Hi Everyone,
Mauritius was beautiful! It is a huge tourist area for Europeans (Mostly French, Scottish, Germans, etc.) Everyone there was shocked when we told them that we were from America because it is very rare for Americans to go there since it is sooo far away and hard to get to. We were only in Mauritius for 2 days, so I didn't really get the chance to explore the island like I would have liked to.
The first day we got there we went to the beach and swam and hungout in the sun. It was my friend Deepal's birthday, so we wet out to dinner in the little town called Grand Baie. We went to a great Italian place for dinner. I got tortellini, which was amazing! Then we went out and celebrated with him at a friends rented villa. The next morning we got up, had breakfast and went on a 2 hour snorkeling trip. We came back and hungout at a beach resort that had free kayaking, paddle boating, wakeboarding, waterskiing, tubing, sailing, wind surfing, every water sport you could think of! We spent the day at the resort doing all of these activities!!! We ended the day with a huge beach volleyball game. Overall. it was an amazing day full of fun beach activities! My friend Tessa and I went tubing and I am still sore from it from holding on sooo tight...kind of sad I know!!!
Off to S Africa
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Life on board the Explorer
A typical day on the ship for me is as follows:
I usually wake up around 7:15 go to breakfast and then go to the gym for an hour and shower and go to class. Depending on the day I either have 2 or 3 classes. I am typically done with class around 12:30. Then go to lunch and usually go up to the top deck to lay out in the sun and hangout at the pool. Dinner is around 5:30. After dinner they usually have events and learning seminars, so sometimes I will go to those. Then I do homework and hangout and play games or got to pub night and then bed. There is not a ton to do on the ship, so we have to make our own fun. We have been playing a lot of cards and board games to pass the time. I usually hangout with my CU friends: Suzy, Tessa, and the Boulder boys, but we have met a bunch of other people too. We hangout a lot with some boys from Penn State and some girls from Wisconsin, Bucknell and Vanderbilt, all over really.
Some of the kids have "extended families": basically, you are just adopted by one of the families on board the ship. They have things like family dinners and get togethers every once in awhile, but that is basically all there is to it. I don't have an extended family, but I know a lot of people that do. It may have been nice to be in an extended family, but I'm doing just fine without one.
Classes are going well. I just had three tests a couple days ago, so it's nice to be done with those! I got 100% on one, our global studies test was pretty hard, but I did well on it with the curve, and I haven't gotten the other one back yet.
There is a registry of people who have been on the ship before: I haven't looked for Mom in the yearbook yet, but i will. I have to register for my CU classes on april 13th and that's when we are in Ghana, so i will have to figure out when and how will be a good time to do that.
Just got back to the ship in Mauritius!!! It is beautiful here!!! Today we spent the day at the beach snorkeling, tubing, kayaking, paddle-boating, and playing volleyball. It was an amazing day!!! Cant wait to get to South Africa! I have not been able to put pics up because my computer is too big to carry around and we haven't had free wifi at any of the ports.
Love Em
I usually wake up around 7:15 go to breakfast and then go to the gym for an hour and shower and go to class. Depending on the day I either have 2 or 3 classes. I am typically done with class around 12:30. Then go to lunch and usually go up to the top deck to lay out in the sun and hangout at the pool. Dinner is around 5:30. After dinner they usually have events and learning seminars, so sometimes I will go to those. Then I do homework and hangout and play games or got to pub night and then bed. There is not a ton to do on the ship, so we have to make our own fun. We have been playing a lot of cards and board games to pass the time. I usually hangout with my CU friends: Suzy, Tessa, and the Boulder boys, but we have met a bunch of other people too. We hangout a lot with some boys from Penn State and some girls from Wisconsin, Bucknell and Vanderbilt, all over really.
Some of the kids have "extended families": basically, you are just adopted by one of the families on board the ship. They have things like family dinners and get togethers every once in awhile, but that is basically all there is to it. I don't have an extended family, but I know a lot of people that do. It may have been nice to be in an extended family, but I'm doing just fine without one.
Classes are going well. I just had three tests a couple days ago, so it's nice to be done with those! I got 100% on one, our global studies test was pretty hard, but I did well on it with the curve, and I haven't gotten the other one back yet.
There is a registry of people who have been on the ship before: I haven't looked for Mom in the yearbook yet, but i will. I have to register for my CU classes on april 13th and that's when we are in Ghana, so i will have to figure out when and how will be a good time to do that.
Just got back to the ship in Mauritius!!! It is beautiful here!!! Today we spent the day at the beach snorkeling, tubing, kayaking, paddle-boating, and playing volleyball. It was an amazing day!!! Cant wait to get to South Africa! I have not been able to put pics up because my computer is too big to carry around and we haven't had free wifi at any of the ports.
Love Em
Thursday, March 18, 2010
India 2
March 18
Hi All!!!!!
