TravelStream™ news feed for member wjphilip on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/wjphilip en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 28 Sep 2008 23:29:39 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/1/1220751180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/1/1220751180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/1/1220751180/tpod.html Sun, 28 Sep 2008 23:29:39 -0400 Living in Taiwan

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Taipei, Taiwan

We took the MRT up to the Lin An Family home. It was built in the Ching Dynasty but the whole place had been moved from it's original location. Now it sits next to an overpass and planes fly over head every 30 minutes. A great location change if you ask me. The place has a huge water lily pond out front which helped keep it cooler in the summer. There's a family altar right inside the courtyard and rooms off to each side. I was really happy to find that most of the signs were in English and they had interesting informative details about the carvings on the doors and each room. The beds were HUGE and all about 1-2 feet off the floor. During the winter when it got cold the servants put hot coals under the bed to warm it. There was also an interesting kitchen many baskets which kept food were hung from the ceiling so the bug had a harder time to get to them. Maybe I should install some in our apartment. They also used to tell their children that every grain of rice they wasted was one pockmark their wife/husband would have. OUCH! There was a couple there taking their wedding photos, first in a traditional outfit, very red, and then in a modern white dress. It was pretty cool. There also were some hidden locks that we spent the good part of 20 minutes looking for on the main doors. We finally found them and can now break into to the Lin An Home anytime we feel like...except for those giant padlocks.
Right across the street is the Xinsheng Park. It has a wonderful garden maze that is very intricate. You start at one end, work your way about 1/2 around and then jump into a smaller middle maze. Then finish the last half. We spent an hour and a half spiralling our way around.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/1/1219481580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/1/1219481580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/1/1219481580/tpod.html Sun, 24 Aug 2008 06:21:46 -0400 Living in Taiwan

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Danshui, Taiwan

We were originally heading out to Hualien over on the eastern coast but due to a whole bunch of odd events sent us to Danshui instead which is north of Taipei. Danshui (or spelled Tamsui, it took us forever to figure out) is on the Danshui River that heads straight to the ocean. It's mostly a fishing town but has become very touristy for no apparent reason. Ryan thinks it might be due to the bicycle trail. We got to the MRT station and checked out the hotel right across the way. It was pretty pricey roughly 1900 NT a night. So we skedaddled our way back over to the information desk at the MRT station which handed us a lovely list of hotels. We chose the one for 800 a night which seemed to also be in the area. The Taxi drove us to the end of an alley way and told us to go down it. It was still 10:00 am so the morning market was bustling. We almost walked right past it because the doorway was so small. It was a pretty sketch they had a sign saying you could rent by the hour! But we checked out the room which was clean and the bathroom was not the worst we'd seen. The lady at the front desk was very friendly and let us walk through her restaurant so she could show us an easy way to get to the ferry area. We wanted to head over to fisherman's wharf but ended up taking the ferry to Bali (a town across the river) by mistake. Oh well. We walked around a bit and then decided to rent tandem bicycles they had all sorts of bikes. Then we followed the trail towards a large red bridge. It was much nicer going that way, not as many wagon hogs, as we called them. Wagon hogs were also available to rent but they fit about four people in them and were huge. No good. We had a great time on the bike after we figured out that Ryan should go first since I weigh much less than he does. We headed back and walked down to Fort San Domingo. I was really impressed with how much information they had. Apparently it had been used as a British Consulate there was a lovely photo of the Queen. We ate a nice yellow restaurant next to the ocean and watched the sun go down. Then we grabbed a beer at a cafe area that was open air on the second story. Today we went out to Fisherman's wharf pretty early, there wasn't much there. There was a pretty cool bridge and the ferry ride was fun, but that was about it. Then we checked out the Howei Fort which didn't have much information.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/1/1218258540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/1/1218258540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/1/1218258540/tpod.html Sat, 16 Aug 2008 02:08:36 -0400 Living in Taiwan

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Keelung, Taiwan

We took the bus just outside of the Zhongxiao Fuxing for about an hour to get to Yeliou just outside of Keelung. It was only 50 NT to get into the park area where there were strict signs for no fishing. I should have brought an extra bottle of water. The parkw as very cool. The rocks sometimes reminded me of a martian landscape. They did indeed have interesting little insects crawling about. However they were quite skittish and easlily avoidable. Even when we cralwed into the cave and they were crawling all over the wall, they did everything they could to avoid us. The trail ended a little after the cave but we decided to keep going. A bit farther on there were quite a few guys fishing. I'm not sure how they got in without creating a lot of fuss since there was a great deal of signage that no fishing was allowed. There was a staircase carved into the side of the hill that led to the very top and end most point of the pennisula. It was a spectacular view. The wind was absolutely refreshing after the climb up to the top.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/2/1176097080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/2/1176097080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/2/1176097080/tpod.html Sat, 19 Jul 2008 01:39:19 -0400 Semester at Sea 07

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Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

m not sure what I thought that Vietnam was going to be like. If
anything when you think of Vietnam, you think of the war. The truth is
that besides the War Remnants museum, people in Vietnam aren't all that
freaked out about the war anymore.
We did a lot of walking around
in general in Ho Chi Minh. Crossing the street is almost the same as
swimming in a pool of sharks with a paper cut, there's a pretty good
chance you might get bitten. However, just as the band aid comes in
useful, making sure no cars are coming and then continuing at a steady
pace, without looking left or right is helpful. Blissful ignorance is
key. As long as you continue steadily people on the cyclos will swerve
around you. The only way you could really get hurt is if you stop or
start to run. After a few days you could tell which people had just
made it to Vietnam, by the way they hesitate before crossing the
street.

Pollution, just like in India is a pretty big problem, so people wear
these cloth masks, that cover their mouth. Most people wear the masks
when they're on the cyclos. The cyclos are so much fun to ride. The
driver weaves in and out of traffic and goes super fast. If you grab a
couple of cyclos with someone else, then the drivers race to the said
destination. However the cyclos were dangerous. A lot of people burned
their legs on the muffler, when they were getting off. Got to get off
on the left side.

The Bentahn Market was defiantly a cultural experience. About three
hundred stalls are squished into a building. You can find almost
anything in the market. Any t-shirt imaginable is within this market.
The best ones are in English and make no sense what so ever. A lot of
old propaganda is available for sale too, even some new stuff. I found
the coolest book of propaganda from around the world about George W.
Bush. Bush's confused face makes every photo spectacular, especially
the one of him taking a bath in oil. One night Maria and I were
wandering around after dinner and we stumbled upon an art gallery. This
gallery had 35 artists working for them. A few artists did fairly good
copies of Picasso, and other famous artists. We spent almost two hours
their.

We went to the Independent Palace, which briefly speaks of Vietnam's
continuous struggle for independence. They also have an interesting
amount of old boats that are found and drug up from the Siagon River,
and a display of Vietnamese weddings. We were also led through 50 feet
of a winding tunnel into a bomb shelter. The only sad thing was that in
this bomb shelter display there were only three pictures and a chair
and we had no idea what they were about.

One day we met up with a kid named Long, he's 12, but looks like he's
8. Long offers tours to tourists and says he loves Semester at Sea
students. He has so much energy and something to say about everything.
Long loves to sew and wants to study business, He's even come up with a
business to start up eventually. He wants to start a restaurant and he
says he'll let his uncle wash the dishes or wait tables. Currently his
uncle drives the car, while Long gives the tour. Long really already
has his own business.

