Viet Fucking Nam & Cambodia

The trip from India to Vietnam was actually pretty eventful. Well as eventful as it can be on a ship in the middle of the ocean. The crew had their talent show, which was SO much fun. They were great and one of the cabin stewards is a cross dresser and man could he/she dance! It was one of my favorite nights on the ship so far. They asked us donate to the crew well being fund because they can’t get off the ship in a lot of the ports they are on for huge stretches at a time. So this fund goes to like musical instruments, gym equipment and other stuff to help their ship life. That night alone they raised almost $9,000. It was a very cool night. 


We also had Halloween on the ship, which was very weird and different. At dinner the crew made a "halloween" menu and made stuff like borscht and called it blood stew and all that kind of stuff. This is just another example of how great the crew is. They try so hard and it was very cute. The little kids on the ship trick or treated through some of our cabins too. There was a halloween "dance" and there was NO beverage service. Having a few drinks makes it a lot more fun to be in a costume, so this was a different experience. They had the dance in the union and there was a costume contest and the student life workers did a thriller dance and stuff. It was fun and we all danced, but it was really weird not being at school. Halloween has become such a college holiday for me I was definitely homesick (school sick). My friend Sam and I had gotten these horribly tacky leopard print pashminas in India so we wore those and made ears and we were leopards. Gen and Corinne were dominoes and Drew was a ninja. People actually got really creative with the limited resources that we had. 3 boys won for best group costume because they dressed up like an Indian rickshaw. It was hilarious.

We also had to refuel in Singapore on the way to Vietnam. So we got to see the city from the ship and I was able to pick up enough cell service to call Emma Kate and Tim so that was really great.

Our preparation for Viet Nam was very interesting. We had a 5 minute DEMONSTRATION complete with re creation on how to cross a street in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). It was pretty funny, but made us a little apprehensive. Saigon was a very different port logistically then any other we had encountered to this point. Saigon is not on the coast of Vietnam but is on a river. This means the ship has to sail up the river to get there, which is not an easy task in the least. We got up early to watch the ship maneuver the tight turns of the river while going about 2 knots. It was really interesting to watch and I couldn’t believe the ship could do that. All the little fisherman were out on the river and when we would go by we would watch the wake of the ship and would hold our breaths to see if they were going to capsize. And yup the wake did knock a few of them over…very sad.

We pulled into port and it was pretty urbanized, which was really nice. I had forgotten that Vietnam was the parent trip port so there were all these moms and dads with signs for their kids, which was really sad. A few kids shed some tears and then we all moved on. There was a little welcome group in traditional Vietnamese attire and rice hats with a big Welcome Semester at Sea sign, which was cool. A tent with a little stall selling stuff had also been set up right off the gangway. I called this the “stuff white people like” market because they were selling rice hats, DVDs, and North Face Backpacks. Basically everything everyone on the ship bought. Hilarious.

I got off with Drew, Corinne and Sam to explore Saigon. We were provided with a shuttle even though the port was really close to everything. The government feels we make too much of a scene with people trying to hawk stuff and pedicabs and stuff it is just easier to have a shuttle. Our first debacle of the day was with money. The conversion rate is 1 dollar to 17,850 dong. That makes you a millionaire with like 50 bucks and it is the most confusing math I have had to do in my entire life. My pink calculator came in SUPER handy. It was easier to just round up to 20,000 and divide but still shit got confusing really fast. We then headed to the Ben Thanh Market, which is a giant market in the central area of Saigon. It was amazing. They had food, meat, clothes, furnishings, restaurants, livers (yes raw livers just chilling), basically everything you could ever want. Ever. We were in major shock for a while and just walked around in a daze. Vietnam is also REALLY hot, like subtropical, and this is an un air conditioned market so there was a lot of sweat. We kept running into sas kids everywhere. We got some beers as we walked around and it was just really cool taking it all in.

It is a known thing through SAS kids that Vietnam is the place to get clothes made. So we left the market to walk around to try to find a tailor. We finally found this great place. I got an amazing jacket made and my linen pants that were destroyed by the stupid camel in morocco fixed and then replicated. Gen’s trip left that am for Cambodia so I had her measurements and tried to have them make a dress from a picture for her without her actually being there. Drew got a blazer made and Corinne got a dress too.

After that we got some iced coffee. Vietnam is actually known for their coffee and they do this thing with the iced coffee where they put condensed milk in the bottom so it is delicious. This was just the beginning of us chalking up our health and safety to god by drinking the water. We have only been in countries where we can’t touch or eat anything for like months now and we are sick of it. So we drank the ice. Yup. Still alive. For now. Then we had our first experience with the North Face apparel. We found a great luggage stall and Sam and Corinne got gigantic North Face backpacks for $10 each and I got a new piece of luggage for China, which I am gifting to mom when I get back. Then we had our first encounter with the pirated DVD. They had so much! I got Up, Season 5 of Weeds, Season 6 of Entourage and the new Harry Potter for like $5 total. It was dangerous.

I had read about this place in Lonely Planet that had propaganda art and other things from the war so we decided to head over there. It was a cool walk (with many dangerous street crossings) but it enabled to see a lot more of the city, which was nice. The store was really funky and I bought a very cool piece of art that will hang on the stairs going up to the loft in the NYC apt when I move in. Yeah I have been decorating the apartment I don’t live in yet in my head the entire trip.

