Busy B day today. Started with Bob’s class, then Digital Storytelling. There, I learned about recent unfair disciplinary actions, as people were getting punished, including expulsion from the ship, without due process. One kid was not allowed to go out one evening after returning from dinner. Why? He had simply been accused by another student of being drunk. The decision was made immediately by one person, and the student was not given a chance to defend himself.
Worse, students were getting kicked off the ship for any form of drug use. Including just using pot, which is pretty much unheard of for a college program. An acquaintance of mine was expelled for taking Adderall, a prescription drug for ADD. People without ADD often take it as a study aid, which is why my acquaintance claims he used it. Doesn’t make it right, but seems harsh to expelled for only that.
The worst example I’ve heard, though keep in mind THIS IS JUST HEARSAY FROM A FELLOW STUDENT, is that one kid one kid was punished after testing positive on a drug test. Apparently the tests simply come up as positive or negative without distinguishing specifically what for, which is why kids were expelled for pot and Adderall. According to the test, it might as well be Heroin. Anyway, in this case the kid tested positive, but had been prescribed codeine on the ship when he had a fever. He offered this as his defense, claiming that was why he tested positive. But, according to a fellow student, the administration said that there was no way to prove why exactly he tested positive, and he may have taken other drugs. So they didn’t expel him, but just gave him dock time. What happened to innocent until proven guilty?
Anyway, I mention this because that day my SeaTV class pledged to help mobilize the student body to defend ourselves. Unfortunately, and again this commentary is from real time, no one seems to have taken the initiative.
After classes I worked on my journal until Cultural Preport, completing my goal of reaching India chronologically. At preport, which was short because we were only visiting Mauritius for two days and it’s a highly touristy area, I received an award from Dr. Mort for using Purell in India. Purell may very-well be Dr. Mort’s favorite thing in the entire world. So when he saw me sharing it with fellow SASers before a meal, he was thrilled. And before Cultural Preport he told me he wanted to give me the award, which of course was a most wonderful honor.
Before bed, Brianna, the girl with whom I booty-danced near the beginning of the voyage, led spiritual dance outside on the 6th deck. It was all Beatles music, which was fun. And I enjoyed being outside. In addition, Brianna seems to be once again giving me signs that she’s interested, which would be cool because she’s cute as a button. As always, I’ll keep you posted, dear readers. Because I know my parents want nothing more than to hear about my love life.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Day 63 – At Sea
I dedicated a lot of time to working on my journal today. My goal was to get up to India before reaching Mauritius, meaning I needed to cover six days at sea over the next two days.
In addition, I watched 3 episodes of In Treatment throughout the day. Damn, that show is addicting. And the fact that episodes are only half an hour makes it so easy to justify. Of course, I then end up watching multiple episodes, and wasting more time than I would have watching a single hour-long episode.
In the afternoon, I thoroughly enjoyed doing expressionist color studies in my painting class. Because I love oil paintings, I tried to use thicker, darker watercolors, as watercolors are the only painting supplies I have. I thought it came out great, though my teacher criticized me for not taking advantage of the transparency of watercolors.
That evening, I hung out with Kenna, and my notes tell me that I appeared to be getting good vibes. But I am filled with self-doubt because she’s so good-looking, and I’m sure she has many, many suitors far-more-handsome than myself. But, and this is real time (just before reaching South Africa), she may come with me on Safari. And if she doesn’t, I’m going to ask to buy her dinner. I had a conversation with her recently and I learned that she, unlike most college girls it seems, is pro-dating.
Before bed, Tolan and I worked on Epiphany. As you may remember, I thought of this song theme in Japan, and we got about halfway through it before I thought of Latin Chick. But since we’d finished Latin Chick, we picked up where we left off. And let me tell you, dear readers, this song is edgy. We touch on racial humor, and we make fun of a bunch of people on the ship. By name. Including faculty. Should be some good family fun.
In addition, I watched 3 episodes of In Treatment throughout the day. Damn, that show is addicting. And the fact that episodes are only half an hour makes it so easy to justify. Of course, I then end up watching multiple episodes, and wasting more time than I would have watching a single hour-long episode.
In the afternoon, I thoroughly enjoyed doing expressionist color studies in my painting class. Because I love oil paintings, I tried to use thicker, darker watercolors, as watercolors are the only painting supplies I have. I thought it came out great, though my teacher criticized me for not taking advantage of the transparency of watercolors.
That evening, I hung out with Kenna, and my notes tell me that I appeared to be getting good vibes. But I am filled with self-doubt because she’s so good-looking, and I’m sure she has many, many suitors far-more-handsome than myself. But, and this is real time (just before reaching South Africa), she may come with me on Safari. And if she doesn’t, I’m going to ask to buy her dinner. I had a conversation with her recently and I learned that she, unlike most college girls it seems, is pro-dating.
Before bed, Tolan and I worked on Epiphany. As you may remember, I thought of this song theme in Japan, and we got about halfway through it before I thought of Latin Chick. But since we’d finished Latin Chick, we picked up where we left off. And let me tell you, dear readers, this song is edgy. We touch on racial humor, and we make fun of a bunch of people on the ship. By name. Including faculty. Should be some good family fun.
Day 62 – Neptune Day
Today was Neptune Day, the traditional SAS celebration for crossing the equator. The main attraction is that people shave their heads. In honor of Neptune Day, we are given the day off from classes. Naturally, I had decided to sleep in. But at 7:30 am, crew members went through the halls beating drums. I suppose it was to kick off the celebration early, but I would much rather have gotten a few extra hours sleep.
Anyhow, I was at breakfast with friends when we saw the crew drum brigade in all their glory. They were dressed up as the Greek god Nike, and were followed by the Academic Deans and Don, all of whom were dressed up like kings. So that was cool.
After breakfast I went up to the top deck and saw people shaving their heads. It was nutso to watch; hair really has such an effect on one’s appearance. To my surprise, many girls decided to shave their heads. Now I’m sure many of them thought over the decision thoroughly, so they likely won’t be too upset over the result (though maybe after a six months they’ll be sick of their hair STILL being short). However, my biggest qualm with Neptune Day was that it seemed to encourage the impulsive decision of shaving one’s head. Now it isn’t too bad for guys, in a couple weeks they’ve got a short buzz cut. But I know of one girl who made an extremely impulsive decision to shave her head, probably cutting off five years worth of length. I honestly feel bad for her.
After hanging out on the top deck for a while, I locked myself in my room to work on my journal. To my delight, I finally finished Vietnam. That left me with only my India post and some days at sea to be all caught up. So I decided to call it quits for my journal the day.
With some time before dinner and the talent show, I decided to give Megan a ring and see what she was up to. She wasn’t doing anything, so I invited her over to watch Flight of the Conchords. We hooked up afterwards. 2 for 2 on sea holidays, baby!
For dinner, we were treated to a delicious barbeque with grilled steak and bbq chicken. To top it off, there was strawberry ice cream with chocolate sauce and sprinkles for dessert. To make the dessert even better, my buddy Michael turned 21 and had a chocolate ice cream cake. So I had a delectable chocolate and strawberry ice cream mix. Covered in sprinkles. Which, in my humble opinion, are an underrated ice cream topping.
After dinner I got ready for the Talent Show, which started at 8:00 that evening. I headed over to the Union, and while I was waiting for the show to start I got an extremely flattering comment from a faculty member. He said to me, “you’re Max, right?” I told that I was, and he said “man, you and Tolan are very, very funny. And not just in the immediate sense. Your lyrics are really clever, so they make me laugh over and over again.” He then asked if Tolan and I planned to keep playing together off of the ship, encouraging me that we ought to. “I could really see you guys going places,” he told me. So that was a great confidence boost.
Overall, the show was just stellar. The show opened with a band featuring drums, piano, a ukulele, a tambourine, and headlined by bagpipes. That was awesome. And the energy continued from there. One of the highlights had to be Tolan’s act, where he sang a three part harmony with Derek and a girl named Karen, who has one of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard. Derek and Karen each had great acts as well.
Tolan and I left near the end of the first act to rehearse a bit before our performance. We were not due on until the middle of the second act, so we took a half hour to knock out the final kinks. When we were called out, we got a big applause. That was sweet. As for our act, people seemed to like the banter we came up with, and we nailed the song. I really just wish we had been able to perform something we’d written.
There were probably six more acts after ours, but my favorite, bar none, was Earl’s standup. He is really gifted; standup comedy is not easy. I consider myself to be a pretty funny guy, but I’m awful at it. I hope he pursues it off the ship, because he could go places.
After the talent show, I was approached by Marcus, Michael’s roommate. Marcus has made a video in honor of Michael’s birthday, and he wanted to gather a group of friends to surprise Michael. So we gathered in classroom 4, and gave Michael a great surprise. We could tell he was blown away, which was awesome. After the movie, which was really cool, we broke into an iPod dance party. Everyone was dancing on the tables, it was just awesome. Great end to the night.
Anyhow, I was at breakfast with friends when we saw the crew drum brigade in all their glory. They were dressed up as the Greek god Nike, and were followed by the Academic Deans and Don, all of whom were dressed up like kings. So that was cool.
After breakfast I went up to the top deck and saw people shaving their heads. It was nutso to watch; hair really has such an effect on one’s appearance. To my surprise, many girls decided to shave their heads. Now I’m sure many of them thought over the decision thoroughly, so they likely won’t be too upset over the result (though maybe after a six months they’ll be sick of their hair STILL being short). However, my biggest qualm with Neptune Day was that it seemed to encourage the impulsive decision of shaving one’s head. Now it isn’t too bad for guys, in a couple weeks they’ve got a short buzz cut. But I know of one girl who made an extremely impulsive decision to shave her head, probably cutting off five years worth of length. I honestly feel bad for her.
After hanging out on the top deck for a while, I locked myself in my room to work on my journal. To my delight, I finally finished Vietnam. That left me with only my India post and some days at sea to be all caught up. So I decided to call it quits for my journal the day.
With some time before dinner and the talent show, I decided to give Megan a ring and see what she was up to. She wasn’t doing anything, so I invited her over to watch Flight of the Conchords. We hooked up afterwards. 2 for 2 on sea holidays, baby!
For dinner, we were treated to a delicious barbeque with grilled steak and bbq chicken. To top it off, there was strawberry ice cream with chocolate sauce and sprinkles for dessert. To make the dessert even better, my buddy Michael turned 21 and had a chocolate ice cream cake. So I had a delectable chocolate and strawberry ice cream mix. Covered in sprinkles. Which, in my humble opinion, are an underrated ice cream topping.
After dinner I got ready for the Talent Show, which started at 8:00 that evening. I headed over to the Union, and while I was waiting for the show to start I got an extremely flattering comment from a faculty member. He said to me, “you’re Max, right?” I told that I was, and he said “man, you and Tolan are very, very funny. And not just in the immediate sense. Your lyrics are really clever, so they make me laugh over and over again.” He then asked if Tolan and I planned to keep playing together off of the ship, encouraging me that we ought to. “I could really see you guys going places,” he told me. So that was a great confidence boost.
Overall, the show was just stellar. The show opened with a band featuring drums, piano, a ukulele, a tambourine, and headlined by bagpipes. That was awesome. And the energy continued from there. One of the highlights had to be Tolan’s act, where he sang a three part harmony with Derek and a girl named Karen, who has one of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard. Derek and Karen each had great acts as well.
Tolan and I left near the end of the first act to rehearse a bit before our performance. We were not due on until the middle of the second act, so we took a half hour to knock out the final kinks. When we were called out, we got a big applause. That was sweet. As for our act, people seemed to like the banter we came up with, and we nailed the song. I really just wish we had been able to perform something we’d written.
There were probably six more acts after ours, but my favorite, bar none, was Earl’s standup. He is really gifted; standup comedy is not easy. I consider myself to be a pretty funny guy, but I’m awful at it. I hope he pursues it off the ship, because he could go places.
After the talent show, I was approached by Marcus, Michael’s roommate. Marcus has made a video in honor of Michael’s birthday, and he wanted to gather a group of friends to surprise Michael. So we gathered in classroom 4, and gave Michael a great surprise. We could tell he was blown away, which was awesome. After the movie, which was really cool, we broke into an iPod dance party. Everyone was dancing on the tables, it was just awesome. Great end to the night.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Day 61 – At Sea
I was behind on sleep so I slept in. Sorry Boberino, I’m only sitting in on the class and it’s at 8:00 am.
First part of my day was my SeaTV production meeting, and, long story short, we were behind schedule for our broadcast. It was that night, and one segment had not even been shot, let alone edited. Latin Chick was done, though, and it looked fantastic.
So instead of going to Digital Storytelling, I helped shoot “The Lonely Lumberjack,” the segment which needed to be filmed. In my mind, it’s a really weak segment, but a few people in the group are really attached to it.
After SeaTV I had drawing and Gamelan. Gamelan, unfortunately, has become pretty brutal. It was great fun at first, but now it’s just repetitive. We practice the same pieces over and over. And then do it again. That hour really drags.
I had to eat a quick dinner because at 6:00 we had the mic check for the talent show. So I got there at 6:00, but they spent at least 45 minutes setting up the microphones. So that was weak. When I left at 7:00 to watch Latin Chick premiere, they were on the 3rd act. Of 29.
On the bright side, though, the audience loved Latin Chick. I think that my favorite part was the fact that the video opened with just the words “A New Song by Tolan and Max” written on the screen. When that came up, there was audible excitement. And the song met expectations. There was tons of laughter at every joke, and a hearty applause at the end. It was cool.
After the segment aired, I went back to the mic check. We got out of there faster than I expected, I only needed to wait 15 more minutes or so. After we left, Tolan and I practiced for about an hour. We were pretty set, though the performance was the following evening and we weren’t quite there yet.
Before bed, I put in about a half hour into my journal. But there are never enough hours in the day.
First part of my day was my SeaTV production meeting, and, long story short, we were behind schedule for our broadcast. It was that night, and one segment had not even been shot, let alone edited. Latin Chick was done, though, and it looked fantastic.
So instead of going to Digital Storytelling, I helped shoot “The Lonely Lumberjack,” the segment which needed to be filmed. In my mind, it’s a really weak segment, but a few people in the group are really attached to it.
After SeaTV I had drawing and Gamelan. Gamelan, unfortunately, has become pretty brutal. It was great fun at first, but now it’s just repetitive. We practice the same pieces over and over. And then do it again. That hour really drags.
I had to eat a quick dinner because at 6:00 we had the mic check for the talent show. So I got there at 6:00, but they spent at least 45 minutes setting up the microphones. So that was weak. When I left at 7:00 to watch Latin Chick premiere, they were on the 3rd act. Of 29.
On the bright side, though, the audience loved Latin Chick. I think that my favorite part was the fact that the video opened with just the words “A New Song by Tolan and Max” written on the screen. When that came up, there was audible excitement. And the song met expectations. There was tons of laughter at every joke, and a hearty applause at the end. It was cool.
After the segment aired, I went back to the mic check. We got out of there faster than I expected, I only needed to wait 15 more minutes or so. After we left, Tolan and I practiced for about an hour. We were pretty set, though the performance was the following evening and we weren’t quite there yet.
Before bed, I put in about a half hour into my journal. But there are never enough hours in the day.
Day 60 – At Sea
Nothing too interesting for the beginning of my day, just made more headway on my journal and went to class. It’s really hard, in the immediate sense, to lock myself away in my room when people are lounging around in the sun on the top deck. But I know I’ll be happy I took the time to write once the voyage is over.
I grabbed an early dinner with Beth before going to spiritual dance. I just love spiritual dance. I feed off of the energy from the music and from the crowd. Though many people find it to be a huge emotional release, I just love taking the opportunity to let loose and dance. It’s a great workout, too.
In the evening, Tolan and I began to work on our Talent Show act. It was because we couldn’t perform Latin Chick at the Talent Show that we put it on SeaTV, yet that left us without an act and the performance was only two days away. So we decided to perform “Think about it” by Flight of the Conchords. I already knew the lyrics, but Tolan was only vaguely familiar with both the chords and lyrics. So he had to learn the song. My challenge was creating the intro.
After about an hour or so of practice, Tolan got a hang of the chords, but was still shaky on the lyrics. As for me, I thought of an intro poking fun at the censorship for the talent show, claiming we were “comedy bad boys” and that our original stuff was too “edgy and comedy bad boy” for this family friendly event.
Once we’d practiced, I worked on my journal for a while. Then I got a call from Nicole, she needed help putting the finishing touches on Latin Chick. So I went up and helped her for a while before going to bed.
I grabbed an early dinner with Beth before going to spiritual dance. I just love spiritual dance. I feed off of the energy from the music and from the crowd. Though many people find it to be a huge emotional release, I just love taking the opportunity to let loose and dance. It’s a great workout, too.
In the evening, Tolan and I began to work on our Talent Show act. It was because we couldn’t perform Latin Chick at the Talent Show that we put it on SeaTV, yet that left us without an act and the performance was only two days away. So we decided to perform “Think about it” by Flight of the Conchords. I already knew the lyrics, but Tolan was only vaguely familiar with both the chords and lyrics. So he had to learn the song. My challenge was creating the intro.
After about an hour or so of practice, Tolan got a hang of the chords, but was still shaky on the lyrics. As for me, I thought of an intro poking fun at the censorship for the talent show, claiming we were “comedy bad boys” and that our original stuff was too “edgy and comedy bad boy” for this family friendly event.
Once we’d practiced, I worked on my journal for a while. Then I got a call from Nicole, she needed help putting the finishing touches on Latin Chick. So I went up and helped her for a while before going to bed.
Day 59 – At Sea
Because I’d gone to bed so early, I was able to wake up for Bob’s class at 8:00. He is such a wise old dude. I’m privileged to be able to take class with him.
After Bob’s class was Global Studies, where we had our first pop quiz. The quiz was really an attendance check, as all we had to do was to write about a person who has touched us on this voyage. That person would be our toothbrush person, Don told us. We would think about him or her every time we brushed our teeth. Because he was so fresh in my mind, I wrote about Rajeev, my cricket buddy. The final step of our quiz was to write our name and address and turn it in; in a year Don would mail it back to us. I look forward to receiving that letter.
Before and after my block of afternoon classes, I worked on my journal for a bit. It has been my goal to be all caught up by South Africa, so I’ve really gotta put work into it.
In the evening, I spent some time with Nicole helping her edit the How to Pick up a Latin Chick music video. Seeing it on film was a trip. We had some great footage, I couldn’t wait to see it all put together.
After working on the video for a bit I went up to pub night. There I saw Kenna, and she seemed flirtatious. But, as I have mentioned before, she is an absolute bombshell. So I’m wary she just has a flirtatious personality. Either way, she has told me numerous times she loves my music (cuz, you know, I’m in a band now). I’ll certainly let you all know if it goes anywhere.
After Bob’s class was Global Studies, where we had our first pop quiz. The quiz was really an attendance check, as all we had to do was to write about a person who has touched us on this voyage. That person would be our toothbrush person, Don told us. We would think about him or her every time we brushed our teeth. Because he was so fresh in my mind, I wrote about Rajeev, my cricket buddy. The final step of our quiz was to write our name and address and turn it in; in a year Don would mail it back to us. I look forward to receiving that letter.