First we went to a Taoist temple. It was at the time they were
worshipping so we were able to see the whole ceremony. Taoism is pretty
cool. They believe Buddha, Jesus, Muhammed and all the other prophets/
spiritual leaders were all one being that visited earth in different
forms, because people understand things in different ways. All over the
temple there were signs of Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity. There
were about six or seven platforms that the people were sitting on to
pray. It was fairly hierarchical, the hishest members of each platform
wore a different color robe, based on which prophet they most agreed
with. Red = Christianity, Yellow = Buddhism, Green = Hindu. They pray
three times a day, 6 am, 12pm, and 6pm. The one at noon is an hour and
ten minutes while the others are only a half hour. Towards the front of
the temple there are five chairs and one really big chair. Those are
for the king. The new initiates sit in the back, sing and play
instruments. It's pretty beautiful, the grounds, garden, and temple.

We had lunch with Long and his Uncle and in the process I felt like I
was huge. Both of them just had small portions of everything, they
could have shared a meal. But only three of us ate enough for four.
Again I felt huge. During lunch I taught Long how to use my camera, he
adopted it for the day and took tons of pictures, all of which turned
out really great.

Next we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels, these were the tunnels that the
Vietnamese used in the war. Every 10 meters there was an air
ventilation hole that was camouflaged to look like a pile of dirt. The
holes that the Vietnamese used to get inside the tunnels were tiny! I
could have barely tuck my leg down it, let alone got my whole body
down, and these guys jumped down them. We crawled through a 30 meter
section, that was 40% bigger than what they usually used and these guys
must have been speedy. They crawled literally on their stomach and they
had to go fast, especially if they were under fire. They also used most
of the traps that had previously been used for tigers on the soldiers.
Poor soldiers, these guys knew what they were doing. On the way back
home Long taught us a card game where the point was to make three cards
add up to nine. We taught him Go Fish and War.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/2/1175751300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/2/1175751300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/2/1175751300/tpod.html Sat, 19 Jul 2008 01:36:23 -0400 Semester at Sea 07

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Georgetown, Pinang, Malaysia

Wow...Malaysia...wow...did I mention wow? I have to admit that Malaysia was
not one of my excited ports. I actually almost always forgot about it
when I was listing off the places we were going. I feel bad and I hope
that Malaysia accepts my most sincere apology.

We spent the first day walking through the town of...Georgetown. The
island we landed on was Penang, which was the only way they referred to
where we were going to port, so there was a whole bunch of confusion.
Penang doesn't have any port either, so we dropped anchor and had to
use the tender boats (Lifeboats, I think tender is used so people don't
freak out) to get to the shore. They're pretty spiffy for being
lifeboats, however there's a raised area inside and that's where the
pilot sits, but wait it gets better! The pilot must stand up, with half
of her or his body outside of the "tender." Now I'm thinking to myself,
if the ship does capsize or we must evacuate what will the weather be
like? I would say more than likely it will be stormy. Hmm... we don't
have doors on two sides of our tender, and how will the pilot see...?
Just questions I've been pondering while I build my own raft of paper
maché in my room (it has doors and a visor).

We walked around Little India and Little China which was oddly
nostalgic and also foreshadowing at the same time. Malaysia is a
combination of Indian, Chinese, and Malay. This has created an amazing
amount of acceptance of other cultures and religions. Malaysia is very
hot, and has a very large amount of humidity. It really wasn't an
amazing first day. That night we went to a welcome reception but there
were only six students there, they did perform a shadow puppet show for
us. I really wished they'd done a traditional story, instead they kinda
dumbed it down for us, and a smart guy and a stupid guy explain about
Malaysia. We were able to see the instruments afterwards and the
puppets. All of the puppets are made of thin sheets of leather and are
cut out with a knife. There is so much intricacy, it's amazing.

We went to Paula Pangkor the next day, it's an island between Penang
and Kuala Lumpur. We kept calling it Paula until we realized that that
just means island. We took the tender to the dock, then took a ferry,
then took a three hour bus ride, then took another ferry ride, and then
took a cab. After 5 hours of traveling we were all pretty tired until
we saw the island. It was so beautiful! There were all these shacks
along the beach that housed the boats, and they had hammocks where the
locals were lounging about. We got there in the off season so while
there were other tourists there, there weren't very many. We got
settled in a hotel called the seagull that charged a whopping 12
Ringgnets a night ($3.50). Then we went down the block to the local
Chinese restaurant and ate until we could eat no more, and then walked
across the street and laid out on the beach for a few hours. The water
was bath water warm. We did have a few encounters with sea life. I
picked up a crab with my toes, but soon afterwards realized it was a
crab. They also were experiencing a Red Tide in the bay area. A Red
Tide (here's where I get to use my classroom knowledge) is when there's
so much nitrogen in the water that there's overproduction of plankton
and as a result, most of the oxygen is taken up in the water. We were
there just at the beginning but by now there should have been a
significant decrease in fish and other sea creatures. However due to
the Red Tide there were an increasing amount of water fleas, nasty
little buggers. Kevin and Andrea and I swam out to this island about
half a mile away. It was a good swim but on the way back I noticed the
sky was darkening pretty fast. I kept swimming normal pace, then I saw
a bolt of lightning, it kinda scared me but I was counting "one, two,
three, four, man it can't be that close...BOOM!" I sped up. We got back
to our hotel before it began to monsoon pour. After a few games of
Rummy the rain had stopped and we decided to head down to a bar a
couple blocks down. The best part about the area we were in was that
everything was a five minute walk away. We played pool and met two
English guys. Peter had been living on Pangkor for 6 weeks and Tris
lives in (get this!) Qingdao! Apparently they both lived in China for
awhile. Peter was in Hong Kong for a bit so we got the names of a few
places to go while we're there. They offered to show us around the
island the next day.

The next day we went snorkeling. Even though there was a Red Tide there
was still a lot of fish. If you just floated in the water they'd all
swarm up around you. A couple even decided my toes looked tasty. There
were tons of crabs scuttling about all over the place, and they ranged
from so many different sizes, it was crazy. The island that we went
snorkeling around had an unruly inhabitant on it. This Gilligan fellow
was not carefree like the guy on the show, but an evil little pesk that
stole people's shoes and clothes while they were swimming. Luckily we
didn't get into any trouble with him. It took a bit to get back home
that night because there had been a bomb scare on the bridge leading
over into Georgetown. So the ferry was packed. We were all tired and
hungry but everyone decided to go out for my birthday anyway because
we'd be on the ship the next night.

We took a cab down to an area in Georgetown SoHo area. We kept looking
for someplace to eat, but most places had closed already because it was
10:30. So we all started getting crank due to the lack of nutrition. We
were walking down the street and this door had "until 12:00" on the
door. It kinda looked a little sketchy cause you couldn't see in, but
at that point we didn't really care. We opened the door and literally
all gasped. The floor was covered by a glass plate and had a stream
running through the middle of the restaurant. It was so pretty. There
was no one else there either, because it was so late. The menu was
insane. They had four pages devoted to smoothies and juices. We had
ginger honey spring rolls and then for dinner I had grilled salmon with
a spicy plum sauce. And let me tell you all it was one of the best
meals I've ever had. At midnight we all cheered with a glass of wine
and I got some pretty good birthday cake.

