Vietnam...Just Kidding, You Didn't Think I'd Skip Singapore Did You?

Hey everybody!  Lots of things to do and talk about today!  First things first, happy birthday Mom!!!  I love you so much and I can’t wait to see you when I get back to the United States.  I hope your birthday is unbelievable, so, here’s a card from Mai Chau village in Vietnam!

I just finished visiting Vietnam, so, naturally I’m going to blog about ship life a couple weeks ago and Singapore, haha.  Anyway, I’ve written quite a bit about the Sea Olympics and the talent show.  If you want to just skip to the part where I talk about Singapore and Jensen then scroll down until you see the lost mathematic functions…

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned that when we got onto the ship we were divided into different seas.  Well, we were; Stephen and I were put in the Baltic Sea.  Now, most of the voyage being in a certain sea doesn’t matter other than for organizing everyone on the ship during immigration.  However, every voyage hosts an event known as the Sea Olympics.  You can imagine for yourself how awesome a day of friendly competition is on a ship in the middle of the Indian Ocean.  But…if you don’t want to here’s a short description.

We woke up and attended an opening ceremony in the Union (the auditorium style classroom at the front of the ship).  Each of the nine residential seas, and the final sea made up of faculty, staff, and dependent children presented a banner.  Then each sea stood up and showcased their pep cheer (ours was finalized about 10 minutes before the competition).  Our sea actually had a theme for the Sea Olympics…UFOs.  Yup, just google Baltic Sea and you’ll understand.  Having a theme for our chant and banner played well with the judges and we took 2^nd place in the cheer, and 1^st in the banner competition.  Since we had already won the Global Studies review competition, the Baltic Sea was clearly in control of the scoreboard when we started actual events.  However, the Aegean Sea had traded 1^st and 2^nd with us in the chant and banner competition.  It basically set the tone for the day.

Before I talk more about how events went let me just say, the atmosphere of the Sea Olympics is just like a track meet.  People from every sea were checking standings throughout the day and our counselors even put together a display showing which seas were in what position after each event.  I got to play my part in the trivia, synchronized swimming, and hula hoop pass relays.  In trivia our sea staged a dramatic comeback by tying the Aegean Sea for first despite not being I the top three with five questions left.  Then, in synchronized swimming because several groups were docked points for not following the rules we snagged second place over the third place Aegean Sea (right behind us, big surprise right?).  The hula hoop pass went poorly, we didn’t place and the Aegean Sea took 1^st.

                We traded events with the Aegean Sea all day, but just before dinner we hit a string of huge losses and the Aegean Sea won a couple events.  With four events left we were down by 50 points with the possibility of scoring 60 at the maximum.  Well, would you believe that heading into the final event we had cut the mark to 15 points (not that we knew at the time)?  It was awesome…the final was a big Lip Sync dance competition between each sea.  The Baltic Sea went first, and any fear of being forgotten during the event quickly went away when we saw what our Lip Sync team cooked up.  You would not believe how many songs revolve around aliens, but they used every single one (except the Space Jam theme, that was for Synchro Swim).  It was so boss that I can’t describe the routine; we were so excited that after every other sea we gave a standing ovation.

                Unfortunately, the Aegean Sea pulled it out…they won Lip Sync and we took 2^nd (though some of them did ask aloud how they won that event).  The final results showed how much of a two horse race it was: third was the Sea-kers (the faculty, staff, and kids) with 70 points, we were 2^nd with 165 points, and the Aegean won with 185 points.  So, the Aegean Sea gets to leave the ship first…hopefully, we get off second.  Stephen planned his flight home in the afternoon and he’ll cut it close.

