Made in China

There is no where in the world where the stars are as bright as they were sleeping under then on the Great Wall of China.

 

There is also no where in the world that I have ever felt so close to freezing to death...

I had 4 pairs of pants, 3 sweaters, 2 scarves, a jacket, a hat (...vodka.) and I still froze. But I made it through the night and I can now say “I have slept on the Great Wall of China”

 

SAAAWWWEEEEET!

 

On top of that, China was amazing for so many reasons-

 

1. Hong Kong. It was like New York City on steroids. Our ship was docked in the perfect location that over looked the massive skyline of futuristic architecture. And at night, the city literally lit up the sky with a light show of lasers and flashing neon lights from every building. Fireworks are so amateur these days.

Unfortunately, we were only in Hong Kong for about a half a day and then one night. The next day, I was on a flight for Beijing...which brings me to number 2.

 

2. Cold Weather. We haven’t had a day that the temperature went below 80 degrees. Hong Kong was hot, but Beijing and Shanghai we not at all! As our plane was landing in Beijing, there was a layer of snow covering the ground. Talk about mass panic. You could look around and tell who was from California and who was from Colorado. A lot of the students were loading on jackets, hats, and scarves (just to walk off the plane!). I threw my sandals in my bag and threw on my Ugg boots, but I refused to put on a jacket until my skin turned blue. It was so good to see my breath again.

 

3. The sights. My breath was not the only amazing thing I got to see in China. We went to the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and the Bird's Nest (the stadium where the 2008 Olympics were held). The buildings in the Forbidden City were incredible, and the snow made it even more beautiful. And then came the best sight of all...

 

4. The Great Wall of China. There are two things that pictures don’t do for the Great Wall- and that’s how beautiful and incredible it actually is, and how intense it is to climb. We arrived at the wall at night time and hiked it for about 30-45 minutes (to tower 9 to be exact). All you could see were the silhouettes of mountains, the stars, and about 20 feet in front of you. Therefore, when the sun came up over the mountains in the morning, I was face to face with the most incredible views. And then we hiked it for 5 hours (to tower 37). It was hard work to climb that thing, even harder to take it all in. It was like nothing I have ever seen before.

 

5. The food! Authentic Chinese food? Yes please! Speaking of food...

 

6. McDelivery. Yes, that is correct. McDonald's has a delivery service. Except that they don't deliver to the Great Wall. Believe me, we tried.

 

I also discovered that the ‘peace sign’ is a universal viscous cycle. You know when Asians come to America and do the peace sign in every picture? Well, when the Americans go to China, we also do the peace sign. They see us, we see them…get it?

 

I can sit here forever and talk about how crazy the Asian culture is and how differently yet similarly things are done over here. It wasn’t exactly culture shock, but more like a culture “Ah ha…”. It was defiantly the biggest change from all the other countries we have been to. We were back in the land of shopping malls, subway systems, and Starbucks. There was very little poverty, and people did not hound us to buy things from their shops. Wait a minute, you mean if I decided not by this dress, you are not going to chase me down the street yelling out a lower price?? Weird. Easing us back to life in the States I guess.

 

The only real problem we faced in this country was the language barrier. It got very frustrating at times and Japan is going to be even worse. Guess I have about 12 hours to learn a few quick phrases.

 

We have five days in Japan and then it’s back to the home land (with pit stop in Hawaii of course). I’m looking forward to it. China was all decked out in Christmas gear, and the city and the snow defiantly made me feel at home. And then a woman spit in my walking path and brought me back to the reality that is Asia…

Good Morning Vietnam!

I know I keep saying this after every port, but Vietnam was by far my favorite place. China and Japan are going to have to step their game up to compete with Vietnam.

 

 

There is so much history within the country that has to do with the United States. In the days leading up to our arrival in Vietnam, many of the professors gave lectures about life in the States during the time of the war. A good amount of them had even fought in it and this was their first time returning to the country.

I got the chance to learn a lot about the war up close when I went to the Cu Chi Tunnels. These are a 250km stretch of underground tunnels (created by hand!) and were used a ‘hiding spot’ during the time of the war. That was such a surreal experience. I walked through the old battle grounds and stood in craters of land where bombs were dropped. I crawled my way through a few of the tunnels, and have never felt more like an ant in my life. Well I guess it was the only time I ever really felt like an ant, but still…

 

 

The city that we ported in was Ho Chi Min City, but to get there, the ship had to float two hours up the Saigon River. All along the banks of the river were these massive jungles, villages, and tiny little house boats. The river itself was like a very thin stream of mud. The water was so brown. And the air was insanely hot and thick.