After midnight the tender boats only run every hour so we got back to
the dock at 12:45 only to find out that the boat had just left. So we
played spoons for an hour. I think we scared some of the locals,
because we were playing cutthroat spoons. At one point Andrea and I
were knocking over our chairs and tuffleing through the area (I won).
On the way back they let me sit up on the platform where the pilot
steers and everyone coming back sang "Happy Birthday" to me.

We were back on the tender at 10 the next morning. Our taxi driver from
the night before, Mohammed, piled everyone into his car and drove us by
Starbucks (I know...I know...but tell you me that Caramel Macchiato was the
best I've ever had), the girl behind the counter was named Wendy too!
We climbed back in the car and Mohammed drove us around Penang. We
stopped at a Batik shop first. Batik is a way to make patterns on the
fabric. It's a lot like Kitsky (spelling?) eggs. They start out with
white fabric and everything they was to stay white they cover in hot
wax. They use a triangular metal tool to draw out the patterns. Then
they dye it yellow, then everything they want to stay yellow they cover
in hot wax, and etc. etc. When they've gone through all the colors they
want they boil the fabric in water to remove all of the wax. It was
amazing watching all of these people work. On piece of fabric was close
to 20 yds long! And they were dying it by hand!

Next Mohammed took us to the fishing docks. There were a lot of boats
and it was really interesting to see the men coming back in. They go
out at about 3 am and then come back around noon. Usually they get red
snapper around that area. The best part about Mohammed driving us was
talking to him in the car. He answered all of our questions and then
added some of his own info as well. We learned everything from how
prominent AIDS was in the community to whether or not Malays preferred
cricket or football.

After the fishing docks Mohammed asked if we'd like to walk through a
Malay community. We said ok and ended up walking through HIS
neighborhood. Most traditional houses have half the house on stilts so
that people can sit under it and in the shade when the day gets really
hot. We also saw a Muslim grave yard. Instead of tombstones they have
stone pillars. Also after five years they dig up the same spot and bury
another person there. Then there are two posts at that one spot. After
we walked through the area he invited us in for some mango juice. He
said he had called his wife and asked her to make it, she had just
pureed the mangos from the tree in their backyard. She also served us a
traditional breakfast that is a lot like French toast, except there's
no syrup and the bread isn't soaked in egg. The egg is just dusted over
the top. We met two of his four children, his mother, sister, niece and
great niece. We sat and talked with him and for a little while and
about the schools around the area. All of the schools teach English as
well but the Chinese schools also teach Mandarin. His great niece was
seven and spoke three languages. He told us about how excited he was to
complete his Haj, or pilgrimage to Mecca the next year. All of his
sisters (seven!) had already gone with their husbands, but he gets to
go next year. Apparently it's a 45 day trip! This was the coolest part
of our trip. I would suggest you try and procure this experience if
you're ever in another country.

Afterwards he dropped us off at the butterfly museum while he went to
complete his afternoon prayers. That was pretty cool. There were tons
of butterflies, including one that decided sitting on the front of my
camera lens was great fun. They also had reptiles including a Mountain
Horned Dragon! Apparently Etch, my Mountain Horned Dragon is going to
get quite a bit bigger. There were Mandarin Ducks, Horseshoe Crabs (I
just did a project on them for class), and scorpions. There were also
fluorescent scorpions which glowed after exposed to fluorescent light.

After that we went to the Tropical Fruit Farm. They had tons of
different types of fruit. I saw a red pineapple, and giant bananas and
Durian...oh Durian. It's a spiky brown fruit that smells like someone
left it in an outhouse. Malays LOVE it! It smells terrible but it
tastes semi-sweet. In my opinion not good enough for its horrendous
smell. I also learned that too much Nutmeg can kill someone hence the
tiny amounts used. There were two Japanese families on the tour with
us. Ralpho, one of the sons, was a soundtrack producer that lives in LA
and was hanging out with his parents on Vacation. He'd been to Kobe, so
he and his parents spoke a bit and then wrote down the best places to
go that weren't nearly as expensive as everything else in Japan. He
also informed us that sushi is CHEAP! "Better than the US and
cheaper...it's like heaven, I don't even eat sushi when I'm in the States
anymore." We all were pretty pleased about that.

After that we went to the botanical gardens. They were very beautiful
and full of Monkeys. These guys loved peanuts and hated each other. It
was pretty funny watching them. They looked like tiny lions. The people
in the garden were almost as colorful as the plants. All of the Muslim
women wore brightly colored skirts, long sleeve shirts, or sarees and
head scarves. They were so vibrant with their pinks, yellows and
purples.

Our second to last stop was a side of the road Hindi temple, this is no
ordinary temple. It was for new cars, people bring their new car to the
temple to be blessed. It starts with the new owner handing his keys to
the priest and then getting down on his knees in the temple while the
priest throws flowers on the car and offers a type of incense to four
different gods. Then they light a candle near each of the tires, throw
ashes on the car, and mark it with a "third eye" also known as a Bhindi
or that red dot Indian women have on their foreheads. Last but not
least the owner takes a burning coconut and smashes it on the ground in
front of the car. Another interesting tidbit: Chinese owners pay up to
the same or more amount of the car for a license plate with one or more
8's in the combo.

Our last stop dear friends and family was at the piercing parlor.
That's right I got my nose pierced in Malaysia. It was a tad bit scary
but luckily I had Dannie to hold my hand. Unfortunately they used a gun
instead of a needle. So in an effort to have a smaller post forming the
hole in my nose we were unable to re-input the stud in my nose. So
unfortunately I allowed my new accessory holder to close. However for
those of you who are disappointed I will be able to get it re-pierced
in Hong Kong! Don't worry it looks cute.

I love Malaysia, it was lovely and fun and well...WOW!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/2/1216445580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/2/1216445580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/2/1216445580/tpod.html Sat, 19 Jul 2008 01:35:22 -0400 Semester at Sea 07

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Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu, India

I was so excited for India, ok that was a bad start to my e-mail, India
was great (I'll just tell you that now so you don't get apprehensive).
However I got up super early to watch the sun rise, and there was no
sun. The smell that greets you when you go outside is very unique,
unique like that cat in your neighborhood that only has hair in a few
spots and one ear. But there was so much smog in Chennai that I never
saw the sun and they told us being outside all day is like smoking two
packs of cigarettes. So no sunrise... Indian officials are a tad cranky,
they insisted on meeting everyone face to face and we have to carry
photo Id, proof of visa, and a list of items they we are carrying on
our person and how much they're worth. I wish I could hold this out to
the little kids and be like: "See? I'm not worth much, I've got an
outfits from Kohls, old flip flops (BIG MISTAKE), and my wallet. Go bug
the people who are wearing a shirt that is worth my kidney."

The first day we started out hopeful, we'd been to the meetings about
Rickshaw drivers (a Rickshaw is like a Mo-ped with a seat carriage on
the back of it) and bargaining and we weren't nobody's fool! We walked
into town which is about 15 minutes, the whole way people kept calling
out "Madame! Madame! You don't want to walk! It's too hot. Get in my
Rickshaw, I'll take you wherever you want for 200 Rupees (exchange rate
is 44 rupees to the dollar)!" I knew from my spiffy classes that this
was absurd. 80 Rupees is the most anyone should ever pay. "Ok," we said
to a Rickshaw driver, "We want to go here and we want to pay 50 Rs
(Rupees)." "Ok. How about 30?" He said. Well we of course were proud of
ourselves, clearly we were a force to be reckoned with and people could
see that. He took us somewhere else, and somewhere else, and somewhere
else. We never got to the place we wanted to go to. (We ended up having
to pay 200, never again!). The last night though we bargained down from
600 Rupees to 80. It was so much fun. The best part is when they offer
that first price and you just laugh. "That's ridiculous and the park
hotel is just down the street! 80 Rupees tops!"