                Two days later we had another ship-wide event: the Talent Show.  If any of you have been looking at other peoples’ blogs then you may have seen blog posts about the SAStreet Boys…and I might have been one of them.  My cohorts in crime were Stephen Farley, Anthony Nguyen, Steven Lowy, and Josh Best.  Admittedly, I know nothing about the Backstreet Boys (did you know two were from Kentucky?) except that I was a guy named Brian and we sang and danced to the song As Long as You Love Me.  Three of our friends (Jira, Sophia, and Melissa) actually came up with the idea, and they called themselves our management team.  Those three actually did the name justice, they choreographed our dance.  They actually printed out posters and signs on show night, and they handed it all out to the audience.  A lot of our female friends and some innocent by-standing girls acted like a group of crazy fan girls while we performed (whoever had the awesome idea to throw their scarf at me was hilarious).

It was…strange.  Since then, I’ve been asked repeatedly if I’m a SAStreet Boy.  No big deal right?  But, totally serious we weren’t a big deal.  That was the most talented showcase I’ve ever seen.  I wish I had a video of all of it; the dancing, singing, instrumentals, comedy skits, monologues, everything!  Never once during those three hours was I bored.  Here are some lost mathematic functions…

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                Okay, so thanks for sticking with me this far (or jumping ahead).  Now I’m actually going to talk about Singapore.  Most of you probably know that I have a friend living in Singapore while he performs his military obligation there (Shout out Jensen!).  His mom, Mrs. Evelyn was nice enough to meet Stephen and me where we docked and then took us to her apartment (thanks again!).  Plus, we got to try sugarcane juice and curry puffs, yess!!!  The original plan had been to explore Singapore all day and then meet Jensen for about an hour once he got off work.

                Good planning (and connections in the right places) was on our side though.  Jensen got to meet with us at 11 AM and we went on an adventure for the rest of the day.  We basically rode the MRT (the subway system) Jordan, Mason, Jarrod, Caleb, Parker, and Rutti, if any of you are reading this, the man is doing pretty well (other than having teeth pulled).  We ate local food at the mall above Jensen’s MRT stop (mmm…the dish with eggs and something else was awesome), walked around the most expensive commercial district I’ve ever been to, the Orchard.  It was the Ion Mall if you want to look it up on Google, the building is pretty neat.  Plus, I got to see where Jensen worked the first few months back in Singapore (I still can’t believe you knew over 900 flavors of tea dude).  Then we headed to Raffles Place and walked to a hotel which has a ship built across the top of its three towers.

                There is an observation deck at the top on the 57^th floor and we went out to see the city.  I’m pretty skittish around heights, so, that was fun.  After about ten minutes I was able to stand at the railing and it really wasn’t that bad.  I’m considering it my warm-up for the Pearl Tower in Shanghai.  That is one of the tallest buildings in the world, and the floor of the observation deck is glass… Singapore is an amazingly modern city though, and it’s very obvious from 57 stories up (as if the subway system throughout the entire island wasn’t an indication).  Coming from India, Singapore looked as clean as a dentist’s office, though coming from any other country Singapore might still feel that way.  Don’t forget this is the country where chewing gum is banned.

                After the towers, we headed down to earth and rode the MRT to Chinatown.  We walked around in the drizzle and ate at a local restaurant.  One of the dishes was frog legs and it was awesome.  Even better, we had steamed rolls with braised pork.  I want that the next time I go to a Chinese restaurant in the USA.  What are the chances I can find that, does anyone know?

                After Chinatown we ended our day at Sentosa, which is the beach front (all imported from Australia of course), resort part of Singapore.  We walked there from fairly far out and Jensen showed us the longest fountain in the world.  It must have been the best slip-n-slide ever as a kid.  We chilled on the beach for about thirty minutes, watched people successfully surf the artificial waves near the beach (we had been hoping for some less seasoned surfers), and capped the day off with a Milo milkshake from McDonald’s.  Milo is like Nesquik, only better. 