 

 

Vietnam is the cheapest shopping I have ever done in my life. T-shirts were a dollar, and so were DVDs. North Face backpacks were about $10 and the giant jackets were about $30-$40. Who cares if they might be fake! They look real enough. I even got two custom made dresses for $100. I can never look at a mall in the same way again.

 

 

The food was not only amazing, but cheap too! An average meal, drinks included, was about $4-$6. Motor bike rides across the city were a dollar. Massages were about $10 for an hour. It was amazing!

 

 

The best deal that we came across was our trip to the Mekong Delta. This is an area on the western side of the country, near Cambodia. It's basically miles of rivers that all lead to the Indian Ocean. It's all tiny little villages on the banks of the river with floating markets and house boats. Actually, they were more like floating tree houses and not 'house boats'. 

 

 

It was me and five of my friends. We drove 3 hours, and it only cost us 5 bucks a person! Our adventure began at the beginning of the Delta, and we spent the night sailing 6 hours further up the river. The sleeper train in India was a five star hotel compared to what I slept in going up that river. It was literally a large canoe with a tiny tin roof over our heads. Funny thing is, we had the option of sleeping in a hotel and then having our driver take us up the river in a car early in the morning. But no, we wanted the adventure, and we slept on wood.

 

 

In the morning we were dropped off in the middle of this village, and we had no idea what part of the country we were even in anymore. But we didn’t care. We spent a few days hanging out with the locals on their boats and in their homes along the river. They were just as fascinated by us as we were by them. This was not a touristy village at all (our homestay was the only one in the area). Most of the time, we were looked at like aliens, especially the two girls I was with who have blonde hair. But they still were so friendly and invited us into thier homes with open arms. The only problem was the communication difficulties. No one really spoke English and my map of pictures didn’t work as well as I would have thought. At one point, we were hanging out with a family and we asked them for cold beer. They took off in excitement, thinking they finally understood what we were saying. They soon returned with warm beer, and squid.

 

 

The conditions of these villages were really hard to take in. Back home, I camp in better conditions and more comfortably than these people live. At night, the water level of the river would rise and flood the roads and leave most of the homes with a slight flood of about 3 inches of water. But everyone seemed so happy content with life, like it was so simple and fantastic. And there we stood, concerned that our shoes were getting wet as these peoples homes flooded on a nightly basis.

 

 

Vietnam was just an overall amazing experience. 

 

 

Tomorrow we arrive in Hong Kong. We have been sailing the waters of the the South China Sea for 3 days now, and the sky is literally a giant rainbow with every sunrise and sunset. Have you ever seen a green sky before? Didn't think so. But they exist, and they are incredible. 

 

 

The ship docks right in the harbor, over looking the amazing skyline and light show that Hong Kong has to offer. This is one of the top 5 things I have been most excited to see since the beginning of this voyage. We have 5 days in China, and I am heading up to Bejing to have a slumber party on the Great Wall! ….in below zero weather. Fantastic.

 

 

They say you can see the Great Wall from space, so Google Earth that shit and look for me!

India

India was dirty and hot and smelly. At the same time, India was beautiful and amazing in so many more ways.

 

I got up to watch the sunrise at 6am as we pulled into port, and you couldn’t even see the sun until it was almost all the way up in the sky because of the amount of smog and dust in the air. At the same time, the thickness in the air made it possible to stare directly at the sun with ease. It was hard to breathe let alone see anything in the distance. In fact, my nose began bleeding during a portion of the trip because of the massive amount of dust and dirt in the air.

 

The streets were filled with Rickshaws and people. The population of India is massive and so is the amount of poverty. However, it was not as shocking as I thought it was going to be. Usually, the Semester at Sea Voyage travels from Puerto Rico to Brazil, then Cape Town and Mauritius, and then BOOM- India. We were eased into it, having traveled to Morocco and Ghana beforehand. At this point, and it’s sad to say, but I am used to seeing kids begging for food and being looked at like a walking-talking gold mine. However, India was still far worse than both Ghana and Morocco. People were not missing arms and legs and fingers and eyes like they were in those two countries. In India, I saw grown men with legs the width of a 3 year old. And I saw all of this on the streets of the cities. I could only imagine what the conditions were like in the slums.

