Vietnam- Cao Dai Temple, Cu Chi Tunnels, and departure: 3/26/09

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I woke up, refreshed, and then realized that we were leaving Vietnam today. It kinda bummed me out cuz I loved this country. I had not expected the people to be so awesome, considering what we did to the country. Of course, we were in the southern part of Vietnam, but still.

So, today we had a full-day trip to the Cao Dai temple and the Cu Chi Tunnels. I will tell you about them as we get there ;) We got ready, and packed some stuff (camera, camera batteries, camera lenses, camera tripod, what am I forgetting? Hmm…oh yea, everything besides my camera…hehe). Anyways, we got on the bus, and met our guide, Tien. And, let's just say he was the best guide ever. His introduction was "Hello family." That's right, he called us his family. He was hilarious, and the whole way to the Cao Dai temple, he told us stories. He talked to us about Vietnam, about his background, about his family, about the war, and lots more. He was truly an amazing person, and he had gone through A LOT to get here. Our first stop on the tour was the Cao Dai Temple. This temple was really, really cool. So, basically they had merged several religions together to come up with one. They mainly took Buddhism, Catholicism, and Islam and created a hybrid religion…and this was their temple. Pretty cool, huh? I personally think most religions preach the same thing, behind all the garbage that people have inserted into each religion, a cloud of garbage that clouds the true meaning. No religion preaches violence, no religion preaches that we shouldn't treat other human with respect. But people have taken every major religion, and they have twisted the true meaning, they have changed the interpretation, they have inserted new "rules" and new "policies." What have people NOT done "in the name of religion"? So, it was cool seeing this temple where the religions coexisted. Plus, we were just in time to see the Mass, and I was very excited.

We got off the bus and saw the temple, and it was very interesting, to say the least. We walked to the entrance, took of our shoes, and entered. We walked near the entrance to the great hall, where everyone was praying. I could describe it, but just check out the picture and you will see exactly what it was like. We climbed to the 2^nd floor, and took lots of pictures of the Mass. They also had an orchestra set up, and a gong that went off in some sort of pattern I couldn't figure out. I walked back down and saw the picture of the 3 Patron Saints…can you guess who one of them was? Victor Hugo, yes the same guy who wrote Les Miserables!!! It was hilarious, and sooo random. But he was one of the principal followers of the Cao Dai faith, so I guess it makes sense. But still…seeing a picture of Victor Hugo in a multi-religion temple in Vietnam was not something I expected to see. Anyways, the Mass was soon over, and it was time to leave and grab some lunch. We took more pictures outside the temple, and walked to a nearby restaurant for lunch. Lunch was delicious, the vegetarian food was very good, especially the tofu.

After lunch, we jumped back on the bus and headed to our 2^nd and final stop: the Cu Chi Tunnels. These tunnels were dug by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. They were used for guerilla warfare, and were clouded in mystery for quite a while. The Viet Cong would appear in an American area, kill as many people as possible, and then "vanish" before they could be found. They were using a secret network of VERY, VERY NARROW tunnels. The American GIs could not physically fit into these tunnels, that's how narrow they were. We arrived at the tunnel site, and first watched a North Vietnamese propaganda movie. Oh man, that was some HEAVY propaganda…they were talking about "killing Americans" the whole time, and how people would get rewards and awards for being an "American-killer." It was pretty crazy, but it WAS a war propaganda movie made by the Viet Cong, and was very interesting to watch. After being brainwashed by the movie, ;) we headed down to see some of the tunnels. Tien stopped randomly at a certain patch in the grass and pointed down. We could not see anything, but he pulled a small handle, and an opening could be seen in the ground…THE TUNNEL WAS SOO NARROW, it was ridiculous. A few students took turns stepping into it…most could barely fit.

Afterwards we walked to the side and saw a spike trap…it was set up as a rectangular cut in the ground, with a piece of wood in the middle, so that the piece of loose land on top would swing in circles if someone were to step on it…and they would fall into a pit with 10 inch spikes. Not very pleasant at all! We walked through a few more spike trap exhibits, and then entered the tourist tunnel area. Basically, they had taken one of the tunnels, and they had widened it a little so you could crawl through it if you wanted. So, we got down on our hands and knees and crawled through the tunnel. Some students who were claustrophobic started freaking out, and ran out of the exit when we got there…why u would crawl in a NARROW tunnel if you were claustrophobic, I do not know. But, at the exit, there was an entrance to the 2^nd part of the tunnel. This part had not been widened too much, and you literally had to crawl through it. It was optional to crawl through it, but what the heck, I had come all the way here, I might as well. So, I got down and started crawling with a few other students. Everyone else left at the first exit, and did not dare to go on. So..it was an INTENSE crawl, and even this tunnel had been widened a little. We crawled for about 5 minutes before we smelled fresh air and got out of the exit. I was completely drenched in sweat (it was 90 degrees outside, and probably well over a 100 in the tunnel). We pumped our fists in the air, and cheered. We crawled through a tunnel! It was actually a lot of fun and a great experience. But, it was so creepy cuz some Viet Cong person had been crawling through the same tunnel not too long ago during the war.

After the tunnel-crawling experience, we saw a few more exhibits, and then headed back to the buses. On the ride back, Tien gave us a brief history of Vietnam from his point of view. It was very, very interesting, and I recorded the whole thing on video. You HAVE to hear it once after I get back. It is pretty insane and intense and a unique point of view. We arrived at the ship, and said goodbye to the best guide we have had on the voyage. We climbed back on the ship, and waved goodbye to Vietnam. It was sad…I had an amazing experience. Thank you for the memories, Vietnam! I will be back again.

Cambodia- Temples of Angkor Day 3: 3/25/09

What? What time is it? What is that horrid noise? Is that an alarm? GAAAH…why??? Its still kinda dark outside. Ugh. Ok ok, fine, I'll get up. Soo early…jeez. ;)

So yea, once again, we were up early. I showered and turned the water on cold at the end to wake myself up. You know ur tired when u take a cold shower, hop out, and fall asleep standing up. Anyways, I got ready, packed everything, and we went to eat breakfast. They had a really delicious breakfast buffet and I ate a LOT. We checked out afterwards, and headed down to the bus. Our first stop of the day was a floating village. It sounded cool, no doubt, but what the heck is a floating village? In my head, I pictured a bunch of huge houses that were somehow staying afloat, but I really didn't know what to expect. Who would be living there? We would have to wait and see. It took about an hour to get to the boats. We stopped in a small village built right next to a river, and there were tons of tourists climbing into long boats. We climbed into one too and we were off up the river…or down the river…I dunno ;)

After about 20 minutes, we came across a lake, and in the distance I saw tons and tons of boats, and… they were not moving. Ohhh…a FLOATING village! :) We came closer, and saw before us a VAST village, that was floating! People lived in small house boats, and small children waved at our boat as we floated by. It was unlike anything I have ever seen. We eventually docked at a small shop, and walked around. Achal and I climbed up to the top, and got a great view over the whole village. Right outside the floating shop, there was a small area with some crocodiles and a pool filled with crazy fish, so we checked that out. Not before long, it was time to go. We got back on the boat, and returned to the bus. We left for our last stop in Cambodia, the Ta Prohm temple. On the way back, we saw huge, beautiful fields of lotus flowers on one side of the bus, and we asked the driver to stop for a sec so we could snap some pics. I ran down and took some pictures of the gorgeous lotus flowers. And we continued to Ta Prohm.