It has taken me a few days to comprehend what I saw and experienced in India and yet I still don’t know what to think about it. It was unlike anywhere I had ever been before, but it was an amazing experience and I’m sooo glad that I got the chance to see it!!! We arrived in Chennai and the first day we just walked around the town trying to find clothing that we could wear during our stay. We took little golf cart type things to get around, which were pretty fun! The one that I was in was pimped out with a sound system and tv, it was pretty crazy! We went back to the ship after a long hot day of wandering around Chennai for an early night because we had to be up at 3:15 the next morning for a flight to Delhi.
The next morning (if you can even call 3am morning) we woke up and got on buses to head to the airport for our flight to Delhi and then to Varanasi. We arrived in Varanasi at the airport, which I would hardly consider an airport. We arrived at our hotel where we ate lunch. I lived off of nan, rice, ice cream, and those doughnut things drenched in syrup…my favorite!!!!! After lunch we had a tour of Sarnath, which are the ruins of an ancient city where the Buddha preached his first sermon. It is as holy to Buddhists as Varanasi is to Hindus. Then we headed to the banks of the Ganges River to witness The Ganga Aarti at Dasaswamedh Ghat, which is a ceremony that happens every morning at 5am and again at 6pm. The Hindus come to this ceremony and they pray to the Gods asking to be looked after. Watching this ceremony really made me realize how important religion is to the Hindus especially in Varanasi. We rode rickshaws through the town to get to and from the ceremony, which was an experience in itself! There are really no rules to the roads in India, so it is really a free for all. Everyone is honking horns and swerving to avoid hitting the cows that wander the streets freely. I was definitely a little bit scared on the rickshaws, but it was really fun! We headed back to the hotel for dinner and then bed. We ate every meal in hotels, which got really old fast because it was the same food for every meal. I don’t know if we did this because the food was safest at the hotels, but if so it worked because I didn’t get sick…thank god!!!!
The next morning was an early one again! We got up at 4 30am and at 5am we headed back to the Ganges River to watch the same ceremony as the night before, but this time we got to go in a boat along the Ganges. We got to see pilgrims converge to the holy waters for the ritual immersion and prayer to release their souls from the cycle of rebirth. We got to see people bathing in the Ganges River and bodies being cremated. When a Hindu person dies they are cremated and their ashes are put in the Ganges. If this process doesn’t occur the Hindus believe that the person will not be reincarnated in their next life, so it is very crucial that this process occurs. We got off the boat and got to walk through the narrow streets of Varanasi (the oldest living city in the world). After a long exciting morning we returned to the hotel for breakfast. There was an optional side trip to some markets that I went on. I got a bunch of cheap jewelry!!! India had the best jewelry and pants. Then we headed back to the airport for our flight back to Delhi. Arriving in Delhi I was shocked at how different it was from Varanasi! We had gone from the oldest poorest city in India to a large, much more developed city. We went on a sightseeing drive through Delhi on our way to our hotel. We saw a bunch of government buildings and consulates. I was happy when I learned that India’s president is a women. I have been learning a lot about gender division of labor and women in the workforce in the different countries we have visited, so I was excited to see that women in India at least are becoming increasingly more powerful in politics. We went to our hotel in Delhi earlier than planned because we were all sooo exhausted from the traveling and early mornings. We had the night free so we had dinner at the hotel and went to bed early again.
The next morning we woke up at 4 15am and left at 5am for the train station. We were taking the train from Delhi to Agra. At the train station in Delhi, there were tons of people sleeping on the ground and the second we walked in they were all getting up begging us for food. Luckily, we were given boxed breakfasts that weren’t very good, so we all had leftovers that we were able to give to them. It was really hard to see all the women and children that were living this way! I was shocked that the Indian people live amongst this poverty everyday and aren’t really phased by it, while I found it very difficult to walk by these people and not be able to help everyone of them. When we arrived in Agra after a 2 hour train ride we went to Fatehpur Sikri, which is a deserted city 25 miles from Agra. It was built by emperor Akbar as his capitol to honor a muslim saint. Then we headed to a hotel for a huge buffet lunch before heading to the Red Fort and the Taj Mahal. The Taj was the most amazing building I have ever seen! It was absolutely beautiful and I could not stop taking pictures of it!!! I could have spent hours there!! The Indian men in Agra were very excited to see American girls and would follow us around and want to take pictures with us, it was really funny. At the Taj I had an Indian family ask me to take their picture in front of the Taj and then the husband asked me If I would take a picture with his wife and 2 kids. For some reason Indian people really seem to like Americans. We left the Taj and went back to some hotel for dinner and then headed back to the train station to return to Delhi. When we got off the bus to go into the train station there was a man standing outside of the bus with elephantius in his feet. I had seen pictures of it before, but seeing it in person really freaked me out and I had a hard time getting it out of my mind. I even had a nightmare that night that I woke up and had elephantius in my feet…it freaked me out!!! The train ride back to Delhi took a lot longer than going there, but we finally got back 3 hours later around midnight! It had been a long day and we were all so exhausted!!!
