Costa Rica, the Panama Canal and HOME!!

OK, OK... here is my long-awaited post. I'm beginning to wonder if you are all happy I'm home or just want to see me finish my blog?? I think the latter. Anyways, I have to think all the way back to Costa Rica for a sec to make sure I remember all of the fun things we did. As I said before, it was a long 10 days from Hawaii to Costa Rica, which inlcuded finals. So what did Costa Rica mean to everyone??... Celebrate the beginning of summer/ a bittersweet ending to Semester at Sea!! We had only one night in CR and had to spend it wisely, so we had zip lining through the canopy planned for the first day. Zip lining was a lot of fun and the scenery beautiful, but as I speculated, the thrill was not quite the same as jumping out of a plane! AND if you think sky diving is more dangerous than zip lining you are sadly mistaken because I didn't get a scratch sky diving but my arm got burned by the zip line cable.

A majority of the ship took advantage of the cheap hotels and beach home rentals for the last night of being in a port and traveled the one hour to Jaco. This town was a little more tourist-friendly, and had the finer things in life that we had been missing so much, such as Quiznos, Subway, Pizza Hut, you know- the important things! :) Everyone thoroughly enjoyed our one night off of the ship in what seemed like forever. When we went to book a hotel room for the night, we were a little bummed to find the only thing they had left were condos. Since it was rather inexpensive we went ahead and booked it and boy were we pleasantly surprised when we walked into this place! It was gorgeous! Nicer than any rental condo I've stayed in before, even in the U.S. We had a great patio, huge living room, a full kitchen and a pool within 15 feet of our back door. We were all getting a little stir crazy and were thrilled to be on land, if only for 48 hours! The next day, we ate one of the greatest lunches we've had in a long time at Taco Bar, which sold these monstrous fresh fruit smoothies that were phenomenal. After lunch we spent a while laying out by the pool until it was time to head back to Puntarenas to get on the ship.

CR is very under-rated; it is gorgeous and cheap! I highly recommend it for your next family vacation!

Two days after being back at sea we woke up to our entry into the Panama Canal. It was a very neat experience to get to watch us go through and the best part was the BBQ we had on the pool deck. I spent too many hours with the sun beating on my back and got a little fried, which turned very painful very quickly. That put a damper on my plan of sun bathing the last few days on the ship, but that's OK. Keep in mind that finals were over these last four days at sea so you can only imagine how much free time we really had. Jess and I continued our addiction to the TV series 24 and by the end of the voyage we were able to complete 3 full seasons by the time we left. Other than watching 24 we just hung out with our friends and played bored games. Oh we had lots of fun with pictionary... my favorite was having to draw the Virgin Islands.

The last four days seemed to take forever and packing was quite a challenge. What quickly became even more challenging was being responsible for getting myself and about 5 bags into a cab and to the airport. Luckily we didn't have to carry our large suitcases off the ship and they were waiting for us once we got off. Interesting Fact: Michael Bolton's daughter was on SAS and we had no clue until a few days before getting off. Then, as I was standing at the curbside check in at the airport he and his daughter pulled up in their limo and checked in right next to me.

The guy at the counter was quickly very annoyed with all of the stuff I had and kept saying "You know you'll have to pay for all of these bags... they are too heavy... bla bla bla." Luckily only one bag was over weight and after checking in we finally had a few hours before having to board to relax. First thing we did in the airport: located the Chili's and devoured some queso! Oh and it was soooo good, too! My flight left around 6:15 and I arrived at DFW around 8:15. Dad and Girlfriend were waiting for me right outside and it was great to be home! Around 9:50 I dragged Lauren with me to Chipotle, ten minutes before they closed. Lauren explained to the guy that this was my first meal back in the states and it was the number 1 thing I wanted, so the guy making my burrito gave it to me for free! Good thing Lauren was there!

The next night we ate at my favorite Mexican restaurant, Anamias, and I proudly gave the waiter my I.D. when he carded me after ordering my first legal margarita in the States. Ahh, it's good to be back in America, better yet, Texas!!

Hawaii

Aloha from Hawaii

We arrived in Hawaii at 6 a.m. and were cleared and let off the ship by 8:30. First on our list of things to do in America was sadly to go to Wal Mart. We wanted to take advantage of finding groceries where we actually could read the labels and know what we were buying. After leaving Wal Mart we walked around the area for a little bit and screamed (literally) at the most beautiful thing we’ve seen in a long time… Nordstroms, Subway, Jamba Juice, and Starbucks all within a block! It was so great being in a familiar place, if only just for the day. We all took advantage of the free cell phone service and there probably wasn’t a single point in the day where one of us wasn’t on the phone. I have never used my whole cell phone battery in one day, I don’t think, until being in Hawaii.

Of course one of the first people I called was Dad and he wasn’t too thrilled with the news I had… We were going SKY DIVING!!! We had planned on doing it for quite a while but weren’t really sure the reaction we’d get from the parents so we kept it a secret. Dad told me “he’d meet me on the other side.” Ha ha. We had a group of 7, with some guys who had already been before. We left for the North Shore, which was about a 45 minute drive and got to the sky diving location around noon. We watched the video and signed away our lives then went back and forth a few times on if we were going to buy the pictures and video of us sky diving. Jess and I decided to buy it, afraid we’d regret it if we didn’t. Tessa and three of the guys geared up and went first. They were gone for about 15 minutes until we saw them floating down from the sky. Jess and I were next and starting to get a tad nervous when we had to get into the tiny plane that looked like it was made for four people max. My photographer sat with his arm and leg dangling out of the plane as we took off, taking footage of the beautiful scenery. Within a few minutes all you could see was the water. I think it was more frightening being in the tiny plane over water than anything else. At about 7,000 feet we were all thinking we’d been in the plane long enough, surely we’re almost there. Nope- we had 7,000 more to go! We were going up to 14,000 feet, giving us a freefall of 1 minute. Because of the order we were in while inside the plane, Jess had to go first. It wasn’t really until seeing Jess’ camera guy literally climb his way to the outside of the plane, holding on by one arm and then seeing Jess and her sky diver scoot their way to the door that it started to become real. Then, before I knew it, away they went… falling and tumbling through the sky. What was crazy is the cameraman who jumps backward to catch the footage of you jumping out above him. I was up next and within seconds I was being dangled outside of the plane as my guy cameraman was clinging to the side of the plane, ready to jump just seconds before me. We were free falling for a full minute at 160 mph, all while taking lots of pictures and video, which are both very funny. You can’t really scream because it’s hard enough to breathe as it is. At one point the cameraman held out his hand for me to grab and the momentum forced us into a really fast spin, which came out great on the video. It was very cold up that high, especially after we went through the cloud, which was really cool. Toward the end of the cloud he pulled the parachute and once out of the cloud I was able to enjoy the beautiful view of the ocean and beach. My sky diver was extremely experienced. He had been jumping since 1975 being in the Army and he has already surpassed 18,000 jumps. After landing I immediately decided I was hooked and would definitely do it again. It was the greatest thrill and I am so glad I have the video and pictures to remember it all. I can’t wait to show all of you!!