Chennai reminds me a lot of Mexico City. I've never been to Mexico
City, but I've heard of its pollution problems and tell you me Chennai
is right up there. I cleaned out my ears tonight and it was black, the
Q-tip (sorry Mom I still use them) was black. Eww. The streets are
paved but there is still TONS of dirt being kicked up and if you wear
flip flops it's more than likely your feet will be black by the time
you get back. However a large majority of people walk around barefoot,
and not because they don't have shoes (Our Rickshaw driver kept his on
the floor of the Rickshaw).

They also have lovely beaches in Chennai, but under no circumstances
should you wear your bathing suit there. And if you do go into the
water (I would suggest you don't it's a lovely shade of brownish green)
you should wear a Saree (Pronounce Sar like a redneck saying saw),
which is yards of cloth. It's almost like us going in with our jeans
and a t-shirt

Driving in Chennai is like closing your eyes and crossing the street.
You know that you could probably die if you cross the street in this
fashion, but clearly you don't care. We went down a one way street the
wrong direction for a little while (try five blocks), I bravely said
"Um...excuse me aren't we going the wrong...AHHHHH!" You also see three or
four people on one Mo-ped driving around. A kid in the front , a man
driving, and a woman hold a child on her lap sitting sideways on the
seat. I kept wondering how they balance so well.

Maria and I went to Kancheepuram (Can-chee-purr-Am) on the second day.
Kancheepuram is one of the seven sacred cities in India. It's known for
its temples and for its silk factories. We decided to go by bus. Which
was very easy to figure out, or so we thought, more on that later. When
we got there we found a restaurant where everything was written in
Tamil (language of the south, very close to Hindi). So we just went up
and he said 30 Rupees so we paid it and went to maybe find some place
to sit. Everyone thought we were looking for the bathroom. They serve
meals on leaves in normal Indian restaurants. And then everything else
comes in a little dish. It was pretty sketch in general but the food
was amazing. You can only eat with your right hand and after you begin
eating you can only serve things with your left. It was kinda confusing
but fun. I only had one bad meal ever in India. Then we found some one
to drive us to all the temples. They were really cool. One was 1300 yrs
old, the British came in later and plastered over everything, and then
they finally were able to chip it all off and luckily some of the paint
was still left over. One temple had a stone chain (seven links long)
that they carved from one piece of stone. They were all pretty chill.
We took the bus home with high hopes. However it took much longer than
usual and after it had become dark the bus stopped in an area we were
unfamiliar with and ordered everyone off. Maria and I weren't that
worried we hailed a Rickshaw, pulled out the map, and pointed to where
we wanted to go. Three Rickshaw drivers shook their heads and drove
away. So there we were lost at night in Chennai. I'm glad I was with
Maria, any other person I know probably would have started freaking
out. We both looked at each other and said: "Well we have three days to
find our way back to the ship." Luckily we found a man who spoke
English and he explained to a driver where it was that we were going.
All was well and so ended our crazy adventure. I was supposed to meet
our Malaysian inter-port student that night at five but we didn't get
back until eight.

The next day, Nor (Nullr), the inter-port student came out with us. We
went to a beauty parlor and got some henna done. The lady who did it
for us thought we were hilarious. They gave us so "coffee" which was
very much like chai tea. It was amazing, but apparently South India is
known for their coffee. Then we went to the bazaar. Maria and I
bargained to the best of our ability, but Nor would just walk up, ask
the price, name her own and they would give it to her. We began just
following along after her, and getting something after she had already
bargained them down.

Maria and I had a village visit the next day, we drove out to a small
farming village and took a tour. We got to enter one of the houses. In
front of every house is a white design called a Kolum (coal-um). The
Kolum is made every morning by the woman cleaning the front porch.
After she sweeps the porch she creates the design using rice flour.
It's supposed to attract the insects and animals and also to welcome
people into the house. Some designs go back generation after
generation. They also have a ledge in front of their house for
travelers to sleep on. There's always a prayer room inside; and whoever
was the last head of the house hold that died has their picture in a
frame in the main room, a sort of homage to their elders. They still
use a mortar to grind the hard shell off the rice too. All of the
doorways in traditional houses are very low, because then you are more
humble, in bowing your head and the gods will bless you more.

We got a ride on a bull cart out to a rice field where they showed us
how the irrigation system worked. They are able to flood the fields
when they need to grow the rice, and then they can drain it when they
need to harvest. A lot of the workers have to be careful because there
are cobras in the fields. We got to help harvest the rice which was
really interesting. They use a curved machete to harvest the rice.
First you grip each rice plant, pull the blade toward you and then
throw the severed plant farther in the field. They later have the bulls
stomp the field so that the rice comes off of the stalk. We got to see
a peanut field after that. Each plant has close to seven or eight
peanuts on it. We even got to eat them. They're white and taste very
crisp; they almost have the texture of a cucumber. Last we went to a
coconut grove. They have hundreds of coconut trees. The men climb tons
of trees a day and collect the coconuts. They were so kind as to give
us a few coconuts to drink from, I assumed that maybe only coconuts in
Brazil tasted bad. However, this is not true I do not like any sort of
coconut milk. I'm lucky though because Maria loves it and she was able
to drink mine without me feeling like I'd wasted it. Then we went to a
living museum. It is a representation of all of the South Indian
cultures. We were able to see a potter, a glass blower, a weaver, and
all sorts of other crafts being made. They also had representations of
what all of the house would have looked like. I even got to make a yoyo
out of reeds. It wasn't really a yoyo, that's just what they called it.
It was more like a rattle. And the little old woman who showed me how
was adorable and bossy. She never spoke to me but shoving things in my
hand and moving my hand so as to move reeds every which way seemed to
work.

The last day I went to the Disabled Children's Home. They house 150
people there. A large portion of them are children (hence the name),
however they also have a nursing school there. The oldest resident
there is 25 and named Sri. He can't use his arms or hands very well but
he's very good with his feet, he even paints with them. We stopped by a
class room and the kids were most interested to find out how to use our
digital cameras. A good deal of my photos were from them. They loved
taking a photo and then handing it to you and saying: "Show me!" They
called all the girls Auntie and all the boys Uncle. Auntie sounds a
good deal like Wendy the way they say it, so I thought for a while that
people just kept saying my name. One boy, Santa, tried to teach me a
few tricks with the basketball, the key word is tried. I really just
provided lots of entertainment for kids sitting around us. The boys
loved my sunglasses and kept trying them on and asking to have their
picture taken with them on. One girl, Hamea, kept pulling me to sit
down with her, I taught her little sister how to make a video on my
camera. They sat there for 45 minutes making videos of themselves
laughing. I've never seen two sisters who were more delighted and proud
with each other.

A lot of the people were saddened by their visit to the children's
home. However I didn't get this feeling. I felt that there are a lot of
countries where these children are turned out in the street and instead
Chennai had a group that was feeding the kids, educating them, and
giving them a place to sleep. There was a lot of hope in this place.
None of the kids felt sorry for themselves, they were all happy.
However I've found kids to be like this in most places. They were all
excited to go to school and to make a difference in the world. The only
feeling that really overwhelmed me was that of wanting to help these
kids be able to achieve these dreams, to do something more than just
clearing their backyard. I only saw hope and a wonderful start to
helping all these kids find their way in the world.