Before and after my block of afternoon classes, I worked on my journal for a bit. It has been my goal to be all caught up by South Africa, so I’ve really gotta put work into it.
In the evening, I spent some time with Nicole helping her edit the How to Pick up a Latin Chick music video. Seeing it on film was a trip. We had some great footage, I couldn’t wait to see it all put together.
After working on the video for a bit I went up to pub night. There I saw Kenna, and she seemed flirtatious. But, as I have mentioned before, she is an absolute bombshell. So I’m wary she just has a flirtatious personality. Either way, she has told me numerous times she loves my music (cuz, you know, I’m in a band now). I’ll certainly let you all know if it goes anywhere.
Days 53 – 58: India
Hello, my dearest readers. I have just returned from Mauritius, and have six days at sea until we reach South Africa. Mauritius was grand; its beauty is stunning. But I’m behind on my tales, so I’ll get right to it.
Day 1 – Chennai and Mamallapuram
Nick and I were taking an SAS trip to Mamallapuram, which left at 12:30. Though we could not get off the boat until about 11:00, we wanted to explore Chennai, albeit briefly. We had hoped to walk around and find a place to eat. However, unbeknownst to us at the time, the port was quite far from the city. While walking we ran into our neighbor Kelly, and she also had a 12:30 trip. She decided to join us on our brief endeavor, but after walking for a bit we realized we were going to have to take a cab if we wanted to get anywhere.
So we hopped into an auto rickshaw (henceforth simply referred to as “autos”) and asked the driver to take us to a restaurant. We stressed the fact that we were on a very limited schedule and that we wanted to go somewhere close and quick. He said he understood and took us into town.
The ride was absolutely crazy seeing all the traffic, the people, and shops. Not to mention all of the smog. It was just a completely novel experience. Nick, Kelly and I were totally absorbed on the sights we were seeing, but suddenly realized that 30 minutes had passed. We reiterated that we were in a rush, and the driver assured us that we were close. But five minutes later we were still driving, and we collectively decided we needed to get off of this auto. We had been warned that drivers have deals with particular places and we assumed that to be the case. So we hopped off and just walked around for a bit before grabbing another auto to get back to the ship.
Now, whenever we go into port SAS gives us “green sheets” which have useful information, including the address at which the ship is located. When we showed our driver that address, he confirmed that he knew where he was taking us. But thirty minutes later (it’s now about 12:20), he dropped us off at the main entrance to the terminal. And the terminal is huge, over two kilometers long. So we ran the entrance trying desperately trying to find out where we needed to go. One of the guards informed us that we needed to get to Gate 7, so we scrambled and got another auto to take us there. We got to Gate 7 at about 12:35, so we were all nervous that we missed our trips. Luckily, there is a customs stop to get out of the port terminal, and our bus was being waved out just as we arrived. So Nick and I were able to hop on at the last possible second. As for our friend Kelly, her bus had, unfortunately, already taken off. But a kind professor allowed her to attend her trip instead, free of charge. So, somehow, it all worked out.
Now Nick and I were famished, because we had not eaten breakfast and now missed lunch. Luckily, our trip stopped for lunch before reaching Mamallampuram. The lunch was stellar. We were served about ten dishes and given tasters of each, which is probably my favorite way to discover new food. We also ate with our hands, which I thought was fun. I much prefer eating with utensils, but I enjoyed how rude and forbidden it felt. I was eating so sloppily, it was hysterical.
A short ride from the restaurant was Mamallapuram. It is an ancient port city and popular beach resort, for good reason. Though I only caught a glimpse, the beach was magnificent. There were three main sights to see in Mamallampuram: the Shore Temple, the Five Rathas, and Arjuna’s Penance. The Shore Temple is supposedly the coolest sight to see, but it was being renovated during our visit, so it did not look nearly as spectacular as usual.
The Five Rathas was my favorite. Originally a giant stone cliff, five large structures and some smaller pieces were all carved out. And the attention to detail was immaculate. Our guide informed us that all the historical attractions are 1,200 years old. It is so hard for me to comprehend how work this beautiful was done so long ago.
Finally was Arjuna’s Penance, in which carvings on the wall depict fables from the Panchatantra, a collection of Sanskrit animal fables. There were also monkeys roaming around, which was cool. And it was at Arjuna’s Penance that I met a gregarious teenager, whose name I unfortunately can no longer remember. He was a local stone mason and was quite friendly. I enjoyed his company thoroughly, and he shared some insight about the scenes depicted in the Penance.
While I really enjoyed Mamallapuram, the whole thing felt rushed. I do not know why we waited until 12:30 to leave, especially considering that it took nearly two hours by bus to get there. We really ought to have left first thing. As it was, we returned an hour late. That actually was no bother to me, because I had nothing else going on. But one kid on our trip had a flight to catch, and he nearly missed it due to our tardiness.
After our trip, Nick and I met up with Jake and a few others for dinner. Nick knew of a place which sounded good, so we got a cab together. The cab ride was absolutely miserable. It was piping hot and jam-packed. Though we thought the car had three rows of seats, the very back row, where Jake and one other dude sat, was just the gas tank. Then three of us were in the middle row, with one guy sitting shotgun. We ended up driving with the doors open. There really aren’t many rules in India.
But what really made the ride hellacious was the fact that the driver did not know where he was going. We gave him an address, he said he knew it, but then he was lost. He tried to just drop us off at a random spot, but we refused to get out. He eventually asked for directions from a local and got us where we needed to go, but the whole thing took over an hour.
Dinner was all worth it, though. I got Aloo Gobi for my main dish, which is a curry dish with cauliflower, potatoes, carrots and peas. It was tastylicious. I also got two orders of naan, a mango milkshake, and some ice cream. It was like a big orgasm. In my mouth. Those restaurant owners must love gluttonous Americans.
Across the street from the restaurant was a movie theater. We couldn’t help but laugh at the posters. Though I legitimately thought one looked pretty badass, the other three were just laughable. I obviously documented via photograph.
But after enjoying a funny at the expense of the posters, Nick and I just headed back. It was only about 9:00, but we had to be in the Union at 3:30 am the following morning for our trip to the Taj Mahal and Jaipur. So we just packed up and got some shuteye before the cruel, cruel sound of the alarm.
Day 2 – Delhi
At 3:00 am my alarm went off. So that sucked. In a dazed state I brushed my teeth, packed up my remaining toiletries, and met in the Union. We left at 4:00 am for the airport, where we flew to Delhi. I brought along Mandela’s biography, and as engrossed as I was in what I was reading, I only got through a page or so before conking out.
Upon reaching Delhi, we embarked on a city tour. The tour was, in my opinion, very disorganized. For example, regarding our first stop, my notes say “visited cool historical site, see video for name.” We would just be dropped off somewhere, our tour guide took a couple minutes to explain it, and then we were given a maximum of 20 minutes to explore. And that was if we were lucky. For many sites, we often just drove past them.
Unfortunately, my pictures and videos from India are on Nick’s external hard drive, as my hard drive space has filled. And I’m too lazy to borrow it to search through my videos and find the name of the “cool historical site” (Editor’s Note: I researched on Wikitravel, it’s called the Qutub Complex). It was a cool area, though, and if memory serves me correctly, it was formerly a Hindu shrine that was conquered by Muslims and converted into a mosque. But there was much more on the grounds than just the house of worship. The site is huge, and covered with monumental buildings and shrines. Just as was the case with Mamallapuram, I stood in awe looking at the intricacies of the stone carvings, let alone the sheer size. It must have taken so much time and so much manpower to complete.
After a delicious buffet lunch, we continued our city tour. We passed numerous sites that Taj, our tour guide, pointed out for a brief photo shoot. It was a very stereotypical tour bus experience, with the tour guide in front saying “on your left, you’ll see X, and coming up on your right is Y.” I wish we had cut all that out of the tour and, with the time saved, been given time to walk around Old Delhi, as opposed to just driving through. But, alas, I don’t make the itinerary.
Once we were bussed through Old Delhi, we went to Humayun’s Tomb. Humayun was the second Mogul Emperor. The tomb was an incredibly impressive structure, topped with the same gorgeous dome and minaret combo as the Taj Mahal. After checking out the grounds, I asked to join some locals in a game of cricket. They happily let me join and I took an at bat. I got a hit, though it was obvious the pitcher was taking it easy on me. The group left soon thereafter, so unfortunately I couldn’t play long.
Our final stop was Ghandi’s Memorial. We got there at sunset, which was absolutely gorgeous. The pictures (when I can finally post them will) speak for themselves. While at the Memorial, a few locals asked to take a photo with me. As soon as I agreed, more and more just started filing next to me to get a picture. I’m certain that it’s just a product of being American(/white), but it was just really odd to experience. It was like a brief taste of celebrity. Everyone wanted my picture and to shake my hand.
Back at the hotel, we grabbed some dinner. Like lunch, it was a buffet. Only this time, it was probably one of the greatest meals I have eaten in my entire life. Everything was amazing. It is illegal to eat cow in India, but they had water buffalo filet, and it was incredible. They also had flavorful roast leg of lamb and tender bbq chicken. And that was the western section. They also had numerous Indian dishes, and plenty of fresh naan. To top it off, there was a sundae bar for desert. Despite the fact that I’m currently full, my mouth is watering thinking about this meal.
After dinner, people talked about hanging by the pool. So I put on the hotel robe and slippers, and headed down. Unfortunately, the pool closed early. So a few guys and I headed down to the spa, where I spent a bit of time in the sauna and hot tub. But the heat brought out my fatigue, and I went to bed shortly thereafter.
Day 3 – Agra (Taj Mahal!!)
I awoke to a 4:00 am wakeup call at the hotel. We didn’t need to leave until 5:15, and I had requested our wakeup call be shifted back to 4:30. But the request was apparently ignored, because the phone rang at 4:00 am sharp. So I woke up grumpy and tired. And, as usual for SAS trips, had to wait around for a while before leaving.
One reason we had to wait so long was because of Nick’s roommate. Which, in hindsight, is a hilarious story. Particularly because we still caught our train. Anyway, Nick’s roommate came back fairly late and fairly drunk. So when the morning came, he had trouble getting out of bed. Nick tried his best to wake him, but he just was not waking up. Nick would shake him and say, “dude, we gotta go!” His roommate would respond by nodding his head, saying, “I’m awake,” and then immediately falling back asleep. Eventually the trip leaders needed to wake up the roommate, who stood up, said “OK let’s go,” and walked out of the room. But he hadn’t packed and we were checking out. So he had to go back and pack.
But, because of the absurd cushion planned into our transportation time, we made it to the train station with plenty of time to spare. The station was absolutely nuts. The place smelled like piss, people were milling every which way, and tons of people were sleeping on the concrete floor. While we were waiting, I watched people towing all sorts of things around the station, from newspapers to packages to crates full of random pieces of wood.
Anyhow, we caught our 6:00 am train from Delhi to Agra. I grabbed a window seat intending to view the Indian landscape, but quickly fell asleep. An all-to-ambitious plan, I suppose.
After the train ride, we stopped in an insanely luxurious hotel for breakfast. Though we did not spend the night there, kids on other SAS trips did. So despite my complaints, I’ve gotta hand that to SAS trips. They are oh so cushy. You stay in some great hotels and eat delicious food.
After breakfast was the main attraction of the trip. We went to see the Taj Mahal! I’m not quite sure why I wanted to see the Taj so badly, but, for whatever reason, I did. I suppose it’s because I’ve seen it in so many photos and I’ve always been struck by its beauty. Anyhow, it was simply stunning in person. Numerous studies have shown that the human brain finds symmetry beautiful. Perhaps that’s one reason the Taj is so gorgeous: it is perfectly symmetrical. That, in itself, is an incredible feat, seeing as it was built in 1632. In addition to symmetry, it is maintained in pristine condition. As Nick concisely said, “it just looks immaculate, as if it had been built yesterday.”
Before we were given independent time for photos and the like, Taj our tour guide explained the history of the Taj Mahal. It was built by the Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. Now that’s all well and good, but when Taj explained Mumtaz Mahal’s dying wishes, I started to think she didn’t deserve such an impressive, expensive monument built by tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of slaves. Her first dying wish was that her husband take care of their 14 children. That’s fair. Her second was that her husband never remarry. Eh, a little selfish but I’ll let it slide. And her third and final wish was that her husband build her an enormous monument to commemorate her death. The bitch is starting to get demanding.
After the history lesson, I just had a wonderful time exploring the beautiful grounds, taking funny pictures, and, of course, dancing. I believe I have mentioned this in my blog, but I have tried to get videos dancing in many of the cool places I’ve visited. I think it goes without saying that the Taj Mahal qualifies as a “cool place.” So I took one video dancing right in front of the Taj, and then another further way, as to give some perspective on my location. To dance in what I deemed to be the best spot, I marched over to this walkway between two large fountains. All was well for about fifteen seconds, and then I accidentally stepped into one of the fountains. Hahaha, whoops. Unfortunately, the girl filming me dancing cut the video just before that moment of hilarity, so it is not captured on video.
On the way back to the bus, a bunch of kids were trying to sell us souvenirs. I didn’t see anything too impressive, so I politely said no thanks. As we were hopping on trolleys to take us back to the bus (our tours, for whatever reason, assume we despise walking), one kid chased down the moving trolley and hopped on. I loved his tenacity, so I made a pledge to myself to buy something for 100 Rupees (a bit over $2 USD) when we got off the trolley. Unfortunately, he only had “snow globes” of the Taj (a mini Taj Mahal in a glass case filled with water and glitter. When shaken, the glitter falls like confetti before sinking back to the bottom). Despite the fact that I had no interest in a snow globe, I bought one because I admired his persistence. He then asked if I wanted to buy a set of key chains with mini snow globes attached, but I told him I was not interested. So he gave me one “as a gift.” A definite cool dude, I’m glad to say I got a picture with him.
After the Taj we went to the Agra Fort. Out of respect for his wife’s dying wish, Shah Jahan looked out for his children. That decision came back to bite him in the ass when his third son, Aurangzeb, murdered his two older brothers, as well as his younger one for good measure. Then he overthrew his father and imprisoned Shah Jahan until his death. Aurangzeb did honor his father’s dying wish, however, to bury his father next to his wife in the Taj Mahal. What a great son.
So the history of the Agra Fort was pretty cool, but I found the structure itself to be a bit underwhelming. I had heard on wikitravel that the Fort is as impressive as the Taj Mahal, and that is just a blatant lie. I mean it was cool, but anyone who thinks that the Argra Fort and the Taj are equally impressive is out of their mind. So I was a bit unimpressed visiting the Fort, because I had had such high expectations but was ultimately let down. I suppose I let my expectations get the better of me. Bummer.
After the Fort, we went to an expensive marble factory. I suppose it was cool to see the process of making marble and the work was indeed quite impressive (yet far out of my price range). But it was a really annoying to know that the time could have been spent at the Taj or at the Agra Fort, instead of sitting in some expensive shop.
Afterward, we went to a restaurant in town for lunch. The spread was again impressive, and again a buffet. All this eating can’t be good for my figure. It’ll go straight to my thighs.
After lunch we had a five hour bus ride to Jaipur, though it was broken in half by a visit to Fatehpur Sikri, more commonly known as the Abandoned City, which is on the way. I was so sleep deprived that I conked out immediately, and I didn’t wake up until we reached the ol’ Abandoned City. Which was pretty cool. Like most sites, it’s most impressive if you’re aware of the historical significance. In short, Fatehpur Sikri was previously a flourishing city. In fact, it was home to the king. But there was a war, and the king left to go fight in it. When he returned, the city was completely abandoned. Hence the name. Historians hypothesize that everyone left due to a draught.
Anyhow, pretty much all that remains is the king’s palace, likely because it was one of few buildings constructed of stone. It was a huge complex with wonderful attention to detail. In addition, the palace is elevated, leaving a gorgeous view of the landscape and city below.
The most notable details about the stop, though, were interactions with people. When I got off the bus, I had taken some suckers from the hotel to give to children. The second I gave some to the first kid, I was just swarmed. It was insane. I came with probably 50 suckers, and was out in less than a minute (granted, I didn’t keep a one sucker per child rule).
The other interaction that sticks in my mind happened while we were touring the palace. Below an area where we were touring was what appeared to be a swimming pool. Well it used to be. Now it was filled with garbage and bright green water. Near the pool was a young man ferociously waving both hands at us. He wanted to jump off of a twenty foot ledge into the rancid water. The price? A mere 100 Rupees. I’m happy to report that everyone on the trip yelled to him not to jump. If people had offered him money to jump I would have matched their offer for him not to jump. But one horrible girl on the trip, who can be easily described as “the girl who thinks she’s really hot but is not hot at all,” vocally complained about the group’s decision. “Oh come on!” She whined. “I wanted some entertainment!” Apparently she finds it entertaining that some people need to jump into rancid water just to be able to eat.
After leaving the Abandoned City, we had to finish the ride to Jaipur. Before I fell asleep, I finished Mandela’s autobiography, A Long Walk to Freedom. It is a brilliant read; the story is as engrossing as it is inspirational. Please, dear readers, do yourselves a favor and take the time to read it. As in, stop reading this and go read that.
Once I finished the book, a slept another hour or so on the bus before arriving in Jaipur. At the hotel we got dinner, yet again a buffet. I love buffets.
After dinner, a few friends on the trip and I went to a club located on the third floor of the hotel. It was actually quite fun. I didn’t drink because the beer was way overpriced, but I hit up the dance floor with enthusiasm. It was quite an experience, because Indian culture has no homophobia with regards to male friendships. Male friends frequently hold hands as they walk around in public. And it was no different on the dance floor. I was getting approached by men. They would hit my arm and then dance with me. It was great. But, unfortunately, I barely lasted an hour at the club, because I was just wiped out. I was soon in bed and sound asleep.
Day 4 – Jaipur
We got to sleep in today. Well, relatively. Our wakeup call was at 6:00 am. Our first stop was the Amber Fort. Which I absolutely loved. In my mind, it’s a tossup between the Amber Fort and the Taj Mahal for the award of India’s top attraction. For starters, you get to ride elephants at the Amber Fort. But you can only do this in the morning, because the elephants are limited to four rides per day. Hence our 6:00 am wake up.
Once we rode up to the top of the Fort, there was this awesome beat coming from some drums and horns. So naturally, before continuing on with the tour, I danced.
As we continued to explore the Fort, I was just blown away by the architecture, as well as the view. For starters, the Fort is surrounded by mountains. And said mountains are topped with the walls of the Jaigarh Fort, a view eerily similar to the one I saw when I approached THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. In addition to the gorgeous mountains and Jaigarh Fort, the city itself is a sight to see. And considering the Fort’s elevation, it is a spectacular view. Finally, the Fort itself is a pretty pastel color and, as previously mentioned, beautifully constructed. Well I think I’ve exhausted my supply of adjectives for “good looking,” so I’ll just let the pictures do the rest of my talking for me.