                Jensen’s parents met us at the Harbor Front Mall to take us out for one last bite to eat.  Do you sense a pattern?  Singaporeans’ pastimes are to eat food and shop…maybe they’ll need a good dietitian in a few years.  Anyway, we met Jensen’s parents at 7:50 and had decided we needed to be at immigration around 8:00ish.  Dr. Goh walked around to different shops ordering food and we had just enough time to try everything once.  The food in Singapore was so good (maybe that’s why it’s a national pastime)!  After getting a few quick pictures, Jensen, Stephen, and I literally had to run through the mall to reach immigration in time.  We said goodbye to Jensen, then headed to the ship (we made back on board with five minutes to spare before we would’ve gotten docked time in the next port).

I know the details aren’t that vivid in parts of this description, but that wasn’t really the important part of the day.  It was more about catching up with Jensen and his family.  I know God blessed me and my family when He brought you all into my life.  Dr. Goh, Mrs. Evelyn, and Jensen thank you so much for your hospitality and love.  I can’t wait for you to get back to the States Jensen, it’ll be freakin’ awesome (even if you will be a freshman)!  Sometimes you remember who you really are and where you’ve come from, and then it makes you stronger.  That’s why it’s an adventure…

India Part 2 - The Second Half of an Awesome Place

The post I wrote yesterday left off with our SAS trip flying from Delhi to Varanasi.  I didn’t realize this until we reached India, but Varanasi is the center of Indian religious life for Hindus and Buddhists.  The Ganges River flows through Varanasi and each night Hindu priests, called Brahmins, go to the bank of the river to make an offering to the patron god of Varanasi, Shiva.  Varanasi is also the location of the Buddha’s first sermon, and his original home (the Buddha was a prince in Varanasi if I’m remembering correctly what our tour guide said).

I was able to watch the ceremony on the Ganges River and it was extremely intense.  There were hundreds of people gathered around the banks of the river watching the offering, including several dozen people watching from boats on the water.  While we were there were swarmed multiple times by kids trying to sell pens and henna ink of different kinds.  There were also people trying to sell massages (which looked kind of funny for some people).  At one point local police actually came up to our group and stood next us to keep people from constantly trying to sell us things (we weren’t really in any danger).

The next morning at sunrise, my group traveled back to the river and we watched the sun come up over the river from boats.  At sunrise dedicated Hindus go down and bathe in the Ganges to cleanse themselves.  Dead bodies were also being cremated on the banks of the river in order to symbolically send them to heaven.  From what our guide said, every Hindu within several hundred kilometers of the city tries to have their body cremated along the banks of the Ganges.  It was interesting to hear our tour guide explain his Hindu beliefs. He also told us that Buddhism was just a branch of Hinduism, but try telling East Asians that.  Even our guide said that Buddhists outside of India don’t see a connection between the faiths.

After visiting the Ganges we headed to another part of Varanasi called Sarnath.  This was the place in India where Siddhartha Gautama gave his first sermon.  Buddhism isn’t a popular religion in India now, but it has spread to East Asia.  When we visited Sarnath Buddhists from Japan and Burma were all over the place.  There’s a stupa at Sarnath (a stupa is a large monument marking a major event) which commemorates the Buddha’s sermon.  Several groups of Buddhists were saying chants under the direction of monks around the stupa.  We had to walk clockwise around the stupa because the clockwise direction represents creation in Hinduism.  Our guide illustrated this to us by showing us two swastika’s (which were originally Indian symbols before the Nazis used them), and the one with lines pointing clockwise is a good symbol.

We also walked through a museum that held some of the artifacts from the ruins at Sarnath.  The statues were neat to see; apparently some British soldier began excavating them in early 1900s.  One statue was of complete depiction of the Buddha in a position of meditation.

After eating one more meal at our extremely nice hotel (the Clarks Varanasi), we caught a plane back from Varanasi to Delhi. From there we ran to two buses and drove to the new terminal in Delhi (which is an inconvenient 15 minute drive from the old terminals) and flew back to Kochi.  It was late when we reached Kochi and everyone was exhausted. 

