feet!!! Indescribable.

The most amazing feeling of my life; to soar over the desert and ocean side-by-side floating down in the sky with nothing around to disturb the moment. It was freeing.

Love and peace, Al

Greetings Pollywogs from a newly appointed Shellback!

2009-02-09T14:54:00.000-08:00

Neptune day is the greatest day EVER! It was so much fun! I think we were all expecting it to be corny and lame but it actually turned out to be awesome. So we were woken up at a reasonable hour by our stewards coming through our cabins banging pots and pans and screaming and yelling at us; not the most pleasant part of the day. We were all summoned to the top deck at 9 for the beginning of the festivities. Once all of us pollywogs (people who have never crossed the equator) were gathered, Captain Jeremy and his wife came out dressed as King Neptune and the Queen and followed by staff and shellbacks (people who have crossed the equator) all dressed up in crazy getups and with fishes and instruments and everything, it was super funny. Then all who wanted to cross the king’s ocean had to pay their respects by getting “fish guts”dumped over their heads, kissing a fish, kissing the king’s ring and bowing to the queen, then jumping in the pool, getting out to kiss another fish and then getting knighted by Joe the safety officer. It was really funny to watch everyone doing it and it was so cold too! Ben and I did it together and got some pretty funny pics. Then, if you wanted, you could go to the royal barber’s corner to have your head shaved. Tons of people did it (lots of girls too), but I opted to keep my hair. They had music playing and the sun was shining and the rest of the day was spent lying on the deck, jumping in the pool to cool off (after they had cleaned the fish out), and playing volleyball. Then at night they set up a huge buffet dinner outside on the top deck and decorated it all pretty and served us the best meal we’ve had on the ship. It was like 4th of July times a thousand. They had hot dogs, hamburgers, bbq pork ribs, corn on the cob, potato salad, macaroni salad, and tons more! And then they made us all these bomb desserts on the decorated fruit table that was spilling over with all kinds of fresh fruit. And then they had an ice cream table too! It was heaven. We were all so happy! It was definitely the best day ever. So all you pollywogs, I am now a shellback and will hold that over you until you become a shellback too (and no, on a plane does not count; you must be on a ship because its an old sailors tradition. This is the background we got from the Dean’s memo for today: “Crossing the Line, or Neptune Day, is an initiation rite celebrated in many navies. It commemorates a sailor's first crossing of the equator. The rite was intended originally as a test of new shipmates by seasoned sailors. The tradition dates back to the 16th century, and in the old days, the ship heaved to (that is, it set its sails so as to remain stationary) and the pollywogs were hoisted on the mainyard and dunked into the ocean 40 feet below; afterwards, shaving and other forms of blood letting took place.”Glad we’re not back in the old days!) And we’re not actually crossing the equator until tomorrow afternoon haha.
Here’s our position for today in case you’re curious! Back to classes tomorrow and Namibia in 4 days!
At noon today the Explorer’s position was…

Latitude: 08° 20 mins. N

Longitude: 016° 22 mins W

Distance made good: 414 nautical miles

Distance to go to next port: 2606 nautical miles

Average speed: 24.94 kts

Air temp: 26C (79° F)

Sea temp: 26C (79° F)

Wind: NW/5 kts

Sunset today: 1908

Sunrise tomorrow: 0657
Love covered in fish guts!
Alex

Neptune Day

2009-02-08T12:50:00.000-08:00

SUBPOENA to all POLLYWOGS,

You are hereby requested to appear before the ROYAL COURT OF THE REALM OF NEPTUNE, in the DISTRICT OF EQUATORIUS, because it has been brought to the attention of HIS HIGHNESS, NEPTUNE REX through his trusty SHELLBACKS, that the good ship M/V EXPLORER is about to cross the equator and enter those waters accompanied by passengers who have not acknowledged the sovereignty of the RULER OF THE DEEP.

THEREFORE be it known to all Slimy Pollywogs that The Royal, King NEPTUNE REX, Supreme Ruler of all citizens of the deep, will, with his Secretary and Royal Court, meet in full session on board the offending ship M.V. EXPLORER on the 9th day of February, A.D. 2009 at 0900 on Deck 7 aft, to hear your defense.

Regards,

-King Neptune and His Royal Court

In addition: All pollywogs with hair longer than 8 inches who wish to donate their hair to a worthwhile charity, should do so BEFORE undergoing the initiation ceremony, as only clean hair is able to be donated.

