Two Roads Split in the Woods

            So, the day after Honduras, there were lots of random things happening and I was trying to get pictures with everyone. In the evening, there was the SAS musical that the drama classes and other students had been working on. It was really a very good show and I really liked it. It was full of jokes from the voyage and even featured the Captain. The next day we had convocation in the evening. This was to recognize all of the graduating seniors on board and those who had earned a 4.0. I never thought I would actually make it, but I earned a 4.0. Ironically, this was my first in college, though this is one of the toughest semesters I’ve had. I’m glad I made it only to make all the time I spent on homework (rather than port or hanging out with friends) worth it. Convocation was very nice, though I didn’t really want to say goodbye.

            The next morning we were supposed to have all of our stuff packed at 1pm to start storing it for the cranes to take it off the ship the next night (that is everything you  couldn’t carry off the ship on your person as you couldn’t get back on once you walked off). Unfortunately, a girl had appendicitis in the morning, so bad that they were afraid her appendix was going to burst. Even though we were only a day away from the States, they had to call in an air transport to bring her to the hospital because it was so bad. They had to lift her from the back decks to the helicopter. I didn’t get to see it (we were told to stay away as it was ‘not a spectator event’ according to the Captain, but lots of other people still went up to see it). Anyways, hopefully she’s doing alright now but that was quite an exit.

            I’m home now, but I still don’t know what to think. I’ve seen so many things and done things I’ve never dreamed of doing (or seriously thought I would ever do) I’m just not sure what to think of that. I’m sad to be gone, I really loved the ship and the community that we had. One of my favorite things on this voyage was returning back to the ship at night, as it gleamed in on the water: A bright star in mostly dark harbors (there were a few harbors where there were other brightly lit ships but ours always had a special glow). It was such a relief to return ‘home’ after braving the day, out in the unknown. My psychology teacher had us all pick a quote that meant something to us as our final test for the class (yes, I know that isn’t really a final test) and originally I thought it was supposed to sum up our psyc class. Once everyone else started explaining their quotes for the whole voyage, I tried to think of another. The only one that came to mind is Robert Frost’s poem, the one with the over-quoted ending – “I took the road less travelled.” Truly, I have just done that – how many people can honestly say they have circumnavigated the globe? But this quote has followed me since 6^th grade MYP, when I entered an academic program as one of its founding students (and guiniea pig). They always quoted this to encourage us and convince us that it was worth it, wasting our lives on homework. That was what this poem had always meant, spend my time getting good grades and eventually it will all pay off…somewhere. Honestly, we all hated that poem because there didn’t seem to be an end in sight and it felt like they were just using it to sell us things we didn’t want. But now, it’s meaning is re-written. Some of my best experiences on this trip were the random ones, the ones where my friends and I just wandered somewhere. Why is it that the road less travelled is better? It is because the people there are really awesome, and the people are always my favorite part of anything. They make or break something. MYP, ROTC, UVA, SAS, I’ve loved them all because of the people I’ve met there. At the ‘reverse culture-shock’ discussion, one of the panel speakers described the trip as one to Neverland. Besides my blatant bias to all things Peter Pan (because that’s my favorite movie ever), I honestly think that’s a very accurate description. I went off on the trip of a lifetime, to lands I’ve never seen before, in a fairytale-like manner (what with the excellent service from all the crew) and basically got to be a kid (not including the classes). Well, it seems it’s time to grow up, I’m back now. We’ll see what changes God has made in me through this trip – only time will tell that. As a closing, I think the biggest thing I’ve learned from this trip that I recognize now (until I reflect some more) is the fact that there is a whole lot of good in this world. We all hear about all the bad stuff and it makes it sound like the world is much worse than it is, but there is good out there and it’s worth fighting for. I can’t tell you how many times my peers were taken in by complete strangers in all of the countries because they needed a place to sleep or what have you, but there were countless stories of Good Samaritans in every country. Plus, the innumerable other acts of kindness from all of the people we’ve met. Sure there were some bad things, muggings, thefts, etc. but there is hope. God is good and has kept us safe and shown us His wonderful creation. I know there is talk of the end of the world being soon, but I think we still have some time. I think of when Abraham asked God about if there are any good people in Sodom and Gomorah – so I think there are still quite a few good people in this world to be found before its destruction. That is just my opinion though, so take it as it is. As a conclusion, I think it is fitting to close this voyage with the following dialogue from The Return of the King:

Frodo: I can't do this, Sam. 
Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something. 
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam? 
Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for. 

            

Part 2

            So today was one of the only days I could sleep in, so I did. That meant that I woke up too late for breakfast. My friend and I went to the seventh deck to order breakfast and while we were up there, the crew started doing some drills. Trying to get back to our rooms before all the doors got locked for the drill, we got stuck in the main lobby and then were able to get to the stairs near my hall. It was kind of cool to see what they were doing as we’re usually just in our rooms to be out of their way. We didn’t mind the fact that we couldn’t leave the ship as it was literally monsooning outside. I mean downpouring – you couldn’t see that far because it all just turned to grey rain. We hung around the ship until there was a break in the rain and then went to the stores right outside the ship. Originally we were going to go into town as those stores would be much cheaper but we didn’t want to get drenched if it rained again. It was a good thing we didn’t go that far because it downpoured off and on all day. So, we did our final shopping and just relaxed on the ship. It’s too bad we didn’t get to see that much of Honduras and it’s ironic that it rained the only two days we were actually on vacation, but I can’t complain. We had gorgeous weather all of the other days so it was ok. 

Honduras

So, originally we were supposed to go to Cuba, but then our State Department was slow and there were other problems. Unfortunately, no Cuba, though this would be the only time we could probably ever go there so that’s a bummer. Plan B: Guatemala. They made trips, one of which was going to see the Mayan ruins. I was so excited for that because I’d never expected to actually see Mayan ruins, but how cool would that be? PSYCH The State Department decided that Guatemala was too dangerous with the drug trafficking going on there so we weren’t allowed to go. What did that mean? Honduras! Except, Honduras was also too dangerous so…Roatan! A resort island off the coast of Honduras with restrictions to this island (meaning no travelling from it or you would be in a load of trouble; also this meant that if you lost your passport you were up the creek without a paddle). I must admit, some of us were kind of worried about being on an island for two days as there were quite a few people who do not seem to have self control and now that classes were over it sounded like a recipe for disaster. Anyways, we finished classes and arrived in Roatan. I signed up for one trip because I really wanted to go snorkeling on my voyage. Honduras is supposed to have one of the best coral reefs in the world, right after the Great Barrier Reef and the reefs off the coast of Mauritius. We headed to an ‘underwater museum’ so we could see some Mayan ruins (replicas really) and reefs in one. I think the snorkeling equipment was better than that in Costa Rica because it fit better, though I kept getting water in my mask because the waves would slosh some water down my pipe. We got flippers this time, which I’ve never used before but they really are excellent tools in the water. It’s so much easier to swim with them that I don’t know why I’ve never used them before. It was so cool to swim and be only a foot above the coral (or at least that’s what I’m guestimating) and see it clearly. There were so many different fish and I really don’t have any idea what kind of fish they were but they were brightly colored. The coral had many different colors as well. I really liked snorkeling. After we had seen everything, we came back in and it started to rain. Oh, I forgot to mention the sand fleas. So, Central America has sand fleas and Honduras is notorious for them. Basically, there isn’t any bug spray or anything to prevent them from biting you so we all just had to hope we didn’t contract anything from them. Anyways, after snorkeling, we headed back to the ship.