It was getting late by this point so we stopped and got a snack at Yogurt Land. It was great because I LOVE froyo and it was just like 16 Handles in the east village! They had all these flavors and you serve yourself and then add toppings and they charge you by weight. Delish. We headed back to the shuttle and went back to the ship to drop our loot from the day and get changed. Then we headed back out for dinner. I had read about this place in the NY Times that was supposed to be amazing and we tried to find it and couldn’t find it anywhere. So we ended up at a Vietnamese restaurant that the hospitality people on board had recommended. I ordered rice wine thinking it would be like sake. Mistake. It was like a shot of liquor stronger than vodka. So I had to order another drink and pour it into that. Good college kids know one cannot waste liquor! We had a really yummy Vietnamese food. Fresh spring rolls, scallops and other things as appetizers and I got glass noodles with seafood and it was really good! Drew went to find the bathroom and magically found Kara and a bunch of other people. Sam and Corinne went back to the ship and we went out!

We were on a mission to go to this bar called Apocalypse Now! (How funny is that), but we found this little hole in the wall first so we stopped there and had some drinks. Then we headed to Apocalypse Now! Which was packed with SAS kids but the drinks were super expensive. We found Cav and bounced back and forth between our cheap bar and Apocalypse. We closed our cheap bar and the Vietnamese bar tenders whipped out Jenga (really of all games yes JENGA) and we played jenga on the bar for a while. Eventually they closed and we headed back to the other club to dance for a long while. I found Kareem and Cynthia and a ton of other people and it was super fun. We danced for a while and since Kareem doesn’t drink i felt ok walking back to the ship with him. Walk is a stretch for our trip back but we made it! I got back to my room and Drew was just sitting outside my door, which generally means I am sick of dealing with my roommate and I want to sleep in the Klubhouse (what we named my new room). So I let him in and went and called mom and tim. When I got back into my room it was about 4:30 am and Drew’s alarm was going off because he had a trip. I had to wake him up to leave for his trip before I even went to sleep. Oh man. What a night but it was really super fun!

The next day thankfully my trip didn’t leave until 11:45. Lunch on the ship was actually great. When we are in port they have better ingredients and less people to feed. There were also parents on board so they were definitely showing off. We had grilled cheese and french fries which was helpful for my rough morning. We headed to the airport and flew out to Phnom Penh. This was the parent trip and there were a fair amount of both parents and solo students on my trip. I knew this was not going to be my most fun trip as we were dealing with serious subject matters and had lots of grown ups on the trip and I didn’t really know anyone. This was totally fine and I was trying to approach this with an educational attitude. Our flight was delayed quite a bit so our tour had to change slightly. When we landed in Phnom Penh we headed to the Palm Tree Orphanage, which has SAS affiliation. The kids put on a dance and then we were free to interact with them. We all know kids aren’t my favorite so I was feeling sorta awkward. One little girl came up to me and ATTACHED herself to my hand for the rest of the time there. She showed me her room, her classroom and some of her belongings. Then she gave me her stuffed bear. I almost died I kept saying no no it is ok it is yours! But she wouldn’t have it and made me take it. I felt so horrible but there was nothing I could do. Someone suggested that I regift it in another country and I thought that was a great idea.

We then took a Sunset Cruise on the Mekong River, which was very pretty. It wasn’t for very long but it was nice to see the city from the river. After the cruise we had a really nice dinner at this fancy restaurant. Cambodian food is very good and super similar to western Chinese food. With lotssss of sticky rice. Then we headed to our hotel. We got to pick roommates so I had already picked Denim earlier in the voyage and it was nice to be at least acquainted with the person I was staying with. Some kids went out but I still wasn’t over the night before so Denim and I stayed in and watched a little TV and I went to the business center and used the internet for a long while and got to gchat with liv, tim and RJ so that was great. We went to sleep for our 6am breakfast.

I did not sleep very well. Being on SAS trips makes me so anxious that I am going to miss an alarm and miss tours and stuff. It is super stressful and I psych myself out so I am waking up every hour. Not fun.

Our breakfast at the hotel was really good and we started our day at 7 am. This was not going to be a fun day as it was focused on the Cambodian Genocide during the Khmer Rouge. I did not know a lot about this and I was amazed that it all happened so recently and that no one knows about it. Our first stop was the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. This museum was a former high school, which was then used as the Security Prison 21 by the Khmer Rouge from 1975-1979. The prison has been transformed into a very disturbing museum. It is estimated that more the 17,000 people were imprisoned in the 3 years. The cells have pictures of what they looked like the day the Vietnamese uncovered the prison complete with torture tools and dead bodies. They still had the torture facilities standing including what used to be recreation equipment, but was used as a type of waterboarding machine thing during the Khmer Rouge. Prisoners were hung off of it and dunked into giant containers of contaminated water or human feces. There are pictures of many of the prisoners up in the cells. There was also a very interesting art exhibit by a Swedish man who had been invited to Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge. It was a exhibit of his photographs with blurbs about how the communist spun the stories and what they had thought in the 1970’s and what they now think of the photos. It was very interesting and disturbing. The most famous thing in the museum was the Skull Map, which was a huge map of Cambodia composed of over 300 skulls. They dismantled the map in 2002 and many of the skulls are still on display and the rest have been brought to the killing field memorial. Out of the 17,000 people that were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng there were only 12 known survivors. When we were visiting there was actually one of the survivors at the museum. Our tour guide was telling us that he probably has post traumatic stress disorder and survivors guilt and apparently spends a lot of time at the museum now. Even our tour guide is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge and lost his own father in the purges.