We were ready to be back on the ship, however with three buses of SAS kids leaving the airport (we met up with another SAS group flying from Delhi) whoever reached the boat last would have to wait in line at security for another 45 minutes once we reached the dock.  Naturally, our bus drivers (make no mistake, these were greyhound size buses) raced from the airport to the dock.  My bus started the whole thing since we had passed both buses about half way through the drive (we overtook the leading bus by driving onto a detour ramp and merging back onto the highway in front of them…don’t worry mom I felt safe).  We may or may not have taken shortcuts down multiple narrow streets.  Anyway, the other bus passed us less than a mile from the dock because our driver actually slowed down at speed bumps.  It was pretty sweet!

I hit the hay pretty quick once I was back on the ship.  I was determined to make the most of our last two days in India though. For the third time in four days, I woke up at or earlier than 6 AM.  Some friends and I made a bargain with a taxi cab driver to take us to the Kanandu (sp?) Elephant Sanctuary an hour and a half away because we had heard you could wash and ride elephants.  Once we got there we found that we could do neither of those things, but we did get to watch others wash the elephants and pet them.  We heard multiple rumors about why you couldn’t wash or ride the elephants at the sanctuary because it was a recent development.

Afterwards our taxi driver, James, took us to a B&B that was pretty nice, and we ate some local food.  James is Roman Catholic by the way. That surprised me since Christianity is only 2-3% of the Indian population, but the state of Kerala, which is where Kochi is located, is 25% Catholic.  That explained why on the first day I saw a truck drive by with Jesus painted on it (by the way everything is so colorful in other countries, even the money. Why is America so bland looking sometimes?). 

Another commentary about James and taxi drivers in general in Kochi, is that they receive commission or some kind of government (the system varies) benefit for bringing tourists to shops and restaurants.  That is how we ended up at Jew Town market near our dock in Kochi after leaving the elephant sanctuary.  We asked our taxi driver to take us to an open air market, so, he took us straight to the biggest tourist spot in Kochi.  Apparently there was an open air market about twenty minutes’ walk from the Jew Town market, but I never saw it.  So, Stephen, one of our friends Shannon, and I all walked around Jew Town for a couple hours and ate lunch.  Then we rode the ferry across the bay to our dock to eat a free meal on the ship and clean up.

That night, we went to see a movie at the theater.  By the way, theaters in India are way cooler than any I’ve been to in the United States (excluding IMAX and Hollywood).  The theater had a lower area and a balcony, and neon lights were running all along the wall of the theater.  There was even a curtain hanging in front of the movie screen, and it was raised when the movie was about to start.  The movie we watched was almost all in Tamil or Hindi (two of the official languages of India).  There were occasional lines in English, my favorite being, “India is the largest democracy in the world.”  That line was so unexpected (since everything else was in a local language) that I almost laughed out loud.  Thankfully, I didn’t do anything disrespectful.  The movie did have a really cool musical scene where all the people in the hero’s village were singing about how awesome he was (or at least I think that’s what they were saying).  I’m a little upset there weren’t more musical numbers though because that’s Bollywood’s deal.

The next morning, I slept in until 6:30 AM.  With some other friends I caught a cab to a place called the Alleppey Backwaters.  Alleppey is a marshy area with a lot of canals running through it.  Some people call it the “Venice of the East”, but of course there weren’t as many buildings around in Alleppey as in Venice.  It was absolutely beautiful.  The water was so calm.  It was a nice change from the rough seas we had on the way to India.  I’m actually surprised I didn’t fall asleep because the wooden boat we took was shaded and all of the chairs had cushions. Not to mention I was into my sixth day with three days’ worth of sleep. 

Unfortunately Stephen didn’t get to leave the ship the last day in India.  He was sick and never even left our room until dinner.  Sometimes you run yourself into exhaustion (not quite on the level of Singaporean military officer training exhaustion though Jensen), but it’s worth it. That’s why it’s an adventure…

 

P.S.  As a side note, the food in India was awesome.  I’ll be eating at Indian restaurants (and any other ethnic restaurant I can find) once I head back to Bowling Green in the fall.

