through all of the islands and all of the highlands, if we couldnt laugh wed all go insane

Kerry and Me in Mauritius

darling what else is left to do, but sit back and enjoy my presidential view

“Mauritius was made first, and then

Heaven, and that Heaven was copied

after Mauritius.”

Mark Twain

 

Mark Twain really hit the nail on the head with this one. I’m still looking at my Mauritius pictures in awe of how beautiful that paradise really is. I want to have a house there someday or at least go back and visit from time to time. We had a minor bump in our trip, but besides that I absolutely loved the Island, the beaches and water, and the people.

There was a group of 9 of us but two were meeting us later on, so we started off with 7 of us. We all got off the ship together in the morning and got two cabs to take us to our hotel we had booked for the night. We had directions to the hotel and it took the cab drivers forever to figure out where this place was. We stopped like 3 times and finally he called the place and said it was closed. So, two of us ventured to check out another place. It was pretty nice but then we found out that we could go to our original place. So we trekked over to our original place we had reservations at and all got out and checked it out. We came to a consensus that we liked the place we had originally stopped at that we didn’t make a reservation at from the start. Our places (we got 3 rooms, not by choice) were literally on the beach and we had balconies in our room that over looked the beach and crystal clear ocean. It was beautiful.

After we got settled in we were pretty hungry so we decided to hit up the ATM (a common theme in my blogs) so we could get local currency for a place for lunch. There was a place directly across from where our hotel was that we decided to eat at. It was real nice and the food was good but kind of small portioned. I had prawns in a tomato sauce which was really good. We all enjoyed our lunch but needed to hurry a little because we had a snorkeling trip planned at I think it was 2:00.

Our meal was complete and we got in a van that took us to the beach where we got a glass bottom boat (pretty awesome seeing as the water is crystal clear) that took us out to a snorkeling area. It was okay snorkeling, not the best I’ve ever done but it was still beautiful. I think there are better areas to snorkel there but they don’t really like taking tourists there. In fact I don’t think the locals like that the tourists come there at all really. They love the money they get but not the destruction. I would definitely compare it to be the Hawaii for the Europeans.

After our snorkeling we weren’t done swimming so we asked the boat to drop us off at a beach, so he did. We hung out at this beach for like 2 hours. We met some other SAS kids there that are cool and kind of hung around them too. Once we were done swimming and hanging around the beach we walked back to the hotel and got ready for the night.

Side note: we had been hanging around this guy Ku who we eventually found out works at the restaurant we ate at for lunch. He went snorkeling with us and to the beach. He had told us once we got back to our hotel that the place across the street where we had lunch was throwing us a party and special dinner, so we thought, why not, let’s just go. So we get over there and no food was ordered for us. It was just brought to us, and not very much of it either. So we ate and met up with the other 2 people from our group. They brought us our dinner bill and it was $400.00...that’s US dollars. We talked back and forth with everyone there and couldn’t agree on anything so Me, Steph, and Kelcie and a little of Lauren’s money ended up paying for the entire bill.

We had enough and everyone started fighting and yelling. A French woman even came outside and asked what the yelling was about and another SAS kid said we were being typical SASsholes. (sas has a bad reputation in Mauritius). That’s when Me, Steph, and Kelcie decided to leave the chaos and go to a bar called Bananas that lots of SAS kids were going to. We were happy to be there and away from all the yelling and we ended up having a great night there.

The next morning we got up and got some FREE breakfast at the place across the street again. We also went to try to settle the bill. We talked and talked about it and went over it item by item. We concluded that they overcharged us by 6000 Mauritian rupees. This would equal to about $170  US. Ku claims his boss wasn’t in and there was no money around to be given back yadda yadda. Basically we were screwed. Next we had to pay our hotel bill. This is when it hit me that Ku was a fraud.

Lauren and I had totaled our entire hotel bill including snorkeling. We figured it out with the hotel guy and Ku kept saying he needed some of the money for taking us around or something. And the man who works at the hotel asked us why we were paying anything to this guy, he’s just a cook that works across the street. That is when is dawned on me. The only money Ku would get is if we ordered something from his restaurant.

We paid the right price for our rooms and Ku kept insisting we give him 1000rupees. Finally we did what was right and said no and started to walk away. He then threatened us with using our passport numbers and calling the police. We weren’t worried about it so we just walked away calmly and decided to walk along the beach to calm everyone’s nerves.

This immediately changed our moods and calmed us. The beach is so beautiful. It seriously looks like a postcard or a desktop background on your computer. We kept walking along the beach and Liz got thirsty so I and she stopped at this beach bar along the way that looked super nice and modern. We got her water and everyone decided we should just stay there and get some lunch. This place was called the beach house and it was AMAZING. While we waited for our food we literally walked down 3 coral steps and into the sand down to the beach. It was seriously what you imagine a tropical paradise to be. The food was amazing (they had really good pizza) and they had good drinks too. Some of us took like an hour break to go shopping in town (obviously I was one of them) and then after that we came back into the bar and hung out there until we needed to leave back to Port Louis (30min away) where our ship was docked.

Mauritius was definitely our “spring break” (I put it in quotes because let's get real, I’ve been on spring break since January 17^th) but it was a great time to relax completely. I will most definitely be coming back here no matter what. I still can’t get out of my head how beautiful it is there.

Also, currently I’m sailing to Cape Town (like in the last blog). We are so close that we are following the shore line 6 miles away. It’s like a tease. I can see it but I can’t go out and experience it! It's SO weird typing this knowing im looking at Africa typing to people in Colorado or the US. Such a strange thought.

Not tomorrow but the next day we will be there and I’ll literally be swimming with the great white sharks. I’m scared a little but I know well be safe. Who would have ever thought I would cage dive with great white sharks!

 

xx

 

on the note of thinking its strange im writing to people back in the US while i'm staring at Africa. Well, I got on facebook and I guess it must have been a decent time back in the States cause people were online and I decided to chat a couple. But it was too overwhelming for me. I don't even know why. Just the thought that I was in the middle of the ocean somewhere and talking to someone back in Durango was way too weird of a thought for me. I can't imagine how Im going to feel after I'm actually back in the States. It's going to be bitter sweet and as of right now I think it will be more on the bitter side.

no buy, no problem II

Okay so my second India blog…

The second morning in India me Lis and her roommate Kerry decided to go find an internet café so we could skype or just get on real internet and what not. So we walked around for like 45 minutes trying to find an internet café. It wasn’t as easy as we thought it was and finally we just decided to get a rigshaw and have him take us. First we had to get to an ATM though so we could get money out. We got to an ATM and my card worked but Kerry and Lis’s card didn’t. We tried another ATM and the same thing was happening. This seemed really strange so for some weird reason we decided it was a major emergency and to head to the US conciliate, which was like 15 minutes away. So we get there and go through major security and finally get inside and the guy we talked to (who is fully American and born in American) was the same guy who had come to give a diplomatic briefing to our ship community the day before.  He was very nice and told Kerry to try to use the ATM in their building which sure enough worked. While Kerry was figuring out all of her card stuff me and Lis asked if they had internet and sure enough, they had a full library upstairs with internet that costs like 25c for an hour. We only spent like 20 minutes on the internet but it was good enough for me.