If there are any pollywogs who have brought hair clippers on board, your services are hereby solicited by King Neptune and his Royal Barber. You may help by bringing your clippers to DECK 7 aft, tomorrow morning.

Hmm... So we all just got sent this email for tomorrow which is the day we cross the equator. We have the option of shaving our heads or having fish guts dumped on us... I'm contemplating baldness. Should be interesting! I'll fill y'all in tomorrow!
Sweet dreams! Love Al

As-Salamu Alaykum

2009-02-07T09:28:00.000-08:00

I am in love with the world! So we get back to the ship on Saturday night in Spain and were planning to stop in the Straight of Gibraltar for fuel the next day and then get into Morocco on Monday morning early for 4 days/3 nights. Our ship is considered the fastest in the world, but to do that, they had to sacrifice something in the engineering so our ship rocks pretty heavily on a regular basis. However, to go around the coast of Morocco on the way to Casablanca, Captain Jeremy had to turn off the stabilizers to make the turn. Everyone was warned over the PA system and told to make sure all our belongings were secured. Naturally we were all stoked. Em, Vanessa and I were eating in the dining hall during the announcement and decided to stay for the festivities. Oh. My. Goodness. I can’t even describe the angles the ship was going between. We could still see the lights off the coast of Spain so looking out the big windows on the 5th deck they would go all the way below the horizon then come back and disappear off the top at a greater than 45* angle. It was madness. Dishes were flying off the tables, food bins were crashing everywhere, chairs were falling over, and people were hanging on for dear life. It was so much fun! Some people got it on video and I’m definitely going to get a copy to show you all!

So the next day, Sunday morning I think, after all the damage had been cleared, we stopped in Gibraltar for like 6 hours which would have been way cooler if they had let us off the ship, but at least we were close enough to see it. Later that night when everyone is packing and getting ready to go off trekking in Morocco, they tell us that the sea was too rough to get fuel so we would have to wait another day to get it which means we wouldn’t into Casablanca until late Monday night☹Sad! We lost a day there and everyone was super upset but I was actually ok with it because I needed another day of rest, I was still exhausted from Spain! They tried to make Monday into a fun day which actually turned out to be awesome because there was a good talk on Islam and then we got to watch the season premiere of LOST in the Union! I was so happy! There is a huge Losty cult on the ship so I think were going to try to get all the new episodes here. But really? That episode only made me have like 50 million more questions and no answers!!! Ahh! Then we got to listen to Joe, our safety officer who is a retired LA undercover cop tell us how people pickpocket and how to avoid it and he taught us moves to use in case we got in trouble. After that we had mic night which is so much fun because the people here are so talented and everyone is singing along and having a good time. So Monday wasn’t bad, but the delay to Morocco messed everything up because all the trips were supposed to leave the first day and no one knew what was going on. A lot of the Semester at Sea trips had to cancel parts of their itineraries because of it. I was lucky that this was a port I was doing on my own because my friends and I were planning on taking the train to Marrakech to spend the time there and everything worked our perfectly. Once we got on our way it was amazing. Indescribably beautiful and exotic and different and tantalizing. I am going back at the first opportunity I have. Starting from the beginning, here is my Morocco:

