J' <3 L'ile Maurice

"You gather the idea that Mauritius was made first and then heaven, and that heaven was copied after Mauritius." –Mark Twain
Oh Mauritius…. I’ve never been to a more picturesque island. The white beaches and clear waters and green mountains are like what you see on the postcards, only they actually look as beautiful as the postcards. It is heaven for sure, and being there for less than 2 days was such a tease!
The first morning I decided to go hiking with some of my friends Lauren, Zach, Erin, Eliza, Caitie, and Spencer. We set off, and not surprisingly it takes forever to get from our port to the actual town, so we walked a few miles until we found the bus station in Port Louis. Walking by the waterfront was beautiful- it’s filled with shops and restaurants and markets all with the most beautiful architecture. We got on the public bus and rode for a long while mostly uphill through streets of colorful shops and markets  until we got off in a town somewhere. We were planning to hike around the highest peak on the island where you can stand over the giant volcanic crater. So we wandered down the street and of course stopped in the first bakery we came to, where we basically bought one of everything they had so we could share and try it all. The Mauritian food is very eclectic just like the people who live there. It’s a big mix of Indian, French, Asian, and a little bit of everything else. So all the sweets and pastries at the bakery were delicious despite having no idea what they were. After wasting about an hour there we kept walking, asking people for directions and somehow Zach and I fell behind the group and stopped at this street vendor looking at the yummy samosas and Indian snacks. We were wondering what they all were and this nice little man who was buying some explained them to us. We kept talking with him (he spoke perfect English), found out his name is Parma, and he asked where we were from and it turns out he’s been to DC and Maryland and Pittsburgh (where Zach lives) and basically he’s been all over the United States. We asked him how to get to the crater and he said he actually lives a 5 minute walk from the crater and he could take us in his car and show us around! So we found our group up ahead and all 7 of us shoved in his little car and he was soo happy to take us around. We found out he grew up in Mauritius and as an adult has taught in basically all of Europe and the US and several other countries! He is now an adorable retired grandfather and lives with his wife in a beautiful house on the highest point of the island…. how nice right? He was the sweetest man I’ve ever met though….. he taught us how to say Mo content toi which is “I love you” in Creole and said how you should always greet someone with ‘I love you” because “it’s the very best type of greeting!”. Haha… he just kept talking about the importance of peace in our world and caring for the environment.. he was so cute! Mauritius is such a cool place in that it’s so multicultural—there’s Africans, Indians, Asians, French, and all kinds of people—all living together and getting along in perfect harmony.
Anyway, Parma drove us all around his home town, gave us a little tour, and then drove us up to the peak where we could see the crater. He says he walks around there every morning on his daily walk since his house is only a few minutes away. It was a little rainy and foggy that morning but it quickly cleared and we could see the enormous crater and a view overlooking the entire island and all the mountains in the distance. Parma then took us through the neighborhoods of beautiful houses and gardens and we ended up at his house! He’s in the process of renovating it so it was empty and a little torn up but still gorgeous. It was full of windows with these intricate steel designs in them and he had a roof terrace up top where he has breakfast every morning and can see over the entire island.  It was gorgeous- what a lucky little man.
So after spending some time with our new Mauritian friend he drove us to a bus stop where he suggested we take a bus to another town to walk around and do some shopping. Right before we left him he also revealed to us that he used to work for NASA as a rocket scientist… he’s done everything! Everyone I end up randomly meeting turn out to be the most interesting people. So we got on the bus and headed to the next town, where we walked around the streets and the markets and Zach and Spencer found a place to try dholl puri, a mix of spicy beans and veggies wrapped in a pancake, kind of like the dosas in India. I had to meet Courtney back at the ship around 5, so we headed home and took forever finding the ship after it had to moved to yet a different port while we were gone.
I found Courtney, and me, her, Zach, and Lauren were talking to one of the Mauritian customs guys on the ship asking how safe it would be to sleep on the beach. He said not very safe and it sometimes rains overnight but he could take us up to Grand Baie, where we wanted to go, and find us a villa to stay in for the night so we’d have the entire next day at the most beautiful beach on the island :) That of course sounded perfect to us so we all went out to dinner on the waterfront and then the customs guy Ashwin and his friend drove us up north to Grand Baie. I never expected to make so many friends during my 2 days in Mauritius! We hung out on a little beach (and I could tell how clear the water was despite it being pitch black out!), stargazed for a while, and had an awesome night and then Ashwin found us a villa that had 2 bedrooms, a living room, and kitchen! I was expecting a little hut on the beach, but this was like a house! If only we had one more day…
We woke up early and sadly left the villa with its beautiful gardens outside, to get an early start on our day at the beach. Ashwin drove us to what he thinks is the prettiest beach on the island, a few minutes drive from Grand Baie. He dropped us off and said goodbye, and I swear I have never seen a more perfect beach. Crystal clear turquoise water and the softest white sand…. 50 feet out from us were boats pulling waterskiiers, tubers, parasailors… it was a paradise. It was also not at all crowded- there were only some French vacationers and a few locals walking their dogs. This beautiful remote paradise was all ours. To make the morning even better, an ice cream truck drove by on the sand road behind us, where we got huge soft-serve cones filled with wafers and sprinkles… for breakfast :)
Needless to say we had a wonderful morning relaxing on the beach and taking it all in. In the afternoon we took the bus back to Grand Baie where we walked along the beachfront in the more developed area and found an awesome outdoor restaurant for lunch before finding the express bus back to Port Louis. We found Mychaela, Chris, and Steven on the bus, so it was a nice long ride sharing our stories and amazement at Mauritius. I think everyone underestimated Mauritius because it was only a two day stop and everyone was just looking ahead to Cape Town. But by the time we got back everyone was dying to stay longer, and I was surprised to have met and learned so much from the people in such a short time. The most beautiful moment was while we were taking a water taxi from the waterfront back to the ship and a giant rainbow appeared over the island, crossing over the waterfront and disappearing into the green mountains beyond. It was beyond both words and photographs.