So after that we got back into the rigshaw and headed back to our ship because Kerry, Lis, and all my other friends had an FDP at 1:00. It took us a lot of firm No’s to finally get across to our driver that we don’t have time to go to any shops and especially the ones he’s getting points at. I think he was pretty mad but we had to get back so we didn’t really have a choice.

We made it back in time for their FDP and I just hung around the ship for a few hours cause I needed to pack and get ready and prepare myself for my adventure across India.

Lis, Lauren, and Steph got back later that night and we left the ship around 7, we were also joined by our friend Patrick who was traveling with us too. We were basically kicked off the ship because it was leaving at 8ish to sail to the other port where we were meeting it.

So we got off the ship and hired a taxi driver that took us to our bus station. Uh and on the way to the bus station our taxi driver (keep in mind the previously stated driving situation in India) hit another car. Yes we were in a car accident and all that came of it was my driver getting out and looking at the damage and then both cars just moving on and making their ways elsewhere. I guess it’s just not that big of a deal in India or something to hit a car and just bounce. It pretty much was not helping me considering I was already EXTREMELY anxious about this whole India traveling thing to begin with.

So anyways, we got to the bus station at like 9:30 I think (at night) and it was so crowded and so many buses and I had no idea what we were doing or where we were going and I pretty much had a mini panic attack. I started to cry and needed to sit down because I was so overwhelmed with pretty much anything and everything that India is all about. But Patrick had previously visited the station and he was helped and got our tickets and once we had them I was a little less anxious..I guess.  So we had time to kill and decided that we would hang out at this bar that was next door inside a semi-nice hotel. We noticed that we were the only women in this bar..or any bar I went to in India for that matter. But we had a drink and some snacks before we got to spend the next 9 hours on a sleeper bus.

So we got on the sleeper bus and we got the very back row. It had 5 connected seats which worked out perfect for us. I sat in the corner by the window and unfortunately that and the other corner were the only chairs that didn’t lean back. But let me tell you, the guy in front of me fully let me know his chair was capable of leaning back and he took full advantage of that fact that it did. I slept maybe an hour on the bus. They turn the lights down like they would on an airplane flight but they had a tv in the front that was playing the loudest Indian movie with so many loud fighting scenes. The AC was either blasting causing us to freeze, or it wasn’t on at all causing us to die of heat. Needless to say a few stops and 9 hours later we FINALLY made it to Madurai (Google it).

Seeing as we were on a bus for 9 hours, our first priority was getting to a bathroom. We went to the first one we could find and it was pretty sketch and we had to pay for it. Pretty much it’s a hole in the ground but a little more dressed up…but not really (don’t worry I took a picture). I remember seeing a toilet like this from when Brian studied abroad and thinking, “oh god if I ever had to use one of those, well, I just wouldn’t”. Looks like I’ve changed a bit.

We were also hungry too. So we just picked a place that looked semi decent that wouldn’t hurt our intestines too much. We found this veggie place (which most places are in India) and sat down there. There was a worn sign that said they only use mineral water which was a good sign. But it was a bad sign when I could see their process of cleaning dishes. But whatever I tried really hard not to let it get to me and kept layering on hand sanitizer. I think I used a total of like a half of a large bottle of that stuff during this trek. But I ordered a plane dolsa and we got this donut thing that tasted fishy for free. The food was pretty good and didn’t even end up hurting our intestines.

After that we kind of just wanted to walk around. So we did. We ended up in some rural neighborhood and market area that only locals would know about. We met a man from Georgia there and he asked if we were lost and needed to get back to the main road but we told him no and that we liked roaming around seeing the real India.

It’s just so mind boggling to see such poverty but such happy people. We all had our cameras out some of these people had never even seen a camera before and had no idea what it was or how to work it. They were absolutely amazed when we’d ask to take a picture and then get the playback and show them their own picture. It was so great to see how happy it made them. The people photograph so well and look genuinely happy. Steph brought a huge thing of stickers that she started handing out to the kids and at one point I think we were the talk of the town cause we had kids following us and tracking us down for a sticker everywhere. We even gave some away to the adults. They just loved it.

After wandering around for a while and sweating out everything we took in, we decided to get a rigshaw to take us to a temple. Madurai is known for temples so we figured we should see one while we were there.

The temple was pretty and was set in front of what kind of look like the red rocks back home and we were told that their god lived or had been to the top of the rocks that were set behind the temple. We were snapping pictures and this guy saw us an invited us to come to his rooftop in order to get a better picture. We accepted and got some great pictures and a great view over part of the town. After we were done doing that we decided to walk to the market area down below. We bought some cool hand made Indian bracelets and Patrick got a freshly cut coconut drink that was pretty sweet and he chopped it open and stuck a straw in it right in front of us. At this point it was getting towards lunch time and we wanted to find another trustworthy restaurant.

We found a place that was actually awesome. You pay upfront and pay like a little more for an AC room. Though, we came to find out it’s not really AC it’s just open windows but we still had a fan with a breeze from the windows and we were upstairs around like one other family which was nice. We had the best meal here. It was a thing where you eat with your hands and the guy serving us was hilarious. We got a dolsa on a banana leaf and tons of sauces and rice to mix with the sauces and some potato mixture too. Pretty much you have to have the mindset that you’re a 2 year old in a highchair playing with your food before you shove some sort of half solidified mixture half soupy into your mouth for an amazing taste. It was great! And this guy just kept coming over and giving us more sauce and more food from this bucket they keep it in. We made a huge mess but it was great. He gave us this shot type thing of sweet stuff (I wasn’t a fan) and we didn’t know what to do with it so he showed us by shoving the whole thing down Patrick’s throat haha. We also got bananas for dessert (yes, this is why American’s are fat, we don’t eat a mini banana for dessert). But their bananas are so fresh and delicious. I don’t think I’ll ever eat “American” bananas the same!

The meal was delicious but we had made a deal earlier with this travel company that we would rent a car and driver from them so they could take us to a small mountain town called Kumily (seriously Google that) ((AND visit, it’s gorgeous and amazing)). So we got this nice air-conditioned SUV and this crazy driver and his girlfriend to take us there. It was a gorgeous scenery throughout the ride and we had a really fun time driving. And I’m pretty sure we almost died 6 or 7 times with this guy’s driving skills at hand.

I think the drive was like 3 hours, but it went by really quick. Once we arrived in Kumily we walked down this main entrance street and we were approached by this man who lives there and goes by the name Charlie. He was awesome. He showed us a brochure of all this stuff we could do and knew of where we could stay and said he would pretty much be our tour guide for our stay in the town.