The rest of the day we just walked around and met up with some girlfriends. We ate at Cheeseburger in Paradise and thoroughly enjoyed American foods. After dinner it was about time to get back on the ship. It was so sad to leave and we weren’t looking forward to beginning our 10-day journey to Costa Rica, which includes all of our finals. Costa Rica will be a great way to celebrate the end of class. We are going zip lining through the rainforest, which is supposed to be a lot of fun. I’m sure it won’t be the same thrill as sky diving, though! After Costa Rica we go through the Panama Canal and spend only four days at sea until arriving in Miami on May 9! They drew out of a hat to see which seas got off in what order. We already knew the winners of Sea Olympics would get off first and luckily our sea was picked to go fourth.

I am really looking forward to coming home and seeing everyone! I already have a long list of foods that I want to eat, with the number one priority being Mexican food, of course! Until next time! Xoxo Marissa

Japan

Japan… check. After completing the last main port of call (aside from one day in Hawaii and two days in Costa Rica), and conquering the rail system, I am officially an experienced traveler. I strongly believe that if you can learn and successfully use the Japan Rail, you can do anything. The system wouldn’t be nearly as difficult if it weren’t in all Japanese; but we got really good at matching Japanese characters. Oh, and it’s worth mentioning that as I am writing this I am living my second day of April 15, 2008. No, it’s not Groundhog Day… we crossed the International Dateline early this morning and lucky us, we get to fit two days of class into one normal day! So basically, what I have concluded is that I am really a day older than it says on the calendar. I have lived an extra 24 hours… maybe I should celebrate my next birthday on January 20!?!?

Anyways, back to Japan. We arrived on the 11th in Kobe (land of amazing beef) and the disembarkation process was the toughest we’ve seen, yet. I guess since we came from China we were suspect for carrying the Avian flu, so before anyone could even get their passports looked at we all had to walk past this infrared gun that would tell the officials if we had a fever. If you had a fever, no Japan for you! This time they decided to do passport checks starting at the end of the alphabet, which was actually kind of nice because I wasn’t the one waiting on my friends all day. Japan is famous for its outstanding rail system and its outrageous price. Most SAS students bought their JR(Japan Rail) passes in Vietnam or China because it was cheaper. You apparently get your money’s worth if you travel to more than one other city outside of where you are staying. After a pretty hectic China experience, Jess, Tessa and I decided to keep it small and just travel with each other. It is so much easier that way; you can make decisions at the drop of the hat and don’t have to worry about trying to please five other people who have conflicting interests. It is definitely the way to travel.

Before you could start using your JR pass you had to get it validated, which every student was doing on the first day. Needless to say, we didn’t get on a train to Tokyo until about 5, after a few hours of standing in lines. I don’t think the train station was prepared for 700 students to bombard them with getting passes validated because they only had a few people behind the counter. For the long train rides, they (our trusty Lonely Planet book on Japan, I mean) recommend getting reserved seats in the reserved cars because it would be a bummer to have to stand for three hours to Tokyo, hence why we couldn’t leave earlier. First impression of Japan: the women. They dress like they are going out on the town in their best outfits at 10 a.m., and don’t for a second think that they wear shoe besides heals. Their hair, their makeup, their outfits and accessories- all flawless! Kind of makes you feel bad for wearing your comfortable tennis shoes and jeans and sweatshirts. And it gets worse- places you think that it is just impossible to wear heals to (i.e. baseball games, Disney Land, sight seeing), they do. It’s crazy the importance they give to glamour.

Since we had a few hours to kill in the Kobe train station, we walked into a tourist office to see if they could book us a hotel in Tokyo for that night. We made our way to our bullet train and in three hours we were in Tokyo. My Women’s studies teacher had discussed with us the prevalence of Manga (Japanese “comics,” often not really comic as much as adult reading, if you will) among businessmen traveling on trains. Lucky for me, the businessman seated next to me was reading it. We arrived in Tokyo around 8 and hopped in a taxi to our hotel. It was one that was highly recommended by our book for the great nightlife around it. All I wanted was sushi but because the menus were in Japanese and the pictures consisted of only raw-looking foods, we didn’t really want to risk it. So we were brave and ventured a block away to none other than Outback Steakhouse. And you know I got the ribs! Red meat is non-existent on the ship and being at Outback was like a dream come true. However, there was one small problem I had with the meal… I ordered a glass of red wine at the bar while waiting for our table and Jess started cracking up when she saw them pouring it out of the Franzia box. Tessa and Jess thought it was funny, I, however, did not considering I just spent $5 on a glass of Franzia wine when you can buy the whole box with that. Japanese Outbacks are making a killing off of selling boxed wine! They should at least hide it better, or maybe people in Japan don’t know how cheap it is. After dinner we took a cab to the famous Tokyo Absolut Ice Bar. We didn’t actually make it inside because as we were walking up a whole bunch of SAS students were walking out. Apparently you had to pay $35 to even get in and even though they gave you a parka to wear, you were freezing within 5 minutes of being in there. But, as the name says, the entire bar was made out of ice, even the glasses. We weren’t about to waste $35 to go freeze our buns off, so we left. You know, it really amazes me how no matter what country we are in, and where we are in that country, all the SAS students still manage to terrorize the same street. Our hotel was blocks from all of the fun and the party didn’t stop for many of my friends until 7 a.m. (not me, of course, because I’m an Awtry and staying up past midnight is quite a feat.) A lot of people stayed out until the fish market opened at 4 or 5 a.m.; apparently that was a sight, but not something Jess, Tessa and I were very interested in doing. Oh, and I didn’t mention that Japan, especially Tokyo, was really cold! Well, not really cold, but at night it got down to 40 or so, and no one really has warm clothes with them because everywhere else has been in the 80s.