After the Genocide Museum we headed to the outskirts of Phnom Penh to the Choeung Ek Killing Fields. When the Khmer Rouge took power they forced evacuation of all of the cities in Cambodia. So a lot of things are all on the outskirts. These were the most upsetting. It is estimated that at least 17,000 people were executed here and many of the remains cannot be exhumed because of the flooding in the areas after the regime fell. They have found mass graves of over 8,895 bodies so far. Many of these were former prisoners of Tuol Sleng. Walking around was extremely upsetting. In the center of the field they have a memorial stupa that is over 8 stories high and has acryclic siding and is completely filled with skulls (over 5,000 of them separated by gender and age). Walking around one can see the pits and they have markers like “600 naked woman”. As you walk around you have to be very careful as to where you walk because there are still tons of clothes from the victims on the ground. There are also bones and teeth still in the ground and you can just see them as you walk around. Still there. It is very upsetting and scary to think this only happened 30 years ago or less. The same decade I was born this was going on. And we let it but bothered ourselves with stupid oil wars instead…anyways another subject for another time. Pol Pot stayed in power will almost 1997 and we never took away Cambodia’s seat in the UN. Sometimes I just don’t understand the world and government but there is no right answer or correct fix as we have seen. Communism was the answer for a while but look where that got Cambodia.

After visiting the Killing Fields we headed to the Silver Pagoda and Royal Palace, which was a stark contrast. The Royal Palace was gorgeous. The pagodas were beautiful in the traditional south east asian style. Most were Buddhists but some still had remnants of the Hindu religion that once dominated the area. We kept saying how it looked like Disney World because it was absolutely unbelievable it almost looked fake. We saw the famed emerald Buddha and several Stupas that held the remains of some of the Kings. The Silver Pagoda has more than 5,000 silver tiles lining the floors. They try to protect the tiles by covering them but they almost look like metal and one wouldn’t know they were actually silver. It was a really cool area.

Then we went to lunch, which was no where near as good as dinner was. We wandered around on the pretense of shopping but Cambodia was expensive especially in comparison to Vietnam! They were like American prices for Cambodian quality so we didn’t get much. Then we headed to the National Museum, which was sort of ehhh. It had a lot of statues that were taken from Siem Reap and Angkor Wat when the Khmer Rouge took power (because art and history was against their “plan”). So it was just a precursor to what we were going to see anyways.

We hopped on ANOTHER plane and flew from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. From the airport we headed right to Angkor Wat. Our tour guide was a sweet guy but extremely annoying. He literally said “you know” every 4 words like we would say um or like. It was painful. We got to Angkor Wat and got to watch the sunset over it, which was gorgeous. Dinner was ok there was a “cultural dance show” after dinner, which was frankly pretty boring and we were all exhausted. The best part was the end. The place was pretty fancy and there was this HUGE group of Japanese tourists and during the last dance a group of them went and put dollars on the stage…like this was a strip club. Then at the end when they came out to bow all the Japanese people ran onstage and took pictures with them! It was horribly embarrassing and hilarious all at the same time. Not only were they taking pictures they were doing the very stereotypical Japanese peace sign. So ridiculous but we got a good laugh out of it.

We headed back to the hotel and passed out.

Our last day in Cambodia had a LOT of temples! I got up at 4:15 am and we headed back out to Angkor Wat to watch the sun rise over it. There were so many people there watching the sunrise it is amazing to think that 100 people are there every day watching the sun rise over the temple when we are doing our own thing every day. Then back to the hotel for breakfast then BACK to Angkor Wat for a tour. There was a lot of Angkor Wat. The tour was nice. It is a very cool building but sorta like the Taj in the fact that once you get in there isn’t a ton to see. Our tour guide actually lived in Angkor Wat during the Khmer Rouge and fed off the bats that live there. The bats are the main reason the whole thing is turning black…it’s the acid from their urine. Cool. Angkor Wat was found when the French were colonizing Cambodia. The jungle had completely reclaimed it and the locals knew about it but it wasn’t like a huge important site. It has gone through years of restoration to look the way it does now. It was originally a Hindu Temple and then became Buddhist.

After Angkor Wat we headed to Ta Prohm Temple, which I thought was actually in a way cooler then Angkor Wat. Ta Prohm is a temple that has not been restored unlike many of the other Angkorian temples. The jungle has almost completely reclaimed this temple and it is absolutely indescribable. There are these amazing ruins mixed with vines and trees. It is very cool and my pictures will do more than I can. They also filmed parts of Tomb Raider there.

We went back to the hotel for lunch and to check out and then went to Angkor Thom. Ankgor Thom was the walled city in Siem Reap. The temple there is known as the face temple and is most famous for this as well. We walked around and went to the little market there. There isn’t a lot to say about these places and it is best shown in pictures.