This town has a small town feel and I kept telling my friends that I would compare it to Durango. Anyone who loves Durango would love this town most definitely. So Charlie took us to where he thought would be a good place for us to stay. We walked up this side road which was kind of windy and it had a bunch of hotels and hostels and a few homes that locals lived in too (which were actually pretty nice). We finally got to our place (after seeing 3 other SAS kids, how they found that town is beyond me). Our hotel, first of all, was called the Rainbow Hotel and it looked straight out of the Bahamas. It was like yellow, pink, orange, lime green. It was awesome. We got to view the rooms before buying (which you should always do) and they we nice. They were also color themed. One we got was bright lime green and the other was bright pink. Obviously we made Patrick sleep in the bright pink room. And the beds were like extra large king beds which were nice too.

We decided we loved it so much we would stay two nights instead of one (we were winging the entire trip, so why not). We planned out our next day with Charlie and then he took us into town (a 5 minute walk) where he told us a few places we could eat at. So we decided to do a little shopping and then head to our new favorite restaurant Lord’s. It has tons of different types of food and all of it was SO good. Some of us got banana pancakes (they’re made with their locally grown organic mini bananas). And they were by far the best pancakes I’ve ever had. So we ate there and decided we would go out for a little bit after that.

We went back to our hotel room to “get ready” which consisted of bathing in baby wipes. After we were ready, we headed out to this bar that was next to one of the nice hotels in Kumily. Me, Lis, Lauren, and Steph were, again,  the only girls who were in the entire bar. I guess in their culture its not really appropriate for women to be out at night like that-which actually was similar in other cultures I’ve seen as well.

-oh I forgot to add that I changed shoes and noticed at this point that I had kankles. Real nice. My ankles were the size of my upper thigh pretty much. It wasn’t just mine though; all of our ankles were like this. We think it is because we slept sitting up on the sleeper bus. But who knows. I do know it really bothered me at the time though. And of course my friends were saying the size of my ankles swollen were the size of their ankles normally yadda yadda-ah how I love when people point out how tiny I am, never gets old.

After being there a while we were so tired, seeing as we slept like 1 hour the night before so we headed to bed. Plus we had an early morning and a full day in front of us.

We woke up the next morning and got some breakfast at the hotel and ate on our balcony which overlooked a lot of Kumily- very beautiful. We met Charlie at like 9ish because we were going to RIDE ELEPHANTS!! He got us in this off-roading jeep that took us to the elephant park. Once we got there we were literally up close to these elephants and we could even see a baby one off in the distance. We all got up on this platform and divided into two groups (3 on each elephant) to begin our ride. Me, Lis, and Steph rode on a male elephant and I couldn’t pronounce his name for the life of me but he was so giant and beautiful. His skin was really rough and the hairs on his skin were very course. We got to go on a half hour ride through the Indian mountains, which really looked more like rainforest. It was really neat, our guides didn’t speak hardly any English but as wed pass by something theyd tell us what it was. We saw pepper, jack fruit, coriander, coffee beans and more. We even got to try them too.

After our ride was over, we got to go over to where the baby elephant was. He was chained down by his feet which was really sad but I guess that’s what they have to do to keep them from running away and not keep them in an enclosed cage. I got to pet the baby and feed him some sugar. He knew we were coming over to feed him and he started dancing it was so cute. I went to pet him and he brought his trunk up and sniffed my arm with it. It was like something from a movie-it was really awesome and it really makes me want to work with animals for good now.

So after that we watched a man bathe an adult elephant and watched the elephant get water in its trunk and then spray it on itself-just like a movie once again. Then Charlie told us we were going on a little hike. It was like 10minutes up to the main road but it was through the forest/mountainous area. It was so neat and this is where we got to taste all the foods and spices I talked about earlier. We also got to try papaya which was cool. The last time I had fresh papaya like that was in Hawaii when I was little. So we waited on the side of the road for a rigshaw that took us back in to town where we got lunch at Lord’s again.

We brought Charlie this time and treated him to partially thank him for all he had done for us. This time at lunch I got fried rice and veggie spring rolls.

Sidenote: ever since my anthropology of food class I have for the most part become a vegetarian. I never thought this would happen but it definitely has. Though, I will definitely be getting a giant cheese burger sometime after I get home no matter what.

Okay, so the food was really good-again. We didn’t have too much time to eat though because we were now going to get a ride down to the Periyar Tiger Reserve. And let me save you the anticipation, no we did not see any Tigers. But we did make our way down there and met our guide, who actually had really good English and he led us around this park. It’s pretty much like a giant hike and I believe they said it was 3 or 4 miles long. It was led through the Indian mountains, which looked more like rain forest. It was really beautiful and though we didn’t see tigers or wild elephants, we did see monkeys, birds, butterflies, some sort of buffalo deal, and different spices like nutmeg in its original form.

After our trek we headed back into town and rested up for a little while and got ready for our last meal in Kumily. We had Charlie join us because we wanted to treat him in order to partially thank him for all he had done for us in the past 2 days. He was probably the kindest person I had met in all of India. He wasn’t even out to make a profit from us; he just wanted to educate us on his town and the people. It was truly amazing and I would come back and stay in Kumily any day

He took us to this super nice restaurant that, I think, his friend worked at. It was in a super new area that looked like a miniature British town of mini condo deals. And they had this place to eat inside of it all. They had great food- I got fish and chips which was soo good. Can’t go wrong with that. And we all got ice cream and milkshakes (we even made Charlie get one). We have all learned that only American’s like sweets as sweet as we do.  And yes the ice cream and milk shakes went down fine. (we tried some pretty gnarly food this trip and none of us were affected by us, I think Dr. Morte is trying to scare us).

The meal was done and we decided to say our goodbyes to Charlie. Then we proceeded to do some last minute shopping. I got a shirt and some other stuff. Laruen and Patrick got these coconut monkey things which I fondly refer to as Dust Collectors. So, yeah, we all got some shopping in and decided to head back to the hotel for the night.

We needed to get up at 3:30 the next morning to catch our 4am bus ride to Cochin where we were meeting the ship. So we slept for like 3 hours and woke up and made our way down to the bus. We didn’t have time for breakfast, plus nothing was open. This is where the near 60 bananas Patrick bought came in handy. We had a whole rack of them, it was hilarious and we’d offer them to any India who approached us. They pretty much thought we were crazy.

So I don’t know what kind of bus you’re picturing me on but I should probably describe it. Well on Wikipedia its called a “crowded Indian bus” serious emphasis on the crowded. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Thanjavur_04.jpg) . Yeah, that’s pretty much exactly what our bus looked like. Don’t worry, I had an aisle seat instead of hanging outside of the bus, but let me tell you they pack that bus SO full that you cannot even move your arms.

I was on this bus for a grand total of 6 hours. It took a lot of patience and I almost had another panic attack towards the end but it was worth the experience. Once we got semi-close to where we thought the ship was, we got off the bus and used my google maps in my blackberry to determine where we were. We decided walking wasn’t going to work so we all shoved into a rigshaw and after about 15 minutes and some stand still traffic we FINALLY made it back to the ship. I have never been so happy to see it!

So I did it. I traveled independently across India with no major plans in mind. I’m really proud of myself considering before this I could hardly go anywhere in Durango by myself. I feel fully confident traveling anywhere in America by myself now.