The grounds of the fort were enormous. So I could have spent the whole day there. As it was, we probably spent nearly two hours there after our elephant ride, so I wasn’t complaining when we left. But I was complaining once I realized where Taj rushed us off to.
We went to a very upscale jewelry store, where Taj and his travel company (and probably SAS, too), make a healthy commission. And we sat in the showroom for well over an hour. This was incredibly frustrating. We had already been to the marble factory, and now this. And in the afternoon we were scheduled to go to a rug factory. I just couldn’t believe that we paid so much to go on an India trip through SAS, and then, despite our limited time to see many things, we spent over three hours in showrooms. Outrageous.
But after the jewelry store, we went to yet another delicious buffet lunch. Because people were so vocal about their displeasure in seeing yet another expensive showroom, the option was given to either check out or continue with the tour. Nick and I decided to stay, mainly because we were tired. But I also was excited to see the observatory, and was actually interested in the process of rug making.
The observatory, which we went to see first, did not meet my expectations. For whatever reason, I thought it was going to be a sweet lookout over the entire city. Because observatories are usually elevated, I guess? Or maybe because the word is kinda similar to observation deck. I dunno. Either way, in reality it all had to do with astrology. There were numerous sundials, telling both time of day, and even the astrological signs of babies born that day. In hindsight, I should have been interested in the science behind the sundials. But at the time I was tired and really just wanted to chill out view the city. Which is what I had expected to be doing.
The observatory is a short walk away from the City Palace museum, which was our next destination. This was yet another destination which, in my mind, should have been skipped. It had a few cool aspects, but, with only one day in Jaipur, was nothing close to a must-see.
Our last activity of the day was the rug factory. I actually really enjoyed this visit. We learned about the process of both printing for textiles and rug making. Rug making is a fascinating process. One first spends months sewing the rug. Then the back of the rug is seared with some sort of small flamethrower (larger than the pastry/sushi ones but smaller than the weapon), which tightens the whole thing. Finally, the rug is cut, by hand, as short as possible. This brings out the color.
The quality of these rugs was amazing. And it was so much cheaper than in the US. Still, it was very expensive. The smallest rugs, probably 2 x 3 feet, were $150. Most people didn’t want to buy things, but, since our tour guide makes commission on our purchases, he had us stay there a while.
So I was just standing aimlessly when a salesman tried to get me to buy stuff. But I wouldn’t have any of it. We ended up chatting for a while, though, and he was a really cool guy. When he learned I was from America, he said he has four girlfriends in America. So I asked about the girls in India, and he bragged that he has a girl in each city. I told him I was very impressed, and inquired about the keys to his success. “One word,” he said, “style.” I laughed and told him he was indeed very stylish, and then said “I’m surprised you haven’t picked up her yet” motioning to my friend Kerry, who was watching our conversation. He looked at her and said “no, she’s not my type,” before laughing and giving me a high five. ZING!
Once we finally left the rug place, we were bussed back to the hotel. I asked our tour guide to tell me a place I could find some beer, and he directed me to a nearby liquor store. I finally found some cheap beer: 24 oz Kingfishers for about $1.25. I got five so I could share. I walked back to the hotel exhausted, and took a much-needed nap. But I failed at setting my alarm, and went down to dinner an hour after most. Luckily Nick was still eating, along with Earl, who is another one of Tolan’s roommates, and Ben, a cool dude I’d befriended on the trip. They patiently waited on me to finish dinner, and we planned to go up to the pool to drink the beers I’d bought.
Unfortunately, the pool was closed. I don’t know what’s up with foreign hotels closing pools so early; they are great places to hang out at night. Regardless, we needed to find a new location to drink the beers. We couldn’t do it in the bar, because they serve there. And we didn’t want to do it in the hotel room. So we walked up some stairs and realized that the path to the roof was both unguarded and unlocked. So we drank up there, right next to the RAMADA sign. It was pretty sweet, and the view was awesome.
While we were on the roof, we saw this festival going on across the street. Ben decided to go the bed, but Earl, Nick and I decided to check it out. After a short walk, we entered the sea of people. We quickly realized we were probably the only white people there. We were approached by a few locals, who explained that it was a local religious festival. We then asked if we weren’t supposed to be there, but they assured us that we were welcome.
So we set straight out for the main attraction: the Ferris wheel. We saw this from the hotel roof, and the thing just flew in circles. While waiting in line, I saw a guy with a cool shirt which said “shame on you, girls, I’m still a bachelor.” When I complimented him for his style, he surprised me by offering the shirt off his back. I refused, obviously, but decided he had earned himself a mention in the ol’ blog.
After a short wait, we got on the ride. It was, by far, the most exciting Ferris wheel I have ever ridden. And, to top it off, while we were riding fireworks went off. It was great.
After riding, we were approached by local kids. When they saw my camera, they asked if I would take their picture. I did, and I just got mobbed. They absolutely loved seeing themselves on my little LCD screen. It really made me appreciate just how much I have. One little kid always pushed himself to the front and made a “tough guy” face. Though I thought he was spunky, I fear that he might grow up to be a bad dude. I’ll explain what I mean in the reactions section.
Once we’d gotten our fill of the festival, we all headed back to the hotel. Earl offered to buy a round at the bar, so we went up there for a beer. The conversation was interesting, we talked about Semester at Sea, travel, life, politics. Always nice to have a good conversation. But after and hour or so, I was exhausted from the day, despite my nap. So I excused myself and went to bed.
Day 5 – Cochin
We had a 5:00 am wakeup to catch our flight. We were first flying to Mumbai and then on to Cochin. So I packed and grabbed a small breakfast before getting on the bus. While waiting to leave, some asshole on our trip was telling a story. While laughing, he said that the previous night he had paid 10 Rupees to see two kids fight. And, as he said, they were “beating the shit out of each other.” It took every ounce of restraint in my body to refrain from getting up and punching him. But it didn’t stop there, he referred to locals as speaking “Derka derka” and said India should be called “Derkaderkastan.” Then he started complaining about one of our trip leaders, moaning that she was hassling him for not having a partner on the elephant ride. “It’s not my fault we have an odd number of people,” he whined. But it is your fault you have no friends. Douche bag.
The flights back were a bit delayed. We were supposed to get back around 1:00; instead we got to the ship around 2:30. I slept for the majority of both flights, but the brief look I had at Mumbai was crazy. The city, clearly a booming metropolis, was packed with buildings and skyscrapers. The few areas that were undeveloped were slums, and they were overrun with people and slum shacks. Thousands of slum houses were next to the airport. Literally. The houses ran right up to the fence at the edge of the airport grounds, and this fence was only 10 yards from the runway.
Anyhow, like I said, it was around 2:30 when we got back the ship. And I was famished, because I hadn’t eaten since my light breakfast at 6 in the morning. So I ate a big ol’ lunch on the ship’s top deck, which has food for sale. That was yummy. Then I cleaned up and relaxed for a while before Nick and I decided to once again hit the road. We left the ship around 4:00 and we were soon mobbed by auto drivers, as well as cab drivers. One taxi driver offered us a ride anywhere for $1 USD, so we jumped on that. He asked where we wanted to go, and I said we wanted to go anywhere we could play cricket.
So our driver took us to a local park where people were playing cricket and soccer. He offered to wait around, which made us wary that he may try to rip us off. But when we inquired what the rate would be, he said we could pay him whatever we thought was fair. So Nick and I agreed to have him stay.
We walked into the park, but were a bit apprehensive about asking to join a game because the people were good. But our cab driver went up and asked if we could have an at bat, so they stopped the game to let us have a turn. Which they seemed very happy to do; my guess is they don’t have much contact with Americans. Anyhow, it was immediately clear that we would not be able to join in on their game, because they were far too good. But we each got a turn batting, which was cool. I told the pitcher to not take it easy on me, and he promptly retired me. It is real tough to read how those balls bounce.
After cricket, we went to play soccer with a few kids who were kicking the ball around. Again, they were quite friendly and agreed to let us join. We juggled for a while, but didn’t have enough for a game. So Nick and I eventually took off in search of greener pastures.
It turned out those greener pastures were found at an all-dirt park. While driving up, we saw a group of kids playing cricket. They waived to us enthusiastically. So we went up and asked if we could play with them. They were ecstatic to have us. And because they were kids, we could hang with them. We had the strength, they had the skill. Anyway, we played with them for about an hour and half. At first, Nick and I joined a game in progress on separate teams. Then, the kids challenged us to a game. It was such a blast.
My favorite kid was this dude named Rajeev. When I post the pictures, he’s the one wearing the hat. He was so darn cool. He taught me how to do a local Indian handshake, and I taught him how to “pound and explode.” He loved it, so we continued to do that. It was real cute how animated he made his face when he would pound, then he’d yell “boooooom!” as he exploded. But looking back, I wish we’d kept practicing the local handshake, because I forget it now.
But after playing with them for a while, they eventually had to go home. They asked us if we had any coins, and I asked how much it cost to get ice cream in Cochin. They said 10 Rupees, and as I reached for my wallet, Nick pulled out 100 Rupees and said “buy all the ice cream you want!” You should have seen their faces, my reader friends. They were jubilant. As they biked away, they all yelled “boooooom!” as they pounded and exploded in our direction.
Then we had Satheer, our taxi driver, take us back to the ship. He turned out to be a great guy. We’d assumed he was going to try to rip us off by hanging around, but, in reality, he just wanted help us out. With him, our initial distrust was misplaced. I’ll discuss the implications of being encouraged to keep our guard up in the reactions section. When we arrived, we paid him $10, snapped a photo with him, and got his address. I plan to send him that photo (he doesn’t have email).
Back on the boat, I unpacked from the Taj Mahal/Jaipur trip and showered. Then, exhausted, Nick and I watched an episode of In Treatment before passing out around 9:00.
Day 6 – Cochin and Kumbalanghi Village
I awoke after a nice, long sleep feeling refreshed. Nick and I were doing a trip to the visit the Kumbalanghi Village, which is about 30 minutes from Cochin. Though the trip description said we’d get their via “traditional country canoes,” the canoes were motorized and we sat in plastic chairs. The water was incredibly serene, though. It was odd to be in an area inhabited by people, yet was completely silent.
After the traditional canoe ride, we were shown demonstrations of daily life in the village. It was all obviously staged and thus seemed artificial, but it was still pretty cool to see. We got to see (from the SAS trip description) veeshu vala (fishing with conical nets), padal (fish trapping with coconut tree leaves), crab-catching, clam-meat cooking, and coir-making (coir is a rope made from coconut fiber). We also viewed a pottery-making demonstration, which was one of the most impressive things I have ever seen. The pottery wheel was not motorized or powered by pedals; rather the pottery maker rapidly spun the wheel with a stick. He then proceeded to make a perfect pot in less than a minute. It was unreal.
Just before lunch, we were treated to a very impressive performance of Kolkali, a local dance performed by male dancers. It was almost war-like, as each dancer had a wooden baton in each hand and the music was created by chanting and hitting batons with other dancers. As the dance went on, the pace became more and more rapid. The dancers were clearly all experts, as injuries would result otherwise.
We next enjoyed a traditional lunch, which was a buffet of local foods. My favorite, bar none, was the pineapple curry. It was a great mix of sweet and savory.
After lunch, we left the village and began the second part of the tour, the “highlights of Cochin.” The first stop was supposedly a bathroom break, but it was also a fairly expensive store. And once we started to stay for a while, I began to wonder if it was worth it to stay for the city highlights. So I asked our tour guide about the remaining itinerary, and he said we’d be going to see some Chinese fishing nets and the local Church. Now Perry, a lifelong learner and awesome dude, had strongly suggested we see the synagogue which is located in (no joke) Jewtown. Perry had already seen both the fishing nets and the church, and he said that the synagogue was undoubtedly the better choice. So Nick and I checked out and headed for Jewtown.
We started by visiting the Cochin Synagogue. It was actually real cool. After the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans, Jews fled to many different corners of the globe. Some of which fled to India, where they were well-received. The synagogue has been in operation since the 1600s (I don’t have the exact date because they did not allow photographs), and it’s a beautiful facility. Unfortunately, the community is slowly dying out. Many Cochin Jews emigrated to Israel shortly after its founding, and the numbers have continued to slowly drop. With this is mind, I decided to donate 10 Rupees on top of the entrance fee. I figure I’ll get it back when I do birthright.
After seeing the temple, Nick and I spent about an hour shopping in Jewtown. I got a couple sweet shirts, and I got my mother an earring and necklace set that is just her style. I love that once you’re out of money you no longer need to haggle. When I bought the necklace and earring set, I only had 240 Rupees remaining. I asked the guy how much for the set (packaged together) and he said 500. I told him I had 200. “Impossible, 450,” he told me. I then showed him the contents of my wallet and explained, “we don’t really need to haggle. I have 240 left and I need the 40 for a taxi back to the boat.” So he thought for a second, and then said “OK, 200.” Being out of cash just saves so much time.
Shopping complete, Nick and I headed back to the boat, boarding with 30 minutes to spare. But back on the boat, I went up to the top deck to view the scenery with one thought on my mind, “I gotta go back to India.”
Reactions to Indian Culture
I have felt this way after every country we’ve visited, but India in particular has just reinforced the fact that I AM SO LUCKY. Literally every problem in my life is trivial. I never need to worry about where my next meal is coming from, where I am going to sleep, finding clean water, or getting some privacy to use the bathroom. In India, you are confronted with extreme poverty left and right. Nearly all the people look malnourished. Millions of people live in shacks made from sheet metal and tarps, converting any space they can find into a place called home. Many people are noticeably diseased, some missing fingers and/or limbs. And a very high percentage of people seemed to be malformed, likely from drugs or malnourishment in the womb. If the biggest concern in my life is my ineptitude with women, my life is pretty, pretty, pretty good.
Feeding into the point of how difficult it is to live in India, life there is cheap. So cheap. And it’s because there are so many goddamn people. I mentioned the slum shacks in which people live, they are just everywhere. If there is plot of unused land, someone will build a home there. It doesn’t matter if it’s covered in trash or mere yards for an airport. If there’s land, somebody needs it. But the perfect metaphor for just how cheap life is in India has to be the ambulance sirens. They are, bar none, the quietest sirens I have ever heard. Nick described them perfectly. “They seem to say,” he noted, “excuse me, do you think you could please get out of the way if it isn’t too much trouble?”
And with life being so cheap (read: no one looking out for you), it’s so easy to fall through the cracks. That’s what I was referring to with the kid who I feared might grow into a jerk. As of now, he’s a spunky little dude who’s trying to look cool by acting tough. But if no one is around to ever straighten him up, I could easily see him slowly transforming into a real tough guy. And in a place like India, I get the impression that tough guys do some really bad things.
With people everywhere, the society is just chaotic. The road has few rules, and even fewer are followed. Many cab drivers did not know where things were; on multiple occasions we were taken to the wrong place, despite showing the driver an address. Animals, such as monkeys, cows, and dogs, roam the streets and sidewalks freely. It was really surreal.
With so much suffering going on, you really want to help. But helping is nearly impossible. If you give money to someone, you will instantly be mobbed. You’ll be approached a mother holding baby who is visibly poor shape, and she’ll beg, “sir, help my baby!” But you can’t, because more often than not the baby is not even theirs; women drug/mutilate babies and then share them as a begging instrument. Knowing the cruel world of begging and the dangers of an impoverished country like India, you must keep your guard up.
But by keeping your guard up, which must be done out of necessity, you are automatically distrustful of people and miss out on human interaction. When you assume they are trying to rip you off and are potentially dangerous, genuine interaction becomes less and less likely. In my case, I was really wary of having our cab driver Satheer wait around on us. I thought he might be trying to rip us off. On the contrary, he turned out to be a flat-out awesome guy. One of my favorite people that I met in India.
Now before I close out this post, I’ll offer a bit of advice to future American/SAS travelers. First, prepare for the public attention. You’ll get it worldwide, but especially in India. The people flat-out love Americans. They’ll want to take pictures and to shake your hand. And if they speak English, they love nothing more than conversing. If they don’t speak English, they’ll simply exclaim “Obama good!” If you think about it, the warm reception makes sense. America and India have strong political and economic ties. Historically, we have never done anything wrong to them. In fact, America and India even shared a common oppressor in the British. So with that in mind, just prepare to get mobbed.
Secondly, don’t do Semester at Sea overnight trips. It is still a great idea to do guided travel to get through India (like I said, the place is chaotic). But you can independently pay a tour guide, which will save you a lot of money, and give you more control over the itinerary. And you won’t need to sit in expensive showrooms for such a long time.
Alrighty, that just about sums up India. Prepare for some rapid-fire updates from days at sea in the near future. Love and miss you all much, dear readers. Hope all is well in the States. Yay Health Care!!
Day 1 – Chennai and Mamallapuram
Nick and I were taking an SAS trip to Mamallapuram, which left at 12:30. Though we could not get off the boat until about 11:00, we wanted to explore Chennai, albeit briefly. We had hoped to walk around and find a place to eat. However, unbeknownst to us at the time, the port was quite far from the city. While walking we ran into our neighbor Kelly, and she also had a 12:30 trip. She decided to join us on our brief endeavor, but after walking for a bit we realized we were going to have to take a cab if we wanted to get anywhere.
So we hopped into an auto rickshaw (henceforth simply referred to as “autos”) and asked the driver to take us to a restaurant. We stressed the fact that we were on a very limited schedule and that we wanted to go somewhere close and quick. He said he understood and took us into town.
The ride was absolutely crazy seeing all the traffic, the people, and shops. Not to mention all of the smog. It was just a completely novel experience. Nick, Kelly and I were totally absorbed on the sights we were seeing, but suddenly realized that 30 minutes had passed. We reiterated that we were in a rush, and the driver assured us that we were close. But five minutes later we were still driving, and we collectively decided we needed to get off of this auto. We had been warned that drivers have deals with particular places and we assumed that to be the case. So we hopped off and just walked around for a bit before grabbing another auto to get back to the ship.
Now, whenever we go into port SAS gives us “green sheets” which have useful information, including the address at which the ship is located. When we showed our driver that address, he confirmed that he knew where he was taking us. But thirty minutes later (it’s now about 12:20), he dropped us off at the main entrance to the terminal. And the terminal is huge, over two kilometers long. So we ran the entrance trying desperately trying to find out where we needed to go. One of the guards informed us that we needed to get to Gate 7, so we scrambled and got another auto to take us there. We got to Gate 7 at about 12:35, so we were all nervous that we missed our trips. Luckily, there is a customs stop to get out of the port terminal, and our bus was being waved out just as we arrived. So Nick and I were able to hop on at the last possible second. As for our friend Kelly, her bus had, unfortunately, already taken off. But a kind professor allowed her to attend her trip instead, free of charge. So, somehow, it all worked out.
