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!
Monday, March 24, 2008
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
India Pictures
A government building
My friend Heidi trying on a sari
Not the cleanest river
I think this is Lakshmi, but I'm not sure.
You have to eat with your right hand!
New pictures!
Hey friends and family!
I'm working on my India post and I'll have it up as soon as I can. I'm already in Malysia and I haven't had a lot of time to sit down and write. I do, however, have a few minutes (and fast internet) to upload a few new pictures from Mauritius and India.
Miss you all so much!
E
Here are some pictures from Mauritius:
Climbing up La Ponce - it was quite a hike.
The MV Explorer from the top of the mountain.
From the top of La Ponce, looking down on Port Louis.
A beautiful sunset.
I'm working on my India post and I'll have it up as soon as I can. I'm already in Malysia and I haven't had a lot of time to sit down and write. I do, however, have a few minutes (and fast internet) to upload a few new pictures from Mauritius and India.
Miss you all so much!
E
Here are some pictures from Mauritius:
Climbing up La Ponce - it was quite a hike.
The MV Explorer from the top of the mountain.
From the top of La Ponce, looking down on Port Louis.
A beautiful sunset.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
There isn’t a lot to say about Mauritius, because I didn’t do much except lie around on the beach all day, but there are a few tidbits I’ll write about.
On the first day, I was one of the first ones off the ship with a group that was going hiking up La Ponce, a mountain overlooking Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius where we’d docked.
The hike was very rigorous and it took about three hours of steep climbing to get to the top, but the breath-taking view was definitely worth it. I have a bunch of pictures, but as I’m sure you’ve realized by now, uploading pictures is a pretty big task and it might take me awhile to get them up. (I hear the Internet cafes in India are very fast and very cheap though, so maybe I’ll have some more luck there.)
After the hike, we were taken to Flic en Flac beach, which is about 30 minutes away from Port Louis. A few friends and I had rented a villa there for the week, and when I got to Flic en Flac, I found my friends already lying on the beach. Our villa was right across the street from the beach, and it cost about $100 US for each of us for the entire week. It was a little shabby but for the next few days it was the place to be and we had a bunch of people drive in from the ship to stay with us.
My friends Eric and Alan got up early one morning to go snorkeling with an SAS group. They had been at it for about 20 minutes when Eric suddenly started convulsing in the water. Alan grabbed him and ran back in to shore – they were in fairly shallow water but there was coral everywhere, and by the time Alan got back, his feet were completely sliced up. (We asked him about this later, and he said the adrenaline was pumping so hard he didn’t initially feel his feet getting cut.) The rest of the group swam into shore and started calling for help.
A doctor happened to be lying on the beach nearby, and helped to adjust Eric, who by this time was starting to regain consciousness but had dislocated his jaw. The coast guard came shortly after, and Eric was air-lifted to the nearest hospital in Port Louis.
According to the doctors, he’d had an epileptic seizure, although he wasn’t diagnosed with epilepsy. He’d had one a few years ago, and they concluded that the combination of dehydration, bright sunlight, overexertion and fatigue was the cause of his seizures.
Anyway, Eric had his jaw popped back in and spent the night in the hospital, but the next morning he grabbed a taxi and came back to the villa, perfectly healthy. By the way, in the picture of us petting the cheetah, Eric is the one in the middle in the white shirt.
Other accidents that occurred in Mauritius:
One girl had had a lot to drink and slipped off her chair at a bar. She hit her head extremely hard on the concrete floor and lost consciousness. They took her to the hospital (at the same time that Eric was there, which is how I know this) where she lay in ICU in critical condition, apparently due to bleeding in her brain. Eric said he heard that there was long-term mental damage. She was sent home before we left Mauritius.
Another girl was walking with a group of people and got side-swiped by a bus – she broke her arm and sprained her ankle. She’s sort of been a joke for the past couple of days (she thinks it’s sort of funny too). The traffic in Mauritius goes the other way, but you probably shouldn’t walk in the street in any country.
Another girl apparently had something slipped into her drink and had to have her stomach pumped, but I’ve heard less about that one.