Then we headed back to the airport and back to Vietnam! I was amazed at how some of the kids on my trip treated their parents. Appalled is a better word. I mean I am no angel with my parents but if they paid a fortune to drag themselves out to Vietnam to visit me on top the small inheritance they paid to send me SAS and I hadn’t seen them in 3 months I would be pretty nice. Nope. Not these kids. One girl wouldn’t even sit with her mom at meals. Like seriously? It was so upsetting. There was also this one kid. Oh man. Well lets just say someone finally got sent home from SAS and he was on my trip. It started the day we left for Cambodia. He was missing in the airport and then he almost missed the plane but got on by the skin of his teeth. Then we got to Cambodia and he lost his passport and was MIA with him mom all day trying to get it back. When he did join us on tours it was very obvious he was def. on drugs. Probably xanax it was a bad scene. He was from Greenwich (obviously) but the icing on the cake was in the airport back from Cambodia. Unfortunately, he got arrested….for trying to steal cigarettes in the airport in Cambodia. Great. Well somehow the authorities let him come back to Vietnam and then Semester At Sea decided to dismiss him from the program. Whoops.

Anyways, we got back Friday night and I immediately found Gen and showered. It was Sam’s 21st birthday so we were ready to go! A bunch of us headed out and tried to get cabs but we all couldn’t fit in one. So 6 of us piled into one and Drew and Kareem hopped on the back of some guys motorcycle. This is the norm in Vietnam. Instead of cabs people pimp out their motorcycles. This was big time against the rules cuz SAS says we should only ride on things with 3 wheels minimum. Well obviously they got split up from us and their driver ended up taking them to yet another whore house. Finally they found us and we started our night! It was crazy lots of bar hopping and cabs and all that, but I am proud to say we all survived slightly unscathed and it was a ton of fun!

The last day in Vietnam Gen and I went out and found a great coffee place and got food and coffee and then shopped all day. I got all the last minute stuff I needed and we picked up all the stuff we got made at the tailor. Then we ran into Drew and got Pho. Pho is traditional Vietnamese soup with glass noodles. There are all these chain restaurants that just served it and it is so yummy. A little hard to eat with the chopsticks but I am getting a lot better with them. Then we decided to go get massages. Vietnam is famous for their affordable massages so Gen had found this place that was $12 USD for 1.5 hours. It was great and super fun and clean and relaxing. We got these robes and all got our hot stones massages in the same room. It was great and we were giggling the whole time.

It was pretty much time to head back to the ship but we realized everyone else was going to be getting on wasted so we decided to hit up a bar on the way back….cutting it close to onship time. The first place we tried to go in said that Drew could come in but Gen and I were not welcome…whorehouse. We found a cute place with happy hour and the bar tenders were really nice. Over the half hour we sat there we realized that that too was a brothel. All these women kept walking in and going up the stairs and then this one guy came in had half a glass of wine and he went upstairs too. We were cracking up at this point. We also realized he had like 15 minutes to get back to the ship. It was a mad dash and thankfully we made it in time!

I really enjoyed Vietnam & Cambodia. Cambodia was extremely eye opening and I really had no idea the horrors that happened there so recently. Vietnam was a ton of fun and I can't wait to get back. There is so much I didn't get to see (Hanoi, Ha Long Bay etc).
Asia has been super fun so far and I have loved it!

White Boy Magic; India

THIS IS THE BIG ONE- from our ship doctor the night before we docked into India. Every time we get into port we have 2 meeting the 2 nights before. One is cultural preport and one is logistical preport. At logistical our ship doctor speaks about health issues we are facing in the port. He has this cute hat that says “Dr. Dave” on it and has a red light. The light is off when we don’t have to worry, on if we should be aware, and flashing if we need to be cautious. When he came out for India the light was flashing, they also turned on the disco light, laser lights and played the song “staying alive”. Just a little precursor to India.

Before we pulled into port they started covering the carpet with cardboard and plastic. They also took in most of the deck furniture, covered chairs in plastic and closed many of the watertight doors to the outside. It was like they were in lockdown mode for India. The first and hopefully the only port that this happened for.

We got to Chennai on October 23rd and everything about it was different than what we have had to deal with so far. Customs was RIDICULOUS. They don't allow us to get our passport in India for some strange reason so we have to carry this onshore visitor passes and customs declarations for what electronics we are carrying (very strange). Indian authorities had to distribute these when we docked and I was just waiting to hear my name called and be questioned about my necessity of a 10-year visa but thankfully I got through fine. It usually takes us 40 minutes to clear the ship after it docks but here it took 2 hours.

The port was grossly dirty. not like garbage dirt, which I am used to in India but there is this weird ash everywhere. I guess they were right about covering every surface. I took pictures on my feet after the first day and it was DISGUSTING. I loved it. Drew and I met Bernie once we got off and she was right at the gate when we walked out! It was super nice. It was a 15-minute walk from the ship to the gate.

 Drew was in sensory overload for the first 3 hours and didn't really say much. I felt bad and like he wasn’t having a good time, but I think you just have to take in everything you are seeing and doing. We got on a public train within 10 minutes of getting out of the port, which I don’t think helped. Then we got in an auto rickshaw, which DEFINITELY didn't help. they are this little motorized things. wikipedia it only a picture can do it justice. not to mention whenever Bernie would haggle for a price she made me stand with drew like a block and a half away so they didn't know it was for a white person and then we would walk over and the vendor would try to change the price. We dubbed it white boy magic. We shopped around and wandered. We found this tiny fire temple, which was very cool. Chennai is know for being super religious, so most of their food is vegetarian and there are tons of temples everywhere.

