Thursday, July 23, 2009

Update

Hey neglected readers,

Sorry I left you hanging after Vietnam! After that point, I a.) ran out of Internet minutes on the ship and b.) was so overwhelmed and tired as the gravity of my trip set in. Trust me, Semester at Sea was heavy, emotionally and physically. Looking back now, over a year since we pulled back into Miami harbor, I still look back on my SAS experience as the coolest, but probably most exhausting, thing I've ever done in my life. I really tried to pack the most amount of activity I could into each port, but toward the end I started feeling really burnt out. Not that I regret it :)

Anyway, I'm going to attempt to pick up where I left off, which is CHINA!

HONG KONG

We docked in Hong Kong, which was, out of all the cities we docked in, the ritziest. It was like New York City but much cleaner and much more efficient. The Waterfront Mall that we were shuffled into as soon as we left the ship was straight A-list designer. After seeing the same sort of thing in South Africa and Vietnam, however, I wasn't too excited by it and quickly passed on through.

My friend Collyn and I resolved that we wanted to get as lost as possible in the city -- we had a full 24 hours in port and we wanted to explore it without any reservations. We left the port area and wandered around the downtown area for a while, which was pretty uninteresting, just lots of tall office buildings. The weather was a little gloomy because of the smog, and the atmosphere was a little depressing to me. I would hate to work somewhere that rarely got sunshine.

As we got further away from the waterfront, we found a small park randomly in the middle of a populated area that was actually quite beautiful. It was obviously very well-maintained and contained a number of absolutely gorgeous, colorful flowers, as well as a waterfall. I imagine it was built to help relieve businesspeople who feel cooped up during the day.

After an extremely confusing encounter with the subway, we ended up in another part of the city that had a lot of restaurants, so we decided to grab a bite to eat. Of course, we couldn't read any of the menus so we made our choice based on how populated the restaurant looked. This was kind of difficult as well, because it was lunchtime and all the resturants seemed pretty busy. We settled on an out-of-the-way place that had a huge fishtank.

Collyn ordered a pretty standard sweet-and-sour pork, which was on the menu in English so it was obviously a popular choice with Westerners. I attempted to order a fish meal, but something must have been lost in translation because I ended up with an enormous, whole crab covered in hot peppers. Not wanting to be rude I attempted to eat it anyway, which was an extremely messy process and I felt a little embarrassed because the Chinese have such polite table-manners.



After lunch, which was surprisingly expensive, we continued to wander aimlessly around the city. We stopped in a mall, just for something to do, but again, everything was Gucci and Fendi, so we didn't spend much time there. They had a movie theater and we considered seeing a Chinese movie just for the novelty of it, but once we saw the price of the tickets, we quickly reconsidered.

We came across a few more SAS students who seemed to be doing the same thing we were, but they had a Chinese friend with them who had studied in the United States. Finding a native guide is usually pretty exciting (see my experience in India), but unfortunately she wasn't too familiar with the city and eventually the group broke up and Collyn and I decided to make our way back to the ship.

That evening, I went out with a bunch of my friends and watched the famous Hong Kong light show from the best seat in the house: the MV Explorer! You can see a video of the light show here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHWmFkpondw. It was pretty neat and it lasted quite a long time. My friends I hung out on deck and chatted about the inevitable end of our trip, and then I headed to bed becasue I had a flight early the next morning.

BEIJING

My flight for Beijing left the next morning at 6 a.m., so the bus to take us to the airport arrived at 4. A bunch of the other students looked severly hungover, and my friend Forest almost didn't even make it because he was still ridiculously drunk. I was sent by his mom (who happened to be the nurse on board) to retrieve him, and then I accepted the responsibility of babysitting him and making sure he got on the plane -- a task that required more energy that I was prepared to expend at 4 in the morning.