We arrived in about an hour at the Ta Prohm Temple, or as it was commonly called, the "jungle temple." If any of you have seen the movie Tomb Raider, it was filmed at Ta Prohm. Our guide told us he had met Angelina Jolie when they were filming…lol. Anyways, we entered the temple, and it was just awesome from the start. There was a long, wooden bridge we had to cross to get inside. We had about an hour inside, so we started wandering around. The temple was eery and there were lots of ruins. Most of it had not been restored (they were in the process of restoring many parts), so it was really cool in its original form. We walked into some narrow corridors, and some dark rooms, climbed some of the rocks, and even "accidentally" wandered off the path into a restricted zone…oops. There were trees EVERYWHERE growing off the rocks. It was almost like the forest was taking over and destroying the temple, slowly but steadily. It was really really cool. Our time was over quickly, and we took as many pictures as we could on our way out. We ran back to the bus cuz we were late. We had been told to meet at the temple gate, but as we exited the temple we realized the gate was a mile away! So, we ran the last mile, and were a few minutes late to the bus. But, there was still one person missing. Mimi was nowhere to be seen, and we waited for her…and waited…and waited. Scary thoughts started running through our minds…maybe she had gotten lost…or GASP! Maybe she had been taken by the evil spirits that guard the Ta Prohm temple…ok, I'm kidding. She came back soon…she had taken a wrong turn and gotten lost.

We looked back at our last temple and waved goodbye as we drove off toward the airport. Soon thereafter, we were checked in and on our flight home…er, rather back to Vietnam. It had been a wonderful, amazing trip and I am SO glad I got to visit Cambodia.

Cambodia- Temples of Angkor Day 2: 3/24/09

Today was going to be an intense, temple-filled day. We woke up very very early, I think around 5 AM. We showered and jumped on the bus and drove to Angkor Wat. There were a LOT of people there for the sunrise. I headed over to the reflecting pool and started shooting pictures. The sun slowly came up, and we headed to the entrance to catch a very cool phenomenon. Angkor Wat was built such that, on the 2 equinoxes, the sun rises directly behind the central spire of the temple. Yea…pretty amazing, right? Well, it was true. As we walked to the entrance, ready to leave to go back to the hotel, I turned around and saw a phenomenal sight of the temple glowing, as the sun rose directly behind it.

We returned to the hotel to get ready, shower, and eat breakfast. I was ultra tired, and needed a semi-cold shower to wake myself up. We all got into the bus and headed back to Angkor Wat for a guided tour of the temple complex. We learned a lot about the temple, which was built during the Hindu era in Cambodia, which directly preceded the Buddhist era. The temple was very old, and Hindu art was everywhere. I recognized a lot of scenes from the Gita and Mahabharata. It was exciting to see art that I knew about! Near the end of the tour, we were walking by some locals who were living in the temple area, and a few kids ran up to me and a couple of the other girls in the group. The little boy wanted me to hold him…he held up both his hands in the international symbol for "Carry me!" :) So, I picked him up, and he was fascinated with my goatee…lol. He was adorable and so was the little girl, who looked like his sister. We took several photos with them. Cambodian children have the most wonderful smiles…you get happy just by looking at them.

Next, we went to the Bayon Temple, and let me tell you, this one is so cool. I nicknamed it the "Faces Temple" Check out the pics on my site, and you will see why. We entered the temple through a large gate, on which there were 4 faces, one for each direction. The gate itself was pretty impressive, but then we saw the actual temple. There were tons of tall towers, and each one had 4 faces on it. Our guide explained that this was a Buddhist temple, and thus there were 4 faces guarding each direction. We explored the Bayon Temple, walking into narrow corridors, large courtyards, ruins, you name it. This temple had a bit of everything, and I loved it. The faces were so eerie but cool at the same time. After about an hour, we left and walked to the Elephant terrace and the terrace of the Leper King. The Elephant Terrace was basically a huge rampart-looking thing with elephants carved ALL over it. The terrace of the Leper King was a little more difficult to describe, but the pictures should do it more justice. It was a huge wall with carvings all over it…can't quite remember what they were of, but it was probably something important to those old Cambodians ;)

We eventually finished our tour of the temple and the terraces, and the buses took us back to the hotel for lunch and some free time. The lunch was delicious, and after lunch, we had a tour of 4 of the smaller temples in the Angkor complex. A lot of kids were "too tired" and didn't want to go, so they cut down the group, and our bus went with only 6 people and 2 faculty members. It was lame, we had paid soo much for this trip, and these temples were so amazing. Whatever, I went on the 2^nd round of temples. And it was so worth it.

We saw a total of 4 small temples, and they were all unique. The first one was a small jungle temple that was half ruins, half temple with trees growing everywhere. It was SO COOL! The 2^nd temple was a reflecting pool temple. In the center was a dome in a reflecting pool (there was no water), and it was surrounded by 4 small pools with 4 faces. We didn't spend too much time here, and were soon off to the 3^rd temple, which was nice. There was a steep staircase that took us to the top of the temple, where the main temple dome was located. We took lots of pics, since we had a pretty nice view and got back in the bus for the 4^th temple, which I loved. As soon as we entered, we saw another unique phenomenon…the sun was setting behind the middle spire of the temple, so this one was probably also built for the equinoxes. There was a very steep staircase that took us to the top, and the view from the top was awesome. There were 3 temple towers, and we could see the complex from the top. We took lots of silly pictures, including some classic jumping ones. Don't worry, I'll share those fun times with you later using only pictures. ;)

After the intense temple-visiting the 8 of us, 9 including the guide were pretty tired but I'm SO happy I went to see the 2^nd round of temples. I feel sad for everyone who ditched, not just cuz it was expensive, but these temples were truly amazing and should not have been missed. Anyways, we returned to the hotel and relaxed for a bit before we headed out to dinner. We ate at a fancy French/Cambodian restaurant, but… the food was Cambodian…lol. It was good, and we sat at a table with several other faculty members. I swear, sometimes it is more fun sitting with the faculty than with other students. These faculty members were AWESOME and we had a great dinner conversation. All but 1 were vegetarian as well, so we enjoyed our vegetarian meal together. :) After dinner, we decided to head to the night market, so we jumped into a rickshaw with a few other SASers, and headed to the market. As soon as we got out, the first shop I saw…WAIT, I can't really describe this in the blog, it's supposed to be a surprise for my parents. I bought something from this store eventually, but I won't tell you what. Sorry…if ur REALLY dying to know, send me an email, and maybe I will relate the full story to you ;) hehe. Anyways, from that shop we walked to the entrance of the night market, and it clearly stated "Night market" …lol. So, you probably shouldn't get lost…until you get inside that is. You see, inside was a maze of shops and stalls, selling everything from incense to silk scarves to …. WAIT. Almost did it again. Can't give it away ;) So, I had FUN bargaining as usual, and as usual, I kicked butt and got some great deals. One of the shopkeepers refused to give me some t-shirts for cheap, so I had to resort to some dirty bargaining tactics (hehehe) that involved me complimenting her on how beautiful she looked in her oversized shirt, and ripped jeans. It was fun, and she gave me the t-shirts for a dollar each eventually…I win. :) hehehe. Anyways, at the end we returned to "the first shop" and I bargained for about an hour before I finally got what I wanted at a VERY VERY good price. Oh man, wait till you see what I bought..it's pretty amazing if I may say so myself. ;)

