April 23
That’s right, my academic obligations for the spring 2011 semester are officially doneskies! Thursday I turned in my final paper around noon and was done with classes. Wednesday, I had two finals, both of which were really easy and the final paper, although long (17 pages single spaced!), was pretty easy. Technically I guess this means I have completed my junior year in college. I haven’t received any official grades except for my Global Studies class (A+) and unless I completely messed up on my other finals, I should be just fine as far as GPA. But that’s honestly all I care to discuss about classes. I learned a whole lot from them, but compared to my program back at UMD, they were not a challenge in the least. To reward myself with a job well done on finals I’ve been taking a lot of long naps while lying outside on the deck the past few days. After finals on Thursday we had our Royal Masquerade, aka the Alumni Ball. The ship puts on a lot of cool events like that for us, mainly because there is absolutely nothing else to do at sea. For example, about a week ago, the ship hosted a charitable auction. Items such as courtside tickets to a Laker’s game, weekend ski trips, muscle milk and Girl Scout cookies were all auctioned off to raise money for the SAS fund. Other prizes such as Dean for a Day, first off the ship in San Diego and priority lounge chair seating on the pool deck were also on the block (SAS is actually designated non-profit so they rely a lot on donations to stay … afloat!!) I don’t think I have ever been to a live auction before and certainly hadn’t participated in one. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a lot of money or an overwhelming desire to purchase any of the items, so I didn’t participate except for attending and encouraging the rich kids around me to spend their money. To give some idea of how crazy these people were, a box of Girl Scout cookies went for almost $150 dollars. Priority lounge chairs (I have never had a problem getting a great seat on the pool deck) went for almost 500 dollars. The privilege of blowing the horn on arrival in San Diego (how anyone would know who actually blew the horn is beyond me) went for close to 1000 dollars. The last item up for auction was first off the ship in San Diego. Two girls got into a bidding war with their daddy’s credit cards. In the end, the first and second people allowed off the ship had to pay $1600 each (the person who gets off third is gonna be the coolest person in the world). I’m glad the event raised a lot of money for SAS but it definitely made me think how someone with enough money for such frivolous things could not be heart broken by some of the extreme poverty and hardships we saw.
The ship also put on the Vagina Monologues. I lasted for about a third of the show before I had to leave from shear uncomfortableness and uncontrollable laughter. That is all I will say about that.
The Alumni Ball was fantastic. The ship’s crew put in a ton of work, decorating, cooking, serving and catering to all of us. It was a very formal and fancy affair as well. Everyone was decked out in suits. The meals were delicious, there was live entertainment and a long slide/video show of the entire voyage, and a dessert bar that was incredible. Everything was a little too sophisticated for my humble upbringings, but once I had changed out of my suit and into shorts and sandal and the dance started, I felt a lot more at home. Yesterday (Friday) was packing and “re-entry” day. They had a lot of seminars on how to share your feelings about the trip, and how to deal with culture shock, and how to not cry like a baby – I was out on the decks all afternoon doing my part to soak up UV rays and prevent global warming, so I hope I don’t violently break down when I get back home. But seriously, it is going to be tough to leave the ship that has become my home, my friends, and the experience of a lifetime. As I started packing at about 3am last night and looking back at all the souvenirs I had got, airline stubs from all over, and Green Sheets from every country, I’ll admit I got a little teary-eyed (absolutely joking). But leaving will be hard. It’s sad and your mind kind of wants to always creep towards regrets from the trip, but I honestly don’t have too many of those. I probably will be on the ship for less than 24 hours at this point, and then life will resume. I have been incredibly blessed with this opportunity and know that it has forever changed me as a person. I’ll get more sentimental with you guys in a later post, when I’m not sleep deprived, but I am so thankful for the blessings and opportunities I have received.
Thank you for living vicariously through me. It has meant so much to be able to share my experiences with family and friends through this forum. I hope that you have experienced even just a fraction of the awesome journey I have been on.
Love Always,
-Ben
P.S – Yes, I still have not posted about Vietnam and Cambodia yet, but I’m a little occupied currently.
I'm working for a bible school on a sailboat in Greece. Sounds like it could be fun...
Saturday, April 23, 2011
School = Done With! (at least for now?)
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Hawaii (It's America!)
And so it ends. Well, almost at least. As I was patted down under the watchful eyes of my favorite security guard Rufus, he reminded me that this would be the last time I would be getting back on the ship. The last time I would have to worry about being late for on ship time, the last time I had to have my bags search, the last time I had to swipe my card into the computer system, the last time I stepped on to what has become my home for the past 100 days. And you know what? It’s kinda sad. This journey I have been so blessed to be a part of is ending. Hawaii was our last stop, and the next time I get off the MV Explorer I’ll be taking all of my belongings with me, closing the door to cabin 2034 for the final time. But it’s certainly not all sad, and ill try to save most of the melancholy reflective writing until after I finish talking about Hawaii, because nothing was really sad about Hawaii except leaving.
We actually arrived in Honolulu Hawaii on Saturday, but the cruel immigration and customs employees of the USA decided we couldn’t get off the ship, and instead had to sit in port, imprisoned with a paradise island all around us. However, we were technically back in America, and that meant one thing: that our cell phones worked again!! Literally the ship went dead as soon as we reached port since everyone was on their cell phones instead of doing the normal activities we do to keep ourselves occupied while deprived of technology. A few hours of refueling in Honolulu (the ship got fuel, and I refueled by talking to friends and family) and we were off to the Big Island. We arrived in Hilo the next morning around 8am, and after a patriotic and heartfelt production of the National Anthem over the loud speaker (I was the only one to yell “O!”) we were off the ship by around 8:30. Several things were nice (and felt really strange) about being back in America. Everyone spoke English, the US dollar was the main currency, the food and water was safe, and the traffic laws were American (duh). You might be thinking how dumb I must be to be impressed by these normal American things, but you have to remember the past 100 days have been anything but normal and/or American.
Myself and about a dozen other friends loaded into a couple taxis and left the dock for the airport to rent cars. Apparently you can rent cars in America when you are 21, but unfortunately they don’t accept expired driver’s licenses (guess I can’t drive till I get a new one). Fortunately, there were two other kids in our group who were 21 so we rented a massive Suburban (American, right?) and a smaller sedan. After piling in we headed to Wal-Mart (not my choice) to get some food items, but mainly because people wanted to go to Wal-Mart. We also stopped at a Safeway to buy some beverages for that night, and even though it was my first time (legally) buying alcohol the clerk didn’t ID me, which was really disappointing, but I guess a testament to my awesome beard and mustache. Next we were off to our beach house about 40mins south of Hilo. The house was really cool; secluded from any touristy stuff, right next to the ocean and some tide pools, and had Internet and TV (American television of course). There were 3 bedrooms, which the girls divided up between themselves, and the five guys were left to fight for couch and floor space. I ended up outside in a hammock, which definitely was the best decision. The other thing that was weird was the house had a kitchen. Literally, I think it was the first kitchen I had seen in a house since I left home in early January. It’s tough to describe, and I know it sounds weird how I think it was strange to have a kitchen, but being in that house with my friends on the beach was so different than any other experience I have had on SAS.
Later in the afternoon we drove down to Volcano National Park. It had been overcast and drizzling all day, so we weren’t able to see any super great views of the park and the coast (and unfortunately there weren’t any visible lava flows) but it was a great experience driving and hiking through the old lava fields. We also went to this huge lava tube that basically was a natural underground tunnel where lava used to flow. The first half of the tunnel was lit, but the second half (probably about a quarter mile or so) was completely pitch black. We used our ipods and phones to provide just enough light not to run into the walls, random boulders or low ceilings, but it was definitely eerie and maybe a little scary (in a really cool way) on the way down. Once we reached the end and started heading back, we got a little confident, and would turn the lights off for a few seconds and then flip them back on to see what weird positions we had got into.