Once back, I met some friends and we decided we wanted to walk to this other part of the island. As Roatan is basically this long skinny island and we were near the bottom East side, we were trying to walk around the bottom to get to the West side. It didn’t look that long on the map and the locals were telling us it was much too far (which we thought they just didn’t like walking like the locals in Vietnam) but we eventually realized that it was much too far away. We all squeezed into a van and drove over to the other side. Once there, we realized we were smack in the middle of all of the parties from all the other groups. We didn’t really want to be there so we walked along the beach until we finally found a place to eat. (by the way, it was drizzling the entire time). There was only one waiter who you had to find to place your order, but eventually we all got food. Then we went home and watched some movies to finish out the night. 

Panama Canal!

            How many times do you get to sail through a country? Exactly! Today was pretty awesome, even though I spent most of it doing homework. I woke up crazy early (0450) to see us arrive on the coast of Panama and the sunrise. We sailed down a river a bit until we got to the first gate. For those of you who don’t know how the canal works, its engineering genius at its best – nearly 100 years old too! (It opened in 1914). There is a lake on the top of the mountainous area that traverses the short length of Panama. Essentially, we dammed the lake to control for rainfall and its fluctuations and created several blocks on either side to raise and lower the ships. So, the first two gates end up raising the ship 85ft to be at the lake level. The first gate is at sea level when the ship enters. Then they let the water flow from the second area to the first until they equalize (it flows in tubes underneath the gates). They open the gates and let the ship pass through. Then repeat with the lake providing the water and the ship enters the lake. After sailing through the lake (which is the largest manmade lake in the world), you do the reverse on the other side. Simple, yet brilliant. Our ship had only a few feet of space on either side when in the gates, but we passed through easily. It was really an awesome experience.

Pura Vida

            Today I went on a canoe excursion. There was a large group of us who went, so once we arrived at the beach, they split us into 4 groups. After getting life jackets and paddles, we got into these large canoes with stabilizers on either side (basically wings of wood to help keep the boat from flipping). We paddled around a cliff with all of these birds perched in the trees. Once around, we headed for this nice beach and stopped there. There was an opportunity to go snorkeling, so I decided to try it. They had put toothpaste inside the goggles to prevent the glass from fogging, but it kind of burned my eyes (even after washing it out). I never realized how difficult it is to control your breathing while snorkeling, I ended up having to practice breathing with my head out of the water until I could get the hang of it. Once I did, I tried looking for thigs in the water. It was kind of murky so it wasn’t the best for snorkeling. However, one of the guides found a medium-sized octopus and a starfish and brought them out of the water. That was pretty cool. After that, I followed one of the guides a bit into the forest and saw a small waterfall. Then, it was time to row back and head back to the ship. I wanted to do some shopping, so we took the shuttle back to Puntarenas and found a nice market. Costa Rica is quite beautiful and it’s too bad we only had 2 days to see anything there.

Costa Rica

Today we arrived in Costa Rica. The country is very green and mountainous with many beaches. I went on a ziplining trip that was in the forests. We got to ride on 8 different ziplines, with the longest one half a meter long. It was awesome, we glided over a large river and through the trees. Costa Rica has a rich climate, allowing it to have 5% of the world’s biodiversity, including a cloud forest and a dry rainforest. It also has quite a few active volcanoes. Known as the Switzerland of Latin America, they abolished their military as a statement of peace. One of the common phrases the locals use as a greeting is, “Pura Vida”, meaning ‘the good life’. After ziplining, I went back to the ship and met a friend to walk around Puerto Caldera. Turns out, there is really nothing to do in that little port town so it was kind of fruitless. When we got back, we met some other friends and travelled to Puntarenas to eat dinner. That is a much more touristy town, so at least we found somewhere to eat. Costa Ricans eat rice and beans everyday, even for breakfast. Many of their meals are variations of that with meat and other veggies. It is pretty good food overall. It was a fun day.

Thanksgiving in Hawaii!

            Happy Thanksgiving!!!! It sure didn’t feel like Thanksgiving at all today but it wasn’t a bad day either! The day before we had docked in Honolulu to refuel and restock, so I got to call everyone. It’s a good thing I did as I didn’t end up having time to call while on my trip. So, we headed up Maona Kea, the tallest mountain in the world (when you measure from its base, which is on the seafloor). We stopped partway up to eat lunch and acclimate to the higher elevation. The stop had this really cool flower that takes ten years to grow, will bloom during the tenth year and then die and restart the process again. This wasn’t a blooming year, but we still got to see the strange flower. It looked like thin aloe leaves that were silvery. Now, we actually had a very large group of people on this trip, but we were split into 12 so that we could fit into these elongated vans. This is because it is required to have 4-wheel drive as you ascend the volcano because a very large stretch of the drive is incredibly bumpy terrain. The State does this to limit the amount and type of traffic going up the volcano. Eventually, we made it to the top. We had passed clouds and could now look over a large part of the Big Island. Many of the volcano eruptions (look like hills) were very red and some had some other coloring (like green and brown). Our guide told us that this climate is very similar to that of Mars and so there are many tests done here. Also, they chose the top of Maona Kea because there are clear skies and no wind so that their calculations won’t be affected. We got to walk a bit to go to the peak, passing some snow (snow in Hawaii!!!?!) and taking measured breathes to get to the top. There was an offering pile of wood and other assorted things that the Hawaiian people bring to Pele (goddess of fire). Then, we got to tour Keck I observatory! That’s my maternal grandparent’s last name and it’s not that common - how cool is that?! I always knew they were here but I never thought I would ever actually go inside one of them. It was really quite amazing. They have a laser they shoot into the sky every single night (that’s right, 365 nights a year) and it has better resolution than Hubble. They have liquid nitrogen cooling the inside of the domes to prevent condensation from accumulating on the very large mirrors. It costs $2/sec to turn them on and move them! And they operate them every night, from the minute the sun sets till morning light! Pretty expensive! Oh, and the researchers can only work up there 3 days a week to avoid the negative effects of the thinner air. Thus, there is lodging part way up the volcano for them to stay at while researching. It was pretty cool.

