Auction and Hawaii

On April 17th, it was finally the day for the long awaited charity auction. I was on the committee and we had weekly meetings for the past two months to plan the auction. There was a silent auction during the day between 2pm and 7pm and a live auction in the evening between 8pm and 11pm. All the student, staff, faculty, crew and lifelong learners had donated various items to put in the auction. We had everything from peanut butter, t-shirts, artwork, trips, and season tickets to the captain’s hat in the auction. There were lots of great things in the auction which we knew would raise lots of money. The silent auction raised $2700 and we headed off to get ready for the evening auction. All of the committee members got dressed up for the occasion. I was to be recording all the winner’s information and handing out their prizes. The auction went smoothly from start to finish with the most desirable items going for above $1000. It was a huge success and we ended up raising over $20,000. It was a great evening and felt good to know that all the hard work we had put into it throughout the semester had paid off. I met some great friends on the committee and turned out to be really fun!
So after a long 8 days at sea we finally arrived in Honolulu at 5am on April 22nd. We were docked by 6am and started the disembarkation process at 6:15am. Because my ID number is 058 out of 800, I was called first to meet with immigration officials. I woke up to the announcement and quickly headed upstairs to the lounge where the process was taking place. I collected my passport and gave it to an official. They asked me some questions before stamping my passport. The whole process was done in 5 minutes and I headed to breakfast with Lauren. Breakfast didn’t open until 6:30 so we sat outside on the deck for a few minutes with Kim, Zach, Gabe and Collin. When the kitchen finally opened we got our food and sat outside to enjoy the beautiful morning. It was slightly overcast and cool, but we knew it wouldn’t stay this way for long. We ate breakfast quickly and then headed back to our cabins to get ready for the day.
The ship was entirely cleared by about 8:15 and we disembarked soon after. Lauren, Kim, Gabe, Collin, Melissa, Valerie, Ben and I were headed to Pearl Harbour. We arrived at about 8:45 and waited in line. To my surprise we didn’t have to pay and we received a ten o’clock time ticket. We had lots of time to kill so we explored the gift shop and the museum. After this we bought some Doritos, vitamin water, and tootsie pops (we were all so excited to have normal food again) and then went to sit in the garden. It was now beautiful out so we sat overlooking the USS Arizona memorial. It was great to be able to wear shorts and t-shirts after being in Japan and China where it was jeans and sweaters. We looked at some of the displays in the garden and observed the memorial until it was time for us to begin our tour.
First we watched a half hour long movie about the history of Pearl Harbour and the war. Before this I didn’t have much knowledge of what happened in Pearl Harbour besides the fact that it had been bombed by the Japanese in WWII. It was very hard to watch for a lot of people who were there and I found it very sad. After the movie was finished we boarded a boat to head out to the memorial. The memorial was built on top of the USS Arizona which was bombed and sank on December 7th, 1941. When it sank, it took with it the lives of over 1100 American service men. When we arrived at the memorial we were asked to be silent out of respect for the soldiers who were laid to rest in the ship below the monument.
The monument was not very large, about the width of the vessel below. It was like a tunnel with many opening on the sides, bottom and ceiling to look out of. The first thing that I noticed is that there was still lots of oil floating above the sunken warship. Even after almost seventy years, there was still oil being released. I just stood there for a while trying to imagine what it would have been like to have been bombed when just going about your daily business. It was a somber atmosphere. Also in the monument is a list of names of those who perished with the USS Arizona. It was very hard to see how many people were killed on this one ship alone, let alone the other vessels that were bombed as well.
After about fifteen minutes we were told to get back on to the boat to head back to the mainland. We hurried to get a taxi and head back to the ship. When we arrived there I got changed quickly into comfortable shoes and shorts before heading down to meet with Ben, Lauren, Kim, Todd, Nicole and Kerry. We got off the ship and waited for the skydiving company to pick us up. When they arrived we hopped into the van and began the long drive to the North shore of Oahu. Along the way we were asked to fill out some extensive waivers. The rest of the way we looked at the scenery we were passing and some people slept.
When we finally arrived at Dillingham airfield we were all very nervous. We were to be jumping with the Pacific International Skydiving center, but there were about 3 different companies that operated out of the same airfield. When we arrived we watched a short video about liability and also about the jump itself. This made us all even more nervous. There were many groups of semester at sea students so we had a long wait until it was our turn. Our appointment was for one o’clock but when we arrived it was clear we wouldn’t be taking off until long after that. We watched while many plane loads of people took off and then came floating back down a few minutes later. At about 3:30pm the first three of our group were called. They were to be jumping in load 9. They suited up and then boarded the small plane. About twenty minutes later they glided smoothly back down to the ground.
Shortly after then returned Ben and I were called in group 11. I was to jump with George(who had done over 18000 jumps) and be videotaped by Ash. First they put the harness on me, which was very tight and uncomfortable. I didn’t mind though because I knew the tighter it was the safer I would feel once I was in the air. Next George explained the positions I would need to be in when we jumped and later in the jump. Before jumping out of the plane I would need to have my arms crossed on my chest with my head back and back arched. He would then push both of us out of the plane. When he tapped my shoulder I was to raise my arms in front of me (a little like the butterfly stroke in swimming) and relax. It was all very well to be doing this on the ground but I knew I would forget it all the moment he pushed me out of the plane.
We were finally called to board the plane. It was tiny and only held about 14 people. There were no seats or seat belts, only a small beam that we all sat cowboy style on. We were not attached to our guides at this point. We began to take off and the plane was very rickety and loud. We began to climb very quickly and my ears were popping. As soon as we had taken off they opened the door so the photographers could take photos as we climbed. They leave the door open the whole way so the plane was blowing around! It seemed like we climbed forever! We finally reached our destination; 14000 feet above sea level at the edge of the breathable atmosphere (any higher and you need an oxygen mask because of the pressure). It’s hard to believe that is half the height that commercial planes fly at. Please excuse the language but quite frankly, I was scared shitless.
During the climb there was a beautiful view of the island. Once we passed the clouds is when I started to get very scared. George and I were the third pair to jump. When we reached our cruising altitude he gave the signal and the first pair was gone in a second.
I was trying hard to keep breathing at this point! The second pair was gone. We were next. I was now secured onto George (thankfully) and he practically pushed me towards the door. At this point, my legs were not going to do it voluntarily. I tried hard not to look down but couldn’t help it. The coastline below was like a distant memory. It seemed so far below we could barely make it out. George gave me the countdown- 3-2-1 and I think my heart didn’t beat during this time. First our photographer Ash went and the next millisecond later I was free falling at 200mph. As soon as my feet left the plane all the fear I had disappeared. It was the most amazing feeling. Although we were falling faster than I could ever imagine, it didn’t feel like we were falling because the wind was rushing up so fast. Ash was just below us the whole time filming us freefalling and he made faces at me the whole time. He was falling towards the earth but looking upwards. At one point he reached out and grabbed my hand and spun us round and round as we were freefalling. Somehow he managed to maneuver himself closer to us in order to get better shots. My face was probably very distorted and I know from the pictures that my ears were flapping and my hair was in poor George’s face the whole time. I still don’t understand how he was able to move horizontally and maneuver his body into different positions while falling so fast.
We freefell for over one minute but it seemed like a second. I was enjoying it so much and couldn’t stop smiling. When George finally pulled the ripcord to open the parachute it was like a shock back to reality. It jerked us upward and was quite painful as the harness dug into every conveyable place on my body. At this point Ash kept free falling in order to arrive on the ground before we did so he could videotape the landing and my reaction. Now we were falling more slowly and were able to talk to each other. George told me that I had done very well and I told him that it was the coolest thing I had ever done. And I really meant it. It was such a liberating experience and gave me the best natural high ever. I am so glad that I decided to do it even though I was so nervous. It was the best thing I have ever done and the adrenaline rush was unbelievable!
Now was the beautiful part. We were sailing through the sky high about Oahu and could see the whole island. It was absolutely gorgeous floating down over the Hawaiian coastline but the best part was coming through the clouds. I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and it felt so cold when the clouds touched my legs. Coolest thing ever! We pulled the ripcord when we were still in the clouds. On the video it looks as though we are shooting upwards because Ash is still freefalling.
Although it felt like we were descending very slowly we were on the ground about five minutes after we emerged from the clouds. It was so cool for everything to be getting bigger and bigger as we got closer to landing. George let me steer as we were sailing through the air. We were doing spins and things and it was so exciting. At landing, George told me to pull up my legs in front of me because I was much taller than him. It was a very smooth landing and as soon as we touched down I was so giddy and excited. Ben landed and we high fived. I was still on cloud 9 (no pun intended)!
After we landed there was only one load left to go and Lauren was set to go. She was very nervous but enjoyed it! Everyone had such a good time and we were so glad we did something huge like this together near the end of the voyage. I probably should have started with a lower jump and then worked my way up cus now no other jump that I do will ever be as exciting!
After everyone had jumped we watched the videos and still pictures on a tv. I bought and t-shirt and paid for the jump. It was a while before both groups were ready to leave so I had a bag of chex mix from the vending machine. We chilled on the porch with the guides for a bit before the van was ready to leave. We all slept on the way back to the ship. It was about 6pm when we arrived back on the ship.
Nicole, Kerry and I decided to head to the local mall to eat some taco bell. We had about an hour and a half there before we had to leave to go back to the ship. We basically got our food and then sat in the food court and had drinks. We also went to the grocery store and picked up some chips and salsa and some magazines. It was very weird being back in the US, it felt like I didn’t belong! They said that is to be expected when we get home tho! We left the mall about 8pm to come back to the ship in time to avoid the line. When we got back there was already a line. I ended up getting back on at about 8:30pm. We were supposed to be onboard at 9 and at about ten to everybody was a huge mob trying to squeeze up the gangway. Most of the kids were drunk so weren’t listening to the instructions. The situation got very out of hand and we all got a letter in our cabins about it the next day.