It’s sad to think Mauritius is probably the place I’ll never get back to because it’s so remote! I can’t believe I’ll be able to point on a map and say I’ve been there. But it was definitely two days of ultimate paradise and I learned so much more about the people and the culture than I expected to.
I can’t believe we’re already this far on our journey. There’s only three ports left… but all I can say now is helloo AFRICA! :D
Mo content toi, Micha

My taste of India

I will be back. India is an incredible country with beautiful people and I only saw a tiny fraction of it. But I loved everything I saw, everyone I met, and their completely different way of life. I’ve never seen such a vibrant and alive culture! All I can really say is I can’t wait to return.
So the morning I woke up to India I was feeling a little down, not sure why since I had been getting so anxious to get there. The first day I had a field trip for my digital storytelling class to one of the poorest neighborhoods of Chennai to see how the people live and their daily struggles. We took a bus through Chennai along the coast past these super wide beaches, which actually looked pretty nice in parts. There were some people riding horses and vendors set up all along the edges. It was funny to see goats and cows wandering around on the beach, and some areas were covered in trash and little shacks where people must be living. We reached the village, which I learned is a relocation village funded and built for families displaced by the 2004 tsunami. Despite the help and funds they were given, these people still live in extreme poverty. They are provided with a little shelter, schools, and places for women to learn new trades so they can hopefully make a living. We went into a cosmetology school for women, which consisted of one small room with very little supplies. The women loved to see us and we sang them a song and this kid James in our group break-danced for them! Then we went into the room next door which had a few sewing machines where women make and sell sanitary napkins. These families have to find all new ways to make a living because many of them were from fishing villages on the coast which were devastated by the tsunami. We then walked over to the primary school and visited several school rooms of kids, who were soo so happy to see us. These kids had almost nothing- no desks, tables, or chairs in the rooms- but were some of the happiest kids I’ve ever seen. I just wanted to cry the entire time, but I was trying so hard to keep my smile on for them. I felt like a celebrity, they just wanted to touch my hands and I gave them my journal which they all fought over to write their names down for me. They were learning English which was good, and a few of them could understand and speak to me. It was so hard to leave the school- this one little girl was blowing kisses to me and then watched for me out the window after I left. I just couldn’t believe how happy they were! I then felt even worse about myself because I was thinking… how can these kids who have almost nothing, have such big hearts and be genuinely excited to see me, a perfect stranger, when I who have more than they could ever imagine be selfish enough to feel so down on myself for no reason..?
We left the school and walked over to an area where the village separates and composts their biodegradable garbage and uses a process to turn it into fertilizer. It was nice to see these people benefiting from the projects and help they were given, but at the same time they were still given so little. I walked inside the home of 3 people that consisted of one room—smaller than my cabin on the ship—which served as their bedroom, living room, and kitchen. There were no beds, just 2 pillows and a blanket on the floor, the kitchen was just a counter with a hot plate, and there wasn’t even a window.
As we walked back to the bus, hot and dripping in sweat, all I could think about was that what we just saw for a few hours is what these people’s lives are like every single day. Yet everyone I saw had a smile on their face, all the kids were running about and playing in the streets…. they were just so happy. Why can’t Americans who have everything be this content?
So that was definitely an eye opener for my first day in India. And instead of being inspired by these positive people I just met, I felt even worse for letting myself feel sad when I am as lucky as I am.  I got back to the ship the same time Allyn and Courtney were getting back from shopping all day, and we decided to go see a Bollywood movie that night. We took a cab to this mall where the theater was, and it was such a nice mall- it was very modernized and had a KFC, subway, and some other western stores. We picked a random film which was called “Atithi”, and of course it was all in Hindi with no subtitles. It was a comedy though and really entertaining and the bollywood songs were awesome. Also we think that the main actor in it was the “movie star” that all the little kids were obsessed with in Slumdog Millionaire… so that was kinda funny.
We took an auto rickshaw back to the ship which was crazy…. drivers just swerve around into the oncoming traffic to pass people and the roads are all just madness, I don’t know how they do it. Courtney and Mychaela had to pack and leave for their trip to the Taj at 3am, and me and Allyn were leaving for our Art of Living retreat the next morning, so we all packed and got excited for our excursions in India.
Allyn and I met with our group in the morning and headed off to learn the art of living :) We first traveled South of Chennai along the coast to Mamallapurnam where we saw the Five Rathas- ancient temples and animal sculptures carved out of a huge stone, and which used to be completely covered in sand. While walking around them I saw a group of Indian girls around my age wearing their beautiful saris so I asked if I could take their picture. They got so excited and wanted their picture with me also. I talked to them for a little bit, although they spoke little English, but I found out they were in college as well and were on a field trip. It was so cute how they all just surrounded me, staring and smiling. So those were my new Indian friends… and I started to realize how easy it is to make friends in India :)
We took the bus a little further to Mahabalipuram and saw Krishna’s Butterball, a huuge boulder somehow resting on a hill without rolling down, and then some beautiful stone bas-relief carvings and temples. Next we made our way to the Shore Temple, a huge temple carved out of stone right on the shore line. I actually saw some Indian kids surfing—didn’t know they surfed there!
