Travelling

The crack of dawn. Actually, I was up before that, meeting my group at 0340 (that’s right, 3am in the morning) for my overnight trip to the Taj Mahal. Once we were all assembled, we went by bus to the airport. We were told that Indian security is worse than American, especially after the Mumbai bombings, so we were prepared to spend some time in security. It wasn’t really that bad. The only interesting part is that there was a separate line for women to be searched, behind screens. We went through security easily and then waited around for a while. The bathrooms in India are pretty interesting. They’re still holes in the ground, but this time they are basically the ceramic bottom of a toilet on the ground. Personally, if you’re going to pay for the ceramic, why not get the whole toilet? That’s what I want to know. Anyways, I digress. We all got on the plane, owned by SpiceJet (haha) and took off. They gave us breakfast, which consisted of some sausage, funky scrambled eggs, fruit, croissant and something else I can’t remember right now. Even if the food tasted a bit weird, it was a much nicer meal than what they give you in the States, from what I’ve heard. The landing was rough though, the pilot kind of got low to the ground and then just plopped the plane down. I wasn’t really expecting it to be that rough. After we arrived in New Dehli, we got on a tour bus and drove around the city. We got to drive past the governmental buildings and former palaces. We also went to the large arch erected to memorialize those who fought in WWII. After that, we went to lunch at a restaurant. After that, we went to the train station. We just barely made it, with the train taking off literally 5 minutes after we got on. We were in first class, so there weren’t many other people there and we all basically tried to sleep as the plane and the bus weren’t that comfortable. We were on that train for 6 hours. I know that movies often misrepresent things, but there really were some scenes from Slumdog Millionaire around the tracks. People in tents camped out between the tracks, some doing their laundry, with some ‘shanty’ towns on the far side of the tracks.

            We finally arrived in Ranthambore. As we walked along the walkway over the tacks, I looked up and saw an animal. “My that’s a large cat”, I thought. Except, it turned around and it was a very large monkey of some sort. It started jumping around and ran off with some other monkeys. We got into uncovered jeep-like cars and drove to the hotel. It had a large open courtyard in the middle, with a pool, that was surrounded by the different rooms and the dining room at one end. I happened to be the odd female so I did not have a roommate for this trip. We ate dinner and I had the best naan ever! EVER! Naan is this Indian bread and this place makes the best, most delicious naan I’ve ever had. After dinner, we played a little bit of games. This didn’t last long because we were all so exhausted from this travelling (even though I really didn’t do much of anything, it was just taxing to be travelling for basically 20 hours in one day), that we went to bed.

India

So these blogs may be vary abbreviated because I have just not had that much time to think about my opinion concerning India or simply write what I did. So here goes…

They warned us so many times that India would be an assault on our senses, that it would be a place of simultaneous contradictions, a place that would challenge us. Going in with this mindset of encountering something lifechanging, I was a bit unsettled with India. Yet, I was excited because I had anticipated this moment the entire trip, awaiting the day I could go and find the sitar I wanted to get for my brother. So, I wasn’t really sure of how to approach India from the get-go.

Well, as soon as we could get off the ship, I gathered my friends to go with me as I followed a lifelong learner who had been here 10 times before (that’s right, this is his 11^th voyage) to a store that had ‘everything’. This year, however, there are new rules that we can’t walk inside of the port because people were getting hurt and killed, which meant that we had to take a shuttle. This put us too far from our destination inside the port for the lifelong learner to walk (which was perfectly fine and understandable), the only problem is that I planned on following him. By this time, my little group had expanded to about 20 people for me to shepherd to this fantastic store. Except that I had no idea how persistently annoying the tuk tuk drivers (imagine a motorized tricycle where the driver sits upfront in the middle and there is a bench in the back for passengers to sit on) would be. Once we got directions from the lifelong learner, we started walking to find the front gate. Those tuk tuk drivers told us the wrong direction to the gate and then followed us for quarter of a mile along the main road, telling us that the place that is 750m from the ship is 10km and is ‘much too far for you to walk’. We were all about to smack one of them because they just wouldn’t listen to any of us, no matter our persistent assurance that we wanted to walk. Fortunately, we bumped into a woman making her way to the ship to be a tour guide and she straightened it all out for us. We met the owner of the shop who came out to the gate to meet us, but his car could only hold so many of us so he told us to wait there and he would be back in 5 minutes. The problem with this is that we’re not allowed to be inside the gate (remember, that’s why we have to take the shuttles) and so then this other man walks over and is trying to get us to leave that spot (even though we were out of the way). Finally, the owner came back and explained to him that he was transporting us. It was such a trial getting to this store. When we got there, it was linens and figurines, a little hole-in-the-wall shop. Not exactly what I was picturing from the description. The good thing was that the owner told me which music store was the best and how much money I should pay to get there. So after this whole ordeal, I went back to the ship.