After the national park, we headed back to the house, and started grilling up some burgers and dogs (again, such a different experience than what we had been used to). As I was out on the porch grilling, I noticed the moon was full and probably the brightest I have ever seen in my life. I quietly slipped out alone and walked down to the tide pools, with the spot light of the moon illuminating my steps. I climbed out on the lava rocks past the tide pools and to where the ocean waves were crashing and spent almost an hour just having a conversation with my Father. I can’t even begin to describe how bright the moon, and how divinely awesome the sounds and silence of the water was. Recognizing my friends probably thought I had drowned somewhere; I eventually went back to the house, wishing I could spend forever sitting on the rocks watching the water. The rest of the night was a lot of fun; a rotation of hanging in the hot tub, watching sportscenter, and eating cookies from the oven, but remember, I’m still earning college credit.
I slept great in my hammock, listening to the ocean and rocking myself to sleep. We woke up late and waited around for everyone to get ready (a drawback of traveling with 9 girls). We made it back to the town of Hilo around 1300, grabbed some lunch and checked out some of the local shops (another drawback of traveling with a bunch of girls). But Hilo really was a cool little beach town, and I’m glad we spent a few hours there. Eventually we made it to a beach, which had a little bit of sand and a lot of really sharp lava rocks. The rocks extended out into the water a pretty good distance, which of course gave us the opportunity to climbed out on them (barefoot of course, which really hurt). We found a little ledge to jump off of into the ocean, and once we were in the water, we decided to swim out to the furthest collection of rocks and climb up on them. The water felt great but was really shallow. We were barefoot and since the sea floor was covered in sharp rocks and possibly poison coral, we basically had to float over this shallow water while occasionally being tossed around a bit by bigger waves. We made it out to the furthest rocks, but since the lava rock was so sharp and uneven there we basically had to walk on our feet and hands to distribute weight and keep our balance. Fortunately no one suffered any cuts, just a few scratches and sore feet to remind us of our adventures. We didn’t have too much time at the beach, since we had to return the rentals and make it back on the ship for the last time.
And that was Hawaii, short on time but big on fun and good memories. We just left port for the last time, and have six days crossing the rest of the pacific until we arrive in San Diego on Sunday. A few finals, a big paper, a formal ball, lots of packing and even more goodbyes will keep me busy for the rest of the voyage. Then it will be back to the “real world” although that expression certainly means a lot more to me now then it did a few months ago. I’m neither super sad to leave or super excited to get back home, just content to go with the flow, although I will say I am already itching to plan my next adventure and think another full year of school is gonna drive me crazy until I’m free for at least a couple of years to do cool stuff around the world before med school.
Be Blessed
-Ben
Friday, April 15, 2011
Stuff I did while crossing the Pacific Ocean (or half of it so far)
April 15th
Greetings from the Pacific Ocean! We have been at sea for 10 days now, which has gone by surprisingly fast. I thought I would take some time to update you guys about the past week or so and all the exciting things (slightly sarcastic) that have been happening on the ship. Living on a ship is obviously a lot different than living on land, and “living” on a ship is also a lot different than “cruising” on a ship. Fortunately I’ve found some ways to keep myself occupied. For example, I have read several books, something unlikely to occur back on land. I also watched the complete first season of The Wire in about 3 days, while not doing much else, an impressive feat. I’ve been playing a lot of ping-pong, card games, and jamming with some friends on the guitars. A soccer tournament and late night basketball games have also kept me busy. The other night we had the final ship wide talent show, which you actually had to try out for. I thought it might be funny if I shared my enthusiasm for ribbon dancing (just like Will Ferrell in Old School) with the ship. I tried out without practicing at all (I also didn’t have any ribbons, but I guess the panelists still thought I was funny) and the judges decided I should be the opening act. I managed to make some ribbons with an old set of bed sheets my cabin steward gave me, practiced for about 45mins, and threw together a “gymnast” outfit consisting of sweatpants and a blue lacrosse jersey. The actual performance went pretty well I guess. I think since it was all a joke (but my face was dead serious the whole time) it really didn’t matter how graceful of agile I was, in fact being bad at ribbon dancing probably made it even more funny. I got a lot of compliments about it and everyone seemed to be laughing when I ended so I suppose I did a good enough job.
Classes officially ended yesterday and now all I have are three final exams and one final paper, but I don’t expect any of them to be too much work. All of my professors have been pretty fair and reasonable (and really easy) so I don’t think I’m gonna worry about taking naps outside on the decks instead of studying during our last week. We had our last fellowship at sea service a few days back, which was pretty well attended and really encouraging to me. I have noticed a lot of spiritual growth in myself as well as many other students who have been attending our meetings, which has been an absolute blessing. My religion professor asked me to share a little about my faith in class, which was cool and another student wrote a poem that essentially explained the Gospel, which she shared in front of everyone at the talent show. A voyage like SAS really challenges and brings to light everyone’s beliefs and faiths, religious or not, which makes an atmosphere with a lot of opportunity for dialogue and mutual sharing. It’s around 80 degrees and sunny outside right now, so I think there is a lounge chair calling my name somewhere up on the 7th deck. It’s a tough life, but it’s not like I’m going to be in Hawaii in a couple days to chill at the beach (actually I am going to be in Hawaii in a few days to chill at the beach).
You’re my boy Blue.
-Ben
Thursday, April 14, 2011
India
March 18 (finished April 14)
Even though we left India a week ago and I have been slacking in my blogging responsibilities, as promised I will talk about the things I did in India. A couple of warnings about the following post:
1) I did a whole lot of stuff in India, so this post might be a little long.
2) I blogged earlier about some of my insights about India, so this post will be more descriptive than reflective in nature.
3) We are arriving in Vietnam in less than a day, and have already been to Singapore since India, so some of my memories aren’t the freshest in my mind, but ill try my best.
With the requisite warnings in place, I guess I’ll start my stories with our first day in India:
Sunday: I was signed up to attend the Theru Kootu street theatre as a field trip for one of my classes. Like most of the SAS trips I have been on (and the greater portion of my independent travels as well) I had no idea what to expect as we boarded the bus in the morning. After about an hour drive, we arrived at what was essentially a large compound of traditional Indian building and open-air shops called Dakshina Chitra. The place was basically an outdoor museum featuring traditional Indian craftspeople, architecture, music, food etc… It reminded me a lot of the Renaissance Festival back home. When we arrived everyone was “dotted” with a Hindu talika, which I managed to keep on my forehead for the better part of the day before accidentally wiping it off. After a boxed lunch from the ship, we had some free time to walk around the compound and browse the different merchants. It was really cool to see the merchandise being created right in front of us, and since we were at a private museum, all of the merchants were very respectful and not pushy. For the theatre performance aspect of our trip we had the pleasure of what was essentially a private showing of a portion of the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata.
The performers literally had tens of pounds of makeup and costumes on, and essentially yelled all of their lines and songs in Hindi. Since we sat just feet from the stage, I was honestly frightened by these crazy costumed actors yelling at me in a language I didn’t understand. It was a pretty intense experience and I couldn’t even start to tell you what the plot of the 90 min play was. A band accompanied the actors with traditional Indian instruments that were also loud and kinda intimidating. I took some video of the show, which is really the only way to explain the seemingly chaotic performance. After the show we walked around the shops so more, saw a glass blower make some amazing art, and got free Henna tattoos.
After the drive back to the ship, some friends and I piled into a taxi and drove off in search of an internet bar. The interesting (read: annoying) thing about taxi drivers in India, is that their “family” owns a whole lot of shops, and that all of their “family’s” shops are on the way to whatever destination we happen to be going to. In actuality, the shop owners pay the taxi drivers to bring tourists to their shops. We weren’t aware of this fact the first night and so ended up going out of our way to visit this clothing store. After that experience, we were always certain to negotiate beforehand with the cabbies and rickshaw drivers to not take us to any stops other than the ones we wanted.