We finally arrived at Dakshina Chitra, the “heritage village” where we stayed for our program, around 5:30, and started off with a grandmother’s storytelling session about myths and legends of the Hindu gods, and then right away began our first Art of Living class. There’s no way I can write about everything we did and learned each day, but it was for sure the most relaxing three days of my whole trip. It was almost too relaxing… I felt like all we did was rest and eat, lay down and rest, and eat, and rest some more… I kind of got antsy! We had 3 classes a day for about 3 hours each, and we focused more on the breathing and meditation aspect of yoga rather than the physical part. The first thing our teacher had us do was get up and introduce ourselves to each person in the class saying “I belong to you”. She talked a lot about living in the present moment, focusing on our breathing, and becoming aware and accepting of all the thoughts that pass through our mind. We learned pranayama breathing, ujjai breathing, nadi shodhan (breathing in and our through each nostil), bastrika, om chanting, and Sudarshan Kriya- the deepest relaxation I’ve ever been in. After our first class we had our first of many traditional vegetarian Indian meals, which are served on banana leaves and eaten with your hands. The food was all of course delicious- it all consisted of some kind of flatbread to dip in sauces or chutney, dosas, curry and rice, fried donut-looking lentils or fried cauliflower, and some kind of sweet dish. Most of it was quiteee spicy, but I loved it. I don’t understand how Indians eat such spicy food and drink hot drinks every day when it is SO hot out. I think I was sweating after every meal. Each morning of the retreat we awoke at 6:30 to have cocoa and then start our early morning session of basic asanas (physical yoga poses) and then a 20 minute meditation. I walked out of each session feeling so at peace and awake, hearing only the birds chirping and feeling the warm sun. Out of all of these countries, I never expected to have the most relaxing experience in India! The only part I was kind of upset about was that this “heritage village” wasn’t a real Indian village, it is more of a tourist village where they recreated homes from each of the South Indian states and had some craftsmen selling their work. So at times when I was feeling bored of resting I kind of wanted to get out of this place and into the real India! But it’s really hard to complain about such a relaxing experience. We took a tour of the village and saw a silk weaver and glass blower at work—who was incredible! He formed the most complex tiny sculptures out of a stick of glass in minutes. And he would make whatever you requested- ganesh, shiva, elephants, whatever! There was an extremely talented man painting tapestries which I bought a few of… some of the super intricate ones of all the Hindu gods he spent 30 days on! I also got a henna tattoo on my foot which was a beautiful peacock and flower design that a lady created in like 2 minutes!... they are all such incredible artists.
So on our second day we did our usual pranayama and ujjai breathing and then learned Sudarshan Kriya, a deeeep deep 1 hour meditation. We sat upright and listened to this recording of “so…hum…” over and over at different speeds, and all you do is focus all your attention on breathing in during “so” and out during “hum”. It was so much deep breathing that I began to feel lightheaded and my face and limbs went tingly, like I was on an oxygen high. After 30 minutes the recording tells you to lay down and relax. That lasted for 30 more minutes and when I got up I had no idea where I had been!  I realized that I had never fallen asleep but I was not really awake or aware of myself either.. I was in some other state. This was for sure the deepest relaxation I’ve ever felt.. I had no idea I could get to that point!
During our sessions our teacher also had us ponder and discuss many hard questions about ourselves and statements about life, and we did exercises like gazing into each others eyes for a long time. Overall she stressed the satisfaction of giving and doing one act of kindness every day. It was actually a truly enlightening and refreshing 3 days, despite my anxiousness to see the real India.
The third night we had a quick Indian dinner and left to take our overnight train to Cochin! What an experience… For some it was hot and cramped and dirty, but for me it was the kind of experience I was dying to have. The beds were bunks of skinny benches with a little curtain, and they supplied us with some wonderful stained sheets and a wool blanket. We bought some Indian magazines and cookies in the train station to occupy us for a while… and all night these men walked through the aisles saying “coffee” “chai” or “breakfast”. I really wanted some good Indian chai but I heard that “chai” just means tea, and masala chai is our version of chai. So I bought some Indian coffee, which tasted like chai. Haha.. Indian coffee is nothing like ours… it’s made out of this coffee powder which is super sweet and yummy. So it was my first cup of many, despite how hot it was outside every time I drank it.
I actually slept very well on the train, but we all seemed to wake up around 7 or earlier because people were worried about missing our stop at 9 since they don’t announce the stops. Buttt we all got off on the right stop, and found our bus to take us back to our lovely home now docked in Cochin. It’s funny how we all consider the ship our home and it’s so nice to come back to after traveling.
Well, with only 2 days left in India and way too many things we wanted to do, Allyn and I dropped our stuff off on the ship and headed back out, without showering, to keep on going. We wanted to explore the backwaters of Kerala so we asked the tourist guys outside the ship and they made arrangements for us to meet this guy in Ernakulam. I really didn’t want to do something with a tour guide, but we had such little time and no idea how to get to the backwaters! So this is the story of our new friend Allan….