One guy performed a song at Open Mic night with the lyrics: “It’s kind of suspicious, that night in Mauritius, when everyone came back with bruises and stitches.”
Needless to say, future Semester at Sea voyages will not be going to Mauritius.
The last day I came back to Port Louis so that I could see the downtown area. I went to the open-air market, which was pretty cool – very hustle-and-bustle, with lots of bargaining going on. I got a couple trinkets to bring back with me.
I should also mention that the MahaShivratri pilgrimage was going on while we were in Mauritius. It’s is a huge Hindu pilgrimage (Mauritius is 52% Hindu) during which many families walk from one end of the island to another carrying colorful floats that depict Lord Shiva (“floats” isn’t quite the right word – they’re like statues, almost, or miniature temples). I took a few pictures of the pilgrims as I passed them and I’ll try to post those a.s.a.p. I’ve learned a lot about Hinduism from the class I’m taking on board the ship, and I think it’s a really beautiful, interesting religion, so it was awesome to see a pilgrimage first-hand.
I think Mauritius was a real turning point in our voyage – it was the last place that we could still have many Westernized things at hand, like nice toilets, hot water, and electricity. It was a lot like spring break – a lot of partying and laying out on the beach and relaxing, but now we’re off to countries like India, Vietnam, and China where we’re not going to be able to do that. It’s time to get serious (at least until Hawaii).
It was also a turning point in terms of friendship – like I wrote earlier in my South Africa entry, there have been a lot of little dramas spurring up in different places, people getting angry at each other. So my original group of friends has more or less divided. I’m really lucky to have stayed out of everyone’s little personal fits (mostly because I’ve been very careful to keep my mouth shut and to not perpetuate gossip – harder than it sounds, believe me), and now I’m trying to branch out and meet other people – 50 days on a small ship and I still see people every day I don’t recognize. How does that work?
I’m trying to keep my head and my confidence up – I can tell you that cabin fever is a very real thing and people are definitely starting to go a little crazy.
In lighter news, here’s a tidbit from my Fiction Writing class that I wrote. It’s an experiment with magical realism:
Their feathers were beginning to turn a blanched magenta, but the flamingoes didn't seem to mind. They just bowed their heads against the arctic wind and continued to march, wiry legs twisting in the snow. Their beaks, now robin's egg blue, were glossed with ice. Most had gone blind. When the first bird collapsed, none stopped.
Night seized the crystal landscape. Stars began to appear, and then the Northern lights. For the first time in days, the flamingoes stopped and gazed upward. Carefully, they dislodged their frozen wings from their sides, ice cracking as they flapped experimentally. Then, as one, they pushed off the ground and broke into the blue and green light, a new brilliance exploding from the absence.
Okay, I’m off to class.
I miss you all! Xoxo.
Lots of love,
E
On the first day, I was one of the first ones off the ship with a group that was going hiking up La Ponce, a mountain overlooking Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius where we’d docked.
The hike was very rigorous and it took about three hours of steep climbing to get to the top, but the breath-taking view was definitely worth it. I have a bunch of pictures, but as I’m sure you’ve realized by now, uploading pictures is a pretty big task and it might take me awhile to get them up. (I hear the Internet cafes in India are very fast and very cheap though, so maybe I’ll have some more luck there.)
After the hike, we were taken to Flic en Flac beach, which is about 30 minutes away from Port Louis. A few friends and I had rented a villa there for the week, and when I got to Flic en Flac, I found my friends already lying on the beach. Our villa was right across the street from the beach, and it cost about $100 US for each of us for the entire week. It was a little shabby but for the next few days it was the place to be and we had a bunch of people drive in from the ship to stay with us.
My friends Eric and Alan got up early one morning to go snorkeling with an SAS group. They had been at it for about 20 minutes when Eric suddenly started convulsing in the water. Alan grabbed him and ran back in to shore – they were in fairly shallow water but there was coral everywhere, and by the time Alan got back, his feet were completely sliced up. (We asked him about this later, and he said the adrenaline was pumping so hard he didn’t initially feel his feet getting cut.) The rest of the group swam into shore and started calling for help.