Monday: Today was my only free day to explore India, so I met up with a few friends, hopped into a rickshaw and headed to T. Nagar market. I think I mentioned in a prior post how crazy rickshaw rides were so I’ll spare you a repeat, but this ride was definitely one that will be hard to forget. We were the only SAS kids (SASholes as some people call them) in the market at the time, which is always a rarity and very enjoyable. The market was basically like a strip mall with a lot of different stores. Nothing was fancy or high class Indian, and it was fun to buy DVDs for less than a buck, look at fake sunglasses and Rolexes, and try to find clothes that actually fit me. At the end of the day I picked up a few traditional Indian shirts (size 5XL) some silk scarves, Elephant statues, DVDs, key chains, and some other stuff I’m forgetting all for about 20 US dollars. I went back to the ship for dinner and decided to stay in for the night and pack since I had a 3am wake up the next day.
Tuesday: Tuesday was a long day. It started around 3am when I woke up, showered tried to eat a little for breakfast and met my tour group to leave the ship. After about an hour bus ride, we were at Chennai Airport, which was actually pretty small, dirty and unimpressive. Of course the toilets at the airport were just holes in the ground, with gripped foot pads on which you were expected to squat over I guess. The airport in Delhi, however, was massive, clean, modern and most importantly had Western style toilets. We arrived in Delhi and then took a connector flight to Varanasi, arriving there around 1200. The 3.5 hours of flights allowed all the kids in my group, about 60 total, a nice nap, and would be turn one of the longer uninterrupted periods of sleep I would get over the next few days. Our hotel in Varanasi was the Ramada Plaza JHV. It was probably one of the nicer hotels I have ever stayed in and the dichotomy between having a bellboy constantly bring our group complimentary sodas and the street beggars just outside of the hotel gates was striking.
After some traditional Indian food at one of the hotel’s restaurants, we left on bus for the city of Sarnath. Sarnath is an ancient city where Buddha was said to preach his first sermon to his followers. We stopped at the archaeological museum, visited the ancient ruins of an old Buddhist temple compound, walked around a large stupa with hundreds of Buddhist monks, took our shoes off and meditated in a Buddhist temple, and walked around a sacred Bodhi tree from which Buddha gets his name. Each one of these experiences deserves a lengthy response and reflection, but there simply isn’t time or space to do so. I did take a lot of pictures, which I have looked at a few times to remind myself or where I visited, so I’m optimistic those memories will stick with me. Next we travelled back into Varanasi and visited a silk factory where we had the pleasure or watching the artists on their elaborate looms. Varanasi and some other northern areas of India/Pakistan are famous for their silks, pashminas, and other wools. The silk artists we watched would spend up to three years on a single tapestry or blanket adding each thread by hand for months and months. The patterns are memorized by the artists and passed down from generation to generation. Therefore, each family has a unique and specific pattern or style that all of their woven pieces share. After being mesmerized by the entire process, and resisting the urge to buy a whole bed set of hand woven silk sheets, we returned to the hotel around 2100 for dinner. I was pretty tired from the days travels and activities, and with a 430am wake up call looming, I decided it would be best to fall asleep as quickly as possible, which really wasn’t that hard.
Wednesday:
The 4:30am wake up call came earlier than expected (well actually it came at 4:30 but you get the point) and we were on the bus a little before five to head to the banks of the River Ganges. The River Ganges isn’t like anything I have seen before in my life. I had to write about it for my World Religions class so I think I’ll just include my response in my blog:
“We arrived at the banks of the river around 5:30am. All the students in my group were a little bewildered by the shear unfamiliarity of the mass of canoes, tourists, half naked Hindu pilgrims bathing in the water, and the fact that we were all sleep deprived. I probably was wide-eyed in amazement for most of our trip on the River Ganges, but I wanted to take in as much sensory information as I could and not forget a single moment. I think that having some knowledge of the significance of what was occurring heightened my senses and really made me appreciate how fortunate I was to be able to have this experience. We made our way down to the flotilla of large canoes, boarded one and started to float down the river about a hundred yards from shore. At this point the sun was just creeping up into the sky, providing an incredible backdrop with which to border the temples, staircases and pilgrims. Describing the actual practice of bathing in the river is rather simple. Hindus would climb down the staircase, strip down to their underwear, enter the water and then completely immerse themselves several times. At least a few individuals appeared to lather up with soap and actually bathe in the river, but I am not sure if this was more religiously meaningful than a simple bath. As we floated down the shore, we passed several dozen temples and their adjoining staircases. Our guide stated that there were 84 of these temples in Varanasi, each perhaps catering to a specific deity or type of worshipper.
As we floated along in our canoe, merchant canoes would tender along side and attempt to sell various beads, statues and mini-shrines. Some merchants were selling floating prayer candles, which several students bought, lit and then sent floating down the river. The rising sun, elaborate temples, wide river and floating candles provided an incredibly visually pleasing experience. As we made our way to the end of our tour, we passed the cremation area of the river, where bodies were being cremated during a four-day process. It was certainly challenging and uncomfortable to see the stacks of logs and smoke rising indicating that a human corpse was burning just several feet in front of us, but it reminded me that almost any religion is sure to make certain groups of people uncomfortable.”
After leaving the canoes we walked up the banks and unto the shore where we were told by our guide to stick close together and not get separated from the group. This was good advice considering we were going to walk through the narrow and convoluting side streets and alleys in Varanasi. The paths were so narrow that I could touch the sides of either wall by stretching out my arms. This caused a lot of mini pedestrian jams whenever we had to pass a group of school children, an overly aggressive storeowners, cows, piles of cow poop (possibly other animal’s poop too) and a snake charmer with a few cobras in a basket. The snake charmer was a particularly “Indian experience” and the entire width of the path seemed to be within striking range of the cobras. Needless to say it was really fun to walk by the baskets of snakes. After making it out of the side streets alive (I should mention that the police in India carry Ak-47s that look really old and kinda haplessly bounce around on the side of their bodies, making me wonder as we shuffled passed them how frequently misfires occurred) we headed off to the Hindu University and temple. We drove pass the academic/religious buildings and dorms and then had about 35 min to walk around the main temple, barefoot of course. We made it back to the hotel for breakfast and then were given the option of taking an hour nap or walking to a silk market before we had to leave for our flight. Although I was ridiculously tired, I recognized that I probably would never have the opportunity to visit a silk market in Varanasi India, and with most of the kids in the group, we walked a few blocks to a relatively upscale two-story store. When I say relatively upscale I mean that the store was air-conditioned and had cash registers, a huge difference from the street vendors and merchants we were constantly harassed by. I bought a scarf or two, made of the world famous silk, and enjoyed trying to play some of the Indian instruments they had for sale. Soon we were back on the buses and headed to the airport. Varanasi is the world’s oldest continually inhabited city and saturated with unique culture. As unfamiliar and uncomfortable as the city had been, it was an absolute blast and I was definitely sad to leave.
The flight was delayed for a bit and we didn’t arrive at the airport in Delhi until just before the sun went down, which gave me some time to buy a book and read for a bit while waiting in Varanasi. The airport in Delhi was literally ten times the size of the Varanasi airport and certainly a lot more clean, modern and efficient. I think the original plan was to have some time to drive around Delhi and look at the various government compounds, monuments and statues and then visit a temple, but since it was already dark out and traffic was bad we headed to the temple instead. The temple was the Sikh Gurdwara and required us to cover our heads (the scarf a bought earlier in the day came in handy as I was much more fashionable than the SAS kids wearing the generic orange cap) and of course walk around barefoot. Once inside the temple we were supposed to shuffle clockwise around this central altar/holy book holder (I honestly have no idea what it was). There was a group of about 4 musicians blasting out the traditional Indian tunes and then a fancy looking guy sitting at the front of the altar who collected flowers from the worshippers and then waved this feather/fur fan thing around while muttering some religiously important stuff. Once we circled the altar I found a spot in the back to sit and soak everything in. I think this was supposed to be the area where Sikhs knelt and prayed, and after some scary looking guys with long swords sat next time, I didn’t want to press my luck and decided it would be best to leave.