India is not a vacation, and it is not a place that you can leave
without being affected. But while it is serious the people there are
making marvelous improvements. The world's a big place, and it's full
of a lot of people. They're not all the same and most of them pride
themselves on being different. But one is still a lot. Even to spend
time with some one to hug them, to listen, to laugh with them makes a
difference in their life. Could you imagine if everyone in the world
was able to make a difference? Changing one person's life and it
affecting the whole world is a one in six billion chance, but (as much
as I hate to do it) as they say in Dumb and Dumber: "Then I still have
a chance!" A life is a life and the kids at the Disabled Home
understand that. It doesn't matter whether you're blind, black, lame,
white, rich, asian, smart, poor, or stupid everyone has a beating
heart, and it makes all the difference in the world when someone cares
about you even just for a second. Helping a little at a time is still
helping, even if it's just one person.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/2/1174023060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/2/1174023060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/2/1174023060/tpod.html Sat, 19 Jul 2008 01:33:14 -0400 Semester at Sea 07

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Port Louis, Mauritius

'm sitting on my bed amazed because I have the next four hours where I
have NOTHING to do...an odd occurrence. We recently left, Mauritius home
of the bird formerly known as the Dodo. I have decided that the Dodo
got the short end of the stick, evolutionarily speaking. It was stupid
and slow, not a good combo. It is EVERYWHERE on the island: Dodo pens,
Dodo towels, Dodo underwear. It would be like us putting a ... I can't
find something to compare the Dodo to, because everything I think of
has some capability to survive. It's like God put the Dodo on earth and
everyone had a pool to see how long it was going to survive. Oh Dodo...Oh
and to make matters worse apparently it tasted good too. I'm chuckling
inside at the poor Dodo's plight.

Coming into Mauritius we hit a hurricane so we arrived at 12:00 instead
of 6:00. Most of us just slept in, which was really nice. Usually when
we get a day to sleep in on the ship, they plan something at 9:00 so
that you get up early anyway. When you leave the ship there's a
Molasses plant next door. We all were like what's that smell? Until we
saw the big building with MOLASSES written on it. To get to the city
you either have to walk a half hour through a shady part of town or
take a water taxi. The water taxi made so much money off of us. We
headed straight for a restaurant. Due to the amount of rocking we'd
experienced, the Indian Ocean is really rocky, most of us hadn't eaten
more than toast and cereal for three days. It was such a good meal.

We went to the market next. There's the food market and the craft
market. Mostly guys run after you and yell: "Princess! Try my air
conditioned pants!" which are really pants that are made of really
light cloth. They also have "magic boxes" which you can't open unless
you move a hidden wooden plate first. And as I said before, there are
Dodos on everything. The trick is to look at stuff and look away really
quick. If the vendors see you looking at their stuff they pounce. My
friend Dan was my fake boyfriend and was great when the guy was showing
me how to put on air conditioned pants. The scariest part of the
experience was when a cockroach crawled out of the floor and scurried
across my foot. I made the mistake of looking down. However I didn't
scream, something I'm very proud of. I almost peed my pants though. It
wasn't nearly as bad as walking on the dock at night. It was kinda
funny because everyone was looking down at the ground and then all of a
sudden you'd hear a girl scream. Everyone would be doing what we called
the cockroach dance, lifting their feet way high up in the air and
jumping around all over the place. I'm sure we killed more cockroaches
that way.

We all went out for Chinese that night. It was very close to what we
have at home but everything's a little milder. They made up for it with
this sauce that they put on the table. IT WAS SO HOT! I'm pretty sure
there was some wasabi in it. And because we are mature adults we
continued in daring each other to put more and more sauce on our food.
I had this wonderful Peking duck (sorry Maren) it was incredible, I
only hope it's as good in China. Then we headed out. The most popular
drink in Mauritius is called Sambuca (Sam-buk-O), it's blue and they
light it on fire, we have to drink it out of a straw.

The next day we went to the beach in Grand Baie (Grand Bay). Mauritius
is kind of like Puerta Vallarta for Europe and Africa. So there are
tons of resorts there. We spent the day playing on the beaches and then
went out to a disco that night. It was called the Buddha disco,
probably because they have a giant Buddha in the middle of the dance
floor.

Our last day there a few of us went and saw all of the churches,
temples, and Chinese pagodas in Port Louis. Mauritius was ruled by so
many different countries and had so much influence from Africa and
India that they have three major religions. The temple was very cool.
It was so many different colors and there was so much detail. We had to
take off our shoes (luckily I was wearing miss matched socks). They
have a big temple that we weren't allowed to go in, that has all of the
different gods and goddesses in it. They all have a different number of
eyes and arms. They also house a few peacocks there. A guard took us
around and showed us which rooms we could and couldn't go into. He also
liked to show us which things to take a picture. He usually wouldn't
move on until we had indeed taken a picture. There wasn't anyone at the
Chinese Pagoda, however it was very pretty. It was on this hill that
was so green and the Pagoda and its courtyard were all red and white. I
wish I could read Chinese because there was writing all over the place.
We went through the market again and then we all went down to have a
beer and wait until the ship was ready to leave. On the way back we
passed a McDonald's and we stopped to check out the menu. It was really
interesting because they had a whole menu devoted to vegetarians,
everything was separately categorized about whether it was chicken and
beef. Kinda cool.

Mauritius was really an interesting experience, but in this port I was
really just excited to relax a little bit. We all try and see so much
stuff when we're in port that it gets a little stressful sometimes. A
lot of people rented villas and just hung out there and partied. But
most of us were upset because most of the people who rented villas
ended up causing a lot of damage or getting hurt. The students are
organizing a meeting to talk to everyone about how not to exemplify the
American stereotype. Unfortunately some people came on this trip, not
to learn about other cultures but to see the best 5 star hotels in
every port. Hopefully we'll be able to make some people think about
their actions.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/2/1173508140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/2/1173508140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/2/1173508140/tpod.html Sat, 19 Jul 2008 01:31:22 -0400 Semester at Sea 07

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Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

Wow South Africa...if I had to choose one word for it, I would say
overwhelming. There was so much to do and see, I feel like some one
showed me a tiny hole in the wall and all I was allowed to do was peek
through even though there was a door just down the way. Already
everyone is planning how and when to come back.


I did a three day safari and saw many animals. It's funny how when
I go to the zoo, I'm not nearly as excited as when I was 7. However all
of that, changes when there is a possibility that the animals could
come and either eat you or lick your face. We took a flight to
Johannesburg to get out to Kruger Park (where most of the animals are).
Our first night we stayed at a hostel and it was AMAZING! Absolutely
beautiful, it was decked out with wooden pathways, huts, and an African
theme. It was run by Tony (Toy-knee) and Tenis. They had a giant
bonfire and a pool table, so we hung out all night doing that and
hanging out with this girl Charlie. Charlie had been traveling the
world for 8 months by herself. She was pretty impressive. Our tour
guides Gavin and Sam came and picked us up at 7:30 in the morning.
Gavin is doing a "hike" next year, he's going from South Africa to
Cairo, Eygpt (18 months! Ryan don't get any ideas) to raise money for
AIDS awareness (a big problem in SA, more on that later). We were all
pretty tired so the 6 ½ hour drive out to Kruger was defiantly a good
time to catch a nap. It was funny all of the trees don't have any
branches on their bottom half. South Africa is beautiful though, all of
the landscape has it's own mark, surprisingly there aren't only plains.
I thought most of Africa was flat, but it actually reminds me of
Colorado. There are plains, hills, mountains, and canyons.