We now have 8 days to go until we get to Costa Rica. So far the pacific has been quite calm but not that warm. The ambassador’s ball is tomorrow night so everyone will be dressed up fancy. I can’t wait! Until next time …xo

Japan

Before arriving in Japan, we were told that the disembarkation process would take a long time. First we all had to have our temperatures taken by a thermal camera. It wasn’t too difficult, all we had to do was walk by while it took our temperature. Next we had a lot of time to wait before we were able to get off the ship to go through customs. Having an early ID number (058 out of 800) I figured I would be among the first group off the ship as I usually was. Of course, they decided to work backwards this time. I didn’t end up getting called off the ship until about noon. I finally was able to set foot in Japan. When we got off the ship we first had to obtain our passports and landing cards. We then had our fingerprints and pictures taken by customs officials. Next we handed in our customs forms and had a short interview with an official. Finally we were given the all clear and could actually go out of the port terminal. I was planning on exploring Kobe on my own for the day before heading off to Tokyo with Leah the next day. As I walked out of the port terminal, my friend Kaitlin was there too. She asked who I was going with and I told her that I was going on my own. She said she was doing the same so we decided to go out together. Once again, the port was located a long way from the center of the city. To get there we had to take a monorail. We went 2 stops from the port terminal to Sannomiya station. The station was at the center of Kobe and connected the city with the bullet train station, the subway, and neighboring cities.
We had no idea what we were going to do but we hopped off at Sannomiya and stated walking. We decided to head to China town for some cheap shopping. Well it took us a while to get there! The Japanese people were very eager to help us by giving directions and pointing. There was just one problem; they talked in slow Japanese assuming that if they talked slowly we would be able to understand them. There was nothing we could do but politely thank them with ‘abrigato’ and then head off in the direction that they were pointing in. It was kind of a game to see how many people we had to ask before we reached our destination. It was interesting to see how many people actually didn’t know where places were in their own city. Well after many conversations and different directions we finally arrived in Chinatown.
It was quite disappointing when we arrived in Chinatown. We were expecting cheap market style shopping but we were greeted by quiet pedestrian streets crammed with Chinese restaurants. Not quite what we had in mind. Since we now know where we were on the map, we decided to walk around a little bit to see what we could find. After following our noses we arrived at a small bakery. Everything looked delicious so we decided to pick a selection of things to try. It was odd because instead of putting the goods in small bags you were givena tray and a pair of tongs at the door. As you browsed the shop you put things on your tray (way too many things I might add) and when you were ready to pay they wrapped the stuff for you. We were really excited to eat it so we headed to the Mac Café, the ultra chic McDonalds eating area. Everything was delicious. I had a pesto pizza, jam tarts, some rice pudding ish thing, a sugar muffin and a cheese and sausage croissant. We both ended up eating pretty much all of what we had bought, even though we had intended on just having a taste of each thing.
After this quick pick me up we headed across the street to what looked like a pedestrian street. Turns out it was an extension of the street we had been on when we got off the train, just further down. Apparently we had taken a rather roundabout way to get to Chinatown. We walked down the shopping street and it was crammed with little stores selling shoes, jewelry, clothes, food, phones and anything else you could think of. We stopped in a couple of phone stores to play with the latest technology and were told that the phones were free. Only catch was we had to sign up for a Japanese plan! I must say that even having a shoe-crazy sister did not prepare me for what I was going to see in Japan. There were shoes in all shapes and sizes (they came in S, M, L, and LL) of every colour of the rainbow. There were platforms, pumps, sandals and some that I can’t even begin to describe. The stores were so full of shoes that it was impossible to not find a pair that you liked. This was my first glimpse at how expensive things were in Japan. Most of the shoes were not very good quality and were still between 70 and 100 bucks! It was fun to look at some of the crazy styles though. I especially like the sneakers that were so colourful. Those were even more expensive!
We also went into a few clothes stores. Almost everything they were selling had some sort of frill or ruffle attached to it. Japanese girls tend to dress very well but somehow they pull of combinations of clothes that I would never match! Most of them wore many layers of clothing in colours that were clashing. It seemed from how most of the people were dressed that they either had lots of money or that we were shopping in the wrong place. We continued to stroll down to shopping street until we got back to the train station. By this time it was about 4pm so we decided to head back to the ship.
I was ready to have a little lay down and relax before heading back out for dinner but no sooner had I sat down that the voice came over the loudspeaker to announce the welcome reception in the union. I decided to head down there to see what it was all about. It started with a presentation of gifts to the captain and staff of the ship by the port staff. We received flowers, a Japanese doll and something else that I forget. There were a few speeches by the captain and port director and then it was on to the exciting part. There was a group of students from a local university playing the drums. It was so energizing to see them putting all their energy into playing and I really enjoyed watching them play. It was clearly very physically exhausting for them so they didn’t play for very long. The whole welcome reception only lasted about 45 minutes.
After they finished playing Leah and I headed back down to the cabin for a quick nap. We decided to head out for dinner around 8 o’clock. I lay down and put on some grey’s anatomy. After a while we were ready to go out. We dressed warmly (it was pretty chilly in Japan) and headed for the train into the city. We were armed with the directions to a restaurant in the lonely planet book so we set out to find it. After getting a little lost we finally arrived at a little place, at the location we were searching for. It wasn’t the same restaurant that was in the book but we decided to give it a try. There were only about 5 tables in the whole restaurant and the chefs cooked the food on an open barbeque in the middle of the restaurant. It wasn’t too encouraging that one of the chefs had an eye patch on. As we entered, everyone started cheering and shouting things in Japanese. It was a little intimidating because at first we didn’t know what they were saying. We signed that we wanted a table for 2 and were seated. We were given a menu with no pictures and no English on it at first. Obviously we couldn’t understand anything so we went to find a picture menu. The waiters obviously understood and found an old English menu for us. We decided to order a variety of different meats and vegetables to try. They had all sorts of meat like chicken liver, chicken foot, and other interesting body parts. We decided to go for the beef steak, chicken wing and giant shrimp. When we decided to choose vegetables we were told that it was an old menu and that most of the things were not available. We ended up getting green peppers and mushrooms, as well as white rice.
To begin with, they brought us soy beans and cabbage soaked in vinegar, soy sauce and ginger. They noted that the cabbage was especially good for drinkers. We weren’t planning on drinking, just having a beer with dinner. One of the waiters spoke a little bit of English so we were able to communicate a little bit with him. He often didn’t understand us but we motioned and signed to him until we were on the same page. After being there for a while we realized that whenever someone entered the restaurant all the waiters cheered and shouted, and thankfully it was not telling us to go away! When the food arrived we were surprised at how small the portions were. All the food was on sticks, with only 3 mushrooms on the stick. We were glad that we ordered the white rice!
After paying and taking pictures with the waiters we headed back into Kobe. We walked along some backstreets looking for a bar where some of our friends were meeting. After walking for a while we decided just to head back to the ship because we had an early morning the next day.
On the second morning we had decided to take a train at 8:25 to Tokyo so we woke up early and went for breakfast at 7am. After a quick breakfast we hopped on to the port liner to Sannomiya station with all our bags. When we arrived there, we changed on to the subway to get to the shin-Kobe station where the bullet trains left from. We arrived at the train station, not really sure how to use our rail passes. When we entered the station we showed our pass and headed up to the track. We were a little bit early so were able to watch a number of trains pull in and out of the station. The trains move so quickly and look like snakes! We had picked the train in advance and when we arrived we found out that there were several cars with unreserved seating. We headed to this area and waited for the train. When it came we jumped on- it was sort of a free for all to get a seat. It turned out that the train was fairly empty so we had a row of three to share. I lied down and fell asleep pretty quickly (it’s those moving vehicles I’m telling you). Because Tokyo was the last stop, I was not worried about missing our stop.
About two hours into the three hour journey I was rudely awoken by a Japanese man shaking me. Apparently the train had filled up and our third seat was the only seat that wasn’t taken. I sat up quickly and moved over so he could sit down. I was rather shocked and out of it for a little while, as I often am when I’m woken suddenly. For the rest of the ride I stayed awake and listen to my fake ipod. Upon arriving in Tokyo we headed to the West exit where Yukari had told me she would meet us. We sat there for a while and then I decided to go and find a pay phone to call her. I finally found a pay phone and started to dial when I heard her calling my name. I turned around and she looked exactly the same as I remembered her from almost 7 years ago. For those who don’t know, Yukari came on a rotary exchange program to my high school in Bermuda when I was in year 10. We hadn’t kept in touch through the years but I had emailed her when I found out I was coming to Japan. Luckily she used the same email and said she would be glad to show me around Tokyo, where she was now teaching. So we headed back outside to find Leah who had stayed and waited with the bags. We talked for a few minutes about our plans (we didn’t have any) and decided to head to the hostel where we were to stay that night. It was quite out of the way, in Ikebukuro, which is not near the center of the city. After walking through some backstreets and finally ending up at the Backpackers Hostel, we went inside. We took our shoes off at the door as is customary in Japan and headed inside. I was quite shocked at how ‘ghetto’ for lack of a better word, it was.
There was a room for men and a room for women but because there was a full house, everyone was sleeping in whatever bed they could find. The hostel was in the basement of an apartment building and consisted of 4 rooms. There was a room for men and a room for women, a bathroom (with a squatter toilet I might add) and a living room with kitchenette. The bed rooms consisted of many sets of bunk beds made up with dirty looking sheets. As soon as I walked in I knew I would not be staying here long, I only had to convince Leah of the same. Turns out it didn’t take too much convincing! We decided to leave our stuff there while we poked around the neighborhood and tried to find somewhere else to stay. Before we left though we used the internet to book tickets for a baseball game that evening.
First we headed into Ikebukuro area. We poked around some side streets looking for a good place to eat. We wanted to eat some local food, and allowed Yukari to choose for us. After much searching, we ended up at Jonathans. It was the Japanese equivalent of Denny’s. They served all types of American food. It was difficult for me to pick something off the menu that was local but in the end I chose a sort of chicken teriyaki casserole. It was good but not very authentic! The service was very cool though. If you wanted the waiter’s attention all you had to do was press the buzzer on the table. To get a drink you didn’t ask the waiter, there was a whole drink bar that was self serve. Needless to say the service was very quick and we were in and out within half an hour.