A doctor happened to be lying on the beach nearby, and helped to adjust Eric, who by this time was starting to regain consciousness but had dislocated his jaw. The coast guard came shortly after, and Eric was air-lifted to the nearest hospital in Port Louis.
According to the doctors, he’d had an epileptic seizure, although he wasn’t diagnosed with epilepsy. He’d had one a few years ago, and they concluded that the combination of dehydration, bright sunlight, overexertion and fatigue was the cause of his seizures.
Anyway, Eric had his jaw popped back in and spent the night in the hospital, but the next morning he grabbed a taxi and came back to the villa, perfectly healthy. By the way, in the picture of us petting the cheetah, Eric is the one in the middle in the white shirt.
Other accidents that occurred in Mauritius:
One girl had had a lot to drink and slipped off her chair at a bar. She hit her head extremely hard on the concrete floor and lost consciousness. They took her to the hospital (at the same time that Eric was there, which is how I know this) where she lay in ICU in critical condition, apparently due to bleeding in her brain. Eric said he heard that there was long-term mental damage. She was sent home before we left Mauritius.
Another girl was walking with a group of people and got side-swiped by a bus – she broke her arm and sprained her ankle. She’s sort of been a joke for the past couple of days (she thinks it’s sort of funny too). The traffic in Mauritius goes the other way, but you probably shouldn’t walk in the street in any country.
Another girl apparently had something slipped into her drink and had to have her stomach pumped, but I’ve heard less about that one.
One guy performed a song at Open Mic night with the lyrics: “It’s kind of suspicious, that night in Mauritius, when everyone came back with bruises and stitches.”
Needless to say, future Semester at Sea voyages will not be going to Mauritius.
The last day I came back to Port Louis so that I could see the downtown area. I went to the open-air market, which was pretty cool – very hustle-and-bustle, with lots of bargaining going on. I got a couple trinkets to bring back with me.
I should also mention that the MahaShivratri pilgrimage was going on while we were in Mauritius. It’s is a huge Hindu pilgrimage (Mauritius is 52% Hindu) during which many families walk from one end of the island to another carrying colorful floats that depict Lord Shiva (“floats” isn’t quite the right word – they’re like statues, almost, or miniature temples). I took a few pictures of the pilgrims as I passed them and I’ll try to post those a.s.a.p. I’ve learned a lot about Hinduism from the class I’m taking on board the ship, and I think it’s a really beautiful, interesting religion, so it was awesome to see a pilgrimage first-hand.
I think Mauritius was a real turning point in our voyage – it was the last place that we could still have many Westernized things at hand, like nice toilets, hot water, and electricity. It was a lot like spring break – a lot of partying and laying out on the beach and relaxing, but now we’re off to countries like India, Vietnam, and China where we’re not going to be able to do that. It’s time to get serious (at least until Hawaii).
It was also a turning point in terms of friendship – like I wrote earlier in my South Africa entry, there have been a lot of little dramas spurring up in different places, people getting angry at each other. So my original group of friends has more or less divided. I’m really lucky to have stayed out of everyone’s little personal fits (mostly because I’ve been very careful to keep my mouth shut and to not perpetuate gossip – harder than it sounds, believe me), and now I’m trying to branch out and meet other people – 50 days on a small ship and I still see people every day I don’t recognize. How does that work?
I’m trying to keep my head and my confidence up – I can tell you that cabin fever is a very real thing and people are definitely starting to go a little crazy.
In lighter news, here’s a tidbit from my Fiction Writing class that I wrote. It’s an experiment with magical realism:
Their feathers were beginning to turn a blanched magenta, but the flamingoes didn't seem to mind. They just bowed their heads against the arctic wind and continued to march, wiry legs twisting in the snow. Their beaks, now robin's egg blue, were glossed with ice. Most had gone blind. When the first bird collapsed, none stopped.