I had this last day in India to do stuff and I will write about that and possibly Mauritius in another blog cause this one is way too long. Hopefully all the lines show up-I hear they aren’t fully showing up on my sight. Don’t know why that is.

 

I’m currently one day away from Cape Town and I’m really excited!

 

xx

No buy, no problem

Okay. India. Now I know why this country is such a major deal to this trip. It really is the country that’s life changing to us who go there. And it’s not really something you can explain in a blog, or pictures, or even a video. You have to be immersed into the culture and experience with your own eyes what these people are experiencing even as we speak. Coming from a well off white suburban area and then seeing this was mind blowing. Like I said before and in e-mails to friends and what not, I’ve never ever been so grateful for even the smallest things.  I can’t remember if I wrote it in my blog or not. But my first day out in India I came back to the ship and came straight to dinner and first of all being in the AC I was so thankful, sitting at a clean dinner table in a well functioning clean chair with clean utensils, and purified cold water and food that was not even questionable to eat was amazing. I usually leave some food on my plate once I’m finished with a meal. But since that night I’ve never left a bite of food on my plate. I went to bed later that night and I was laying on my white sheets and was so thankful I had a clean proper bed to sleep in with sheets that are super white from how clean they are. I can’t even explain the realization in a blog or even in words. And even if I try it’s not something anyone who reads this would understand.

We were talking about that at lunch the other day. A group of 9 of us were discussing how no one back home is going to understand what all of us SAS kids went through together. I’ve been saying all along that us SAS kids have a common bond of traveling and its true. Were the only ones who will fully understand one another’s stories and where were coming from while explaining our experiences in these countries.

I read a blog before I came on this trip (well one of the many I read) and it was saying that when he came back to the US he would try to explain to his friends some of his many tales of traveling abroad with SAS but his friends didn’t get it. He got the standard “oh how cool! That’s awesome! Amazing!” responses but no one really asked details or really got down to the nitty gritty of all of it. And I know that’s going to happen to all of us SAS kids. That’s why we have one another. And I’m thankful we do. I know my friends love hearing what I’m doing but no one fully understands what I’m going through.

I knew I was going to come back from SAS a different person but I wasn’t sure exactly what was going to happen. Now I know and its definitely for the better. I’m so thankful I got to do this and I think anyone who has the chance to do SAS or any other travel abroad program should. It’s worth every penny you spend. You’ll have experiences, memories, and world views that don’t even compare to most people's in America.

Okay. Now I should probably get back to India. Cause this blog is going to be long. I stayed in Chennai for 2 days and 1 night (on the ship) and then for 4 days and 3 nights I traveled independently across India to Madurai, Kumily, and then Cochin where my group and I met the ship.

So the first day we had a huge group and traveling with a huge group just isn’t the easiest thing in these countries so we all broke up and me, Lauren, Kelcie and Stacy decided to group together. We just wanted to kind of get out and explore and shop around Chennai. So we walked out of the ship area and like most of India when you wander aimlessly you are seriously hounded by 10 rig shaw drivers (it’s a taxi in their country. But pretty much it’s 2 rows of benches on a scooter base) ((and they’re super fun/scary)) all talking your ear off convincing you to take this rig shaw that will take you hear and do this for that price, all times 10 and they have no sense of personal space. They are all up in your face and if you move they’ll follow. It’s intimidating for the first few times and really overwhelming. So we pretty much just randomly picked this guy out of the crowd and settled on a price before getting in the rig shaw (that’s what you have to do so they don’t rip you off) ((they see dollar signs in our eyes and do pretty much all they can to suck every last penny out of you)). So we get this guy Nana and he tells us hell take us all around and we stayed with him the entire day. The drivers there like doing that, even if it means waiting for you for an hour while you eat because they figure if they have you as a customer all day they’ll make more money. Which would be true in the United States too im sure.

So we get in and he takes us to this temple to start with. This was the very beginning of my germ-a-phob emersion. We get to the temple and as in most countries you aren’t allowed to wear your shoes. So you check your shoes in at this worn down holding area being watched by this woman who probably could care less if my shoes were there when I got back. But I dropped them off regardless and walked down an Indian street in my socks. If you know me this is a MAJOR feat. I get grossed out walking through airport security at DIA. And I had just walked through an Indian street and an entire temple with only socks on. And yes my friends made fun of me because they know that I hate germs and dirt.

So we saw this temple and it was really cool. They seemed to be getting their food blessed and other things and many were praying too. We were the only white people in this entire place so, as we did all over all of India, we got full stared at. (Gini you may seriously want to go to India, but if you can’t handle a person in dgo staring at you..India isn’t gona be your forte-though the Chinese were worse).

After we experienced the temple we told Nana we wanted to go shopping at the markets. Now I need to explain to you how rig shaw drivers work in India. Each rig shaw driver works on a point system. Any tourist he brings to certain stores (whether the tourist buys something or not) they driver gets a point. Once the driver gets, I think it was, five points he gets a free shirt/uniform. So, when we said shops he took us to places where there was a ton of other SAS kids-hmmm what a coincidence. Once we saw the other SAS kids we knew exactly why we were taken to this store so we politely looked around but we didn’t buy anything-most stuff is overpriced in these stores. It was good to shop though and the people are very friendly and love to ask where you are from and the second they find out that US is home to us, they say, “OBAMA!” I’m pretty sure they know more about Obama and his family than most American’s do.

So anyway we looked around and went to another market and walked up and down. And then we spotted 2 of our LLC’s and their kids and spouses. Jenny (LLC) is from the Springs and Rob (LLC) is from Ohio but he’s Lis’s LLC and were close with him. They had just got back from lunch and we were looking for somewhere to eat so we asked them where they ate. They ate at a veggie restaurant like 30 seconds away that they were raving about so we had to try it. So we made our way over to this place.

I cant remember the name of it, but the food we ate was with our hands. We ordered a dolsa which is a crepe pancake pretty much and they put it on top of a banana leaf and you eat that with different sauces. My dolsa also had vegetables in it which were really spicy but so good. We also got samosas which are like fried on the outside but have potatoes and other veggies on the inside-they’re delicious. To drink I defintiely had a pepsi-I needed a little American in that meal (and yes mom pepsi is their pop of choice in India-a plus is you ever go) and we got water which you have to, by the way, check the seal of because theyve been known to refill waters with non-purified water and sometimes they even glue the tops back on so youll hear the popping noise when you open the bottle. BUT The meal was awesome and for four of us the total was like 6usd- can’t beat that!

After our meal we had Nana take us to get real henna tattoos (I guess that’s kind of an oxymoron). They were only like 100 rupees which is like 2 bucks and they were beautiful and so detailed. Mine lasted about it week which is fine with me. Next, we went to the beach. It was a little drive, but it was beautiful. Of course we were hounded like 50 times once we got there to buy stuff but after a few minutes’ people just left us alone and let us enjoy the scenery. It was so amazing. I really am able to love a beach anywhere I go!