Our first animal were antelope, I spotted it as we drove by. We
also saw ZaZu (hornbill) and a dwarf mongoose. That night we were
scheduled to do a night safari. We saw giraffe, zebra, wildebeest,
spotted owl and bush babies. Bush babies are tiny monkeys with really
big eyes that can jump like no body's business. When we got back Gavin
had made us all of this AMAZING food. It was seriously the best camping
food ever. Chicken stew, rice, veggies and a great salad...get this Mom:
I picked out the TOMATOES so I could eat more of them, I had second
helpings (and I've eaten shrimp in every port too, no eggs yet though
or mushrooms). We'd already set up our tents but we didn't go to bed
for awhile because there was a lunar eclipse. Apparently it only
happens at night once every five years. Talk about good timing. All of
the stars came out, you could see EVERYTHING. The moon looked like it
was glowing red too, when it was blacked out. That was pretty crazy.



We got up at 5 am and went for a morning drive. At one point we saw all
of these Elephant tracks. Gavin said it was a breeding herd, but we
couldn't find them. Then someone asked where the other van was and we
turned around and saw an Elephant crossing the road behind us. We
backed up and it was standing right there on the other side of the
road! 10 feet in front of us! We sat there and watched him for a few
minutes and then he got mad at the first van and tried to charge them.
Luckily our guides are pretty quick with a stick shift. Later we drove
across this bridge and saw a whole herd of Elephants come out of some
trees to drink. There were two babies and they were so cute. After they
splashed a bit they wandered off. We also saw some hippos out of the
water during the day which is odd, because they usually only come out
at night. Hippos are cranky critters, there are more hippo attacks then
shark AND crocodile attacks in Africa. They're very scary and waddle
very quickly. However they're fun to view from afar and they make this
GRUUUAHHH!!! noise. It sounds like someone is running around stepping
on their toes. Maybe that's why they're so cranky. There were also a
lot of bats.



We got a call from one of Gavin's friends that works for the park and
she said no one had signed up for her tour in three days so she gave us
a 50% discount. It was an astrology night in the middle of the park.
Our guide Matthew picked us up at 6. Almost all of the girls on our
safari were "accidentally" taking pictures of him. I'm pretty sure he
picked up on it. We got to the Astrology event, and got to look at
Saturn (you could see the rings!), the jewelry box (under the southern
cross), the moon, and Venus. It was pretty cool and on the way back to
our campsite we saw a hyena pup and a few hippos. When we got to the
campsite Gavin had cooked up dinner for us and there was a hyena
outside of the fence enclosing the campsite. It was only 5 feet from us
while we ate. I felt so much better that the fence was electric. We all
slept outside that night.



The nest day we headed out to see a few scenic views. On the way there
we stopped and saw some crocodiles! We stopped first at Rouindovials,
it is the most beautiful place I've ever seen. It's this deep canyon
and everything, except for the cliff faces are covered in a dark green
foliage. There's a crystal turquoise river winding its way through the
canyon. I felt taking a picture of this naturally majestic area would
be violating. We went next to Lisbon Falls a set of three waterfalls
falling in the same area but are still separate. They drop for hundreds
of feet. I felt even smaller, if that's possible. The last place we
went to was God's window. It looked like a window and was also very
pretty. Then we began the 6 ½ hour drive back to Joburg. I sat next to
Jessi on the way back and we had a few amazing conversations, I do
believe I've found another amazingly good friend.



That night Jessi and I went out and wandered around Capetown when we
got back. We were fooling around and then walking back to the ship when
the police stopped and asked us if we were ok. We said thanks but we
were just heading back to the ship. A few minutes we had taken a wrong
turn and had just turned around to back track, when the police showed
up again. They asked where we were going, and we said back to the ship.
"You guys are really far away." Then Jessi told them to just give us a
ride back. They hesitated and then made room in the cab! After awhile
they asked if we wanted to go on patrol with them, we said ok! But we
wanted to sit in the back (it was like a pick up truck with a partially
covered cage in the back). So they locked us up and took off.
Apparently Norman, one of the policemen, was trying to show off because
he turned on the siren and went super fast around corners and stopped
really quick. In the end they wanted us to hangout with them until 5am
and then spend the day with them. We told them we were really tired and
they should take us back to the ship. So we climbed out of the back of
a police car in front of the ship. Everyone thought we had been
arrested. Quite amusing but looking back on it, it was also very
stupid. The police aren't the same in South Africa, we could have
easily gotten into trouble. Oh well, nothing happened.



The nest morning Jessi, Sami and I hiked Table Mountain. Unfortunately
our taxi driver wasn't feeling helpful and pointed out only the hardest
trail. So halfway up the mountain we realized we were on the rock
climbing trail. However we'd already climbed up a few 6 to 8 foot cliff
faces and getting down would prove much more difficult, we continued
forward. It took much longer than it was supposed to, mostly because we
lost the path halfway through, lucky for us a guy and his wife were
hiking the same trail and showed us the way up. The farther up you go
the windier it gets. It was so windy that day that table mountain had
its table cloth. And the cable car wasn't running so we had to hike
back down along the "easy" way back down. It took another few hours and
we were hiking for a total of 6 hours! My body hated me. That night a
few of us went out to dinner but I went back early because I was so
tired. Of course this was after I had help consume a "Fish Bowl" or 1
gallon of mixed alcohol. They serve it in a mixing bowl. My body really
hated me. Also I had a Wineland tour at 8:30.



I went on the tour with "Pretty-haired" Sarah (she really does have
amazingly pretty hair). We toured Stellenbosch, Fairview, and
Seidelburg. Fairview had a wine called Goat Do Roam, which is a twist
on a French wine. The French wine company actually sued them for using
that name. They didn't win. They had amazing cheese too. We had a great
time at Seidelburg too, they had a glass blowing shop which was really
fun to watch. After Stellenbosch we went to a restaurant called Moyo.
It's a buffet under tall tents and you eat dinner or lunch in tree
houses. They also paint your face during your meal and have people who
come and entertain you. I ate Ostrich, Kudu, and Waterbuck. After that
there was also a cheetah park so we saw them real quick. That night
Jessi, Kevin and I went out to Long Street, that's the area where they
have all the clubs. We hung out with a lot of people from Semester at
Sea. Later we went to Cool Runnings, a bar down the street, and made
friends with the owners Mercy and Sean. They'd been married for 8
months and were going to France in August so Sean could finish his
degree. Mercy was quite possibly the most animated person I've ever
met. Then we met four guys who took us back to a yacht, they were
learning how to sail. One poor guy was named Egbert (Egg-Bert). We hung
out talking until morning and then Jessi and I got to go to the top of
the mast and watch the sunrise. It's quite a complicated process and
involves three guys pulling you up (I've never felt so heavy) and a
harness seat thing. The mast was forty feet in the air and sunrise was
beautiful. We headed back to the ship, took a two hour nap and then
headed back out for our last day in Capetown.