So, that was the end of spending money at the market, and I headed to a local internet café for an hour to make some calls, check email, catch up on life (aka update my Fbook status haha) and the universe. Afterwards, we rickshawed (is that even a verb? Oh well, it is now! If we can say we "cabbed it" in Boston then this works by the same logic) it back to the hotel. By this point, I think it was around 11 PM, I was about to die since we had been up since 5 AM, and had traveled pretty much the whole day. So, I changed and hit the bed. I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow, that's right…if someone had removed this pillow from under my head as I was "falling" asleep I would have landed on the mattress and fallen asleep anyways. ZZZZ…ZZZZ…What a day!

Cambodia- Temples of Angkor Day 1: 3/23/09

I woke up very EARLY again…story of the trip…lol. I finished packing, ate breakfast and checked my email. I wrote a few quick responses and headed to the Union. Our trip got together, and we waited for 15 mins for everyone to check-in. Then, we headed to the buses and left for the airport. The airport wasn't too far and eventually we were standing in line for the airplane, boarding passes in hand, security check complete. We had to take a shuttle bus to the airplane, and there was no fancy gate to get on the plane. You see, our plane was TINY. It was a turboprop plane, and we used a small staircase to get on the plane. I couldn't stand upright in the plane, cuz the ceiling was too low, but I found my seat and sat down. Pretty soon, the engines were running, and we took off. We were going to CAMBODIA!!!!

I fell asleep for most of the 1 hour flight, and when I woke up, we were landing in Siem Reap. We touched down, and I got very excited. We got off the plane, and I stepped off the plane into my 9^th country. It was VERY hot (probably in the low 90s F) and EXTREMELY humid (~80-90%). The airport was pretty cool, and we all filed into the room to fill out the customs form. The line was long, but eventually we all got our Cambodia visas. My passport was looking cooler and cooler every country. :) We left the airport and headed to our buses. Our tour guide was a very nice, short Cambodian dude. First, we headed to lunch. I'm not a huge fan of Cambodian food…it was pretty good but it taste a little bland, especially after spicy Vietnamese food. Next, we headed to Angkor Wat to check out the sunset.

Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure in the world…and it is a Hindu temple so I was pretty excited.

We arrived at the temple, and it was HUGE and magnificent. The pictures do not do it justice. We were all in awe, but we only had 30 minutes before we had to leave for the hotel, so we ran inside quickly to take as many pictures off the temple and see as much as possible. The temple was truly amazing, and there was a long walk in the center just to get to the main complex. To the left, there was a huge reflecting pool, and the water was completely still, so there was a perfect reflection of the temple. It was beautiful. We ran around the inside of the complex, seeing as much as we could before our time ran out. Of course, we were coming back the next day, but being a photography geek, I knew I couldn't get better lighting than the sunset lighting, so I took LOTS of pictures. Eventually, we were getting late so we ran back to the bus and made it just in time. We headed to our hotel, the Borei Angkor Resort. It was, simply put, a very nice hotel. Not as nice as the Sofitel in Bangkok, but still REALLY nice. But the fun doesn't end here. Oh no, cuz when I went to the balcony afterwards, there was a lightning storm in the distance! OMG LIGHTNING! WHERE? WHAT?! HOW? Heheh. Soo, I kinda shot pictures of that for a little while (ok ok, it was an hour, you got me). We wandered around our room before returning to the bus to go to dinner.

The dinner was in a HUGE buffet hall, with lines and lines of tables. It was full of people, tourists, locals, guides, you name it. We went and grabbed a plate, and looked for vegetarian food. Actually, one of the stations had vegetarian spring rolls, so I grabbed about 20 of those ;) and there was a noodle station where you could make ur own noodle soup, so I made some vegetarian noodle soup with LOTS of spice in it…hehe. We all sat down to eat, and the show began. There was a large stage in the middle and there were several acts of traditional Cambodian dance. I took lots of pics and videos don't worry. I put some of the pics up on the site, so check them out.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel. Near the hotel was an internet café, so I went for a little while to read emails and chat with friends. After that, I went to the hotel room and passed out. We had to wake up VERY early the next morning, cuz there was an optional sunrise tour of Angkor Wat, and there was NO way I was missing this one, especially cuz it was the spring equinox...more on that later. I'm tired and sleeping now ;)

Vietnam Day 1: Ho Chi Minh City- 3/22/09

Today was a VERY early day. Ho Chi Minh City is not located along the coast, and to get to the port we had to sail up the Mekong River. I woke up at 5 AM to see the river. I grabbed my camera and headed up to the top deck. I was treated to an absolutely gorgeous view. The river was fairly narrow, and there were jungles on both sides. Dawn was approaching and the sky was very colorful. All the colors were reflected on the water in the river, and it was so beautiful. After about 30 minutes, we started seeing some fog. The jungles near us were shrouded in fog as the sun finally came up. It was a priceless view, probably one of the best sunrises I have ever seen in my life. There were hundreds of SAS kids on the top deck in awe of the sunrise…one of the faculty members was very impressed with the fact that about 200 students had woken up before the sunrise. But it was worth it. Several small boats sailed by, and we waved to all of them.

 

I went back down to my room and packed for our first day. Achal and I had done a lot of Lonely Planet reading, and we had found a very cool walking tour of the city. We were going to follow the tour, which hit up most of the famous sites in the city. We docked in the city a few hours later, and the port was right near downtown. We had a diplomatic briefing first by some US diplomats from the embassy. They told us the usual be-careful-travel-in-groups spiel. We grabbed our landing cards and got off the ship as quickly as we could and headed into the city. As soon as we left the port we were mobbed by a bunch of taxi drivers. After a few minutes of bargaining, we agreed to go to Backpacker's street with 2 of the motorcycle taxis. It was a lot of fun riding on the back of a motorcycle, and 10 minutes later we were there, map in hand.