Nana dropped us off there for a while and then we met him and because we had gotten to know him so well during the day he offered to take us to his house so we could meet his wife and his son. We agreed and we were on our way. Also, I remember now, on our way there we got stuck in “rush hour traffic” and everyone was at a standstill because the train was crossing and we all had to wait. Let me tell you about traffic in India.

So to start off, there aren’t any lanes and there isn’t a speed limit, there may be markings on the roads and posted speeds in a few places but those don’t mean anything, and neither do the few stop lights they have. So pretty much you make up any lane you want which has room for whatever vehicle you have and go the speed of your choice. Speaking of vehicles, there is a wide variety: rig shaws, actual car taxis (which is a like 1950 Chevy), actual real cars, motor bikes, and cows pulling carts. Yes, that’s right, I was in rush hour traffic next to a cow. So surreal.

The stopped traffic was taking too long so we decided to park our rig shaw and walk the rest of the way to Nana’s house-it really wasn’t that far from where we got out. We had to walk to a very poor area and alley way to get to his house. For anyone who has ever been to my house, I would say his entire house is the size of my back deck-maybe smaller. His kitchen, living room, dining room, and family room were all one square room that could hardly fit all of us in it. The other room he had was his bedroom. The mattress was extremely dirty and worn with a few rips and tears in it. He had a few blankets for the bed, but they were also worn and dirty. Four people live in the house and they have another child on the way. It was so amazing to meet Nana’s wife (they had a traditional arranged marriage) and his son and his wife’s mother. They were very welcoming and though they didn’t speak too much English, we communicated through laughter and smiling.

We had to make it a quick visit because we needed to meet our friends back at the ship by 6pm so we left Nana’s house and he took us back to the ship. Once we got back to the ship we were all exhausted and I just stayed in for the night. I was disgustingly dirty and didn’t feel like having to deal with it again that night. I was also so overwhelmed by the day that I just couldn’t go back out. Though, Stacy went back out because Nana wanted to drive us around more that night. The last line he gave us once we left his taxi before going in around 6pm that night was, “you’ve seen my family, you’ve seen my house, you know I’m poor, please help support me”. It was then that we realized we probably weren’t the only tourists that have been taken to Nana’s house but he was still very kind in what he did all day and he seemed like a genuinely good guy.

A common theme that all SAS kids and I have found about India in general is the overwhelming want for money. Everything they say, think, and do is money. Every move they make is about making a profit. Which, I guess looking at it from their eyes I probably would too. Most of their population lives on less than $2.00 a day. I couldn’t even imagine living that way and for that I am so thankful for the privileges I have and everyone else in America should be too.  

 

This is only the first day of India, but it’s already over 3 pages in a word document. So ill keep this all as one blog and add another one later tonight.

Mauritius

Now I know why Mark Twain compared this place to heaven.

Im in love with Mauritius.

 

my india blog is coming soon!

Were lucky little bunnies.

so today, or this morning, at about 2:45 our ship crossed the equator. This means that now I have traveled in all four hemispheres of the Earth-pretty sweet. Also I dont know if its because we have crossed the equator or not but the water in the ocean is so beautiful. It looks like something out of a movie. Not the color really but the way its breaking. Its so calm and graceful. It reminds me of the water in the movie Finding Neverland, its so awesome. Also, before class today I laid out and it is hot hot hot. Were one degree away from the equator so its SUCH intense heat.

 

sidenote: im in class and everyone just noticed the water. its just that gorgeous. and yes my classrooms do have windows. My view is no longer the ebh parking lot or the gross snow. but the beautiful ocean as we sail through it with hardly a cloud in the sky. cant get much better than that.

Beautiful Sunset

 

Feeding a 3year old baby Elephant in Kumily, Kerela, India <3

 

sam same, but different III

Back to Vietnam. I only had one full day and a night to spend in Vietnam so this shouldn’t be too long.

The first day I was back in Vietnam I just hung around on the ship cause all my friends were on an fdp and the ones who weren’t woke up way earlier than me..and trust me I needed the sleep after Cambodia.

But that night I went out with a bunch of friends. We got a free shuttle that took us into town from the ship. It dropped us off at a super nice hotel called the Rex and we had a few drinks and dinner there-it was awesome. After that we hung around there for a while and eventually headed to a bar/club but we were the only white people in sight and the people there were kind of sketch so we went to another club/bar and hung out there the rest of the night.

I had an early wakeup call at around 7:30 because my friend Steph and I were headed to a bus station to meet with her parents nail person’s cousin (confusing). She’s from Vietnam and she wanted to show us around. So, she decided to take us to the CuChi tunnels. We had to take about a 2 hour bus ride there and coincidently there was an SAS professor and his son on the bus and our tour too.

Once we got there it was absolutely amazing-well I think that would be the word to describe it. If you don’t know, the CuChi tunnels are underground tunnels that the Vietnamese used during the Vietnam War to hide out from the American’s. They would also build traps, kind of like you would for an animal, that would trick and kill the American soldiers.  

I got the same reaction from other SAS kids who were at the CuChi tunnels as I felt too. I felt as if our guide was almost making jokes and laughing as he was showing how the traps worked and kind of didn’t take the whole thing seriously. It doesn’t affect them as much as it affects Americans though. I think it’s about 70% of their people are under 25 years old. So they don’t really understand. Whereas for Americans its more prevalent because like my mom said she had friends who fought in the Vietnam war. Even though the use of the traps and tunnels is obviously not something I exactly agree with, they were doing what anyone would try to do it a, what was thought of as, unnecessary war-protect themselves.

That said, the sole use of the tunnels was actually VERY ingenious. The way everything was laid out was so sneaky and all the tunnels were so small that only the Vietnamese would fit inside. And trust me I saw the tunnels and no fat American could fit in those tunnels. Though they have some tunnels they widened for tourists that we all got to climb through. Ours was probably a 30 foot tunnel and being in there for about 5 minutes I was sweating more than ever. I can’t even imagine how they pretty much lived in those tunnels.

They also had an area where you could shoot guns off. All the SAS kids (mostly guys) thought shooting an AK47 was like the coolest thing ever. But to me it was sort of ironic. That was the gun in that same area of woods that killed our own people. So why would you want to pay these people to shoot that gun? I don’t know..wasn’t something I was about to do. Plus I hate guns anyway.

After the CuChi tunnels we headed back to Saigon. We had Steph’s friend take us on her motor bike one by one to a place to eat. In Vietnam the dish Pho is like a Cheeseburger and fries to an American. So we got to the restaurant and got some pho. Pho is basically noodles in a broth and meat of fish in it too. And you can also add in veggies of all sorts in which they bring out on a separate plate. We also had spring rolls and dipped it in the ever famous fish sauce. I wasn’t a fan cause it’s so strong but it wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever had.

After that she took us to a busy market where you could seriously buy anything. And yes mom, I got you a present that I think youll really like and I fully bargained for it while the lady was fanning me because I was sweating so much. (after India I can actually say I’m used to the humidity and I don’t mind it) ((so ha see I can live in the south and I fully would not mind the heat-the bugs are a different story though))

So we shopped a bunch and said bye to our new friend. We then continued to shop more and once we were done we headed back to the ship in order to make on ship time. And before we knew it we were leaving Vietnam for India.