I met up with Jessica, she and I used to live behind each other when we
were two! We went to Robben Island, the place where they held Nelson
Mandela for 18 years. It was very sad. Any political prisoners went
there and the most harmful were forced to mine Limestone. Limestone
causes a lot of eye damage because it's so bright and also a lot of
respiratory problems. Robben Island actually has a village that lives
on it too. We visited the quarry where Mandela and other had to work
for years. They were always rebelling against the system though, by
teaching the other inmates who had little or no education. Our tour
guide had actually been imprisoned on the island. Other tour guides
consisted of other inmates or even guards! I really think South Africa,
is a great example of how a country heal itself. Quick History insert:



South Africa finally got rid of their apartheid in 1994 with the help
of their president at the time. It was surprising because a new country
that had experienced such hostility usually erupts. However that's
where Mandela and Desmond Tutu came in. They created the Truth and
Reconciliation Committee that granted amnesty to people who admitted
the atrocities they had committed during apartheid. Everyone said it
was pretty foolish and it didn't work, but it did. Dessi (as we call
Desmond Tutu on the ship) is really remarkable. He spoke in my class
and to the whole school last week. He's so interesting to listen to and
when he laughs he reminds me of Rafeki (you know from the Lion King).
He sat next to me one night during a meeting, and he was showing me how
to chair dance. He's really very cool.



However just because South Africa has beautiful landscapes and friendly
people doesn't mean that everything is randy dandy there (yes I just
said randy dandy). They have a very high poverty rate. A lot of people
still live in Townships (houses made of cardboard, tin, or whatever is
available). Also South Africa's government is still learning and
growing.



The saddest part of South Africa is President Mbeki has refused to
accept AIDS prevention vaccinations into the country. This has caused
many people who could have been saved dying or even prevented them from
contracting the disease. Eventually the people sued the government in
order to be able to get necessary medications. It was hard because
people saw Mbeki as a hero, due to the fact that he helped so much
during apartheid and worked directly with Mandela.



All right it wasn't quick, sorry. Well if they really have the World
Cup in South Africa (I've heard people who think both ways on it) in
2010, I'm here. South Africa is defiantly something you need a couple
months to completely see. And even then I'm sure you'll miss out on
something. It's a beautifully sad country, sometimes just sad. But the
people are amazing. Everyone will talk to you no matter what you look
like and be genuinely interested in you.



Funny story: This guy approached me: "Beautiful lady, please talk to me
I'm the only single guy in Capetown." "Sorry, I have a boyfriend,"
"Well I have a girlfriend...but you know..." "I thought you were single..."
"Oh." Wendy: 1 Strange guy: 0

Also we were memorizing the Africa map and the waiters, at a restaurant
we were at, challenged us to see who knew more. THANK YOU NIGERIA!
Wendy & Jessi: 1 Waiters (Chris and Dino): 0 (they insisted our map
was wrong, it was really a lot of fun).



Well guys South Africa is something I would suggest EVERYBODY do at
some point, you don't have to climb the cliffs of Table Mountain and
severely bruise and scratch your legs to appreciate it either.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/2/1171261680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/2/1171261680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/wjphilip/2/1171261680/tpod.html Sat, 19 Jul 2008 01:29:07 -0400 Semester at Sea 07

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Salvador, State of Bahia, Brazil

razil really should be called the melting pot of the world. Everything
here seems to have been thrown into a pot and ...well...melted together.
The main religion is Catholicism but (remember everything's melted)
it's been infused with an African religion called Candomblé. Basically
all of the Saints are represented by African Gods and Goddess from the
Yoruba tribe in Africa. This is because Brazil was the biggest port for
slaves in the 18th and 19th Century so to disguise their religion they
just adopted it into Catholicism and over the last couple hundred years
it's completely merged. The slaves did the same thing with a form of
martial arts, Capuiera that they practiced. They put the steps to a
dance and pretended that that was what it was. Even most of the plants
and trees were imported.


The night before we got to Brazil we were going to sleep out on
the deck, s however I found a very large population of large moths and
bugs. They were quite friendly but I didn't appreciate them crawling on
me so I went back inside. A couple of us got up to see sunrise and
watch the ship come into port but it was so cloudy we could hardly see
the sun. Almost everyone went and walked around today. In Salvador you
walk down a ways and then take an elevator up to the upper city. A
couple of us had other trips so we just grabbed some reals (ray-als),
Brazilian currency, and had the best lunch ever! It was this seafood
stew of sorts, lobster, octopus, squid, shrimp (yes that's right mom I
ate shrimp...and LIKED it!), mussels, clams, and some type of fish. We
all drank this local beer Bohamian, not bad. The ship's doctor actually
suggested we just drink beer everywhere, as opposed to anything that
might have water in it. He received a round of applause for that
suggestion. The meal came with this salsa like hot sauce, except
salsa's never made me sweat before or almost cry. I don't know what was
in it but it was HOT!!!! Ryan would have liked it.


I went on a trip to the Candomblé Temple. It was more like a
compound in which the initiates live. However they also have a whole
house devoted to taking care of people who need it. Everyone in the
compound contributes if not financially, then they help take care of
the compound. Candomblé based on Orixas (Or-E-shas) there are 16 basic
Orixas. Each house or compound chooses a few main Orixas and then those
have their own house at the compound. Each person has an Orixas that
"rules your conscience" as Mother Stella put it. Then you wear that
Orixas' color beads. Mother Stella started the compound 14 years ago.
In the Candomblé ceremonies there are men playing the drums and people
pray and dance, Samba. Most of the time an Orixas will come down and
posses a person praying. All the women wear these big dresses with hoop
skirts. And all their clothing is white. Yemanja (ya-men-jaw) is the
mother of all gods and rules the sea. She likes perfume, shiny things,
and lipstick. Yemanja is a material goddess living in a material spirit
world. Mother Stella said we should take pennies and circle them over
our heads while we're at sea so that she will be appeased.

We saw the church of Sao Francisco and Bonfim (Bon-fin), both are
pretty big and are covered in gold. Sao Francisco has a big museum
connected to it, some of the stuff doesn't really seem to have any
significance with the church. For instance they had a record player, we
thought that was pretty funny so we were pretending we didn't know what
it was. One person in the museum thought we were serious and tried to
explain it us in Portuguese. Bonfim has plastic bones hanging from the
ceiling, this is in case you hurt yourself, you go and light a candle
and buy the body piece. BAM! You're better.


I got to go see the Marine Turtle Project in Praie de Forte (it's
about an hour outside of Salvador). They have about 5 different species
of sea turtles that visit the coast of Bahia (the state Salvador is
in). They range from 3.5 to .5 in length and 700kg to 50 kg. The center
removes the turtles eggs from the site where they're laid and relocates
them to an enclosed area, so they don't succumb to any harm during the
45 days the babies are waiting to hatch. Then after 45 days they put
them back in the same spot, but block out any distractions for the
babies (bright lights). They keep about 100 to study. Sea turtles will
always return to the exact same spot they're hatched so 25 years later
the babies will come back. There is no documented study on how long sea
turtles lives because they've only had the centers open 25 years.
However, they tag turtles in the ocean every year and they've caught
and retagged one turtle 150 times! They also chart how many sea turtles
return to lay eggs and the numbers have been improving steadily. Most
sea turtles are endangered but especially the Hornbill (Crush in
Finding Nemo) because it is so pretty, that people want to make jewelry
out of it.