After lunch we headed down a busy shopping street towards sunshine city. Along the way we passed the sanrio store. This is where they sell all the hello kitty stuff. I’m not sure why, but Japan has an obsession with hello kitty. It is everywhere; on backpacks, luggage, bumper stickers, billboards, clothes, jewelry and anywhere else you can imagine. Usually at sanrio stores they sell all sorts of cartoon merchandise for different characters but this one was almost all hello kitty stuff. There were some snoopy things in the corner but no one was buying them. Leah bought a pair of PJs for her friend but I didn’t buy anything. As I said before everything was pretty expensive. I spend the most money in Japan out of any country and I didn’t buy anything besides postcards and a magnet!
After leaving hello kitty we continued down the shopping street. Everywhere you look, there are people giving out little packs of tissues. All of the packaging has advertising on the outside for a bar or a restaurant. By the time we left Japan I probably had five packs of tissues in my purse.
By the time we reached sunshine city I was pretty tired. Sunshine city was a giant mall full of clothes and food stores. To get into the mall you had to go down a giant escalator. Inside there were tons of stores with frilly things. A lot of the things look really old fashioned and antiquey but look good when the Japanese girls wear them. My favorite thing was the shoe stores because there was so much to choose from and so many crazy styles to look at. I wouldn’t even have known how to put some of them on!
We had a walk around sunshine city and then headed back out to the street to head back to the station. On the way back Yukari took us into an arcade. We went into one of the photo booths that prints stickers. We took a few different pictures and expected it to be done. Well it wasn’t. in Japan, you can doodle on the prints, put stamps on them, change their colour, write stuff on them and pick many different backgrounds. We had fun making our pictures original! At the end of it all you put your email into the machine and it emails the picture to you! It was the coolest thing ever and it costs the same as it does at home.
This was a nice break before we headed back to the station. We had found out earlier in the day where the Tokyo dome was, where the baseball game was taking place. We arrived early and stood in line, only to find when we reached the front that we had not printed the tickets properly. We needed to print the barcode in order for them to be scanned. This started a long and tiring process. Keep in mind that all of our feet our killing us by now. First we had to find someone who knew where the nearest internet café was. Then we started walking in that direction but could not find it. After what seemed like forever we finally arrived at the internet café. I opened my email and printed the tickets again, this time being sure to print the barcode as well. We quickly left and walked as fast as we could, which wasn’t very fast, back to the stadium. We had missed only about half an hour of the game, which was about one inning.
We found our seats, and of course all the semester at sea kids were all sitting together. It was quite unfortunate because not only were we already stereotyped, but we were all sitting together to make things worse. Of course there were a few people there who were on semester about me (what dean kenn says about people who get drunk in all the ports and embarrass themselves) there to make a scene and make all of us look bad. Despite this, the game was very exciting. They have beer girls walking around selling beer from kegs carried on their backs. They also sell all sorts of food and snacks, juices and cocktails. The Japanese fans were also very rowdy and cheered loudly whenever something good or bad happened. The two teams were from Tokyo, the Giants and the Sparrows. We were all going for the giants, except some semester about me kids, who were loud and obnoxious, shouting out obscenities at the giants. It was quite embarrassing for all of us!
At first the giants had a big lead but as the game went on the sparrows came back. After a home run with loaded bases the sparrows took the lead and there was no looking back. At the end of the eighth inning we decided to head back to the train station to beat the crowds. No one in Tokyo has a car so everyone takes the trains.
We boarded the train and headed for Ikebukuro to go back to the hospital. At the baseball game a friend of ours gave us a business card of the hotel where he was staying. We decided to move there for the night because it was closer to the center of the city and to Roppongi, where the night life is. We arrived at the hostel and apologetically (not actually) said that we had to move somewhere closer to the center of the city. I made sure to be polite and tell them that I would recommend that my friends stay here in the future. NOT. The owner was even nice enough to give us our money back (even though it only paid for the taxi to the new hotel).
When we arrived at the new hotel it was a relief to see a front desk and proper entrance. We had called ahead to book so we checked in and headed upstairs. The room was absolutely tiny! The bed took up most of the space. The bed itself was somewhere between a single and a double for the two of us to share. By this time it was about 11pm so we got ready to head out. We got a cab and asked the driver to take us to Roppongi. We didn’t know exactly where we wanted to go so we hopped out and started walking. We went into a bar called Motown and it had the weirdest crowd I have ever seen. There was a mix of Japanese, Europeans and Middle Eastern people. Oddly though, all the bouncers at the clubs were big black American men. It was refreshing to see people from all over the world having been in Asia for so long.
Eventually we bumped into some friends from the ship. We decided to pick up some beer at the convenience store and chill on the street. The street was more live than the clubs. There was music in the street so we just chilled outside a department store. It was a great time and we met many people from all over the world including a US army man, Brazilians, Japanese and some New Yorkers. It was a great way to experience the culture. We eventually ended up playing slap the bag and then had crepes from the stand next door. They were delicious. Mine had chocolate, strawberries and whipped cream! The most eventful happening of the evening was an SAS girl almost getting arrested for allegedly stealing a shirt. She was quite drunk, but insisted she had never even seen the shirt and that the store worker had planted it on her as she was leaving, and accused her of stealing it. The police arrived and the girl was crying hysterically, not being able to understand anything they were trying to tell her. Finally they let her go, and keep the shirt.
After a successful night me and Leah headed back to the hotel at around 3am and hopped into the tiny bed. I think we slept practically on top of each other the whole night but were so tired that we didn’t even notice. We were awoken the next morning by the front desk calling to tell us that check out was 10am. It was already 10:30 so I nicely told them that we would be gone by noon. They tried to say they would charge us but I politely told them that no one had informed us of checkout time and that we would not be paying a cent extra! After a quick shower and packing up, we headed downstairs to check out at 11:55.
Having not eaten, our first thoughts were to get some food. We headed to Shibuya, near Harajuku, which is known for crowded streets and shopping areas. We walked around for a little while before settling into McDonalds for some lunch. It was quite chilly this morning so after walking around for a while and soaking in the atmosphere we headed back to the station. We were planning on going to Hiroshima for the night but because we left Tokyo earlier than planned we decided to head back to the ship and sleep there for free instead. Because the train to Hiroshima passed through Shin Osaka anyway, we were not going out of the way at all. We got off the train in Shin Osaka and had to transfer to a different train to get to Kobe. It was going to be a long wait for the H or K trains that we were allowed to take using our rail passes. Nozomi (N) trains are reserved for locals and take more direct routes to every stop. We decided to get on the N train anyway and risk getting thrown off. We were only going one stop anyway so if they threw us off at the next stop it would not have been a problem. I was nervous that the conductor would come and yell at us in Japanese, but we had never seen any workers on any of the trains we had been on before.
Just my luck though, an official came through the train. He tried to say something to me but I could not understand so just smiled and nodded. He kept walking so I assumed he wasn’t telling me I was being arrested. Just before we were to get off a man came up and asked me whether I was travelling on a rail pass. I decided to play ignorant and said yes. He asked me if I knew I wasn’t supposed to be on this train but I said I had no idea. He said that he too was on a rail pass and that we were breaking the rules. We both laughed and felt very daring. He looked local though so probably would have gone unnoticed. Me and Leah were the only white people on the train. When we arrived in Kobe I said goodbye to my new friend and quickly got off the train.
We headed for the subway back to Sannomiya station where we transferred to the port liner to go back to the ship. By the time we arrived back at the MV Explorer it was perfect timing for dinner. We had something to eat and then crashed out for the night, exhausted from all the travelling!
The next morning we woke up early to take the train to Hiroshima. We took the 8am bullet train and arrived there about 9:30am. Not knowing where to go, we were told that if we took the street car, it would take us to the peace park. So we hopped on and paid 150 Yen, about two dollars. We finally reached the stop that we were told to get off at and hopped off. It looked like we were in the middle of the city with no park in sight. We asked a local shop keeper if she could point us in the right direction but when she did, it was in the opposite direction as the map showed. We decided to keep walking down the main street to see if we could find it. We arrived at the memorial baseball stadium which we knew was close to the peace park and soon arrived. We entered near the A-bomb dome, which is a damaged building that has been preserved and remains in the same state it did after the bomb was dropped. The park was beautiful and it was a warm sunny day so it made it very pleasant to walk around.
Next we visited the tourist information center to get a map of the park and to pick up some postcards. We headed out into the park to look at some of the memorial sites. The children’s memorial was our first stop. It is a large symbolic monument that was build to remember children who perished from the bomb and especially a young girl, Sadako Sasaki, who died of Leukemia after the radiation of the bomb reached her ten years later. The monument was built to bring peace and to console the souls of Sadako and other childrenwho died. Before she died she had began to fold paper cranes from origami and had vowed to reach one thousand before she passed away. When folding cranes, it is customary to wish on each one. When you reach a thousand, it is a symbol of good luck and that your wishes will be granted. She did indeed reach and surpass one thousand cranes before she died. After she died her friends and classmates continued to fold cranes in her memory.
Now, cranes are sent to the Children’s Peace Memorial from all over the world each year. There are cases containing thousands of colourful paper cranes surrounding the memorial structure. After looking at this for some time, we headed to the North of the park to visit the Peace bell and other memorials. The peace bell is a large bell which people can ring if they are committed to peace. It has a large wooden pole which you swing backwards and then release to strike the bell. The date of the A-bomb, August 6th, 1945 is inscribed into the bell. At the point where the pole strikes the bell, there is an inscription of the atom symbol. It signifies stomping out the use of atomic weapons in warfare. Leah and I both rang the bell.
After a nice walk around the peace park we headed to the memorial museum. There was a fifty cent entry fee and we headed in. The first exhibit described the history of Japan before and during the war. There were many pictures of Hiroshima before and after the bomb was dropped. It was a very somber atmosphere with many locals and visitors. As we headed upstairs, there were more and more exhibits showing photographs during and immediately after the bomb was dropped. Some of the pictures were very graphic and moving, and the photographers quoted that it was difficult to take pictures when the people were in such pain and suffering. There were many stories of individuals, accompanied by articles of clothing they were wearing at the time of the explosion and photographs. Many of the people survived the initial blast with severe burns and were able to return home and tell their stories to their families. Unfortunately, many of these victims didn’t live longer than a few days. Many were children, whose school uniforms were virtually destroyed by the impact from the bomb.