            After we saw the volcano, we started heading down and went through a cloud that had drifted over the roadway. It was like going through a thick fog machine. I had seen this ridiculous bumper sticker in the store saying, “Beware of invisible cows”. Sounds ridiculous, right? Well, there are cows grazing on the sides of the road and I guess sometimes they walk onto the road in the middle of the cloud and then it looks like they are invisible. Pretty funny. Anyways, we then headed to a lava cave. I happened to have the geology professor in my group so he explained how lava caves are formed. When the lava is flowing (which it can go up to 40mph!), sometimes the top layer can cool and harden and then the hotter part flowing beneath can sink into the ground. This ends up creating a pocket that becomes a cave. Thus, there are few to no stalagmites or stalactites within and you can see the ridges in the lava from where it was flowing, kind of like a fossil. That was pretty cool. Finally, we went to rainbow falls which was gorgeous and had two parts of a river converge into a waterfall. There were also some enormous banyan trees right next to the river. It was pretty cool.

           

Yokohama

            Today I walked around Yokohama. Much like Shanghai, I didn’t have a full day to walk around and it was mostly city with some parks. We found the Chinatown district to see if we could find any better priced things and ended up finding a Hello Kitty store – yes Hello Kitty is pervasive in Japan seeing as that is where it originated. Anyway, they had everything under the sun (including underwear!) that had Hello Kitty on it – pretty funny. Across from this store was one where you could pay for these little minnows to eat the dead skin from your feet. We decided to try it (I would never have done this had I been on my own) and it was one of the strangest sensations I’ve ever felt. Imagine a bubble machine blowing on your feet from all directions and your feet are being massaged at the same time. The only thing is that really little fish are nipping the dead skin right off and eating it – CRAZY! It was definitely weird. We stopped in a café for a bit and then went to a K pop (Korean pop music) store because one of my friends really likes their music. Then we headed back to the ship for lunch (so as to save money) and stayed on the ship. I found out later there was a roller coaster that went under the water in another part of the city and kind of wished I could have gone but all in all I had a good day.

I am now at sea and will be in the throws of the Pacific for the next 18 days (minus Thanksgiving when I’ll be in Hawaii). There won’t be many posts for the next 2 weeks, fyi.

TOKYO!!!!!!!

            So today I went with some friends to go to Tokyo! I was so excited to go and we were hoping to go to the district where people dress up really crazy (like anime characters). We asked which one it was and what trains we should take to get to Tokyo. We really only ended up having one transfer and it didn’t cost too much money to get to Tokyo and back ($15 roundtrip). So the lady who told us where to go told us where the anime district is (not the same as the dress up one but still really cool) and so we went around that area. There were so many buildings dedicated only to anime – like 8 floors of just that! Multiple of them! There were some girls dressed in maid outfits advertising their shop and there were just random images of anime everywhere. Some of the images were explicit, which I wasn’t expecting, but for the most part they were ok. It’s too bad that the Japanese people also don’t really know English (only what they learn in school but it’s not conversational) so we still couldn’t talk to anyone. After wandering around enjoying the ridiculous sights (anime advertising a car wash, lightsaber chopsticks! – would have bought them but they were crazy expensive – over $20 – just like everything else in Japan is super expensive, KISS pandas, jedi cloak, etc), we decided to go to the Tokyo stop. It turned out to be the business district, but it had a cool underground mall so we walked around that for a while. We had to get back early so we left and got back ok. I had wanted to do some karaoke, but apparently you pay for private rooms here, its not just open bar like in the States. Guess that’s because they are way more serious about it here. Anyways, it was an awesome day. Oh, it’s rude to eat in public (unless of course it’s a restaurant in which case it is no longer ‘public’) so we couldn’t eat on the train heading back, even though we were very hungry. It’s interesting to see what other people consider rude, because we would never think about twice about eating on the run at all.

The Shrines of Ise

            Today we rode in a bus 3.5 hours to the Shrines of Ise, the center for Shintoism (native religion to Japan). This religion essentially believes that everything living has a spirit and they worship these spirits. It is also the religion that claims that the Emperor line is directly from Amateratsu, the sun goddess. This religion is very nature oriented and is unique because their sacred buildings are town down and rebuilt every 20 years, 56 consecutive times (yeah that’s a lot of rebuilding). This is because they only use natural materials, which naturally decay after a while. So, they have two plots for every place where there is a shrine, and they will construct a copy of the current on the open spot and switch them all over at once and then deconstruct the old. Also, you can’t go inside of the holiest place, as only the Emperor can to move the sacred relic (a mirror to represent the Sun God – because when you look into it, it reflects your face in the sunlight). These shrines have evolved from the ancient Japanese granaries, which were the only elevated buildings in the ancient landscape to protect the grain from rats and rain, while the dwellings were subterranean. Really, it is cool that I learned about this religion and buildings in my architecture class and now I’m here seeing it. We couldn’t take pictures of the sacred part and you could only see parts of it anyways because of the way that it was set up, meant to only give you glimpses of the most sacred building. Either way, it was pretty awesome and the landscape was gorgeous as well. After we toured the two different complexes, we headed back.

JAPAN!!!!!

            We arrived in Kobe today and I had some time to spend before my trip left. I went with some friends to walk around and we found a small mall. We totally saw a girl dressed up like a doll and no one seemed to care. That is how it is here, everyone is very well dressed and if someone is unusually dressed (like as an anime character) no one bats an eye. Anyways, we had to get back in time so we just walked back. We headed for a theatre performance. To get there, we assumed we would be riding in a bus, as had been the case in all of the other ports. However, Japan has perfected the public transportation system and it is actually more expensive to travel by private transport. So, our guide navigated us through the train system, taking four different trains to our destination. That was quite amazing. Everything was pretty easy to follow, very helpful, speedy and on time. We got to the theatre and waited for the show to start.

            Bunraku theatre is a traditional puppet theatre, losing popularity as Kabuchi theatre takes its place in popularity. These are life-sized puppets (literally almost my size) operated by three people with ornate outfits, props and facial movements. The puppeteers wear all black to not distract from the puppet (because you totally see them on stage) and the scenery is very detailed. There is a narrator and a shamisen player (traditional Japanese lute that sounds like a banjo but itsn’t) who provide the music and all of the dialogue. Literally, the narrator says everything. Interestingly, they rotated narrators and shamisen players for each segment of the play. It was a four hour performance with fight scenes, head shaving (a puppet removed his hair), and suicide (forgot what it’s called but where you stab yourself in the stomach). The finale was a fight scene between a soon-to-be apprentice wielding a knife at the end of a staff and a master wielding an umbrella and a fan – that’s right, umbrella and fan won. Pretty funny. It was quite amazing to see them working together to create this production. Then we went back, transferring 4 times to get back to the ship. Wow, Japan is quite efficient. Oh, and rush hour traffic (i.e. when everyone is packed into the train cars) is 2030 – that’s right, 830 pm is when all the men in suits are heading home – what a long day.

Shanghai!

            I went with my friend Amelia to walk around and see what there was in Shanghai. We only had the morning and afternoon so we didn’t have too much time to travel too far, so we decided to walk to a shopping district. There were many shops here, most much more expensive than we anticipated. We basically had a low-key day just walking around and seeing the different stores. Shanghai has very interesting architecture, much like Hong Kong. I wish I had had more time to really see Shanghai, but I did have fun with my friend.