We shopped around Pondy Bazaar and Spencer Marker. I found silk soy milk! I was ecstatic. this trip is making miss really weird things like fresh healthy stuff. When I get home I just want fresh spinach w. Italian dressing and goat cheese and soymilk. we had a great south Indian lunch Drew was in awe the whole time and I got my mango lassi and sweet lime soda! So, I was happy. We got dinner at this place called Hot Bread. I wanted Cafe Coffee Day, my fav coffee place in India, but this place was right next to it and had this delish looking sandwiches. so I got a chicken tikka Panini it was super yummy! We got very good cold coffee too. It was late by this point so we took an auto rickshaw back. Bernie left us and went to her place (she was staying on the navy grounds.) We had some issues with finding the right gate for the port. We finally got in and they checked our dumb shore passes like 5 times. we were finally right in front of the ship and I started getting shit. drew said it was the first time all he day he was happy he was the white kid. We called this “Reverse White Boy Magic”. The security people were questioning me and stuff because I look Indian. they asked my name like 4 times and asked me where I was from and all this shit. Finally, they let me on it was amusing. After we got back on the ship we found Kareem and convinced him to join us the next day.

Day #2 we woke up and headed out to meet Bernie. Obviously, Indian Standard Time made her driver late and we had to stand in the sketchy port area waiting for like almost an hour, but I had both boys so I was safe for the most part it was amusing and toasty warm. We piled into the car and headed to Pondicherry. We all fell asleep and after about 2 hours the car stopped. Pondicherry was a French colony and still maintains its separateness, so we had to get a pass for the car to enter. Dad had wanted us to find an orphanage to donate Jeramy’s sedaka box money to, but hadn’t given us specifics and Bernie I were both in a city we didn’t know. However, karma had it arranged for us. When the car stopped to get the permit we stopped directly in front of the Salt Children’s Home. Bernie decided we would go in and we met all the kids and the director of the orphanage. There were about 30 kids there in total and they were all super friendly. We got the guys credentials and saw that he was legit and the kids all seemed happy so we donated about $5000 rupees and took pictures and left. It was very random, but I think we helped out in a way that was more effective than if we just gave to another Mother Teresa Orphanage.

We got back in the car and headed to a commune called Auroville. Bernie has heard good things about this place from friends and in lonely planet, but we didn’t know exactly what it was. We got there and it was a little commune village with shops and a restaurant. If we had watched a video and gone through a basic training we would have been able to go into the commune, but we weren’t there for extremely long, so we just strolled through the shops and had a very yummy lunch.

After that we continued out to Pondicherry. We got there and found a hotel and then wandered around. We saw the Mother Pondicherry Ashram and walked around there and then walked up and down the beach. It was interesting to see how well the coastal area had bounced back after the tsunami.

We walked over to the shopping area and Drew and I picked out some glasses frames. Then Drew and Kareem experienced real Indian shopping, or at least how I do it. We went into this fabric/clothing store and asked if they had shawls they said yes and pulled the first package out. Then we started with the MORE NEXT words. And more and more shawls came out. Bernie and I were unfolding them and making split second decisions. Finally, Kareem started getting into it since shawls are the perfect presents for all his family since all the women wear them as head coverings. Drew was just hysterical the whole time. More and more shawls were flying everywhere and Kareem got out a pen and paper trying to figure out who would get which. After about 1 hour and over 100 shawls we walked out with about 20 in total. Success. Finally. Then we headed to dinner. I wanted Buttar Chicken, but since we were in Southern India and most of the cuisine was vegetarian this was a challenge. We found this one place that was a little sketchy, but the food was decent. Then we headed back to the hotel and passed out.

The next day Drew and I woke up early to head to the Internet café so I could skype mom and dad, but when we got there it was closed. He went back to sleep and I finished my book and then Kareem, Bernie and I headed back to the Internet café when it opened. It was a cute little place with nice drinks and a great signal. I didn’t get to talk to mom and dad but I got Tim for a while and even got to upload some pictures, which was great. All those people who said I wouldn’t miss the Internet and would get over it were liars. I am not addicted to it as much as I was but I constantly miss it. We then went to the Sunday market, which was a bit of a disappointment. After eating lunch we check out of our hotel and headed to Mahabalipuram.

Mahabalipuram is a seaside city that was a very popular port city in the 7th century. There are a ton of temples and other rock sculptures all around this area from the time period. We toured the temples and walked amongst all the rocks. There were loads of goats everywhere and it seemed like a local meeting place. Another main attraction is this giant boulder that is suspended on a hill. It is huge so we climbed up and took a bunch of pictures around it. We also got to go into a functioning Hindu temple, which was super cool.

As we headed back into Chennai stuff started looking familiar from the last time I was in Chennai. I remembered going to this restaurant in the trees last time we were there. I asked our driver about it and I was right! It had since closed but I was so impressed that I actually remembered stuff from 9 years ago.

We headed back to Chennai and stopped at the Citi Center, which is a giant mall and when we walked in I immediately remembered it from my visit in 2000. It was very strange going everywhere and recognizing things from such a long time ago. We left Bernie at this point and went in to find Internet and dinner. We got food at the rooftop restaurant, which was really nice and had great views of the city. Then we headed down to the food court and got some Internet and I was able to skype mom and dad. Then we headed back to the ship and finally got to shower and go to sleep.