Throughout the museum there were articles of clothing, melted roof tiles, warped building materials and other articles damaged during the blast. Particularly interesting were a number of watches which had stopped at 8:15am when the bomb exploded on August 6th, 1945. I felt that the museum gave a very good and well rounded view of the war and the bombing. It gave both sides of the issues, the Japanese and the American side of the development and dropping of the bomb. It took a long time to wander through the extensive museum before ending with some video recordings from survivors. They spoke of where they were and how they remember the day of the bombing. All around the museum and the peace park there were survivors of the bomb who were telling their stories and experiences.
After leaving the museum we decided to walk down Peace Park Boulevard. We were looking for something to have for lunch. We headed for a small noodle shop that I had seen in the lonely planet book. It was a beautiful day so we walked slowly and looked at all the sights and sounds as we went around. We arrived in the area where I expected the restaurant to be located but couldn’t find it. We asked at a seven eleven and it turned out that we had already passed the restaurant. We walked back and headed into a small kitchen surrounded by counters for customers to eat at. When you entered you had to push aside heaving plastic strips that I suppose were to keep the dust and pollution out. When we walked in there were only 2 other people eating but we decided to give it a try. The menu was not in English and the waitress spoke no English. We decided to just have the dish that was pictured and be sure that it would not be spicy. The chefs were making the noodles and chopping vegetables. Our meal did not take long to appear and consisted of a plate of noodles with some meat and vegetables on the side. In a separate bowl was a sauce with sesame seeds in it.
To our surprise everything was cold. It was surprisingly good though, and we both ate everything. Turns out that the menu only details the different levels of spicyness that you can choose for the sauce. It tasted a bit like soy sauce infused with other flavours. It was delicious. As we were eating more locals came into the restaurant and ordered so we figured it must be a pretty good place. We paid the bill, which was about seven dollars each and said our arigatos (thank yous) and headed back out on to the street. On the way to the restaurant we had passed a crepe restaurant so decided to stop there for some desert. I ordered a crepe with berry sauce, oreos and vanilla ice cream. It was delicious, far better than the one I had eaten in Tokyo!
After this we wanted to visit Skhukkei-en, which is a traditional Japanese garden. It was quite far from where we were so we decided to walk for a bit then get on a street car. It was nice to walk up the street because we were able to see all the expensive shops, restaurants and watch the people. When we arrived at the main street we got onto the street car and travelled two stops. We got off and walked toward the entrance of the garden. We paid the tiny entrance fee and walked around. It was a perfect Japanese garden; just as it had been depicted in a movie I had watched when I was young. There was a lake in the middle surrounded by meticulously pruned trees, flowers and bushes. There were winding paths throughout the whole garden so we were able to walk around the whole thing. We stopped to take pictures of the ornate bridges and beautiful cherry blossoms. After seeing the whole garden we headed back to the street car.
When we paid we made sure to ask for a transfer so that we could hop right on to a different streetcar to take us back to the bullet train station. We did this and arrived back at the station in about 15 minutes. We had a little bit of trouble finding the platforms but eventually did. I decided to buy some sushi at a little store because I hadn’t eaten any the whole time we had been in Japan. I was very surprised that there were not more sushi restaurants. I had barely seen any in all our time in Kobe, Tokyo and Hiroshima. I ate the sushi on the platform while we waited for the train. It was OK, I didn’t know what type of fish it was but it was nothing special. I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get to go to a conveyor belt sushi restaurant and experience some really good Japanese sushi.
When the train arrived we hopped on and sat down. I can’t really remember but I think we slept the whole way once again. When we arrived back in Kobe we headed down to the shopping streets. Although it was very tempting, I didn’t buy anything. Once we had a good walk around we bought ice cream and Pringles (ethnic spicy flavor I might add) and headed towards Sannomiya station. We hopped on to the port liner for the last time and boarded the ship.
Later that evening I tried to make some phone calls on a payphone but was unsuccessful. I ended up wasting an hour waiting for the phone when it wouldn’t work. It wasn’t a great way to end a fun time in Japan but what can you do. I got back onto the ship at about 8pm and stayed there until we departed for Hawaii. We now have 8 days at sea before arriving in Hawaii! Until next time…xo

Hong Kong and China

So today we arrived in Hong Kong.
When I got back from breakfast it was time to say goodbye to our cabin steward Julius! It was so sad; it’s strange how close you can get to a person who you only talk to in passing every day. He put up with our mess and was always happy to see us all. We’re all going to miss him so much and I feel sorry for his replacement because we all want Julius to stay. I took a picture with him and got his email in case I am ever in the Philippines.
After breakfast I finished packing up my things to head off on my five day adventure- my last SAS organized trip. Our trip was due to depart at nine thirty so we met at nine in the dining room to get organized. Our trip leader Deb ended up being late so we didn’t actually start until 9:30. The tour guides Esther and Allan came on board to help out. We each had to collect our passports (which are usually kept with the purser), collect a landing and departure card to fill out and get a nametag. When all 83 of the group finally arrived and got organized, we headed to the bus around 10am. We split up into 2 buses, A and B, which we stayed with for the whole trip. I was on bus A! We drove for about an hour to the airport. We didn’t get to see very much of Hong Kong but from what I did see, it was much like any industrial city. There were many tall buildings and lots of smog. When we arrived at the airport we unloaded the buses and headed into the gigantic airport. It was so big, about three times the size of the Toronto airport, which in itself is huge. We headed to the group check in counter and handed in our passports to get our boarding passes.
Well this is where the drama started. The tour guide informed me shortly after this that my Chinese Visa had expired the day before and that I would not be able to enter China. I was upset about this but more angry, because a company in the US had processed all of the visas for the voyage. There was nothing that I could do or could have done in advance to prevent this. I think it happened because I have a British passport. The visa only lasts for 6 months as opposed to the US visas which last a year. I would have had no problem if I had a US passport. Again, it made me so angry because it was out of my control! I had no choice but to stay in Hong Kong and try and obtain a new visa. Esther and Allan were kind enough to help me out. I first withdrew Hong Kong dollars and got a passport picture taken at the airport and then caught a taxi to the Chinese Embassy and visa office. When we arrived it was 12:10 and the office was closed between 12 and2 for lunch. Of course it was lunch time, just my luck.
So I was really losing hope at this point. Allan spoke to some of the workers and they said that to get a visa by the end of the day would be virtually impossible. In any other week, being Thursday I could pick it up the next day but of course, just my luck again, it was a public holiday the next day. If I didn’t get a visa by 5pm that afternoon I would have to sail with the ship to Shanghai the next day and not be able to get off in China. That would suck because I would miss my whole trip to the great wall and everything else I had waited so long to see. Being optimistic I waited in the hope that by some small miracle I would be able to be granted a visa that day. The tour guide left while I waited until 2pm until the office reopened. I called my mom after they informed me that I couldn’t get a visa the same day due to the upcoming Olympics and athletes applying for visas. I was bawling my eyes out having woke her up at 2am Bermuda time when a sketchy looking man wearing a black hoodie approached me holding a cell phone. I reluctantly took the phone only to find Allan, the tour guide on the other line. He instructed me to hand over my passport to this man, who spoke little English, and he would get me a visa by the end of the day. Apparently he had connections in the consulate. Now I was very hesitant about giving a stranger my passport, mainly because the ship had drilled it into our heads not to give our passports to anyone who wasn’t an authority. I’m not sure what went through my head but I took down his name and phone number and handed over my passport. I had nothing to lose! He told me to meet him back at the visa office at 4:30 to collect my passport from him. By this time it was almost 1pm so I headed back to the ship to tell them what happened and to try and get my name on the list of those sailing to shanghai in case the sketchy man didn’t come through.
I talked to the purser who was really helpful and told me that all expenses would be covered because none of this was my fault. We agreed that I would call him at 4:30 when I returned to the visa office to update him on my situation. I also had DKG (dean ken gaither, the executive dean on the ship) on the case. After speaking to the purser I went back to my room and watched my pirated version of grey’s anatomy for an hour. At 4pm I headed back to the visa office (by this time I had spent a fortune on cabs to and from the airport and visa office). I arrived just about at 4:30 and headed to the 7th floor of the building to the Visa office. It was a large room filled with Asian people trying to become legal. I looked around for Mr. Sketch but didn’t see him so plopped down in the floor and did some Sudoku. After a few minutes he walked in but didn’t seem to see me so I approached him. He said that he didn’t have my visa yet so I went and sat back down. I should also mention that I am extremely sun burnt so any movement, especially carrying all my luggage, is extremely uncomfortable.
After a few minutes the sketchmaster returns and hands me my passport. He had a blank on his face so I assumed that he didn’t get the visa and thanked him anyway and started to walk away. He then started pointing at my passport and motioning me to open it. There it was… a new visa valid until July. I wanted to hug the man but restrained myself as he again handed me the cell phone. It was Esther, the tour guide from earlier. She told me that I didn’t need to pay the man and that it would be charged to my shipboard account. She also told me that they had booked me on a flight to Beijing at 7:45. I was so thankful that the tour guides were so helpful!
I grabbed a cab and headed for the airport, even though I was way too early. I checked in smoothly this time and headed towards the gate. I stopped for some burger king on the way to the gate and exchanged my Hong Kong dollar into Chinese Yuan. In the end I didn’t need all the money I withdrew because my visa and flight were charged to my ship board account. I also treated myself to a MAC blush and lipgloss as a reward for the struggle from the day (I reasoned that this was a good reason for the purchase). I then proceeded to the gift shop to pick up some postcards, a magnet and magazines.