So we let ourselves sleep in a bit on Tuesday morning then got packed and ready to go. SAS had brought people on the ship to help independent travelers make plans and book hotels etc., which was awesome because we booked our amazing Riad through them. During our pre-port they had warned us that a lot of cheaper hotels and hostels will give us scabies and other gross bug diseases so we decided we were willing to pay a bit extra in this country to avoid that. Turned out to be the best decision ever. We booked a place called the Riad Aladdan in Marrakech right next to the Medina. It included breakfast each morning and a Hammam (traditional steam bath) for each of us too. Unfortunately we ran out of time to take our steam baths but it was because we had so many other things to do! So we got off the ship and planned to walk to the train station to catch the train from Casablanca to Marrakech. We thought we would be ok because most people speak French in Morocco and none of us knew Arabic but one kid who traveled with us in Spain told us he spoke French. Ben and I had gotten everyone around Spain with our Spanish, and so I was looking forward to a break from translation but as soon as we get off the ship, the “French”speaker couldn’t even remember the word for train. So Sean and I, whom neither of us had ever taken French before, ended up speaking more French than the kid who had taken classes for two years! One of my new life’s goals is to learn French. Casablanca is a huge, dirty, industrialized city, which was disappointing because I had always had this romanticized view of Casablanca. After walking around for an hour and letting go of the Casablanca I had always dreamed about, we finally smartened up and got a cab to the station. The train ride was about 3 ½ hours with beautiful scenery: there were rolling green hills and lots of shepherds and their sheep grazing and every once and a while some villages trimmed with clotheslines and people watching the train roll by.
Coming into Marrakech was a completely different experience than coming into Casablanca. Marrakech was beautiful and more of the Morocco I expected. It was traditional and modern at the same time, a good mix that Casablanca seemed to miss. Soon though we were to discover the darker, dangerous, mysterious Marrakech that was not in the touristy public eye. And we loved it. We grabbed a cab to our Riad (cab rides are death wishes in themselves; there are no traffic rules or regulations) and the driver took us to the local, dirtier, authentic part of town and let us out and pointed in some general direction. This is what we do best though! We walked around a bit among the donkeys on the streets and the people buying their produce and men unloading trucks of carpets and materials. We walked in the direction that the man had pointed and it got us nowhere. We had come to a bit of a dead end by some fruit stands and Sean and I were trying to ask directions in our butchered version of French when a really nice guy our age started speaking English and was like, “O come with me, I’ll help you.”We were kind of sketched out because they had warned us on the ship that people would try and do this and then demand money. But we didn’t really have other options so being the adventurous travelers that we are, we followed him around a corner and down a pitch-black alley, which made us very nervous because it was still the middle of the day. Honestly, most us thought he was trying to kill us. It was the sketchiest thing ever. But he knocked on this random door next to a dumpster and the lady opened it up and ushered us into the most beautiful courtyard. It was open so we could see the sky and there were Moroccan decorations and furniture and a palm tree garden center, it was incredible. It was designed in a square so that the open courtyard was surrounded by rooms in two stories and went up to a rooftop that overlooked all of Marrakech. The lady of the house had us sit down and gave us welcome cookies and mint tea in the main downstairs area. We had a room for the girls and one for the boys and when we were done with our reception, they showed us up to our rooms. The girl’s room opened up into this cute room with two beds on one side and pillows on the floor in the middle and lots of curtains and amazing Moroccan art with big wooden doors and wooden window shutters. I decided I am decorating my house in a Moroccan theme when I’m older! So then we go into our bathroom and its all this beautiful colored stone and our bathtub is amazing. It’s the size of 4 US bathtubs put together. Amazing. I need one. Then we go over to look into the boy’s room and it’s even better than ours! Theirs opened up into a room with two beds covered in jeweled blankets and little tables and a huge wooden wardrobe. Then there was another level that opened into another bedroom with a double bed and the bathroom. This was the coolest place I have ever stayed and I recommend it to anyone if you ever go to Marrakech, the Riad Aladdan. After we got done squealing and settling into our rooms and taking pictures of everything (I’m sorry I don’t have internet on here but I’ll try and post pics in South Africa!), the hostess offered us dinner at the Riad. So we took up the offer because our philosophy when we travel is to just say yes. It was incredible too. It was a private room with a table surrounded by couches and pillows and candles everywhere and we had a three course dinner (amazing!) and wine and for dessert the most amazing oranges I’ve ever tasted covered in cinnamon and raisins ~ so good! I didn’t think I’d like the food here but we really had amazing cuisine. So after dinner and lounging we decided to go check out the medina (the central square) at night. There were lights everywhere and acrobats and crowds of people and the markets were still open and the atmosphere was just so alive. Every night too, vendors set up rows and rows of food stalls and there are always spice stalls with huge piles of spices and fresh orange stands. It’s incredible! We bought a few things at the Souk and then wanted to go out to see what Moroccan nightlife is like. Back at our Riad, us girls went up to our room to put on layers (Morocco gets COLD at night in the winter) and the boys went to ask the guy at the front desk where to go. Five minutes later, Jordan bangs on our door to tell us we can’t come out until they come and got us. Ten minutes after that they’re making us walk all the way up the stairs with our eyes closed and at the very top they let us open them. They had set up a table on the roof with trays of wine and glasses and lanterns with a full view of the Moroccan skyline. So cute! They were so proud of themselves too haha. It was a great night; we sat out and talked until early in the morning. A cool thing too about the rooftops of Marrakech; there are enormous storks that make their nests at the top of buildings and at night, they pair up and click their beaks together so we were serenaded by them all night long too.