As for right this second were sailing from India to Mauritius. Ill write my India blog later. Its gona be a long one and I don’t have time at the moment.

 

xx

Crazy Dreams

this is mostly just for my memory's sake.

BUT

id say 4 or 5 times ive gone to bed on the ship just like any other night but i wake up in the middle of the night after a dream and because i have an inside room (no window) its pitch black. but i wake up and i have no idea where i am for a 30seconds to a minute. its the strangest thing. one of the times i woke up and i thought i was in the movie saw or something.

who knows what it means but it seriously scares me everytime it happens!

Im Alive.

Yes, its true. I did just travel independently all the way across Southern India and made it back in one piece. Considering I woke up at 3am for a 3:30am bus to the ship area Im pretty tired and taking a nap but the updating blog process will begin tonight.

 

and I did indeed ride en elephant. no big deal or anything.

those 24 hours go by just too quick

this is really bad but i dont have time to write my vietnam blog tonight when i was supposed to. pre-port went longer than it was supposed to and now im exhausted and have to wake up at 7 because... in NINE hours im going to be in INDIA!!

Im not sure what to expect. all the other ports ive kind of known a little of what to expect but India i have no idea, should be interesting.

Im not leaving for my independent travel untill the night of the 12th so hopefully ill have time to write tomorrow night.

 

xx

ay ay Captain

I forgot to add!

yesterday I took a tour of the bridge (where the captain "steers" the ship). it was awesome!

I got to sit in the captain's chair and wear his hat and look through some binoculars they use to peer out into the depths of the ocean. We learned so much about how safe we actually are on the ship. I got great pictures and might add one to my blog. ((i hate adding too many pictures cause then I feel like there will be no surprises once I get back to the states to show everyone!))

 

also dreams on this ship are so vivid

i've had at least 6 or 7 dreams on the ship that ive met up with friends/family in various countries and theyve surprised me and met me there.

I cant even imagine what freakish dreams I would have if I was on the malaria medicine that causes night terrors (yes there are people on the ship actually taking those!!) my friend Leigh is taking them and she had a dream her dead cat was staring at her and other creepy dreams!

 

xx

same same, but different II

Phew. Now that my Dating, Marriage, and Family midterm has just finished I have more time to finish my blog.

So we woke up on the second morning and had breakfast at the hotel. It was buffet style but so fancy and SO good. A lifelong learner on our trip commented that it seemed to be more European. Well, whatever it was, was delicious and 100 times better than the ships breakfast which isn’t half bad.

After my life changing breakfast, we drove to the Toul Sleng Museum. This museum has a courtyard area and around it are buildings that would look similar to a motel of some sort with an outdoor balcony in the front. We were able to explore the entire place on our own but before we did that we had our tour guide give an explanation as to what happened in this area and how he was personally affected.

In this area and where the next area of our tour went roughly 4 million Cambodians were killed. A man, Pol Pot, had gained so much power (similar to Hitler) and wanted to kill off all of his own people for whatever reason and he succeeded. Though, just like the holocaust, the victims of these heinous killings were not just shot and killed. They were tortured. No one was left unharmed-men, women, any race present and even little children. It’s awful and its so unheard of in the United States-especially being how recent it is.

So, our tour guide explained to us that his mother, father, and brother were killed by Pol Pot. He gives these tours of the museum and the killing fields nearly every day. He went on to state sometimes he is unable to get off of the bus to explain further (like he did with us) because it is so hard for him to have to explain to tourists and almost relive what he had to go through. I guess you could say we were lucky because he fully explained to us what had happened and in great detail. Again we lucked out because we got more of a personal experience from him that the other group did.

This museum had all these empty rooms but in the middle of the room would be a metal bed frame in which I think the victims may have been tortured on or killed on. Some rooms had pictures of people laying in the beds from the time of when they were tortured and were so skinny you could see every bone in their body. Some of the “beds” had torture devices on them as what they used in the killings as well. There was another similar 2 story building (the other one was 3 stories) which contained hundreds and hundreds of pictures per room. Each picture was of a victim who was killed and each man had a number attached to them while the women and children did not. And yes they also had pictures of the women and children who were killed as well. In one of the last rooms they had pictures of some of the victims after they had been killed and pictures of them in the process of being tortured. There were also pictures and a glass box structure that were full of the victim’s clothes (or lack thereof). I also recall a picture of a lot of the skulls of the victims lined up along wall-including children’s skulls.

It was a sobering experience and I can see why people say the Cambodia trip is life changing. I had no idea any of this had even happened until I got there. And once I head about it I didn’t fully understand how largely this had affected the people there until I was there and in the flesh.

After being there for a while, we got back on the bus and drove off to the killing fields. This is where the victims were transported to on request of Pol Pot and killed off. It’s a pretty open grassy area with some shrubbery and trees as well. Though, in the middle of everything there’s a huge tower which is actually very gorgeous. Though, the inside of the tower is not. The tower is comprised of probably 15 shelved areas and each shelved area is about 3 feet tall and 5 or 6 feet wide. The entire tower minus the bottom shelved area is filled with skulls of the victims. Children’s skulls were at the entire top of the tower. It’s, once again, sobering thinking those are actual skulls of actual people who were tortured and killed for the sole reason of being Cambodian. Pretty horrific. I also stopped into a small museum area with a picture that talked about Pol Pot and others who led this awful genocide. There was also a giant tree that they would apparently hang a large speaker and play sounds or music on it while people were being exiled so that others would not hear them moaning of pain and agony.

After seeing such an awful area, we were transported to somewhere completely opposite. We next headed to the Silver Pagoda and the Royal Palace. This is seriously the most gorgeous sight I have seen since being in Cambodia. The colors of the palace are SO vibrant and the area around the palace is so clean and the plants and flowers are kept up so well. It felt like I was taking a temperature tour of hell at this point because it was so hot. Though, I powered through and drank my weight in water and the proceeded to sweat it out. I prompted over and over to myself and anyone who would ask if I was hot that I rather take that weather over snow ANY day, which is true. I have beautiful pictures of this area and apparently the “king” still lives in the area to this day. Not a bad humble abode in my eyes. The inside could use a little ac but other than that, it was absolutely gorgeous.

After this we got back to the bus, our new home away from home (which was also conveniently supplied with ice cold water when we got back on every time). Our next destination was the Sorya Local Restaurant. This was a huge one story area with lots of tables and we took over like half the place. Each table had a Lazy Susan (very popular in Asia) which housed all of the food they were later to bring us. The meat they brought was a little iffy ( I hate bones and fat in my meat-so that was a no go) but otherwise everything was delicious. I had like 4 or 5 helpings of rice. I could seriously win survivor cause I love rice just that much. After that we got like 2 hours to ourselves to freely shop in what is called the Central Market. It was like a 5 minute walk from the place we ate at. Except 5 minutes is how much time it would take if there were no cars on the road.