On our drive to the hotel we did pass a few important buildings, but it was too dark out to really get a good sense of their grandeur. Our hotel for the night was once again incredibly upscale, and included a number a restaurants night clubs and banquet halls with traditional Indian weddings being held. I explored for a little bit but once again, the next morning started at 4:15am and I wanted to be mostly awake and conscious when we visited the Taj Mahal.
Thursday: Im not a big fan of waking up early, but I will say that it provides a lot more time in the day to get things done, and we certainly made the most of this attitude during our time in India. Our room had a wake up call at 4:15am and by 5am we were at the station waiting to board our train to Agra. The train station was very Slumdog Millionaire like; tons of people, a lot of dirtiness, little kids begging for money, older people begging for money, and the physically handicapped and disabled begging for money. The actual train we were on wasn’t too bad though (at least our cars) and I slept most of the 2 hour trip. I was actually kinda disappointed I slept during the ride since we passed some of the biggest slums in India, which would be hidden from sight when we returned later that night when it was dark. When we arrived in Agra it was a relatively short ride to the Taj. I’ll admit that the Taj Mahal has never been on my list of must see places in the world. I ignorantly assumed that since so many people hyped the Taj up as the best thing in India it would be touristy and kinda like Disney World. I’m glad to say that these notions were all proved wrong and the Taj was in fact one of the coolest places I have seen. The entrance to the Taj doesn’t really allow you to see the mausoleum until you actually pass through the last gate and end up staring at the Taj in all its glory. One of the more striking things about the Taj was how perfectly symmetrical and clean the architecture was. Everything about it radiated magnificence and splendor. Of course our only reaction to this type of site was too take tons of photos with us in them (Facebook profile picture photos, for those readers young enough to have Facebook, or at least young at heart). The photos started off as simple stand and smile type, but quickly progressed into some more creative uses for the domes and towers of the Taj. You’ll just have to wait till I post those photos to see what Im talking about.
After the photo shoot we were able to walk through the main dome and see the casket of Queen Mumtaz Mahal. I also was able to break off from the group for a little bit and explore some of the gardens and other buildings in the compound.
After the Taj we drove to Agra Fort, which was just in eyesight of the Taj. Agra Fort had a ton of cool history and buildings. Some highlights for me were the immense marble throne, huge courtyards and massive wells. It is definitely worth looking Agra Fort up on Google and learning about its history. One thing I think I sometimes tend to forget in the states is our lack of ancient history and buildings. Aside from some older Native American sites, nothing in America can compare to the humongous ancient temples, palaces and ruins we saw in India.
After a quick lunch at a nearby hotel we drove for a bit to the deserted city of Fatehpur Sikri. This was unexpectedly (unexpected b/c I had never heard of it before) one of the coolest places we visited in India. The compound was huge and only represented about 30% of the original size (the rest was still in ruins). It was basically a maze of different temples, buildings stables etc… with elaborate red sandstone carvings on all the surfaces. We were some of the only people there and took the liberty to climb on top of as many roofs and terraces as we could find. Back in the day Indian people were a lot shorter than modern day Americans, and built a lot of the ceilings only 6 or 7 ft high, meaning it wasn’t too hard to climb up on. It was a blast climbing until we found our way on the back side of the compound, trying to scale a wall while being yelled at by the police. Since they were carrying Ak-47s that appeared to be made in 1951 we thought it would be best to try some more touristy things and keep our feet on the floor.
After our adventures in Fatehpur Sikri we drove back to Agra and stopped at a high-end rug and marble store. It was kinda like hearing a pitch for a time-share condo. The store owners let us in, served us tea and sodas, and did a well-rehearsed and scripted presentation on their one of a kind rugs and marble furniture. The products really were incredible but a little too pricey for college students (No thanks, to a $40,000 rug the size of a coffee table.) For dinner that night SAS had reserved us a very traditional Indian restaurant called Pizza Hut. Maybe the only thing Indian about the Pizza Hut we were at is that the electricity would sporadically cut out every 10 minutes or so, but other than that it was a pretty American experience. We took the train back to Agra and again had to deal with the reality of street beggars while we waited for around 30min at the station. One particularly unforgettable instance of the horrors of children essentially be pimped out by adults involved a young boy no older than ten who was trying to shine shoes. The boy kept following an SAS student relentlessly, trying to shine his shoes and make a couple dollars. After about ten minutes of this unsuccessful haggling (the SAS kid had sneakers on anyways so he couldn’t even have his shoes shined if he wanted) the young boy went back to his “boss” a few feet away from us. When the boss realized the boy didn’t have any money, he hit him in the face and shoved him back out to continue following the same SAS student. I think the hopelessness of the situation really bothered me. You couldn’t give the kid money because it would go right back to his boss and just reinforce the boss’ business, but denying him just made the boss physically abusive. The look in the kids eyes and face was so desperate for rescuing; to be saved from the hellish life he was in. I’m not sure why that instance was so memorable to me, because I have seen a bunch of really bad and evil things on this trip, but I really had the urge to just tackle the boss and beat the crap out of him. I was actually awake for the train ride back to Delhi and had a great conversation with a friend about religion, philosophy and Jesus during the two-hour trip. We made it back to the hotel late, and I was probably asleep before I hit the sheets.
Friday: Nothing too eventful happened on Friday. We got to sleep in a bit (6:45am!!) and then took a bus to the Delhi airport. Due to traffic and some delays at the airport we didn’t make it back to the ship until 1530. Originally I thought we would be back on the ship around 1300, and had planned to do a service visit to a YMCA, but with the delayed arrival and an early on ship time, I just stayed on the ship. Also the port in Chennai was apparently “dangerous” either due to crime or industrial machines, and so we had to take a shuttle bus from the ship to the other side of the port where we would have to present out passports. On the way back into the port we had to pass through three separate security checkpoints, present our passports and take a shuttle, so the whole process made leaving and getting on the ship very time consuming.
That’s India. As I finish writing this, over a month has passed since we left. On one hand it feels like I was there yesterday while on the other, it feels like years have passed. But that’s the sense I get for all the adventures on this voyage; time really doesn’t have much significance… which is why I don’t feel too bad about being late in my blog post.
Big Ups
-Ben
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Taiwan
April 8th (I didn’t finish writing until April 10th though)
And so ends my time in foreign countries. We are heading back to the United States. No more time in far off lands, struggling with the language barrier, trying to find clean toilets, snapping pictures of ancient world ruins, scaling the steps of the Great Wall, sleeping in hammocks in remote jungles, diving with Great White Sharks, or risking life and limb in countless taxis and rickshaws. Those adventures will have to wait to another time in life. But before I get too melancholy in my posts (there will certainly be some time for that once I am officially off the ship and back home in a few weeks) I would like to recount my time in Taiwan.
Taiwan was an unexpected surprise. When the earthquake/tsunami struck the eastern coast of Japan, everyone pretty much knew that we would no longer be making our original port of call in Kobe, and a few days later we were told that we would be in Taiwan for three days instead. Of course this news came during our marathon stretch of traveling in Asia, when we were only on the ship for about 6 days over a 4 week span. Needless to say no one on the ship had much time to prepare or plan out travel in Taiwan. We left Shanghai on a Friday and by Sunday night were already in Keelung Taiwan. This included a brief time of anchoring near some of the southern Japanese islands (b/c China and Taiwan have weird political relations, we couldn’t come directly from mainland china to Taiwan, and so we had to stop in Japan in transit), so technically we did make it to Japan.