Somehow we got on our flight and when we arrived, we had a full day of sightseeing planned aboard a tour bus. I've never been a big fan of tourbuses, and I guess I didn't realize that that's what my trip to Beijing would primarily consist of, so I was a bit disappointed. Our tour guide, who had given herself the American name Ashley, gave us quite a lot of interesting information though. She talked about intonations in Mandarin and how "ma", for example, could mean four or five things depending upon pronounciation.

The weather was surprisingly beautiful; the sun was out and bright, the sky was blue, and there was an incredible breeze. We later learned, however, that this type of weather is a bit of an anomaly. Usually Beijing is overcast due to the smog, so I felt very lucky.

Our first tour stop was lunch at a buffet style Chinese restaurant. I had very much been looking forward to trying Chinese food because I knew that the stuff they serve in America is only a loose replication of the real thing, and I was excited to try something authentic. Upon arriving at the restaurant, however, I quickly realized why authentic Chinese food has never been popular with Western palates. Pretty much every meal option had a number of cringe-worthy ingredients, like duck feet, goose blood, pig liver, etc. I felt especially bad for a vegetarian girl in my group because she was basically limited to having plain white rice for every meal.

After lunch, we were taken to the Summer Palace, which was originally built during the Jin Dynasty, but gained popularity during the Qing Dynasty when an emperor decided to beautify it for his mother's 60th birthday (aww). The buildings were very pretty, especially since the cherry blossoms were blooming, and like I mentioned, the weather was exquisite -- the problem was that it was incredibly overcrowded. We were supposed to follow our tour guide, who had a flag with a little toy panda attached to it, but there were so many other guides with similar flags that a group of us quickly got separated. I can say unreservedly that the avenues at this palace were more crowded than the streets of Hong Kong at lunchtime. It was ridiculous, and I couldn't wait to get back on the bus.

After this palace, we were taken to our hotel. A group of us decided to go out to dinner and explore the area a little more, so we all got dressed up and headed out. Embarrassingly enough, we had to walk out of the first three restaurants we went to because they could not cater to our vegetarian friend (we told them she was Buddhist, because the waiters couldn't understand "vegetarian"). We finally found a quiet restaurant that had an enormous menu with pictures and enough options that we could all find something to eat. We ended up ordering an extravagant amount of food (I think we were all really hungry since lunch was kind of a miss) and had an incredible meal where we were all sampling each other's dishes and passing things around. Compared to Hong Kong, the prices were great.

After, we meandered around and found a hole-in-the-wall Internet cafe. It was cool looking around the cafe because there were a bunch of teenage girls hanging around playing really fun-looking games with cute characters.

When our Internet needs were satisfied, most of the group decided to go out to see if they could find a bar or nightclub, but a few of us were really tired and headed back to the hotel (as tasty as it was, I don't think the Chinese food was sitting very well with me, and my stomach was kind of upset).

The next morning we were taken to the Great Wall, which was about an hour outside of the city. As touristy as it was, it was amazing. Our tour guide prepared us with a thorough history of the wall -- my favorite tidbit was that, instead of carrying dead workers' bodies down the hill, they simply built them into the stone! She said they estimated 20,000 bodies were treated this way, so it was definitely something I kept in mind while I was walking on it.

The climb up the hill toward the Wall was a little grueling -- sooo many stairs! But when we finally arrived on it, we stayed up there for two hours or so and ate a packed lunch. We took turns walking on the stone wall like a balance beam and took about a million pictures collectively.

Getting down from the Wall was an interesting experience: instead of more stairs, they had set up a sort of bobsled course (without the ice) as a gimmick. They had these little wheeled scooter-things that we sat down on and then sped down the hill. It was way too fun, even if it was a little silly.

After that, we had some time to wander around the marketplace at the foot of the hill and I got some fun souvenirs for my friends.