Driving in Cambodia isn’t like driving in the US. Even though they have rules of the road, no one abides by them. Green does not mean go, red does not mean stop, and peds do NOT have the right of way EVER. You seriously have to just cross while the cars and motorcycles are coming at you and DON’T stop. They dodge you, you don’t dodge them. I tried getting a video but I was absolutely terrified every time-to the point I had to hold someone’s arm or hand any time I crossed. Anyways it took about 10 minutes instead of 5 because of the whole crossing deal. God I will never get over that.

So we shopped in the market for lots of cheap stuff. And can I point out when I was looking for t-shirts (its an outdoor market but its covered by some sort of tarp) I spotted a RAT crawling around. That pretty much ruined my shopping time in there and I was ready to get in to the air conditioned mall. There wasn’t much in the mall except a DVD store with thousands $1.50 DVD’s and some of them aren’t even out in the States yet. I got 6 movies in there which was pretty sweet- and yes one of them is Fox and the Hound Emily J.

After our time shopping we needed to get back to the bus cause we needed to catch another flight to Siem Reap. We got to the airport and among my many contraband items they only took my bug spray this time-they didn’t find my water or my sun screen-phew. Our flight lasted a whopping 25minutes and I feel bad for like like 2 people who weren’t SASsholes on the flight because we had all just sweat out our weight the previous hours in the day. Oh well!

Once we arrived in Siem Reap we headed to our hotel and got like an hour to freshen up and get ready for dinner. To our surprise there was like 60 more SAS kids meeting us at the dinner we were going to as well. It was a GIANT buffet with food that was absolutely delicious. If you’ve never have a fried mini banana you should probably put that on your list of things to do before you die-so good. The place was called Kulen II and had a Cultural Dance show performance while we ate as well. It was of a Japanese tea ceremony and all this Japanese stuff which was funny cause I had just seen all that like 2 weeks ago in actual Japan.  They also had onion rings at dinner that seriously hit the craving-American-fatty-greasy-food spot.

After dinner the driver of our bus said he’d drive us downtown so we could shop at the night market and go to the bars down there. And no dad, I didn’t go to any of the bars, so I won’t talk about that sort of night life-not this time anyways. So we got to the night market and the girls I was supposed to go with pretty much left me but its okay they’re kind of depressing people anyways. So I went to the ATM with these other girls and guy from my group and went shopping for a little bit with them. I saw two of my other friends I met from my group getting a foot massage in a shop and decided to hang with them the rest of the night. And I obviously decided to get a massage too. I got a foot back arm and leg massage for 30minutes for TWO dollars! Connected to the massage place (but they’re everywhere too) are these things they call fish doctors. It’s an inflatable pool filled with water and like tons of little fish that you’d keep as pets back in the states. You sit there and pay for like 20minutes and these fish like suck on to your feet and “massage” them. You also get a free drink which I think they give you to ease your tensions of getting into some gross fish foot pool. All the workers tried to convince me to get in but I just do not let things I eat give me foot massages. And lets get real, I hate taking my shoes off at DIA, you really think I’m going to put my feet in some pool where who knows how many gross feet have been in? (can you tell I hate feet?).

So after the fishy foot incident two friends and I decided to make our way down and start shopping and getting lots of good deals. I wish we bargained in the US. Most people here see it as a hassle but I kind of like it, you can get such good deals. It got to about 10:30 and we decided to call it a night because we had to wake up at 4:45 the next morning for our sunrise tour. Plus I needed to shower because I was gross from sweating gallons of water all day. So I went back to our hotel. Actually scratch that the place was called “Borei Angkor Resort and Spa”. Yeah, it was absolutely gorgeous and so clean. My roommate Linsday and I were joking that they gave all of us a honeymoon suite.

I woke up at the crack of dawn (well actually before that, thus why I was getting up at that time). And we drove the Angkor Wat. We were walking to the temple in complete dark and it was cool cause that would have been how they would do it back in the day. Once we got to the area in which we got the watch the sun rise behind Angkor Wat Temple I was sitting on an ancient library watching the sun rise behind another ancient temple. How awesome is that? I got some great shots even though I was beyond tired. After we watched the sun rise until like 6:30 we went back to the bus and ate breakfast at the hotel. Once again it was buffet style and the food was seriously amazing! They have such a variety of stuff and I feel like it is not processed and disgusting (as I’m learning in my anthro. Of food class) like back in the United States. Anyway we did that and had time to get ready for our afternoon temple tour.

Our first stop was Ta Prohm temple. This is where Angelina Jolie filmed tomb raider. Now I know why it was filmed here. It was absolutely gorgeous. The ruins mixed in with the arching trees which we had no idea how they were even able to still stand and be bent like that. I got a ton of great pictures and it was such a great experience.

Our next stop was the Angkor Wat temple but we had arrived on the opposite side from where we had previously gone for the sunrise. It was so gorgeous and so huge! There was so much detail put into it and walking through it was one of the most awesome experiences I’ve had while seeing temples in each country. I got amazing pictures and a video or two but it seriously doesn’t do it justice. We also saw monkeys while walking up to the entrance. There were like 10 of them and a little tiny baby too. I got literally inches from them and they took some of our sasers water bottles and were drinking out of them, it was too funny.

After we had toured Angkor Wat we went to one final temple, which I believe was called the Bayon temple and it was a temple with faces all over everywhere. It reminded me of legends of the hidden temple. You could either climb over and through the temple or walk around it. It decided to follow a couple of guys that were in my group and follow them up and through the temple. It was a steep stairway up and then more and more steps but we made it to the top and it was awesome. And then we proceeded to climb down to our groups meeting point. At this point I have never been hotter in my entire life. We waited for our whole group for like 20 minutes and our leader took us to another area of interest that we walked to in the scolding heat. It was cool though, it was this huge wall sculpted like elephants and we walked on top of it to meet a bus that would take us to our bus. On our way to the first bus I started getting really dehydrated and dizzy so I didn’t take too many pictures cause I was just trying to down my boiling water and keep focused. Once we got on the bus to our tour bus the ac wasn’t on and I was literally soaking wet with sweat. I have never been so hot in my life. I finally got to cool down once I was in our tour bus cause it had ac but wow what an experience. I have no idea how those people live in that heat outside everyday selling stuff and most of them are in pants or long sleeves!

After this we took our bus to the airport and our flight took us back to Saigon (ho chi min city). Our flight was an hour and a half I believe and we got in around 7pm. Once we got back to the ship I showered really well and got in some clean clothes. I met up with Lis who wasn’t feeling too well and got some dinner up on the 7^th deck and decided to call it a night.

I got to spend one full day in Siagon and one night as well. Ill write those in a blog tomorrow. Im exhausted and have an 8am class tomorrow.

Not tomorrow but the next day ill be in Chennai, India. I’m traveling independently, this should be interesting. My friends make fun of me cause my idea of an India trip and sight seeing during the day and a Marriott hotel at night. But their idea of roughing it is no shower for 4 days and apparently staying in a tree house. Great.

xx

I get to see this every morning and every night. no big deal.