The next morning, our first priority was to find baseball tickets to the Tokyo Giants game that night. Our hotel dude was not great at English and could not verbalize very well how we should go about getting these tickets. He kept telling us to go to this convenient store, and the words coming out of his mouth sounded nothing like the name of the store. After getting no where, I asked him to write the name of the store down, and miraculously, the name was Lawson’s. I swear, we would have never guessed that was even close to what he was saying. This happened a lot, though. The Japanese who can speak a little English can write it phenomenally. They spell everything right, they just don’t make the right sounds, so from that point on we just asked them to write everything down. We weren’t planning on staying at that hotel that night because we were hoping to find a hostel or maybe even a capsule hotel, but soon found that most capsule hotels are for businessmen and none of the hostels were in a very good location. Since we didn’t know where we were staying we carried our backpacks with us all day, and I think after this trip and the many before it, I have permanent back damage from carrying four days worth of living on my shoulders. Aside from wanting baseball tickets we wanted to go to the Tokyo Tower, famous for its replication of the Eiffel Tower. Well, I’ll get to that later, but it didn’t come close to comparing to the Eiffel Tower. The same hotel guy told us it would be a 20 minute walk to the Tower, and he also had no idea where a nearby Lawson’s was, so he was no help. We decided to walk in the general direction of the Tower since we were able to see it. It didn’t look far, but nothing that big ever looks that far away. We stopped in every convenient store along the way, even though they weren’t a Lawson’s, hoping that they would sell baseball tickets. If they did, we’d never know it, because the language barrier was so bad. After playing charades and acting out baseball, people finally got what we meant and shook their heads at us that they didn’t sell tickets. One man was walking past us, who looked American, and was nice enough to ask us if we needed help and miraculously, a Lawsons’s was about a block away. Well, these tickets they sell come out of a machine, and the machine only knows Japanese, and the worker only knows Japanese, so that made for another interesting adventure. After he got that we wanted baseball tickets for that night, he helped us through the process of getting the tickets. He did understand the word “cheap” and luckily didn’t buy us the expensive seats. Feeling really impressed with ourselves that we accomplished priority number one, we continued to the Tokyo Tower. We bought the tickets to go to the mid point observance area and didn’t feel it was necessary to pay more money to go higher, so after walking around for a bit, we made our way back to our hotel. Pretty exhausted from walking for hours with our backpacks, we decided that we should just stay at the same hotel as the night before. Problem was we didn’t have a reservation. This is where we got creative, or you might say, frugal. Japan, as do many Asian countries, charge more for a second or third person, even if the room is made for two or three people. We knew that we’d get a cheaper rate if only two of us went inside and bought the room, so Jess and I went to the counter and explained our change of plans and that we needed a room for just us two. Well the lady said they only had two single rooms left at yada yada price. We asked if we could just squeeze both of us into one room, and miraculously the price jumped 20 bucks. Annoyed that they pull that, we agreed to pay the more expensive price and snuck Tessa in. Well the room that we had the night before was a room with two double beds, but this was a “single” room, with one double bed for the three of us. It was interesting, but we made it work. Hey, it saved us money and we were still in our great location.

We got ready for the big game and headed off to the train station to try to figure out how to get to the Tokyo Dome. After switching from the subway to the JR to get to the dome, we made it about an hour later. We were thrilled at the first sight of hot dogs and burgers and churros!!!!! We found our seats, ironically only two rows down from Brittany and Dylan who bought theirs somewhere else, and a ton of other SAS kids. Apparently we all had the same idea and bought the cheap seats. The dome was somewhat upsetting; not quite the same atmosphere as being at a ballpark, but still exciting. Now you know those annoying people who walk around yelling “Hotdogs, Peanuts!”? Well, instead of those people, they have these tiny girls with kegs strapped to their backs who talk in the sweetest little voices selling beer. And these girls can sprint up and down the narrow stairs like it’s no big deal. I can’t imagine how heavy the kegs are, but there are at least three on each aisle at any given time. It was also interesting because they sold many different types of beer, it wasn’t like the game or the dome was sponsored by a particular company. Oh, and for all our friends at home who think Sapporo is the king of beers in Japan… nope. They didn’t sell it hardly anywhere we went, not even restaurants or bars. This really made Jess sad because she was really looking forward to getting her “first” (haha) taste of Sapporo. We enjoyed another fun night out in Tokyo, but the highlight was having our first taste of true Japanese Karaoke. Instead of it being in a bar setting, they rent out these rooms fit for about 10-15 people and you pay by the hour. It was a lot of fun.

The next morning we got up and headed to the place we were most excited about… TOKYO DISNEY!!! It was like being 10 years old again, we were so excited. The three of us ran around like little kids for hours riding all of our favorite rides. I think part of what made it so exciting was that it felt like being in America, with familiar songs of our childhood and our favorite Disney characters. And no, they don’t have Japanese people dressed up like Snow White or Cinderella… they were all white characters. Space Mountain was by far our favorite, but we of course enjoyed It’s a Small World and Haunted Mansion, too. What was really weird is that there wasn’t a single Disney t-shirt to be found… I guess it’s because the Japanese women don’t wear t-shirts so there isn’t a market for them, but we were bummed because we all wanted one. After Disney, we headed to the Tokyo train station to reserve tickets for our train that night to Kyoto. We couldn’t leave until 7 and all of the tourist companies were closed so we just prayed that the budget hotel we had picked out was going to have vacancy. We couldn’t call because none of our phones worked with the Japanese system, so we just hoped that it would all work out. Well, we arrived around 10:30 and walked in the pouring rain from Kyoto station to our hotel, which was very difficult to find. After finally finding it thirty minutes later, there was a nice little sign on the front desk that said there was no vacancy. I’m not sure why we thought there would be… it’s cherry blossom season and we were trying to go to Lonely Planet’s number one pick for cheap hotels in Kyoto. We walked around for about another thirty minutes, about to cry because it was cold, raining, and we had no idea where we were going to sleep. We met some Americans walking and they told us we could sleep at an Internet care for $10, and this just made us even more upset. We agreed that if the next place we went into didn’t have vacancy then we would just get back on the next train to Kobe and sleep on the ship since it was only a 45 minute train ride away and just go to Kyoto the next morning. Well, lucky for us, the next place we tried worked out and it even had three beds in one room. The next day I got my Starbucks Chai latte fix—some countries have had Starbucks, but very few sell Chai lattes, instead they have Green Tea lattes, which I tried but are not so great. We took the city bus to the Golden Pavilion, which was absolutely beautiful. The gardens in Kyoto are amazing, especially during cherry blossom season. The bus back to the station was horribly crowded and miserable, so we were really glad we didn’t have to use it more than once. We hopped on a train back to Kobe since the ship was leaving that night, dropped our bags off, and headed out for a Kobe beef dinner. The beef was AMAZING! I’ve never had anything like it. We had to hurry back to the ship to make it back before 9; if you make it back later you get dock time and have to spend extra time on the ship in the next port. We weren’t about to get dock time in Hawaii, since we only have the day there. We arrive in about 6 days and between now and then I have an overwhelming amount of school work to do since we haven’t had but about 6 classes in the last month or so. I will have an exciting adventure to write about after Hawaii. Until next time! Xoxo Marissa.

China!