Then we packed into the tour bus and headed for a street market, but first we made a stop to see the Olympic stadiums! It was awesome to see the Bird's Nest right up close. We also saw the swimming arena and our tour guide explained the symbolism in the architecture (at this point, I can't really remember, but I believe it was designed to represent aspects of Taoist philosophy). A word about the Olympics: the Chinese seemed tremendously excited about hosting the Olympic games -- people everywhere were wearing Olympics t-shirts and sporting keychains with the little animal mascots (see a picture here: http://www.notcot.com/images/beijing_olympic_mascots-thumb.gif)

To be continued, I have to get back to work!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Pictures!

I finally got around to uploading a bunch of my travel pics!

Check them out here: Elisabeth Abroad

Monday, April 14, 2008

Vietnam

Vietnam was by far one of my favorite ports (although I’m sure I’ve said that about at least four other ports; but hey, we keep going to new places!). I went on a four-day biking trip with 20 other students who organized the trip independently with a travel agency – the whole shebang, including five-star hotels, food, supplies and tours at various places, costing a whopping total of $215 USD.
Our first stop was to a restaurant to have a traditional Vietnamese lunch. Most of us weren’t too excited about the food, to be honest. A whole fish – scales and eyes and all -- that had been dropped in a fryer was placed in front of us for us to pick at with chopsticks (we nicknamed our table’s fish Herbert). Then we had some shrimp, some clear soup with vegetables, and some kind of beef. This basically sums up the meal that we had at every restaurant we went to.
Then we hopped on a ferry and floated over to a factory where rice candy is made. We got to see them popping the rice and mixing it with sugar and making it into different types of candy, all of which we got to sample. The factory was really hot, and it was 90 degrees outside, so I felt pretty bad for the workers who had to cook rice all day.
Then we had the option to try cobra shots. A cobra shot is literally a whole cobra preserved in some kind of rice wine. The venom is said to mix with the wine and give it medicinal properties. Personally, the whole thing sort of freaked me out so I didn’t try it, but lots of my friends did. (They said it was absolutely disgusting). There’s another variation on the cobra shot that I heard about from some other SASers that sounded even lovelier: someone cuts off the head of a live cobra right in front of you and pours the blood into a shot glass containing a little alcohol. Then you drink the blood/alcohol. If you’re lucky, you get to swallow the cobra’s heart while it’s still beating. I kid you not. I’ve talked to some people claim to have done it.
Anyway, I didn’t have the guts to do anything like that but kudos to the students who can brag about drinking cobra’s blood.
After that, we went on a relaxing afternoon cruise along the river. People living in houses along the water waved at us and came out of their houses to see us. We were taken to a house that belonged to a wealthy Vietnamese family and doubled as a bed and breakfast. We watched a music and dance performance, and then we slept on cots outside. The house was very beautiful – really traditional and old.
The next morning we woke up early and got on our bikes. The trail went along the Mekong Delta on a trail that ran through the woods, past local houses. Everyone waved to us as we walked by, and occasionally we had to break hard to allow for passing chickens. The weather was nice that day too – hot but dry and really pleasant in the shade of all the trees. I took a bunch of pictures.
We ate lunch at a small restaurant (same lunch as before, plus or minus prawns, so I’ll spare you the details) and visited a terracotta factory where clay pots were made. My favorite things were the huge kilns they used to bake the clay. Again, it was extremely hot and I felt so bad for the employees who had to work there every day! After the tour, we got back on our bikes and made our way into town and to a hotel.