Last day in Beijing

Today was our last day in Beijing, so we went to the Temple of Heaven. As I mentioned before, it is on the same axis as the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. This is basically a large park with a temple in the middle, where the Emperor used to go 2x a year to pray for the harvest. Once they got rid of that tradition, they were left with a huge park. Now that China is stricter on people retiring at the retirement age to make room for the next generation, all of those retirees need something to do. So, they come here and exercise and play games with their friends. Basically, it is now an adult playground. They are very nimble and active and it was pretty cool to see them doing group dances of playing Chinese hacky sack. After we saw the Temple, we tried to get our own game going of hacky sack and did pretty terribly. I know I haven’t played any sports with my feet in a while so I was failing miserably, but I still had a good time. Then we went to the airport and flew to Shanghai. Our bus went to the wrong exit and took a long time coming to pick us up to bring us back to the ship, but we got back ok.

The Great Wall!!!!!!

            Never in my life did I ever really think that I would go and see places like the Taj or the Great wall. Yet, today I went and saw the Great Wall!!! First, we went to a Kung Fu school where the students performed some of the Kung Fu moves for us. Some of them start learning as early as 3 years old and they practice for about 4 hours a day. Kind of crazy but I guess you need it to get really good. After they showed us their moves, they tried to teach us a string of moves. That was really funny because we were very bad at it. Again, they didn’t know any English so we couldn’t really just talk to them. Lucia told us that most people learn English but can’t really hold a conversation and end up saying “Welcome to China” – which was exactly what one of the students said as we were leaving – kind of funny. Oh, and they had a basketball court, which I thought was ironic because it is quite an American sport but it’s popular in China now because of that famous Chinese player (Yao?). Still, it was pretty cool to see them perform, especially with the weapons at the end.

            After, we went to another restaurant and learned about jade. They showed us how to identify real jade from fake, but the shop itself was crazy expensive so I don’t think anyone actually bought anything. Finally, we headed for the Wall. We eventually got there and you could just see the wall for on in both directions without stopping. After getting through the market at the bottom, we took a cable car up to the wall. The stones are quite large and it is in good shape for the most part. Many of the steps are uneven and the path goes up and down quite a lot. The view from the wall was amazing: snow-capped mountains framing the horizon. It is a little unbelievable to be there, knowing how old it is. It is also much longer than you think because it not only goes up and down but snakes back and forth along the mountain ridge. We thought we were right on time and then realized that we had only gone half the distance and were about to be late. SO we had to hurry up for the last stretch, but it was very similar to the first part that we saw. Our trip had arranged for us to toboggan down, which I’ve never tobogganed in my life so I was very excited! My trip leader was flipping out because he has a fear of heights and wide, open spaces so he couldn’t toboggan – he ended up walking. It was a seat with a lever for you to control your speed (or really just brake or not) and you rode on a metal semi-circular canal thing that snaked back and forth as it made it’s way back to the market area. I was behind a girl who I thought was recording it, but really she was super scared. So, she was going too slow for me, but I would just go slowly, create a distance and then zip right up behind her. It was pretty fun and these Chinese guys behind me were doing the same thing so it was pretty hilarious. We left a bit late and tried to book it back to Beijing so we could see the acrobat show. We got there just in the nick of time, missing the intro (which wasn’t acrobatics). I’ve never seen Cirque du Soleil or anything like that, but this blew mind! They had people doing tricks you would never just think of: a girl juggling an umbrella with her feet, a girl doing ballet atop of a guy, fitting 12 girls onto a bicycle, cramming 5 motorcycles into one of those small cages! CRAZY! It was quite spectacular! I really, really enjoyed it. After our very busy day, we just headed back to the hotel after dinner.

Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City!

            Today we did a lot of things. First we went to a school for disabled and otherwise outcast children near the outskirts of Beijing. They lived on the second floor of the school and they let us see some of their rooms. For the most part, they were devoid of decoration and looked like issued rooms. There were about 4-6 children in each room and some closet space, but it really was much too small for that many people. The girls’ rooms had pink curtains to distinguish them as feminine, but other than that they were also cold and uninviting. There was a performance for the community that we sat in on for a while before we had to leave. While they were setting up, we played with them by trying to keep the balloons from hitting the floor. Then, there were a few songs and we had to leave. Unfortunately, they didn’t know any English so we couldn’t’ really talk to any of them.

            After the school, we went to a restaurant for lunch. It was very good food and the waitresses wore traditional outfits. Many of the places that we ate at had cool lazy Susan tables in the middle to rotate the food for everyone as each dish was communal and you chose what you wanted to eat. After we ate there, we headed for Tiananmen square. In the bus, our tour guide asked us how we knew Tiananmen and of course we replied, “protest” to which she replied, ‘history’ and proceeded to tell us how Mao announced communist China in Tiananmen. I have to say, I was interested to see Tiananmen, knowing that it is a place where something important happened, yet that event doesn’t exist in China. Lucia (our guide) told us that the square could be cleared in 5 minutes (which is impressive because it can hold about 1 million people or something like that – it’s quite massive) and that there were four different kinds of security (military in green, police in blue, security guards in grey and unmarked acting like tourists). Even across the street, I saw a lamppost with 8 security cameras on it, not even trying to be inconspicuous. There were military guards marching through the square also while we were inside.

After we walked around it a bit, we entered the Forbidden City. It ended up being much, much larger than I thought it would be. Everyone has a vague notion of it as a series of temple-like structures framing large courtyards, but it seemed to just keep going – perhaps 5 or 6 of these squares. It was quite massive. The architecture was cool, but you could only go into certain rooms. We realized we were taking too long and were going to miss our meeting time so we had to hurry up and didn’t get to explore much of the gardens at the end. It is amazing how balanced everything is. That entire area, Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, are all on the same N-S line dividing them down the middle. It’s quite amazing how advanced people were back then to be able to build such things. After we had made it through the entire complex, we met our guide and headed for our scheduled trishaw ride. These are the cute carts that hold two people and are attached to the end of a bicycle. My hotel roommate and I sat in one cart and we had an awesome driver. He didn’t speak English but would play around to make our ride enjoyable (i.e. wiggle the cart back and forth, speed up and slow down, etc). He was pretty cool. We all went to the house of a family who had cooked for the Olympics to eat dinner and learn to make dumplings. It is actually harder than it looks to stuff them and fold them over properly. Needless to say ours were no where near as awesome as the ones they made but it was pretty fun to try to make them. The daughter in the family has a traditional skill of painting small glass bottles from the inside and showed us her trade. What an amazing ability! They have brushes attached to a stick at a 90 degree angle and paint very detailed images on the inside of the bottle – it was really quite awesome! Finally, we rode back to the hotel. Oh, we all had bought super cheap panda hats in the Forbidden City so we were sporting them as we walked around – quite obvious we were tourists but it was pretty funny to see a bunch of kids walking around with panda hats on.