The Amazing Race.
Ever seen the television show?? Well that pretty much sums up our China experience. We arrived in Hong Kong on Thursday and the only set plans we had was a plane ticket from Guang Zou (sp?), a town outside Hong Kong to Beijing. (It’s cheaper to fly from there than Hong Kong) We pretty much depended on a train getting us from Hong Kong to Guang Zou on Friday to catch our afternoon flight, but when we checked the train station on Thursday we found that there were no tickets left. For this and all of our other mishaps along the way, we blamed the crappy Internet on the ship that makes it impossible to book things in advance. Anyways, we were left with no choice but to catch the train that night to Guang Zou, sadly leaving us without a night to spend in Hong Kong. We also decided it would be a good idea to check on the availability of the sleeper trains from Beijing to Shanghai, where we were supposed to meet the ship on Monday. Surprise, surprise… the sleeper train was "sold out" (we later found they just lie to tourists and if you hassle them enough they can "find room."), so we were left with no choice but to buy a plane ticket to get ourselves from Beijing to Shangai, figuring it’s pretty important we didn’t miss the ship’s departure for Kobe, Japan. We finally got everything figured out with our transportation, which wasted most of the day we had to spend in Hong Kong. Very frustrated, we went back to the ship to pack for Beijing, eat dinner, and head to the train station for our trip to Guang Zou. The train was an interesting experience; some guy behind us from Saudi Arabia named Doogi had a mad crush on Tessa and kept telling us that we had to go to this bar, The Cellar. We arrived there with no hotel reservations around 9 p.m. and luckily the train station had a tourist counter where we found a cheap hotel and transportation to the airport the next morning. It was our friend, Katie’s 21st birthday, so we all went to a street recommended to us by the hotel… and ironically enough, we found ourselves at none other than, The Cellar! We go inside and sure enough, Doogi is there with a private table and all of his friends yelling for Tessa and all of us to hang out with him.
Our group headed to the airport the next morning around 10 a.m. to catch our 1 o’clock flight to Beijing. The airports were extremely nice everywhere we went. Pretty much all of them were new, as China has built something like 100 new airports in the last few years, or something crazy like that. (again, I apologize for the rough stats… you wouldn’t believe the crazy amount of numbers and weird facts fed to us) Anyways, we arrived in Beijing around 5, picked a random hostel from the Internet that sounded like it had a good location (walking distance of the Forbidden City), and prayed that they had space. We arrived on the sketchy street of our hostel, having no idea where it was. We were showed the way down a scary ally way and my first reaction was, there is no way we are staying here. The hostel was surprisingly awesome once you entered its small doors. It was a courtyard set up, owned by a 40-year-old retired man who spoke great English, and had just opened the hostel for fun in January. He obviously had tons of money because of the great location and the fact that the hostel was so new. They made great food, had free Internet, and sold 3 yuan beers (that’s less than $.50!!) Needless to say, we picked a great place. It was very small, but lucky us, they had room for the first two nights we were in Beijing.
They had warned us on the ship that hardly anyone in Beijing will speak English… well that was definitely true! We haven’t had very many problems so far communicating with the people until we came to China. Usually there is at least one person in restaurants or tourist places that can come up to help, but not so in China. One of the biggest dilemmas by far was the taxi rides. It is so difficult to even pronounce Mandarin, not to mention that if it is in characters you have no idea what it says. At least in the other countries we could try to read menus and sound out the language, but it’s pretty difficult when it comes to Mandarin. The first night at dinner we took a menu and just pointed to pictures of things that looked good and played charades to order, really having no clue what we were ordering. When I talked to Dad as we were getting ready to leave Shanghai he asked "You didn’t eat dog, did you?" All I can say is, God, I hope not!
The first full day in Beijing was spent traveling to and visiting the Great Wall. The morning started around 5 a.m. and it was about a 3 and a half our drive to the spot where we hiked the Great Wall. Being hard-headed young people, we thought hiking up it rather than taking the cable car would be a piece of cake. Well, the whole thing was a little more difficult than we anticipated. After walking around and taking pictures for about 2 hours, we decided to take the cable car down and meet our group for lunch. We headed back to Beijing, got ready for dinner, ate some awesome sushi, and headed for bed. Brittany, Dylan, Jess, Tessa and I spent the next day doing some sight-seeing around Beijing and ate lunch at Tim’s Texas BBQ restaurant. Yup, that’s right… so sick of Asian food, we found the one restaurant in China that had something to do with Texas and were thrilled to eat there! I got a chopped beef sandwich and beans and it was Heaven! If only they had queso… you have no idea the withdrawals I am going through!
The next day we headed to the airport to catch our morning flight back to Shanghai. The ship was supposed to have been to Shanghai by 8 that morning, but due to fog it didn’t arrive until that evening at 6. Since the ship had to clear customs, we didn’t get on until around 8 p.m. The last thing we wanted to do was lug our huge backpacks around with us in Shanghai until the ship came back so we just hung close and waited in the cold to get on. China was by far the coldest country we’ve gone to, averaging a high of 60. Everyone was so annoyed that the ship was late since most people had plans of dropping their stuff off and going to shop and sightsee in Shanghai. This dilemma just added to the madness we experienced throughout our tour of China. We put off our shopping adventure until the next day, which was our last day in port. Jess, Dylan and I got up early to hit the market and had a hell of a time trying to get a taxi to take us there. After hailing cabs and being rejected for about 30 minutes, we begged a security guard to speak to the driver and he told him to take us. We’re not sure if it was because the market was "close" (20 minute cab ride away), or if it was because we were tourists, but it was extremely annoying. After finally arriving to the market, it didn’t take long for us to run out of money. Jess and I made a pact not to let each other go back to the ATM, although it was extremely tempting, considering you could buy any designer jean, purse, sunglasses, watch, and jacket you ever wanted. I bought quite a few good gifts and a few somethings for myself. I bought the entire 6 season set of the show 24 for only $25. This is to entertain us as we have quite a few days at sea to get back to Miami.
Overall, we feel like we did a pretty good job in China not knowing a single word and not having a plan. It wasn’t really the way I like to travel, but it was a great experience. I have learned a lot when it comes to traveling: be sure you are with a really good group that you really get along with, travel in small groups of no more than 4… you can’t all fit in a cab, and try to pick people with the same interests- there’s a big difference if all you can afford is McDonald’s and the person you’re traveling with has more money than God to spend on food. We are really excited about going to Japan. We bought our bullet train rail passes in China, and plan to head to Tokyo the first day. We are going to Tokyo Disney, a baseball game, and then off to Kyoto and Osaka for a night, then back to Kobe to meet the ship. After Japan we have 8 days at sea until arriving in Honolulu for only a day. It’s great being so busy, but I have a feeling after Japan we will be glad to have the much-needed break. Planes, trains, and automobiles, and living out of a backpack are starting to get old and I’m glad I don’t have to go to another airport until flying home to Dallas. After Hawaii is 10 days at sea, and during this time is our final exams, then to Costa Rica for two days where we are zip-lining through the rain forests! Until next time. Xoxo Marissa.

Cambodia and Vietnam

History repeats itself.