Me, Allyn, and our friends Chloe and Lucy had to take the ferry over to Ernakulam to meet this guy who would take us to the backwaters. Walking to the ferry we were surrounded and followed by at least 6 different auto rickshaw drivers insisting on us taking their rickshaws, and they followed us all the way to the ferry and then waited there with us for about 20 minutes before realizing we weren’t interested. The four of us took the ferry across and found the Indian Coffeeshop where we got a quick breakfast of masala dosas and more Indian coffee and then met our new friend Allan outside. Allan lived in India growing up and then Dubai for a few years, then the UK with his brother for a few months, and just recently came back to India to work for his brother’s tourism business. He is actually really intelligent and speaks perfect English (and like 4 other languages) and most of the time he just drives around to explore different parts of the country and teaches himself about them. He took us to the backwaters of Kerala where a little villager rowed us with a stick in a tiny canoe. We rowed through a small canal past rural villages where kids would stare and wave at us. We saw a bunch of Chinese fishing nets which are these huuge contraptions made out of palm trunks. Allan pulled us over at one point to stop in a Toddy shop, which is an alcoholic drink made out of the coconut palm. There were a few men in there enjoying their drinks and we got to taste it—it actually tasted just like sparkling cider—and we saw them preparing fresh tilapia and tapioca dishes. The whole time we were with Allan he would go up to random people and it would seem like he knew them for years- everyone is just so friendly and open. We continued through the canals a little longer until we reached a bunch of fish farms where we got out and walked around for a while. It’s just crazy that these village people live way out here in the middle of nowhere, tending their fish farms every day and probably never see the cities. On our way back along the narrow canals this little girl on the shore ran along side us holding her finger up and Allan said she was asking us for a pen. Chloe ended up having one so we threw it on the shore and made her the happiest little girl in the world :) it was so cute. We got out back where we started, where the little village market was, and walked around looking at the produce markets and a few men selling fish. I’ve never seen so many different types of bananas before! And then Allan bought us some banana fry which was delicious.
On the way back to our surprise Allan invited us to come to his nephew’s 2nd birthday party that night! He actually turned out to be way more of a friend than a tour guide, and we talked about a lot that day and all about his travels. We decided to hang out with him the next day as well and he wanted to take us to bathe the baby elephants! He even gave me and allyn some of his Hindi and Tamil cds to copy on our computers… which by the way is our new favorite music :)  So anyway, he took us to his home where we waited while he showered, and we met his lovely mother who came out with coffee, bread, and the biggest watermelon I’ve ever seen. She was so sweet. It was awesome to be in their home! It was actually pretty nice relative to others- they had a little courtyard in front with plants and an aquarium, and inside it was pretty small but they had a nice tv and computer. So when Allan was ready we left, and Chloe kept asking us if we were nervous about the whole thing, but to me Allan was a completely genuine person and we just went in his house and met his mother! They make everyone so paranoid on the ship and from my experiences so far, every single person I’ve met in other countries is MUCH friendlier to strangers than any American I know. I even mentioned to Allan how fascinated we’ve been with how friendly and kind people are in other countries to strangers, and he just went off about how he doesn’t believe in strangers, because everyone you meet in your life is at some point a “stranger”. It just really made sense, and now it makes me sad that we have such a concept at home of being insensitive and closed to people we don’t know. When we were quiet at times or didn’t want to take all the food he offered, I could tell Allan felt worried that we didn’t trust him and I felt bad. So Chloe was a little nervous about going to the birthday party and she said she had to meet her friend on the ship at 7, but that she would bring her friend along. We waited for her to go in the ship and then she came back out saying she had to go out for her friend’s birthday. I felt really bad and I could tell Allan was so hurt. He thought it was him and he really had the sense that we didn’t trust him or weren’t being genuinely open to him.
So Allan drove us over to his cousin’s house in fort Cochin where the party was, and we walked in to this huge extended family and an adorable little birthday boy playing around on the floor. The family was huge and they all spoke perfect English (Allan said they are Anglo-Indians, or Portuguese descent) and they were all so pleased to have us, complete American strangers, at their family gathering. It’s awesome how close extended family is in India, and they all live so close to each other. So they offered us chairs and some raisin bread and mini cups of super sweet wine, and we chatted and watched the little boy playing with his new presents. Later Allan took us outside and up stairs to the roof terrace, which looked like a space shared by all the houses in that row. It was such a nice open space up there compared to the crowded streets below. All the food was set up there and it was so spicy that I was sweating like craaazy. I don’t get how they eat like this every day! So we hung out a little longer and then it was pretty late so Allan drove us around Fort Cochin, which was actually a really nice and cute little town- it was definitely a Christian area and there were some beautiful churches- and then he took us back home to the ship.