Heading for Beijing

            Before leaving for Beijing, I had a bit of time to wander around Hong Kong. I went outside of the mall where we were docked and found them constructing Toy Story Land for Christmas!!!! It was AWESOME! Huge plastic figures of Woody and the gang – pretty cool! I couldn’t find a nice gift shop outside of the mall so I decided to walk around in the mall, hoping I would find something decently priced. OMG that ENTIRE mall was ritzy, crazy high-priced stores – and it was an enormous mall!!! HUGE – three stories in some parts and a large ‘L’ shape! I think it is one of the biggest in the world. I just couldn’t believe that the entire thing was high-priced stuff – a pocket mirror was $12!! I could get that at the dollar store! So I obviously didn’t buy anything. They did have benches that looked like bent over chocolate bunnies that you eat for Easter and candy-shaped seats. Also, they had a fine dining Pizza hut – that’s an oxymoron but it’s true. You literally sit down in a fancy restaurant and eat pizza hut. Oh, and KFC seems to be more popular than McDonalds, which is amazing because I would never have guessed that. For most of Asia, if there was a KFC, a McDonalds would be nearby. In fact, they referred to them together as if they were one unit, which is also weird.

            We went to the airport, where the security was surprisingly stricter than India, who was supposed to have the strictest airport security that we would encounter. The plane that we went on was the largest I’d ever been on, with two rows on either end of four middle seats. The best part was that each seat had a touch screen on the back of the headrest in front of it and you could watch a movie for free (well…’free’). So, I watched Green Lantern because I hadn’t seen it yet – I was very happy.

            We arrived in Beijing and went to a legit peking duck restaurant – the best in Beijing. The food was excellent, then they brought out the duck. There is a special, traditional way to prepare the duck. After baking it in a way that makes the skin crispy and the inside juicy, they have to cut it into a certain number of strips (38?), which takes exceptional skill. Then we went to our hotel, which was very nice and had extremely small doors (only a little taller than me).

Hong Kong!!

Today we arrived in Hong Kong! I knew it was urban, but I wasn’t expecting the mass of skyscrapers that greeted me. Turns out, it has the most high rise buildings in the world – 1000 more than NYC – kind of mind-boggling! I went on a trip to the botanical gardens and zoo in the city. Hong Kong is a mountainous island and the city is quite hilly. Our guide told us that the layout of the city was done according to feng shui, and that most of the buildings were built according to that as well. We saw one that was called the triangle building, with a triangular top and lots of sharp angles. Apparently, many of the locals don’t like this building because it messes up the feng shui. There was another building that had odd projections meant to look like koala bears hugging it because it was built by some super rich Aussie. There are few historic buildings because Hong Kongers aren’t that nostalgic.

The botanical garden wasn’t that large but had some interesting plants. Next to it was a small zoo. It had some animals that I’d never actually seen in person before, like lemurs, orangutans and sloths (I think I may have seen a sloth before but it would have only been one). Since it was so small, we had extra time so we went to the park. There used to be a UK base in the middle of the city and when the Brits pulled out, that large plot of land went up for sale. Some rich company bought it and decided to make it a park, which is a big deal because real estate is crazy expensive in Hong Kong and for all of that to be open space and not skyscraper is technically a large financial loss. Anyways, it was a beautiful park and had many different aspects to it, such as a tropical bird sanctuary. There were some amazing birds within this enclosed dome and it was constructed in a way so as to mimic many of their natural habitats. It was pretty cool. Afterwards, we went by a waterfall towards the middle of the park on our way to the rock walk. This is a small rectangle that has different sections of rocks of various sizes embedded into concrete that you walk on. The idea is that it will massage your feet as you circumambulate the rectangle and will identify spots that hurt. Once you know where you have pain in your feet, you can reference the diagram of the feet that has the corresponding part of your body to find out where you have health problems. Surprisingly, the part of my feet that hurt actually coincided with my guts, so I don’t know if that’s coincidence or what but it was certainly interesting. After this, we only had time to go to one more place in the park so we went to the teahouse museum to see the odd teacups. The ground floor was mostly museum, with descriptions and pictures on the walls detailing the history of tea. It was a bit weird because there were very few exhibits, mostly writing. Then we went to the second floor where they had had a competition of most weird/creative tea sets and the best ones were on display. They were pretty cool: one was spilled milk holding the cups, some were cats, some were flowers. They ranged from very decorative ones to those that it took a minute to figure out what it was. The weirdest was a skull with a man climbing out of it. That one was actually really creepy - artistic but creepy. Finally, we went back to the ship.

I found some friends who wanted to go out and see what we could find in Hong Kong at night as I would be leaving in the morning. We took a cable car up the mountain to the very top and then ascended about 8 flights to get to the top of a building. Once atop, we could see all of Hong Kong, which glittered multicolors in the night (btw the tallest skyscraper was the one featured in Dark Knight – super cool!!!). The group split as some people wanted to look for a night market and some others had missed dinner and were starving. I stayed with my friends who wanted to eat and we went to a Bubba Gump restaurant. Ok, so I’ve never been to one and only know it from Forrest Gump, so I was flipping out, but my other friends have them back in Colorado so they weren’t impressed at all. It was a good restaurant and ironically I have now been in a very American restaurant in Hong Kong. Getting back to the ship was a bit difficult as we had taken a ferry across the water and we missed the last ferry by the time we got back to the river. Then we had to figure out the subway and got on one of the last trains, even though it wasn’t that late at all. Fortunately, we made it back alright.

Last day in Vietnam

            This morning I went with a few friends to a catholic mass inside the mini version of Notre Dame, located in center of HCMC. It was a very nice church and service. Fortunately the service was in English (turns out some of them went to mass at 5am the day before and it was in Vietnamese, so at least we could understand what was happening this time). After, I went to a café for internet, met some of my friends and then went last minute shopping. In the evening, we went to a restaurant right outside of the ship’s dock. They weren’t expecting the influx of SAS students swarming their restaurant, so the staff were a bit overwhelmed, but it was good food. Overall, I really enjoyed my time in Vietnam.

Wars of my Fathers

*This post has some graphic descriptions of wartime

           

Today was the day that I really addressed the war. I went to the cu chu tunnels, a network of underground tunnels that the VietCong used to evade and kill soldiers. This was my one day specifically set aside to address the war and I wasn’t really sure what to expect. We drove an hour and a half to the region where the tunnels began, entering the jungle-like terrain that I had expected all of Vietnam to be. We arrived, walked through a tunnel to the open area where our tour began. It turns out that some of the other groups who came actually had tour guides who were Vietcong and obviously received a much different experience than me. I couldn’t tell the opinions of my guide, he was very objective about the entire thing. I think that helped me a lot because then it was really just me analyzing facts rather than hearing obviously opinionated views. Anyways, he took us to into the jungle and stopped at a tree to start talking. I thought he this was like other tours where they give you a bit of background information a little ways in, just to be away from the other tour groups. Nope, it turns out we were standing right next to one of the original openings to the top layer of the tunnel. Now, the tunnels have three layers, which the tunnels themselves become successively smaller as you go down. The rooms and living spaces are on the first layer, such as hospitals, kitchens and arms factories. The third layer was used more to avoid the bombs, but they all lead to the river as escape routes in case the Americans were bombing over the tunnels. Also, this is why the gas didn’t kill them, when the Americans would pump gas into the tunnels, they would just retreat lower and avoid it. In a very objective sense, it is quite amazing how they made these tunnels, with little engineering background or anything. They just started digging, made this maze and memorized it. Many times today, I had the mixed feeling of disgust for the things they did to US troops and awe at how cunning and ingenious their moves were. In a game of chess, they certainly knew how to divert your attention to the wrong areas.