I waited for the flight and boarded as soon as we could. In Japan they do not board by seat number, everyone boards at the same time. This makes it quite disorganized but it also means that I had to make sure to board early so that there would be room in the overhead bins to put my luggage. I settled in to a 3 hour flight. When we arrived in Beijing, we were transported the terminal by bus. Once inside we had to walk a virtual marathon to reach customs. Upon arrival there we were greeted by a group of about 200 Australian athletes. The line for visitors was 4 times the length of the line for locals and moving very slowly. After about three quarters of an hour I finally reached the front of the line and had my passport and visa checked. Thankfully this was completed without incident and I headed downstairs to what I thought was the exit. Unfortunately it was only the line to board the monorail. Because of the Olympics, the terminal had just open days before and everything was still in the testing stage. The sign said that the tram arrived every 3 minutes but it took more like 20 until it arrived. When it finally did arrive we all crammed on for the short ride. When we arrived at our destination we all piled out. I headed for the exit because I hadn’t checked any bags. I had been told that I would be met by a tour guide so I looked for someone holding up my name on a sign. He was there and led me to the car. After a half hour ride into the city center we arrived at the Jianguo Garden Hotel. It was almost 1am by this time and I was ready to get some sleep. I checked in and was given a key. When I arrived at the room there were already 2 students there because everyone had moved around rooms. I was very frustrated and after trying 2 more rooms I angrily told the front desk to give me an empty room and we would sort it out in the morning. They did this and I retired to my room to get a few hours sleep.
I was woken up by a 7am wake up call. We were scheduled to leave for the tour at 8:30am so I got up and had a quick shower before heading down to the lobby for breakfast. I was feeling surprisingly refreshed and excited to climb the great wall. At 8:45 we finally left (people are always late or forget something) and headed for the great wall. On the way we drove through the heart of the Olympic village and saw the athlete’s apartments, aquatic facility and stadium.
We finally arrived at the great wall, the Ju Rong Guan section, about an hour later. From a distance we could see a narrow white line snaking through the mountains and as we drove closer it became grander and grander. I didn’t realize how steep it would be, I had seen parts of it on America’s Next Top Model and it was flat. I wasn’t expecting to have to literally climb the great wall. We disembarked the bus and headed for the bathroom. I am becoming quite a pro at using the squatter toilets, unlike many of the other students who still wait in line to use the one western toilet. After this quick stop I headed for the wall with my friend Crystal (coincidentally her last name is Johnson). We began the steep hike with the other 5000 people who also started at the same time as us. I didn’t realize quite how touristy the wall would be. It was like walking in a parade, you couldn’t go any faster than the person in front of you. It was quite difficult to stop for a breather (yes I needed to) or to stop for a photo opportunity (of which we wanted many). About half way up the wall Anna joined us, having been disconnected from her friends by the large crowds. It was a really exhausting experience. Now from what you have read so far it probably sounds as if I didn’t enjoy it but I really did. It was a beautiful warm day and amazing to experience climbing on the great wall. The higher we climbed the fewer and fewer people there were. The wall also became narrower the higher we climbed.
After reaching as high up as we could in the time we had, we began the downward journey. It was quite scary because the steps were very uneven and a single missed step could have sent you tumbling hundreds of feet downwards. There were also no barriers on the sides of the wall! On the way down we also stopped at a souvenir shop half way from the bottom. Here I purchased a ‘I climbed the great wall’ t-shirt and an engraved bronze certificate. When we reached the bottom we browsed the many stalls. They all sold the same things; jade jewelry, jade seals (stamps), t-shirts, magnets and souvenirs. I managed to restrain myself from buying too much and only bought some bracelets and a magnet. Maybe a few gifts too ;) After leaving the great wall we reboarded the bus to head to lunch. I should note that everywhere we went in Beijing was about an hour from each other so inevitably we all ended up falling asleep between destinations (even though the tour guides talked non-stop over the mic). This made us all very groggy upon arrival at each place. Our next stop was lunch at the Dayi Friendship Restaurant. It was part of a government run complex that included a ceramic making factory and gift shop. It is important to mention that most tour companies in China are government run and therefore we ate and visited government run facilities and what the tour guides told us was censored by the government.
The restaurant was a large round table meal complete with lazy susan. They brought the food to us and dishes included rice, noodles, sweet and sour pork, chicken, beef and vegetable dishes. Before I go on I want to talk a bit about the food. I’m not sure whether we ate really authentic food or not, because although it was delicious, it was a lot like the food they serve at Chopsticks or Sung Sing. I was not sure whether this was authentic or whether they had ‘toned down’ down the traditional food when they knew a bunch of foreigners were coming. That is besides the point I guess, because the food was very good, I would just be interested to know if this is the same thing that the locals eat. After lunch we headed to the ceramics demonstration. Here the workers use stencils to glue copper wires to metal urns to form a pattern. After the outline is in place, the space between the wires is filled with ceramic paint. They are then blasted in a furnace. The process is completed 7 times until the paint depth is flush with the copper wire. The end products are beautiful detailed vases which are very expensive because the process is so labour intensive. I ended up not buying anything here but instead wanted to wait to be able to find the vases at a market.
After lunch we headed to the summer palace. It is the largest palace in China and is beautiful. We entered, not really knowing what to expect, and were greeted by gorgeous buildings, the 17 arches bridge and a large lake in the middle. Because the property covers many hundred acres, it would have been impossible to see everything. We took a dragon boat across the lake to the other side. When we arrived there we separated into our two buses and bus A followed the yellow panda embreller (as our tour guide Christine called it). First we stopped at the marble boat. The facilities in the palace were mainly enjoyed by the dragon lady, who was said to come to the boat and watch her own reflection in the giant mirror. We then moved on to a Guinness record holding walkway. It is a walkway which connects many aspects of the palace, while serving also as a gallery. It is the world’s longest art gallery. While we were walking through the walk way we notice a baby with a slit in her pants. We kept watching and asked Christine and she said that most babies don’t use diapers, they simply squat and do their thing through the slit in their pants. It is very odd to see all these toddlers walking around with their little bums hanging out!
We continued through the walkway passing the living area of the dragon lady, dining room and several gardens. There were so many people and groups at the summer palace that it was easy to get lost. Surprisingly, only 2 girls got disconnected from the group. After a fairly short visit to the summer palace we returned to the hotel to get ready for the evening’s entertainment. When I got back to the hotel we had half an hour to get ready. I had to change my room so that I was sharing was someone. They had figured out during the day where I would be going so I packed up all my stuff and moved to another room. The process took a lot longer than it should have but I finally ended up rooming with Kat. As soon as I had dumped my stuff in the new room I had to head down to the lobby to meet the group to go to an acrobatics show. I wasn’t sure what to expect but had heard that it was something I should do which in china. It turned out to be one of the best parts of the trip. The stunts that they did seemed to be impossible and are really hard to describe. I have many videos of the acts but everyone was just blown away by how flexible the performers were. After the show was over Robin, Kaitlin, Crystal, Sharon and I decided to go for something to eat. They chose hard rock café and I reluctantly followed! We got into a taxi and showed him the directions in Chinese, which Christine had written out. Well the two taxis had no idea where to go and drove us around in circle for a while. After stopping and asking for directions many times we finally arrived, only to find it was closed for renovations.
On to plan B. We didn’t even get out of the taxi before telling the driver to take us back to the hotel. We had heard there was a night market nearby so decided to check it out and hopefully find something to eat while we were there. I’m not sure if I have already mentioned how cold it was in China. Especially at night, and with no jackets, we were all freezing. We headed for the market and were relieved to find it quite easily. It was quite small but sold everything from crafts, jewelry, jade stamps, purses and paintings to food. The food looked a little suspect (think scorpions on a skewer) so after browsing the market we started to walk back to the hotel and hopefully find somewhere to eat along the way. Well surprise, McDonald’s was the chosen one. It was quite a cultural experience though, because the menus were not in English and the décor was more like that of a gourmet restaurant. We enjoyed our food, although it was much spicier than the American version, and headed back to the hotel for a good night sleep.
On day 2 and our last day in Beijing, we woke up for breakfast and then headed to Tiananmen Square. He we were taught about its history and the buildings surrounding it, but the shootings were not even mentioned (courtesy of government control). There were many people here trying to sell fake Olympic merchandise, watches and t-shirts. We had a group photograph taken and the crowd of locals that gathered to watch and take pictures of us pose was larger than our group of 83 people. After walking across Tiananmen Square we entered the Forbidden City. A large painting of chairman Mau hung above the entrance and was quite scary. When we entered we were given maps and headsets. I went with my friend Crystal to explore. As we neared certain sites the headset was activated and began to tell us about each one. Although I’m still not sure exactly what the purpose of the Forbidden City is although I do know that it was the home of the Emperor and his inner circle, who all had their balls cut off to force them to remain faithful to the emperor. The idea was that they were no longer men, only slaves to the country and would be focused on serving rather than reproducing. Within the forbidden city there were many different halls and exhibitions, as well as displays of art, clothing and antiques. Before leaving the forbidden city we walked through a garden. It was very beautiful but I didn’t feel like it was a real garden because it was simply trees and flowers in a paved courtyard area. After leaving the forbidden city we headed to Wahaha restaurant for lunch.
Once again it was a round table meal with lazy susan. We had the usual for lunch; sweet and sour pork, rice, soup, noodles and various other meat dishes. One of the good things about China compared to my trip in India was that drinks were included. We could choose from coke, sprite, water or beer and could even have a refill. What a luxury!
After lunch I headed downstairs for some shopping. The whole street was filled with fake purses. The fakes here looked more real than the ones in Vietnam but were also far more expensive. After a brief shopping visit we reboarded the bus to head to the temple of heaven.
The temple of heaven is the largest heaven worshipping temple in China. By this point in the tour we were all quite tired of looking at temples which quite frankly, looked all the same. Crystal and I once again headed off on our own to explore. After having a quick look around the temple area we headed back down to the surrounding gardens. These were a gathering place for many locals to sing, dance and play cards and other games. It was fascinating to watch these people enjoying their daily life, far more interesting than the actual temple. We didn’t have too long here but we people watched for a while before headed back to the bus with ice cream. It was now time to head back to the airport to board our flight to Xi’an.