We got up at 6am the next morning to go to the airport for our flight to Cochin. We arrived in Cochin and it was an hour bus ride to get to the ship and once we got there we had to go through a ton of immigration and security. The security all throughout India was insane because they had been having terrorist attacks recently, so it was a pain in the ass to get back on the ship. I was so tried and dirty and smelly and all I wanted to do was get on the ship asap. Once we got back on the ship I took a shower, but then had to get ready and pack up for our night on the houseboat on the backwaters in Cochin. The houseboat was really fun! They made dinner for us and breakfast the next morning. Then they took us for a cruise through the backwaters, which was beautiful. It was a wonderful and relaxing way to end a long trip in India.
Hi All!!!!!
It has taken me a few days to comprehend what I saw and experienced in India and yet I still don’t know what to think about it. It was unlike anywhere I had ever been before, but it was an amazing experience and I’m sooo glad that I got the chance to see it!!! We arrived in Chennai and the first day we just walked around the town trying to find clothing that we could wear during our stay. We took little golf cart type things to get around, which were pretty fun! The one that I was in was pimped out with a sound system and tv, it was pretty crazy! We went back to the ship after a long hot day of wandering around Chennai for an early night because we had to be up at 3:15 the next morning for a flight to Delhi.
The next morning (if you can even call 3am morning) we woke up and got on buses to head to the airport for our flight to Delhi and then to Varanasi. We arrived in Varanasi at the airport, which I would hardly consider an airport. We arrived at our hotel where we ate lunch. I lived off of nan, rice, ice cream, and those doughnut things drenched in syrup…my favorite!!!!! After lunch we had a tour of Sarnath, which are the ruins of an ancient city where the Buddha preached his first sermon. It is as holy to Buddhists as Varanasi is to Hindus. Then we headed to the banks of the Ganges River to witness The Ganga Aarti at Dasaswamedh Ghat, which is a ceremony that happens every morning at 5am and again at 6pm. The Hindus come to this ceremony and they pray to the Gods asking to be looked after. Watching this ceremony really made me realize how important religion is to the Hindus especially in Varanasi. We rode rickshaws through the town to get to and from the ceremony, which was an experience in itself! There are really no rules to the roads in India, so it is really a free for all. Everyone is honking horns and swerving to avoid hitting the cows that wander the streets freely. I was definitely a little bit scared on the rickshaws, but it was really fun! We headed back to the hotel for dinner and then bed. We ate every meal in hotels, which got really old fast because it was the same food for every meal. I don’t know if we did this because the food was safest at the hotels, but if so it worked because I didn’t get sick…thank god!!!!
The next morning was an early one again! We got up at 4 30am and at 5am we headed back to the Ganges River to watch the same ceremony as the night before, but this time we got to go in a boat along the Ganges. We got to see pilgrims converge to the holy waters for the ritual immersion and prayer to release their souls from the cycle of rebirth. We got to see people bathing in the Ganges River and bodies being cremated. When a Hindu person dies they are cremated and their ashes are put in the Ganges. If this process doesn’t occur the Hindus believe that the person will not be reincarnated in their next life, so it is very crucial that this process occurs. We got off the boat and got to walk through the narrow streets of Varanasi (the oldest living city in the world). After a long exciting morning we returned to the hotel for breakfast. There was an optional side trip to some markets that I went on. I got a bunch of cheap jewelry!!! India had the best jewelry and pants. Then we headed back to the airport for our flight back to Delhi. Arriving in Delhi I was shocked at how different it was from Varanasi! We had gone from the oldest poorest city in India to a large, much more developed city. We went on a sightseeing drive through Delhi on our way to our hotel. We saw a bunch of government buildings and consulates. I was happy when I learned that India’s president is a women. I have been learning a lot about gender division of labor and women in the workforce in the different countries we have visited, so I was excited to see that women in India at least are becoming increasingly more powerful in politics. We went to our hotel in Delhi earlier than planned because we were all sooo exhausted from the traveling and early mornings. We had the night free so we had dinner at the hotel and went to bed early again.
The next morning we woke up at 4 15am and left at 5am for the train station. We were taking the train from Delhi to Agra. At the train station in Delhi, there were tons of people sleeping on the ground and the second we walked in they were all getting up begging us for food. Luckily, we were given boxed breakfasts that weren’t very good, so we all had leftovers that we were able to give to them. It was really hard to see all the women and children that were living this way! I was shocked that the Indian people live amongst this poverty everyday and aren’t really phased by it, while I found it very difficult to walk by these people and not be able to help everyone of them. When we arrived in Agra after a 2 hour train ride we went to Fatehpur Sikri, which is a deserted city 25 miles from Agra. It was built by emperor Akbar as his capitol to honor a muslim saint. Then we headed to a hotel for a huge buffet lunch before heading to the Red Fort and the Taj Mahal. The Taj was the most amazing building I have ever seen! It was absolutely beautiful and I could not stop taking pictures of it!!! I could have spent hours there!! The Indian men in Agra were very excited to see American girls and would follow us around and want to take pictures with us, it was really funny. At the Taj I had an Indian family ask me to take their picture in front of the Taj and then the husband asked me If I would take a picture with his wife and 2 kids. For some reason Indian people really seem to like Americans. We left the Taj and went back to some hotel for dinner and then headed back to the train station to return to Delhi. When we got off the bus to go into the train station there was a man standing outside of the bus with elephantius in his feet. I had seen pictures of it before, but seeing it in person really freaked me out and I had a hard time getting it out of my mind. I even had a nightmare that night that I woke up and had elephantius in my feet…it freaked me out!!! The train ride back to Delhi took a lot longer than going there, but we finally got back 3 hours later around midnight! It had been a long day and we were all so exhausted!!!