We cycled about 60 kilometers on the first day. I wasn’t especially tired from the biking but it was hot and the bicycle seat was really narrow and starting to get extremely uncomfortable (I was literally bruised after the trip), so I was glad to have a break. The hotel was really nice too. After dinner, a few of us walked around to get a feel for the area, and then we conked out early. By the way, I would love to divulge the name of the city we were in (we were very far away from Saigon at this point), but I honestly can’t remember and I can’t point it out on a map because I had no idea where we were and neither does anyone else who went with me! It was nice to get away from everything though, and we were really in a remote part of Vietnam.
The next morning our guide took us to the floating market, which is where everyone comes out on their boats to buy and sell fruit, vegetables, animals for meat – any kind of food you can think of. While we were drifting along, a few “river vendors” rowed up to us, held on to the side of our boat, and tried to sell us cans of coke. It was such a neat experience. Some boats had huge pigs on them, some had chickens, some had melons stacked to the brim. Many of the vendors seemed to live on their boats too – a few were bathing while we floated by (and got really embarrassed when a couple students tried to take pictures), and some had satellites hooked up to the top so that they could watch TV.
Then we had some more biking – 45 kms worth. This time, people were getting really tired and really uncomfortable. We begged our tour guide to take us to a restaurant that was a little different from the others (like I said, most of us weren’t big fans of the food), and he took us to his wife’s aunt’s road-side stop. We were a little confused because it didn’t really look like a restaurant, but they brought out plates and plates of incredible food, vegan-everything. We had an amazing lemongrass curry, pineapple rice, bok choy, noodles, little bananas, mango – absolutely one of the best meals I’ve had on this entire trip.
At the end of that day’s biking, everyone was completely exhausted, and we finally stumbled into our hotel at about 8 p.m. after about 8 full hours of biking. Again, we pretty much passed out after dinner.
We left really early the next morning to head back into Ho Chi Min – a seven hour drive. Most of us slept the whole way until we got back within city limits. Our guide took us to the Cu Chi Tunnels, which were really pretty amazing. If you don’t know, they’re tiny tunnels that Vietnamese soldiers used during the war (which, by the way, they call the American War, whereas we call it the Vietnam War). The tunnels were maybe 4 feet high, two feet wide, and we were all crouching or on our hands and knees. And the particular tunnels that we went in to had been widened for tourists.
Then we had the option to fire off machine guns, which a few of the guys in my group signed up for readily. It was so loud – it made me realize how horrifying it would be running through the woods and hearing gunshots close to you.
We also got to see some of the traps the Vietnamese would use on Americans – I have to say, some of them were downright sadistic. One was a trap door that rotates when you step on it, causing you to fall in a pit full of sharpened bamboo stems. Our tour guide said Vietnamese preferred to injure American soldiers so that other soldiers would have to help them, so they did things like put rotting cow tongues on the spikes so that the wound would get infected. Pretty terrible.
After our informative little tour, we were driven back into Ho Chi Min. I went out with my roommate to a club called Apocalypse Now, which I thought was ironic, and danced for a little while in a very upscale part of town (we’re talking Louis Vuitton and Gucci – a stark contrast to the river houses I had seen people living in just the day before).
On my last day in Vietnam, I went out shopping at a strange market that was set up like a mall, but basically everything in the entire building was a knock-off. Fake jewelry (set up very professionally), fake handbags, fake perfume, fake computer supplies (I got a camera charger and a 2G memory card for $15 USD), and bootleg DVDs. Really strange place. Everything was dirt cheap, and vendors expected you to bargain. I bought a bunch of DVDs and a couple of fun souvenirs.
Then it was time to get back on the ship, which was really sad because I’d enjoyed Vietnam so much. It’s really a beautiful, fun, interesting country that I would love to go back and visit again.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Malaysia