In the morning we got to eat a breakfast of all the types of bread you can imagine with delicious honeys and jams and tea and coffee and fresh-squeezed OJ, so good! Then we went to hone our bartering skills in the Souk. I got so many awesome things and I must admit I’m a pretty good at bartering, everyone was impressed. I’m thinking of trying it out at Nordstrom’s when I come home. A guy in the markets offered the boys 14 camels to buy me and we all got kind of creeped out cause he was pretty serious. They joke now that if they had gotten him up to 20 camels I wouldn’t be here anymore. Not so funny. We had a really good lunch and then went to go find camels to ride. We got a cab out to this place called the Palm Groves where they have a bunch of people just standing with their camels on the side of the road. Our driver took us to an awesome one. We all got on our camels and went off for long ride through this beautiful palm tree desert forest area. Again I’ll try to upload pics soon because it was so beautiful! We went back to the medina after and there were all these guys who had monkeys on leashes and they would come up and throw the monkeys on you for a picture. The one that was thrown on Jordan started eating his dreadlock too, it was pretty funny. There was a British guy next to us who had a lollypop in his mouth and the monkey grabbed it form his mouth and started eating it! There were snake charmers too but I steered clear of them. The medina was such a fun place to just be in and look at everything happening around you. We ate dinner there that night too at one of the stands and that was definitely one of the best meals we had. Its fun too cause even if you are just walking through the guys who work there try so hard to get you to come in and eat, they practically drag you in. So knowing this, we walk right into the middle and have them fight over us to see where we’ll eat. It was super funny and we ended up sitting down at this great stand because the guy promised us a bunch of free stuff. Everyone started clapping when we sat down and so we continued the tradition and would clap and cheer whenever a new party sat down. That was a great night. A Moroccan man tried to steal me later though when we were laving dinner. We were just walking back through the Souk (and I’m traveling with 4 guys so I felt pretty safe most of the time) when out of nowhere this guy grabs my arm and starts saying, “You come with me.”I was like, “Um, no, let me go”and tried to pull away but he was holding on super tight and the boys were like, “Let go!”and tried to pull me back but the guy wouldn’t let go! Kind of scary but I eventually got away. We met up with some friends afterwards and went to a hookah bar and just chilled. It felt so good just to live and be and enjoy life with great people. Plus they have great shisha in Morocco too! (Yes, shisha is legal)

Waking up early the next morning to take an early train back to Casablanca was not fun because it was cold and rainy and windy outside…I did not want to get out of bed. But we got up and had out last meal in Marrakech and tried to pack all the stuff we bought into the small bags we had brought. This train ride was better because we got first-class and we all got to sit in the same car. Back in Casablanca we dropped our stuff off at the ship and went to eat at Ricks Café. I love the movie so this was a must for me. It was pouring down rain and there were eight of us going. We took cabs there and when we got to the door, the doorman wouldn’t let us in. he kept saying they were full and wait five more minutes. So we waited outside in the freak monsoon that happens once every 30 years in Morocco. People kept coming out and saying that it wasn’t busy so we kept asking and he just kept saying five more minutes. After 45 minutes and dripping wet, we were getting really angry and we tried to just go in and he told us they were closed! We were so mad…and starving. We then walked around and got lost in the backstreets of Casablanca trying to find a restaurant and still in the pouring rain. After an hour we gave up and went back to the ship for cheeseburgers and pizza. Morocco was awesome. Marrakech was the best and Casablanca could have been better but I love it there, we had such a good time and I cannot wait to go back and spend more time there. I talked to a lot of people afterwards who had really bad experiences there and even left some trips to come back to the ship. They stayed in really shady places and got harassed and did super touristy things. We loved it though because we put ourselves smack in the middle of their culture and embraced it. And had such a good time.

The night we got back on the ship too, Captain Jeremy had to turn off the stabilizers again. We were all super stoked because now we knew how to make the most of it. Tons of people went to Tymitz Square where the floors are made of marble and we all sit down and then slide when the boat is rocking back and forth. So much fun. Until the BIG wave came. There are big desks on either side of the square and I was sitting kind of on the edge so this HUGE wave hit and I flew upside-down into the big desk with me head and everyone was thrown on top of me. Couldn’t breathe, head completely smashed, and no one could move because the ship was almost on its side. A bunch of people got hurt; there was a broken wrist, lost of sprained ankles, head lacerations, and busted skin. But it was way fun. All our rooms were destroyed afterwards too. Furniture had come loose and broken and everything was overturned, all our stuff was everywhere. It was AWESOME! Can’t wait for turning the coast of South Africa because I hear it gets even worse!