We got up at 6am the next morning to go to the airport for our flight to Cochin. We arrived in Cochin and it was an hour bus ride to get to the ship and once we got there we had to go through a ton of immigration and security. The security all throughout India was insane because they had been having terrorist attacks recently, so it was a pain in the ass to get back on the ship. I was so tried and dirty and smelly and all I wanted to do was get on the ship asap. Once we got back on the ship I took a shower, but then had to get ready and pack up for our night on the houseboat on the backwaters in Cochin. The houseboat was really fun! They made dinner for us and breakfast the next morning. Then they took us for a cruise through the backwaters, which was beautiful. It was a wonderful and relaxing way to end a long trip in India.
India
March 16
Hi
We just got back to the ship in Cochin. We are leaving tonight at 8pm. India was quite an experience, but a good one. My trip to the Vaj and Varanassi was really cool! Our tour guide was kind of bad, but i am really glad that i got to see what i did. The Taj was amazing and one of the most beautiful buildings i have ever seen!!! Varanassi was unlike anywhere i have ever been. The lifestyle of the people there is sooo unique!!!! Last night we went on a houseboat on the backwaters of Cochin. It was really beautiful. We got on the houseboat last night and slept on it and then this morning we cruised around, it was really cool. I wont be able to skype because i am back on the ship and wont be getting off again before we leave, but hopefully we can skype in south africa...
Love
Em
Hi
We just got back to the ship in Cochin. We are leaving tonight at 8pm. India was quite an experience, but a good one. My trip to the Vaj and Varanassi was really cool! Our tour guide was kind of bad, but i am really glad that i got to see what i did. The Taj was amazing and one of the most beautiful buildings i have ever seen!!! Varanassi was unlike anywhere i have ever been. The lifestyle of the people there is sooo unique!!!! Last night we went on a houseboat on the backwaters of Cochin. It was really beautiful. We got on the houseboat last night and slept on it and then this morning we cruised around, it was really cool. I wont be able to skype because i am back on the ship and wont be getting off again before we leave, but hopefully we can skype in south africa...
Love
Em
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Arrival in India
We just arrived in India!!!! When we get off the ship our plan is to go to some markets or something to get some clothes that we can wear during our time in India since we cant show our knees or shoulders...I may be wearing linen pants the whole time!!!! Anyway, we are going to spend the day in Chennai and then we leave at 3 15 am tomorrow for our trip to the taj and Verenassi!!! It is going to be an early morning, but i am super excited to go on this trip!!! Just thought i would fill you in on whats going on. Im sure i will have a ton more to tell at the end of this trip!!!!
Love Em
Love Em
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Pirates update
We are basically all the way through the Straits, so it looks like we are going to make it with no encounters with the pirates!
Sea Olympics tomorrow!!!!
Sea Olympics tomorrow!!!!
Friday, March 5, 2010
Pirates!
Apparently the strait that we are about to go through has pirates in it!!!! We are having armed ships escort us through...kinda scary, but exciting!!! We should be fine since our ship is the fastest ship in the ocean, but we will see what happens. Hopefully we make it through!!!!
March 4
The decks are divided into seas and we are the caribbean sea. Tonight our sea gets to sleep outside on the top deck!!! I am excited, it should be pretty fun!!!!
Also sea olympics starts in 2 days and i am doing the limbo!!! Hopefully i still have some flexibility left in me!!!!
We are anchored in Singapore right now. I got up to take pictures this morning, but it really wasn't that cool from the ship...o well.
Date: Wednesday, March 3, 2010 9:58 pm
The weather keeps getting hotter and hotter!!
> It is almost too hot on deck. I think i might die of heat
> exhaustion in India especially if i have to have my body covered at
> the temples!!!!
> On Mar 3, 2010, at 4:27 AM, Emily Smullin at Semester at sea wrote:
>I forgot to tell you about all the motor bikes in
> Vietnam. They were everywhere it was crazy. The best part
> about it was that you could take those instead of cabs to get
> around. Probably not the safest thing, but it was soooo much
> fun!!! Anyway, we left Vietnam this morning and we are stopping in
> Singapore in 2 days to refuel. Unfortunately we don't get to get
> off the ship, but i can take pictures from the ship!
> Love Em
>
March 4
The decks are divided into seas and we are the caribbean sea. Tonight our sea gets to sleep outside on the top deck!!! I am excited, it should be pretty fun!!!!