The next day I had an SAS trip that I didn’t know what to expect from and ended up being pleasantly surprised. We headed to a rural village that was about 45 minutes out of Chennai. When we arrived a local woman whose sole job is “hospitality” greeted us. She was old and great and blessed us all and gave us dots. We were welcomed into a family’s home in the village and showed around. It was very interesting to see a different side of living in India then anything I have seen in the past. We saw their sleeping quarters, their shrine and the area out back where they cook all their food. It was explained how the entire family (extended) lives in one home. They offered us chai and then we continued on to other parts of the village. We had a demonstration on the white designs that are traditionally drawn in front of homes. We were told that the powder used formerly was made out of rice and was laid out so the small animals (ants etc) would have a little bit of food. Nowadays it is made out of a combination of chalk and rice powder. The woman who did the demonstration was incredibly talented and whipped out these intricate designs in minutes. After she showed us several of hers she asked us to try…which was a joke! We just proved how inept we are.

We hopped on bullock carts (carts pulled by bulls) and headed out to the rice paddy fields. As we walked out there we passed a super deep well and I looked at it and thought man it would suck to fall in that. 3 minutes after that a girl on my trip dropped her SHORE PASS INTO the well. This was a huge debacle and one of the villagers had to climb down into the well and retrieve it for her. People are dumb and careless/

We headed out into the fields to watch the women, in their gorgeous colorful sari’s, up to their knees in mud planting rice. They showed us how the rice is bundled and then placed in the mud for cultivation. Then they asked if any of us wanted to get in and help them plant rice. At first I was like hell no I am going to get a parasite in the standing mud water, but then I thought about it and was like hey next time I come the odds are I am not going to have a chance to wade into a rice paddy field so I took off my reefs and waded in. in my pink seersucker shorts. Up to my knees in mud. In India. Oh boy. It was super fun and the old Indian ladies helped me plant. Then we hopped back on the bullock carts and drove through the village. We headed to groves of coconut trees and they were whacking open coconuts and offering us the water. One of the villagers then demonstrated how he climbed the coconut tree and gave us the option of trying that. Rice paddy fields were enough for me and I did not participate in the tree climbing but some kids were actually pretty good at it!

After the village we stopped at a school and met some of the 12th standard economic students. We asked them questions and they asked us some too. It was very interesting and I thought it was really cool. They asked us all our names and everyone went through with the usually Laurens and Marys and the kids giggled at the weird names then it was my turn and I said Sanya and they all oohed and awed that I actually had a name they heard of. It was pretty funny.

Then we went to the Dakshinachitra Heritage Village. This was not particularly special or enlightening, but was interesting to see the developing tourism in India. This is a re-creation of different homes that are found in the 4 southern “states” of India. We had a nice lunch here and wandered around. They had several people demonstrating local arts and we even had the option of trying some of them. There were very talented artists and I even got some henna done. They also had some stalls selling VERY over priced arts and crafts. We headed back to the ship at around 4:30.

My friend Natalie and Drew and I headed back out to Citi Center where we met up with Kara. We just sort of hung out and shopped a little. In Chennai electricity is sort of a variable factor in life. We were shopping in one of the high-end department stores and the power went off for a solid fifteen minutes. So we stood in the dark and Kara was stuck in a dressing room and it was quite amusing…we didn’t really know what to do but finally the power came back. We got dinner (sort of) and headed back to our rickshaw and this is when the night sort of went downhill. Our rickshaw driver back to the ship was obnoxious. We got in a fight over the price and Natalie just gave him the extra money-, which I wouldn’t do, and it was just annoying. I said 100 and he agreed we got in we got to he port gave him 100 and he started screaming and was like you said 100 madame I said 150, it was a bad scene. I know it wouldn’t have happened if Dad was. I felt so helpless knowing I was getting ripped off and taken advantage of and being a girl and not being capable to doing anything alone.
 After we got the rickshaw thing handles there was this beggar that wouldn't leave me alone till I yelled at her to get away. Then bureaucracy of this port is extravagant and it was just annoying. They look at our shore pass 3 times and they are supposed to "sign us out" and then back into the port in this ancient ledger. They hadn’t signed us out when we left this time so obviously and they couldn’t find us to sign us back in.
 It was just an all around frustrating night, which is ok because every night cant be perfect!

The next morning pretty much everyone was back so Gen, Corinne, Sam, Kareem and I met up with Bernie for a shopping day. It was super fun and I got a lot of presents that I needed to get. We went back to pondy bazaar and made a serious dent with jewelry and blankets. Everyone was super grateful to have Bernie with us it helped a lot. I ended up getting a bunch of tunics too and Kareem got stuff for his nieces. Everything worked out really well. We finally had to say bye to Bernie so she could catch her flight. So we piled (5 of us and all our shit) into a rickshaw and headed to Spencer Market again for some last minute things. Sam and I picked up some horribly tacky leopard print pashminas, which were great. Then we headed back to the ship and that was that!

I think a lot of people really enjoyed India, but it was also an eye opener for a LOT of people. One kid actually went to Kashmir by himself…some people are so dumb. Our passage from India to Vietnam was pretty busy. We had the Crew Talent show which was amazing. They performed in bands, danced, sang and did stand up comedy. They are such an amazing group of people and are so dedicated to what they do and just so kind.