For now, were on the ship sailing down the African coast. Neptune day is the day after tomorrow and there’s going to be lots of festivities so I’ll update then. Namibia is close and I have planned something awesome but I’m not telling anyone until after I do it! Hehehe, be excited. I am!

Love, Al

!Vamos mi Seville!

2009-02-01T17:57:00.000-08:00

O wow. We just did Spain and might I add we did it well. Everyone on the ship is exhausted, I have never slept so much in one day before. In fact that’s all I’ve done is sleep and wake up to eat then sleeping again. So excuse me if this entry is a bit delirious at times, I’ll try to stay awake to finish it.

Spain was incredible. I cannot wait to go back and spend more time there. We docked in Cadiz on Wednesday morning and woke up to the sun shining off the top of the incredible Spanish buildings right outside our windows. It only took a short time to clear the boat so Vanessa, Emily, Ally and I went out to get café con leche and explore some of the city streets before our day trips started. I had signed up for the Cadiz city orientation. We first got on the buses to the town hall and got to go inside and see where the mayoress and her cabinet met. I never knew much about Cadiz but its history is extremely interesting and dates much farther back than I thought. My friends and I have a running joke that everything was invented in Cadiz because it seems like that’s all that the tour guide said. But we saw the inside of a beautiful cathedral and had some free time to eat fresh pan at an outdoor flower market. Then we walked to the Archeological museum. The Phoenicians were the first inhabitants and not much is known about them but they left some fascinating artifacts behind. Then the Romans came in and built plenty and there are still remains of the ancient stadium they built. Really cool stuff! The Moorish influence is of course the most prevalent and can be seen everywhere but I never knew the history before that. So after a while the tour got kind of dull but I’m glad I went and learned the background of the beauty all around me. The beaches here are beautiful too.

As soon as the tour was ended my friends and I met outside the port for tapas and vino. We found this smoky little bar and sat around for hours drinking and having good conversation. These were my favorite moments of the trip, good wine and good friends! Back to the ship then to change for dinner but then we decided to just hop a train to Seville that night instead of waiting for the morning. So we grabbed our backpacks and headed for the train station. High on life and so happy to just have the freedom to travel when and where we pleased, we dilly-dallied through the streets of Spain and apparently took our sweet time because we missed the last train by 10 minutes. O well, good thing were all pretty flexible travelers. We then rushed to the bus station hoping we weren’t too late. We just made the bus to Seville and it turned out to be the better situation because we later found out that the train took about twice as long as the bus. We all immediately passed out on the bus, I guess our excitement caught up with us finally and knocked us out. An hour and a half later we stumble out in the middle of the night into the middle of Seville with no plan and no map. Were all tired and hungry (that was mostly me) and annoyed. We were so hungry that Sean picked an orange out of one of the many trees that lined the streets and we ate it. Bad bad bad idea. It tasted pretty much like straight acid. We later found out that these oranges are shipped to England to make marmalade. Carrying our backpacks through the city trying to find a hostel and food and beginning to argue with each other about which to do first, we suddenly hear this girl ask us, in English, if we needed a place to stay. You would have thought we had just found water in the middle of the Kalahari we were so excited! They were 3 students from North Carolina studying abroad and they showed us to a hostel and where to eat, and handed down the map that they first got when they got to the city. We are trying to figure out how to hand it down so that this map continues to save students in Seville. I think I might give it to Cass when she moves here;) So we got settled in our hostel (one room for the boys and one for the girls) and went out to eat because we were still famished. However, the funniest part of the whole trip was the fact that the only open restaurant we could find was a Chinese one. So as midnight hit, I turned 20 years old in Spain eating my first real meal there in a Chinese restaurant! Haha, good memories. Now our goal is to find a Spanish restaurant in China. We went straight back to the hostel and passed right out. And that was our first night in Spain ☺