Hey family and friends,

Sorry I’ve gotten so behind on my blog – we’ve been hopping through countries so quickly I’ve barely had any time to sit down to check my email, much less write a blog.
We’re en route to Hong Kong right now, having just left Vietnam, but this entry is going to be about Malaysia.

I’d like to preface by saying that I wasn’t especially excited about Malaysia – I wasn’t unexcited but with the excitement of countries like South Africa and India, I put Malaysia on the back-burner. Ironically, it ended up being one of my favorites. I had no idea what to expect – I hadn’t really given it much thought – but I was pleasantly surprised by the beauty and urbanization of Malaysia.
We docked in Penang and I went out with the group of friends I was planning on traveling to Kuala Lumpur with. Our original plan was to find a hotel for the night since our flight was very early the next morning and we didn’t want to deal with the tender boats that brought us in because they tended to get delayed. Instead, we found a cab driver who offered to drive us all around Penang and take us to a few sites very inexpensively. I think it ended up being about $3 USD each (for a group of 4) for the whole day.
A word about Penang – it has an enormous Chinese population and the Chinese influence is very evident as you walk around.
So, our cab driver took us to factory where they make beautiful designs on cloth using wax and a special dye. They hand-draw intricate designs on the cloth using a tool that holds the wax, and then they dip the cloth in the dye. To remove the wax, they wash the cloth in boiling hot water. Some of the dresses were very pretty, but a little too expensive for our tastes, so we moved on to a museum.
The museum was a huge Chinese mansion built in the early 1900s. The rooms were very ornately decorated and beautiful and I got a lot of pictures of rooms called “The Bridal Chamber” or “The Parlor.” It was pretty interesting to see life for the wealthy back in the day.
We were feeling a little peckish so our driver bought us some roadside snacks called Pao – a Chinese pastry which is sort of like a puff of soft bread with some coconut jam in the middle. Mmm.
Then we stopped at the railroad station to get tickets for my friends who opted to take the train to KL instead of fly (both options were about the same price). After that, our driver took us to a Buddhist temple that contained an enormous bronze statue of a reclining Buddha. His toes were about the size of my head. We lit a candle and tried to meditate on the pillows they had laid out, but I think we probably looked a little silly. Oh well.
Moving on. We said we were hungry so our cab driver took us to a little food court where a bunch of little shops had been set up. Everyone was selling traditional Malaysian street food and everything was in Malay or Chinese, but with a little help from our cab driver, everyone ordered food they were happy with. I got some type of curry that I think contained octopus (or something with tentacles) and tofu, and it was absolutely delicious. I took a picture and I’ll post it as soon as I have reliable internet. Each meal had more than enough food and cost about $1 USD a plate. We all had ice cream for dessert, too.
Our cabbie then took us to a cheap but clean hotel called Hong Ping which was about $35 USD a night for all of us. We set our stuff down and then decided to walk around a little.
We found a cute hole-in-the-wall bar called the Hong Kong Bar and played Connect Four and Jenga and talked to a Swedish guy who worked in Cambodia but was vacationing in Malaysia. It was a good way to unwind and chat after a long day of rushing around the city.
After that, we walked around, looking in shops and trying to find a good place to eat. The restaurant we ended up at wasn’t very good (pretty bland, Americanized food) but it had a little dance club attached to it so we stayed there and danced for awhile. A pretty good band was playing and there were a lot of other SASers there.
Somehow, my friend Josh went off by himself to make a phone call and got lost. He was wandering around the streets of Penang at probably 10 p.m. or so. He stopped at a pay phone for a moment to try to find a number for a cab company, and someone came up behind him and held him up at knife-point. Josh gave him 50 Ringitts (about $17 USD) and the guy left. He finally found a hotel and managed to call some of his friends who picked him up in a cab and took him back to Hotel Hong Ping. He was lucky not to have been hurt or have had anything very valuable taken, but it shook him (and the rest of us) up pretty badly.
After this ordeal we decided to relax in the hotel and went to bed fairly early since we all had to be up at about 5 in the morning. For some reason I couldn’t sleep and spent all night reading in the hallway.

The next morning, bright and early, we went to the airport and flew to KL. We took the train into central KL, which was really cool because we could see the skyline as we got closer. In town, we took a monorail to our hostel. The hostel was pretty cool, all things considered – free internet and really cheap calling cards. I paid 20 Ringitts (about $6 USD) for a calling card and I had over 100 minutes to make calls to the States with. I didn’t even use them all but unfortunately the card doesn’t work anywhere except Malaysia. The rooms looked a little like jail cells but at the end of each day I was so tired, it didn’t matter.