 

India Part 1 - It's Finally Here!

It’s been a while since I’ve written; I hope you didn’t forget about me!  I just finished my trip in India and it was absolutely eye opening!  For those who don’t know, there are over 20 official languages in India and that’s just a small sample of the diversity there.  The fact that Indian democracy still thrives is amazing.  India is every bit as diverse (ethnically, culturally, politically, and economically) as Europe is, except that India is one country and doesn’t have as much money to meet the needs of more people.

Once I left the MV Explorer, I travelled with a Semester at Sea trip to the cities of Delhi, Agra, and Varanasi.  Off the ship, we were hit by a wave of heat and humidity.  Southern India, which is where our dock was in the city of Kochi, is just above the equator.  It felt like the end of July in Kentucky.  My group rode buses to the airport in Kochi and then we flew north to the capital of India which is called New Delhi. 

The city of Delhi has been added to multiple times because it’s been the capital of many Indian Empires over the centuries.  There are a lot of large government buildings in India now that were either constructed by the Indians since independence in 1947, or by the British while India was a colony.  Some of the architecture is truly stunning.  The presidential palace is somehow a mix of the Taj Mahal and the US Capitol Building.  Plus, there is the India Gate celebrating independence, which basically looks like the Arc de Triomph, but without the traffic.  India certainly has a flair for the monumental, but in a country of 1.2 billion people I’m not too surprised.

The first night in Delhi I walked with one of my friends to an ATM so she could withdraw some money for our sightseeing the next day.  On the way to the ATM we saw one homeless man with a cane, and he was the first of many homeless that we saw in India.  In the public areas where tourists go there were usually several children who came up to us asking for money or trying to sell us things, but according to one of my guides, the children usually don’t need much help (partially because some kids have caretakers who take money from them after the day anyway).  If you haven’t seen Slumdog Millionaire, then give it a try because as dramatic as it is, the conditions and experiences of the kids in that movie are all based in facts.

The real poor in many cases are the people who sit on the side of walkways with a container set out for money or those who were disabled.  From what I could tell, a lot of those people had disabilities that prevented them from working (including one man with swollen feet who wheeled around on a tricycle asking for money), which is a problem in India because the national government doesn’t provide a very large safety net (one state, Kerala, does have a comprehensive safety net).  After taking some time to think about India, the poverty is overwhelming. It literally makes my stomach turn when I think of the physical deformities some people had, or the obvious lack of nutrition some of the beggars showed on their bodies.  That first man in Delhi was just one of millions…

The next day, I woke up bright and early at 4:30 AM.  We all ate a quick breakfast and left with the group to catch a train to the city of Agra.  While I was on the train, instead of serving coffee to passengers, they served tea.  Call me simple, but that was the first time I’ve made decent tasting tea on my own (could’ve had something to do with the amount of sugar I used).  Agra is south of Delhi and is home to several monuments because it also served as the ancient capital of the Mughal Dynasty in India.  First, we visited a palace complex called Fatephur Sikri about 20 miles out of Agra.  The palace was separated into different courtyards and it had several gardens.  One building was really cool because the ruler of the Mughals would sit on a throne in the middle of the room.  Then, four advisers with differing opinions would approach on four walkways and defend their ideas.

The next monument we visited in Agra was the Agra Fort.  It’s made out of red sandstone which is common in north India; another fort in Delhi is made from the same stone.  The fort is gigantic, and even after exploring for over an hour I still hadn’t seen every part of it.  There were also lots monkeys running around the fort, and a baby monkey tried to steal my camera.  If you’re ever near wild monkeys…make sure you don’t get too close!  You’ll either lose something or get chased like Stephen and I were at the Taj Mahal (especially don’t get close to a male monkey while it’s watching its mate and infant, might not have been the best idea).