The weather Monday morning in Keelung was rainy and cold, one of the first times in a country where weather looked like it could affect some of our plans. I knew after China that I wanted time to get out of the cities and touristy destinations and just be outside hiking around. My confidence in travelling to new locations was pretty high too, so when I decided that I wanted to go to Taroko Gorge National Park I didn’t really care who came with me, how confusing the train system was, how much it would cost, or what the weather was like - the promise of hiking, picturesque views of waterfalls, bouldering down along the river and getting away from SAS people (I love them a lot, but have had more than enough time on the ship to get to know them) was too good. This determination was the first in the line of several choices that turned out pretty well if I do say so myself.
I ended up traveling with a friend a new pretty well, another kid who I kinda knew and a third person that I met the morning we arrived in Keelung port. Getting away from the group of people I normally travel with allowed me to “get away” and to get to know some new people. We left the ship as soon as it was cleared and started walking. After asking a local for the direction of the train station (accomplished by motioning with our bodies and saying “choo-choo”) we had about a ten minute walk to the other side of the port. A quick stop at the ATM, which warned us in English to “not let the gangster steal your money” and we were at the station, trying to decipher the maps and signs, which were almost exclusively in Taiwanese. We found a station attendant who spoke minimal English and somehow were able to get on the proper connecting train to the next station and then get on the next train (apparently the last one with open seats for several days) to the parks entrance. We got off the train and the four of us (actually 6 other SAS kids got off too, so 10 total) walked out of the tiny station into this vacant parking lot with a few buildings and a road. It appeared we were the only people there, and certainly the only white people but after some investigating, we found a scooter rental store.
NOTE: Because the following story may not follow the strictest legal statutes and definitely goes against some SAS rules, I would like to mention that it is completely fictional* and I only include it to mention what could have happened had we not been such good and fair global citizens. But for the sake of story telling….
*non-fictional
We had read before that scooters were a great way to explore the park, but that the switch back roads shouldn’t be attempted by novice riders. Well, I thought to myself, I certainly have been on a scooter at least once before, have seen scooters a bunch before, and definitely know the difference between a motor scooter and a regular non-motor scooter; so this absolutely qualifies me as above novice. It also happened perfectly that the scooter store had 5 scooters, which meant that there were just enough scooters for the 10 of us to double up and ride. The lady at the scooter store didn’t speak a lick of English, and all the forms were in Taiwanese, but somehow we were able to pay (10 US dollars each for a full 24 hours!) and get the keys to our five iron stallions. I think I may have used my student ID card as my motorcycles license and my expired driver’s license served as deposit to return the scooters. Regardless, we managed to fit two people and their bags on one scooter (my passenger was this tiny girl who had to wear my big pack, and I had her pack by my feet) strapped on our 80s police style helmets and hit the road.
The scooters were rather easy to drive, but having a passenger and extra bags definitely affected the weight distribution and made turning a little difficult at first, and I had to sit so close to the front that I couldn’t use the side-view mirrors (but all in all still easy to drive). We stopped at a 7-11 for some scooter gas and then found ourselves at the national park head quarters. The park infrastructure was very impressive (thanks to the Japanese a few decades back) and would hardly be distinguishable from the national park system in the states, minus the Taiwanese signs and lack of white people. One of the rangers at head quarters spoke great English and we were able to get the location of some hostels and hotels further into the park, the weather forecast, and some recommended hiking trails. It was about mid afternoon at this point, and decided we (back to 4 of us at this point) would ride up to Tiansiang, a small town with some lodging. The ride took about 35 mins and basically consisted of switchback roads next to vertical cliffs, long unlit tunnels, lots of giant tour buses, and portions where the road was so narrow that traffic only went one direction at the time. It was very similar to some of the roads in the Rockies, Yellowstone or Glacier NP, in both sketchiness of driving conditions and incredible views. It was a blast on the way up, and felt really freeing riding the scooters and just being outside, after so much time on this trip being spent cooped up on tour buses, trains and planes.
Tiansiang was right next to the river and literally consisted of maybe 6-8 buildings. There was a really nice 5 star resort right next to the cliffs and river, and a hostel (not too bad actually) a short hike from the resort. Surprisingly, and thanks to a “student” discount, the 4 of us were able to get a room at the resort for about the same price as the hostel. We got our room with about an hour left of light in the day and climbed down a little ways to the river to explore. There were tons of giant boulders and rocks to climb around and over down the river. It was a blast traversing through the riverside with these massive cliffs on either side, another one of those “life is great” moments where I was so perfectly and peacefully happy to boulder around the river and just breath in the fresh air. After the sun set, we decided to venture out on the scooters for a bit and find the trail head to the hike we planned on the doing the next morning. It was a fun ride, but we definitely went a little slower due to the darkness. We returned to the hotel around 1900-2000 and decided to just enjoy the amenities our resort had to offer for the rest of the night.
And boy did our resort have some amenities. In no particular order I enjoyed one of 3 roof top hot tubs overlooking an illuminated part of the canyon, swam in the roof top infinity pool, enjoyed the warmth of the fire pit, listened to the rushing canyon water from our room’s balcony, swam in the giant indoor pool, rested in the indoor Jacuzzi, ate some desserts from the bakery, played in the kiddie ball pit, attended an aboriginal dance performance (I was selected out of the audience and brought on stage. The emcee spoke to me in Taiwanese for a while and then put the mic in front of my face. In my confusion I managed a “my name is Ben,” before everyone clapped and I got this awesome braided head band, truly hilarious to watch im sure), stepped inside the sauna, played some ping pong and used our room’s shower (which happened to be a whole room by itself). We had gone to the Gorge expecting to rough it for the night, but I will never turn down luxurious accommodations, especially inexpensive ones.
The next morning we were up at around 5:30am to start our longer hike by 6:00. Surprisingly, all four of us made it to the trail head by 6 without any grumbling or complaining, a characteristic of travelling partners that is highly desirable and hard to come by. The hike was supposed to take around 4 hours, but we were confident to finish it in at least an hour less. It started off pretty level, just following the curves of the canyon. After crossing a pair of rope suspension bridges a few hundred feet in the air (yes, they bounced and swayed and made me feel like Indiana Jones) we hit the uphill part of the hike. After about an hour of climbing steps, the trail leveled off again and we reached our destination. We were at the top of the cliffs and were supposed to see a big pond (and possibly go swimming in it) but it was really cloudy/foggy so we couldn’t see too much of anything. Regardless, the hike was incredible, the weather was perfect (although the clouds limited our views but provided cool, moist refreshing air to breath) and it always feels good to wake up early and sweat. We made it back to the scooters just over 2 and a half hours after we left.
We made it back to the hotel where we immediately went to the breakfast buffet and feasted on one of the best breakfasts I have had in the past 3 months. I went up to the roof to do some hot hot tub water/ cold pool water muscle shock therapy to recover from the hike. We all made it back to the room feeling incredible refreshed and full, and since we finished the hike a little sooner than expected, took a 30 min power nap, with the balcony opened letting the fresh air and sounds of rushing water in. We checked out, loaded up our scooter again and headed to one of the temples/pagodas up in the cliffs. A quick 20 min stop allowed us to climb the steps to the top and snap some photos. Next we rode back down to the park headquarters (going downhill meant I hardly had to use any throttle which was fun) and found the trailhead to a 90min nature walk. This hike was level the whole time and lower in the canyon, and was a great way to stretch the legs out after riding the scooters. The walk was great. I just tried to really soak in the whole environment of the natural beauty, the deep blues and greens of the water, the swirled marbled patterns of the boulders, the sounds of the birds and the rushing water and fresh air. We found a couple spots to climb down off the trail, boulder around and splash the water.