We also had Halloween, which was cute. At dinner the crew made a like "Halloween" menu and made stuff like borscht and called it blood stew and all that kind of stuff. The little kids on the ship trick or treated through some of our cabins. They threw a Halloween "dance" and there was NO beverage service. I haven't celebrated Halloween in 3 years without drinking and Gen and I do not plan on doing it again in the near future. We made a pact. Having a few drinks makes it a lot more fun to be in a costume. The dance was in the union and they had a costume contest and the student life workers did a thriller dance. It was fun and we all danced, but it was really weird not being at school. Halloween has become such a college holiday for me I was definitely homesick (school sick). Sam and I wore our tacky India leopard pashminas and made ears and were leopards. Gen and Corinne were dominoes and Drew was a ninja. People actually got really creative with the limited resources that we had. I was pretty surprised.

We also spent a whole day docked in Singapore refueling. It was weird just seeing the city all day but not being able to get off. Thankfully, I picked up their cell service and was able to call Emma Kate and Tim. With everything going on in Charleston I have really been thrown off kilter. I don’t want to say I am homesick because I am having a great time. I just don’t understand why something as major as what is happening in Charleston would happen when I can’t even be there to help. Drew says there is a reason I am not there with everyone dealing with this, we may not know what the reason is yet but eventually we will. I hope there is a fucking good reason too because it just seems like such a misappropriation of resources (it is the best way I can explain it as of now). Anyways, we all know everything is going to be fine in the end it is just a little rocky right now and I love you so so so much Emma!
That is all for now! Kisses and hugs from East Asia!

Delicious. Mauritius.

Our trip to Mauritius was definitely a little rocky. We left Cape Town and could immediately feel “the motion”. It was so bad that the captain actually had to change our course to try to avoid it. We ended up hugging the coast of South Africa so closely we could actually see land for a whole day (which NEVER happens). We didn’t break from the coast till the last possible second.

We docked into Port Louis, Mauritius on October 15th nd it was very pretty. I got off with melissa, amanda, sam, dani etc. The easiest way to get across to the waterfront shopping area was to take a water tax,i which was quite an adventure. You had to climb down this rickety ladder right near the hull of our ship and then wait for enough people to get in it for the guy to deem it full enough to leave. It was a 5 minute ride through the harbor to the Caudan Waterfront. Again, we were immediately met with a mall with all these kitschy touristy shops. We walked outside the mall and we were met with a Mcdonalds. We wandered around that area and there was another mall, but it was expensive. There was also a casino in the shape of a pirate ship...that was funny.

Sam and I ended up losing the rest of the giant group and doing our own thing. We asked for directions to the Grand Central Market, which i heard had a food market- which i needed for class. It ended up being a very cool market right nearby. We just wandered around for about 2 hours I got a magnet and bracelet and we looked at all the food being sold. There was so much ridiculous fruit everywhere. We wandered out and found ourselves in Chinatown. Mauritius is mainly inhabited by Chinese & Indians so their influence is seen/felt everywhere and much of the food sold is either Chinese or Indian (great precursor to what we are going to get for the next month). Chinatown was fun they had these big towers done in the Chinese architectural style and lots of restaurants and stuff. Sam and I made our way back to the waterfront and had Mcdonalds for lunch, after ship food junk is necessary every once in a while. Then got back on another water taxi to the boat to meet everyone to head out to the villa.

We finally found out shuttle and all piled. There were more people then just going to our villa as the guy we rented it from had 2 villas and the shuttle was for people going to both. Kareem, Deborah & Kyle were also just coming out for the day and they were on the shuttle too. It took about a half hour to get out to the villa and it was super nice. There was a property manager whose house was out front and the house had 5 bedrooms, a pool and a huge living room. Kareem, Cynthia, Corinne, Deborah, Kyle, Vicky and I all decided to head out to the beach. Cynthia, Vicky & I wanted drinks and the property manager was walking us out towards to the beach he said there was somewhere we could pick stuff up. He ended up taking us to this really nice but fancy and expensive restaurant right on the beach to get drinks. We just wanted to go but Cynthia is typical texas loaded and she goes "money isn't an issue for me ill just buy as all a drink". So we had pina coladas and it was really pretty.

After our drinks we headed down to the beach and it was really pretty. There was blue blue water, it was a little chilly it wasn't hot out but it was fun. It started to cool down a lot and we walked back to the villa.

When we got to the Villa we immediately asked the property manager guy to take us to the store to get alch. and snacks and he was super nice and took us to the store and even came in with us. It was the Mauritian equivalent to Wal-Mart. It was HUGE and had everything- clothes, electronics, food everything. Very cool. We got snacks and booze. A bottle of Mauritian rum was 86 rupees- 30 rupees to the dollar so yeah that is about 3 dollars. It was great. So Cynthia and I split and got 1 bottle of Good Will rum and a bottle of Smirnoff. They also had these like mixed drinks in a bottle called "Bad Girls" we thought those were hilarious so we got some of those too. Then we headed back to the villa to hang out and drink there. We ordered pizza and Cynthia and I went antisoc and brought our bottle upstairs and started our own party. Very few girls can party like us southern sorostitutes.