So, back to the opening, which was covered in leaves and basically indistinguishable from the ground. He moved the leaves away to reveal a small rectangular opening, maybe 12”x8”. The demoed how a Vietcong would jump down and lower the lid back ontop of the closing, while keeping the leaves on top, so as to keep it hidden. Then they let us try. The opening was a bit larger than me, but not by much, and the lid was heavier and harder to balance the leaves than expected. I still don’t know how they did this with guns in a quick manner, but it was not as easy as it looked. Before we left, he told us how the Americans had built a base right ontop of the tunnels, not realizing how close they were. This meant that the Vietcong could come out and retreat nearby easily. When we eventually found out what some of these openings looked like, the Vietcong would figure out which ones we knew about and make them decoys. They would essentially stop using those access points and place bombs under them, rigged to go off when an American would unsuspectingly open it. While we were there, he told us how a large recess in the ground nearby was actually a crater from one of the mines. It was probably 25 ft across, which was much larger than I expected, though it makes sense that it would have a wide range.

            The next thing we saw was a bamboo trap. I knew that there were awful traps, but I didn’t quite know their nature or what they looked like. The first trap we saw looked like just a patch of grass. It turned out to be a large, revolving door with a pit of spikes, much like a tiger trap. Have you ever seen Jurassic Park 3? There is a part of the movie where the velociraptors break a guy’s leg because they knew there were several more humans in the trees. They left and woman tries to go down and save him. She is stopped before actually hitting the ground, just as the raptors come out of hiding, trying to eat her. That was the purpose of this trap. Our guide told us that it wasn’t meant to kill you, but just hurt you enough so that you could be tortured. Additionally, Vietcong would wait around these traps to ambush the unfortunate soldier’s friends who tried to help save him. This was true for most of the traps that we saw, it wasn’t meant to fully kill you, just maim you enough for you to become a decoy. The average American wonders why so many of the Vietnam Veterans have PTSD and other psychological problems – well, I don’t see how you can be normal after going through something like this, knowing that every step could set off some terrible booby trap that won’t actually kill you or that you can’t actually help your buddies because you’ll get killed doing so. It is sad that they did not receive a warm welcome home because they certainly deserved it.

            We then saw some other openings to the first layer, disguised as holes in the ground, much like termite nests. It turns out they had air holes every 20m, usually a hole in a termite mound so that it was indistinguishable from nature. We saw an original trench dug by the US, right over one of the tunnels in fact. We then saw mannequins of the Vietcong and learned how they would dress as the local famers. In fact, sometimes they actually were businessmen or other local professions by day and they would be soldiers at night. We saw one of the US tanks, which was not as large as I thought it would be. It had blown up when it went over a land mine. Turns out, the Vietcong would often steal the landmines and place them elsewhere. Because of this, there is still a million and a half tons (don’t completely remember the statistics, but it’s along these lines) of landmines left in Cambodia and Vietnam they have yet to find. Oh, and as a side note, they had a shooting range where you could try one of the guns they used in the war. No one in my group tried it, but you could hear the gunfire randomly throughout our tour. I was glad because it made the experience more real. You could barely make anything out beyond 5 feet in that jungle and it seemed to just swallow up the gunfire, which was eerie. The birds had become so accustomed to it that they chirped right after the shots, which is unnatural to say the least. There is no way that I could ever have been a soldier back then, I would have gone crazy within a week.

            **This next paragraph is especially detailed in the types of traps, I don’t mean to be insensitive, but I’m simply going to describe them for what they are**

Eventually, we came to a section where they had a list of traps for us to see. These were quite nasty and to think that this happened to people is unsettling. Our guide would simply tell us how it worked and then say “Oh my God” or tell us how to say it in Vietnamese. Apparently, this was the part where the Vietcong guides were bragging about how they killed Americans – I’m glad I didn’t have that experience. Instead, I simply took in the horror and found it impossible to imagine seeing these things in action. The first trap was a sticking trap: you would step on a platform that would lower, shooting spikes into your leg. It was called sticking trap because you couldn’t get out unless you found a way to lift the platform. Awful. The second was called the clipping armpit trap: a pit with swiveling spikes at right angles – stepping on the spikes rotated them so that you would fall on the next set and they would go through your armpits. I can’t even imagine. Similar to this was the rolling trap, which once you’d fallen in, trying to get out would only turn the two spiked poles, further jabbing more spikes into you. Then there was the window trap, which was a plank that would flip and snap spikes on you once you’d fallen in. There were some more, falling spiked balls and some other ones I didn’t see how they worked. The final and worst one was the door trap. It had two parts, a lever that had spikes with a detached plus sign bottom with more spikes. This trap epitomized the Vietcong approach: they will expect this and react in this way, we will play on that and trick them. So, when you opened a door this trap would come crashing toward you. Your first instinct it to grab the lever to stop it from slamming into you. That’s what should happen, but the hanging part at the end isn’t stopped and smacks into your lower abdomen. As I said, what should have saved you actually didn’t, because they expected you to react in that way. It was quite heinous and diabolical, really.

Turns out that the Vietcong are really quite resourceful. They used the shrapnel from the mines and bombs to create the spikes for their traps and they took the gunpowder from the bombs for their own weapons. The treads on the bottom of their shoes didn’t indicate which direction they were walking so you couldn’t really track them. I don’t know if you’re getting a sense of despair, but it makes complete sense as to why we lost: we weren’t prepared for this kind of dirty warfare at all.

So finally we entered the tunnels themselves. They had enlarged the tourist tunnel so more people could go inside, obviously we were too large to fit the real ones. Anyways, they were pretty small. The Vietcong would crouch and walk through them, with their guns and everything. I was small enough to be able to crouch walk through the entire tunnel, but most everyone else had to crawl on their hands and knees. I did have to crawl when there was a sloped part down a foot. In general, the tunnels were small, dark and stifling. They are not for claustrophobic people at all. It certainly gives you some respect for how much they wanted to win, knowing that they stayed in these tunnels for long lengths of time, crawling around in the dark. Honestly, I was amazed at this experience – just how awful, amazingly engineered and just mind-bogglingly complex these tunnels and this war was.