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam last Thursday and my trip left that day for Cambodia. The Cambodia trip is by far the most sought-after SAS trip because SAS has a rule that you cannot leave the country we port in unless it is through them. It’s a good rule, and probably the main one people don’t actually try to break since we have visas for almost every country we’re traveling to. Needless to say, I was really lucky to get it because it came highly recommended by previous SASers. Unfortunately, Jess and Tessa didn’t get the trip, but my friend Emily from Colorado was on it with me. We left Thursday morning around 11 a.m. for the airport, which was one of the nicest we’ve been to in quite a while. We were probably some of the only people in the entire airport, and it was a short 35 minute flight to Cambodia. Once we got into the airport, we had to buy our Cambodian visas. It was strange that you wait until you were already in the country to buy the visa, but anyways… After meeting our tour guide he took us to our first stop, which was a museum where we looked at ancient statues of Buddha. (I have to be honest, I couldn’t really understand the woman giving the tour so that is about all I gathered from this specific part of the tour.) After the museum we headed to our Mekong Delta River cruise, where they sold us beer for $1- what a deal!
After the cruise, we were told we were going to a children’s orphanage, which was news to us. We were all kind of bummed because none of us had known we were going so we didn’t bring any gifts for the children. Some students bought a few huge bags of candy at the airport to pass out, which was the best we could do on short notice. We arrived to screaming little children that were thrilled to see us! They were all so cute. After being there for a couple of hours, I got to talking to a girl who was 18 years old and had lived in the orphanage for most of her life. She spoke English really well, but according to her it was thanks to the people at the orphanage, not her schooling. She told us that she has pen pals all over the world who have visited her in the orphanage and she kept in touch with, so I gave her my email. We had a really great conversation with her and she was begging us to come back the next day. We talked for quite a while and we asked her what she wanted to do when she was done with high school. She wanted to be a business woman, and I told her she’d be a great one with such great English! She started to ask us what our animal was and Emily and I looked at each other not really knowing what she was meaning by this. She kept saying “I’m a cobra; I want a cobra on my arm.” Finally I realized she meant the animal of the year she was born, and that she wanted a tattoo of a cobra on her arm. We told her not to get a tattoo… she didn’t know what the word tattoo meant, so she made me write it down on a piece of paper and kept thanking me for teaching her a new word. It wasn’t really our intention to teach her that, of all things, but then she wrote down what tattoo meant in Khmer. (It’s “Sark”, or something like that) Anyways, we felt bad not giving her anything so we gave her a travel hair brush and lip gloss and she ran inside and brought us two rings from her room. Unfortunately, our time ran out and we had to go so she gave us a big hug and kiss and kept waving bye to us as we walked away. It was so sad leaving the orphanage, knowing that most of the children we met would never get adopted and they would live there, like the girl we made friends with, for most of their childhood. It made us all feel so good knowing that we had made their lives a little better, if for only a few hours. I’m sure the adults at the orphanage were thrilled that we came in and riled them all up with candy.
After the orphanage we went to a great dinner at a famous restaurant. I ate a few things that I didn’t know what they were, but that is pretty much the story of my trip throughout Asia, thus far. (A day trip on SAS in Vietnam was to the Cu Chi tunnels and the students were fed dog there and didn’t know it until afterwards!!! Eww There were also given 10 bullets to shoot AK 47s- it was just a bizarre place) The next morning we headed to what used to be an internment camp and then the Killing Fields. It was extremely sad visiting these places. As you entered the Killing Fields there was a tall glass monument, and inside were hundreds of skulls on shelves and beneath them were piles of clothing. The field was full of large dug up grave holes that once held hundreds of bodies. Next to each hole was a description of the state the bodies were found in, many beheaded or naked. Between each grave site was a path for us to walk on, but jutting out of the path were bones and clothing that you could see were left behind. According to our tour guide, the torture methods were arguably worse than those used in the Holocaust, as each victim was killed individually. It is just so incredibly frightening that after the Holocaust, the world can continue to let things like this happen. Needless to say, it was a very dismal day. We also saw the Silver Pagoda and palace and then off to the airport to Siem Reap.
Once we arrived in Siem Reap, we went directly to see Angkor Wat as the sun was setting. After dinner I found an Internet café where it was only $.50 an hour! (Interesting fact: Cambodian ATMS don’t give you the Cambodian riel, but rather U.S. dollars, and it is much more widely accepted.) We had an optional 5 a.m. trip back to Angkor Wat to watch the sun rise, and as difficult as it was to get out of bed, I am so glad I saw it. It was a very long and hot day of visiting temples and palaces; we heard it got to about 100 degrees! The temples were so incredible and so interesting to walk around. It reminded us all of the old Nickelodeon game show Legends of the Hidden Temple… anyone remember that?? Anyways, we headed back to Vietnam Saturday night hot and sweaty and ready for some good A.C!
Jess, Tessa and I got up Sunday morning pretty early to take the shuttle into downtown Ho Chi Minh City. They had become rather acquainted with the place since they had been there the whole time and took me to the tailor where they were getting dresses made. None of the ladies in the shop hardly spoke any English so all we really did was show them the magazine pictures of the dress we wanted them to make, and a nice lady walked us to the busy market to buy the fabric we needed and then get fitted. I gave them two pictures of dresses and a business suit that I wanted made. They simply ask “Same Same?” and you tell them yes, and sure enough, they make you the dress. The poor lady was pregnant and probably didn’t sleep because along with making our dresses, many other SAS girls bombarded her with their requests. She miraculously made my dresses and suit in a little over 24 hours, and they turned out great! I was really happy! The rest of Sunday and Monday were spent shopping for cheap knock offs and gifts, where we were all very successful! A group of about 6 of us had planned on pampering ourselves with a spa day (2 hour massage= $17!!! Yet, another great deal!). Well… pampering is not the word I would use to describe this experience. The visit began by all of us lying down in these wonderfully comfortable chairs where we got an hour foot and leg massage. This part was actually nice, but then came the body massages. They put three of us in a room and told us to all strip and lay down. Reluctantly we laid down on the table and then the abuse began. They had those railings on the ceilings to hold onto as they walked on our backs, then they sat on us. They tried to crack our necks and backs like they were chiropractors, which made me really nervous. The experience was just really strange and quickly turned from relaxing to painful! After the massage it turned really weird when the girls told us that we must tip them before we go downstairs. Since it was $17 we weren’t really planning on giving them more than $5, but when we handed them the money they started throwing a fit saying that their boss gets all of the money and they only get tip and they need more money! I was shocked at their bluntness. We all looked at each other in amazement that this was really happening. Finally after giving her more than half of what I was even paying for the massage I told her I was sorry but was not going to give her more money. We all just ended up really mad, so any relaxed muscle in our body disappeared. We all laugh about the really strange and awkward experience now and it has turned into one of our best memories from the entire trip. My visit in HCMC was complete with a great sushi dinner and then we headed back to the ship. We set sail early Tuesday morning for Hong Kong and then had our third Global Studies exam today. It was so much easier than the last two exams, which was a relief! We don’t really have set plans for China. We have one flight booked to Beijing, but no hotels or anything else. We are planning on getting a ticket on the sleeper train from Beijing to Shanghai, where we will meet back up with the ship next Monday. It’s going to be an adventure! Oh, and if anyone has any DVD requests, let me know! You can buy them everywhere! Between all of the students on the ship I think there are more television seasons to watch than hours left on the trip. Jess and I made the mistake of starting the series 24, and now we are hooked! Lucky for us we have about 8 days at sea from Japan to Hawaii and then 10 days at sea from Hawaii to Costa Rica to watch all of the seasons. Well, until next time! Xoxo Marissa!

Malaysia!!