It was such a fun day and nothing like the “tour” I was worried about, and we got to go to a little boy’s birthday party! We decided to meet Allan again at 6:30 in the morning so we could drive to this village an hour away and catch the elephants getting their morning bath. The area we drove to was beautiful, it was a more rural hilly region with farms and little villages. We stopped at a stand to buy bananas to feed the elephants and Allan bought us each this red banana- the sweetest banana I’ve ever tasted, it was SO good. We got out and walked down to the river, where of course a bunch of SAS kids were washing the elephants. They would just lay down in the water and the trainers would scrub them with pieces of coconut shell. I didn’t realize how cool elephant skin feels! Later they brought the adorable babies down and we washed them too. We fed them the bananas which they went crazy for, feeling all over us for more with their trunks. And I got to feel an elephant tongue! Haha it was such a weird feeling. So we played with them for a long time, and then as we walked back through the village to Allan’s car he would just point out all these different trees and plants around us like cinnamon trees, cashew trees, nutmeg trees, papaya trees, just growing all over the place. It’s so neat how these villagers can just grow their produce and spices right in their yard- how convenient. Allan saw a woman sitting outside her house and he asked if we could go in her yard, where he showed us jasmine flowers and then shook a papaya tree to get a ripe papaya for us. The woman went inside and came out with 2 more papayas and a knife for us to slice them—once again people are so friendly! We just went into a strangers yard and took some fruit and she was more than happy to see us. So then Allan took us into a little country store where we had breakfast on banana leaves of rice pancake-like things with chutney and coffee. We drove back to Cochin- it was a crazy ride with Allan- he doesn’t wait to sit behind anyone, he just swerves into oncoming traffic and swerves back just in the right time…. there were definitely a few scary moments! But everyone drives like that there, there’s just no concept of lanes. Allan says you just have to rely on your confidence…. I know I could never drive there. We had Allan drop us off in Fort Cochin so we could walk around and do a little shopping before sadly heading back to the ship. Fort Cochin was such a cute little town and I bought SO much :D There were actually a lot of Europeans there and I met this girl my age at the ATM who was by herself traveling around India for 2 and a half more months, after she had just been working in an orphanage for a couple months. That sounded so neat to me and I really want to come back to volunteer or teach English somewhere, and then travel all around. The more I saw of India, the more I was falling in love with it and I actually became really really upset that we had to leave.
So me, Allyn, and Lucy decided to have lunch before we went back, and we went to the Mango Tree Lounge which was almost like a tree house with a huge mango tree growing through it! I finally got some real chai, and some amazing Kashmiri naan. It sucks going back to ship food after a week of such amaazing cuisine. We found a rickshaw driver who was soo thankful to take us, and along with the rupees we gave him an American dollar which he was so excited for. I was truly upset to get back on the ship, but Allyn and I were talking and decided this is only the beginning of India for us, not the end.
India has definitely been the country I’ve been fascinated by most. The people are so beautiful- and it’s different than what our usual sense of beauty is.. but I don’t even know how to describe it. Everything is so colorful and rich and vibrant… the faces are so kind and hopeful. Their way of life and views on life are at times so completely opposite than any other people I’ve seen, but a lot of times it makes more sense to me than my own ways. I know I only saw such a little fraction of what really exists so my first impressions may not really be true, but that just means I have to come back and see it all! I could definitely see myself living in India. As soon as Allyn and I got back we Indiafied our room with tapestrys and elephant mobiles and ganeshes and buddhas, and we’ve been playing Allan’s music non-stop. I miss it so much already. But there’s no time to be sad, because after all it’s only the beginning of India, AND we’re on our way to Africa!!

Yesterday morning we passed the equator, so today we’re celebrating with Neptune Day! We don’t have classes and this morning at like 7:30 the crew marched through the halls banging their drums to wake everyone up. We went out to the pool for the ceremony, where the deans were dressed up like the sea gods and poured fish guts on people and made them kiss the fish. Then the tradition of head shaving began…. a lot of the guys did it and some of the girls too! I wish I could just do it for a day and then have my hair back… that would be ideal. It feels like I’m at summer camp right now…. upstairs is just a huge pool party and we have a barbeque and the talent show later. The only bummer is I have two midterms tomorrow! Ugh. How can I take all this seriously when my teachers dress up like mermaids and sea gods with tridents..
Well I can tell we’re getting close to some beautiful islands- yesterday the ocean was like a flat sheet of blue glass and the sunset was probably the most incredible I’ve seen. I can’t believe we’re already halfway done with this trip…. I just keep telling myself it’s only the beginning… I’m just getting my first taste of the world so I know what I want more of. :)
-Michele

"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty." Mahatma Gandhi

Yesterday was probably the most fun and energetic day we’ve had on the ship. It was the day of the Sea Olympics and we got the day off to participate in the events and cheer on our seas… it was like a big party all day…. and then we had a barbeque for dinner and the closing ceremonies! I felt like I was at summer camp and it was the big field day at the end or something….. it was so much fun and everyone got really into it. Each sea painted a huge banner which my sea (Aegean!!!!) got second place for, and last night during the opening ceremonies we each ran in with our banner singing our chant. People were dressed in the funniest things…. this one guy Danny was in a full orange suit (because his sea was orange) which I assume he had made in Vietnam just for this cause I don’t know why else he would have it! There are some really funny and crazy people on this ship.  So during the olympics there were events like dodge ball, tug-of-war, synchronized swimming, lip-sync/dance competition, a big relay at the end, and a bunch of others. The synchronized swimming (which we won thanks to our star choreographer Allyn Auslander) and the lip-syncing competition were the best by far….. the routines were hilarious and so creative.. I got a lot of it on video.
It’s hard to describe how fun the day was haha it’s something you have to be there for…. but I wish every day at sea could be like this! We’re so close to the equator and it’s been so hot out lately…. whenever I go up to the 7th deck it’s just like a huge pool party…… it feels waay more like a cruise than school :)  ..and not only that, but we’re on our way to India. Not much to complain about.
Around 7 this morning we passed right by some of the Nicobar islands. We passed close to one that looks like it could come straight out of Survivor or Pirates of the Caribbean! It was a small island with white beaches and lined in a dense forest of palm trees…and on one end of it was a big shipwreck! It was so surreal…. I felt like there should be people waving at us who have been deserted there. It was really neat to see. And then I found out later in global studies that pygmi-like tribe people live on the islands and no non-Indian citizen is allowed to go there. …It seems like something out of a movie or something I’ve read about….I can’t believe all this is real life sometimes!