Night seized the crystal landscape. Stars began to appear, and then the Northern lights. For the first time in days, the flamingoes stopped and gazed upward. Carefully, they dislodged their frozen wings from their sides, ice cracking as they flapped experimentally. Then, as one, they pushed off the ground and broke into the blue and green light, a new brilliance exploding from the absence.
Okay, I’m off to class.
I miss you all! Xoxo.
Lots of love,
E
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Finally, an update on South Africa!
I’m going to have to do this one in two parts – South Africa was incredible and I have so much to write about. I’m sorry I haven’t updated in a long time – Internet hasn’t been very reliable lately, but I promise I’m going to keep up with my blogs as well as I can.
CAPE TOWN
Q. How do you get 750 college students up at 5:30 in the morning?
A. Take them to South Africa.
The entire ship was up and taking pictures of a very beautiful sunrise the morning we pulled in to Cape Town. We were off the ship by 8 and I trekked up the famous Table Mountain with a group of girlfriends. Unfortunately, due to high winds, we weren’t able to take the cable car to the top, but we got about halfway and I got some incredible pictures, so I wasn’t too bummed out. With my zoom lens, I could see the MV Explorer in the distance (like I said earlier, I’ll post more pictures when I have better internet).
So, defeated, we drove back into the main town and walked around the waterfront. The Cape Town waterfront is very posh – lots of designer stores that were fun to look at but way too expensive to buy anything from.
After the mall, we freshened up on the ship and went out to dinner for two of our friends, Kevin and Mallorie, who both had a birthday the day we docked. We had the most incredible dinner – I had a spicy chicken curry that really hit the spot after eating bland ship food for 10 days. After an appetizer, dinner, and several bottles of wine (split among us), my bill was R135, about $18 USD. Then we went out to a club and danced with some of the locals - it was so much fun and we met a lot of South Africans.
The next day I went out with my friends Jeff and Eric to the winelands, a part of Cape Town called Stellenboch. The vineyard we visited was called Spier, and they had really great wine. I got a little pocket wine-tasting guide that gave me an idea of look for in a wine, in terms of color, texture, and taste. My favorite wine was one called a Chenin Blanc, which I had never heard of before – it’s a very light white wine, and the one at our vineyard was really nice. I wish I could have taken a few bottles but I’m not allowed to bring them on the ship, and it would have cost over $300 to ship some back to the States.
Right next to the vineyard was a cheetah preservation project, and for 80 rand (about $10 USD) we could go in and pet the cheetahs. (See picture below.) It was so neat – I was a little nervous but our cheetah, Joseph, was very relaxed the whole time. The guide said the cheetahs’ instinct is to conserve energy until it’s time to hunt, so they sleep all day until they decide they’re hungry. Thankfully, Joseph didn’t seem too hungry when we went in to pet him.
We rode the train back in to Cape Town, which was cool because we could see the whole countryside. We shared our compartment with a bunch of hotel staffers who had just gotten off work. It was a relaxing, uneventful ride.
That night a small group of us went to a little restaurant on the waterfront and ordered a few appetizers and had some drinks while the sun set. There’s a group of seals that hangs out near the waterfront, so we watched them for awhile and I got some cute pictures. I didn’t realize there were seals in South Africa, but they’re really cute and like to swim around the MV Explorer.
SAFARI
The next morning I woke up at 6 a.m. and got ready for my safari. We took a bus to the airport and flew out to Jo-burg. The flight was a little shaky, which made me nervous, but we landed just fine and took a 2 ½ hour bus ride to Pilansberg.
We were all completely exhausted after the bus ride, which was really hot (no air conditioning), but when we pulled up to the lodge, all the safari guides were standing outside with glasses of cold guava juice for us. We were served an incredible lunch and then set out on our first drive.
Here, there is so much to write about that I’m not even sure where to begin. Our safari guide, Leon, was incredibly knowledgeable, and broke everything down for us. He was able to answer every one of our questions (and we asked a lot), and he joked around and really showed us a good time.
Did you know the collective word for a group of wildebeest is “implausibility”? As in, “Look at that implausibility of wildebeest.”