 

Enough depressing talk. Let me tell you what I did.

In the 5 days time frame I traveled non stop. We ported into the city of Chennai, and from there we flew to Delhi (by the way, for some reason I got bumped to first class for that flight. Thank you India). By the time we got to Delhi, it was already nighttime, so we did some quick sight seeing (and by quick I mean we literally drove by and didn’t even get out of the bus). We saw the India Gate, which is a big arch way with all the names of the people who fought in the Indian Empire of WWI engraved on it. Next we saw the President House. End of day one.

The next morning we took a 5am train to Agra, where we saw the red stoned ghost town of Fatehpur Sikri. Then we went over to the Agra Fort, which is where Emperor Shah Jahan (the dude who built the Taj Mahal) was kept under house arrest by his third son. Speaking of the Taj, I WAS THERE! And it was big and beautiful and we got there right at sunset. Did you know that the original plan for the Taj was that it was to be done in black marble?

There where thousands of people there and there was huge line to get in and we had a train to catch. Therefore I did not get to go into the Taj.

Here comes one of my favorite parts of the trip- The over night sleeper train. We spent 14 hours on it. Imagine the sketchiest place in the world and multiply it by ten. There were 8 beds to a compartment and 6 of them were taken up by me and my friends. I took top bunk and held onto my backpack the entire ride. There were bugs, my pillow was brown, and the 4 Indian men who slept in the bed underneath me gave me dirty looks when I suggested a slumber party. The toilets were holes in the ground, and when you looked down you can see the tracks. But I was running on about 2 hours of sleep in a 48 hour time frame, so it was heaven to me. I’m not being sarcastic either; it really was one of my favorite parts of the trip. It was such a cool experience.

The train pulled into Varanasi around 11am. Varanasi is the oldest city in India. We did some more sight seeing at museums and then we went to factory where they made silk. As the sun was setting, we headed over to the Ganges River. We watched both the sun set and the sunrise on this river, and it was by far the most amazing experience of this whole trip. The night consisted of a festival and the sunrise was watched by boat. Hundreds of people were up with the sun, bathing and praying in the waters of the river. Varanasi is one of the most sacred and holy cities in the world and people come from all over to die in the Ganges River. It is like the international Hospice. They cremate over 120 bodies a day! There were dead bodies floating in the river, and as creepy as it sounds, it was incredibly amazing. This is another experience that is so hard to describe in words.

The trip came to an end after that.

We flew back to Chennai and finished out the rest of the time in India shopping and cleaning ourselves. I think I still have a few layers of dirt on me.

 

Overall, India holds a top spot for being my favorite port. The fun was so good, the history is so interesting, and the sights were unreal. Especially the sunsets and sunrises. Again, since there is so much dust in the air, you could stare directly at the sun.  

 

My new favorite thing in each country is to look at the massive amounts of random animals that wonder the streets and blocked all forms of traffic-

In Spain it was cats.

Morocco had donkeys, and cats

Ghana had chickens, and cats

South Africa had baboons, and cats

Mauritius had intoxicated SAS’ers (or SASSERS as we like to call ourselves- or SASHOLES, but only if you respectfully deserve it)

And then there was India, which had cows and dogs. Cows are sacred in India. Hide your leather belts and bags, or else you get dirty looks.

 

Also, when visiting India, be sure to carry around your own role of toilet paper, and be prepared to squat every time you need to use that toilet paper. And DON’T drink the tap water, not even to brush your teeth. If you do, be ready to use an entire role of toilet paper in a day.

 

So we had yet again another 6 days at sea as we made our way to Viet Nam. In the middle of the week, we celebrated one of my favorite holidays- Halloween. And for being stuck in the middle of the ocean, you should have seen some of the costumes people came up with. I was an Indian (Native American) and I discovered how far a pair of scissors and some construction paper can go.

 

We are now in Viet Nam, and I’m going to get me a rice hat!

 

I can't believe that this is my 3rd to last country.