Now Nick and I were famished, because we had not eaten breakfast and now missed lunch. Luckily, our trip stopped for lunch before reaching Mamallampuram. The lunch was stellar. We were served about ten dishes and given tasters of each, which is probably my favorite way to discover new food. We also ate with our hands, which I thought was fun. I much prefer eating with utensils, but I enjoyed how rude and forbidden it felt. I was eating so sloppily, it was hysterical.
A short ride from the restaurant was Mamallapuram. It is an ancient port city and popular beach resort, for good reason. Though I only caught a glimpse, the beach was magnificent. There were three main sights to see in Mamallampuram: the Shore Temple, the Five Rathas, and Arjuna’s Penance. The Shore Temple is supposedly the coolest sight to see, but it was being renovated during our visit, so it did not look nearly as spectacular as usual.
The Five Rathas was my favorite. Originally a giant stone cliff, five large structures and some smaller pieces were all carved out. And the attention to detail was immaculate. Our guide informed us that all the historical attractions are 1,200 years old. It is so hard for me to comprehend how work this beautiful was done so long ago.
Finally was Arjuna’s Penance, in which carvings on the wall depict fables from the Panchatantra, a collection of Sanskrit animal fables. There were also monkeys roaming around, which was cool. And it was at Arjuna’s Penance that I met a gregarious teenager, whose name I unfortunately can no longer remember. He was a local stone mason and was quite friendly. I enjoyed his company thoroughly, and he shared some insight about the scenes depicted in the Penance.
While I really enjoyed Mamallapuram, the whole thing felt rushed. I do not know why we waited until 12:30 to leave, especially considering that it took nearly two hours by bus to get there. We really ought to have left first thing. As it was, we returned an hour late. That actually was no bother to me, because I had nothing else going on. But one kid on our trip had a flight to catch, and he nearly missed it due to our tardiness.
After our trip, Nick and I met up with Jake and a few others for dinner. Nick knew of a place which sounded good, so we got a cab together. The cab ride was absolutely miserable. It was piping hot and jam-packed. Though we thought the car had three rows of seats, the very back row, where Jake and one other dude sat, was just the gas tank. Then three of us were in the middle row, with one guy sitting shotgun. We ended up driving with the doors open. There really aren’t many rules in India.
But what really made the ride hellacious was the fact that the driver did not know where he was going. We gave him an address, he said he knew it, but then he was lost. He tried to just drop us off at a random spot, but we refused to get out. He eventually asked for directions from a local and got us where we needed to go, but the whole thing took over an hour.
Dinner was all worth it, though. I got Aloo Gobi for my main dish, which is a curry dish with cauliflower, potatoes, carrots and peas. It was tastylicious. I also got two orders of naan, a mango milkshake, and some ice cream. It was like a big orgasm. In my mouth. Those restaurant owners must love gluttonous Americans.
Across the street from the restaurant was a movie theater. We couldn’t help but laugh at the posters. Though I legitimately thought one looked pretty badass, the other three were just laughable. I obviously documented via photograph.
But after enjoying a funny at the expense of the posters, Nick and I just headed back. It was only about 9:00, but we had to be in the Union at 3:30 am the following morning for our trip to the Taj Mahal and Jaipur. So we just packed up and got some shuteye before the cruel, cruel sound of the alarm.
Day 2 – Delhi
At 3:00 am my alarm went off. So that sucked. In a dazed state I brushed my teeth, packed up my remaining toiletries, and met in the Union. We left at 4:00 am for the airport, where we flew to Delhi. I brought along Mandela’s biography, and as engrossed as I was in what I was reading, I only got through a page or so before conking out.
Upon reaching Delhi, we embarked on a city tour. The tour was, in my opinion, very disorganized. For example, regarding our first stop, my notes say “visited cool historical site, see video for name.” We would just be dropped off somewhere, our tour guide took a couple minutes to explain it, and then we were given a maximum of 20 minutes to explore. And that was if we were lucky. For many sites, we often just drove past them.
Unfortunately, my pictures and videos from India are on Nick’s external hard drive, as my hard drive space has filled. And I’m too lazy to borrow it to search through my videos and find the name of the “cool historical site” (Editor’s Note: I researched on Wikitravel, it’s called the Qutub Complex). It was a cool area, though, and if memory serves me correctly, it was formerly a Hindu shrine that was conquered by Muslims and converted into a mosque. But there was much more on the grounds than just the house of worship. The site is huge, and covered with monumental buildings and shrines. Just as was the case with Mamallapuram, I stood in awe looking at the intricacies of the stone carvings, let alone the sheer size. It must have taken so much time and so much manpower to complete.
After a delicious buffet lunch, we continued our city tour. We passed numerous sites that Taj, our tour guide, pointed out for a brief photo shoot. It was a very stereotypical tour bus experience, with the tour guide in front saying “on your left, you’ll see X, and coming up on your right is Y.” I wish we had cut all that out of the tour and, with the time saved, been given time to walk around Old Delhi, as opposed to just driving through. But, alas, I don’t make the itinerary.
Once we were bussed through Old Delhi, we went to Humayun’s Tomb. Humayun was the second Mogul Emperor. The tomb was an incredibly impressive structure, topped with the same gorgeous dome and minaret combo as the Taj Mahal. After checking out the grounds, I asked to join some locals in a game of cricket. They happily let me join and I took an at bat. I got a hit, though it was obvious the pitcher was taking it easy on me. The group left soon thereafter, so unfortunately I couldn’t play long.
Our final stop was Ghandi’s Memorial. We got there at sunset, which was absolutely gorgeous. The pictures (when I can finally post them will) speak for themselves. While at the Memorial, a few locals asked to take a photo with me. As soon as I agreed, more and more just started filing next to me to get a picture. I’m certain that it’s just a product of being American(/white), but it was just really odd to experience. It was like a brief taste of celebrity. Everyone wanted my picture and to shake my hand.
Back at the hotel, we grabbed some dinner. Like lunch, it was a buffet. Only this time, it was probably one of the greatest meals I have eaten in my entire life. Everything was amazing. It is illegal to eat cow in India, but they had water buffalo filet, and it was incredible. They also had flavorful roast leg of lamb and tender bbq chicken. And that was the western section. They also had numerous Indian dishes, and plenty of fresh naan. To top it off, there was a sundae bar for desert. Despite the fact that I’m currently full, my mouth is watering thinking about this meal.
After dinner, people talked about hanging by the pool. So I put on the hotel robe and slippers, and headed down. Unfortunately, the pool closed early. So a few guys and I headed down to the spa, where I spent a bit of time in the sauna and hot tub. But the heat brought out my fatigue, and I went to bed shortly thereafter.
Day 3 – Agra (Taj Mahal!!)
I awoke to a 4:00 am wakeup call at the hotel. We didn’t need to leave until 5:15, and I had requested our wakeup call be shifted back to 4:30. But the request was apparently ignored, because the phone rang at 4:00 am sharp. So I woke up grumpy and tired. And, as usual for SAS trips, had to wait around for a while before leaving.
One reason we had to wait so long was because of Nick’s roommate. Which, in hindsight, is a hilarious story. Particularly because we still caught our train. Anyway, Nick’s roommate came back fairly late and fairly drunk. So when the morning came, he had trouble getting out of bed. Nick tried his best to wake him, but he just was not waking up. Nick would shake him and say, “dude, we gotta go!” His roommate would respond by nodding his head, saying, “I’m awake,” and then immediately falling back asleep. Eventually the trip leaders needed to wake up the roommate, who stood up, said “OK let’s go,” and walked out of the room. But he hadn’t packed and we were checking out. So he had to go back and pack.
But, because of the absurd cushion planned into our transportation time, we made it to the train station with plenty of time to spare. The station was absolutely nuts. The place smelled like piss, people were milling every which way, and tons of people were sleeping on the concrete floor. While we were waiting, I watched people towing all sorts of things around the station, from newspapers to packages to crates full of random pieces of wood.
Anyhow, we caught our 6:00 am train from Delhi to Agra. I grabbed a window seat intending to view the Indian landscape, but quickly fell asleep. An all-to-ambitious plan, I suppose.
After the train ride, we stopped in an insanely luxurious hotel for breakfast. Though we did not spend the night there, kids on other SAS trips did. So despite my complaints, I’ve gotta hand that to SAS trips. They are oh so cushy. You stay in some great hotels and eat delicious food.
After breakfast was the main attraction of the trip. We went to see the Taj Mahal! I’m not quite sure why I wanted to see the Taj so badly, but, for whatever reason, I did. I suppose it’s because I’ve seen it in so many photos and I’ve always been struck by its beauty. Anyhow, it was simply stunning in person. Numerous studies have shown that the human brain finds symmetry beautiful. Perhaps that’s one reason the Taj is so gorgeous: it is perfectly symmetrical. That, in itself, is an incredible feat, seeing as it was built in 1632. In addition to symmetry, it is maintained in pristine condition. As Nick concisely said, “it just looks immaculate, as if it had been built yesterday.”
Before we were given independent time for photos and the like, Taj our tour guide explained the history of the Taj Mahal. It was built by the Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. Now that’s all well and good, but when Taj explained Mumtaz Mahal’s dying wishes, I started to think she didn’t deserve such an impressive, expensive monument built by tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of slaves. Her first dying wish was that her husband take care of their 14 children. That’s fair. Her second was that her husband never remarry. Eh, a little selfish but I’ll let it slide. And her third and final wish was that her husband build her an enormous monument to commemorate her death. The bitch is starting to get demanding.
After the history lesson, I just had a wonderful time exploring the beautiful grounds, taking funny pictures, and, of course, dancing. I believe I have mentioned this in my blog, but I have tried to get videos dancing in many of the cool places I’ve visited. I think it goes without saying that the Taj Mahal qualifies as a “cool place.” So I took one video dancing right in front of the Taj, and then another further way, as to give some perspective on my location. To dance in what I deemed to be the best spot, I marched over to this walkway between two large fountains. All was well for about fifteen seconds, and then I accidentally stepped into one of the fountains. Hahaha, whoops. Unfortunately, the girl filming me dancing cut the video just before that moment of hilarity, so it is not captured on video.
On the way back to the bus, a bunch of kids were trying to sell us souvenirs. I didn’t see anything too impressive, so I politely said no thanks. As we were hopping on trolleys to take us back to the bus (our tours, for whatever reason, assume we despise walking), one kid chased down the moving trolley and hopped on. I loved his tenacity, so I made a pledge to myself to buy something for 100 Rupees (a bit over $2 USD) when we got off the trolley. Unfortunately, he only had “snow globes” of the Taj (a mini Taj Mahal in a glass case filled with water and glitter. When shaken, the glitter falls like confetti before sinking back to the bottom). Despite the fact that I had no interest in a snow globe, I bought one because I admired his persistence. He then asked if I wanted to buy a set of key chains with mini snow globes attached, but I told him I was not interested. So he gave me one “as a gift.” A definite cool dude, I’m glad to say I got a picture with him.
After the Taj we went to the Agra Fort. Out of respect for his wife’s dying wish, Shah Jahan looked out for his children. That decision came back to bite him in the ass when his third son, Aurangzeb, murdered his two older brothers, as well as his younger one for good measure. Then he overthrew his father and imprisoned Shah Jahan until his death. Aurangzeb did honor his father’s dying wish, however, to bury his father next to his wife in the Taj Mahal. What a great son.
So the history of the Agra Fort was pretty cool, but I found the structure itself to be a bit underwhelming. I had heard on wikitravel that the Fort is as impressive as the Taj Mahal, and that is just a blatant lie. I mean it was cool, but anyone who thinks that the Argra Fort and the Taj are equally impressive is out of their mind. So I was a bit unimpressed visiting the Fort, because I had had such high expectations but was ultimately let down. I suppose I let my expectations get the better of me. Bummer.
After the Fort, we went to an expensive marble factory. I suppose it was cool to see the process of making marble and the work was indeed quite impressive (yet far out of my price range). But it was a really annoying to know that the time could have been spent at the Taj or at the Agra Fort, instead of sitting in some expensive shop.
Afterward, we went to a restaurant in town for lunch. The spread was again impressive, and again a buffet. All this eating can’t be good for my figure. It’ll go straight to my thighs.
After lunch we had a five hour bus ride to Jaipur, though it was broken in half by a visit to Fatehpur Sikri, more commonly known as the Abandoned City, which is on the way. I was so sleep deprived that I conked out immediately, and I didn’t wake up until we reached the ol’ Abandoned City. Which was pretty cool. Like most sites, it’s most impressive if you’re aware of the historical significance. In short, Fatehpur Sikri was previously a flourishing city. In fact, it was home to the king. But there was a war, and the king left to go fight in it. When he returned, the city was completely abandoned. Hence the name. Historians hypothesize that everyone left due to a draught.
Anyhow, pretty much all that remains is the king’s palace, likely because it was one of few buildings constructed of stone. It was a huge complex with wonderful attention to detail. In addition, the palace is elevated, leaving a gorgeous view of the landscape and city below.
The most notable details about the stop, though, were interactions with people. When I got off the bus, I had taken some suckers from the hotel to give to children. The second I gave some to the first kid, I was just swarmed. It was insane. I came with probably 50 suckers, and was out in less than a minute (granted, I didn’t keep a one sucker per child rule).
The other interaction that sticks in my mind happened while we were touring the palace. Below an area where we were touring was what appeared to be a swimming pool. Well it used to be. Now it was filled with garbage and bright green water. Near the pool was a young man ferociously waving both hands at us. He wanted to jump off of a twenty foot ledge into the rancid water. The price? A mere 100 Rupees. I’m happy to report that everyone on the trip yelled to him not to jump. If people had offered him money to jump I would have matched their offer for him not to jump. But one horrible girl on the trip, who can be easily described as “the girl who thinks she’s really hot but is not hot at all,” vocally complained about the group’s decision. “Oh come on!” She whined. “I wanted some entertainment!” Apparently she finds it entertaining that some people need to jump into rancid water just to be able to eat.
After leaving the Abandoned City, we had to finish the ride to Jaipur. Before I fell asleep, I finished Mandela’s autobiography, A Long Walk to Freedom. It is a brilliant read; the story is as engrossing as it is inspirational. Please, dear readers, do yourselves a favor and take the time to read it. As in, stop reading this and go read that.
Once I finished the book, a slept another hour or so on the bus before arriving in Jaipur. At the hotel we got dinner, yet again a buffet. I love buffets.
After dinner, a few friends on the trip and I went to a club located on the third floor of the hotel. It was actually quite fun. I didn’t drink because the beer was way overpriced, but I hit up the dance floor with enthusiasm. It was quite an experience, because Indian culture has no homophobia with regards to male friendships. Male friends frequently hold hands as they walk around in public. And it was no different on the dance floor. I was getting approached by men. They would hit my arm and then dance with me. It was great. But, unfortunately, I barely lasted an hour at the club, because I was just wiped out. I was soon in bed and sound asleep.
Day 4 – Jaipur
We got to sleep in today. Well, relatively. Our wakeup call was at 6:00 am. Our first stop was the Amber Fort. Which I absolutely loved. In my mind, it’s a tossup between the Amber Fort and the Taj Mahal for the award of India’s top attraction. For starters, you get to ride elephants at the Amber Fort. But you can only do this in the morning, because the elephants are limited to four rides per day. Hence our 6:00 am wake up.
Once we rode up to the top of the Fort, there was this awesome beat coming from some drums and horns. So naturally, before continuing on with the tour, I danced.
As we continued to explore the Fort, I was just blown away by the architecture, as well as the view. For starters, the Fort is surrounded by mountains. And said mountains are topped with the walls of the Jaigarh Fort, a view eerily similar to the one I saw when I approached THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. In addition to the gorgeous mountains and Jaigarh Fort, the city itself is a sight to see. And considering the Fort’s elevation, it is a spectacular view. Finally, the Fort itself is a pretty pastel color and, as previously mentioned, beautifully constructed. Well I think I’ve exhausted my supply of adjectives for “good looking,” so I’ll just let the pictures do the rest of my talking for me.
The grounds of the fort were enormous. So I could have spent the whole day there. As it was, we probably spent nearly two hours there after our elephant ride, so I wasn’t complaining when we left. But I was complaining once I realized where Taj rushed us off to.
We went to a very upscale jewelry store, where Taj and his travel company (and probably SAS, too), make a healthy commission. And we sat in the showroom for well over an hour. This was incredibly frustrating. We had already been to the marble factory, and now this. And in the afternoon we were scheduled to go to a rug factory. I just couldn’t believe that we paid so much to go on an India trip through SAS, and then, despite our limited time to see many things, we spent over three hours in showrooms. Outrageous.
But after the jewelry store, we went to yet another delicious buffet lunch. Because people were so vocal about their displeasure in seeing yet another expensive showroom, the option was given to either check out or continue with the tour. Nick and I decided to stay, mainly because we were tired. But I also was excited to see the observatory, and was actually interested in the process of rug making.
The observatory, which we went to see first, did not meet my expectations. For whatever reason, I thought it was going to be a sweet lookout over the entire city. Because observatories are usually elevated, I guess? Or maybe because the word is kinda similar to observation deck. I dunno. Either way, in reality it all had to do with astrology. There were numerous sundials, telling both time of day, and even the astrological signs of babies born that day. In hindsight, I should have been interested in the science behind the sundials. But at the time I was tired and really just wanted to chill out view the city. Which is what I had expected to be doing.
The observatory is a short walk away from the City Palace museum, which was our next destination. This was yet another destination which, in my mind, should have been skipped. It had a few cool aspects, but, with only one day in Jaipur, was nothing close to a must-see.
Our last activity of the day was the rug factory. I actually really enjoyed this visit. We learned about the process of both printing for textiles and rug making. Rug making is a fascinating process. One first spends months sewing the rug. Then the back of the rug is seared with some sort of small flamethrower (larger than the pastry/sushi ones but smaller than the weapon), which tightens the whole thing. Finally, the rug is cut, by hand, as short as possible. This brings out the color.
The quality of these rugs was amazing. And it was so much cheaper than in the US. Still, it was very expensive. The smallest rugs, probably 2 x 3 feet, were $150. Most people didn’t want to buy things, but, since our tour guide makes commission on our purchases, he had us stay there a while.
So I was just standing aimlessly when a salesman tried to get me to buy stuff. But I wouldn’t have any of it. We ended up chatting for a while, though, and he was a really cool guy. When he learned I was from America, he said he has four girlfriends in America. So I asked about the girls in India, and he bragged that he has a girl in each city. I told him I was very impressed, and inquired about the keys to his success. “One word,” he said, “style.” I laughed and told him he was indeed very stylish, and then said “I’m surprised you haven’t picked up her yet” motioning to my friend Kerry, who was watching our conversation. He looked at her and said “no, she’s not my type,” before laughing and giving me a high five. ZING!
Once we finally left the rug place, we were bussed back to the hotel. I asked our tour guide to tell me a place I could find some beer, and he directed me to a nearby liquor store. I finally found some cheap beer: 24 oz Kingfishers for about $1.25. I got five so I could share. I walked back to the hotel exhausted, and took a much-needed nap. But I failed at setting my alarm, and went down to dinner an hour after most. Luckily Nick was still eating, along with Earl, who is another one of Tolan’s roommates, and Ben, a cool dude I’d befriended on the trip. They patiently waited on me to finish dinner, and we planned to go up to the pool to drink the beers I’d bought.