So, after we were settled, we went out and decided to get massages because there were signs all over the place advertising hour-long massages for 35 Ringitts (about $12 USD). This was when I realized that the Asian concept of “massage” is a little different from the US one. I won’t go into details but I felt a little violated – and I’m a girl. My two guy friends had a much more awkward encounter.

Anyway, we headed off to the world-famous Petronas Towers after that (feeling a little traumatized, and very oily) and met up with our friends who had taken the train. We couldn’t go up the towers because you had to get there really early in the morning to get tickets (we’re taking 7 a.m.), and even then you could only go to the bridge that connects the towers (built after 9/11 in case of an emergency), which is about halfway up.

The entire platform is a gigantic shopping mall with all of the posh stores – Louis Vuitton, Versace, Ferragamo, etc. Obviously not within our price range but it was fun to meander anyway.

That night we hopped around bars. The nightlife wasn’t very exciting but we had a good time all hanging out together. We met some really cool Germans at the hostel, too.

The next morning we woke up early and spent the day walking around. We went to a radio history museum, which was a little cheesy but fun to walk through. We also climbed the Merona Tower, which is the one that looks like a space needle. We were much higher than we would have been in the Petronus Towers, and we had a fantastic view of the entire city. We stayed up there for about 2 hours napping on the benches, waiting for the sunset (which was sadly disappointed), and then we took the metro back to the hostel. By the way, KL’s public transportation system is really nice.

That night we stayed up because we planned to leave the hostel at 4 a.m. anyway, so I made a few phone calls on my mega-cheap phone card, and watched old Disney movies. The flight back was really pretty – we saw the sunrise, and mountain peaks were poking through the clouds, so we got a few pictures from the window of the airplane.

The next day we went to a few temples and a few shops around Penang, but we had to be back on the ship by 7 p.m. I wish I could divulge more details about the “feeling” of each place we visit because I feel like telling you what I do in each port isn’t enough. So much of the experience comes from the vibe of the city and the attitudes of the people. It’s hard to explain.

Anyway, I know I’ve been slacking on my blog entries – after Malaysia we hopped to Vietnam, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai within a week. It’s been pretty exhausting. I’m going to try to update them as soon as I can. I’ve been keeping bulleted notes with all the important stuff on them so I won’t forget anything.

I miss you all. I’m a little homesick, actually, and I’m looking forward to coming home.
Lots of love,
E

Monday, March 24, 2008

India!

Hey everyone!

Here is my long-delayed India post I’m sure you’ve been looking forward to.
Simply put, India is a culture shock, and at first I felt a little nervous about wandering into Chennai, but I soon realized that, despite extreme poverty, everyone is extremely friendly. I think I had a better time staying in Chennai than many people did going to see the Taj Mahal (they said it was a little disappointing).

India isn’t pretty by any means, but it is full of energy and interesting sites. This will sound clichéd, but driving through the slums, where children were eating trash in the streets, really did make me realize how lucky I am, living in luxury compared to most people.

On the first day, I went out with a Semester at Sea group to see a Schizophrenia Research facility. I thought it would be very interesting to see how Indian treatment differed from American treatment. It wasn’t quite what I expected – we were ushered into an auditorium where we watched a movie and then asked questions to one of the doctors. We weren’t given a tour of the facility or allowed to meet any of the patients because of privacy regulations (which I can understand, but I was still disappointed).
One thing I found interesting: in America, many paranoid schizophrenics have delusions about a Christian God cursing them; in India, they have delusions about Hindu gods and goddesses, which seems obvious, but it’s funny how culture can shape your mind.

That night I went out with my friends Josh and Heidi, affectionately known on the ship as “The Couple,” because they’re always seen together. We went shopping at a few places and I bought a beautiful silk sari. I’m not sure when I’ll wear it in the US, but it’s gorgeous fabric, so I think I might have it made into a skirt or something. I paid Rs 1000 ($25 US) for it after talking the guy down from Rs 3800 ($95 US).