 

We began our tour by walking along the street to a plaza. We arrived at the Ben Thanh Market soon thereafter. It was a huge indoor market, and as we walked through the entrance we were transported to a bustling, crowded market that sold everything from fruits to seafood to fake purses and t-shirts. We started shopping…I started with some T-shirts. I found some cool ones of Vietnam and I bargained them down to $1.50 a shirt. Then I bought some Vietnamese silk scarves, and some cool souvenirs. We walked around and found a few shops of fake purses, from Coach to Louis Vitton. I had a request for one so I started bargaining. In the first shop, I was able to bargain one from $55 down to $20, but it was still too expensive. After browsing several more shops, I finally got one shopkeeper down to $15, and it looked legitimate…hehe. Bargaining is fun. The shopkeeper looked rather upset with my bargaining, I don't think she expected me to be so stubborn. I stuck to my price of $15 and she finally reluctantly gave it to me. We were pretty hungry by now, so we crossed the street to eat at a local restaurant called Pho 2000. When we walked in, we saw a picture of Bill Clinton in the corner…he had eaten at this restaurant.

 

We ordered vegetarian noodle soup, and it came quickly. Good thing, too, cuz I was so hungry I was about to eat the next thing I saw. ;) It was a HUGE bowl of soup, and it was SPICY! There was some spicy chili paste and I added a little too much. Whatever, it was amazing soup and it cost 30,000 dong (~$1.75). Happy from our meal and very full, we left the market and headed to our next stop…ice cream! We walked around the plaza, and started to cross the street. It was very difficult…there was traffic coming from all directions and Achal started the video. A few seconds later, a motorcycle drove by really close to us, and Achal yelled, "Hey, he tried to grab the camera!" The guy had reached out his hand and grabbed the video camera. Luckily, Achal held on to it. Phew! That would have sucked a lot! We finally crossed the street and walked to the ice cream place. But it wasn't there! We walked around in circles for several minutes but could not find it. Then, we walked to the next street and found the sop there…it had moved and had changed its name since the publishing of the Lonely Planet book…hehe. Anyways, the ice cream was DELICIOUS! And it felt so good to eat ice cream in the 100 degree weather. Feeling much better, we headed out into the stifling heat again and walked to the Ho Chi Minh City Museum, passing a few cool buildings along the way, including the new theater building.

 

The museum was kinda boring, not too interesting, so we only spent a half an hour there. We did take some comical pictures since we were a little bored, but there was no point of hanging out much longer cuz there was no A/C inside the museum :) So, we headed out and walked to the Reunification Palace. It was an important part of Vietnamese history as there was a tank that crashed through the palace when the North and South were united. It was a pretty cool building...it was HUGE, and there were a lot of interesting rooms (e.g. meeting rooms for international visitors, a huge cinema room, a lecture hall, etc…) and a huge statue of Ho Chi Minh. From the top, we had a pretty nice view of the area, and we had lots more to do, so we went down and left quickly after that.

 

The next stop on our walking tour was INTENSE…we visited the War Remnants museum. This museum showcased the Vietnam War from the Vietnamese perspective. You have to see the pictures to understand what we saw. It was pretty horrible and tragic. The pictures of innocent people who were killed in the war, the absolutely horrible effects of chemical warfare (Dioxin), the prison cells used to detain POWs, etc… I don't want to type too much in the blog cuz I don't know if everyone wants to read about it. I have pictures, and if u want to see, I can show u the pictures when I come back. Needless to say, it was from the Vietnam perspective, so America was not cast in a positive light at all. Some things were propaganda, for sure, but the pictures were all real and some of the quotes that were taken from soldiers in the war were downright disturbing to say the least. It was just something u have to see, even if u don't believe all of it. War is a horrible thing.

 

Feeling not-so-happy, we left the museum, and walked through a small park to get to our next stop, the Notre Dame Cathedral of Ho Chi Minh City…no, we did not magically teleport to Europe. It was rather small, but the architecture was still beautiful. We bought some coconuts since we were thirsty and they were cheaper than water (we bargained for them ;) ). We wanted to go inside the cathedral to check it out, but Mass had just finished, and there was a large group of people coming out. So, we kinda walked inside a little just to get a glimpse of the inside. It was very nice, but it was pretty dark inside and we couldn't see too much. Across the street from the cathedral was the French colonial post office (it was built during the French colonial period), and I had LOTS, and I mean LOTS of postcards to mail. Hmmm…let's see, I was sending 6 home, a couple to everyone at BU, and 6 to Rel. So yea…LOTS! :) The inside of the post office was beautiful, it was probably the coolest post office I have ever been inside. We figured out the postage situation, and I figured out it would be a lot cheaper to send one envelope to each location rather than mail them all individually. I sent out the postcards, and we left to go to our next stop: the Jade Emperor Pagoda.

 

We hired 2 scooter rickshaws, which pretty much means we rode on the back of 2 motorcycles. Yea…probably not too safe, but we wore helmets, and you should check out the pictures and videos. Anyways, we tried to tell them where we were going, but their English wasn't too hot, and we ended up going to many places, all wrong. Eventually, we got to a temple, and it didn't really look like the Jade Emperor Pagoda. So, we rode to a new place and asked someone else for directions. Apparently, we had JUST been at the right place…OOPS! So, we went back, and paid the 2 drivers a little extra since they drove us around for about 25 mins to go 2 or 3 miles.

 

The pagoda was very very peaceful. I really needed it after a pretty hectic day. There was a pond outside with lots of cool fish, and the inside was really dark and smelled of incense. I sat down in front of the Buddha statue for a few minutes, just unwinded a little. It was very quiet and peaceful. There is something about the Buddha's statue that is comforting and soothing. Maybe it's the look on his face, or his "mudra," I don't know. But, feeling at peace, we left to head to our next stop: the Ho Chi Minh City Sheraton.

 

The hotel was very nice. I don't want to know how much the rooms cost per night, but hey, we weren't staying there. We just rode the elevator to the top floor to see the city view. We had to sit down at a restaurant and order something to see the view, which is LAME…hehe. The menu was sooo overpriced and I ended up ordering a small plate of French Fries for $8. Ugh. But the VIEW! It was amazing…we could look out over most of the city and see all the lights. It was pretty sweet, and it was going to get a lot sweeter. ;) After we ate and sat around, admiring the view, I saw a light in the corner of my eye. I looked into the distance, with some hope in my mind that it was lightning. (side note, for all of you that don't know me well, I am OBSESSED WITH LIGHTNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I waited about a minute, and then I saw… a bolt…of lightning. And I was thrilled! I instantly started taking lots of pictures, trying to get one with a bolt. And I got pretty lucky… I got a few of pics of Ho Chi Minh City at night with lightning. Now that is an AWESOME picture. A pretty rare opportunity, considering our time frame in Vietnam was so short. So, really happy, we descended back to Earth, and left for the night market.