*****

On a lighter note, when I got back to the ship, I bumped into a boy who is in my ship family. He and some other guys were all dressed in suits and so I asked him why. He then told me that I needed to go to his ‘wedding’ which was in 2 hours. Side note: The students onboard found out that marriages in Vietnam aren’t recognized elsewhere in the world or something along those lines so many people were joking about getting married because it wouldn’t count. Anwyays, it turns out that some people actually decided to do this. So, I got cleaned up and brought two friends with me to this ‘wedding’. It was a horrible excuse for a party – they had another student officiating for them. It was kind of awful, really, to play around with marriage like that. I only went because he was in my ‘family’, but it did give me a chance to wear one of my new dresses. J

Children and Animals

            Ho Chi Minh City is quite large, with about 10 different districts along the coast. Today, I went to one of the outskirt districts to visit another school. This school is for the Deaf and Disabled (children are either one or both). We met the principle who told us all about his school. The children had won medals in sports (they play badminton, volleyball, tennis, soccer, tug of war) won some medals in calligraphy (how cool would it be for American students to learn calligraphy in public school??) and earned distinguished school for his facility. They even have a local artist come in and teach the students to draw and create really cool silk flowers to sell. They were surprisingly good at both. These children were vibrant, much like the Deaf children I’d met two days before. There was a playground with a merry-go-round and other obstacles. We played with the children there. I met a group of older (around my age actually) Deaf children who successfully communicated their names to me by writing and practiced some of their English writing with me. That was pretty cool. This group was much more hopeful to me because even though they might stay in school longer to complete everything, they wanted to get out there and be in the workplace.

            As this trip ended in the early afternoon, I went with some friends to the zoo. It was kind of far away, but we thought it was closer, so we walked all the way there. They had many of the generic exhibits, giraffes, elephants, a reptile house, monkeys and deer. They had a leopard that was pacing back and forth and lunged at the glass. He was quite irritated, but none of us were able to get a photo of his teeth bared. It would have been really cool. They also had ocelots and some other cool big cats that aren’t often in zoos. After seeing these, we finally found the lions and tigers. They had a white lion, which I’ve never seen before. He was making some sort of sound, not quite a roar, but more like a drone sound. It was quite loud though. I found out after that it was because his cage was right next to a yellow lion’s cage, both of which had their respective lioness. This was a bad idea as they obviously are very territorial and unhappy being right next to each other. Still, it was cool to see them both and compare them. Then, I found the tiger exhibit, which they even had a white tiger! He was very gorgeous! They also had peacocks and other random birds like that. We started walking back after seeing the exhibits, took a wrong turn and took a break at a café. While we were there, it started pouring (remember, it’s the wet season) and we had to walk back in a downpour. Of course, when we got to the shuttle stop, it stopped raining.

Day out on the Town

            Today I went with some friends to walk around Ho Chi Minh City. We started by going to breakfast at this cute little restaurant. I had eaten on the ship so I just tried a frappuccino-like drink (because all of the countries I’ve been to so far haven’t had this as an option and this is the only coffee drink I will consume). After, we went to the market to shop around. In general, things are much cheaper in Vietnam than other places, so we all wanted to do our major shopping, especially since China and Japan are very expensive. I ended up getting a long traditional dress there because they are so cool, though I was looking for a shirt/pants outfit, but I didn’t find any I liked that fit me – the sizes in Vietnam are SO small! After this, we went to some other shops on the way to a salon place. There we got really cheap massages. I’ve never had a massage before, but I decided that if I was ever going to, I should do it here since it was so cheap. This was one of the most awkward experiences I’ve had. I don’t know how people do this on any regular basis (I know some students on the boat who have had it more than once on this trip so far), but I can’t really see myself signing up for this again in the near future. We were going to get manicures and pedicures (more things that I’ve never done but was going to try for a few bucks) but they had an influx of people and so they didn’t have enough staff for our somewhat large group. That’s ok, I had the feeling that would be another awkward experience too. We left the salon and went to a bookstore, which was surprisingly expensive. By that time, it was time to go back to the ship. It’s kind of amazing to see how many things are hidden within this city. Overall, It was a fun day.

The Little Children of the World

            Today I went to a Deaf school and a Disabled Children’s Orphanage. Our guide mixed up which one we were going to first, so I thought we were going to the Disabled orphanage first. It didn’t really end up mattering in the end though. We went to the fourth floor of this building to greet the kids awaiting us. Some of the kids had mental disabilities, but most just had hearing difficulties or were Deaf. I was hoping that because ASL is 50% the same as LSF (French Sign Language) that there would be some overlap with Vietnamese Sign Language. Not really. Most of the fingerspelling was the same, but about 7 letters were completely different, so I couldn’t really communicate that way. Some of the signs were similar, but they meant different things. The little kids tried writing to me in Vietnamese, but I of course don’t read that. They didn’t read English either. Basically, I had no way of communicating with these children. Eventually, we tried drawing, but that didn’t interest them too much. Fortunately, some of the other students had brought stickers and balloons, which the kids absolutely loved. One of the lifelong learners, this really cool older Asian guy, had brought a clown nose and some magic tricks to show to the kids. They really loved those tricks. After, we tried teaching them the hokey pokey, but they didn’t understand that one very much. Then, we tried teaching them the Macarena, which they got and had fun with, even though there was no music (and they wouldn’t be able to hear it anyway). They were very cute. It is amazing how little children seem to act the same around the world, curious, expectant and trusting. I had a fun time there. I did notice that almost all of them had hearing aids, which are often very expensive, so I guess that must be one of the benefits of a communist system. They don’t usually help if you have extreme hearing loss but I guess that’s cool that they all had the opportunity to have one to see if it would help them.

            After this school, we went to a disabled children’s orphanage. I am not completely sure what these children had, I think it was something like multiple sclerosis. I don’t know if Agent Orange caused it, though it is entirely possible that’s what happened. Apparently, the effects of Agent Orange last through several generations, which is quite unfortunate.  Anyways, these children were very bad off, which I suspect is perhaps the reason why they all happen to be ‘orphans’. Most were in their own beds, lying there helpless. The beds resembled those single mattresses with metal boundaries that you find in the hospitals for infants. Our trip leader suggested touching them to see if you could get a reaction, as she was told that they responded well to that. I had some stickers, so I was going around giving them stickers, putting them on their faces of hands and trying to rub them some. Some were lost in their own world while others just couldn’t move like they wanted. One little boy had been rocking back and forth and once I figured out that he liked his head to be rubbed, he didn’t want me to leave. That was how most of them were, indifferent or taken aback at first, but then once they saw your love, they didn’t want you to leave at all. One little boy had me pick him up and walk him around the room. There are supposed to be 2 faculty members to a child, but they have to work around the clock, so that isn’t the real ratio. Nevertheless. these children weren’t receiving the touch and attention they craved. I was kind of disappointed, but then again, this is a problem that everyone tries to solve and I guess there is no right solution found yet. On the more hopeful side, I met a boy who had more faculties than the others. When I gave him a sticker, he brought me to his friends and indicated that they should receive one as well. He did the same for pictures as well. In fact, he figured out how to work my camera (not just the point and shoot, but the menu options and such) and started taking some photos of his friends. While I was there, I asked myself if I could ever do this kind of work. I’m not sure, I think I would become very depressed. I know this for sure though, these children really need human interaction to improve their trapped existence.