I went out to Carnival one night while we were there, we had a lot
of fun. It's just a big street party. It's really cool for guys to have
these Gahndy outfits. They're flowing robes and have blue beads, with a
towel over their head, that's been twisted into a hat. The out fir
costs anywhere from 500-1200 reals! It's pretty crazy but none of the
girls in our group were bothered by anyone and we didn't have any
problems at all. They have giant buses driving through the streets
(they have to lift up power lines for them). All music groups play Axe
(ash-A) music. It's so loud you can hear your heart thumping. In front
of the buses are big mobs of people all wearing the same shirt. The
people are closed in by ropes and the ropes are held by security
guards. These are called blocs, nobody can get into the bloc unless
they have a shirt, which go from 50-200 dollars. They have a whole
section of the newspaper devoted to people making out with other random
people, so it's actually pretty common for guys to go up to any girl
and just kiss her. We had the antidote though...other guys. Three guys
came with us, because girls really can't go anywhere in Salvador by
themselves. We were lucky Jorge, our cab driver waited for us because
it's almost impossible to get a cab out of there (and it's out of the
question to walk).


We only used one Taxi driver in Salvador, Jorge. He was great and
every place he took us we all would look at each other and ask "should
we get out of the car?" However when entered the place we were going it
was this gorgeous hide away with amazing food. Jorge loved to play his
American music for us...however the music was interesting. It always had
a good tune but the words were almost completely cuss words. We asked
Jorge if understood what they were saying? No but listen to this beat!
So we smiled and car-danced along. Jorge, slept in his car just in case
people needed a cab ride at any hour. It was pretty sad, he worked for
a few days straight through without going home to his family, just to
support them. His wife had their baby the second day we were there, a
girl! Brazilians are very much into their families so we were shown
pictures upon pictures of his 8 year-old daughter. Isn't she beautiful?
he would say. Jorge looked out for us whenever we wanted to go
somewhere that was unsafe he would always go: "No, no, no, no!" and
then make a funny death face.



A couple of us all went to Itaperica, which is an island about an hour
from Salvador. We ran into a guy in the ferry line that worked at Isla
Pardisa, a beach on the other side of the island. We hopped into a cab
and had amazing pineapple juice, fish in mango sauce and filet mignon.
Filet Mignon is EVERYWHERE and you can get it for about seven dollars a
person. All dishes in Brazilian restaurants are shared. Then we went
down to the beach, which was significantly less crowded than the ones
we saw coming into the island. The water was so warm! A couple of us
breeched the language barrier and played with a few kids in the ocean.
Cabellro (somersault) competitions were almost as a amusing as the
handstand competitions. When they had to go Alucia told me, "Yo tengo
American amiga!" My little heart melted. Ivan, one of our friends
played football with the locals on the beach. He came back exhausted,
claiming that any of those guys (15-20 year olds) could play college
football (soccer for you gringos). We caught a private ferry back to
Salvador which was lucky because everyone who doesn't like carnival
goes to Itaperica and they were all coming back that day. Even when we
got there at 11:00 the line to get back was a couple blocks long.
Romero, our Itaperican friend, says some times it takes days to get
back.



That last day was Ash Wednesday so a large group of us all got up early
and found that it was pouring. With umbrellas unfurled we were ready to
attend mass. We went all the way to the Bonifim church just to find
that mass was not at 9 like so many people had assured us. We spent the
next couple minutes trying to convey to the lady at the desk that we
didn't want to find the bathroom we wanted to find a church that had
mass. Jorge drove us to every church in Salvador...but no church was open
let alone performing mass. In the end we figured that God would
understand that we had really tried...
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San Juan, Puerto Rico

We ate lunch on the ship and then walked around Old San Juan. All the
streets are cobble stone and the houses are all different colors red,
blue, green, yellow, purple, all trimmed in white. Everyone had a
Mojito, it's light rum, club soda, and crushed mint. It's a very
popular drink here in the Caribbean, especially in Cuba. We stopped in
the Ben and Jerry's in Old San Juan. It was supposed to be life
changing, I wouldn't say it was life changing but it was very cool. All
the tables were covered in sayings like: "An eye for eye leaves
everyone blind." It was pretty chill and their Key Lime sorbet wasn't
bad either.


We headed out to El Morro, a fort that was built in the mid 16th
Century. It took 200 years to build, and is a very prominent part of
Puerto Rico. It was attacked a number of times and was controlled by
the Spanish and British at different times in history. There were steps
up to the parapets, so we just walked to the edge. It was a pretty
steep drop, but really pretty because you could see the waves crashing
against the rocks. We ran into Roberto, the only student on the ship
who's from Puerto Rico. He's so sweet and walked around with us telling
us stuff about the fort we'd have never known. Some of the rocks were
dug up from the sea and so they still had seashells imbedded in them.


That night we went to the University of Puerto Rico and met some
of the students. We had a sample of a lot of Puerto Rican food. Most
Puerto Rican food is deep fried or breaded and fried with meat or
cheese in the middle. We talked with the students and then they tried
to teach us how to salsa dance. They gave me a really cool musical
instrument called a guiro(were-O). While we were walking back to the
buses we heard the coquis (coke-ies) or little tree frogs. They're
about the size of a dime and all over.


The next day we went to the rainforest El Yunque, it's the only
rainforest within the US park system. It's 28,000 acres and has three
different ecosystems and 40 different reptile and amphibian species. We
mostly saw Anoles which are tiny lizards that are fairly smooth and
FAST! I was lucky to catch a couple on camera. There weren't a lot of
animals in the forest because it was on an island so most of them are
tiny. The forest used to be the home of the Taino people before
Columbus got here on his second voyage. They left a number of
pictograph carvings on the rock in the forest.



Our guide used to be a botanist for the El Yunque and so he knew all
the plants and what they're used for. Impatias can cure breast cancer
in certain stages, one tree was used to make the head of matches,
turpentine, and candles (it even smelled like turpentine!). Another was
used to make war ships in the 17th century because it was so hard and
can take a lot of hits. The king of Spain wouldn't let anyone export
because he considered it a secret of war. They funniest one was when
our guide, Guillermo, said: "you take the juice from this plant, you
take it to a lab and ...you pay 25 million to go to the moon or you take
this and BAM you already there, it's LSD." It was easy to see after the
tour why Puerto Rico is responsible for so many pharmaceutical
products. Guillermo was really cool he was telling people (not even in
our group) where they should go, how they should get there and when. He
took us by a local fast food restaurant, which means everything is deep
fried. We left some food in the paper bag and the bag was soaked with
grease by the time we got back from our hike.



That night we all went out to the San Juan Hotel to the club Brava.
Roberto knew a girl at the front desk so about 35 of us were on the VIP
list to get into the club. It was really cool. I accidentally walked
into the men's restroom, so every other time I went upstairs to use the
bathroom the bouncer followed me to make sure I went into the women's
restroom. They brought out a drum band that was pretty cool. Puerto
Ricans dress up when they go out, so all us girls were limping back to
the ship, at the end of the night.



Today we saw the other fort on the island, San Cristobal, it was so hot
even at 10 o'clock I could feel the sun burning my back through my
shirt! The fort was more complete (both are being made into more museum
like attractions, so something aren't labeled) then El Morro. We were
able to figure out what areas were used for what. We went to Walgreens
and picked up clothespins so we can do laundry in the sink and hang it
up on the clothes line. A load of laundry on the ship costs 5 dollars
per bag (they're about 3 gallons), so almost everyone is doing their
own. We went to the beach this afternoon and wrote out post cards and
then went and took a tour of the Bacardi factory. It was actually very
interesting and we were the last tour of the day so we stayed and
talked to the guy who was giving the tour a crash course on bartending.
He let us back behind the bar and took pictures for us (apparently a
very special opportunity).
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