 

We walked to the night market, but not without seeing several motorcycle gangs ride by. There were SOO SOO SOO MANY motorcycles on the street, it was wrong. I will show you videos later of the endless line of motorcycles. We tried to cross the street at one point, and we had to wait about 5 minutes for a break in the swell of motorcycles. We finally got to the night market and we were starving. So, we ate at one of the street stalls…SOOOO GOOD! I ordered fried rice with vegetables and tofu, and asked the waiter to make it SPICY. And boy, did he make it spicy ;). It was delicious, and definitely worth $5 ;)

 

Full from our meal, we started wandering the shops. I bargained very hard and bought a few gifts and t-shirts and assorted other things. Eventually, I found a shop with soccer jerseys. They cost a small fortune in the US, so I decided to try my luck with bargaining. The lady operating the shop was very young, and her starting price was $50 for 1 jersey. I laughed and joked with her, and brought her down…and down…and down. And yes, I eventually bought 2 jerseys for, wait for it… keep waiting… $22 total! Take that for bargaining! :) The lady could not believe I was such a stubborn bargainer and call me "Master bargainer Yash" In exchange for the good price I got her email address and promised to send her a picture of us…lol.

 

And that was the end of a long and pretty exhausting day. We had covered several of the major attractions of Ho Chi Minh City in 1 day, and the next day we were flying to Siem Reap, Cambodia to see the temples of Angkor Wat. I was VERY excited, but SO tired. I passed out quickly after packing for the trip.

Thailand Days 4 and 5- a break in Pattaya- 3/18 – 3/19/09

We woke up fairly early and checked out of the hotel. After grabbing some breakfast, we hopped into 2 cabs and went to the bus station. We bought an A/C bus ticket for $4 to go to Pattaya! It was a 3 hour bus ride, so it was very cheap. SAS was charging $45 for their shuttle, so this was a lot better. I slept most of the bus ride until we got to Pattaya.

 

Pattaya is the resort town of Thailand, the place where tourists and locals go to relax on the beach, kind of like a mini Cancun. We booked a hotel at a local travel agency and headed over in a truck rickshaw. The hotel was pretty nice. We put our stuff down and headed out for lunch. There was a nice mall across the street with a food court on the top floor. In the food court there were stations for all types of cuisines, from Vietnamese to Thai to Indian to Italian. The food was really good, and we spent some time on the gallery checking out the view of Pattaya.

 

The rest of the day was just a break…nothing special happened. We headed down to the beach, walked around, hit up the market, and headed back to the hotel. I found an internet café at night and surfed the web for a while everyone else went out late. Actually, when they came back we went to a karaoke club, and sang a few songs before they closed, which was kinda fun. But it was mainly a relaxing day.

 

Day 5 was pretty much the same. We woke up kinda late, checked out of the hotel, and relaxed at the beach for an hour or so. I wrote a LOT of postcards while sitting on a beach chair under the shade (it was HOT). Then, we went back to the main city area, checked out the market for a while, ate lunch, and headed back to the ship a little early. I boarded the ship and waved goodbye to Thailand. What a country…I didn't know what to expect, and it blew me away.

Thailand Day 3: Temples and Palaces- 3/17/09

Achal and I decided to wake up early and go check out the pool in the morning before breakfast. I came down, still dead tired, but it was worth it. The pool was open air, and from the lounge chairs we could see the skyline of Bangkok…an amazing view. It was a pretty sweet pool. I sat in a chair for a while, watching the sky brighten as sunrise approached, then went back up to the room to pack away all my stuff. It took longer than expected, so I was late to breakfast. I quickly wolfed down some food, not nearly enough (it was sooo good), and headed down to the lobby to board the bus.

 

Our first stop for the day was Wat Po, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. The temple complex was so beautiful, and we got 15 minutes to walk around and take pictures. The architecture was so unique and beautiful…only a picture can describe it. After touring the complex, we entered the temple. Marina told us the statue of the reclining Buddha was very, very large, and then we walked in. I was blown away…the statue was HUGE! Way larger than I had expected…it was about 50 feet tall and 150 feet long. Even the pictures I took don't do it justice. After staring at the statue in awe for several minutes, we exited, grabbed our shoes, and headed back to the bus.

 

Our next stop was the Grand Palace of Bangkok, which we had seen from our boat cruise earlier. It was supposed to be the highlight of the city. As we entered the palace, I felt like I had been transported through a portal into another world. There were buildings everywhere with the Thai architecture; some were covered by golden domes and there were vast gardens and roads that led to a million places. It was a vast palace complex, and it was a visual explosion. I didn't know where to look first. Right as we were about to start our tour we got to see the changing of the guards. One troop of guards dressed in white, with automatic rifles in hand, marched out of the temple as another troop took their place. Afterwards, we began our tour. We walked through the main plaza area, and it was just spectacular. I was surrounded on all sides by exquisite buildings, and I couldn't take enough photos. We got a brief history of the palace from Marina, and then we got 15 minutes to shoot pictures. I ran around with Achal to as many places as we could, taking lots of pics along the way. We even saw a small model of Angkor Wat, the temple we were going to see in a few days. The model itself was pretty amazing, and both of us got really excited cuz we were going to see the real thing soon. :) After the photo-op was done, we met up with the group again, and headed to see the Jade (or Emerald) Buddha. No photography was allowed inside, so I took a lot of pics from the outside through a window. The Jade Buddha was a lot smaller than I expected (about 3-4 feet tall), but it was still pretty cool. The room which it was housed in was very ornate and exquisitely decorated.

 

After seeing the Jade Buddha, we headed out of the Grand Palace and boarded the bus. We headed back to the pier and took a ferry to a nearby restaurant across the river. The food was SO GOOD! For vegetarians, they made us fresh spring rolls, and for lunch we got 5 different spicy curries, including some green curry. SO GOOD! After lunch, our trip was heading back to the ship, 2 ½ hours away, but we were going to stay in Bangkok one more night to meet up with some friends. So, we waved goodbye to our group and to Marina, and left. We had lots of time to kill before we met up with some friends for dinner at 7. So, we decided to head to the local mall. It wasn't too far, and we got an amazing cab driver. He told us lots of funny stories, and showed us currency from around the world that some of his clients had given him. He had currency from countries like Iran, Iraq, and Dubai as well as countless others, including the ever-inflating Zimbabwean dollar. After a great ride there, we got off and went to check out the mall. It was very, very large, and we walked around for 10 minutes before deciding to go to the top floor where the theater was located. It had been a long time since we had seen an English movie in a theater, so we went to check out the showtimes. They were showing Watchmen at 4, so we decided to watch it…we got tickets for the VIP theater, and I didn't really know what that meant. We had some times before our show, so we found an internet café in the mall and surfed the web for a while.

 

The VIP theater was very cool. We showed our ticket at the entrance and got a complimentary drink…some fruit punch. It was actually very good. Afterwards we entered the theater. The seats were small sofas that reclined all the way back! They were very comfortable. Before the movie started there was a short video about the King, and we all had to stand up to show our respects…it was very interesting. There were some trailers for English movies, and I felt like I was home again. The movie was very long, but very interesting and thought-provoking. There was a lot of symbolism throughout the movie. As I left the movie theater, I was transported back to Bangkok cuz I had been home for a while while watching the movie and it was very nice and relaxing. By now it was 6:50 and we were getting late for our dinner meeting. We hopped into a cab and told the driver to take us to Khao San Road….the backpacker's street of Bangkok.