I found some other people who wanted to go with me to the music store and we then waited around for my friend Johnny to come back to the ship from his SAS trip. He was due back at 330 and I had a trip at 630 so we had just enough time to go and get the instruments. So we promptly arrived at the gangway at 330 hoping his bus would be on time. We waited for about 15 minutes before deciding that we really had to leave or I wouldn’t be back in time. I really didn’t like this idea because he was looking for an instrument too (a sarod) and I knew how much he wanted to go with me. So we tried to see if he was in any of the passing buses as the shuttle brought us to the gate to get our passports checked (I must say, this was incredibly annoying because anytime you wanted to go in or out, they had to check your passport and customs card, even though those items were checked before we could even get off the ship). Low and behold, as our shuttle was almost through the gate, his bus showed up and we got his attention. He couldn’t get off of his bus for some reason though, so as soon as we got off, one of my friends ran over there and somehow managed to get him off the bus. Meanwhile, the rest of waited and were harassed by more taxi drivers. This time though, they got my name by a girl who called it out to ask me a question and they got Johnny’s name. They then proceeded to follow us, calling out our names and telling us how we should ride with them. I have to say, I was really expecting them not to follow us this time because we were only 5 people as opposed to the 20+ from earlier, but they still did anyway. Once we reached the street, my friend Jessie had the brilliant idea to run across the street. That certainly stopped them from following us because they weren’t’ about to drive into oncoming traffic to follow us. We walked a ways and found this really nice taxi driver from Sri Lanka who had driven students from 31 voyages. He was so proud of it that he showed us the large pile of post cards he’d received from his many SAS passengers. It was pretty cool. He brought us to the shop, where I proceeded to find the sitar. The had an entire room filled mostly with other instruments (I forgot the name, they’re like the sitar but much less complicated) and a few sitars. I’d never actually seen one in person, so I wasn’t sure how to identify a good one. Fortunately, Johnny has one in the States and had taken some lessons before, so he told me which one was the best. I also got the drums my brother wanted and by that time we needed to leave. The taxi driver realized that there wouldn’t be space for everything (we’d already crammed 5 people into a 3 person car) so he called one of his friends to pick us up. We got back to the boat with enough time for me to drop them in my room before going to the welcome reception. I have to say, he was probably one of the nicest taxi drivers you would find there. Also, the drivers in India are kind of crazy, but Morocco still takes the cake. In India, they honk their horns when they’re about to pass you, by going into oncoming traffic. They let you know that so you can help them to get back over before they collide with someone. That’s why it’s so loud and car horns are going off all the time there. Morocco, they just all seemed to have ESP or something, but they certainly went anywhere they wanted to in order to get to their destination.

When we arrived at the welcome reception, they placed flower leis on our necks and gave us red dots. We entered the courtyard next to a nice hotel, where there were several stations set up around the perimeter. There was a free henna station, a tea station, a buffet, vendors, and a stage for a dance performance. I got some free henna first. I asked for a tiger, but the girl wasn’t sure if she was allowed to, as it would take a lot of time and basically every girl there was in line for henna. So she just doodled on my hand and made a cool pattern. The dance performance was spectacular. Two students learning the traditional dances performed a few different kinds of dances for us. They had on very ornate outfits, much like you see portrayed in movies, with nose rings, bells around their ankles and shiny, brightly colored clothes. They also explained some of the dance moves to us later. The coolest part is that they incorporate their own sign language into the dances, so that they are literally communicating sentences when they dance. Along with that, they portray the 9 emotions in their traditional culture. It was a much better ending to a day where I kind of got slapped in the face with Indian culture.