Malaysia is definitely up there with Cape Town! Interesting Fact: Did you know that drug use is punishable by death in Malaysia? And we didn’t get to go to Singapore, but there it is illegal to chew gum! We arrived in Penang on Wednesday and Jess and I went on an all-day tour of the famous temples and mosques. I had no idea how heavily influenced Malaysia was by other cultures, especially when it came to food! We saw the largest lying down Buddha and the famous snake temple, where snakes are slithering around. But they say not to be afraid because the overwhelming smell of incense makes them groggy.
Jess, Tessa, and I, along with pretty much the rest of the ship planned an independent trip to Kuala Lumpur (the capital) for Thursday. We booked the flights about two days in advance and the hotel the morning we arrived in Penang. We flew Air Asia, roundtrip for $80… what a deal! The flight was a short 35 minutes and then about a 45-minute drive to our hotel. We stayed at the Hilton, which was by far the nicest one I’ve seen in a really long time. When we arrived they were rolling out the red carpet, come to find the King was coming for the evening. Our room and view was simply fabulous. We even had a flat screen in our enormous bathroom! All we had heard about Malaysia was how great the food was so that’s pretty much the first thing we did. Not knowing our way around, we didn’t get too adventurous and ate dinner at one of the ten restaurants the Hilton had to choose from. We had by far one of the greatest meals I’ve had in a long time! For a decent price we had an all-you-can-eat buffet of appetizers, an entrée, dessert buffet, and never-ending wine! And it was waaaaayy less than you’d pay in the States! After dinner, completely stuffed, we met up with some friends also staying in our hotel to go out. The next day Jess, Tessa and I went to the Times Square Mall that came highly recommended by our friends. It was 10 stories tall, with an IMAX theater and an amusement park, complete with a roller coaster! And you better believe we went on it, too! We spent all day Friday there and only covered about half the mall. We even saw 10,000 BC at the IMAX (in English, of course!). Unfortunately we couldn’t fit the amusement park in on the first day so we knew we had to come back! So Saturday after checking out of our hotel, we headed back to finish our rounds in the mall and got to ride the roller coaster. We each bought some shoes that I don’t think anyone paid over $15 for… we loved this country!! We headed back to the airport for out 9:30 p.m. flight to find that it had been delayed about an hour, so I didn’t get back to the ship until about midnight.
This was the first port we had to tender to shore, so we had two lifeboats running back and forth from ship to shore until about 1 a.m. I guess if you didn’t make it back on the ship by 1 then you’d have to sleep on the dock… or find a hotel/hostel. I wouldn’t be surprised if this actually happened to people. I woke Easter Sunday feeling like it wasn’t Easter at all… I didn’t get up in time for breakfast, so I think that was the main deal breaker! I met some friends at a nearby mall and we ate lunch and bought more cheap shoes. It was really difficult shoe shopping because a) they don’t speak great English and b) I have really large feet compared to most of them. I figured out I’m a 40… no idea what that translates to in U.S. sizes, but lucky for me that was the biggest they had! I actually had better luck than some because unlike in the U.S. when the 8s and 9s are ALWAYS gone, the 40s were usually still there (if they came that big) because no one there has that big of feet. It was great! Clothing, on the other hand, was a different story. Maybe had I been 5 inches shorter I would have found some good deals, but after a few trips into clothing stores we all pretty much agreed that it probably wasn’t going to fit right. We actually felt like we stood out more at some points than in India, because here more women are Muslim and completely cover themselves, as opposed to the Hindu women who typically wore the Indian Sari. We felt a lot of stares on the monorail in KL, especially when we wore shorts. I rounded off my Malaysian experience with a taste of the street food that we were told to try. I have concluded from my meat-eating experiences, that people don’t have as high of standards regarding their meat than we don in the U.S. That is definitely something I’ve taken for granted at home! It is very rare that you are served meat without bones in it, or a significant amount of fat, or just plain questionable things you just don’t see on American meats. We had to be back on the ship by 9 p.m. Sunday evening; another port that flew by so fast!
We are arriving in Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam on Thursday morning, and I immediately leave for my SAS trip to Cambodia. I was really lucky to get this trip because practically the entire ship signed up for it and there was a very limited amount of spots. SAS has a rule, a good one at that, that you cannot leave the country we dock in, so unfortunately Jess and Tessa can’t go to Cambodia independently. From talking to previous SASers, Cambodia was their favorite place they visited, so I’m really looking forward to it. My friend Emily is also on my trip, so it’s good I know someone, but I am really looking forward to meeting new people, too!
Around 3:30 a.m. we stopped in Singapore to refuel. Unfortunately we can’t get off the ship. We are just kinda sitting here in the middle of the water with a boat attached to us. We have seen so many ships the last few days when looking out our window. Apparently this is one of the busiest shipping waters, as well as the worst spot for pirates! No joke! There are crew on guard all night long that sit out on our decks with large pressure hoses… I don’t know why they think this might deter pirates if they really wanted to attack our ship, but I guess it’s necessary??!! Anyway, pray for no pirate attacks!!
I had two papers due today and I have a group presentation that is a big part of my grade in my Women’s Studies class tomorrow, so I’ve been really busy getting all of that done. I miss all of you and really enjoy reading your comments! These next three ports (Vietnam, China, and Japan) are going to fly by since we only have a few days between each port. After Japan we have eight days at sea until we get to Hawaii, for only one day, and then it’s ten days until we get to Costa Rica!! I am amazed at how fast the time is flying!! Until next time! Xoxo Marissa

India!!!