 

We got to our meeting point, and ran into Z and Whitney. After looking around for a few minutes, we found the rest of our group (Sarah, Rachel, Ji, and Jane). We ate at a local restaurant (May Kaidee's vegetarian restaurant) and the food was delicious. For once, Achal and I didn't have to worry about finding vegetarian food since everything on the menu was vegetarian. It was very nice :) After our dinner, we headed to our hostel and checked in. Afterwards, we decided to go out to the market. I bought lots of souvenirs again, and the rest of the group wanted to stay out a little late, maybe go to a few bars and hang out. I was tired, and I wanted to come back so I walked back with Ji.

 

There was an internet café in the hostel, so I sat on the internet for a while, talked to a couple friends online, uploaded some pictures and surfed the web. It was very relaxing. I went to bed soon after, exhausted after 3 days of intense traveling.

Day 2 in Thailand: I’m also from the city of Angels! 3/16/09

I woke up very early for the millionth time. But, I was very excited cuz we were going to Bangkok on an overnight trip. I showered, ate breakfast, and finalized my packing. Then, I met up with Achal and we headed to the Union. We signed in and headed down to the buses. There were 2 buses for our group and 2 guides, so they were basically splitting us in half. We climbed onto the 2^nd bus (it had more empty seats), and met our guide, Marina. After we departed, she talked to us about Thailand for a few minutes, about some of the customs, greetings, eating habits, etc…I passed out soon thereafter…

 

I woke up with a jolt from a strange dream I can't remember. And I looked out of the window to see the city of Bangkok. It…was…HUGE! I saw skyscrapers everywhere, and large temples dotted the landscape as well. It was a visual explosion, and I didn't know where to look. Marina then talked to us about Bangkok. It's abbreviated Thai name is Krung Thep (pronounced kroong thep), which translates as "The City of Angels." I am from near Los Angeles, CA so I told Marina I was also from the city of Angels, and she laughed and smiled. The original Thai name for Bangkok is 35 syllables long, I think, the longest name of any city. But it was shortened to Krung Thep and it eventually became Bangkok (which the Thai pronounce Baan ko).

 

We drove through the city and eventually hit some traffic. Marina told us that traffic is a huge problem in Bangkok. The city itself has a population of 12 million and an area of 1150 square kms (convert it to square miles if you wish), which is TWICE the size of the entire country of Singapore! Also, the city has been called the "Venice of the East" (yep, Rel, the same Venice you are near ;)) since it has an extensive network of canals along which all the major temples/monuments are built. We headed to the pier to board a boat which would take us on a water tour of the city. As soon as we got out of the bus, we felt the humidity and heat. It was over 95 degrees F, with a humidity of at least 80%. It was hot! We headed to our boat and found seats. The boat itself was quite small and narrow. As I gazed into the canal network, I saw a plethora of boats going in all directions. Along the sides of the canals, I saw skyscrapers, houses, temples, and other buildings. It was very, very cool. We departed, and took a 45 minute tour of the area. I can't even describe what I saw cuz words don't do justice. I will upload pics as soon as I can, but what I will try to do is email all of you on my email list a few small pics (I sent out that test email earlier). If you are reading this, and you wanna be on the email list, shoot me an email at yjbhatt@semesteratsea.net I frequently mail out status updates, location reports, and pictures too. So let me know if you want in. Anyways, so we saw soo soo much along the canals. Our first stop was the Royal Barges museum. Inside, there was a collection of several ornate war barges. They were magnificently designed. We checked them out and learned the history behind them. Interestingly, the figures on the front of most of them were heavily influenced by Hinduism.

 

We got back into the boat and proceeded to our 2^nd stop, Wat Arun (the temple of Dawn). On the way, we stopped near a temple where a sign read "Please feed the fish for good luck." Marina passed out some loaves of bread. I reluctantly (I was STARVING) threw in a piece in the water. Suddenly, 20 fish jumped up out of the water, devoured the piece, and vanished. I was startled, and everyone started throwing more and more bread. The water looked calm and empty until a piece of bread hit the surface, at which point a plethora of fish would surface and attack the bread. It was really cool! I decided to save half the loaf for myself, and wolfed it down ravenously. What?! It was very good bread, or maybe I was just THAT hungry…hehe. After the fish fiasco, we soon arrived at Wat Arun (let's see how carefully you've been reading this blog…what does that translate to without looking to the earlier reference?). It was very tall. After a brief history lecture, we got 15 minutes to check out the temple. The temple was dedicated to Indra, Hindu God of the lightning (I LOVE lightning! Hehe). The main tower had such a steep staircase to get to the top that it was almost like climbing a ladder. I slung my camera around my shoulder and climbed up. It was a semi-tiring climb (it was HOT), and I was covered in sweat when I got to the top, but it was worth it. The view from the top was amazing. We could see as far as downtown Bangkok, and directly across the river was the Grand Palace of Bangkok. It looked very cool from here, but I would have to wait until tomorrow to see it. We climbed back down carefully, and rejoined our group on the boat. We were all very hungry and the next stop was our hotel. The ferry took us back to the pier, where we got back on the bus and headed to the hotel. It took about 15 minutes to get there. And then, we stopped in front of our hotel, Hotel Sofitel Silom. I could not believe my eyes. The hotel was ENORMOUS, and it looked very, very nice. We got out and walked inside. This was definitely a 5 star hotel. The inside of the hotel was very nice, and I felt spoiled just walking around. We walked upstairs to have lunch.

 

Achal and I are vegetarian, so we asked the head cook if he could make us something. He gladly agreed, and they even hand-brought our dishes to our table. I went to the pasta bar, and ordered some spicy pasta. It was delicious…some of the best pasta I have ever had! Lunch as a whole was pretty amazing, and afterwards we went to get our room keys. I was staying with Chazz, who is the only other guy in our ship's a capella group. I walked into the room and was blown away…it was SO NICE! And from our window we had a view of downtown Bangkok! I saw the Skytrain go by below me against the backdrop of the skyline. It was a ridiculous view. Anyways, our guide had told us to meet in the lobby if we wanted to go to a tailor shop. What the heck, we might as well check it out…so we headed down. We took a van to the shop…it was a very nice shop. The tailor was rated one of the best in Bangkok, so it was definitely legit. We looked around and checked out the fabric, and it was amazing. We asked how much a suit would cost, and after a lot of bargaining, we got down to $200 for 2 silk ties, 2 custom shirts, and a full suit! Such a good deal cuz a good suit in the US would cost over $300, and it would not be custom made. I was very excited cuz the fabric was so nice…we got our measurements and I picked out my 2 ties and left. We returned to the hotel and relaxed for a bit before dinner.