The next morning I woke up to the boys raiding our room and kicking my bed as a good morning wake up it’s your birthday greeting. Not the most pleasant good morning but o well. It started a great day! We went for café con leche and pasterias and began to plan our day. We bought our tickets for the partido de futbol later that night; Seville FC vs. Valencia FC, supposedly the best game of the year. On the way back, since it had only been an hour since our last huge meal and we were already starved again, we stopped at a restaurant for another amazing luncheon. A few bottellas de tinto y muchas tapas later, I got to call mommy and Cass and Jules to talk to them for my birthday! It was so good to hear their voices! That was definitely one of the best meals I ate. We made friends with the waiter who told us to come back later for cervezas antes del partido (beers before the game) and we readily agreed. But we first had to go meet our other friends and stop by the hostel. We changed into our Seville FC jerseys and scarves and headed back towards the bar. The atmosphere just getting closet to the stadium was insane. You could feel the electricity in the air; everyone was pumped. We made friends with guys in the bar who taught us the cheers, which have been stuck in our heads for days and you can hear people singing it around the ship. “Vamos mi Seville! Vamos campeons!” and there’s a nice little tune that goes along with it too. So we get into the game and its even crazier inside. I guess we were a little late because Valencia had already scored a goal. But lots of jumping around wildly, chanting, singing, wildness, new friends, and screaming later Seville scored the winning goal in the 89th minute. Everyone lost it. We were all screaming and running and jumping and hugging everyone and kissing everyone on the cheeks and waving our scarves and shaking fences; it was sheer madness and some of the most fun I’ve ever had. Pretty awesome birthday present. I am a brand new futbol fan and a diehard Seville FC follower. Mikey, some day were going to a Real Madrid game, I promise. So everyone is stoked and we head back to the bar to celebrate with all of Seville our party occupied like 3 tables of just SASers. The drinks kept flowing and the entire bar sang me happy birthday and I even got a birthday cheesecake with a candle! It was so much fun! A couple hours after that we go out to the discoteca and there’s only like 5 other people in there. We were fine making the party ourselves though and more and more Spaniards kept showing up and dancing with us. We were the only Americans in there which was perfect! It turned out to be the craziest night ever. And the best one I might add. The girls and I were dancing on little stages and I’m pretty sure the whole club sang me happy birthday too. We had so much fun! It was the best birthday of my life and going to be pretty hard to beat in the future! We stayed up till I think 5 or 6 in the morning talking and making video messages to send to Russell. And I’m pretty sure Jordan had to carry me to the room hehehe☺ Like I said, best birthday ever!

The next morning though, not as much fun. Jose and I are no longer friends ha. Senora had to wake us up by banging on our doors. We went back to our café for desayuno and met up with the girls there. Immediately after breakfast we went to lunch. That is how we planned and executed our days was by meals. So when you all ask me about Spain, I’ll only be able to talk about the food and I’m more than ok with that! After lunch we split from the girls to go see the cathedral. I guess it’s the third biggest in the world. It was beautiful. And yes Grandma, I was a good little Catholic girl and knelt down and said a prayer for everyone I love. There were walls made of pure gold carvings and statues and the detail that went into everything was amazing. I’ll try to post pics soon. We trekked to the top of the tower to see a bird’s eye view of all of Seville. Incredible. There aren’t words to describe how beautiful it was. I am so grateful we got to see that. We headed to the Plaza de Espana after that but we were all so tired and sore that the impression it made wasn’t as magnifique as it should have been. A vendor gave Heather and me free scarves though which was pretty sweet. We hopped a bus back to Cadiz after that. Showers and more food were definitely in order so after everyone got cleaned, we went tapas hopping! It was raining by now but that didn’t bother us. We had found an outdoor tapas restaurant with a covering and sat around with laughed and talked and ate until it was time to move onto our next tapas bar. Walking back to the ship in the pouring rain was awesome. Doesn’t sound fun but we were loving life, nothing could bring us down and we were in Spain! Slept like a baby that night too ☺

The next day we spent getting snacks for the ship and finding an internet café. Everyone was so tired when we got back on the ship, we have all just been sleeping. We were stopped in Gibraltar all day to get fuel but at logistical pre-port they told us that since the seas have been too rough we couldn’t get it and now might not get into Morocco until tomorrow night. We were supposed to be there at 8am tomorrow! So everyone is kinda freaking out right now but honestly, I could use another day of rest.

Miss you all terribly but I’m having an amazing time. I love this experience and I can’t believe we are already one port down. So excited though! Jordan and I are planning on taking the train to Marrekesh to meet up with our friends. I cannot wait to eat their food haha! Update soon and sorry this last one took so long, I've been very busy!

Lots of love,
Al

Did I mention..