Namaste. It wasn’t until coming to India that I knew that phrase outside of yoga and rather as a way of saying a friendly hello. I’m not really sure where to begin to express my experience in India. I can’t possibly explain what I saw, what I encountered, and what I felt during this portion of my trip around the world, but I will certainly try.
We arrived on Tuesday and realized the port in Chennai was nothing but a ship yard. We woke up around 8 a.m. to eat breakfast and the smell instantly seeped into our ship. The best way to explain it was the smell of a large campfire… at the time I wasn’t really sure why it would smell like that, but found out later that instead of having trash cans and throwing things away, people just dump their trash on the sides of the roads and then maybe a few months later people will sweep it into a large pile and set it on fire. Not a very productive or sanitary system if you ask me. The first day I am ashamed to admit I didn’t get off of the ship, but with good reason. Jess and Tessa had an FDP (required trip by their professor) to go to Tata Consulting, who literally owns India’s entire infrastructure. They make cars, plastic, software, etc, you name it, and they make it. Aside from them, all of our other friends who were doing India independently and weren’t on an SAS organized trip left that first day, so I thought it would be smart to not wander India by myself. Even the guys wouldn’t go out by themselves. So anyway, I had time to pack for our trip to Delhi that was leaving the next morning at 3:30 a.m. until Jess and Tessa got back. We had planned on going out to dinner when they got back, but just from what they saw they said it would be best to just eat on the ship. So we ate dinner and went to bed relatively early since we were getting up at 3.
That night was less like sleep and more like a nap, which pretty much sums up the next few days of our journey around northern India. We left the ship around 4 a.m. and headed to the airport with our group of about 30 students. Airports are very interesting in India… they warned us that security was even worse than in the U.S. You absolutely are not supposed to bring any liquids on; you must check them, and the ones you check have to be less than 4 oz. So we had to put all of our toiletries in our Ziploc bags and put them in one giant bag to be checked, praying they didn’t lose it. Once we got our tickets we were sent upstairs to go through security, which was also very interesting. They have the security lines split up into male and female lines. Everyone gets frisked, but the females get frisked behind a curtain, while the males get frisked openly. I’m not sure why they do this because the exact same thing they are doing to the males they do to the females, except behind a curtain. Odd. And if you didn’t know, the ratio of females to males on the ship is quite skewed. There are 70% females and 30% males… so guess who had the longer line. We waited for about 45 minutes to get through a security line that would probably take 10 minutes in America. So next time you think American airport security is slow, be glad you’re not in India. Now something I haven’t talked about in my blogs are the experiences I’ve had on the actual airplanes in these countries. It didn’t really occur to me until coming to India how much airlines in America get away with not giving you good food. This has pretty much been my conclusion after every plane ride I have had thus far, but the Indian airlines went even beyond what I had in South Africa and Brazil. First, the plane has more staff to tend to literally your every need. They begin the flight with a cold towel (a service I have only seen on overseas flights), and this is before you even take off. The flight we took from Chennai to Delhi was only two hours, and I don’t think the flight attendants sat down once. After they collected the cold towels they began their drink service with assorted juices, coffee, tea, sodas, the norm, but then came the meal! First of all, on a two hour flight in America you are lucky to get pretzels these days. But in India, like South Africa, you get a full meal. I thought you had to be in first class to use real silver wear and dishes to eat and drink, but not so. Of course they have vegetarian and non- vegetarian dishes, glass cups for your tea or coffee, cloth napkins, mints, silver wear, etc. I avoided the first flight’s meal because I hadn’t yet exposed my stomach to Indian food and didn’t really think the first time should be on an airplane, but everyone else really liked their meal. After the meal there were plenty more opportunities to get more drinks, and as we made our decent into Delhi they came with a candy basket! Also, I have never seen more people press the flight attendant call button for extra things like blankets, newspapers, etc. Indians don’t wait for the flight attendant to walk by; rather they have no problem pressing that little button as much as they want. On the way home, the man in front of me probably pushed it at least 5 times. OK, so enough about the airplanes, on to the important stuff…
We arrived in New Delhi (the capital of India) around 9 a.m. and immediately boarded our tour bus, and were greeted with fresh flower leis. Our understanding of the itinerary was that we were getting a tour of Old Delhi and then taking a train to Agra, however we were surprised to find out we were driving to Agra, which took about 5 hours! And I just LOVE car trips, especially on a bus with no bathroom… I’ll get to that funny (now it’s funny… not so much at the time) story in a minute. The guide explained to us that Delhi is 8 cities built on top and around each other. We went to the first Mosque built in Old Delhi, in a year that I can’t remember because I saw and heard so many places and numbers, but it was extremely old, put it that way. Aside from the stares we got from the few Indians at the airport for being white, the Mosque was really the first true experience of people literally stopping to stare at us. We walked around for a while and I had stayed behind the group a little bit to take some pictures and was walking back to catch up with them when this woman stopped me. She was with her husband and daughter who was probably around 18, and holding her camera, so I thought she wanted me to take a picture of her family for her. She couldn’t really speak good English, but boy was I wrong. I started to take the camera from her and she started shaking her head at me and pushed her daughter toward me and started pointing at us to get closer together. I soon realized that her daughter wanted a picture with me… not sure why, I guess it’s the fact I was white, but then it got even funnier/ weirder. After I took the picture with the daughter, the mother gave the camera to her and I had to take another picture with the woman and her husband, which was even more awkward. Finally the daughter spoke English and asked me where I was from. When I said the U.S. they all got really excited and thanked me for taking the picture. I have to admit as I was walking away I checked my bag to make sure I wasn’t an idiot and hadn’t just been robbed or something; you can’t be too careful. I just found this particular experience so funny because we would never stop a foreigner in the U.S. to take a picture with them, but I guess that’s because we actually have people who aren’t just one race. After visiting the Mosque, we were taken to a silk rug maker and I guess they thought we were these American students just rolling in cash because they actually tried to sell us huge silk rugs for thousands of dollars. They showed us how they were made, which was pretty neat, since each stitch is done one by one by hand, and only the rug maker can read the secret code of how to make the rug. I’m not sure if our guide gets a cut of the sales they make, but we really didn’t understand why we were taken there considering nothing in the store was in our price range. After we left the rug place we headed for lunch, which was interesting because we really didn’t know what we were eating. This was my first taste of non (spelling? I have no clue how to spell it- but it’s India flat bread) bread, and without this I probably would have starved in India. We finished up lunch and got back on the bus, where they started selling us beer to drink on the way there, which we thought was kind of strange, but whatever. I didn’t drink any because I was afraid it would make me have to go to the bathroom before our next stop that was 2.5 hours away, assuming I could even make it 2.5 hours. Well surprise, surprise (and thanks to the lovely small bladder genes I inherited from my father)… my water went right through me and when you’re on a very bumpy bus on basically dirt, pothole filled roads it’s very difficult to hold it. This would also be a good time to mention that when people in India have to pee, they just go, right there on the sidewalk or street, right in front of everyone. The first person I saw I hit Jess and was like Oh My Gosh!, look at that person peeing right there… well that wasn’t even the worst of it… to put it nicely, people don’t just pee on the side of the roads. People will just pull down there pants and squat right there!! So seeing all of this made me have to go to the bathroom even worse!! I went up to our nice tour guide lady and told her I had to go very badly and she was like well I’m not sure I can really guarantee you a very nice bathroom and after seeing everyone going to the bathroom on the side of the road, I would just be happy to have a bathroom in general. So because of me we had to pull the bus over to this very sketchy gas station to use their “bathroom” if you’d even call it that. Words cannot explain how absolutely disgusting this bathroom was… probably the worst I’ve seen in my life. Of course there was no toilet paper, but I came well prepared. And don’t think there was an actual toilet, I’m not sure that idea