 

For dinner, we headed to an interesting restaurant with a show. The food was pretty good, although the vegetarian options were limited. The show was really cool…it was traditional Thai dance, and I took lots of pics and videos. We returned to the hotel and then we went out to a market at night. It was craaazy! There was a swarm of people everywhere, selling all kinds of stuff. I bought a few souvenirs, but I had to bargain a LOT cuz the starting prices were outrageous since it was a tourist area. Also, Thailand is notorious for its prostitution problem, and we saw a lot of it in the market area. There were people everywhere handing out flyers and advertising clubs/night shows. It was ridiculous, especially being a tourist in the area. We had to constantly shake our head and fend off people just to walk through the market. And these night "shows" were nothing you would commonly find in the US…they were crazy and disgusting. We realized what people had said about the red light district in Bangkok…it was everywhere, not really concentrated in any one area. You could not ignore it cuz it was not limited to shady areas. Moreover, Thailand has a huge trans-gender population, and these so called "ladyboys" were everywhere, they owned shops, they were selling merchandise, they were advertising shows. Again, you could not ignore it, it was everywhere. If you walked outside after 6 or 7 pm, you saw that most areas of the city transformed into a red light district. After buying several items, I walked back to our hotel and fell asleep, thinking about everything I had seen that day. It's easy to ignore all these situations that clearly exist in the world, these problems such as poverty or prostitution or corruption. But the truth is that all of that does exist and it's not going to disappear just because you don't think it exists.

India: A relaxing break

So, I don't have too much to write about India. I decided to take a break, and not travel. I stayed with my family in Chennai. I have been to India several times and have seen a lot, but that's a story for another time. I do have a story for the first day, however. After getting off the ship, Achal and I met my uncle and we headed to my family's house for lunch. I met my grandparents, who flew in from Mumbai to see me, and we had lunch together. After lunch, we had to come back to the port for a trip we were doing with my biomedical ethics professor. We go onto the bus, and headed to the Mother Teresa orphanage. Upon getting there, we had to walk around for a while to find the entrance, and walked in. We met one of the nuns, and she gave us an introduction to the orphanage. They had a large group of orphans, most of whom had cerebral palsy (spelling?). Then, we went to see the orphans. It was very disheartening. Most of the kids could not function properly, and had body deformities. We talked to some, and held their hands, but many could not hear us. They looked so vulnerable, but at the same time they were so beautiful. There were also older kids there, and they LOVED bubbles. We brought a few bottles of bubbles and they loved them. Seeing happiness on their faces really made me smile. After about 30 minutes, Achal and I walked to the office, and sat down with the head nun. We each gave a small donation, and we talked to her for a long time about the orphanage, the kids, her background, etc… It was pretty amazing stuff.

 

After the orphanage we returned to the ship, and waited for some others to get back. I had invited Achal, Rory, Michelle, and Z to my family's house for dinner. We got together and left around 7 and met my uncle just outside the port entrance. We drove to his house, talking along the way, and I introduced all my friends. Once at the house, we sat in one of the rooms with A/C (it was soo hot, even at night), and ate lots of snacks. Dinner was ready after that, so we sat down to eat. They made idly (steamed rice dumplings) and sambar (spicy South Indian soup). It was delicious and everyone else agreed! We really enjoyed our meal, and my friends loved interacting with my family. After dinner, Michelle went to the kitchen and sat down inside with my grandmother, and my 2 aunts, who were making some dessert…cutting up a huge, juicy watermelon. I sat down in the room with my uncles and talked for a while. It was pretty late by now, so we had to drop my friends off at the ship, since they were all going on trips the next day. Everyone had an amazing time and didn't want to leave. They could not believe how hospitable my family was, and were sad to say goodbye. We dropped them off at the ship, and I came back and fell asleep.

 

The next few days, I just relaxed. During the day, I went on the internet for some research, talked to friends and family back home, and at night went out with my uncles for dinner. The last night we all went out and celebrated my birthday a day early! On the last day, before I left (March 9^th) my family made me a birthday cake and we ate it right as I left. It was very nice, and I waved goodbye to everyone, promising to come back soon. Some of my uncles joked that next time I came, I would be much older, and I would be a married doctor! Hehe…who knows what will happen?

 

By the way, while I was in India I updated my Picasa website completely through Mauritius. All the albums are there by country, and you can look through them. I tried to face-tag and geo-tag all the photos, so you know who is in the photo as well as where it was taken. Check it out! It took a lot of work to put everything up. Once again, comments on my blog are greatly appreciated. Even if you don't know me well, please send me an email at yjbhatt@semesteratsea.net We feel pretty disconnected from the world on the voyage…it would be pretty cool to hear from you readers, especially if I don't know you well, or maybe we have never met before. Feel free to email me your thoughts. This is Yash, signing out until Thailand, which I will have LOTS more to write about.

The home of the dodo bird: the beautiful island of Mauritius- 2/27/09

Yes, there is an island called Mauritius. And the first thing I want you to do is look up Mauritius on a map (just Google Image it) so you know where it is. Hint: it is off the coast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. There. Now you can’t say you have not heard of Mauritius. You can proudly say you know where it is :)

So, we arrived in Mauritius today around sunrise. I woke up early and got to the top deck to see us pull in and get pictures of the sunrise. The island was gorgeous. I saw a very green island covered with mountains and vegetation. It looked like a scene out of a movie, when they show those uninhabited islands that are picture-perfect: white sand beaches, lush vegetation, and green volcanic mountains. We waited patiently for our diplomatic briefing, which was ok.

An interesting fact about Mauritius: 80% of the population is of Indian descent, so Achal and I were going to feel very much at home ;)

Once that was done, we headed back to our rooms and waited for the ship to be cleared. We had read the Lonely Planet guide and done some research, and we had decided to head to a waterfall called Tamarind Falls. It was supposed to be an awkward hike, but well worth it. We would just have to wait and see. Our waterfall group was: Achal, Ruth, Rory, Audrey, and me, of course. Interesting story with Rory was that he was scheduled to go on a catamaran trip around the island. After waking up, he couldn’t find his ticket, and after several minutes of searching, he realized he had not even signed up for the trip. He felt like an idiot, but he was happy because he wanted to come with us to the waterfall, so it all worked out.

The ship was finally cleared, but we had to wait for all the SAS trips to depart first, which was lame. We only had one day on the island, and we waited for 45 minutes for all the SAS trips to get off the ship. Finally, we heard everyone could leave, and we ran to the gangway only to find a huge mob of students. Luckily, we were waiting in Ruth’s room on the 2nd deck where the gangway was located so we were near the “front” of the mob of students. We soon were off the ship and it was very warm and humid. We looked for the exit and saw a bunch of students walking toward the water. So, we followed them and found a group of “water taxis.” Basically, it was a small boat that would take us from the port to the mainland for $2 each. They could fit about 30 people on each boat, so I realized that these drivers were making a LOT of money from us. It took about 5 minutes to get to the mainland of Port Louis, where a huge shopping plaza was located. We got off the boat and asked a cop where the bus station was (buses are WAY cheaper than taxis in Mauritius). He directed us in one direction, and as we walked into the shopping area we were swamped with taxi drivers. We got a price of $70 for the whole day, which still sounded ridiculous to me (I knew the bus would be cheaper). We headed to an ATM, got some Mauritian rupees, and headed toward the bus station.