We drove back to the massive Beijing airport and headed to our gate. Our guide, Christine travelled with us to Xi’an. When we arrived in Xi’an it was early evening so before we checked in at our hotel we went for dinner at a hot pot restaurant. One again it was a large round table with a lazy susan. Each person had a small stove with a pot of broth on it. In the middle of the table were beef, lamp, shrimp, mushroom, cabbage, bean sprouts and other veggies. Once the broth boiled, you could put whatever you wanted into it to make a soupy thing. The noodles cooked very quickly, so the trick was to cook everything else first before you put the noodles in. When it was done we put the mixture into a small bowl and added peanut and chilli sauce. It was delicious. One of the surprising things about China, and later Japan (yes I am writing about China after we left Japan) is that soy sauce is not provided. They do have it, but only bring it if you ask for it. I think this is one of the things that has been normalized by westernizing asian cultures. Most locals don’t eat it with their food.
After leaving the restaurant we headed to our hotel. Once again the hotel was very nice. I think that SAS could cut down on the cost of their overnight trips by staying in slightly less fancy hotels. There was no need to be staying in a five star resort when all we were doing was sleeping there! Needless to say the room was very nice. There was a small sitting area and two double beds. After all the day’s activities we were exhausted so Kat and I went straight to sleep.
The next morning we woke up early for breakfast. Like the hotel in Beijing, the breakfast was a mixture of western specialties and asian dishes. I had a combination of fruit, eggs, noodles and pastries. It was delicious but probably not too healthy. First stop on today’s tour was the terracotta warriors. I was very excited for this and had chosen this particular trip because it was the only one that got to see them. When we arrived I was quite shocked to see how developed they were. I half expected to be able to walk around in the pit and get a close look at them but this was not the case. After a short movie about the history of the statues (they were to guard the tomb of the emporer) and their discovery (a farmer digging discovered them) we headed off to see them. The warriors are divided into 3 pits. Pit one is the largest pit. It was filled with warriors that had mostly been repaired and were now intact. There were many types of warriors; infantrymen, cavalrymen, horsemen and kneeling officers. I was fascinated by the detail on each of the statues, which were all life size. There were also life size horses! I was a little disappointed that we couldn’t get very close to them but could still see fairly well from the viewing area.
After leaving pit 1, we headed to pit 3, the smallest pit. There were not many warriors in this pit, only a few that were missing arms and legs. We didn’t stay here long and quickly headed to the second pit. The second pit was filled with body parts and soldiers which were in the process of being pieced back together. Because we were there on a Sunday we didn’t get to see them be built. In this pit were also some completed warriors in glass cases. We had to take our token pose pictures here, before heading to the museum.
The museum told of how the warriors were discovered and how they were being restored. Everything was written in Chinese so we couldn’t understand much. We looked at the pictures and displays. Of special interest were the only two bronze chariots which had been found with the warriors. They were very intricate, but hardly as interesting as our new guide, Alex, had described them. After visiting the gift shop for an ice cream, we headed to the tea room for a traditional tea ceremony. I don’t drink tea so sat outside with some other people and basked in the Chinese sun! After the short tea break we walked back to the bus.
As soon as we walked through the gates of the museum there were people trying to sell us miniature warriors. I was really happy because the gift shop had tried to charge far too much money for the tiny replicas. These men were selling the set of 5 warriors for $2. They kept pulling the boxes out of their shirts! I didn’t know how much they could fit in there until they kept pulling them all out. Almost everybody on our bus bought a box of warriors, some who paid about $20 were disappointed that the better bargainers were able to get them for much less.
After a short drive we arrived for lunch at Qinjitang restaurant. Once again it was a government run facility and we received our shopping cards. Before eating we watched a short demonstration of how silk is made from a cocoon. It was really interesting to see how it is pulled and stretched to become so soft. For lunch, guess what we had? Yep, another round table with lazy susan. And yes we again ate noodles, rice, soup and various meat dishes. We didn’t have long for lunch so I ate pretty quickly so I would have time to look at some silk goods. Bad idea. I ended up falling in love with a silk duvet cover. It took me a long time to pick out which pattern I wanted but in the end chose a beautiful set which is supposed to last me for at least 20 years. Crystal reminded me that I might be married during this time so not to buy a pattern or colour that was too feminine. I had not even thought of that!
After spending way too much money on the set (although I do really like it) we returned to the bus bound for the lesser wild goose pagoda. Once again, yet another Buddhist pagoda. We walked through the gardens and had quick look at the Xi’an history museum. It showcase jade jewelry, artwork and pottery. Jade is everywhere in this area. It is made into stamps, jewelry and anything else you can possible think of. After a short look around the museum we walked back towards the bus. Along the way we came across a small gift shop. In the back corner was a woman who was writing calligraphy. She wrote all our names on rice paper for free!
After waiting in line to get my name done, we hurried back to the bus for fear of being late and getting dock time. It was back to the hotel for a brief change of clothes before heading off to a tang dynasty show and dinner. Alex told us that this was not to be missed.
When we arrived we were seated at tables in front of the stage. I though it may have been a dinner show, where you eat while the show is going on. This was not the case, although they did serve popcorn and ice cream during the show. The show consisted of many different scenes with people playing different instrument and singing in different styles. Some of it was just plain painful. We were all glad when it was over. But unfortunately, the food was not much better. We were told it was going to be a dumpling dinner but there were no dumplings to be seen. We had many courses, from salad and appetizers, soup, spare ribs, and desert. It was ok, but we were all a little disappointing we didn’t get dumplings.
Afterwards Kailtin, Crystal, Sharon and I decided to head to the muslim market downtown. We needed to get our dose of markets in Xi’an. After a quick bathroom stop at McDonald’s and to grab a McFlurry to refuel we were off. There were many alleyways and different shops selling everything including pearls, fake bags, silk robes, watches, jewelry, souvenirs, food and flasks of all things. We were able to bargain with the shop keepers here so we could get things pretty cheap. We headed down one alley and ended up spending a lot of time there. I bought a few bracelets for next to nothing and a beautiful robe as well as some gifts. We then strolled down the main street but didn’t buy much here. It was a great cultural experience to see all the food being cooked and the locals bargaining with each other. The market began to close at about eleven pm so we grabbed a taxi back to the hotel to crash.
The next day was our last day of the trip. I had signed up for a calligraphy lesson with a calligraphy master so woke up early for breakfast. About half of the group boarded the bus for the calligraphy lesson while the other half opted to sleep in and join us later in the day. We arrived at what seemed to be a run-down area of the city. We then entered a small building and climbed many floors of uneven stairs before reaching the calligraphy school. We entered a small classroom with wooden desks and stools. The desks were set with a piece of rice paper, a calligraphy brush and a small bowl of ink. After we all sat down, the calligraphy master entered. She didn’t speak any English so spoke Chinese and Alex translated for us. She first explained the history and different styles of Chinese calligraphy. Next we were told to fold our rice paper into twelve squares. This was quite challenging for some people (why was I not surprised?). After everyone finally mastered the art of folding a piece of paper to form squares we were able to begin our lesson. We learned to write 12 symbols include river, above, below and thank you. The calligraphy master told me that I was the best in the class! After completing the lesson, some people learned to write their name. We then reboarded the bus and headed for none other than the bell tower and people’s square, the same area as the market we had been at the night before.
We opted not to visit another pagoda and go to Starbucks and instead headed to McDonald’s again and then back to the muslim market. I picked up a Rolex and a Gucci watch while some friends bought pearls. We didn’t have long here so headed back to the bus. China has a thing with kites. There were people everywhere selling stings of small plastic kites. Some people bought them hoping to fly them off the ship!
After we left the market we headed to lunch at the dong fang rotating restaurant. When we arrived the platform wasn’t rotating but we complained for long enough and they finally turned on the rotator. Surprisingly, this was not lazy susan style, instead it was a buffet. It had some traditional noodles, meats and vegetables but was made up of mostly western pasta salads, macaroni and deserts. It was good nonetheless and was a nice change from sweet and sour pork! After lunch we headed downstairs to the lobby of the hotel and I really wanted to buy a jade pendant. Because the store was within the hotel, we could not bargain. I decided not to buy it, in the hope that I could find it the next day in Shanghai.
Our last stop before heading to the airport was the museum of the forest of stele. This was an underground museum, much like miniatures of the terracotta warriors. They were constructed to guard the yang tombs of the han dynasty. By this point we were all exhausted so spent most of our time here sitting at the picnic tables eating ice cream. I discovered the most off ice cream that I have ever seen. It was shaped like an ear of corn and had a wafer like shell. Inside was yellow ice cream. The entire thing tasted exactly like cold corn on the cob. It was the weirdest thing!
We boarded the bus for the last time and headed for the airport. It turned out that our flight was quite delayed so we waited a long time in the airport. When we finally took off I was relieved to have an exit seat with extra legroom. The flight was only about two hours. We arrived and boarded another bus for an hour long drive back to the ship. When we arrived at the ship, all the other busses had just arrived too. The line was really long and everyone had overnight bags so it took a long time for the security staff to check all of them. I finally got back into my room at about 12:30am and I dropped my bag and went straight to sleep.
The next day was our last day in China. I was supposed to go on a day trip that left at 7:30am but I didn’t quite wake up in time. I went for a nice breakfast and then went to check my email. My ‘sister’ Ashley came and we decided to go into Shanghai to find an internet café and have a little poke around. The weather reminded me of England. It was bitterly cold and drizzling. We got a taxi and headed for starbucks. Well we didn’t have any luck there but they recommended the coffee bean and they did have internet. We stayed there until our batteries died. After this we headed until the shopping area. It was an area with many winding, narrow pedestrian streets. We bought some last minute pearls. I also bought a fake Ipod shuffle. It was thirty bucks but I figured it would be good for working out so I didn’t have to ruin my good ipod. After a few hours we were cold and wet so decided to have a nice lunch at pizza hut before heading back to the ship. I really enjoyed China, I think it was my favorite port so far! We have been to japan but I have not yet written about it, so stay tuned! xo

vietnam

So I came into Vietnam with great expectations of cheap shopping, friendly people and with lots of money to spend. It didn’t disappoint in any way!
My first glimpse of Vietnam came at 6:30am when I awoke to watch the ship navigate its way up the winding Saigon River. The river was barely wide enough for two ships to pass and I have no idea how the captain guided our huge ship through the winding course of the river. Along the way we passed rice fields, small villages, and many lonely wooden fishing boats anchored alongside the shoreline. Although the weather was not very nice, it was cloudy and raining, it was a beautiful beginning to my time in Vietnam.