2009-01-21T12:17:00.000-08:00

How beautiful it is out here! Love and miss y'all<3

From the Middle of the Atlantic...

2009-01-21T12:07:00.000-08:00

Greetings! I am sailing on the beautiful MV Explorer in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, sitting on Deck 6 in the sunshine and spray, looking out at nothing but water all around us. It’s strange to think of how far we have come already and how we still have a week before we get to Spain! The Ship itself is beautiful though; everything is new and clean and my room is quite bigger than I expected. My roommate is a very nice girl from MA (who didn’t know any of my family on the East Coast, believe me I went through you all). We had our first day of classes today and I’m really excited. For the one class that I had my professor seems very nice and he speaks Russian too so I’ll be able to practice while I’m here!
I thought I had escaped the motion sickness that seemed to catch everyone else… until last night when I got sick before I could find my Dramamine. O well, it seems to have passed by now. This is our second full day at sea but it seems like it has been so much longer. The rocking of the ship (which is much more violent than I thought it would be) makes walking during the day a bit difficult but is nice to rock you to sleep at night. Everyone is really nice on board and I can’t wait to get to know them all better.

We were able to stream the inauguration live yesterday and the whole ship was celebrating. We had a party last night too with fake champagne (not so good) and cake and desserts (very good).
Last night and the next couple nights in a row, we have to turn the clocks forward. Losing an hour of sleep for four nights consecutively is not very fun! On top of that I have never been so tired in my life. I just keep wanting to take naps the whole day. At least I’m not the only person falling asleep in Global Studies though;)

Well I’ll be sure to update later this week with how classes are going but nothing too exciting is going to be happening until we get to Spain next week where I’ll be turning 20!!!

K, I must go read some now… Goodnight everyone!

Much love always

Almost there...

2009-01-16T17:53:00.000-08:00

Hello again and good news from the Bahamas ~ I am the recipient of the Spring 2009 Scholar at Sea scholarship from the National Society of Collegiate Scholars! Woohoo! Haha, truly this is a great honor and I am so thankful. Check out my bio and pic on their website
http://www.nscs.org/scholar-sea-scholarship
This blog is now going to be connected to their website so if you're looking for a more personal account give me your email ;)
Miss you all terribly already but I am so excited to get underway with this journey ~ it has been along time coming!

Love, Alex

Greetings from the Bahamas!

2009-01-15T09:05:00.000-08:00

Hello again!

Well we made it to the Bahamas and it's absolutely beautiful. The different blues of the water is amazing and although we have had clouds everyday, the weather is still a perfect 80*. We have a condo right on the water that looks out across the ocean - I will try to upload pictures later today. The food is indescribable; the freshest most tasteful seafood I have ever had (and I live in Seattle!).

We arrived on Tuesday which happened to be mom's birthday (she would kill me if I put which birthday though ;) and tomorrow is grandma's big 75th birthday! Momma was a big winner at the casino on her birthday and were all trying to be that lucky tonight too.

It feels so good to just be able to relax here after all the stress of getting ready and packing, I think we all needed it.

Well I better get back to doing nothing much of anything;) Actually I just found out that I'm one of two finalists selected for a national scholarship for Semester at Sea and I have a phone interview in about an hour. Wish me luck!

I hope you all received your letters and are doing well. Miss y'all!

Love Alex

Hello!

2008-12-23T09:56:00.000-08:00

It is almost Christmas and I can't believe how time has flown by. I will be in the Bahamas in 20 short days, relaxing and having some much-needed down time with my family. I'm just spending my days being snowed in the house and making many lists of what needs to be packed, bought, done, etc. so that when this snow finally melts I can go get stuff done! I'm a mess when it comes to packing so any tips on what to bring or leave would be very appreciated:)

I wish I could say goodbye in person to each and every one of you, but if you're one of the far-away ones reading this then I'm giving you a big virtual hug!!

Please keep in touch with me during my journey, it would really mean a lot to me as I'm sure I will get very homesick at some point during my travels and words from loved ones are treasured.

Below is our itinerary just so y'all can follow me around the world and the communication log that lets you know where to send mail (yes I can receive mail!) if you feel so inclined. And if you would like to get a hold of me without incurring postage, I will be emailing all the time at abgawron@semesteratsea.net or alexandra.gawron@gmail.com

My mom and I will be staying in Florida for a few days after I arrive but I will be back in Seattle by mid-May.