Haha I think I sound so dumb on here sometimes….oh well. Three more days til we reach Chennai…. and I’m finally caught up on everything and don’t have much to do, so I guess I’ll just have to soak up the sun and be bored =P
Can’t wait to write about my experiences in India- it’s the country I’ve been most looking forward to of them all, and the point in the trip they say changes our lives!!

Vacation from my vacation

**(Warning: i have an issue with writing wayyy too much and I apologize. so for a less detailed account please refer to Allyn's blog :)


As crazy as it sounds, my time in Vietnam was like a vacation from my vacation of sailing the world. I LOVE Vietnam. What an amazing country. There are so many places I wanted to go but I’m really glad I went where I did. The ship started down the Saigon river sometime around 4 or 5am—it was the biggest ship around by far going down this narrow, shallow looking river and all the people in the little boats around us were just staring up at us. I got up to watch the sunrise and watch us pulling into Saigon and it was such a beautiful moment.
The first day Allyn, Courtney, Mychaela and I got off the boat to explore Ho Chi Minh City.  As soon as we stepped off we were bombarded by Vietnamese people trying to give us rides or sell us hats and whatnot…. we tried to ignore them and started walking not knowing which direction downtown was and then we realized about 8 of them were walking with us surrounding us in a circle…all we could do was laugh..  they didn’t care how many times we said no or ignored them. So gradually they stopped following us but as we walked along the street there was just constant begging to take a ride or buy something. We still had no idea where we were going so we got in a cab and had our first experience on the CRAZY streets of Vietnam. The streets are packed with zooming motorbikes who just go every which way with hardly any traffic lights or road rules. At one point our taxi had to turn and just started straight across the other lane of oncoming traffic…. the bikes were coming straight onto us I thought for sure we were getting hit! But that’s what they do. And walking across the street is the same way—you just start walking confidently in front of all the bikes and hope they go around you… literally. It was pretty scary to try at first but it’s funny how used to it we were by the end. I feel like I’m going to try crossing the street like that when I get home and get hit. Soo anyway, wondering how we possibly stepped out of the cab in one piece, we ended up at the huge market in Ho Chi Minh. The market was an enorrrmous maze of people selling clothes, jewelry, anything made out of bamboo, prepared food, and tons of fresh fruit. We wandered around and shopped for a while and then decided to find lunch at this place called Lemongrass that Mychaela’s parents recommended to us. I was so excited to try Vietnamese food and it was probably the best meal I’ve ever had. We ordered so many things just to try them all-  fresh deliiicious spring rolls with shrimp, these grilled prawns on sugarcanes (which looked like shrimp popsicles), I got chicken pho and a fruit and vegetable salad, and Courtney got a whole pineapple stuffed with fried rice! The food looked so pretty…. I wish I could post the pictures I took. And it was all soooo tasty and fresh… they put fresh mint leaves in everything and all the fruits are unbelievably sweet. To top it off we got a mango for dessert which was honestly the sweetest mango I’ve ever tasted…it was heaven. So from then on I was in love with Vietnamese food and I don’t think one meal ever let me down :)
So after an amazing lunch we made our way around town, scared for our lives crossing the streets, and found a tailors shop so they could get dresses made. You can literally just bring in a cutout from a magazine with a dress on it and say you want that one and they’ll make it for nothing! So we spent a while in there as they decided what they wanted and picked out fabric and got measured. Then we went to the War Remnants museum which was really emotional and depressing, much more than I was expecting. It made me wonder how they can be so friendly and welcoming to Americans.
So after a day of exploring the city we went back to the ship and got ready to go out to dinner and hang out downtown. We found a very nice restaurant which looked fancy and pricy but everything is so cheap here! So we had another delicious Vietnamese meal and tried the popular banh xeo, which is like a crepe filled with meat and veggies that you wrap in lettuce. We also tried a papaya and shrimp salad and a lotus stem salad. Everything was still delicious. After that we went up to the rooftop of the Rex Hotel and saw a bunch of people there, so we listened to live music and hung out there for the night :)
Well, the night never ended because at 3:45am Allyn and I were leaving for Nha Trang! So we never went to bed, somehow I never got tired, and we joined our groggy group on the boat to go to the airport for our 1hour flight. Somehow someway I was the only one super awake and everyone else was dead and falling asleep…. I must have been pretty annoying. But anyway we got into beautiful Nha Trang around 7am, met our crazy little tour guide named Liam, and were off for a full day of exploring—and still I was the only one awake and ready to go. We stopped to take pictures on this cliff overlooking the gorgeous water and islands in the distance. Every part of Nha Trang was so picturesque and I felt like a spoiled little kid on this vacation away from my vacation. The first place we went was the Long Son Pagoda, where sitting on a hill was yet another beautiful giant Buddha. Third giant Buddha of the trip! This one was white and the sat surrounded by tropical flowers swarming with butterflies and overlooking the whole city of Nha Trang. It was such a beautiful place to be, I could sit there for hours…. we never get enough time to take it all in. After leaving the Buddha we walked over this bridge looking out over the green water and all the fishing boats and walked to the Cham Towers, these amazing brick towers I think also used in Buddhist worship, and saw even more fantastic views over the bay and the city. I got some adorable pictures of little Vietnamese kids but I just realized in one of them the little girl is eating a duck foot..