On the day we arrived, Thursday, I had an FDP on the ship at 1pm. I was really anxious to get off the ship to go to be measured for a custom tailored dress so it would be ready before we left. Customs officials had been on board since 5am so we figured the ship would be cleared early after our arrival at 8am. If we were able to leave early, I would have a chance of making it back in time for my FDP. After having my passport stamped and obtaining a landing card, we headed for the gangway. Jenna, Leah and I were the first 3 people off the ship. We headed for the shuttle bus, which was scheduled to leave every half hour. Because we were ported in the industrial port, it was about a half hour drive from the center of the city. No taxis were available so the only option was to use the shuttle. We boarded the bus at about 9:45 but it didn’t end up leaving until 10:30. This was a good indicator of how the rest of the trip was going to be in terms of the shuttle service. Continued excuses of ‘we wait til bus full’ or ‘we wait til other bus come’ delayed our departure. By the time we arrived in the center of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) we didn’t have much time at all. We started walking down the main street in search of a tailor. The first one we came to looked reputable so we headed inside. We showed them the pictures of the dresses we had selected and chose the fabric. They then took our measurements and we paid, before being promised the dresses would be ready on Monday morning.
While Jenna and Leah were choosing their fabrics and being measured, I hurried to a nearby market to pick out some fabrics. My mum had told me that they can replicate any clothes that you bring to them perfectly, in any fabric that you choose. I picked my favorite dress and 4 tops to have re-made. After paying about $50 for the fabric (which I am told is reasonable for 10 meters of fabric, I have no idea though) I ran back to Sinva Silk to show them the clothes. I explained to them that I wanted the exact same size and fit of the clothes, just to be made in other fabrics. I figured that even if the custom dresses didn’t turn out, they couldn’t really go wrong with replicating the garments I gave them. When we were finished, about noon, we hopped in a cab and headed back to the port. We had learned our lesson and decided not to risk using the shuttle bus!
After a quick lunch I headed to the Union to listen to Mr. Vecchi, a lawyer in Vietnam talk. The lecture was scheduled for 4 hours but I prayed it wouldn’t last that long. The only reason I stayed for more than 5 minutes was because I had to write a paper about the talk. It was the most boring thing I have ever done and I hated the fact that I could have been out spending my dollar bills instead of listening to him. Thankfully he finished at about 3pm, only two hours after he started. I headed to check my email and found an email from Hanh, a lady my mum had met when she travelled to Vietnam 2 years ago. I had planned to meet up with her and she said tonight was good for her. I emailed her back and tried to call, but in the end had to use one of the dock worker’s phones because my international cell phone didn’t work. We agreed to meet at 8pm for dinner. By this time Leah had come back from her days excursions and wanted to come, and I also invited Jenna and Liz. We hopped on the bus about 7:20 and arrived just in time. We waited a few minutes, and I was a little anxious because I didn’t know what Hanh looked like. I think my mom described her to me as ‘small’. Quite helpful ha!
Well she arrived and recognized us and said I looked just like my mum as everyone does. We got into a taxi and headed to a local restaurant outside the city center. We were the only white people there. That’s a good thing, because you know that the place is authentic! We were a little perturbed when there were pigs roasting on a barbeque at the entrance, but I was excited to try some local food. We let Hanh do all the ordering. She started by ordering a drink for me which was lemon and sugar with soda water. It was quite normal I thought, nothing like the meal that was about to arrive.
First, a platter of the roasted pork arrived. It had a nice taste but the texture was a little off-putting. It had a hard shell-like outside and was tender on the inside. Wasn’t my favorite! Next came a large sea food platter. It had a few different types of squid and some veggies, and I quite enjoyed it. The chicken plate was next, which had almost unrecognizable chicken on it. It was cut very differently from what we were used to but tasted pretty good. They had brought us a wet hand towel and by this time we realized why. The Vietnamese eat with their hands all the time. It’s not a very pretty site to watch but they sure don’t waste any food or leave any on the bone. Next was my favorite dish. Shrimp, about 6 inches long were presented, after Hanh had hand-picked the ones she wanted while they were still living. They were difficult to handle, we had to peel them and take off the legs, but were really delicious once you got in! The last thing we had was a hot pot. It is a burner with a bowl of broth on it and vegetables and raw meats. You put whatever you want into the broth and let it cook for a while then eat it like soup. I enjoyed the meat in the soup but the vegetables looked as if they had been picked from the side of the road. They had think stalks and a strong taste which I didn’t really like. As I have always been taught though, I forced it down as if I loved it so as not to disrespect our host.
After dinner I planned to meet Hanh the next day and headed back to the ship. I was surprisingly exhausted, having not done all that much!
On the second day I woke up early to head out and meet Hanh at ten. After being stuck in traffic on the dreaded shuttle, I decided to hop off and walk the rest of the way. I had no idea where we were so asked some locals until one of them could finally point to where we were on the map. My superior map reading and navigation skills, thanks to much practice in Yorkshire, South Africa and anywhere else my mother happens to be driving, I led myself and group of other students to the bus drop off point. By this time I was very late to meet Hanh and had been unable to call her because of the cell phone issue. Luckily she was still there when I arrived and I hopped onto her motorbike for some local shopping. When I mentioned that I ride a bike in Bermuda she wanted me to drive. That wouldn’t have been a good idea seeing the traffic and lack of order on the roads in Vietnam. First she took me to the post office so that I could mail some postcards. Next we headed off to her favorite shoe store. I was expecting to arrive at a store much like a market stall with millions of shoes in all shapes and sizes. I was wrong. It was much like any shoe store at home, with organized displays and many sizes in each shoe. Although the prices were a little higher than I expected, I found a pair of black sandals that I really liked, so I decided to buy them. For $25, it was much less than I would pay at home, but more than I had expected to be paying in Vietnam. After that we headed to her favorite store. The stores are like stalls on the side of the road with the clothes displayed outside. I knew I really wasn’t going to like much in there but she and the 4 store workers insisted that I try things on and told me ‘beautiful miss’ when I had them on even though half of the things were about 5 sizes too small. I didn’t want to hurt any feelings so I bought a few things. When I said I wanted to go shopping I was thinking like market style or actual stores, but it was a good experience anyway.
After this we went to a photo store so that I could get some of my pictures developed. I have taken so many so far that it would have cost me a fortune to get them all developed when I get home. I didn’t know how much it would cost but I figured it would be less than the 60 cents a print that it is at home. I had selected 500 pictures that I wanted to print. They took the two CDs I had burned the pictures onto and told me to come back in 3 hours. I was nervous about the quality and the price but figured that it couldn’t be that bad.
In the mean time we headed for lunch at Pho Hung. Pho is a Vietnamese beef noodle dish. Once again I let Hanh do the ordering because I would have chosen the most boring thing on the menu. She ordered the restaurant special. It had all types of beef in it, shaved beef, joints, and skin. I only eat the shaved beef and gave the skin to her. She loved anything with fat or skin on it. Once again there was a tray of weeds on the table to put into the soup. Knowing from experience, I gracefully declined when she tried to throw a handful into my bowl. I did add some bean sprouts though to make her feel like I liked the veggies and because I liked them. The food was delicious! The drink on the other hand was not. She ordered sam bong cuc da. I had no idea what it was but when it arrived I was quite repulsed. It was basically ice with ginseng and chrysanthemum. The flower was actually in the drink. I didn’t like the taste of it let alone the fact that I was sucking up petals through the straw. It tasted exactly how a flower smells, a taste that should not be consumed. I forced most of it down and took pictures so that people would believe me when I told them. She said I could eat the flower but I wasn’t going to go that far just to be polite.
After lunch she took me to her hotel and to see her baby Anna. The hotel was off the main streets in the back alleys. It was very small but seemed to be nice. I didn’t get to see any rooms because there were people staying in them. Anna is five months old and so cute. Hanh’s husband is a Bermudian guy who I have known since I was little. Even though I haven’t seen him in about 10 years, Anna looked exactly like how I remembered him looking. I played with her for a little while and took advantage of the internet. At 3pm we hopped back onto the motor bike and headed back to fuji film. The pictures were done and the quality was no different than normal. The price turned out to be very cheap, only 10 cents per print. The photos were very heavy but I headed to the market to do some shopping anyway.
The market is not like anything I have ever seen before. It is huge and very cluttered. They sell everything from fabric, food, fake watches, perfume, DVDs and fake clothing. Needless to say I really enjoyed this and picked up lots of things for very little money. It was very hot and cluttered and I soon became weighted down with bags so I decided to return to the ship. I decided not to do anything that night because I had to leave for my trip at 8pm the next day.
Saturday was spent mostly on a bus, but between journeys at a Cao Dai temple and at the Cu Chi tunnels. We departed at 8am. Our first stop was a local family home where rice paper was being made. Rice paper is a very thin edible film that is used to make noodles and to wrap around vegetables to form something like a spring roll. It was interesting to watch the process of cooking the batter and carefully laying it onto a wicker drying rack. It is then put in the sun to dry. After a short stay here we were back on the road. Our next stop was a ‘happy stop’. When the tour guide told us this no one knew what we were in for but we were soon aware that I was a pee break. They also sold food so I bought some Pringles (yes they are on par to be available in every country we visit). I am starting to get tired of Pringles but feel I must continue with my experiment and continue to buy them in each country.
Our next stop was lunch. We went to a local restaurant for an early lunch before visiting the Cao Dai temple nearby. The food was surprisingly good. We started with noodle soup. We were then served breaded shrimp, rice, noodles and a beef dish. I have a feeling this was not traditional Vietnamese cooking and that they had made it more ‘westernized’ so that we would be more comfortable eating it. After a very quick lunch we headed to the Great temple, the center of the Cao Dai religion and one of the most striking structures in all of Asia. It was a huge building surrounded by gates and gardens. We arrived just in time to observe the noon service. As always we took off our shoes and went upstairs to watch. Although we weren’t told anything about it, it seemed as if it consisted of a whole lot of bowing when a gong was sounded. The entire congregation wore white traditional dress and sat cross legged on the floor. The temple was very intricately designed, with paintings and architecture which didn’t seem to resemble a place of worship but reminded me more of something in a carnival. After taking pictures and observing for a few minutes we headed back out to the bus.