We then we out to eat at a very nice genuine Indian restaurant – we could tell it was genuine because the menu was completely written in Tamil and there were a bunch of traditionally dressed families. I asked for a chicken curry with some naan bread, and they brought the food out to us on big banana leaves – no silverware. In India, you are supposed to eat with your right hand (never eat with your left hand; I won’t go into details about why). So, we dug in. The food was delicious and eating with your hands is really fun because you feel like you’re rebelling against every piece of etiquette ever drilled into your head. Our bill for the entire meal only ended up being only Rs 480, or about $12 US.

A word about auto-rickshaws: I’ve traveled to a lot of places, and I’ve seen a lot of crazy driving, but Indian auto-rickshaw drivers are definitely the craziest. It’s so much fun riding around in them though.

The next day I went out to a shopping mall with a group of girls. We just checked out some of the local stores – most of them were along the same strain: lots of fabrics, small devotional statues made of wood or bronze, jewelry, rugs, clothes, pillows, hookahs, tea, and incense. I bought a few small souvenirs. Everything was incredibly cheap, and you could easily bargain the price even lower. I bought a Punjabi dress (google it for an idea of what it looks like), and they tailored it to my exact size. Altogether it was about Rs 600 ($15 US).

The following day I went out with another group of people to check out some of the temples in the Chennai area. Thanks to my Hindu class, I was able to recognize most of the gods and scenes portrayed on the temples, so it ended up being really fascinating. My favorite deity is Saraswati, the goddess of education, knowledge and fine arts. Unfortunately, we didn’t stay out long looking at the temples because it started pouring rain, and we were all eager to get back to the ship and get dry.

That night we went back out to a hookah bar, led by the inter-port student Kanishka. Kan is from Chennai and goes to school there. He was invited to sail on the ship as an ambassador, so he flew to Mauritius and sailed with us to India. He gave a few presentations and was available to answer all of our questions. We got to be pretty good friends, and he picked us up from the ship in his own car and took us out for the night. The hookah bar was a lot of fun, even though I wasn’t really interested in the hookah smoking. The food was incredible though, and they had good coffee. Then we went to a nightclub, which was a lot different from an American nightclub, but still very upper-class (and expensive). In India, you can’t sell alcohol past 11 p.m., so the bar closed at that point and we went back to the ship.

The next day was my last day in Chennai and I got up early to go out with some friends. We asked our rickshaw driver to stop at an ATM so my friend could take out some money. He stopped at an ATM that was enclosed in glass, for security, and the glass had a thin crack across it. My friend went in and got his money, but when he went to reopen the door, the glass cracked even further and when he tried to push the door open, the glass shattered everywhere. This caused a huge commotion in the area, and everyone came out to see what was going on. The police were called, and a representative from the bank had to come, so we were there for about an hour an a half while everything got straightened out. They wanted my friend to pay $500 for the damage, even after he explained that it was an accident and that the glass had already been cracked when he tried to use it. Finally, when he explained he was on the ship, and said he was going to call the dean, they let us leave without having to pay for the damage. Pretty intense situation.

After that we walked around a market for awhile, and went out to a restaurant where I had amazing chicken marsala and a sort of sweet and sour soup that was delicious. My favorite thing about coming in to each port is trying the food, and Indian food was not disappointing. It didn’t upset my stomach either, which was fortunate. Many people from Semester at Sea came back on the ship with upset stomachs after India.

My only regret about India is that I didn’t get out of Chennai. According to a bunch of my friends, Delhi, Agra and Vernaci were incredible. I didn’t care too much about seeing the Taj Mahal (and the Semester at Sea trips were way too expensive), but I would have loved to see some other Indian cities just to get a taste of how they’re different from Chennai. I’ve heard that Chennai is not a good representation of India as a whole. Maybe I’ll have to come back someday!

Friday, March 21, 2008

More India


We received a blessing before we entered a temple.

I love their dresses.

My friend Forest got to drive the rickshaw.

A beautiful temple