So thenn we went to a restaurant at Bao Dai for lunch, which was also on top of a cliff overlooking the water- as if the views couldn’t get any better. They served us our first of many fresh seafood meals which all consisted of some sort of shellfish soup, rice paper spring rolls, grilled prawns, fresh veggies, chicken or pork (and ostrich at one point), rice, calamari, chili sauce and fish sauce, and fresh pineapple or mango for dessert. Every meal was so much food and I felt bad when it looked like we hardly touched it. After lunch we drove down the cliff a little ways and stopped yet again to see another beautiful scene—a path around these big boulders down to a sand and rock beach, surrounded by crystal clear water and the other shoreline and mountains in the distance. Ahh I wish I could show pictures, it’s too hard to describe it all! So we played around the boulders for a while and finally put our feet in the water, getting so pumped to get to the beach. We left to finally check into our hotel which was right across from the beach and right in the middle of town. We all got changed and ran straight to the beach which was of course gorgeous. We spent a long time hanging out in the water talking about how crazy this is and wondering how this can be school…
When I started walking back up to the sand, I saw there was one Vietnamese lady trying to sell bracelets to a girl in our group… and by the time I got up there, there was a swarm of about 8 of them all selling different things. It was like a flock of seagulls! If you express any interest in buying anything at all, more and more will attack you and it’s impossible to make them leave. I felt so bad at first telling them no over and over but that’s just what you have to do. Of course I couldn’t resist buying a mango and the woman sliced it for me and it was sooo sweet. Then I was just lying on my towel trying to nap and one lady comes over and starts massaging my back! I was like no no no and she was like “massage $2” and I was like “no no I don’t have money” and the next thing I knew she untied my bathing suit and started pouring oil on my back and was like “you just pay me tomorrow”. I was about to say no again but then I began to wonder why I was resisting a $2 massage on the beach so I just let it go. And it was actually a really nice massage :)
These Vietnamese men and women just wander around the beach carrying buckets of anything from books to mangoes to paintings to whole freshly caught lobsters! So after a couple more hours of hanging out on the beach and being hassled and hassled to buy everything, we left to get ready for our night. How I was still so wide awake I do not know. I was going on 40-something hours of no sleep! We all went to another nice restaurant with another delicious seafood meal, and then had a fun night at a beach party with live music and entertainers throwing around fire. It was such a fun night and our group turned out to be all really cool people!!
The next morning we got up early to start our full day boat ride around the islands of Nha Trang. First we stopped at the Oceanographic institute which made me reeeallly sad because they had so many big fish and sharks and huge turtles trapped in tiny aquariums made of nothing but concrete. They had some unique and beautiful fish but if you feel bad for animals in captivity in the US, they have it so much better than they do here. So that kind of made me upset. Anyway, we left and got on our small boat to cruise around the islands. There are so many uninhabited islands out there, just mountains of green and gorgeous white beaches. We anchored just outside one of them to hang out and go snorkeling. There were a few shacks on the beach but I don’t think anyone lives there. So we all got up on the roof of the boat and jumped off a billion times into the amazing blue water, and then snorkeled around the coral and colorful fish beneath us. There were a couple women on our boat trying to give us massages and mani/pedicures and when some of the guys were dangling their legs off the roof of the boat our crazy tour guide Liam took some nail polish and painted a few of their toes without them noticing—it was so funny. Once again it was a beautiful day in a tropical paradise and I felt so spoiled. We eventually started up the boat again and went to another island for lunch in these beautiful bamboo huts on the beach, hung out some more, and then went back to the hotel for the rest of the day on our own. I went to get some ice cream because I was craving chocolate and their chocolate ice cream tasted like coconut—not that I was upset about that. It was super creamy and soft…definitely different but good!
We all went out to dinner again for yet another yummy seafood meal and then had the night on our own. Walking along the main street at one point I saw a guy cycling a rickshaw with a tiny seat on the back and a seat on the front- in which I counted a family of 6! Wish I had a picture of that… I feel like that would be my essence of Vietnam.
Our last day in Nha Trang we had on our own, so a few of us went to the beach and Allyn and I were planning on renting out a little sailboat for a while… buttt Allyn passed out right away on the beach. Still don’t know how I wasn’t dead tired… so I took a long walk on the beach, taking in the beauty of everything and not wanting to leave, and on my walk I was stopped about 3 times by Vietnamese people wanting their picture with me! It was so funny…they were so friendly and happy to meet me.
The rest of the day was not too good for me as I started to feel sick from something I ate…still don’t know what it was but my stomach is still not too happy! Somehow it didn’t bother me much because I feel like I was in a daze that entire trip, just because of how unreal it all seemed and how I couldn’t believe I was there. I think that’s why the exhaustion never hit either…. but as soon as we got home Allyn and I met up with Courtney and Mychaela and we decided to nap for a little bit and then go out downtown for dinner…. and Allyn and I got in our beds sometime around 7 and never woke up! I guess I was a little tired.
We had one more day in Vietnam, and I was soo lucky that the shark professor (Dr. Abel) who went to Nha Trang with us gave me his spot to go to the Mekong Delta!! I think it’s because he’s from Charleston… that’s all he talks to me about haha. But anyway I had wanted to go so badly but the trip was full. I had really wanted to see what I pictured the “real” side of Vietnam was, with all the fishing villages and markets along the river. So we drove 2 hours through the countryside of infinite rice fields and then into the town of My Tho. Of course we made a stop along the way to visit a pagoda and another giant white Buddha. This one was very fat and cheerful though. Once reaching My Tho we got onto a boat and cruised through the river past tons of colorful old fishing boats and villages along the shores. Our first stop was at a little dock which lead us into the jungle and into the real life of the Mekong Delta. This is what I wanted to experience, and if beautiful Nha Trang wasn’t enough, this definitely made my trip to Vietnam.