We had to quickly hike back to the scooters and rush back to the train station in order to catch a train into Taipei. We pretty much had the whole road back into town to ourselves allowing us to really open up the throttles and unleash the 75ccs (maybe 50?) of power our bikes had. I think I topped at about 90 (calm down, its kilometers per hour) but the wind was rushing into my eyes so fast that I kinda had to squint to keep my contacts from blowing out, so not the safest way to ride a scooter. We made it with just enough time to return the scooters and buy tickets for the train. A friend and I decided to continue into Taipei and spend the night there while the 2 others in our group took the train back to Keelung and spent the night on the ship. We were able to meet up with about 10 other friends at a hostel in Taipei that night (after eating McDonalds for dinner and TGI Fridays for dessert – can’t be cultural all the time). The hostel wasn’t too bad and had free Internet. And even though I had to share a room with some Asian people who liked to chant Buddhist prayers at odd hours, I slept pretty well. The next morning I was up early again to try and locate and orphanage that my sister, Chih, may or may not have been adopted from.
I had an address of an orphanage (but im pretty sure my Dad just googled orphanages in Taiwan and gave me the address of the first one) that happened to be just a short cab ride from my hostel. I didn’t really have too much of a plan as to what I would say when the orphanage employees answered the door to a white guy at 8 in the morning, but figured things might have a way of working out. Sure enough, I found the orphanage, was welcomed in, and was able to speak with one of the social workers there that spoke English. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough of my sister’s information to definitively say whether or not that was the orphanage she came from, but it was still cool visiting. I was able to tour the orphanage, interact with some of its residents (now it mainly serves mentally handicapped individuals) and learn some of the history of the orphanage. It certainly is possible that Chih was adopted from there and I have their contact info if we decide to follow up and try to get some more information.
After about 90mins at the orphanage, I made it back to the hostel just in time to catch the rest of the group who were leaving for Taipei 101. Taipei 101 is a really cool building, the 2nd largest in the world. I have always liked the engineering shows about massive buildings and architectural masterpieces, so it was great to be able to experience one of the world’s finest examples. The elevator to the top took about 36 seconds, an engineering feat in itself. The views from top were incredible as expected, and they had a lot of cool information on the history of the construction and also had one of the massive vibration dampening pendulums exposed. All in all a really cool (in a nerdy way) experience. We grabbed lunch in the food court at the bottom of the building (Auntie Anne’s Pretzels and Cold Stone Ice Cream – I do apologize for our indulgences, but hey - we are, after all, American). I had debated going to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial and Museum, but really didn’t have too much of desire to look at artwork (sorry Dad) and instead wanted to get back to the ship and spend some time exploring Keelung.
We grabbed a bus from Taipei to Keelung and made it back to the ship around 1500. I was pretty tired and honestly expected to fall asleep for the afternoon, but after a quick shower (hadn’t change clothes or showered for a few days at this point) I felt refreshed enough to go walk around the city. Keelung didn’t have too much to offer (at least compared to the massive cities in China we had just come from) but it was great to just wander around by myself. I found the city park and a couple of cool temples, but mainly it was fun to be alone in a foreign city, the last one I’ll be in until life’s next adventure.
So that puts me at today, Sunday. We don’t have class today for some reason, but I won’t complain. The Pacific Ocean crossing has been great so far – beautiful weather and just enough rocking to make the weak seasick and the strong sleep well at night (I’m the strong by the way). I cannot stand not fulfilling promises, and therefore will just not say when I’ll finish up my blogs for Vietnam, Cambodia and India, but they are forthcoming, and I apologize for their lateness (but really, who reads the crap I write anyways?). I guess it is two weeks from today when I will be leaving the MV Explorer, which is kinda sad. But that is how life goes, and I just have to enjoy the time I have left and look forward to seeing my family and friends again.
Do Work Son
-Ben
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Chillin in China
I honestly can’t remember the last time I posted a blog about my travels. Looking at my personal journal I can say that I have at least started my posts about India, Vietnam and Cambodia, but before I complete those, I think I’ll try to recite some stories from my 7 days in China. I wouldn’t expect any literary gold in this post, and it might even be a stretch to assume this will even make it up on the internet in the next day or so, but as always ill try my best.
China: I’m not really sure where to begin with China. It snuck up on us pretty quickly after a lot of intense travel in India and South-East Asia. Last Friday (a whole week ago already!!) we were about 12 hours away from arriving in Hong Kong, when I realized that I would run out of clean clothes in two days. This followed sleeping in through two classes (didn’t miss anything) and attending a class where, unknown to me until about five minutes into class, I had to deliver a ten-minute presentation. With my uncanny ability to make myself appear smarter than I am, (the professor said, and I quote: “I’m really impressed by the time and effort you put into preparing.”) I did a pretty great job reading from my journal (it was completely blank, but I just pretended like I wrote stuff in it) and talking about the philosophical foundation for global altruism. About an hour of washing clothes in my sink afforded me the ability to at least wear clean underwear every other day in China, and a good night’s sleep had me feeling excited for Hong Kong.
Saturday: We arrived in Hong Kong a little before 11am, a few hours later than expected. Rough seas had plagued us since leaving Vietnam, and that apparently had slowed our progress. Actually, the ship was probably rocking the worst it had all voyage (or best? considering I didn’t get sick at all) the whole way in transit from Vietnam. Elevators were closed, some classes were cancelled, and plates and cups were flying all over the dining hall. Even though arriving later was a little disappointing, we have grown pretty accustomed to unexpected delays, and happily left the ship a little before noon. Our plan, or more accurately, incredibly rough and uninformed idea of what we should we do, was to visit the Big Buddha statue. We managed to find our way to the subway station, which was huge, decipher the automatic ticket dispenser, find the right platform, walk 10 minutes
underground to the right platform (the station was really big) and get on the right train.
The subway system, or MTR, in Hong Kong is massive (if I hadn’t mentioned that before), clean, although not as clean as Singapore, and really efficient. I think since a lot of the cities we have visited in Asia have such huge populations, public transit has to be efficient out of pure necessity. It was about a 30 min ride from Kowloon, where the ship was docked, to the Tung Cheng station. We had no idea, how much it would cost to take the Gondola up to see the Big Buddha, how long it would take, or if it would even before worth it. About 4 hours later we had the answers. We had to wait in line for close to three hours, first to buy tickets, then to board the gondola up and then to take it back down. It was pretty expensive too, but honestly was a fun experience. It would have been more fun if we didn’t have to wait so long, but I think having regrets about spontaneous travel destinations is a bad idea. After the Big Buddha, we took the train back to Sneaker street, which had a lot of cool kicks but they were too expensive, although I did buy some dress shoes and a D&G belt for that night’s festivities (read on…). We made it to the ship around 1830 for dinner, watched the incredible lights of the Hong Kong skyline, and met up with some more friends to go out.
During our time in line at the Big Buddha, we convinced ourselves that the coolest thing we could do that night was to dress up in our custom tailored suits from Vietnam, put on our fake Rolex watches and Ray Ban sunglasses, and head to Macao to go to the casinos. Again, our incredible (sarcasm) planning skills were put on display. There were several things we didn’t know about Macao that would have been helpful to know before we became utterly determined to get there. First, Macao, although a part of China, is like Hong Kong in that it is, in the colloquial expression “Same, same but different” meaning that to get to Macao requires a passport, departure forms, and a customs checkpoint. Two of my friends didn’t have their passports, so had to take the metro back to the ship, get them and meet us in Macao later that night. Second, to get to the casinos requires a 10-minute ferry ride to Hong Kong island and then an hour speed boat ride to Macao. This is both time consuming and expensive. Thirdly, we didn’t know that Macao had a separate currency from Hong Kong, which was already different from the currency used in main land China. Fortunately, the casinos took HK dollars and we only had to tip our one taxi in Macao a little extra to get him to accept HK dollars so we wouldn’t have to go to the ATM. Fifth(ly?), some residents of Macao are scum bags and think it is a good business to buy every single ticket for the only ferry returning to HK island, which happened to be the 4am ferry, and sell them at ridiculously high prices. After a lot of arguing, begging, trying to barter our fake Rolexes and attempting to call the police, we finally were able to get on the ferry back at 4am with only paying about 25% over the original value. We walked back onto the ship around 7am Sunday morning.