Unfortunately, the pool was closed. I don’t know what’s up with foreign hotels closing pools so early; they are great places to hang out at night. Regardless, we needed to find a new location to drink the beers. We couldn’t do it in the bar, because they serve there. And we didn’t want to do it in the hotel room. So we walked up some stairs and realized that the path to the roof was both unguarded and unlocked. So we drank up there, right next to the RAMADA sign. It was pretty sweet, and the view was awesome.
While we were on the roof, we saw this festival going on across the street. Ben decided to go the bed, but Earl, Nick and I decided to check it out. After a short walk, we entered the sea of people. We quickly realized we were probably the only white people there. We were approached by a few locals, who explained that it was a local religious festival. We then asked if we weren’t supposed to be there, but they assured us that we were welcome.
So we set straight out for the main attraction: the Ferris wheel. We saw this from the hotel roof, and the thing just flew in circles. While waiting in line, I saw a guy with a cool shirt which said “shame on you, girls, I’m still a bachelor.” When I complimented him for his style, he surprised me by offering the shirt off his back. I refused, obviously, but decided he had earned himself a mention in the ol’ blog.
After a short wait, we got on the ride. It was, by far, the most exciting Ferris wheel I have ever ridden. And, to top it off, while we were riding fireworks went off. It was great.
After riding, we were approached by local kids. When they saw my camera, they asked if I would take their picture. I did, and I just got mobbed. They absolutely loved seeing themselves on my little LCD screen. It really made me appreciate just how much I have. One little kid always pushed himself to the front and made a “tough guy” face. Though I thought he was spunky, I fear that he might grow up to be a bad dude. I’ll explain what I mean in the reactions section.
Once we’d gotten our fill of the festival, we all headed back to the hotel. Earl offered to buy a round at the bar, so we went up there for a beer. The conversation was interesting, we talked about Semester at Sea, travel, life, politics. Always nice to have a good conversation. But after and hour or so, I was exhausted from the day, despite my nap. So I excused myself and went to bed.
Day 5 – Cochin
We had a 5:00 am wakeup to catch our flight. We were first flying to Mumbai and then on to Cochin. So I packed and grabbed a small breakfast before getting on the bus. While waiting to leave, some asshole on our trip was telling a story. While laughing, he said that the previous night he had paid 10 Rupees to see two kids fight. And, as he said, they were “beating the shit out of each other.” It took every ounce of restraint in my body to refrain from getting up and punching him. But it didn’t stop there, he referred to locals as speaking “Derka derka” and said India should be called “Derkaderkastan.” Then he started complaining about one of our trip leaders, moaning that she was hassling him for not having a partner on the elephant ride. “It’s not my fault we have an odd number of people,” he whined. But it is your fault you have no friends. Douche bag.
The flights back were a bit delayed. We were supposed to get back around 1:00; instead we got to the ship around 2:30. I slept for the majority of both flights, but the brief look I had at Mumbai was crazy. The city, clearly a booming metropolis, was packed with buildings and skyscrapers. The few areas that were undeveloped were slums, and they were overrun with people and slum shacks. Thousands of slum houses were next to the airport. Literally. The houses ran right up to the fence at the edge of the airport grounds, and this fence was only 10 yards from the runway.
Anyhow, like I said, it was around 2:30 when we got back the ship. And I was famished, because I hadn’t eaten since my light breakfast at 6 in the morning. So I ate a big ol’ lunch on the ship’s top deck, which has food for sale. That was yummy. Then I cleaned up and relaxed for a while before Nick and I decided to once again hit the road. We left the ship around 4:00 and we were soon mobbed by auto drivers, as well as cab drivers. One taxi driver offered us a ride anywhere for $1 USD, so we jumped on that. He asked where we wanted to go, and I said we wanted to go anywhere we could play cricket.
So our driver took us to a local park where people were playing cricket and soccer. He offered to wait around, which made us wary that he may try to rip us off. But when we inquired what the rate would be, he said we could pay him whatever we thought was fair. So Nick and I agreed to have him stay.
We walked into the park, but were a bit apprehensive about asking to join a game because the people were good. But our cab driver went up and asked if we could have an at bat, so they stopped the game to let us have a turn. Which they seemed very happy to do; my guess is they don’t have much contact with Americans. Anyhow, it was immediately clear that we would not be able to join in on their game, because they were far too good. But we each got a turn batting, which was cool. I told the pitcher to not take it easy on me, and he promptly retired me. It is real tough to read how those balls bounce.
After cricket, we went to play soccer with a few kids who were kicking the ball around. Again, they were quite friendly and agreed to let us join. We juggled for a while, but didn’t have enough for a game. So Nick and I eventually took off in search of greener pastures.
It turned out those greener pastures were found at an all-dirt park. While driving up, we saw a group of kids playing cricket. They waived to us enthusiastically. So we went up and asked if we could play with them. They were ecstatic to have us. And because they were kids, we could hang with them. We had the strength, they had the skill. Anyway, we played with them for about an hour and half. At first, Nick and I joined a game in progress on separate teams. Then, the kids challenged us to a game. It was such a blast.
My favorite kid was this dude named Rajeev. When I post the pictures, he’s the one wearing the hat. He was so darn cool. He taught me how to do a local Indian handshake, and I taught him how to “pound and explode.” He loved it, so we continued to do that. It was real cute how animated he made his face when he would pound, then he’d yell “boooooom!” as he exploded. But looking back, I wish we’d kept practicing the local handshake, because I forget it now.
But after playing with them for a while, they eventually had to go home. They asked us if we had any coins, and I asked how much it cost to get ice cream in Cochin. They said 10 Rupees, and as I reached for my wallet, Nick pulled out 100 Rupees and said “buy all the ice cream you want!” You should have seen their faces, my reader friends. They were jubilant. As they biked away, they all yelled “boooooom!” as they pounded and exploded in our direction.
Then we had Satheer, our taxi driver, take us back to the ship. He turned out to be a great guy. We’d assumed he was going to try to rip us off by hanging around, but, in reality, he just wanted help us out. With him, our initial distrust was misplaced. I’ll discuss the implications of being encouraged to keep our guard up in the reactions section. When we arrived, we paid him $10, snapped a photo with him, and got his address. I plan to send him that photo (he doesn’t have email).
Back on the boat, I unpacked from the Taj Mahal/Jaipur trip and showered. Then, exhausted, Nick and I watched an episode of In Treatment before passing out around 9:00.
Day 6 – Cochin and Kumbalanghi Village
I awoke after a nice, long sleep feeling refreshed. Nick and I were doing a trip to the visit the Kumbalanghi Village, which is about 30 minutes from Cochin. Though the trip description said we’d get their via “traditional country canoes,” the canoes were motorized and we sat in plastic chairs. The water was incredibly serene, though. It was odd to be in an area inhabited by people, yet was completely silent.
After the traditional canoe ride, we were shown demonstrations of daily life in the village. It was all obviously staged and thus seemed artificial, but it was still pretty cool to see. We got to see (from the SAS trip description) veeshu vala (fishing with conical nets), padal (fish trapping with coconut tree leaves), crab-catching, clam-meat cooking, and coir-making (coir is a rope made from coconut fiber). We also viewed a pottery-making demonstration, which was one of the most impressive things I have ever seen. The pottery wheel was not motorized or powered by pedals; rather the pottery maker rapidly spun the wheel with a stick. He then proceeded to make a perfect pot in less than a minute. It was unreal.
Just before lunch, we were treated to a very impressive performance of Kolkali, a local dance performed by male dancers. It was almost war-like, as each dancer had a wooden baton in each hand and the music was created by chanting and hitting batons with other dancers. As the dance went on, the pace became more and more rapid. The dancers were clearly all experts, as injuries would result otherwise.
We next enjoyed a traditional lunch, which was a buffet of local foods. My favorite, bar none, was the pineapple curry. It was a great mix of sweet and savory.
After lunch, we left the village and began the second part of the tour, the “highlights of Cochin.” The first stop was supposedly a bathroom break, but it was also a fairly expensive store. And once we started to stay for a while, I began to wonder if it was worth it to stay for the city highlights. So I asked our tour guide about the remaining itinerary, and he said we’d be going to see some Chinese fishing nets and the local Church. Now Perry, a lifelong learner and awesome dude, had strongly suggested we see the synagogue which is located in (no joke) Jewtown. Perry had already seen both the fishing nets and the church, and he said that the synagogue was undoubtedly the better choice. So Nick and I checked out and headed for Jewtown.
We started by visiting the Cochin Synagogue. It was actually real cool. After the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans, Jews fled to many different corners of the globe. Some of which fled to India, where they were well-received. The synagogue has been in operation since the 1600s (I don’t have the exact date because they did not allow photographs), and it’s a beautiful facility. Unfortunately, the community is slowly dying out. Many Cochin Jews emigrated to Israel shortly after its founding, and the numbers have continued to slowly drop. With this is mind, I decided to donate 10 Rupees on top of the entrance fee. I figure I’ll get it back when I do birthright.
After seeing the temple, Nick and I spent about an hour shopping in Jewtown. I got a couple sweet shirts, and I got my mother an earring and necklace set that is just her style. I love that once you’re out of money you no longer need to haggle. When I bought the necklace and earring set, I only had 240 Rupees remaining. I asked the guy how much for the set (packaged together) and he said 500. I told him I had 200. “Impossible, 450,” he told me. I then showed him the contents of my wallet and explained, “we don’t really need to haggle. I have 240 left and I need the 40 for a taxi back to the boat.” So he thought for a second, and then said “OK, 200.” Being out of cash just saves so much time.
Shopping complete, Nick and I headed back to the boat, boarding with 30 minutes to spare. But back on the boat, I went up to the top deck to view the scenery with one thought on my mind, “I gotta go back to India.”
Reactions to Indian Culture
I have felt this way after every country we’ve visited, but India in particular has just reinforced the fact that I AM SO LUCKY. Literally every problem in my life is trivial. I never need to worry about where my next meal is coming from, where I am going to sleep, finding clean water, or getting some privacy to use the bathroom. In India, you are confronted with extreme poverty left and right. Nearly all the people look malnourished. Millions of people live in shacks made from sheet metal and tarps, converting any space they can find into a place called home. Many people are noticeably diseased, some missing fingers and/or limbs. And a very high percentage of people seemed to be malformed, likely from drugs or malnourishment in the womb. If the biggest concern in my life is my ineptitude with women, my life is pretty, pretty, pretty good.
Feeding into the point of how difficult it is to live in India, life there is cheap. So cheap. And it’s because there are so many goddamn people. I mentioned the slum shacks in which people live, they are just everywhere. If there is plot of unused land, someone will build a home there. It doesn’t matter if it’s covered in trash or mere yards for an airport. If there’s land, somebody needs it. But the perfect metaphor for just how cheap life is in India has to be the ambulance sirens. They are, bar none, the quietest sirens I have ever heard. Nick described them perfectly. “They seem to say,” he noted, “excuse me, do you think you could please get out of the way if it isn’t too much trouble?”
And with life being so cheap (read: no one looking out for you), it’s so easy to fall through the cracks. That’s what I was referring to with the kid who I feared might grow into a jerk. As of now, he’s a spunky little dude who’s trying to look cool by acting tough. But if no one is around to ever straighten him up, I could easily see him slowly transforming into a real tough guy. And in a place like India, I get the impression that tough guys do some really bad things.
With people everywhere, the society is just chaotic. The road has few rules, and even fewer are followed. Many cab drivers did not know where things were; on multiple occasions we were taken to the wrong place, despite showing the driver an address. Animals, such as monkeys, cows, and dogs, roam the streets and sidewalks freely. It was really surreal.
With so much suffering going on, you really want to help. But helping is nearly impossible. If you give money to someone, you will instantly be mobbed. You’ll be approached a mother holding baby who is visibly poor shape, and she’ll beg, “sir, help my baby!” But you can’t, because more often than not the baby is not even theirs; women drug/mutilate babies and then share them as a begging instrument. Knowing the cruel world of begging and the dangers of an impoverished country like India, you must keep your guard up.
But by keeping your guard up, which must be done out of necessity, you are automatically distrustful of people and miss out on human interaction. When you assume they are trying to rip you off and are potentially dangerous, genuine interaction becomes less and less likely. In my case, I was really wary of having our cab driver Satheer wait around on us. I thought he might be trying to rip us off. On the contrary, he turned out to be a flat-out awesome guy. One of my favorite people that I met in India.
Now before I close out this post, I’ll offer a bit of advice to future American/SAS travelers. First, prepare for the public attention. You’ll get it worldwide, but especially in India. The people flat-out love Americans. They’ll want to take pictures and to shake your hand. And if they speak English, they love nothing more than conversing. If they don’t speak English, they’ll simply exclaim “Obama good!” If you think about it, the warm reception makes sense. America and India have strong political and economic ties. Historically, we have never done anything wrong to them. In fact, America and India even shared a common oppressor in the British. So with that in mind, just prepare to get mobbed.
Secondly, don’t do Semester at Sea overnight trips. It is still a great idea to do guided travel to get through India (like I said, the place is chaotic). But you can independently pay a tour guide, which will save you a lot of money, and give you more control over the itinerary. And you won’t need to sit in expensive showrooms for such a long time.
Alrighty, that just about sums up India. Prepare for some rapid-fire updates from days at sea in the near future. Love and miss you all much, dear readers. Hope all is well in the States. Yay Health Care!!
Monday, March 22, 2010
Day 52 – At Sea
I woke up excited: INDIA TOMORROW! In my head, I just imagined India being a wonderful yet shocking place. I couldn’t wait to get there, but, at the same time, I was a bit nervous.
Outside of the classroom, the majority of my day was spent preparing for and shooting the Latin Chick music video. In the morning I was collecting costumes, and then we started shooting at 3:30. When we broke for dinner at 6:00, we still had not finished shooting. Cheryll was amazing as the Latin Chick, though. I was confident that she was going to just make the video.
After dinner was cultural pre-port, during which we were issued our sternest warnings yet. “India is a very dangerous place,” they repeated over and over again. “Keep your head on a swivel.” Though the advice is sound, as a result I think I kept my guard up a bit too much. This is something I’ll talk about in the reactions section of my India post.
Once pre-port ended, Tolan and I finished shooting the last bit of footage we needed. By this point it was about 10:00, so I sat down to work on my journal. Unfortunately, I spent so much time working on the SeaTV video that I was not able to get as much done as I would have liked. I had not finished my Vietnam post, only getting through the first three days. When I went to bed, I vowed to have my journal entirely up-to-date by South Africa.
*A note from real time (Monday March 22, 2010): Tomorrow we reach Mauritius. I don’t plan on doing much productive “travel,” there, but I promise to have a fun time on the beach. Hopefully I’ll do some tubing or something. I’ll get my India post up as soon as I can. And like I said, I’ll try my best to be entirely caught up by the time we reach South Africa.
Outside of the classroom, the majority of my day was spent preparing for and shooting the Latin Chick music video. In the morning I was collecting costumes, and then we started shooting at 3:30. When we broke for dinner at 6:00, we still had not finished shooting. Cheryll was amazing as the Latin Chick, though. I was confident that she was going to just make the video.
After dinner was cultural pre-port, during which we were issued our sternest warnings yet. “India is a very dangerous place,” they repeated over and over again. “Keep your head on a swivel.” Though the advice is sound, as a result I think I kept my guard up a bit too much. This is something I’ll talk about in the reactions section of my India post.
Once pre-port ended, Tolan and I finished shooting the last bit of footage we needed. By this point it was about 10:00, so I sat down to work on my journal. Unfortunately, I spent so much time working on the SeaTV video that I was not able to get as much done as I would have liked. I had not finished my Vietnam post, only getting through the first three days. When I went to bed, I vowed to have my journal entirely up-to-date by South Africa.
*A note from real time (Monday March 22, 2010): Tomorrow we reach Mauritius. I don’t plan on doing much productive “travel,” there, but I promise to have a fun time on the beach. Hopefully I’ll do some tubing or something. I’ll get my India post up as soon as I can. And like I said, I’ll try my best to be entirely caught up by the time we reach South Africa.
Day 51 – At Sea
Immediately after waking up, I opened my door to find a most pleasant surprise: FRESH LAUNDRY! Words cannot describe quite how wonderful it feels to put on a fresh pair of boxers after sweating in the same pair for three straight days. By god it was beautiful.
Before my SeaTV production meeting, Tolan came over and we recorded Latin Chick. I put the camera on a stack of books. When I showed the finished product to my SeaTV team, they loved it. But instead of simply airing the video of us performing in the room, they suggested making a music video. I thought this was a great idea. We decided to film it the following day, just before we’d reach India. And instead of using a Latin girl, we decided to use a 53-year-old lifelong learner named Cheryll. I guess she’s pretty hot for her age.
After classes I did a bit of journaling, but succumbed to my irresistible urge to read Mandela’s autobiography. I’ve just become entirely absorbed in the man’s life. And there will be no stopping until I reach the end.
Now Tolan and I, along with some other performers like Derek and Jake, both of whom play guitar, were bummed that there was no coffee house between Vietnam and India. So we, along with our friend Krista, who has an astounding voice and will one day be famous, decided to host a low-key, impromptu coffee house. We simply went to a social area and started jamming. I, of course, was rocking out on my frog. It was a real fun evening. A small crowd gathered, and people started individually performing songs. Tolan and I decided to perform Latin Chick to the “test audience,” and everyone ate it up. I was stoked to film the video the following day.
Unfortunately, I had to leave the impromptu jam sesh because there was the drum circle club was meeting. As the club president, I gotta be there. We played outside again, which was cool, but regrettably limits participation. It’s a less social area, so fewer people wander in and join. Nevertheless, everyone who played had a great time. And it never fails to remind me of good ol’ San Francisco.
Before my SeaTV production meeting, Tolan came over and we recorded Latin Chick. I put the camera on a stack of books. When I showed the finished product to my SeaTV team, they loved it. But instead of simply airing the video of us performing in the room, they suggested making a music video. I thought this was a great idea. We decided to film it the following day, just before we’d reach India. And instead of using a Latin girl, we decided to use a 53-year-old lifelong learner named Cheryll. I guess she’s pretty hot for her age.
After classes I did a bit of journaling, but succumbed to my irresistible urge to read Mandela’s autobiography. I’ve just become entirely absorbed in the man’s life. And there will be no stopping until I reach the end.
Now Tolan and I, along with some other performers like Derek and Jake, both of whom play guitar, were bummed that there was no coffee house between Vietnam and India. So we, along with our friend Krista, who has an astounding voice and will one day be famous, decided to host a low-key, impromptu coffee house. We simply went to a social area and started jamming. I, of course, was rocking out on my frog. It was a real fun evening. A small crowd gathered, and people started individually performing songs. Tolan and I decided to perform Latin Chick to the “test audience,” and everyone ate it up. I was stoked to film the video the following day.