The Sea Olympics!!!!!

            So, the day after Mauritius, we held the Sea Olympics! Each deck is split into different sections (except mine because our space is limited by the crew, so we are all one sea, creating the biggest sea) to create ‘seas’. Mine is the Aegean, then there’s the Yellow, Baltic, Bering, Red, Mediterranean, and some others I can’t remember. The Lifelong Learners (older folks) are the “Salty Dogs”, the dependent children are the “Sea Squirts” and the teachers are the “Prof’s a Sea” (like prophecy - haha). We had opening ceremonies and everyone performed their cheers. The two funniest were the prof’s a sea and the salty dogs. The teachers, led by my amazing architecture teacher, screamed out a prophecy of how all of us ‘minions’ would bow down to them – it was quite hilarious. Then, the Salty Dogs did a cute rhyming chant, ending with “who let the dogs out” and them barking (ruff ruff). That was hysterical.

There were many events, including volleyball, taboo, Dean Mumpta says (extreme simon says), trivia, scavenger hunt, human knot, blah blah blah and, my personal favorite, synchronized swimming. As I was trying to get homework done throughout the day, I would watch some, help some others, and then go back to my room. I went with some friends to a bridge tour, entering the forbidden land of the crew, to see how they run the ship. It was quite cool and pretty funny because there were only four of us, all from my sea. That meant we were all wearing green. So, the officer giving the tour waited a second, then asked, “ Are there any more of you green people coming?” haha. Afterward, we went to support our friends in the end rounds of trivia and then we went to catch the end of the synchronized swimming. I’m not going to lie, I think that was the best thing ever. We saw the last two groups perform, one of which was the prof’s a sea. Imagine four male teachers coming out of the shower area with towels around and shower caps on, dancing to music, then jumping in the pool and actually performing some synchronized moves, ending with my fantastically amazing architecture teacher laying across the arms of the other three men for the finale. It was the funniest thing I’d seen today. I recorded most of it (it took me a minute to remember I had my phone with me).

One of the other seas won, so we don’t get to go off the ship first, but either way, it was a fabulously hilarious day and I’m very glad I got to see some of the events.

Where in the world is….Mauritius??

            Today we spent most of the day in Mauritius, a beautiful tiny island to the East of Madagascar. It’s just a little blip on the map – literally, it makes Madagascar look like the Eastern coast of Africa compared to this tiny island. Nevertheless, it has gorgeous beaches, mountains and the longest continual coral reef in the world. Its inhabitants are actually all slaves/indentured servants from the colonial era (it was inhabited when different nations came across it) and they are now heavily Indian (from when Great Britain brought them over to tend to the sugar cane) with many East Africans (from the French colonies in Eastern Africa) and Indonesians (from the Dutch East Indies Trading Company days). They speak English, French (for business, one of the only nations that GB didn’t force over to English when they took them from the French) and Mauritian creole. Last, but certainly not least, they are the sole home of the once glorious dodo birds, before they all got eaten (by the Dutch).

            So today I went on an ‘adventure.’ We went inward in to the mountains and the forests to go on some ropes courses. There was two parts to the ropes course: suspension bridges and an obstacle course. There were seven suspension bridges, mostly very easy. They were the warm up for the obstacle course. It began with a rope bridge, made out of the lattice-work rope that you walked across. Then, there was a suspension bridge with the slats very far apart – farther than you could jump. So, you had grab the conveniently hanging ropes and swing like Tarzan to the next slat. That was fun. Then there was another lattice-work rope, but it was draped over the path to the next obstacle, without a bottom. This meant I had to crawl through it, trying not to do the splits while the swaying ropes spread apart. It was quite difficult. After this, there were logs hanging from ropes for you to walk across. Except that they swung, which made it very difficult to get across. By this time, I had used much of my limited arm strength, and the next task was a wall of lattice-work rope to climb across. This killed me – it was so hard and I am certainly no rock climber. I made it 3/4ths of the way until I had to ask to get pulled to the other side – I was holding everyone up and my arms were about to kill me. I was pretty bummed, but the next section was a zipline, so that was a good pick-me up. It was too short though. The final section was composed of four ropes, two to walk on and two to hold. The only problem was that the ones to walk on were kind of slack and the other two were even more so. I tight-roped it until the middle, when I fell off and then failed trying to stand up again. The ropes would just move to the side and I couldn’t manage to stand. So, I had to shuffle across on my back. It was not very fun, but I finished it! After, we had lunch – some chicken curry, with rice, lentils and cole slaw. It was a little taste of Mauritian food, but what can you do when you have less than a day?