We were now bound for the climax of the day, the Cu Chi tunnels. For those that don’t know, these are an intricate system of tunnels which total about 200km. They would built by the Vietnamese guerillas during the American was in the 60s and 70s. We watched a short movie first to give us a bit of information on the tunnels. There are 3 levels of tunnels; the bunkers at 3 meters below ground, the second level at 6m below ground and the deepest and narrowest tunnels at 8-10 meters below ground. If you didn’t know about them, as the American soldiers didn’t, you would have no idea they were there. The entrances we often tiny hatches the size of textbooks (the Vietnamese are very small people) and are covered by leaves or camouflage. We walked through an area above the tunnels and looked at various features of the tunnels; the kitchen, hospital, weapon making area and viewed the air holes for the tunnels and the place where the soldiers shot out of. We also got to look at some of the weapons that were used against Americans. They are brutal but simple methods of torture. Next we visited the National Defense Sports Shooting Range. We were able to shoot some of the guns that were used in the war. I was very scared to do this but thought this would be a good memory for my first, and probably only time I shoot a gun. I chose an AK 47 because it was the only gun on the list I had ever heard of (I think its in a song or something). I thought it was a hand gun but when I went down into the ditch where the guns are mounted, I found out it was a rifle. I was really scared because it was very loud with other machine guns going off around me. I shot five bullets and had no idea if they went anywhere near the target because I was so scared I didn’t even aim. I kept the shells but quickly hurried back up to the safety of the souvenir shop. I’m glad I did it, but can’t really say that I enjoyed it.
Next was the part we had all been waiting for. We got to go into the tunnels. First we went into the shallowest level. The tunnels had been slightly expanded for tourists but still seemed pretty tiny to me. We had to crouch down and walk almost on all fours. We only went 20m but by that time I was petrified and my legs were hurting from bending down. I don’t know how anyone could stay in there for long, let alone live in there when the area was under attack. I now have a greater appreciation for the soldiers in the war who lived like this. Next we went on to a smaller tunnel. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do this but figured I would regret it later if I didn’t. Coincidentally my camera died in the first tunnel so I have no proof that I actually went into the smaller one.
The only evidence I can offer are the scratches on my knees from crawling through the tunnel. This one was much longer (50m) and I was definitely ready to get out by the end. I was very dirty and tired because it was very hot down there and was thankful when we reached the end. I scrambled up the exit into fresh air. There was still one more tunnel than was smaller again. Thankfully we didn’t have time to go into this one so none of you will never know if I would have gone into it or not (although you can probably guess). I really enjoyed experiencing a little of what the guerillas experienced during the war. After washing off in the fountain we were rushed back to the bus to make sure that we made it back to the city on time. After dinner I had a good shower and settled in for a good night sleep in preparation for another early morning.
On Sunday I got up early again to prepare for my 8am excursion to the Delta. After a quick breakfast I headed to the bus. Can, the same tour guide from the day before, greeted me. We headed out for a two hour drive to the delta. Our first stop was another happy stop. This time there were a few shops there too, although I managed not to buy anything. Our next stop was a Buddhist temple. We had half an hour to look around. I took lots of pictures and browsed the gift shop. This was also the site where I used my first squatter toilet. I had been resisting since India but figured I should use one at least once! We headed back onto the bus and headed to a local market.
On the way we stopped at a rice to field to take a closer look at rice before it is harvested. It was quite interesting to see it on a plant, but more fascinating to see the women in traditional dress harvesting it. At the market I couldn’t resist and went straight to the purse store. I ended up bargaining for two bags and was late back to the bus. I was 3 minutes late but the stupid teacher took down my name, which I knew would mean dock time (so I couldn’t get off the ship until a certain time in Hong Kong) but it turned out later than I only got a warning.
Our next stop was where we boarded the river boats to head into the delta. We crossed the river on a fairly large wooden boat with a motor. We then disembarked and got into smaller boats with smaller motors. From here we headed to a candy making plant. They were making coconut candy. The whole process was very simple and hardly mechanized. We were able to try the different flavors before being offered some to buy. We then sat for tea. There was jasmine tea with honey and citrus juice which tasted really good. This is surprising because I usually hate hot drinks. We then reboarded the boats and headed deeper into the river tributary. When we got off the boats we got into horse drawn carriages. Now these were not at all like the ones in Bermuda. The horses were tiny and old and skinny and the carriages were simple wooden carts. I felt bad that the poor horse had to pull 6 of us and the driver. We finally arrived at the restaurant where we were to sample some local fruit before moving on for lunch. When we arrived there was a man with a large python. Although I had done the snake thing in India, I did it again. This snake was much bigger! We then sat down for tea and fruit. We tried local mango, jack fruit, grapefruit and dragon fruit. The grapefruit was my favorite but all of them were good. We then boarded small row boats to head into a narrower section of the tributary to the lunch restaurant.
We had heard in advance that we should go with the vegetarian option. I did and was sure glad that I did. The other meal was a whole dried fish with scales and all! The vegetarian meal was great. We started with spring rolls and fried dough, followed by rice and vegetable stew. The food kept coming and we ended with noodles and soup. I was very satisfied when we reboarded the large motor boats to head back across the river to the bus. On the boat they gave us coconuts with straws so we could drink the milk. I didn’t really like it though!
I was glad to get back onto the bus. We had a two hour ride back to the ship and I slept the whole way. I must say that being on the bus for long periods of time means lots of sleep but also means lots of time to look at the people who drive by on their motor bikes. I have found the people in all of the countries we have been to fascinating. I like the scenery and food too but I by far prefer to watch and talk to the people. Most of my pictures are of people when I’m trying to capture their essence!
We arrived back at the ship a little bit late, about 5:15 and I had arranged to meet with Hanh at 8pm for dinner. I did a quick change and headed out for some shopping before we had to meet. I first went to a store that was selling DVDs. They were 12000 dong each, about 75 cents. I bought way too many but don’t regret it one bit. They assured me that I could test them on the ship and bring them back the next day if they didn’t work. I bought a bunch of individual movies but also but some TV show series. I got friends, greys anatomy, private practice, the Disney collection, one tree hill, sex and the city, the OC and desperate housewives among others. I am really excited to watch them after we leave Japan and have lots of free time at sea. I then headed to the dress store to check on my dresses. I was told they were not ready but when I was leaving the seamstress arrived with them. I tried them on, and although they are not quite what I have imagined, they turned out ok. Many of the girls who got dresses made hated them. I also decided to get a suit made and shipped home. I was measured for it and chose the fabric! I think it is a good investment for the future even though I don’t plan on wearing a suit in the near future.
By this time it was almost 8pm but I wanted to run to the night market before I met Hanh. It was much like the indoor market during the day except outdoors. I didn’t buy anything and just walked back to meet Hanh. She had just arrived as I showed up and we walked to a nearby restaurant that she said was her favorite. It turned out to be excellent. We started with lotus salad! They then brought all the meats to cook at the table. Hanh ordered wild boar, squid, shrimp and vegetables. I enjoyed everything except the squid! It was very different from the steamboat we went to in Mauritius because the food was very spicy and there were different sauces to dip each thing into. It turned out to be only $18 for both of us even though we once again had tons of food. After this we went downstairs to a local ice cream store. I tell you Hanh could really eat. I was stuffed from the meal but she ordered a platter of ice cream with 10 different flavors and sauces. I tried to eat as much sherbet as I could, and to be honest it was very good, but I couldn’t manage to eat all that much!
After eating almost the whole platter we ran back to the bus to make sure that I was able to make it onto the last bus. I got back at about 11pm and played all the DVDs on my laptop. Out off all of them that I bought, only 3 didn’t work. I was quite impressed!
For the last day, I woke up early and headed back into the city at 10. I did some last minute shopping. I bought I watch I had been eying, traded the DVDs and bought a few more. I also went to a glasses store and bought some glasses. Even with the lenses, it was much cheaper to buy 3 pairs than it is to buy one pair at home. And they had way more styles to choose from! As I was walking back to the glasses store to pick them up an hour later a lady handed me a flyer for her spa. I decided to get a quick pedicure for $5. It turned out to be pretty nice, they massaged my feet and served tea. I wanted to get a massage but I didn’t have time! After picking up my glasses I returned to the ship in time for lunch before heading off on my afternoon trip to the war remnants museum.
We left at 1pm and drove out of the city to the home of a UPI photographer during the war. He talked to us all about his experiences during the war and showed us some of the photographs he had taken. He had won many awards like the Pulitzer Prize for his pictures and many were also published in American newspapers during the war. It was really interesting to get to ask him questions about how he felt being an observer in the war and to hear his personal opinion about the war. He has travelled all over the war and met many dignitaries including the Clintons. On his property was also a memorial that he had constructed dedicated to all the journalists and photographers who had died during the war. One piece in particular was a statue made out of thousands of bullets. To this day he drives an American jeep that was used during the war. I bought some of his famous photographs and got him to sign them and write the date and location they were taken. I think it’s a really good souvenir to take home, not something that everyone can buy at a store.
After leaving his home we travelled to the war remnants museum. I wasn’t really sure what to expect because we had been warned that the images were gruesome and shocking. Because we didn’t have much time I went straight into the photograph displays. Many of the images were so shocking that I will never forget them. The damage that was done to the people and the country is not something that will quickly heal, although remarkably most Vietnamese people have moved on from the war. Many of the American students said that they were ashamed to be American in that situation. I think I would feel the same way but we have to remember that the brutality went both ways and that the museum was only telling half of the story.
After our short visit we headed back to the ship. I asked to be dropped off in the city to have a last look around. I was planning on getting something to eat but quickly decided it was probably easier to just return to the ship and eat there. I had an early night and by the time I awoke on Tuesday morning we had already departed HCMC and were well on our way down the Saigon River.
I really enjoyed the time we spent in Vietnam and feel that I got to experience their local culture trough spending time with Hanh and the war photographer. I was quite a relaxing port for me, which is good considering China will be quite stressful I think. We arrive in Hong Kong tomorrow and I will spend 5 days travelling to Beijing and X’ian. Until next time… xoxo