Unfortunately, I had to leave the impromptu jam sesh because there was the drum circle club was meeting. As the club president, I gotta be there. We played outside again, which was cool, but regrettably limits participation. It’s a less social area, so fewer people wander in and join. Nevertheless, everyone who played had a great time. And it never fails to remind me of good ol’ San Francisco.
Day 50 – At Sea
So laundry didn’t come. That meant it was my third day on this pair of boxers. And I participated in athletic competition (crab soccer, INTENSE!!) the previous day. Eww. I vowed that, after today, I would freeball it (also known as “go commando”) until laundry arrived.
Because it was yet another busy B day with classes and I wasn’t feeling particularly ambitious, I didn’t get much done until classes ended at 4:45. When I wasn’t in class I just read. Nelson Mandela led an absolutely fascinating life.
After classes I got in about an hour of journaling before dinner. I definitely cursed myself for falling so far behind on recording my travels. But it’s tough; there is no time to write in port, and I’m surprisingly busy on the ship. The days go by so quickly.
After dinner I ran into Nicole, a member of my SeaTV team. I asked her about putting Latin Chick on SeaTV. Now I would much rather perform it live, but Tolan and I had recently learned that our act at the Talent Show, which was happening between India and Mauritius, had to be G rated. And Latin Chick is not G rated. We considered saving it for a coffee house, where we have more freedom, but we figured we would have more stuff written by then. Nicole loved the idea, and I told her I’d bring a recording to the production meeting the following day.
I had hoped to record it with Tolan that night, but he was busy studying or something. So we decided to record it the following morning, and I just hung out with friends until bedtime.
Because it was yet another busy B day with classes and I wasn’t feeling particularly ambitious, I didn’t get much done until classes ended at 4:45. When I wasn’t in class I just read. Nelson Mandela led an absolutely fascinating life.
After classes I got in about an hour of journaling before dinner. I definitely cursed myself for falling so far behind on recording my travels. But it’s tough; there is no time to write in port, and I’m surprisingly busy on the ship. The days go by so quickly.
After dinner I ran into Nicole, a member of my SeaTV team. I asked her about putting Latin Chick on SeaTV. Now I would much rather perform it live, but Tolan and I had recently learned that our act at the Talent Show, which was happening between India and Mauritius, had to be G rated. And Latin Chick is not G rated. We considered saving it for a coffee house, where we have more freedom, but we figured we would have more stuff written by then. Nicole loved the idea, and I told her I’d bring a recording to the production meeting the following day.
I had hoped to record it with Tolan that night, but he was busy studying or something. So we decided to record it the following morning, and I just hung out with friends until bedtime.
Day 49 –Sea Olympics
I woke up at 8:30 energized for the day. It was time for the Sea Olympics! They had been hyped for days on the ship, and previous students mentioned the Sea Olympics as a highlight of the trip.
At 9:00 we had our sea meeting, I got decked out in orange paint. I was already wearing my dirty Occidental shirt, my orange swim suit, and my orange Warriors hat, but I figured I needed more orange. So I painted tiger stripes on my arms and put paint under my eyes.
Then a crew of about ten or so hopped around the ship doing our sea chant. It went “B, A-L-T-I-C, S-E-A, B, A-L-T-I-C, S-E-A, B-B-B-AL, T-T-T-I-C, B-A-L, T-I-C, BALTIC SEA!” I’m sure you have no idea the rhythm from that poor attempt, but I figured I’d give it a shot.
My first event was crab soccer, which I was stoked for. I hadn’t played since elementary school, but I really enjoyed it as a kid. I feared I would suck, though, considering I’m not nearly as nimble as I used to be.
I turned out that I did not suck, because no one was as nimble as they used to be. I was actually pretty good. Unfortunately, we lost 2-1, but we played the best team. And we played them tough; they only ended up winning on a late goal.
After soccer, I showered and got into costume for the dance. As with many things from this trip, the dance is better described by the digital media I have rather than in words. I’ll just say that it came out good, but unfortunately not great. We were easily in the top half, though, with regard to the most entertaining acts.
But while at the lip-sync contest, they showed the standings. And to my dismay, our sea was near last place. Even though I was competing for fun and not to win, I was discouraged by the results. I at least wanted the illusion of competition. In my mind, we were already out of it. So I lost interest. And this was unfortunate, because cool events remained. But I just no longer cared.
So I took advantage of the opportunity and went to Megan’s room. I asked her if she wanted to finish the movie we were watching, “Wet Hot American Summer” (sounds much dirtier than it is; it’s a comedy). She accepted, and, just as I had planned, we subsequently made out. Yay Max!
After doing that for a while, I went to the special BBQ dinner. It was absolutely scrump-diddly-umptious. I had a double cheeseburger and probably 10 ribs. And they had this special seasoned bread which was super tasty. Great meal to cap off a great day.
Though I suppose the phrase “cap off the day” is not particularly appropriate, because my day did not end there. After dinner was Closing Ceremonies, where we learned the overall winners of the Sea Olympics and the winners of the bigger events, such as the lip-syncing contest and synchronized swimming. Unfortunately, my sea did not place in either lip-syncing or overall. Bummer.
Immediately following the Closing Ceremonies, SeaTV premiered in the Union. Our broadcast got a great review, which was cool. And people particularly enjoyed my segment. My lone disappointment was that my favorite line—“I didn’t think I’d be able to poop but poop is coming out as we speak”—was cut without my knowledge. I later learned that was an executive decision made by the teacher. I guess she’s gotta look after her job or whatever.
Afterward, at long last, Tolan and I finished How to Pick up a Latin Chick. Once we finished, Tolan was actually concerned that it wasn’t funny. We had been playing it for so long that it had lost its punch. And when he became concerned, I, too, worried it wasn’t funny. But when we called in his roommates and played it for them, they absolutely loved it. They said it was significantly funnier than our first song, which was a big hit. So I went to bed quite content and ready to perform.
At 9:00 we had our sea meeting, I got decked out in orange paint. I was already wearing my dirty Occidental shirt, my orange swim suit, and my orange Warriors hat, but I figured I needed more orange. So I painted tiger stripes on my arms and put paint under my eyes.
Then a crew of about ten or so hopped around the ship doing our sea chant. It went “B, A-L-T-I-C, S-E-A, B, A-L-T-I-C, S-E-A, B-B-B-AL, T-T-T-I-C, B-A-L, T-I-C, BALTIC SEA!” I’m sure you have no idea the rhythm from that poor attempt, but I figured I’d give it a shot.
My first event was crab soccer, which I was stoked for. I hadn’t played since elementary school, but I really enjoyed it as a kid. I feared I would suck, though, considering I’m not nearly as nimble as I used to be.
I turned out that I did not suck, because no one was as nimble as they used to be. I was actually pretty good. Unfortunately, we lost 2-1, but we played the best team. And we played them tough; they only ended up winning on a late goal.
After soccer, I showered and got into costume for the dance. As with many things from this trip, the dance is better described by the digital media I have rather than in words. I’ll just say that it came out good, but unfortunately not great. We were easily in the top half, though, with regard to the most entertaining acts.
But while at the lip-sync contest, they showed the standings. And to my dismay, our sea was near last place. Even though I was competing for fun and not to win, I was discouraged by the results. I at least wanted the illusion of competition. In my mind, we were already out of it. So I lost interest. And this was unfortunate, because cool events remained. But I just no longer cared.
So I took advantage of the opportunity and went to Megan’s room. I asked her if she wanted to finish the movie we were watching, “Wet Hot American Summer” (sounds much dirtier than it is; it’s a comedy). She accepted, and, just as I had planned, we subsequently made out. Yay Max!
After doing that for a while, I went to the special BBQ dinner. It was absolutely scrump-diddly-umptious. I had a double cheeseburger and probably 10 ribs. And they had this special seasoned bread which was super tasty. Great meal to cap off a great day.
Though I suppose the phrase “cap off the day” is not particularly appropriate, because my day did not end there. After dinner was Closing Ceremonies, where we learned the overall winners of the Sea Olympics and the winners of the bigger events, such as the lip-syncing contest and synchronized swimming. Unfortunately, my sea did not place in either lip-syncing or overall. Bummer.
Immediately following the Closing Ceremonies, SeaTV premiered in the Union. Our broadcast got a great review, which was cool. And people particularly enjoyed my segment. My lone disappointment was that my favorite line—“I didn’t think I’d be able to poop but poop is coming out as we speak”—was cut without my knowledge. I later learned that was an executive decision made by the teacher. I guess she’s gotta look after her job or whatever.
Afterward, at long last, Tolan and I finished How to Pick up a Latin Chick. Once we finished, Tolan was actually concerned that it wasn’t funny. We had been playing it for so long that it had lost its punch. And when he became concerned, I, too, worried it wasn’t funny. But when we called in his roommates and played it for them, they absolutely loved it. They said it was significantly funnier than our first song, which was a big hit. So I went to bed quite content and ready to perform.
Day 48 – At Sea
Today was laundry day! Which was great. I was on my last pair of boxers. We hadn’t gotten fresh laundry since being between ports in Japan. Meaning I had dirty clothes from Japan (I did not sail between ports), China, and Vietnam, plus all the days at sea. And Vietnam was scorching hot, so I sweated it up and dirtied a bunch of clothes. Normally, we get laundry two days after turning it in, so I expected to have to rock the same boxers for two days before getting everything back fresh and clean-like.
Between my classes I continued to read Nelson Mandela’s autobiography. About 300 pages in it starts to get really, really good. I am thankful for a lot of things on this voyage, and one of which is certainly rediscovering the joy of reading for pleasure. I did it a lot in middle school and some in high school, but I completely stopped in college. When the majority of my homework is reading, it’s tough to sit down and read for fun. But that is precisely what I have done on the voyage, and I’m so glad I have. I love it when a book is hard to put down.
In Digital Storytelling, we turned in our first SeaTV broadcasts. Of the five production teams, our broadcast was selected to air first. The episode was well-received, and I got a lot of compliments for my segment (a first-person perspective using a Japanese toilet). Unfortunately, I was a bit bummed that my team seems to have veered off from its original comedy route. I vowed do my best to make sure I can keep people laughing, though.
At 9:00 there were Opening Ceremonies for the Sea Olympics. And I had signed up to participate in the lip-sync routine, and we were going to rehearse immediately following the opening ceremonies. Earlier in the day I ran into Megan, and I invited her to watch a movie with me at 7:00, trying to schedule around my Sea Olympics commitments. She accepted the invitation, and I was stoked. College students are well aware that movies are the normal social practice leading to make-out sessions, so I was excited to finally get my first kiss of the voyage. 48 days in. Pretty, pretty, pretty, bad.
Anyhow, we’re watching the movie, sitting closely as if to indicate we would be making out in the near future, and suddenly there’s a knock on the door. It’s a girl I’ve never seen before telling me that rehearsal time has been changed. Instead of meeting after the Opening Ceremonies, we would be meeting immediately. Megan, trying to be polite, stood up and left. God hates me.
So I went to rehearsal somewhat pissed off. But that soon wore off when we began dancing, because I just love dancing. Our song was MJ’s Thriller, which, as I’m sure all my astute readers know, has a sweet beat. Though I’m not very good at choreographed dances, I was able to pick it up well enough. It’s all in the sell.
After rehearsal, I headed to the Opening Ceremonies wearing the only orange shirt I own (orange is our sea’s color): my Occidental tee. Sadly, we were weak in the Opening Ceremonies. Actually, it would probably be better described as anemic. We were not colorful, not coordinated, and not loud. A few of us met immediately afterward, vowing to do better the following day. We planned a secret meeting at 9:00 the following morning to make sure we kicked off with a bang.
After the meeting, we rehearsed the lip-sync routine for another hour or so. We really started to pull it together this rehearsal, and left stoked to perform the following day.
Just in case I hadn’t done enough creative stuff, Tolan and I continued to work on Latin Chick. Considering I’m writing these entries roughly ten days removed, I’m surprised we spent so much time working on the song. We didn’t even finish this evening, just continued to shape it. I guess there’s a reason I’m so pleased with how it turned out: we worked on it for quite some time. But by the time we finished practicing it was nearly midnight, so I headed off to bed.
Between my classes I continued to read Nelson Mandela’s autobiography. About 300 pages in it starts to get really, really good. I am thankful for a lot of things on this voyage, and one of which is certainly rediscovering the joy of reading for pleasure. I did it a lot in middle school and some in high school, but I completely stopped in college. When the majority of my homework is reading, it’s tough to sit down and read for fun. But that is precisely what I have done on the voyage, and I’m so glad I have. I love it when a book is hard to put down.
In Digital Storytelling, we turned in our first SeaTV broadcasts. Of the five production teams, our broadcast was selected to air first. The episode was well-received, and I got a lot of compliments for my segment (a first-person perspective using a Japanese toilet). Unfortunately, I was a bit bummed that my team seems to have veered off from its original comedy route. I vowed do my best to make sure I can keep people laughing, though.
At 9:00 there were Opening Ceremonies for the Sea Olympics. And I had signed up to participate in the lip-sync routine, and we were going to rehearse immediately following the opening ceremonies. Earlier in the day I ran into Megan, and I invited her to watch a movie with me at 7:00, trying to schedule around my Sea Olympics commitments. She accepted the invitation, and I was stoked. College students are well aware that movies are the normal social practice leading to make-out sessions, so I was excited to finally get my first kiss of the voyage. 48 days in. Pretty, pretty, pretty, bad.
Anyhow, we’re watching the movie, sitting closely as if to indicate we would be making out in the near future, and suddenly there’s a knock on the door. It’s a girl I’ve never seen before telling me that rehearsal time has been changed. Instead of meeting after the Opening Ceremonies, we would be meeting immediately. Megan, trying to be polite, stood up and left. God hates me.
So I went to rehearsal somewhat pissed off. But that soon wore off when we began dancing, because I just love dancing. Our song was MJ’s Thriller, which, as I’m sure all my astute readers know, has a sweet beat. Though I’m not very good at choreographed dances, I was able to pick it up well enough. It’s all in the sell.
After rehearsal, I headed to the Opening Ceremonies wearing the only orange shirt I own (orange is our sea’s color): my Occidental tee. Sadly, we were weak in the Opening Ceremonies. Actually, it would probably be better described as anemic. We were not colorful, not coordinated, and not loud. A few of us met immediately afterward, vowing to do better the following day. We planned a secret meeting at 9:00 the following morning to make sure we kicked off with a bang.
After the meeting, we rehearsed the lip-sync routine for another hour or so. We really started to pull it together this rehearsal, and left stoked to perform the following day.
Just in case I hadn’t done enough creative stuff, Tolan and I continued to work on Latin Chick. Considering I’m writing these entries roughly ten days removed, I’m surprised we spent so much time working on the song. We didn’t even finish this evening, just continued to shape it. I guess there’s a reason I’m so pleased with how it turned out: we worked on it for quite some time. But by the time we finished practicing it was nearly midnight, so I headed off to bed.
Day 47 – At Sea
Today I had a successful journal day. I was able to finish my Hong Kong adventures, as well as discuss my China cultural reactions.
I didn’t do much else other than journal and classes. Tolan and I continued to practice Latin Chick, and it was getting very close to completion. At night, I tried to find either Allyson or Megan to watch a movie (and more, maybe?). Yet I checked both their rooms and roamed the halls for half an hour, but to no avail.
So I went back to the room and watched “In Treatment” with Nick (it’s a super addictive show on HBO) before conking out.
I didn’t do much else other than journal and classes. Tolan and I continued to practice Latin Chick, and it was getting very close to completion. At night, I tried to find either Allyson or Megan to watch a movie (and more, maybe?). Yet I checked both their rooms and roamed the halls for half an hour, but to no avail.
So I went back to the room and watched “In Treatment” with Nick (it’s a super addictive show on HBO) before conking out.
Day 46 – At Sea
For the first and only time in the voyage, we set our clocks forward for an hour. That is because we had a fueling stop in Singapore, and Singapore is an hour ahead of Vietnam. Now, it is still unclear to me as to why we had to move the whole ship forward an hour, as opposed to simply having the person who gets in contact with the Singapore fueling company be on Singapore time. Nevertheless, I decided to sleep through Bob’s class, as instead of being an already early 8:00 am class, it was at 7:00 am. I figured it’s cool since I sit in on the class, as opposed to being actually enrolled.
When Nick and I woke up, Nick felt terrible. Not about skipping Bob’s class, but physically. It turned out that he had a fever. So he stayed in bed pretty much all day.
At 11:45 I had my SeaTV production meeting, followed by a block of classes until 4:45. At the meeting I proposed shooting an eating contest, in which speed to eat a set amount of food, as opposed to total consumption in a time limit, was the goal. In addition, I thought the food that we had to eat should be unpalatable. Kevin, a dude on my SeaTV team, volunteered to go up against me.
So after classes, I got into my lumberjack costume and went to shoot the eating contest. We went with a three-course meal: a plate of raw tomatoes and onions; a plate with a three rolls, three containers of butter, and three pieces of chicken; and a plate with roasted potatoes and pasta with alfredo sauce. For me, the hardest part was the first plate. The raw tomatoes were just horrific. I actually didn’t mind the onions so much, but I just couldn’t eat the tomatoes. I had to quell a gag reflex probably ten times on that plate.
Because of my difficulty, I finished the first plate at least two minutes behind Kevin. But then I made my move. I caught him on the second plate and destroyed him on the third. But the victory was not without a price. About a half hour later I puked it all up.
At 8:00, we finally had the first meeting of the drum circle club. I am the president of that club, and I had been fighting for time to get it started. So it was sweet to finally have our first meeting. Because we lost our space inside, we actually just brought the drums outside to the seventh deck. But the meeting was a great success. We brought up more drums than we originally had people, and, just as I had hoped, people walked up and joined in. So that was cool.
I closed my evening by heading to the middle school dance in the Union. I would review it as a mixed bag. A few of the DJs were good, others were bad. The crowd was not that into it for the majority of the time, which was too bad. But I had a blast rocking out to N’SYNC, the Backstreet Boys, Smashmouth, and, of course, “I get knocked down” by Cumbawumba.
When Nick and I woke up, Nick felt terrible. Not about skipping Bob’s class, but physically. It turned out that he had a fever. So he stayed in bed pretty much all day.
At 11:45 I had my SeaTV production meeting, followed by a block of classes until 4:45. At the meeting I proposed shooting an eating contest, in which speed to eat a set amount of food, as opposed to total consumption in a time limit, was the goal. In addition, I thought the food that we had to eat should be unpalatable. Kevin, a dude on my SeaTV team, volunteered to go up against me.
So after classes, I got into my lumberjack costume and went to shoot the eating contest. We went with a three-course meal: a plate of raw tomatoes and onions; a plate with a three rolls, three containers of butter, and three pieces of chicken; and a plate with roasted potatoes and pasta with alfredo sauce. For me, the hardest part was the first plate. The raw tomatoes were just horrific. I actually didn’t mind the onions so much, but I just couldn’t eat the tomatoes. I had to quell a gag reflex probably ten times on that plate.