This episode in Macao certainly qualifies as a great travel story and was actually a blast. All of us looked incredible in our suits and watches, which entitled us to adopt a pretentious rich businessman persona for the evening. We arrived at the Sands Macao a little before midnight, and immediately withdrew 1,000HK dollars from the ATM (You’ll have to look up the exchange rate yourself to see how much US money that is). Lady luck was on my side at the black jack table, and I quickly found myself up a few hundred. We took a little break on the hotel’s top floor club, where we just walked in and sat at the VIP table (our waitress comes up and says, “you guys must be businessmen from Hong Kong, let me bring you some complimentary snacks). After the club, it was back to the card tables, where I hit a 10-1 payout on a 50HKD bet. At the end of the night I walked out with my initial investment and an additional 500HKD, which covered all the ferry and taxi expenses for the evening, plus a little extra.
Sunday: Sunday was comparatively uneventful. I got back on the ship around 7am, slept for a few hours, went to the mall for some breakfast and free internet, came back to the ship, packed and left for the airport for my flight to Beijing. Our flight was delayed about 90 minutes, which left us some extra time at the airport for a nice dinner. The HK airport was incredible, and the whole thing is built on a man made island. We arrived in Beijing around 2200 Sunday night (also a massive airport), and made it to our hotel a little before midnight. Needless to say I was pretty tired, and went straight to sleep.
Monday: Monday was the official start of our tour with the China Guide Company. China Guide is the first non-SAS affiliated tour group I have used this entire voyage, but a lot of friends signed up for it, the reviews online were positive, and it was a lot cheaper than the comparable SAS trip. Our first stop of the day was the Forbidden City, about 15 minutes from our hotel. We entered through the North Gate, which is a lot less crowded and touristy than the South Gate and gave us some space for photos. We followed our guide Vincent and his blue flag stick (which at the time I thought was silly, but later proved invaluable when trying to follow him through the crowded train stations) and learned some interesting history about the construction and purpose of the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City is massive. It has 9,999 rooms (lucky number) and housed 20,000 servants and workers for the royal family. The compound is beautifully renovated and restored, and truly gives a sense of the original magnificence of the city. Towards the southern side of the city it got a lot more crowded with tourist groups. This was frustrating, but did provide us the opportunity to watch a full on fistfight between several elderly Chinese women (no one was hurt, so it’s entertaining watching old people throw down). On the outside of the South Gate is a giant portrait of Mao facing the infamous Tiananmen Square. We walked over to Tiananmen Square, which is essentially just a giant platform, in fact, the largest public gathering area in the world. It is also the site of the iconic Tank Man photos from 1989 and the sight of the massacre of students and intellectuals by the communist party during that same time. Our guide warned us not to talk or ask questions about the massacre in public, since China is still a communist country and does not have all of the same freedoms we have in the states.
After Tiananmen Square, we had a family style lunch, which was delicious and then headed to the Silk Market. I’m usual not a huge fan of shopping, but there are certain items that I do enjoy buying; namely sneakers, adventure apparel and sports clothing. The Silk Market was heaven. I’m not gonna list everything I bought but lets just say I was forced to but a new North Face duffel bag just to hold all of the goods. After the Silk Market we drove about 90 minutes to the Jinshanling portion of the Great Wall. The ride was incredible and one of the first times I had seen mountains the entire voyage, and we managed to watch the setting sun just before arriving for dinner. Dinner was honestly kinda gross, but at least we were the only people in the area. I also bought a cool ski cap that looks like a panda face. About 25 out of 30 people in my group bought the same hat, which gave us the opportunity for some awesome panda pictures throughout the trip. At this point it was pitch black outside, around 40 degrees and we were in the middle of the mountains with no real cities within an hours drive; basically it was awesome and I was enjoying every second of it. We picked up our sleeping bags, mats, and a hand crank flashlight and hiked about 20 minutes uphill to the Great Wall.
The Great Wall of China is exactly that; Great. Although it was dark and unlit, I couldn’t help the feeling that I was standing on one of the most remarkable structures in the world. The shear magnitude of the wall is mind blowing. We were on just a tiny, tiny portion of it, but it still felt like one of the biggest things I have ever seen. Sleeping overnight on the wall was definitely an interesting experience. As soon as we got to the tower we were supposed to sleep at, I hiked about 20 minutes the other direction to the next tower where I had hoped to sleep alone, but I got yelled at and had to come back. I was able to negotiate with the guide to a spot about 10 minutes away from our group’s tower on an open section under the stars with two other friends. Before retiring to my humble abode consisting of a sleeping bag and mat, which was stiff from the cold, we had a few drinks, ate some oreos and tried our best to stay warm. I probably slept about 4-5 hours that night which isn’t too bad, considering the temp was right around freezing, and I haven’t been in weather cooler than 70 degrees since I left the states.
Tuesday: I awoke to an awesome sunrise, which I couldn’t fully appreciate because my contacts were out and my glasses had frost on them, but can still say was magnificent even with impaired vision. I wanted to stay in my sleeping bag to warm up under the sun, but decided I might as well just pack everything up and start hiking to warm up. We had to hike back down the path we took up the wall to return the sleeping bags. I did this ahead of everyone, snapped some pictures of the map to find out which tower to stop at, and got the go ahead from my guide to start the hike. The plan was to hike 15 towers, which was about 5km. The guide had told us it would take about 3 hours, but my roommate and I were determined to hike it in half the time. The hike was incredible. Not too hard, but certainly strenuous enough to keep the body warm and the views were indescribable. Literally, I’m not going to even try to describe how cool it was to hike the Great Wall of China, you have to find out for yourself. We made it to tower 15 in just over an hour, besting our goal, and giving us plenty of time to relax a bit, explore on to the next tower, film a music video of a Disney song, and eat some fruit we took from the bus. About an hour later, everyone else showed up and we had about a 20min hike down a path to the buses. I managed to rinse my face and hair with some water in the woods by the buses, threw on a clean shirt, ignored my smelly shorts and got back on the bus for the rest of the day.
It was around 11am at this point and after driving back into Beijing for lunch (not impressive except for the Chinese doughnuts at the end), we drove around the Olympic compound and then went to another market selling jackets, sneakers, jerseys, sunglasses, and headphones – my favorite things. I had planned on being more reserved with my shopping, but of course ended up spending just as much as the day before. The good news was that I had a new duffel bag to put all my loot in. The market also had a bathroom with actually toilet seats and toilet paper (a rarity in China) and I of course took advantage of the opportunity. After this evacuation (I apologize for the potty humor) we headed to the acrobatic show. The acrobatic show was everything I expected and more; a more authentic Cirque De Solei, with cool laser lights, ridiculously strong athletes, and a collection of acrobats obviously just barely subpar to world-class Olympic gymnasts. We checked into our hotel after the show, and had the evening to ourselves. After a shower, some friends and I headed out into the streets of Beijing. We tried some dumplings from the street vendor, but passed on the sheep’s testicles, fried snakeskin and scorpions. We spent a few hours wandering the streets and a mall, and turned into the hotel just before midnight to get some sleep.