After Agra Fort, our SAS trip visited the Taj.  Pictures don’t really do the complex justice. I for one always thought the Taj Mahal was in the country side by the pictures I’ve seen, but you’re still in the middle of Agra, just completely walled off from the city.  It is built by the Mughal leader Shah Jahan as a burial place for his wife Mumtaz Mahal for those who didn’t know.  There are a couple mosques flanking the Taj Mahal, and a courtyard the size of a football field that you walk through before you even reach the main courtyard.  The place is really huge!  All the other buildings are built with red sandstone and marble, only the Taj Mahal is made entirely of marble and inlay.

            After we visited the Taj Mahal (and were mobbed by girls trying to sell us snow globes) we rode the train back to Delhi and headed to our hotel rooms for some much needed sleep. I met one of the voyagers named Anna, who actually lives right down the hall from me.  We talked about some things we missed from home, her big issue being the lack of sushi in the world (luckily we’re headed to Japan).  Leaving the train station, our tour guide had told us we could save the dinner they served on the train and give it away to someone who asked (we had already eaten).  I’m not sure why our tour guide was different, but every other SAS trip had been told not to give away anything.  That was fine by me though because I know how a child will use food, I couldn’t know how the money I’d give to a kid would really be used.

Luckily, we got to sleep in until 7:30 AM the next morning and we took a driving tour through Delhi.  One of the stops we made was at Mahatma Gandhi’s tomb.  I’m still amazed by Gandhi’s example. Did you all know he also fought for rights in South Africa for descendants of Indian laborers before returning home to India’s independence movement?  The tomb was a simple courtyard dug into a gently sloped hill.  When you compare it to the Taj Mahal and some of the other Indian burial monuments we saw, it was a great statement about Gandhi’s belief in simplicity.

I may or may not have gotten a little homesick at that point.  You’d be surprised how rare rolling green hills with flowers are in the world.  Gandhi’s tomb reminded me a little bit of Kentucky.  Of course, it could’ve just been the weather, in northern India it was actually spring time!  I got cold one morning because I didn’t pack long sleeves for the trip.

After visiting Ghandi’s tomb we stopped at the Gateway of India, which was built after India gained independence.  From there we headed to the new terminal of the Delhi airport, which was built when India hosted the Commonwealth Games a couple years.  I asked our tour guide if that was a stepping stone to Delhi hosting the Olympics, and he literally laughed.  Apparently the government of India had such a hard time with corruption before the Commonwealth Games that few people want to host an international sporting event again.

Oh, really quick, while we were in India, there were two big things in the news.  First was debate over the sacking of the Minister in charge of Indian Railways.  The entire country’s rail lines are state run, and the company absorbs 20% of the national budget each year.  Unfortunately, with a profit margin that puts them dangerously close to financial trouble and a resulting controversial hike (the only one in 5 years though) India could have some trouble with the company in the future.  That’d be pretty bad considering it carries over 30 million passengers daily and employs 1.36 million people.  The other news is slightly more positive.  The 2011 Indian Census numbers were in and a bunch of good indicators like mobile phone ownership, electricity, and adequate sanitation were way up.  That of course means that India still has dozens of millions of people to bring out of poverty, but things are looking up. 

I’ll post about Varanasi and my last two days in India tomorrow.  The next day I’ll try to post about Singapore before we leave the ship for Vietnam!  I’m a little behind, but I’m trying to make time to get caught up (and slow time down, I’m officially getting closer to home now).  That’s why it’s an adventure, things are happening too quickly…

P.S. The hotels that SAS likes to put us up in are beyond swanky.  They’re downright posh, which is a word that you will see more of when I describe Singapore in a couple days.

P.P.S. Anna had the best quote of this part of the trip.  I’m not sure what we were talking about, but she said, “Most girls cry, but I eat raw fish! I can’t cry!”