Because of my difficulty, I finished the first plate at least two minutes behind Kevin. But then I made my move. I caught him on the second plate and destroyed him on the third. But the victory was not without a price. About a half hour later I puked it all up.
At 8:00, we finally had the first meeting of the drum circle club. I am the president of that club, and I had been fighting for time to get it started. So it was sweet to finally have our first meeting. Because we lost our space inside, we actually just brought the drums outside to the seventh deck. But the meeting was a great success. We brought up more drums than we originally had people, and, just as I had hoped, people walked up and joined in. So that was cool.
I closed my evening by heading to the middle school dance in the Union. I would review it as a mixed bag. A few of the DJs were good, others were bad. The crowd was not that into it for the majority of the time, which was too bad. But I had a blast rocking out to N’SYNC, the Backstreet Boys, Smashmouth, and, of course, “I get knocked down” by Cumbawumba.
Day 45 – At Sea
DISCLAIMER: These entries for days while at sea are going to be a fairly brief, because I’m behind on my journaling and I think my adventures in port are more interesting to read (and write about) than my experiences on the ship. And I’m just working off of bullet points. That said, I’ll try to keep them as interesting as possible.
I always lose the morning first day back from port. I don’t have class until 11:00 am on A days, and I’m always exhausted from all the travel. So I slept in until class, and then didn’t really start my day until after I’d eating lunch, which was at about 1:00 in the afternoon.
My next class is painting, and I had to finish my midterm portfolio, which was due that afternoon. I had a few more pieces to complete and some sketches to do in my sketchbook. Class starts at 3:30, so I knocked them all over the two and half hours I had.
After painting, I found some time to work on my journal (read: this blog). I still had my time in Hong Kong to recollect, as well as my cultural reactions. Though, of course, I didn’t have as much time to spend on my journal as I would have liked.
At night, Tolan and I continued to work on How to Pick up a Latin Chick. Because, now, the song is completed, it is hard for me to comment on where, exactly, we were in the process of writing the song. But the note that I have down is that it was “getting very funny.” My guess is that we were nearing wrapping up our second section of the song, which was about courting a “lady from the East.”
I always lose the morning first day back from port. I don’t have class until 11:00 am on A days, and I’m always exhausted from all the travel. So I slept in until class, and then didn’t really start my day until after I’d eating lunch, which was at about 1:00 in the afternoon.
My next class is painting, and I had to finish my midterm portfolio, which was due that afternoon. I had a few more pieces to complete and some sketches to do in my sketchbook. Class starts at 3:30, so I knocked them all over the two and half hours I had.
After painting, I found some time to work on my journal (read: this blog). I still had my time in Hong Kong to recollect, as well as my cultural reactions. Though, of course, I didn’t have as much time to spend on my journal as I would have liked.
At night, Tolan and I continued to work on How to Pick up a Latin Chick. Because, now, the song is completed, it is hard for me to comment on where, exactly, we were in the process of writing the song. But the note that I have down is that it was “getting very funny.” My guess is that we were nearing wrapping up our second section of the song, which was about courting a “lady from the East.”
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Vietnam continued
Day 4 – Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)
We did not get to bed until 6:45 am, and then slept until 11:20. We had made plans the previous evening to meet Mark, our fun Norwegian friend, at 11:30, but he unfortunately never showed (we later learned he slept through his alarm). Luckily, though, we ran into Clara, who had returned from a homestay she went on with Greg.
Now one of Clara’s favorite travel pastimes is checking out local temples and religions. She really wanted to check out the main Cao Die Temple that Nick and I visited on the first day, but, because it is nearly three hours away, it was infeasible. Not to mention Nick and I had already seen it. But we decided to throw her a bone and visit a local Cao Die Temple located in Ho Chi Minh City.
Though Clara had the Temple’s location marked down on a map, we had trouble finding it. We were able to get to the general area, but we couldn’t pinpoint the exact street. And there was a language barrier with locals, many of whom seemed to know the temple’s location but were unable to transmit that information from their brain to ours. Our confusion was fine with me, though, as I just enjoyed walking the streets of a new area of town. It was fascinating to see such a rapidly-developing society, particularly in a country so “behind” that of the United States. I’ll explain further in the reactions section of this post.
While exploring we wandered into a music shop, which was filled with instruments of noticeably-fine craftsmanship. We met the store’s owner, who, along with his two business partners, makes all of the instruments by hand. He was a very cool and friendly guy, though he only spoke a limited amount of English and our conversation was thus inhibited. Nonetheless, he showed us around his shop and played all of the foreign instruments we requested to hear. Nick and Clara both wanted to make purchases so they promised to return, as they did not want to carry them around all day. I bought a little frog instrument for 30,000 Dong, about $ 1.50. The frog has ridges on its back which, if stroked correctly with a stick, produce a “ribbet” sound. It also makes a variety of sounds if hit different places, and hitting near the nose of the frog produces a surprisingly loud sound. I can’t wait to take it to the drum circle in San Francisco.
After leaving the music store, we saw a temple which we thought might be the Cao Die temple we’d been searching for. That turned out to not be the case; rather we had stumbled into a local Daoist temple. We ventured in nonetheless, and it was a pretty cool site to be able to check out. Similar to the Buddhist temple we saw on the first day, there were numerous shrines, incense, and lots of colors. That seemed to be a theme in the houses of worship in Vietnam; they were far more lively and colorful than those in the United States. Despite it similarity to the temple we had already seen, I was glad we happened to find it because the grounds were larger and the shrines significantly more intricate and impressive.
Finally, after nearly two hours of searching, we found the Cao Die Temple. It was pretty neat to see and Clara really enjoyed it, which was the most important part as she was the only one who dying to see the temple (no pun intended. Actually, in all honesty, the pun is still somewhat intended because after writing the sentence I noticed the pun and wrote no pun intended, hence recognizing the pun and consciously choosing to leave it in the entry). In reality, though, it just did not compare to the main temple. Not even a little bit. Nick and I decided not to share that information with her, however, so hopefully she will never read this entry. Or perhaps she wouldn’t recognize herself because I’ve changed her name, but that would make her quite stupid as I still described all of our adventures in detail. And she’s only a little bit stupid.
The coolest part for me was staring at this sea turtle pond. For religious reasons unbeknownst to me, people would toss baby turtles into this pond. And it was just packed with turtles. I mean packed. I would have to guess that well over a thousand turtles inhabited a pond that could not have been over 50 square feet. Granted, most were small, but it was still a sight to see.
The most fascinating part was the fact that sea turtles tend to enjoy resting on land quite a bit. But to get to the concrete area where one could rest, turtles had to climb up a ramp. And this ramp was filled with turtles, big and small. Now this was a horribly selfish move on the part of the ramp turtles, because the concrete area to which the ramp leads was largely empty. Nevertheless, there was a war to get on that ramp. Turtles were constantly climbing over one another, often in vain. Many of the smaller turtles simply rested on the shells of larger turtles swimming in the pond. Multiple turtles tried to climb their way up to the resting area, scaling the intersection of two perpendicular walls. Though the majority failed, one tenacious little guy was able to make his way all the way to top, hoisting himself up to the paradise that is a concrete slab in the sun.
Once we’d had our fill of the temple, we decided to make our way back to the music store. On our way, however, we saw plumes of black smoke rising in the air, rapidly getting larger and larger. It became instantly clear that there was a street fire. Almost immediately, chaos ensued. Traffic halted to a standstill. The sound of horns would not stop blaring. Everyone on the street stopped and stared. The pitfalls of the infrastructure became immediately clear, as I wondered how on earth the fire department would be able to make its way to the scene of the blaze.
Though I wanted to investigate further, I decided that it was best not to do so as the fumes were likely unsafe to inhale. Instead, we tried to find our way back to the music shop, which was difficult because of the crowds. But after about a half hour of searching, we were able to find the music shop. We had been impeded from reaching our destination because of a roadblock, as it turned out that the fire was right across the street from the very shop we were searching for.
But the fire had now been put out, so Clara and Nick looked around for instruments to purchase. Clara decided to go with a mandolin, and, after a bit of searching, Nick, too, decided to get a mandolin. The mandolin that Nick wanted had not yet been strung, so we got to watch the shop owner masterfully string it up in a matter of minutes. It was fascinating to watch, and soon you, too, my reader friends, will be able to watch it as I have it on video. I think my favorite part of the experience was that after tuning each instrument for sale, he would play a song. Since he made the instruments by hand, I got the impression that he was playing them goodbye. It was real cool to see.
Before heading back to the ship, we went back to the markets. I bought a couple of knock-off Ralph Lauren polos, both of which fit great and cost about $4, some DVDs (both for gifts and for myself), and some funny Vietnam t-shirts. I really wanted to get a shirt that had Ho Chi Minh’s face and the words “Uncle Ho” written below, because I think ironic Communism garb is hysterical, particularly considering America’s irrational hatred of it (not to say that I am Communist, I am not. But I think America has confused a rational fear/hatred of Russia during the Cold War with an irrational hatred of Communism in general). Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the shirt I had in my mind’s eye, though I was able to get close enough. I still think some sort of hysterical shirt could be made featuring a clever phrase and his epically long goatee.
In addition to shopping, though, I had an ulterior motive to go back to the markets: I wanted to call those girls out for standing me and Nick up. So I searched for their stand, but was having trouble due to the sheer size of the market and the similarity of the stands. Suddenly, a voice behind me yelled “MAX!” I turned around to find Tran walking toward me. She accusingly said “where were you last night! We waited for half hour!” I immediately responded by saying “where was I? Where were you? We waited for a half hour!” Her response seemed genuine, and I fear she went to the numbered address that I gave her. Oh well, I suppose that’s life. I’ll have to find a beautiful Vietnamese girl to go on a date with me next time I’m in Vietnam.
With shopping and calling out my Vietnamese wife-to-be taken care of, Nick, Clara and I headed back to the ship to rest and shower. After relaxing onboard for an hour or so, Nick and I went into town with James, who is a real cool dude who rooms with Tolan, and his friend Leslie. We grabbed a Pho dinner, which was delicious. Unfortunately, I think it had been built up a bit too much in my head. Everyone just could not stop talking about how much they loved it, but, in reality, the Pho in the Bay Area is quite comparable. It was indeed good, but I was expecting Heaven in my mouth.
After dinner, we briefly walked through the Night Market, which was nearby. We ran into a group of SASers there, many of whom I like. Unfortunately, it made us a big group. And I hate big groups. They are impossible to get moving. After at least a half hour of waiting, we were on our way to Yoko, a bar we found in the travel guide which plays Beatles music and has a John Lennon shrine. Unfortunately, Yoko was closed. So we wandered to a place called Metallic on the basis that it advertised live music. Though, at first, no one was on the stage, we were soon treated to a local band playing American classic rock. It was fantastic, but there was no area to dance and dancing was precisely what I wanted to do.
So James, Leslie and I went back to Apocalypse Now, a reliably fun dance club. As always, we had a couple beers beforehand because the drinks there are muy expensivo, as the Spanish say. Immediately upon entering, James and I hit up the dance floor. Now as I believe I have previously mentioned, I do not really enjoy freak dancing. I find it boring. So, even though most SASers were either freaking or standing around looking for a freak dancing partner, I was having a blast rocking out myself. I danced over near James, who had pulled a very attractive freak dancing partner. Then, all of a sudden, she kinda stopped dancing with James and began booty dancing with me. I was unhappy about this for two reasons: I felt bad about taking the girl from James and I really wasn’t interested in booty dancing.
However, this girl was intent on booty dancing. And doing so graphically. It was the wildest dance experience I have ever been a part of. She was grinding with purpose. I got numerous comments over the next few days of people saying “dude that girl was all over you the other night.” Soon a half hour had passed, and I’m starting to think to myself “tonight is going to be the first time I kiss someone without knowing her name.” I never really knew how that happened, but now I think I have a pretty good idea of what goes down. Anyway, ten minutes or so after I start to think I’m going to leave with this girl, a friend of mine gave me the heads up that she had a boyfriend. Since I’d needed to pee for about twenty minutes or so, I used it as a convenient excuse to politely excuse myself from her public humping.
After relieving my filled bladder, I went back to the dance floor and got my groove on with some friends until the club closed. I got back to the ship via motorbike and immediately crashed.
Day 5 – Dam Sen Amusement Park
Nick and I woke up to meet Jake and Arthur for breakfast. It was a brutal wakeup. But we had to get an early start on the day because we were headed for the Dam Sen Amusement park. I had heard about the park on wikitravel, and the main draw was the fact that it has a water park. The page said people frequently come out clutching their heads. So, naturally, my immediate thought was “sign me up.”
At breakfast, we ran into Alexa, who inquired about our plans for the day and expressed interest in joining. We assured her she was welcome to join, and she decided to take us up on our most generous offer. So the five of us hailed a cab and headed to the park. Dam Sen is located on the other side of the city, so the ride took about a half hour. Still, we each paid only a little over $2.
We entered the complex, paying only about $4 for the entrance fee, and we were exuberant. To our surprise, the complex was absolutely enormous. There were roller coasters, bumper cars, and, most importantly, the water park. To top it off, the place was empty. It’s hard to explain the excitement we felt at that moment, because we expected to be having fun all day without waiting in any lines. Unfortunately, visions of our future jubilation were the highlight of the day.
The water park was closed. Though the information online stated that the park was open Monday through Saturday, they decided to change the days of operation from Wednesday through Monday, meaning the park would be closed on Tuesdays. We arrived on the first Tuesday this schedule came into effect.
We were all pretty crushed that the water park was closed, because it was the only reason we made the trek to the park in the first. However, we decided to take advantage of the empty park and enjoy the rides. Sadly, the other rides did not meet expectations for two reasons. The first was that the price of admission did not cover rides; we had to pay for each ride we went on. The second was the fact that fun roller coasters require expert engineering, construction, and, most importantly, a lot of capital. Coasters in Vietnam simply cannot compare with those in America. The water park, on the other hand, would likely be far more fun than any water parks in America, as the lax safety regulations would lead to a wild ride. And it doesn’t take a lot of capital to build a sweet water slide.
The most fun we had was going on the dinosaur ride. It was this hysterical, very low-tech Jurassic Park-esque operation. The intention is to be frightening, but in reality its simply hilarious. My favorite part may have been this unexplained, very fake-looking neon octopus.
After a while, though, we decided to take off from the amusement park. We wandered across the street looking for food, and we ended up at a hole-in-the-wall place about a block from the park. It didn’t look amazing, but I ended up getting one of my favorite meals in Vietnam. I got this shrimp noodle dish, and the meal was made by the wonderful, sweet sauce coating the noodles and shrimp.
Bellies full of food, we headed back to the park to hail a cab back to the ship. We decided to close our time in Vietnam on a high note, getting massages. We had been recommended a place, so we went there. Upon arrival, though, we learned they were full and that we would have to wait an hour to get our massages. Nick was exhausted and just decided to head back to the ship, but Jake, Arthur and I thought that hour would be best served at the casino down the road.
We were wrong. The casino sucked. They only had $10 automated blackjack, $20 automated roulette, and slots. Arthur and I pooled funds for roulette and put $20 on black, but lost it immediately. So I pulled out a dollar and started playing 2 cent slots to kill time. I really do not understand how on earth people become addicted to slots. It is so boring. And the odds are stacked against you. It just boggles my mind.
I did almost win huge though. I was playing a game called 50 lions, and I’m not quite sure how it worked other than the more money you bet the more lines you played. And lions were the best thing to get. On a whim, I thought about betting the maximum: 25 cents. But I was running out of cash and decided it would be best to slow play my limited funds. Anyhow, the next spin I got 4 lions (out of 5) in the line I was playing. There were nearly 40 on the entire board. I bet only 2 cents and was paid over $5, so had I bet the maximum I think I would have come away with hundreds of dollars. Tis a shame.
We stayed at the casino, all of us pretty bored, until it came time to leave for our massages. Boy, if I lived in Vietnam I would get a massage every day. It cost a little over $10 for 75 minutes of full-body massage. She massaged everything: my hands, my feet, even cracked my toes. It was heavenly.
After the massage, I caught my last motorbike ride back to the ship, this time confident enough to film the entire thing. I’ll post it when I get back. It’s really hard to understand just how insane the traffic is unless you see it.
And that sums up my adventures in Vietnam. On to…
Reactions to Vietnamese Culture
Let me start by saying this entire section is based on observations made in South Vietnam. Apparently North and South Vietnam are very different, as the North tends to support the government much more than the South. The South is generally more sympathetic toward Capitalism, and much friendlier toward Westerners, particularly Americans. Because governmental support is not as strong in the South, the government apparently tolerates very little dissent in the South. As our Cu Chi Tunnels tour guide explained on the bus, people in the North are allowed to make jokes at the expense of the government, but people in the South joking about the government might disappear. I’m sure this was an exaggeration, but nonetheless got her point across. Any form of dissent is not tolerated in the South. Anyhow, on to my observation of and extremely astute insight about South Vietnamese culture.
To my surprise, people were very friendly toward Americans. I would have thought that we wouldn’t be that popular because of the whole Vietnam War thing, but the people honestly did not harbor hostility. In fact, most people were very excited to meet Americans. I think the friendliness can be mostly explained by two facts. The first is that the majority of the Vietnamese population fighting in the war has passed away. Many were killed in combat, and many others died early due to the chemical warfare waged by America. Thus, the young population living in South Vietnam did not see the war; the hurt is read about, not experienced. The second is that America and Vietnam currently have great relations. Vietnam is rapidly growing economically, and it is almost entirely the result of American investment in the country. A friend of mine asked his motorbike driver why the people were so friendly toward Americans, and the driver responded by saying “the war was terrible, but America has given us everything we have now.”
Although the people seemed to really like Americans, every historical site that I visited (the Reunification Palace, the Cu Chi Tunnels, and the War Remnants Museum) was staunchly anti-American. I specifically remember seeing the phrase “American Imperialists” a lot. According to a professor on the ship, the War Remnants Museum was previously named the War Atrocities Museum, but the name was changed when America and Vietnam normalized relations. But it was just very odd in the sense that I felt hated inside the historical sites yet welcomed by the people.
Just as I was pleasantly surprised by the welcoming people, I was enthused by the nature of Ho Chi Minh City, commonly known as Saigon. It is so much wealthier and cleaner than I had imagined it would be. Granted, it is the capital and largest tourist haven in the country, so obviously a healthy amount of funds are spent maintaining the city. Still, the streets were kept clean. Nick and I spent some time in a city park on our way to the Reunification Palace, and we both marveled at the park’s elegant beauty and cleanliness. In addition, industry is booming. Peter, a Lifelong Learner who visited Vietnam in the mid 90’s, said he was flabbergasted by Vietnam’s progress. He said it was like “night and day” coming back. Wealthy adult readers take note, investing in Vietnam is not a bad idea.