Also sea olympics starts in 2 days and i am doing the limbo!!! Hopefully i still have some flexibility left in me!!!!
We are anchored in Singapore right now. I got up to take pictures this morning, but it really wasn't that cool from the ship...o well.
Date: Wednesday, March 3, 2010 9:58 pm
The weather keeps getting hotter and hotter!!
> It is almost too hot on deck. I think i might die of heat
> exhaustion in India especially if i have to have my body covered at
> the temples!!!!
> On Mar 3, 2010, at 4:27 AM, Emily Smullin at Semester at sea wrote:
>I forgot to tell you about all the motor bikes in
> Vietnam. They were everywhere it was crazy. The best part
> about it was that you could take those instead of cabs to get
> around. Probably not the safest thing, but it was soooo much
> fun!!! Anyway, we left Vietnam this morning and we are stopping in
> Singapore in 2 days to refuel. Unfortunately we don't get to get
> off the ship, but i can take pictures from the ship!
> Love Em
>
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Viet Nam and Cambodia
We arrived in Vietnam early Friday morning. I got up at 5 40 am to watch us go through the Saigon River and the sunrise. However, I didn’t spend much time in Vietnam because the day we arrived I left for Cambodia for 3 days! As soon as we were cleared to get of the ship we got on a bus and headed to the airport for our flight to Pnom Penh. I thought the flight from Portland to Redmond is short, but this one was only 25 minutes!!!!
When we arrived in Pnom Penh we went straight to the National Museum. The museum was filled with stone statues and artifacts from centuries ago. There were also a lot of monks that were hanging around at the museum, which I was more interested in and I kept getting distracted from our tour to look at them. Our tour of the museum was about an hour and after we headed to the Mekong River for a sunset cruise. Along the Mekong River, we saw a lot of those cool boats that you always see in pictures of Vietnam/Cambodia. We also saw a lot of little poor villages along the river. It was sad to see how many people in Pnom Penh were living in poverty. All of the little kids would swarm us trying to sell postcards and bracelets. We were told not to buy anything from them because if they come back home with money their parents will see that they can make money, so they send them out to work on the streets instead of going to school and receiving an education.
After the sunset cruise we went to the Palm Tree Orphanage. Visiting the orphanage was an unforgettable experience!! We walked in and instantly the kids would latch onto you. This one little girl came to me and showed me around the orphanage. She showed me where they go to class, where she sleeps, the art projects that she had done, etc. We got to hangout with them for about an hour playing games and talking!!! She asked me to write down my email for her, but I am still waiting to here from her. The hardest part was saying goodbye. She cried when I had to leave and kept asking me if I could come back tomorrow and sleepover. It was vary hard to just walk away, but I will definitely never forget her or the experience I had there!!!
We headed to dinner at a very nice restaurant called Khmer Surin. The food in Cambodia was very good…lots of spring rolls!!! The next day we started off at the Toul Sleng Museum. This was a concentration camp used to torture prisoners by the Khmer Rouge, so it was obviously a very hard thing to see. Then we went to the killing fields, which is just what it sounds like. They would take the prisoners to the killing fields and they would kill them there and put them in mass graves. We walked in and the first thing you see is a tall building with windows that holds a ton of skulls of the many victims. As we were walking around our tour guide pointed out that if we look down at the ground we could see the bones of people buried in the mass graves. I felt very strange walking on the killing fields knowing that their were thousands of bodies buried right underneath where I was standing.
On a brighter note we headed to the silver pagoda and Royal Palace. This was where the king lives. He was in China while we were there, so I don’t know if you are usually aloud to go inside, but we got to and it was beautiful!!!! Very elaborate architecture. We had to wear pants and shirts with sleeves to the royal palace, so I was dying of heat!!! It was hotter in Cambodia than anywhere else I have ever been!!! Then we headed to the airport for our flight to Siem Reap, which is wear Angkor Wat is located. Siem Reap was very touristy and I was shocked at the amount of high end resorts were located there. We drove to our hotel, which was super nice, but we didn’t get to spend much time there because we were always doing things! We checked in and then went to dinner and a cultural dance show. The next morning we woke up at 5am to go to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise!!! It was beautiful and I took a ton of pictures!!! We went back to our hotel for breakfast, which had the most amazing food!!! Eggs to order and anything else that you could possibly want!!! We spent the day touring around Angkor wat and the other temples in the area. It was very cool, but very hot and I was definitely done and ready to be out of the sun by the time we were done!!!! We went back to the hotel to check out and eat lunch. The lunch at the hotel was even better than breakfast!!! They had pasta to order , so you could make whatever kind of pasta you wanted and they made crepes for you!!! It was the most amazing meal!!!! Then we headed back to the airport for our third flight in 3 days!!! Luckily all of the fights were very short. It’s a good thing the flight was short because we were all exhausted and smelly!!! I felt bad for all of the other people on the flight that had to sit next to us!!!