 

YELLOW SEA

this sea is bananas b-a-n-a-n-a-s!

 

THIS SEA IS BANANAS B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

 

wooo!!!!

 

Spring 2010 Sea Olympics

same same, but different I

I think Cambodia was my favorite place I’ve been so far on SAS. It wasn’t a port (obviously) that SAS stopped at, I was on a separate trip though SAS and we flew to Cambodia. And as some of my group members (there were about 60 of us total) said, the pictures and videos seriously don’t do any of it any justice. You have to travel there for yourself to be able to take in everything that I was able to. The people are SO friendly, the sights are so beautiful, and the memories are priceless.  I was there for 3 days and two nights, and SAS definitely hooked it up along the lines of food and where we stayed.

Here it goes:

We flew to Phnom Penh at like 2:00 and once we arrived we took a bus to their National Museum. They didn’t allow photography in the museum area but I got lots of pictures of the garden area they had and the outside of the building. The building was red (a lucky color) with an Asian design-it was really pretty. The museum wasn’t indoor but not outdoor. It had a roof but no walls, if that makes sense. It was so neat and the things we saw were ancient artifacts which of course now I can’t remember the names cause we couldn’t take pictures of it. Google it maybe?       

Also, this means there is NO ac in the museum. If you are born in raised in dry-heat-Colorado this place is some kind of intense you cannot even begin to imagine. I don’t know if you’ve been to Florida in July or not but Cambodia in general feels like that..times 5 or 10. Seriously, it was 33ish degrees Celsius, which means it was about 95 Fahrenheit plus the humidity makes it feel around 105/110. It’s SO miserable but I managed to put that aside because uh hello I was in Cambodia!

Anyways after we were done there we headed to the Mekong River to take an hour long sunset cruise. To get onto the boat (yes, it is a boat, not ship [ships carry boats]), we had to climb up this piece of, I’m pretty sure, petrified wood that was propped up from the ground and rested onto the boat. So, getting on to the boat was a potential bad accident waiting to happen, but it turned out to be quite sturdy-well it held up for all of us SASsholes- so it worked.

The cruise was great; you could either sit upstairs or down stairs. We all decided to sit upstairs and enjoy the view (and breeze) to its fullest. We sailed along the river as the sun began to set and it was gorgeous. I got some great pictures and got some great views of the river and “floating houses” that are located literally on the river. You also see people rowing those long boats while wearing the cone shaped hats and steering with some sort of bamboo stick. It’s like something you’d see at Disney, but this is seriously the real deal. This keeps happening to me, I’ll see a temple in China or a Shrine in Japan or this example too and I’m so used to seeing the model version in Vegas or Disney that it’s so unreal to me that I am actually seeing the real thing. Anyways the cruise was great and it gave us a chance to meet a few new people too. (There were 60 of us but we were divided into two groups for the whole trip, and yes my bus, Bus2, was better).

After our cruise we went up to the main street area where we waited for the bus to take us to our next stop. Though, we were interrupted. As we went up to the main street we heard this loud techno music and I kid you not like 45-50 people are all in unison doing aerobics outside on this street all imitating this guy in spandex with a mic. attached to his face. It was so hilarious and some of our SAS kids decided to join in for a few minutes too. Don’t even worry I got a video and it’s hilarious.

So anyway next we went off to the Palm Tree Orphanage. This is a big deal to SAS because one of our own onboard psychologists/counselors had a major part in starting this organization and ever since many SAS alums have donated their time by volunteering at this orphanage. Also apparently this is where Angelina Jolie adopted her kid-which I don’t really care about because I don’t like her but at least he has a good life now. So anyway we had to cross a busy busy street go get to the street this orphanage was on and it was dark out so it was pretty sketch but all 60 of us white kids made it across and managed no damage but about a million stares. So were walking up to the orphanage which is partially outside and all of these little kids are excitedly waiting for us even outside of the gates to the Palm Tree.

These kids were SO cute. I guess there are 90 in total (or around that number) and for how much poverty they had come from and such a limited lifestyle compared to what we live in the United States they were so grateful for every minute they had, or so it seemed. As we walked into the entrance a little girl immediately latched on to my arm and proceeded to show me pretty much every square inch of the orphanage. From what I understood she was around 9 years old and her name was something along the lines of Perrier. She was the cutest little girl and we both had on pink and one of my fellow sasers gave her one of the many pink scarves we had brought for the kids. Her brother Odum latched on to my friend Stacy and showed her and Lindsay around the place. All the sas kids seemed to have their “own” kid that was showing them around. There was an outdoor courtyard and this little girl brought me to the swing where we did that for a while and then she taught me this hand game that would be similar to down by the banks in the US. It was so funny seeing her trying to teach me how to do it. After we started playing there were a ton of others playing too and we got in a big circle and played. You do the patty cake patty cake motion and sing this song and then make a funny face and then everyone freezes and whoever moves first loses and goes to the inside of the circle and becomes the judge. And you play this over and over. It was so fun and after a while they told us to sing so as we were all sweating out any sort of liquid we had consumed so brilliant mind decided we should sing jingle bells- how appropriate. But they loved it none the less.

We only got to spend like 30minutes at the orphanage but it was definitely life changing. It was so hard to say goodbye to the kids. This has made me want to come back to Cambodia and especially the orphanage. I have made it a promise to myself that I will travel back there someday to help. It’s these kind of things that make me realize that when I get back to the US I’m going to be so much different from my peers, especially down in Durango. I’m not going to be able to stand when someone starts complaining that their steak is cooked medium rather than well done or that it’s too hot out. Pretty crazy that 30minutes can change someone so much.

After the orphanage we took the bus to such a nice restaurant call Khmer Surin (you can look it up if you want. Im sure my dad has already pulled it up in a separate tab). Anyways the food was awesome and I met some new people at dinner and it was semi outdoor with a hut overhead. Totally something you’d picture in a foreign country like Cambodia (but way nicer).

After that we checked into our hotel and went to bed. We got paired with a  roommate alphabetically which worked out for me cause Lindsay (who im already friends with) ended up being my roommate. Also something to note: this hotel was absurdly nice and the beds were queen size which was such a nice change cause my bed on the ship is like a extra small twin.

 

Okay so this is day one. I’m just going to upload this now and type day 2 and 3 later.

I’ve been so busy cause I’ve had papers due and a midterm and most importantly tomorrow is SEA OLYMPICS! I’m part of the yellow sea which means I will be decked out in all yellow tomorrow and my “sea” will be competing in various events such as: nail the sailor, dress your LLC, the salty whistle pirates pull, sea fued, world cup of crab soccer and much more! I’d say wish us luck but I know we don’t need it J. Whichever sea wins will get the privilege of getting off the ship first in Florida, which I, by the way, find bitter sweet. I have no desire to get off the ship, but I know I’ll be excited to see my family and show them and tell them all about my experiences.

I can’t believe this is already half over.

I don’t ever want to leave this place.

I could seriously stay here forever.

 

Also we got tacos for lunch today-such a major deal! And yes they were delicious.

xx