Gen, Drew, Kara and a bunch of other people showed up and we played kings. We basically just hung out and drank all night it was super chill and fun. Sam's camera also goes underwater and so we all got back in the pool and took a bunch of pictures, which was wicked fun. I hopped a cab back to the ship with Kareem, Deborah & Kyle since I had a trip super early the next am. It was a good choice and I was happy i got back ok.

The next day I woke up and thankfully Kareem was on my trip so we woke each other up. We headed up to the bus and ended up having to wait to forever cuz a bunch of the kids coming from villas hit traffic and called the field office and asked them to hold the bus. We had an hour ride and pulled through this sugar cane up to this tiny dock and all this gorgeous blue water. We got on a glass bottom boat and headed out to the Isle De Deux Coco. We could see so much going to the island there was a ton of coral and loads of fishies.

When we first got to the island it was a little disorganized and we ganked chairs. We were informed on the bus that because of an incident on the same trip last spring no alcohol would be served which was sort of a bummer, but it was so pretty it didn't really matter. After getting settled we headed back out in the glass bottom boats to the marine park area to snorkel. They didn't have enough gear for all of us so 3 of us just went on the glass bottom boat out there and i sorta chocked it up to if i get to snorkel i do if not its not the end of the world. Some people only went out for like 5 minutes so we switched out and i put on the gear and in i went. There was so much to see! I saw a dory (from Finding Nemo) and a ton of zebra fish. The coral was amazing and we were so close that when i stuck my head out of the water i was nervous i was going to kick it. The fish were super friendly and kept swimming right up to us. It took a little while to get the hang of the snorkel and the breathing under water i did a lot of hyperventilating at first. It was very very fun and i had a bit of an issue getting back onto the boat because there wasn’t a ladder and it was slippery it took some teamwork. We headed back to the island and laid out for a while and then they had this huge bbq for us and all this fresh fruit it was so yummy. We explored the island a little. It was very very tiny and they have one villa. it sleeps 4 people and it costs 3,000 euro to rent the island for 24 hours (that is like 5 grand) and it includes a full staff of 30. The villa was pretty but i dunno if i would say it was worth 5 grand. They said there are a lot of people who get married there and stuff too. We looked for shells and laid out and it was a super relaxing afternoon. We headed back to the ship at about 4 and I got back and showered and stuff. Kara got back from her trip and I convinced her to head back out to the villa. It did take some persuading, but we met up with liz and steven who were also going back out and we all split a cab.

We got to the villa as everyone was getting ready to head out. I pregamed with gen, drew and cav and then all 15 of us headed to the bar/restaurant area. We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant and then headed to the Banana Beach Club. I had heard of this place from my jazz professor in class as a possible place to go to hear jazz. I expected it to be a little beachy place but this place was hopping and PACKED with SAS kids. As we walked up there were just drunk kids everywhere. It was a mess. One girl even lay down in the road and was like rolling around and stuff. Getting inside was very hectic and somewhere in the process we lost Drew. Turns out his Midwestern charm took over and he decided that the girl rolling in the street who was too drunk to stand up and the bouncer wouldn’t let in the bar needed to go home. He was right, but it turned into the whole big dramaful event. Oh did I mention said drunk girl is also the girl that hooked up with my safari ranger? Yup, one in the same. She is a baby and that is part of the problem. She just graduated high school in June and is going to Middlebury. They have this program where you can study abroad 1st semster frosh year. It is took young to be trying to keep up with kids who have been doing college for 3 years.

Anyways, so we lost drew. We only stayed in Banana Beach Club for a little because there were all these wasted annoying girls and professors and life long learners were there and it was awkward. We went to some bar called the Godfather for a while and then headed back to the Banana Beach Club. Cav and I were trying to arrange cabs for everyone back but it was futile. Finally, I gave up and Cav told me to run across the street to get the best sandwich ever created. Cav then came running over and was like I got a cab we have to go! So I was said eff the sandwich and ran to the cab. After all the work Cav put in they left without him and we found the cab and they were full and kept going without us. This is why I do not trust most of these kids to really go out hard with. So Cav and I chilled and ate my yummy sandwich. We watched all the drunk SASers and even saw a HUGE SAS fight break out…all very interesting. Finally, we found a cab back and went to sleep.

In the morning there was 6 of us left at the Villa. We cleaned up and were leaving and saw that we were leaving behind a ton of booze. We couldn’t bring it back onto the boat with us, but we realized we could bring it back to the port and drop our stuff and then go out and drink it somewhere. We took cabs back to the port. I spent more money on cabs then anything else in Mauritius. The girls ran onto the ship dropped all our stuff and the boys stuff got changed and left to meet the boys who were waiting outside the gangway with our alch. We went to get on the water taxi to head to the waterfront. The water taxis don’t leave until they are full so when we got on our executive dean was just sitting in it waiting for it to leave, so we offered him a beer and he accepted! This was the highlight and one of the juxtaposing situations that SAS puts you in constantly. We hung out on the water taxi drinking with our dean at noon. It was great! Then we headed to the waterfront and walked around Port Louis all afternoon. We had Chinese food for lunch, but since it was Diwali most everything was closed. It was a fun day just exploring, we stopped at a little café for drinks before we got back on the boat for India.

Mauritius was fun but it really was just like Delta Upsilon beach weekend or fall break. It was a party port (one of our last) and it was a good adventure!