We flew back to Ho Chi Minh and got back to the ship around 8pm. I was exhausted when we got back, so I went right to bed! Suzy and I woke up early the next morning to go to the cu chi tunnels. We got to crawl through them and the ones that we went through were made twice the size as they normally are and I felt a little crammed in there. I cant imagine what it would be like in the actual sized tunnels!!! E also got to try tapioca, which is what they ate during the war. It tasted kind of like a potato and peanut butter…it was really weird. After the cu chi tunnels we came back and walked around in ho chi minh and went to this huge market. I was all bargained out from China so I didn’t buy anything…probably a good thing! Suzy’s roommate Tessa’s dad came to Vietnam to visit, so we and had drinks and dinner with them. Today we just hung out around ho chi minh and walked around some more. I would have liked to have gone to the Mekong Delta, but there just wan’t enough time for everything! I guess I will just have to come back to Vietnam someday!!! I love it here!!!! We had to be on the ship by 8pm tonight, but we aren’t leaving until early tomorrow morning. So now I have to get back in the mindset of school and going to class for 6 days. On to India!!!!!!!
When we arrived in Pnom Penh we went straight to the National Museum. The museum was filled with stone statues and artifacts from centuries ago. There were also a lot of monks that were hanging around at the museum, which I was more interested in and I kept getting distracted from our tour to look at them. Our tour of the museum was about an hour and after we headed to the Mekong River for a sunset cruise. Along the Mekong River, we saw a lot of those cool boats that you always see in pictures of Vietnam/Cambodia. We also saw a lot of little poor villages along the river. It was sad to see how many people in Pnom Penh were living in poverty. All of the little kids would swarm us trying to sell postcards and bracelets. We were told not to buy anything from them because if they come back home with money their parents will see that they can make money, so they send them out to work on the streets instead of going to school and receiving an education.
After the sunset cruise we went to the Palm Tree Orphanage. Visiting the orphanage was an unforgettable experience!! We walked in and instantly the kids would latch onto you. This one little girl came to me and showed me around the orphanage. She showed me where they go to class, where she sleeps, the art projects that she had done, etc. We got to hangout with them for about an hour playing games and talking!!! She asked me to write down my email for her, but I am still waiting to here from her. The hardest part was saying goodbye. She cried when I had to leave and kept asking me if I could come back tomorrow and sleepover. It was vary hard to just walk away, but I will definitely never forget her or the experience I had there!!!
We headed to dinner at a very nice restaurant called Khmer Surin. The food in Cambodia was very good…lots of spring rolls!!! The next day we started off at the Toul Sleng Museum. This was a concentration camp used to torture prisoners by the Khmer Rouge, so it was obviously a very hard thing to see. Then we went to the killing fields, which is just what it sounds like. They would take the prisoners to the killing fields and they would kill them there and put them in mass graves. We walked in and the first thing you see is a tall building with windows that holds a ton of skulls of the many victims. As we were walking around our tour guide pointed out that if we look down at the ground we could see the bones of people buried in the mass graves. I felt very strange walking on the killing fields knowing that their were thousands of bodies buried right underneath where I was standing.
On a brighter note we headed to the silver pagoda and Royal Palace. This was where the king lives. He was in China while we were there, so I don’t know if you are usually aloud to go inside, but we got to and it was beautiful!!!! Very elaborate architecture. We had to wear pants and shirts with sleeves to the royal palace, so I was dying of heat!!! It was hotter in Cambodia than anywhere else I have ever been!!! Then we headed to the airport for our flight to Siem Reap, which is wear Angkor Wat is located. Siem Reap was very touristy and I was shocked at the amount of high end resorts were located there. We drove to our hotel, which was super nice, but we didn’t get to spend much time there because we were always doing things! We checked in and then went to dinner and a cultural dance show. The next morning we woke up at 5am to go to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise!!! It was beautiful and I took a ton of pictures!!! We went back to our hotel for breakfast, which had the most amazing food!!! Eggs to order and anything else that you could possibly want!!! We spent the day touring around Angkor wat and the other temples in the area. It was very cool, but very hot and I was definitely done and ready to be out of the sun by the time we were done!!!! We went back to the hotel to check out and eat lunch. The lunch at the hotel was even better than breakfast!!! They had pasta to order , so you could make whatever kind of pasta you wanted and they made crepes for you!!! It was the most amazing meal!!!! Then we headed back to the airport for our third flight in 3 days!!! Luckily all of the fights were very short. It’s a good thing the flight was short because we were all exhausted and smelly!!! I felt bad for all of the other people on the flight that had to sit next to us!!!
We flew back to Ho Chi Minh and got back to the ship around 8pm. I was exhausted when we got back, so I went right to bed! Suzy and I woke up early the next morning to go to the cu chi tunnels. We got to crawl through them and the ones that we went through were made twice the size as they normally are and I felt a little crammed in there. I cant imagine what it would be like in the actual sized tunnels!!! E also got to try tapioca, which is what they ate during the war. It tasted kind of like a potato and peanut butter…it was really weird. After the cu chi tunnels we came back and walked around in ho chi minh and went to this huge market. I was all bargained out from China so I didn’t buy anything…probably a good thing! Suzy’s roommate Tessa’s dad came to Vietnam to visit, so we and had drinks and dinner with them. Today we just hung out around ho chi minh and walked around some more. I would have liked to have gone to the Mekong Delta, but there just wan’t enough time for everything! I guess I will just have to come back to Vietnam someday!!! I love it here!!!! We had to be on the ship by 8pm tonight, but we aren’t leaving until early tomorrow morning. So now I have to get back in the mindset of school and going to class for 6 days. On to India!!!!!!!