We walked on a wooden dock above the muddy marshes and through the tropical trees and plants of the jungle to a shack where a bunch of people were working making their special coconut candy! (it was like a factory except in the outdoors and more like a bamboo shack) They offered us fresh samples which were still warm and absolutely delicious. Our guide explained the whole process to us and we watched them as they made it, and sampled some of their banana candy and the yummiest banana chips I’ve ever had. We continued on a path passing a woman making coconut rice paper over a fire, and then crossed a bridge over a little channel of the river, and kept walking past a few scattered chickens and cattle and people sleeping in hammocks. We got to the main dirt road of the village where mini horse drawn carts were awaiting us. The horses were tiny and bony and after I got in the cart and realized how many of us they were putting in there I really wanted to get off…I tried but the guy leading our cart didn’t understand what I was saying. The little horse was so unhappy and the guy kept grunting at it to go faster and I felt horrible… it was an uncomfortable ride. But we rode pretty fast along the dirt road past other carts and people on motorbikes overflowing with bags of coconuts, and past tons of little shacks and houses and markets. When we got off the carts we continued walking through the jungle until we reached a little pavilion where we sat down and tried all the exotic fruits :D  A woman brought us these tiny glasses in which she poured some sort of liquidy honey in and then filled with tea… the cups were so tiny and about half full of honey so you can imagine how sweet it was. I’m pretty sure the bees who made the honey were still swarming all over the bottle, and a couple had some fatal falls into our cups. Then they brought out dried sugared coconut slices and sugared peanuts…. and then all the wonderful fruit. We had rambutans (which we tried in Hawaii), which are little red spiky fruits that taste kind of like a grape inside. There was also fresh papaya, pineapple, bananas, and some little brown balls that were also jelly inside like the rambutans. It was all delicious and sweet, but I didn’t realize we still had lunch coming up right after so I may have had a little too much.
So after our “fruit tasting”, we continued through the tropics to a little canal where we got in 4-person canoes and were paddled by the villagers back to our boat in the main part of the river. The canal was so narrow and we had to pass like 3 boats at one time—I don’t know how they did it! It was just neat to pass these old Vietnamese women paddling their canoes down the river going about their daily lives. We ended up back at our boat which we rode down the river to another village in Ben Tre for lunch. The lunch place was like a compound of different thatched and bamboo pavilions. I saw some Europeans and other foreigners there so it must have been more of a tourist spot. Anywho, I was interested to see what this “elephant ear fish” we were supposed to be having was, and sure enough they brought out this deep-fried whole fish sitting upright on our tables. It was a littttle bit scarier looking than I expected. I wasn’t sure what to do with it and then a woman came over to our table and started taking meat off the fish and preparing us each fresh spring rolls with the rice paper, mint, and rice noodles…. it doesn’t really get fresher than that. And mmmmm was it good.  Then of course we got a variety of other dishes like fried sweet potatoes and eggrolls, grilled shrimp with chili sauce, some kind of beef salad, AND a hot pot full of seafood and vegetables. I don’t know why they think we can eat so much. Although I do stuff myself because it’s all so good!
Sadly we had to get back on the boat and leave the villages—I didn’t want to leave…I could just live there and harvest coconuts for the rest of my life! We actually passed a place on the shore where the “coconut monk” lived who ate only coconuts and meditated for his whole life. I’d like to be him.
Anyway, we rode the boat back to My Tho and got to sip a fresh coconut on the way. Allyn and I got dropped off by the bus in downtown Ho Chi Minh because we wanted to take in as much Vietnam as we could before walking back to the ship. It was so sad getting back on—the time went by way too fast and there are so many more places I’d like to go! I’m definitely happy I got to see the life on the Mekong River, even if for a short time. It’s such a different way of life than we’re used to and it’s hard to think that while I’m living my daily life that this is their daily life. It was the part of Vietnam I really wanted to experience and I’ll never forget it.
I don’t really need to say it again but I love Vietnam, and would go back in a heartbeat. I’m sure it also has to do with the tropical humid weather which I was definitely not feeling in China and Japan. But the good news is it’s all warm from here! Some people thought Vietnam was unbearable but I hear India will be hotter…. I am so ready :)  We’re actually anchored in Singapore right now getting refueled and I just wish they would let us jump off and go swimming! The ocean is an even prettier shade of green here and right now we’re sitting so close to a little island with nothing but white beaches….I just want to jump in and swim there.
Well, I guess I’ve written enough for the moment… this only took me like 4 hours to do. Haha… but now we have a few more days to prepare for India, which is supposed to be our biggest shock. I’m sure some people on this boat will not be ready for it…and probably won’t appreciate it…. but I am so ready for anything and everything. The first day I am going with my digital storytelling teacher and some kids in my class to one of the poorest neighborhoods in Chennai…I don’t even know what to expect but I imagine it’ll be pretty emotional. We’re not allowed to bring cameras but I’m glad because I don’t want to look like a rude outsider. On a happier note though Allyn and I are going on the Art of Living yoga and meditation program for a few days, so I can’t wait to tell you about that!
Still wish I could post all my pictures from Vietnam…. maybe I’ll find internet time in Mauritius. If I don’t write before I venture off into India…. wish me luck and you can expect many stories when I return!!
-Michele