            Later on, we went to the beach, which was absolutely gorgeous. For some reason, I expected Mauritius to have better public bathrooms, but they didn’t have the best facilities – more reminiscent of Ghana. I guess I had assumed that since they are one of the richest African countries (GNI $7000), I guess I assumed it would be that much better. The sand was very soft and the water was so clear and blue. There were many corals and sea urchins in the water (the urchins were farther out so I stayed away from them – did not want to get one of their spines in my feet). There wasn’t any good place to stand in the water though, because the floor was covered in dead coral pieces or other things, unlike back home where, once you go a few feet out, it is just sand to step on. This was the only detraction though, because everything else was beautiful. The water wasn’t too cold and there were hardly any waves, it was kind of like being in a really, really big swimming pool. We spend a while there, but then we had to go back to the ship. Too bad we could only spend one day in Mauritius…

Ubuntu

            Sorry this is later than the rest of my posts for South Africa but I have been swamped with work and only have a little bit of time to write about the last day very quickly.

            I went with a friend up Table Mountain, the characteristic landmark of Cape Town. It is a sheer mountain, I think almost a mile high (?), and has as flat top – hence the table name. Often, the clouds will form and rest on the top of the mountain, and then the locals will describe it as having a tablecloth. I didn’t have time to hike up (it takes 3.5 up and then 3.5 down) so we took the cable car – which was ingeniously built! It had a rotating floor, so as you rode up you got a full panoramic view! It was very cool! The view from Table Mountain is just gorgeous, you could see for miles – beautiful beaches, other mountains, and yes, my ship is big enough to easily pick out from way up there too! It was very fun. We rode with the same taxi driver as the day before because he was such a nice guy and had great rates, so that was a nice ride and a great relief that we weren’t getting ripped off. After that, we returned to the ship and I tried to get some work done until some of my friends wanted to go to the craft market. I had wanted to go earlier, but hadn’t found the time, so I went to see traditional South African crafts. It had a set-up very similar to the rock show that comes to VB, with many venders selling many different kinds of things in little boxes all over the place. As one of my friends pointed out, it was a relief to window-shop without the vender immediately assuming you wanted to buy something and then pressuring you to buy his stuff (as what happened in Morocco and Ghana). After, we walked around the city a bit more before it was time to return to the ship.

            We had the honor of Nelson Mandela coming to give a speech to us once everyone was onboard. We had learned many things about him, how he had peacefully spoken out against apartheid and spent many years in a prison on Robben Island (small island off the coast near Cape Town, it specifically held political prisoners). He is actually a very engaging speaker, with varying facial gestures, loudness and frequent laughing throughout his speech (probably methods used by traditional African storytelling, but either way, he was never boring). He talked to us about a concept he has tried to educate the world about, ubuntu. It is a Zulu word basically saying that “I am because we are” – so you are only defined because of your relationship with others. He used several biblical examples to explain why this is necessary (he preaches at his church). The best one was the story of Adam and Eve, how God stated that it is not good for man to be alone, which is why he created woman. Thus, from the beginning, we were never meant to be in isolation, but are only complete when in community with others. He also referenced ideas from Romans (when he talks about the body), how each person has a unique gift and role to play, but are different from the rest to create the whole functioning society. From this, he asked, what does skin color tell you about that person, other than the color of their skin? When you think about it, that is very true. It doesn’t tell you about their skills, faults, aspirations or past. This is why he labeled South Africa the rainbow nation, because its many people bring many colors and gifts to the whole. All in all, it was an excellent speech, but that’s all I remember right now to tell you.