China
Hi Everyone!!!!
Sorry about the delay with this email, but we have been very busy!!!! We only had 2 days on the ship between Japan and China and then 2 days again between China and Vietnam!
We got to Shanghai on February 16th and spent the day walking around the city. We ended up spending a lot of time in the markets bargaining for knock-off bags, clothes, watches, etc. I was surprised to discover that I have a special talent for bargaining!! I loved it!!!! The next day we flew from Shanghai to Beijing. Our tour guide met us at the airport and took us to our hotel. We had the rest of the night free to explore Beijing. A group of us grabbed some dinner at a restaurant right next to our hotel. We were the only people in the restaurant, they only had one menu, and they spoke no English. We ordered by pointing to what we wanted. The food came out and it ended up being some of the best Chinese food that we had the whole time!!! It was a very interesting experience, but well worth it!!
The next morning 3 of my girlfriends from the ship and I got up early and went on a walk to Jingshan Park. It was a park with a bunch of temples and people doing tai chi. We walked up to one of the temples that was on the top of a hill, which had an a amazing view of the entire city! At the temple there was a women who had traditional Chinese clothing that you could dress up in and take pictures, so obviously we had to do it. We headed back to our hotel to meet the rest of our group.
We visited The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, which were both very cool to see!!! I took a ton of pictures!!! I was shocked at the amount of Chinese people who would come up to us and ask to take a picture with them. They stared at us like they had never seen white people before. At first it was very uncomfortable, but our tour guide explained to us that the Chinese people who are visiting the forbidden city and other tourist attractions like that are typically from rural areas of China therefore, they hardly ever see white tourists.
Then we went to the Silk Market, which was a huge market filled with things to bargain for!!! I got a big puffy North Face Jacket and some gloves for about $60!!! The jacket was a great purchase because it got me through a freezing cold night on the Great Wall!! After the market we drove to the Great Wall and watched the sunset on the wall and then headed to a restaurant for dinner. The food was amazing!!! They just kept bringing out dish after dish of rice, pork, veggies, chicken, noodles, everything you could possibly imagine!!!
After dinner we drove back to the Great Wall and got dressed in all our warmest clothes and hiked up to the spot on the wall that we were sleeping on. It was sooo cold that we each got 2 sleeping bags! I slept with hand warmers all over my body!!! Sleeping on the wall was one of the most amazing things that I have ever done, but it’s not something that I would do again!! We were up early the next morning, we watched the sunrise and ate breakfast and then hiked down the wall. The hike down was beautiful and probably one of my favorite parts of my trip in Beijing!. At the end we had the option to zip line down, which I did and it was awesome!!!!
We all loaded back onto our bus smelly and exhausted, but with no time to waste we headed straight to the sit of the 2008 Olympics. It was really cool to see the birds nest and swim cube! We had the rest of the evening free, but we were sooo exhausted that we just went right to bed. The next morning we went to a Chinese New Year Festival, which was a crazy experience, There were people dancing, playing games, tons of vendors and food stands and ceremonies going on! Then we went to the old traditional town of Hutong. We went to a families house where they made us lunch and taught us how to make dumplings. Then we got to go on rickshaw tours around the town. Our next stop after that was at the Summer palace. We had dinner at Beijing’s famous Peking duck. It was the first time I had ever had duck, but it was really good! After dinner we went to an Acrobat show, which I loved!!!!! Our last full day in Beijing we went to another market, but it was one that they only have on the weekends. By this point, I was all bargained out so we just walked around.
Our next stop was the Temple of Heaven. This was an interesting place because it is a big hangout place for retired people. There were people everywhere singing, dancing, playing cards. Close to the exit to the park there was bunch of people gathered dancing and having a good time. At first we were just watching, but then we decided to all make a conga line and all the old Chinese people loved it and joined in!!!! The best part about this is that we were in the Beijing newspaper the next day!!!! Not everyone can have a story like that!!!! We also went to a hot pot lunch. This was really cool because we got to cook all of our own food. All of this eating has increased my chopstick skills immensely! I didn’t really have an option though because they don’t give you the option to use a fork!!!
The next morning we left our hotel very early for the airport for our flight to Hong Kong. We had a day and a half to spend in Hong Kong. We went to Victorias peak, which had an amazing view of the city! Then we took a cable car down. We walked around Hong Kong and then took the ferry back to our ship. The ship was docked in a huge shopping mall, it was really strange. For the short amount of time that I spent in Hong Kong, I really enjoyed it! It felt like I was in the states. Everything was in English, which was nice and made it easy to get around. It was apparent that Hong Kong was very different from the rest of China. They even drive opposite than the rest of China, which I discovered when I got in a cab in the drivers side because I was used to it being the other way in Beijing! Each port we go to keeps getting better and better!!!!! More to come!!!