Despite all of its pluses, people like my mother could never survive in Vietnam because of the traffic. It is just complete chaos. It’s hard for me to estimate just how many motorbikes one would see in a single day, but it was easily on the scale of thousands. My friends estimated between five and ten thousand. And with all those vehicles, there were no rules. People ignored red lights. People would turn straight into oncoming traffic. Bikes, and cars, for that matter, would frequently pass on the wrong side of the road, even when the other side of the road was busy. Pedestrians had to fend for themselves. We had to cross the street slowly, but confidently. That way, the bikes and cars could see avoid us.
The lack of a traffic infrastructure is what has led to the complete anarchy on the roadways. And, in my mind, it perfectly illustrates how the country is rapidly emerging (so many people own motor vehicles) yet still well behind (zero order on said vehicles). This could be seen in numerous other aspects. So many buildings were jam-packed together all over the city. And to support their energy needs, hundreds of wires bundled together run along the telephone poles. While it takes an impressive economy to support all of these establishments and all of that energy consumption, the density of buildings and wiring are both enormous fire hazards. The wiring especially, as it seemed like the odds of an electrical fire were sky high.
In fact, on our fourth day in Vietnam there was a fire. And it truly drove home the pitfalls of unregulated traffic. In addition to all the traffic deaths (the leading cause of death in Vietnam), chaos ensues in times of emergency. Within five minutes of the fire, all the roads around the area filled to capacity with bikes stopping and staring. I honestly feared that it would take hours for emergency vehicles to arrive. To my surprise, the flames were put out in around a half hour. But nevertheless, the emergency vehicles were significantly slowed due to the disarray on the roadways.
OK then, that sums up what I’ve got on Vietnam. I’ll catch you up with ship life as soon as I can, then recap India. Toodles
We did not get to bed until 6:45 am, and then slept until 11:20. We had made plans the previous evening to meet Mark, our fun Norwegian friend, at 11:30, but he unfortunately never showed (we later learned he slept through his alarm). Luckily, though, we ran into Clara, who had returned from a homestay she went on with Greg.
Now one of Clara’s favorite travel pastimes is checking out local temples and religions. She really wanted to check out the main Cao Die Temple that Nick and I visited on the first day, but, because it is nearly three hours away, it was infeasible. Not to mention Nick and I had already seen it. But we decided to throw her a bone and visit a local Cao Die Temple located in Ho Chi Minh City.
Though Clara had the Temple’s location marked down on a map, we had trouble finding it. We were able to get to the general area, but we couldn’t pinpoint the exact street. And there was a language barrier with locals, many of whom seemed to know the temple’s location but were unable to transmit that information from their brain to ours. Our confusion was fine with me, though, as I just enjoyed walking the streets of a new area of town. It was fascinating to see such a rapidly-developing society, particularly in a country so “behind” that of the United States. I’ll explain further in the reactions section of this post.
While exploring we wandered into a music shop, which was filled with instruments of noticeably-fine craftsmanship. We met the store’s owner, who, along with his two business partners, makes all of the instruments by hand. He was a very cool and friendly guy, though he only spoke a limited amount of English and our conversation was thus inhibited. Nonetheless, he showed us around his shop and played all of the foreign instruments we requested to hear. Nick and Clara both wanted to make purchases so they promised to return, as they did not want to carry them around all day. I bought a little frog instrument for 30,000 Dong, about $ 1.50. The frog has ridges on its back which, if stroked correctly with a stick, produce a “ribbet” sound. It also makes a variety of sounds if hit different places, and hitting near the nose of the frog produces a surprisingly loud sound. I can’t wait to take it to the drum circle in San Francisco.
After leaving the music store, we saw a temple which we thought might be the Cao Die temple we’d been searching for. That turned out to not be the case; rather we had stumbled into a local Daoist temple. We ventured in nonetheless, and it was a pretty cool site to be able to check out. Similar to the Buddhist temple we saw on the first day, there were numerous shrines, incense, and lots of colors. That seemed to be a theme in the houses of worship in Vietnam; they were far more lively and colorful than those in the United States. Despite it similarity to the temple we had already seen, I was glad we happened to find it because the grounds were larger and the shrines significantly more intricate and impressive.
Finally, after nearly two hours of searching, we found the Cao Die Temple. It was pretty neat to see and Clara really enjoyed it, which was the most important part as she was the only one who dying to see the temple (no pun intended. Actually, in all honesty, the pun is still somewhat intended because after writing the sentence I noticed the pun and wrote no pun intended, hence recognizing the pun and consciously choosing to leave it in the entry). In reality, though, it just did not compare to the main temple. Not even a little bit. Nick and I decided not to share that information with her, however, so hopefully she will never read this entry. Or perhaps she wouldn’t recognize herself because I’ve changed her name, but that would make her quite stupid as I still described all of our adventures in detail. And she’s only a little bit stupid.
The coolest part for me was staring at this sea turtle pond. For religious reasons unbeknownst to me, people would toss baby turtles into this pond. And it was just packed with turtles. I mean packed. I would have to guess that well over a thousand turtles inhabited a pond that could not have been over 50 square feet. Granted, most were small, but it was still a sight to see.
The most fascinating part was the fact that sea turtles tend to enjoy resting on land quite a bit. But to get to the concrete area where one could rest, turtles had to climb up a ramp. And this ramp was filled with turtles, big and small. Now this was a horribly selfish move on the part of the ramp turtles, because the concrete area to which the ramp leads was largely empty. Nevertheless, there was a war to get on that ramp. Turtles were constantly climbing over one another, often in vain. Many of the smaller turtles simply rested on the shells of larger turtles swimming in the pond. Multiple turtles tried to climb their way up to the resting area, scaling the intersection of two perpendicular walls. Though the majority failed, one tenacious little guy was able to make his way all the way to top, hoisting himself up to the paradise that is a concrete slab in the sun.
Once we’d had our fill of the temple, we decided to make our way back to the music store. On our way, however, we saw plumes of black smoke rising in the air, rapidly getting larger and larger. It became instantly clear that there was a street fire. Almost immediately, chaos ensued. Traffic halted to a standstill. The sound of horns would not stop blaring. Everyone on the street stopped and stared. The pitfalls of the infrastructure became immediately clear, as I wondered how on earth the fire department would be able to make its way to the scene of the blaze.
Though I wanted to investigate further, I decided that it was best not to do so as the fumes were likely unsafe to inhale. Instead, we tried to find our way back to the music shop, which was difficult because of the crowds. But after about a half hour of searching, we were able to find the music shop. We had been impeded from reaching our destination because of a roadblock, as it turned out that the fire was right across the street from the very shop we were searching for.
But the fire had now been put out, so Clara and Nick looked around for instruments to purchase. Clara decided to go with a mandolin, and, after a bit of searching, Nick, too, decided to get a mandolin. The mandolin that Nick wanted had not yet been strung, so we got to watch the shop owner masterfully string it up in a matter of minutes. It was fascinating to watch, and soon you, too, my reader friends, will be able to watch it as I have it on video. I think my favorite part of the experience was that after tuning each instrument for sale, he would play a song. Since he made the instruments by hand, I got the impression that he was playing them goodbye. It was real cool to see.
Before heading back to the ship, we went back to the markets. I bought a couple of knock-off Ralph Lauren polos, both of which fit great and cost about $4, some DVDs (both for gifts and for myself), and some funny Vietnam t-shirts. I really wanted to get a shirt that had Ho Chi Minh’s face and the words “Uncle Ho” written below, because I think ironic Communism garb is hysterical, particularly considering America’s irrational hatred of it (not to say that I am Communist, I am not. But I think America has confused a rational fear/hatred of Russia during the Cold War with an irrational hatred of Communism in general). Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the shirt I had in my mind’s eye, though I was able to get close enough. I still think some sort of hysterical shirt could be made featuring a clever phrase and his epically long goatee.
In addition to shopping, though, I had an ulterior motive to go back to the markets: I wanted to call those girls out for standing me and Nick up. So I searched for their stand, but was having trouble due to the sheer size of the market and the similarity of the stands. Suddenly, a voice behind me yelled “MAX!” I turned around to find Tran walking toward me. She accusingly said “where were you last night! We waited for half hour!” I immediately responded by saying “where was I? Where were you? We waited for a half hour!” Her response seemed genuine, and I fear she went to the numbered address that I gave her. Oh well, I suppose that’s life. I’ll have to find a beautiful Vietnamese girl to go on a date with me next time I’m in Vietnam.
With shopping and calling out my Vietnamese wife-to-be taken care of, Nick, Clara and I headed back to the ship to rest and shower. After relaxing onboard for an hour or so, Nick and I went into town with James, who is a real cool dude who rooms with Tolan, and his friend Leslie. We grabbed a Pho dinner, which was delicious. Unfortunately, I think it had been built up a bit too much in my head. Everyone just could not stop talking about how much they loved it, but, in reality, the Pho in the Bay Area is quite comparable. It was indeed good, but I was expecting Heaven in my mouth.
After dinner, we briefly walked through the Night Market, which was nearby. We ran into a group of SASers there, many of whom I like. Unfortunately, it made us a big group. And I hate big groups. They are impossible to get moving. After at least a half hour of waiting, we were on our way to Yoko, a bar we found in the travel guide which plays Beatles music and has a John Lennon shrine. Unfortunately, Yoko was closed. So we wandered to a place called Metallic on the basis that it advertised live music. Though, at first, no one was on the stage, we were soon treated to a local band playing American classic rock. It was fantastic, but there was no area to dance and dancing was precisely what I wanted to do.
So James, Leslie and I went back to Apocalypse Now, a reliably fun dance club. As always, we had a couple beers beforehand because the drinks there are muy expensivo, as the Spanish say. Immediately upon entering, James and I hit up the dance floor. Now as I believe I have previously mentioned, I do not really enjoy freak dancing. I find it boring. So, even though most SASers were either freaking or standing around looking for a freak dancing partner, I was having a blast rocking out myself. I danced over near James, who had pulled a very attractive freak dancing partner. Then, all of a sudden, she kinda stopped dancing with James and began booty dancing with me. I was unhappy about this for two reasons: I felt bad about taking the girl from James and I really wasn’t interested in booty dancing.
However, this girl was intent on booty dancing. And doing so graphically. It was the wildest dance experience I have ever been a part of. She was grinding with purpose. I got numerous comments over the next few days of people saying “dude that girl was all over you the other night.” Soon a half hour had passed, and I’m starting to think to myself “tonight is going to be the first time I kiss someone without knowing her name.” I never really knew how that happened, but now I think I have a pretty good idea of what goes down. Anyway, ten minutes or so after I start to think I’m going to leave with this girl, a friend of mine gave me the heads up that she had a boyfriend. Since I’d needed to pee for about twenty minutes or so, I used it as a convenient excuse to politely excuse myself from her public humping.
After relieving my filled bladder, I went back to the dance floor and got my groove on with some friends until the club closed. I got back to the ship via motorbike and immediately crashed.
Day 5 – Dam Sen Amusement Park
Nick and I woke up to meet Jake and Arthur for breakfast. It was a brutal wakeup. But we had to get an early start on the day because we were headed for the Dam Sen Amusement park. I had heard about the park on wikitravel, and the main draw was the fact that it has a water park. The page said people frequently come out clutching their heads. So, naturally, my immediate thought was “sign me up.”
At breakfast, we ran into Alexa, who inquired about our plans for the day and expressed interest in joining. We assured her she was welcome to join, and she decided to take us up on our most generous offer. So the five of us hailed a cab and headed to the park. Dam Sen is located on the other side of the city, so the ride took about a half hour. Still, we each paid only a little over $2.
We entered the complex, paying only about $4 for the entrance fee, and we were exuberant. To our surprise, the complex was absolutely enormous. There were roller coasters, bumper cars, and, most importantly, the water park. To top it off, the place was empty. It’s hard to explain the excitement we felt at that moment, because we expected to be having fun all day without waiting in any lines. Unfortunately, visions of our future jubilation were the highlight of the day.
The water park was closed. Though the information online stated that the park was open Monday through Saturday, they decided to change the days of operation from Wednesday through Monday, meaning the park would be closed on Tuesdays. We arrived on the first Tuesday this schedule came into effect.
We were all pretty crushed that the water park was closed, because it was the only reason we made the trek to the park in the first. However, we decided to take advantage of the empty park and enjoy the rides. Sadly, the other rides did not meet expectations for two reasons. The first was that the price of admission did not cover rides; we had to pay for each ride we went on. The second was the fact that fun roller coasters require expert engineering, construction, and, most importantly, a lot of capital. Coasters in Vietnam simply cannot compare with those in America. The water park, on the other hand, would likely be far more fun than any water parks in America, as the lax safety regulations would lead to a wild ride. And it doesn’t take a lot of capital to build a sweet water slide.
The most fun we had was going on the dinosaur ride. It was this hysterical, very low-tech Jurassic Park-esque operation. The intention is to be frightening, but in reality its simply hilarious. My favorite part may have been this unexplained, very fake-looking neon octopus.
After a while, though, we decided to take off from the amusement park. We wandered across the street looking for food, and we ended up at a hole-in-the-wall place about a block from the park. It didn’t look amazing, but I ended up getting one of my favorite meals in Vietnam. I got this shrimp noodle dish, and the meal was made by the wonderful, sweet sauce coating the noodles and shrimp.
Bellies full of food, we headed back to the park to hail a cab back to the ship. We decided to close our time in Vietnam on a high note, getting massages. We had been recommended a place, so we went there. Upon arrival, though, we learned they were full and that we would have to wait an hour to get our massages. Nick was exhausted and just decided to head back to the ship, but Jake, Arthur and I thought that hour would be best served at the casino down the road.
We were wrong. The casino sucked. They only had $10 automated blackjack, $20 automated roulette, and slots. Arthur and I pooled funds for roulette and put $20 on black, but lost it immediately. So I pulled out a dollar and started playing 2 cent slots to kill time. I really do not understand how on earth people become addicted to slots. It is so boring. And the odds are stacked against you. It just boggles my mind.
I did almost win huge though. I was playing a game called 50 lions, and I’m not quite sure how it worked other than the more money you bet the more lines you played. And lions were the best thing to get. On a whim, I thought about betting the maximum: 25 cents. But I was running out of cash and decided it would be best to slow play my limited funds. Anyhow, the next spin I got 4 lions (out of 5) in the line I was playing. There were nearly 40 on the entire board. I bet only 2 cents and was paid over $5, so had I bet the maximum I think I would have come away with hundreds of dollars. Tis a shame.
We stayed at the casino, all of us pretty bored, until it came time to leave for our massages. Boy, if I lived in Vietnam I would get a massage every day. It cost a little over $10 for 75 minutes of full-body massage. She massaged everything: my hands, my feet, even cracked my toes. It was heavenly.
After the massage, I caught my last motorbike ride back to the ship, this time confident enough to film the entire thing. I’ll post it when I get back. It’s really hard to understand just how insane the traffic is unless you see it.
And that sums up my adventures in Vietnam. On to…
Reactions to Vietnamese Culture
Let me start by saying this entire section is based on observations made in South Vietnam. Apparently North and South Vietnam are very different, as the North tends to support the government much more than the South. The South is generally more sympathetic toward Capitalism, and much friendlier toward Westerners, particularly Americans. Because governmental support is not as strong in the South, the government apparently tolerates very little dissent in the South. As our Cu Chi Tunnels tour guide explained on the bus, people in the North are allowed to make jokes at the expense of the government, but people in the South joking about the government might disappear. I’m sure this was an exaggeration, but nonetheless got her point across. Any form of dissent is not tolerated in the South. Anyhow, on to my observation of and extremely astute insight about South Vietnamese culture.
To my surprise, people were very friendly toward Americans. I would have thought that we wouldn’t be that popular because of the whole Vietnam War thing, but the people honestly did not harbor hostility. In fact, most people were very excited to meet Americans. I think the friendliness can be mostly explained by two facts. The first is that the majority of the Vietnamese population fighting in the war has passed away. Many were killed in combat, and many others died early due to the chemical warfare waged by America. Thus, the young population living in South Vietnam did not see the war; the hurt is read about, not experienced. The second is that America and Vietnam currently have great relations. Vietnam is rapidly growing economically, and it is almost entirely the result of American investment in the country. A friend of mine asked his motorbike driver why the people were so friendly toward Americans, and the driver responded by saying “the war was terrible, but America has given us everything we have now.”
Although the people seemed to really like Americans, every historical site that I visited (the Reunification Palace, the Cu Chi Tunnels, and the War Remnants Museum) was staunchly anti-American. I specifically remember seeing the phrase “American Imperialists” a lot. According to a professor on the ship, the War Remnants Museum was previously named the War Atrocities Museum, but the name was changed when America and Vietnam normalized relations. But it was just very odd in the sense that I felt hated inside the historical sites yet welcomed by the people.
Just as I was pleasantly surprised by the welcoming people, I was enthused by the nature of Ho Chi Minh City, commonly known as Saigon. It is so much wealthier and cleaner than I had imagined it would be. Granted, it is the capital and largest tourist haven in the country, so obviously a healthy amount of funds are spent maintaining the city. Still, the streets were kept clean. Nick and I spent some time in a city park on our way to the Reunification Palace, and we both marveled at the park’s elegant beauty and cleanliness. In addition, industry is booming. Peter, a Lifelong Learner who visited Vietnam in the mid 90’s, said he was flabbergasted by Vietnam’s progress. He said it was like “night and day” coming back. Wealthy adult readers take note, investing in Vietnam is not a bad idea.
Despite all of its pluses, people like my mother could never survive in Vietnam because of the traffic. It is just complete chaos. It’s hard for me to estimate just how many motorbikes one would see in a single day, but it was easily on the scale of thousands. My friends estimated between five and ten thousand. And with all those vehicles, there were no rules. People ignored red lights. People would turn straight into oncoming traffic. Bikes, and cars, for that matter, would frequently pass on the wrong side of the road, even when the other side of the road was busy. Pedestrians had to fend for themselves. We had to cross the street slowly, but confidently. That way, the bikes and cars could see avoid us.
The lack of a traffic infrastructure is what has led to the complete anarchy on the roadways. And, in my mind, it perfectly illustrates how the country is rapidly emerging (so many people own motor vehicles) yet still well behind (zero order on said vehicles). This could be seen in numerous other aspects. So many buildings were jam-packed together all over the city. And to support their energy needs, hundreds of wires bundled together run along the telephone poles. While it takes an impressive economy to support all of these establishments and all of that energy consumption, the density of buildings and wiring are both enormous fire hazards. The wiring especially, as it seemed like the odds of an electrical fire were sky high.
In fact, on our fourth day in Vietnam there was a fire. And it truly drove home the pitfalls of unregulated traffic. In addition to all the traffic deaths (the leading cause of death in Vietnam), chaos ensues in times of emergency. Within five minutes of the fire, all the roads around the area filled to capacity with bikes stopping and staring. I honestly feared that it would take hours for emergency vehicles to arrive. To my surprise, the flames were put out in around a half hour. But nevertheless, the emergency vehicles were significantly slowed due to the disarray on the roadways.
OK then, that sums up what I’ve got on Vietnam. I’ll catch you up with ship life as soon as I can, then recap India. Toodles
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