A walk in the gardens

Today was very chill. I went with some friends to the botanical gardens, South Africa’s famous floral kingdom. We found a really nice taxi driver who took us there for a great price and talked to us the whole way there. He really liked SAS and told us we should come there more often. It was really nice to hear that the program makes a nice impression on the community (I’m sure this is somewhat based on the substantial monetary investment, but he also said he really enjoys the conversations he has with us and I think that’s really cool). Once we arrived at the gardens, we tried to figure out where we wanted to go – there were so many sections to explore. The first place we went to was their touch/smell garden. It was cool, but nowhere near as delineated as the one in Montreal. It was very hard to tell which was the proper plant and what you were supposed to do to experience its sensual qualities. Some we figured out, but many we just had no idea. After that, we went to the ‘useful plants’ garden. These plants were used for things ranging from medicinal to dyes and beyond. It was cool but again the plants weren’t labeled very well. Then we went to two adjacent gardens full of colors. They were very pretty and had flowers with neon petals. There were some large grassy areas right nearby, so we took some silly pictures there – one guy was trying to create ridiculous pictures by doing cartwheels and leapfrogging – it was pretty funny. After, we climbed to the back edge of the garden to see some of the protazoas – they were very interesting flowers and had quite a wide range of colors. Then we went to the area that had plants from before the dinosaurs roamed the earth. They were all large ferns and palm trees. I’m not sure how they got ahold of these plants but it certainly felt like you were in Jurassic Park. Once we’d finished walking to all the places we were interested in, we went to a tea place near the entrance. Now, the muffins in the shops in South Africa have been amazing so far (from what I and some others have tasted) – somehow very crisp on the outside while light and fluffy on the inside. So I wanted to get a muffin, but I saw they had tea scones. My friend and I split them and they were good, but their idea of scones are actually biscuits so I was a bit disappointed. My drink did not disappoint though. I was sleepy because I took a Benadryl (kind of upset that I seem to have allergies in S. Africa because I really like this country) so I wanted some caffeine. I decided to try a French hot chocolate because it was supposed to be creamy. Was it ever! It was basically the consistency Hershey’s chocolate syrup but much better tasting! I don’t know how anyone could drink that! It was soo thick and filling! I had to get help to finish it and afterwards it felt like my stomach was coated in chocolate – not exactly what I intended to do but very delicious. The very nice cab driver came to pick us up (we’d arranged for him to pick us up) and brought us back to the ship.

I found a different friend on the ship who wanted to go shopping with me and we went to the mall (conveniently located right near our ship) as we had some things we needed to get. This mall was built the year before the world cup and is humongous! It has so many shops and kiosks, it’s a bit overwhelming. I was kind of disappointed they were playing American music though (the bad kind like Katy Perry) instead of S. African pop or something else – they always seem to play the stupid stuff. Anyways, it was very low key and fun to just walk around and see the different kinds of things. After feeling like I’ve been going non-stop, it was nice to just mosey around and enjoy Cape Town.

Into the Jungle

            Actually, it was a game reserve. That’s right, I went to a game reserve today and drove around in one of those humvee things with open areas to look through. We saw many kinds of animals including zebras, rhinos, brierbuck, antelope (means large glossy eyes in Swahili), elephants, leopards, crocodiles, hippos, warthogs, and some other animals I can’t remember right now. For the most part, we just drove around, sighted some animals, and then drove up extremely close to take pictures while our tour guide told us cool facts about the animals. When we went to see the lions, we had to enter a special area and we ended driving up about 3.5 feet away from these lions – without any fences or anything between us. It was so cool! They have terrifying stares though, so it was a bit creepy, but it was definitely awesome. We saw four of the big 5 (elephant, lion, leopard, rhino, cape buffalo), only missing the Cape buffalo because they were hiding. After we saw the animals, we went to a buffet lunch. It was pretty good food.