has made it to India… there are only holes in the ground. I wasn’t about to complain though since I made the whole bus pull over, but I now know why people go on the side of the roads and don’t try to find a bathroom… because the side of the road is cleaner than public restrooms!!! Needless to say I bathed myself in my antibacterial hand gel when I got back on the bus. We stopped an hour later for the scheduled break and then continued onto Agra to check into our hotel. Now India may be really dirty, but our five star hotel was awesome. We ate a great buffet dinner then all went to sleep since our guide informed us that we were getting wake up calls at 5 a.m. to go see the Taj Mahal at sunrise. For anything else you couldn’t have paid me to get out of my wonderfully comfortable bed, but if the Taj Mahal isn’t a good enough reason then I don’t know what is. The Taj was only about ten minutes away from the hotel and we pulled up to a parking lot where we had to board electric buses because no cars/ buses are allowed within a mile of the Taj Mahal for pollution reasons. Once we got off of the electric buses, we were bombarded with young men and boys trying to sell us stuff. The people were so desperate that they would pick one person and follow them to the entrance in hopes that you would get so annoyed with them you would just buy from them to get them to go away. (which happened often) In all of my travels I have never seen such desperate people trying to sell you stuff. I felt so bad saying no to skinny, starving little boys but if you weren’t stern they would never leave you alone. I ended up getting suckered into buying a book of postcards for 100 Rupees ($2.50). On a happier note, the Taj Mahal was absolutely amazing. Seeing it in person is very different than what you see in pictures. It is almost as if you are in a different world when you compare it to the filth and despair just outside its gates. We spent the first thirty minutes just taking pictures in front of it until we decided that we should actually go into it. It wasn’t until this trip that I found out the Taj was a tomb built for an old Indian ruler’s wife, and the inside was a lot smaller than I was expecting it to be. Interesting fact: The pillars on either side of the Taj actually tilt away from the building, so if there were an earthquake they wouldn’t fall on it. We went back to the hotel for breakfast and then headed to the first city of Agra and then to the Red Fort of Agra. Throughout the day we continued to be swarmed by beggars and people trying to sell us their stuff. You should know that every morning we port in a country diplomats come on to discuss with us a few things we should know not to do, current political and social problems, current events, and anything else they think would be beneficial for us to know. The morning of landing in India the two women who visited us from the U.S. Embassy educated us on popular scams that people will try to pull. Like rickshaw drivers will try to tell you that the market you want to go to is miraculously closed that day and want to take you to one that’s a little farther away. Or they will take you half way and try to get you to stop at another store (which their best friends probably owns) before they will take you to the place you really want to go. My favorite one they told us was that security guards might ask to look at our passport and then tell you to get it back you must give them 100 Rupees. Ridiculous, huh? Well it actually happens. We arrived to the first city of Agra and at this point Jess, Tessa and I were a little tired of following our large group around so we kind of just sat in this court yard area and started to wander around by ourselves. (it’s not as dangerous as it sounds, it was a very small fenced in area) Anyways, we had these men coming up to us who kept saying “we work here, let me take you around, I will show you around, better than your group, you learn more.” I didn’t think this was a good idea, but we followed this guy up until we got to the gate, and he wanted us to go outside of the fenced area and that’s when we said no, we’ll go find our group. We told the guy we weren’t going to pay him ahead of time for showing us around, and he seemed so persistent to show us a Mosque that was up the hill. Well we weren’t dumb enough to go with him, but some guy in our group was. The guide told him he had to take off his shoes before he could enter, and since this was common he did it without asking questions, then the guide picked up his shoes and demanded 50 Rupees. What a scam, right? Later that day we went to the Red Fort of Agra, where the builder of the Taj Mahal lived. Now something I haven’t mentioned is the abundance of cows and monkeys that just roam the streets of the cities. Since cows are sacred they literally just walk up and down the sidewalks with the people. They will cross the streets and this is the one thing that the crazy drivers won’t hit. The diplomats also warned us of crossing the street, explaining how absolutely dangerous it is and to not do it unless you are very careful. They said if you really need to cross the street to grab a cow, then you might be safe. Hitting a cow and killing it is a much bigger offense than killing a pedestrian. And the monkeys and cows aren’t afraid of anything… they just sit there and eat out of dumpsters and walk around like they own the place. So back to the fort in Agra… there were monkeys everywhere inside the fort. I guess if I were a monkey that’s where I’d choose to live, because you have shelter and tons of places to jump around and climb. And guess what we saw… more monkey love-making! The monkeys would jump down and try to grab people’s water bottles and bags hoping to find food and if you got too close to their little babies they hissed at you. There was one really aggressive monkey that kept jumping down in front of people and growling and hissing and at one point we all ran away from it because we were actually scared of it.
That evening we went back to the Taj Mahal for sunset, but since it was pretty cloudy there wasn’t much of a sunset, so we just sat and stared at it for about an hour, trying to soak it all in. Afterward we headed to the train station with our boxed dinners from the hotel to take a two hour train ride back to Delhi. Our guide told us to save the food we didn’t eat because we could find someone to give it to at the train station. No one could have prepared us for the experience we were about to have. The second we walked into the station we saw about a hundred homeless people sleeping on the floor. Most of them had no shoes and looked like they were on the verge of dying from starvation. They all just stared at us as about 50 white people, well fed, well dressed, with shoes stepping over them to get to our train platform. This was probably the turning point of my experience in India. Tessa saw a man with Elephantitis in his feet and I think she is scarred for life. As I said earlier, I was pretty nervous about Indian food so I had bought a lot of snacks on the ship to bring around with me. After making past all of the homeless people, we got to our platform and were 30 minutes early for our train. It took only minutes before we were getting tapped by little kids putting their little hands to their mouths with the saddest, most desperate looks on their faces, begging for food. This little boy came up to Tessa as she was sipping her Coke and said in the saddest, softest little voice “Pepsi! I like Pepsi! I like Pepsi!” so she gave him her Coke. After about five minutes I felt so incredibly guilty having the snacks I had bought on the ship, knowing these kids are starving, so I pulled out my cereal and gave it up. All I could think about is Mother Teresa and how un- Christian it was to not share my food. Once we gave it to them the little kids would run off because if they were caught by the big kids they would take it from them. I will never complain about food again without thinking of those starving little kids in the train station.
We arrived back in Delhi and the next day we had a last tour of Old Delhi and a few last monuments, like the Gandhi Memorial. For the sake of not making this much longer, we went to the airport that evening to find our flight was delayed, and finally made it back to the ship around 10. The last day in Chennai Tessa, Jess and I took our first auto rickshaw ride into town. We all held hands for the first five minutes and said a little prayer for our lives. I had read an article in the Hindu Times on the plane that had talked about 15 people having been killed this year alone from getting hit by buses while riding in rickshaws and on foot. Driving in India is absolutely ridiculous. No traffic laws are followed except the occasional traffic light. There were thick white lines that said “Stop” in the middle of roads but no one stopped, so I’m not sure the point of them. We told the driver to take us to the mall that was recommended to us and the second we got out of the rickshaw another driver came up to me and said “Oh madam, Spencer’s Mall closed, something happened inside, I take you to better place.” I knew this was another crazy scam so we walked past him. Every store was like a game to see how good of a bargain we could get. Overall, India was a great experience. I saw many sad things that have made me realize what I take for granted every day like clean drinking water, food, shoes, a clean place to go to the bathroom, and a clean place to live, to name a few. I have never seen so much poverty and despair, but I wouldn’t have traded the experience for anything. It wasn’t one of the more glamorous ports of call but I learned so much about myself and how grateful I should be for the opportunities I am given everyday just to live a healthy and happy life. If everyone could experience India, even for a day, I think people would find they have far less to complain about than they really thought.