After taking 5 minutes to cross the main highway, which was a lot of fun, we got to the Victoria Bus Station, and looked for the bus to Henrietta. We found the bus waiting and got on. The bus departed in 15 minutes, and when the TC (ticket collector) came by, we asked for a ticket to Henrietta. It cost 26 rupees (which is less than $1)!! So, instead of $70, we spent $4 for 5 people. The bus ride was fun…there was no A/C but the fresh air from the windows felt very nice. We talked to a local guy on the bus, and asked him about the waterfalls, and what else we should do. He said the waterfalls were beautiful, and we should go to the Flic en Flac beach afterwards. After about an hour, we got off the bus in Henrietta, and it was indeed a small village. There was a guide waiting near the bus to take us to the falls. The trail is very hard to find, and a guide was highly recommended in the travel book. We walked to a viewpoint and saw the waterfalls. There were 7 falls, and the scene was absolutely gorgeous. There was a vast, green valley and along the side of one of the mountains, we could see the 7 falls. It was a pretty awe-inspiring scene. But, this was just a viewpoint, and we wanted to hike to the falls. The guide, who only spoke French, wanted to be paid for the hike, and we used a piece of paper to negotiate the fee. We agreed to pay him 100 rupees ($3), and began the hike.

The first part of the hike was easy, but after a few minutes, it started descending down the side of the hill. I started to see why the book called the hike awkward as the trail split in many places, and we would have gotten lost without our guide. We started to hear the sound of running water, and saw a small river. Once we crossed it, the hike became even more difficult and descended steeply downhill. I put my camera away in my backpack, and had to get down and crawl at a few places. After about 10 minutes, we reached a clearing and saw the first fall. The scene was beautiful. There was a river, with clear, cool water and it flowed off the edge of a 100 foot cliff into a lake below. We heard SAS students in the lake below, and we continued our hike. Now the hike got more steep and I had to use the branches around us as support to get down. After about 10 minutes, we saw the waterfall. The trail went around the back of the fall, and then the last portion of the trail was covered by bushes/shrubs, and it was wet from the mist from the fall. We finally reached the bottom and saw a bunch of SAS students swimming in the lake. I looked over to the rocks by the fall, and saw a small ledge from which a guy jumped into the water. It was a natural jumping point.

We changed into our swimwear, and we climbed up the rock to the ledge. Rory jumped first, and then Achal. Next, it was my turn. I stepped up to the edge and looked down. It was about a 30 foot jump, and it looked a lot more intimidating from up here. One of the locals next to me told me not to worry because the water was very deep. I took a deep breath and jumped…I fell, and fell, and plunged into the cool water. It felt sooo good. I surfaced and swam outward so the next person could jump. I swam around in the water for a while, it was very refreshing. Then, I got out of the water and took out my camera. I took some pictures of the other people in my group jumping off the ledge, and then we all got back in the water. We were short on time, so we had to head out. We dried off and changed, and took a group picture with the waterfall. Then, we started our hike back to the top and it was much more difficult than the hike down. I definitely felt out of shape, and I think my diet on the ship has affected my physical fitness.

We finally got to the top, and our guide called a taxi for us. Near the waiting point for the taxi, there was a small Hindu temple dedicated to Hanuman (monkey-God), and Kali (goddess). I said a quick prayer (I haven’t been to a temple in a while), and the taxi arrived. We got in, and headed to Flic-en-Flac beach, a fairly short taxi ride. We got to Flic-En-Flac and we were starving. We found an Indian restaurant, and I was soo excited to eat some good Indian food. BUT...it was closed :( So, we walked to another one, and it was closed too. We found out the restaurants were all closed from 2-5, except for a few. We found a Chinese restaurant that was open and I ordered some fried rice. It was GOOOD! They had some very spicy chutney (sauce) and I laced my rice with it. By the end of the meal, my mouth was on fire, and it felt GREAT. :)

After our meal, we headed to the beach, and the beach was picture-perfect. White, fine sand…clear blue water…palm trees. We changed again, and I went in the water…it was WARM and it felt AMAZING. The only problem was that there was some dead coral at the bottom and it hurt a lot to step on it. The waves were very small, and we spent about 30 minutes just chilling in the water. We took some group photos and I got some funny pics of everyone else too. Funny story…

Rory was drinking the local Phoenix beer, and he was in the water, and he said that he didn’t care if he lost his sunglasses as long as he had his beer. SO…later, he picked up Ruth and threw her into the water. When both of them surfaced, his sunglasses were, you guessed it, gone! But he still had his beer. We could not stop laughing as he frantically searched for his sunglasses but could not find them. That is what you call ironic.

We boarded the Port Louis bus, and headed back to the port. Rory asked if he could bring a beer bottle onto the bus, and the driver didn’t care. So, on our ride back, he was drinking a beer on a public bus. It was pretty hilarious, not going to lie.

We got back to Port Louis, and realized we had quite a while before on-ship time, so we went shopping. We walked around the local market, and it was interesting but eventful. The only thing I bought was a pirated DVD of Wall-E (yea, Rel, I could not resist after seeing it on the shelf) for less than $1. We left the market area and headed towards the mall, where we found almost all the shops closed. I bought a few postcards, and we headed into the only shop open. I found a flag of Mauritius, and I bought a T shirt with a map of Mauritius on it (so, when I wear it at home, people will understand that Mauritius does exist and where it is located).

We were all very hungry and we still had a little time left, so we headed to a restaurant in the area. It was SWAMPED with SAS students getting really drunk, and I was in no mood to interact with wasted SAS students, so I went to McDonald’s with Audrey and Ruth to get some quick food. They had a veggie burger (why don’t they have that in the US?) and it was pretty good. By the time I finished my food, it was about 1900, and we had an hour to get back on the ship, so we headed toward the water taxis. Surprisingly, there wasn’t a big line yet, so we climbed on to the taxi and departed for the ship. On the ride back, I looked back and waved good bye to Port Louis. There was a beautiful sunset with the ship in the background, so I took several pictures.

We got to the port, got off the taxi (which was interesting, cuz there were SO many wasted students trying to climb a ladder to get out of the water taxi), and got in line for the ship. The entire line was filled with SAS students who were extremely inebriated, and it was ridiculous. I just shook my head as one of the girls in front of me was trying to finish all the beer in her can, since we can’t take it on the ship, and then she threw her can on the ground. So irresponsible. One of the LLC’s told her to pick up her can and throw it away…he didn’t look so thrilled by her drinking in line. After about 20 minutes, we were back on the ship, and I was exhausted.

The opening ceremonies of the Olympics were later that night, but I was too tired. I was supposed to take part in our sea’s chant, but I decided to just watch the happenings from the comfort of my room while working on my paper, and talking to other students who were not wasted, about Mauritius. The ceremonies looked crazy, and everyone seemed to have a blast (keep in mind that 99% of them were VERY drunk). Our chant was definitely more uncoordinated than it had been in practice…whatever. The night was pretty much over after that, and I outlined my paper and went to bed.

Oh, and if you were wondering why I called Mauritius the home of the dodo, Mauritius is the only known location in the world where the dodo bird lived, so the dodo bird was everywhere here (on towels, on keychains, on posters, etc…). So now you know.