Good Morning Vietnam!

              As an American, the first things that come to mind when I think of Vietnam are the war, jungles and communism. Honestly, I didn’t know much else about Vietnam that wasn’t related to the war in some way. At pre-port, they told us that the Vietnamese people have had many wars trying to get their independence and are very good at separating the people from their governments. They said that from this there is very little anti-American sentiment (at least much less than what one would expect from the war only being 40 years old) and that the Vietnamese people had moved on. Oh and they refer to it as the “American War”. This was quite surprising to me as it is still such a taboo subject in America, and aren’t we supposed to be the ‘progressive’ ones? In my global studies class, two teachers gave their perspectives on the war, one of which is our ‘pastor’ on board – he’s not ordained, but has gone through Seminary school and has graciously given his time to prepare sermons for us on Sundays. He told of his time as a soldier in Vietnam and the things he’d seen and the pain he still has from it. You would never guess the horrors he had been through because he is one of the nicest men on the ship and has been on many missions trips in his days. His testimony was especially emotional and touching, truly testimony to Christ’s power in people’s lives.

            Armed with these things, I decided to wake up early to see the sunrise as we sailed up the river. I didn’t time it well because of the time change from the night before, so I missed the actual moment of daybreak, but I did see the river in the early morning light. The river was muddier than I expected, but it was lined with the ‘jungle’ foliage I had expected. Then, as we entered Ho Chi Minh City (aka HCMC; formerly Saigon, and is still called Saigon by all those in the South), we passed under a highway bridge and things became quite urban. I had an FDP in the afternoon, but my roommate and friends wanted to go out as soon as we could to look for items for our Halloween costumes. I went with them to go to the marketplace. As we entered HCMC, several skyscrapers, lots of buildings squished together and tons of traffic – essentially a thriving metropolis, greeted us. This was not what I pictured Vietnam to be whatsoever. Oh, and there are about 8 million inhabitants in HCMC and about 5 million motorcycles. Naturally, there are motorcycles everywhere – parked on the sidewalk, hoards driving in the streets, some drive up onto the sidewalk – simply everywhere. The traffic is reminiscent of Morocco, where the rules of the road are more of a guideline. This is because civilians cross the street by simply walking at a slow and steady pace, while the cars and motorcycles just go around them. Literally, it is frogger for humans. The tell-tale sign that you are a tourist is a motorcycle burn on your leg, because the exhaust pipe hit you as your were trying to cross the street. Fortunately, I mastered crossing the street so I don’t have said burns. J

            We arrived at the marketplace to find it the size of a warehouse, housing innumerable stands with every square inch covered in something to sell you. It was overwhelming to say the least. We could only spend so much time, so we had to leave to get back to the shuttle and back to the ship in time. Once I got back to the ship, I went on the city orientation trip. First, we drove to a Chinese temple, one that was dedicated to a goddess who helped them get through the rough seas to Vietnam (they came by boat the first time, not by land). It was pretty interesting and we learned the four revered animals in Vietnamese culture, the dragon, unicorn (which doesn’t look anything like our unicorn), turtle and phoenix. There is no one dominant official religion in Vietnam, though almost everyone unofficial practices ancestor worship. They have some of the major world religions and one of their own, Cao Daism, which is a mixture of all of the world religions (much like the Baha’i faith; more about this in a later post).

            After the temple, we went to lunch to eat traditional Vietnamese food. Naturally, as they are mostly a coastal country, they incorporate fish into almost everything. I’m not that much of a seafood fan, but overall the meal was pretty good. After this, we went to Independence Palace, what was formerly the residence of the president of South Vietnam. This building was quite elaborate, with the center staircase rebuilt as it had been bombed during the war. There were also rooms underground where the telephone systems were set-up and the maps of Vietnam for when they were in the thralls of war. It was quite an interesting building. It is now called Independence Palace because they consider South Vietnam ‘liberated’ the day they stormed this and took over control from the South Vietnamese government. Later on, we passed by the US consulate, what used to be the US embassy – the famous one with in the pictures where people jumped onto the helicopters to flee the Vietnam. I find that interesting that they not only allowed us to reuse that same building, but that we would actually do that. However, the US embassy is now in Hanoi, so the building isn’t exactly used for the same purposes, but it’s pretty much the same.

            Later on, we drove by Notre Dame, or the Vietnamese smaller-scaled version of it, to go to the post office which is right across the street from Notre Dame. This post office is huge – I mean massive! Granted, I think that is because the government wants to check the mail and I guess they would need a large facility to do that, but either way, it is quite large. It also has two shops attached to it on either side, which is not what one generally associates with a post office. Then we returned to the ship.

            My bosses and associated bosses (so the admin team and the field office team – they put the trips together for everyone) had planned earlier to go out to eat because Josh (one of the field office team members) had lived in Vietnam before and knew some great places to eat. So, we all met and walked to a rooftop restaurant. It was so cool – just terraces above your head and ivy wrapped around them. They moved three tables together for us, each with a burner in the middle. Josh ordered for the group as a whole and we eagerly awaited the food. It came in waves and was meant to be cooked on the burner to your taste. We tried so many things: vegetables, fish, chicken, wrapped our own spring rolls. One dish was live prawns on sticks – you literally placed the squirming blue shrimp on the burner and waited until he turned red and stopped twitching. That was kind of gross. They had to talk me and this other girl into trying it, which it tasted good, but I didn’t really want to watch it die in the middle of the burner. While we were there, there was a birthday party. So, they started playing the birthday song over the loud speakers, starting off with bells and then vocals entering. When the vocals came in, they turned off all the lights, revealing that they had given the party at that table sparklers to light. It was pretty cool. Since Josh’s birthday was during the next week (after we would be long gone), we told the waiters and they did it for us too! Apparently you can get these sparkler things in the States, often around 4^th of July, but I’ve never seen one before. I thought it was pretty cool, even though it took me forever to light mine. The funny thing was that the waiters brought out this cute cake which was fake, because they took it back after the song to reuse it for the next guest. Economical, but kind of a downer, in my opinion. Oh, and one of the songs that came on at one point during the dinner was the Macarena. Of course, we all jumped up and started dancing – what a spectacle – a bunch of white people doing the Macarena in the center of an Asian restaurant while everyone else just watched us. It was pretty funny. After dinner, we had a photo shoot because we wanted to. That was fun as well. Then the work studies went to a dance party after, which was the first time I’d actually gone to a dance party this whole trip. It was pretty fun, and basically the entire shipboard student community took over this dance place, so that made it more enjoyable that I actually knew everyone there. All in all, it was a pretty awesome day.