Other collective words:
A dazzle of zebra
A murder of crows
A parliament of owls
A kaleidoscope/stretch/ladder/corpse of giraffe
Just a few of Leon’s little tidbits.
On the first day, we saw 3/5 of the Big Five. First we ran into a couple of rhinos sleeping under a tree, then we came upon an entire parade of elephants (yes, parade is the collective word for a pack of elephants). There was a tiny baby elephant among them (see picture below) that Leon said was only 2 weeks old. That night we ran into a pride of lions and the male walked right past the car on my side. I was so amazed and scared that I couldn’t move. They’re really incredible animals.
The next morning we had a drive at 5:30 a.m. We ran into the same group of elephants who were eating on a mountainside. We stopped and watched them for probably two hours – they’re really the most fascinating animals. I was entranced by them the entire time. They seemed to understand we were watching them, and a few of them came really close to the vehicle. The most amazing thing I saw on the entire safari was the mother elephant gently pushing her baby up a hill with her trunk.
Other animals I saw on the safari: hippos, zebras, giraffes, impalas, owls, water bucks, bush bucks (apparently very rare), a kingfisher (also apparently very rare), wild dogs, crocodiles, baboons, warthogs, more rhinos, elephants, and lions. On one occasion, we saw a lion that had just finished eating a water buck; its mane was covered in blood. I’ll post the picture as soon as I can – it’s amazing.
It was hard to leave the lodge. We got Leon’s e-mail address and convinced him to create a Facebook profile. I decided that some day I would really love to come back to South Africa – it’s a beautiful country, despite its problems. I was sad to say goodbye.
OTHER NEWS:
We’re back on the ship, and it’s been pretty boring. I’ve been occupying myself by watching movies with friends and playing intense games of Gin Rummy. Tensions have been starting to erupt within groups and little dramas are starting to happen everywhere. Fortunately, I’ve managed to avoid most of them, but some of my friends are starting to divide up, which puts me in an interesting position.
I’ve started to realize that other countries’ perceptions of the U.S. are not entirely unfounded. I’ve stopped hanging out with some people because they were only concerned with getting drunk, and then getting belligerent and rude. It definitely sends the world a bad message about Americans, and I don’t want to be associated with that message.
We’re almost halfway through, though. Mauritius is up next. I’ll update as soon as I can.
I miss home very much.
Xoxoxo,
E
CAPE TOWN
Q. How do you get 750 college students up at 5:30 in the morning?
A. Take them to South Africa.
The entire ship was up and taking pictures of a very beautiful sunrise the morning we pulled in to Cape Town. We were off the ship by 8 and I trekked up the famous Table Mountain with a group of girlfriends. Unfortunately, due to high winds, we weren’t able to take the cable car to the top, but we got about halfway and I got some incredible pictures, so I wasn’t too bummed out. With my zoom lens, I could see the MV Explorer in the distance (like I said earlier, I’ll post more pictures when I have better internet).
So, defeated, we drove back into the main town and walked around the waterfront. The Cape Town waterfront is very posh – lots of designer stores that were fun to look at but way too expensive to buy anything from.
After the mall, we freshened up on the ship and went out to dinner for two of our friends, Kevin and Mallorie, who both had a birthday the day we docked. We had the most incredible dinner – I had a spicy chicken curry that really hit the spot after eating bland ship food for 10 days. After an appetizer, dinner, and several bottles of wine (split among us), my bill was R135, about $18 USD. Then we went out to a club and danced with some of the locals - it was so much fun and we met a lot of South Africans.
The next day I went out with my friends Jeff and Eric to the winelands, a part of Cape Town called Stellenboch. The vineyard we visited was called Spier, and they had really great wine. I got a little pocket wine-tasting guide that gave me an idea of look for in a wine, in terms of color, texture, and taste. My favorite wine was one called a Chenin Blanc, which I had never heard of before – it’s a very light white wine, and the one at our vineyard was really nice. I wish I could have taken a few bottles but I’m not allowed to bring them on the ship, and it would have cost over $300 to ship some back to the States.