Wednesday: After checking out of the hotel around 9am, we headed back into historic Beijing to visit a hutong. Hutongs are traditional Chinese communities that are very close knit. Historically they follow a sort of caste system, but in more recent times, everyone is seen as equal. The hutong we visited was very close to the Forbidden City and contained the drum and bell tower that we had seen from inside the Forbidden City a few days earlier. Hutongs are arranged in very narrow streets with similar sized and styled homes. We took a bike rickshaw ride through the community and ate lunch at one of the local’s homes (who happened to be friends with Jackie Chan and was Jet Li’s brother). We also climbed to the drum tower, which contained over a dozen massive drums and a bronze kelou (basically an elaborate water clock) used to measure time and announce it to the hutong. We then attended a traditional Chinese tea ceremony inside of the bell tower. The tea ceremony was really, really interesting, despite being a slightly stereotypical Chinese tourist attraction. We learned the proper serving, holding and even sipping procedures for tea, and were able to sample three different varieties, all of which were incredible. I couldn’t quite justify spending 20US to buy a small bag of tea, but definitely plan on trying to find some whole tealeaves and a proper tea maker back in the states. My favorite tea was the ginseng, but the fruit dessert tea was also really good.
After leaving the hutong we went to panda exhibit at the Beijing Zoo. You have to remember that 90% of the kids in my group (including me) had been wearing panda hats everywhere for the past two days, and so you can’t imagine our excitement (and the awkward stares of the zoo guests seeing 25 white kids running around with matching panda hats) once we got there. The panda exhibit was really cool, and we managed to get some awesome pictures of the real pandas and the people wearing panda hats. I wished we had more time at the zoo to explore some of the other exhibits, but we had to make our way to the Summer Palace.
The Summer Palace is awesome. The dynastic system in China allowed emperors to spend absurd amounts of money, time and labor on projects that are actually pretty pointless (case in point: terracotta warriors, the Great Wall, Yao Ming’s NBA career). The Summer Palace was originally built in the 1700s, then ransacked by the French in the 1800s and later rebuilt in the early 1900s. The dominant feature of the palace is this huge man made lake, and with the breeze that day, I desperately wanted to take a sailboat out on it. We didn’t have too much time at the Palace, but were able to walk outside down the Long Corridor which is covered with paintings and carvings, see the marble boat, and look at some of the buildings with cool names like Hall of Benevolence and Longevity and the Sea of Wisdom Temple. After the Summer Palace, it was off to the Beijing train station for an overnight train to Xi’an. The train station in Beijing was packed and kinda dirty, which was perfect preparation for our train, which was also packed and kinda dirty. Fortunately we had our own cabins with four beds (and not much more) a squatty potty every car, and a train worker who pushed a cart full of undistinguishable food every hour or so. Unfortunately the electricity in the cabins was pretty spotty, so we couldn’t use our laptops, but we were all tired enough that we passed out and slept pretty well.
Thursday: We got to Xi’an sometime around eight, met our guide and headed to the terracotta warriors. There was, let’s just say, some confusion between our guide and the original plans for the day, which would manifest itself into only having about 40mins at the terracotta museum, sitting on a bus for a combined 2 hours by the end of the day, barely making our train back to Shanghai and skipping our scheduled stop at the Muslim Quarter of Xi’an. With those minor frustrations aside, it was an absolutely awesome day. Really the only appropriate reaction to seeing the terracotta warriors is shock and disbelief at what you are looking at: thousands of soldiers and hundreds of horses and chariots lined up in neat rows, each one unique from. There are currently three pits where terracotta has been found, but there is a lot of excavation and digging still to be done. Farmers discovered the pits about 35 years ago (I met one of the farmers who found the terracotta warriors-he’s still a poor farmer, although he gets to sign books once in a while) and the museum and buildings were built more recently. 700,000 workers were used to construct the massive burial pit and craft each figure, and construction lasted several decades, all to appease the wishes of a young emperor.
After the terracotta warriors we drove back into Xi’an, ate lunch at a really fancy hotel and took the bus to the city wall. The Xi’an city wall is an eight-mile stretch of about a 70ft high by 40ft wide wall forming a square around the city. Because we had been cooped up on a train and buses a lot recently, and cooped up on a ship the past two months, everyone in my group rented bicycles and bike the whole perimeter of the wall. It was a blast biking. The weather was perfect; about 65 and sunny, the bikes, although kinda crappy made it the whole way, and it was just a fun way to spend an hour. Once the biking was complete, it was a race off to the train station to catch the 1700 train to Shanghai. We just made it to the waiting room before we had to board. Fortunately everyone made it, but we didn’t have time to pick roommates so me and another SAS kid had to share a cabin with two Chinese men. Everything worked out fine though, and the 15-hour train ride honestly went by kinda quickly. I slept like a baby, woke up and saw half the train’s occupants on the platform at the station in Shanghai, quickly threw my contacts in, grabbed my bags and got off the train a few minutes before it left for the next station somewhere in China.
Friday: After a 15min bus ride we were on the ship just in time to catch the end of breakfast. Unfortunately, SAS had failed to inform us that after boarding in Shanghai, it took about 2 hours to get your passport processed to be able to leave the ship again. Also, on-ship time had been moved up an hour, from1800 to 1700, meaning that 3 hours I had expected to have to explore Shanghai were gone. But that’s how things happened, and I spent my waiting time trying to find space in my room for all the stuff I bought (it all fits!) and taking a shower for the first time in a few days. Finally I was allowed off, and met up with some friends to take the subway to the science and technology center, where there was also a huge market. Of course I had to buy a few more jerseys and some more headphones for myself, and after my overindulgence we grabbed some great dumplings for lunch. My friends had been in Shanghai for a day already and visited some of the sights I wanted to see, so I ditched them later in the afternoon and took the subway by myself into the heart of downtown. It was a lot of fun to navigate the city by myself with only a Chinese map as my guide, but fortunately my destination was the tallest building in China and the third tallest in the world (I get to go to the 2nd tallest in Taipei next week) so it was pretty easy to know where I wanted to go. The Shanghai WFC is 1614ft tall, and basically looks like a bottle opener at the top with this massive bridge connected to towers, forming a square hole at the top. The elevator took 66secs to get to the observation deck on the 100th floor, the tallest observation deck in the world. It was quite an experience being that high above the ground and having the best views of the Shanghai skyline. Even though it was hazy out (Beijing and Hong Kong were really hazy too – I’m guessing it is air pollution), I could see a bunch of incredible buildings and even our ship on the other side of the harbor. I went down to the bar on the 94th floor, sat by the window and enjoyed a snack, probably one of the most unique locations I have ever eaten a cheese quesadilla in.
After the WFC I had a little bit of time to walk around down town. Shanghai is a beautiful city with clean, wide streets, lots of plants, a great subway, crossing guards at every intersection, and a very efficient layout. Shanghai is a relatively new city compared to other world cities, and the modernity of its layout and its buildings certainly shows. I made it back on the ship with about 20mins to spare, and had some time this evening to take some photos of the skyline at dark, which is really impressive. We have two days of class, one free day and then we will be in Taiwan. The realization that this trip is coming to an end is certainly becoming more apparent in our minds, but I try to ignore it and just enjoy the moment I am in. In a sadder bit of news, two SAS students were rather seriously injured on a fall on the Great Wall. The students were actually at the same spot on the wall as I was, just a day later. SAS officially announced that one student suffered a broken leg and is already back on the ship, but the other student sustained some pretty traumatic head injuries and was flown to Hong Kong to receive treatment. The latest official news is that she is responsive to some questions and is showing signs of improvement, but the injuries appear to be severe. Of course I have heard a lot of other news, but don’t think it is productive to post them on this forum, so I will only share what has been officially released by SAS. The student with the head injury actually works in the AV booth on the same shift as me every other day, so it is always a sad thing to see someone you know get hurt. I know both students and the entire shipboard community would appreciate your thoughts and prayers for a quick and full recovery.
Best,
Ben