Love
Em
Sorry about the delay with this email, but we have been very busy!!!! We only had 2 days on the ship between Japan and China and then 2 days again between China and Vietnam!
We got to Shanghai on February 16th and spent the day walking around the city. We ended up spending a lot of time in the markets bargaining for knock-off bags, clothes, watches, etc. I was surprised to discover that I have a special talent for bargaining!! I loved it!!!! The next day we flew from Shanghai to Beijing. Our tour guide met us at the airport and took us to our hotel. We had the rest of the night free to explore Beijing. A group of us grabbed some dinner at a restaurant right next to our hotel. We were the only people in the restaurant, they only had one menu, and they spoke no English. We ordered by pointing to what we wanted. The food came out and it ended up being some of the best Chinese food that we had the whole time!!! It was a very interesting experience, but well worth it!!
The next morning 3 of my girlfriends from the ship and I got up early and went on a walk to Jingshan Park. It was a park with a bunch of temples and people doing tai chi. We walked up to one of the temples that was on the top of a hill, which had an a amazing view of the entire city! At the temple there was a women who had traditional Chinese clothing that you could dress up in and take pictures, so obviously we had to do it. We headed back to our hotel to meet the rest of our group.
We visited The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, which were both very cool to see!!! I took a ton of pictures!!! I was shocked at the amount of Chinese people who would come up to us and ask to take a picture with them. They stared at us like they had never seen white people before. At first it was very uncomfortable, but our tour guide explained to us that the Chinese people who are visiting the forbidden city and other tourist attractions like that are typically from rural areas of China therefore, they hardly ever see white tourists.
Then we went to the Silk Market, which was a huge market filled with things to bargain for!!! I got a big puffy North Face Jacket and some gloves for about $60!!! The jacket was a great purchase because it got me through a freezing cold night on the Great Wall!! After the market we drove to the Great Wall and watched the sunset on the wall and then headed to a restaurant for dinner. The food was amazing!!! They just kept bringing out dish after dish of rice, pork, veggies, chicken, noodles, everything you could possibly imagine!!!
After dinner we drove back to the Great Wall and got dressed in all our warmest clothes and hiked up to the spot on the wall that we were sleeping on. It was sooo cold that we each got 2 sleeping bags! I slept with hand warmers all over my body!!! Sleeping on the wall was one of the most amazing things that I have ever done, but it’s not something that I would do again!! We were up early the next morning, we watched the sunrise and ate breakfast and then hiked down the wall. The hike down was beautiful and probably one of my favorite parts of my trip in Beijing!. At the end we had the option to zip line down, which I did and it was awesome!!!!
We all loaded back onto our bus smelly and exhausted, but with no time to waste we headed straight to the sit of the 2008 Olympics. It was really cool to see the birds nest and swim cube! We had the rest of the evening free, but we were sooo exhausted that we just went right to bed. The next morning we went to a Chinese New Year Festival, which was a crazy experience, There were people dancing, playing games, tons of vendors and food stands and ceremonies going on! Then we went to the old traditional town of Hutong. We went to a families house where they made us lunch and taught us how to make dumplings. Then we got to go on rickshaw tours around the town. Our next stop after that was at the Summer palace. We had dinner at Beijing’s famous Peking duck. It was the first time I had ever had duck, but it was really good! After dinner we went to an Acrobat show, which I loved!!!!! Our last full day in Beijing we went to another market, but it was one that they only have on the weekends. By this point, I was all bargained out so we just walked around.
Our next stop was the Temple of Heaven. This was an interesting place because it is a big hangout place for retired people. There were people everywhere singing, dancing, playing cards. Close to the exit to the park there was bunch of people gathered dancing and having a good time. At first we were just watching, but then we decided to all make a conga line and all the old Chinese people loved it and joined in!!!! The best part about this is that we were in the Beijing newspaper the next day!!!! Not everyone can have a story like that!!!! We also went to a hot pot lunch. This was really cool because we got to cook all of our own food. All of this eating has increased my chopstick skills immensely! I didn’t really have an option though because they don’t give you the option to use a fork!!!
The next morning we left our hotel very early for the airport for our flight to Hong Kong. We had a day and a half to spend in Hong Kong. We went to Victorias peak, which had an amazing view of the city! Then we took a cable car down. We walked around Hong Kong and then took the ferry back to our ship. The ship was docked in a huge shopping mall, it was really strange. For the short amount of time that I spent in Hong Kong, I really enjoyed it! It felt like I was in the states. Everything was in English, which was nice and made it easy to get around. It was apparent that Hong Kong was very different from the rest of China. They even drive opposite than the rest of China, which I discovered when I got in a cab in the drivers side because I was used to it being the other way in Beijing! Each port we go to keeps getting better and better!!!!! More to come!!!
Love
Em
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