Love and peace to you all,

Alex

CALENDAR AND COMMUNICATION - SPRING 2009 VOYAGE

Airmail: It is recommended to send international mail at least two weeks in advance preferably via courier. Do not send currency, food or
medicine. Sending packages is not recommended because of customs restrictions and/or duty charges (as a result, packages are not always
received by the intended recipient onboard). ISE is not responsible for any mail not delivered to the recipient. The port agent in each country is
able return it to the sender at the sender’s own cost. Please address mail to participants as follows:

MV Explorer – Spring 2009 Voyage
Attn: Name of Recipient
Port Agent Address (from list below)

Cadiz, SPAIN Jan 28 through Feb 01 Suggested Airmail Date: Jan 14

Perez Y CIA S.L.
C/ Ecuador, 2
11007 Cadiz, SPAIN

Casablanca, MOROCCO Feb 02 through Feb 05 Suggested Airmail Date: Jan 18

LASRY MAROC S.A.
30 Avenue des Far
20000 Casablanca, MAROC

Walvis Bay, NAMIBIA Feb 14 through Feb 16 Suggested Airmail Date: Jan 31

OCEAN LINER SERVICES
The Maritime Building
2 Third Street / PO Box 4
Walvis Bay, REPUBLIC OF NAMIBIA

Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA Feb 18 through Feb 22 Suggested Airmail Date: Feb 4

JOHN T. RENNIE & SONS
19th FLOOR
No.1 Thibault Square
8001 Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA

Port Louis, MAURITIUS Feb 27 through Feb 27 Suggested Airmail Date: Feb 13

Ireland Blyth Limited
Shipping Operations Department
No 6 Dr Ferriere Street
Port Louis, MAURITIUS

Chennai, INDIA March 05 through March 09 Suggested Airmail Date: Feb 19

J. M. Baxi & Co.
3rd Floor, Clive Battery Complex
4 & 4A, Rajaji Salai
Chennai 600 001, INDIA

Bangkok, THAILAND March 15 through March 19 Suggested Airmail Date: Feb 27

OIA GLOBAL LOGISTICS (THAILAND) Ltd
1168 / 20 - 4th Floor
Lumpini Tower Rama 4 Road
Thungmahamek, Sathorn
BANGKOK 10120, THAILAND

Ho Chi Minh City, VIETNAM March 22 through March 27 Suggested Airmail Date: March 6

General Forwarding Agency
5th Floor Osic Building
8 Nguyen Hue Avenue
D. 1, Ho Chi Minh City, VIETNAM

HONG KONG March 29 through March 30 Suggested Airmail Date: March 13

Inchcape Shipping Services (HK) Ltd.
Units 1802-1805, 18th Floor
N° 3 Lockhart Road
Wanchai, HONG KONG – CHINA

Shanghai, CHINA April 02 through April 03 Suggested Airmail Date: March 19

Penavico Shanghai
3/F 13 Zhong Shan Road (E 1)
Shanghai 200002, P.R. CHINA

Kobe, JAPAN April 06 through April 07 Suggested Airmail Date: March 23

Inchcape Shipping Services (Japan) Ltd.
Kenryu Bldg, Room 502
6, Kaigan-dori, Chuo-ku
Kobe-shi, Hygo-ken 650-0024, JAPAN

Yokohama, JAPAN April 09 through April 10 Suggested Airmail Date: March 26

INCHCAPE SHIPPING SERVICES
2F Asahi Seimei Yokohama Honcho Bldg
36, 4-Chome Honcho, Naka-ku
Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa-ken 231-0005, JAPAN

Honolulu, HAWAII April 19 through April 20 Suggested Airmail Date: April 3

Inchcape Shipping Services
521 Ala Moana Blvd.
Suite 256
Honolulu, HI 96813

Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala April 28 through April 30 Suggested Airmail Date: April 14

Transoceanicas S.A.
Modulo #208
Nuevo Edificio de Servicios Auxiliares II
Puerto Quetzal, Escuintla, GUATEMALA, C.A.

Arrival/departure times are listed above in local times. Based on Eastern Standard Time, the time on-ship is behind by the number of hours listed below:
Spain: +6 hours Morocco: +5 hours Namibia: +7 hours South Africa: +7 hours Mauritius: + 10 hours India: +10.5 hours
Thailand: +11 hours Vietnam: +11 hours China: +12 hours Japan: +13 hours Hawaii: -6 hours Guatemala: -2 hours