Right next to the vineyard was a cheetah preservation project, and for 80 rand (about $10 USD) we could go in and pet the cheetahs. (See picture below.) It was so neat – I was a little nervous but our cheetah, Joseph, was very relaxed the whole time. The guide said the cheetahs’ instinct is to conserve energy until it’s time to hunt, so they sleep all day until they decide they’re hungry. Thankfully, Joseph didn’t seem too hungry when we went in to pet him.
We rode the train back in to Cape Town, which was cool because we could see the whole countryside. We shared our compartment with a bunch of hotel staffers who had just gotten off work. It was a relaxing, uneventful ride.
That night a small group of us went to a little restaurant on the waterfront and ordered a few appetizers and had some drinks while the sun set. There’s a group of seals that hangs out near the waterfront, so we watched them for awhile and I got some cute pictures. I didn’t realize there were seals in South Africa, but they’re really cute and like to swim around the MV Explorer.
SAFARI
The next morning I woke up at 6 a.m. and got ready for my safari. We took a bus to the airport and flew out to Jo-burg. The flight was a little shaky, which made me nervous, but we landed just fine and took a 2 ½ hour bus ride to Pilansberg.
We were all completely exhausted after the bus ride, which was really hot (no air conditioning), but when we pulled up to the lodge, all the safari guides were standing outside with glasses of cold guava juice for us. We were served an incredible lunch and then set out on our first drive.
Here, there is so much to write about that I’m not even sure where to begin. Our safari guide, Leon, was incredibly knowledgeable, and broke everything down for us. He was able to answer every one of our questions (and we asked a lot), and he joked around and really showed us a good time.
Did you know the collective word for a group of wildebeest is “implausibility”? As in, “Look at that implausibility of wildebeest.”
Other collective words:
A dazzle of zebra
A murder of crows
A parliament of owls
A kaleidoscope/stretch/ladder/corpse of giraffe
Just a few of Leon’s little tidbits.
On the first day, we saw 3/5 of the Big Five. First we ran into a couple of rhinos sleeping under a tree, then we came upon an entire parade of elephants (yes, parade is the collective word for a pack of elephants). There was a tiny baby elephant among them (see picture below) that Leon said was only 2 weeks old. That night we ran into a pride of lions and the male walked right past the car on my side. I was so amazed and scared that I couldn’t move. They’re really incredible animals.
The next morning we had a drive at 5:30 a.m. We ran into the same group of elephants who were eating on a mountainside. We stopped and watched them for probably two hours – they’re really the most fascinating animals. I was entranced by them the entire time. They seemed to understand we were watching them, and a few of them came really close to the vehicle. The most amazing thing I saw on the entire safari was the mother elephant gently pushing her baby up a hill with her trunk.
Other animals I saw on the safari: hippos, zebras, giraffes, impalas, owls, water bucks, bush bucks (apparently very rare), a kingfisher (also apparently very rare), wild dogs, crocodiles, baboons, warthogs, more rhinos, elephants, and lions. On one occasion, we saw a lion that had just finished eating a water buck; its mane was covered in blood. I’ll post the picture as soon as I can – it’s amazing.
It was hard to leave the lodge. We got Leon’s e-mail address and convinced him to create a Facebook profile. I decided that some day I would really love to come back to South Africa – it’s a beautiful country, despite its problems. I was sad to say goodbye.
OTHER NEWS:
We’re back on the ship, and it’s been pretty boring. I’ve been occupying myself by watching movies with friends and playing intense games of Gin Rummy. Tensions have been starting to erupt within groups and little dramas are starting to happen everywhere. Fortunately, I’ve managed to avoid most of them, but some of my friends are starting to divide up, which puts me in an interesting position.
I’ve started to realize that other countries’ perceptions of the U.S. are not entirely unfounded. I’ve stopped hanging out with some people because they were only concerned with getting drunk, and then getting belligerent and rude. It definitely sends the world a bad message about Americans, and I don’t want to be associated with that message.
We’re almost halfway through, though. Mauritius is up next. I’ll update as soon as I can.
I miss home very much.
Xoxoxo,
E
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