SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa is AMAZING, well Cape Town is at least. I didn’t leave Cape Town so I didn’t see anything else in South Africa. There is SO much to do in Cape Town/South Africa, I want to move here, it is the coolest city ever. It’s not too big, but it is still a city, and it’s very quaint. It is kind of like California, but a way better atmosphere. There really aren’t many skyscrapers at all either. The only bad thing about Cape Town is the crime, there were TONS of kids that got pick pocketed and a few that got jumped. It’s amazing apartheid was here not too long ago because everything seems to be so integrated. The guys in South Africa are really good looking too, haha. Long Street is the main street in Cape Town that has tons of shopping, restaurants, bars, etc. It is so cute, I loved Long Street, we went there a lot.
The first day I had an FDP (field directed practica, it was a trip with SAS that I had to do for a paper for my finance class) called Wine Production and Management. The FDP started at 12, so I had like 2 hours to kill until then, so I just walked around the shops right outside the ship. The ship was located in a great location, it was in this really busy part with tons of restaurants and a huge mall, it was really convenient. When the FDP finally started, we took a bus out to the winelands, which was maybe an hour away. The first winery we went to was called something with a B, I don’t remember, I have it somewhere., it was a family business. The winelands are SO gorgeous, driving out there was so pretty, everything is so green and there are tons of random mountains. We learned about their production and finance crap, and then we got to do the wine tasting. We learned how to properly taste wine. We had 5 different wine glasses in front of us, two were white wine, two were red, and one was brandy. I really liked all the wine, it was so good. The wine we were drinking would be $300 bottles in the U.S., the wine is so good, and it would only cost like $30 to buy a bottle in South Africa, it’s SO expensive in the U.S. because of all the import taxes on it. The brandy was SOOOO strong, but it was so good, I don’t like brandy and I even liked it, even though it was really hard to take down straight. After the wine tasting we went to the shop to buy whatever, but I didn’t but anything. The next winery we went to was about 10-15 minutes away and seemed smaller than the previous winery. We learned about their company and everything, then we got a tour of the cellar, which was filled with tons of huge tanks, and it smelled so strongly of wine. The guy talked for so long and it was really boring, I totally tuned out for this part. After the cellar we went to the wine tasting and with this one we got cheese and crackers, everyone was so excited, we were all starving. I like all this wine too, I think we tried 4 again, maybe 3, some red and white again. After the wine tasting we went to buy stuff again, I bought some wine glasses, they were pretty inexpensive, like 2 bucks each, they were nice too, they are engraved and everything. Anyways, we got back on the bus and headed back to the ship. We got back around 6:15, and all of my friends left at 6 for this spiritual dance, which I really wanted to go to, but I missed them by 15 minutes (we do spiritual dance on the ship it’s really fun, this life long learner Jenny does it and she was taking us to this more traditional one in Cape Town, I was bummed I missed it). So I found some random people to go out with on the ship because all my friends were gone. It was fun though, its nice to hang out with new people sometimes. We just went to Mitchell’s for a drink, which was a local hotspot on the waterfront that everyone went to all the time while we were here. Then we went out to Long Street where everyone was going out, and we ran into basically everyone on SAS, I ended up seeing my friends out later that night.
The next day I had to get up earlier because I had another SAS trip, it was called Operation Hunger. Operation Hunger is a NGO that helps with poor township communities and feeds them and looks out for them and so on. We had to meet at the bus at 8am so I was really tired when I got up. The first place we went was a clinic where people come to get food. There were tons of people waiting for food and there was like no food prepared. Some of the students handed a few of the meals out, but not everyone because there was not enough food for everyone to hand out. We were here for like maybe 20 minutes and we just listened to them talk forever. It was really sad to see everyone just waiting for food, I bet they wait there for so long. After the clinic we went to a township, it was called Los Angeles, it is one of the many townships that operation hunger is a part of. For those who don’t know what a township is, it is where black people lived during apartheid, which ended not too long ago, like 1992 I think. And there are still tons of people living in these poor townships. The township was seriously so sad, we walked in and it was just this desert area and all sandy, filled with tiny falling apart shacks all over the place, just one after another. This township, Los Angeles, looked poorer than some of the other ones we drove past. We walked like 5 minutes into the township to this area where there were tons of children. People leading the trip were talking for a while, but most of us weren’t listening and we were just playing with the kids, there were probably about 30 of them, they were so freaking cute, all of them. They were all ages from newborn (there weren’t too many of those) to like 14, most more around 7 or so, there were only a few older ones. Anyways, we were at this spot for SO long, we played with the kids the entire time, they absolutely loved us. They were hanging all over the guys. The guys were like running away because they wouldn’t give them a break, they were just sweating bullets. The little kids were OBSESSED with taking pictures on our cameras, there were always cameras being passed around with kids taking pictures, I have at least 20 photos of myself on my camera because they would just snap pictures of me. IT was so funny to see little African kids just running around all over with cameras all over the place. I didn’t take like any of the amazing pictures on my camera from the township. While we were at the township our job was to weigh all the kids, and then we wrote how much they weighed on their arm, and we took them over to the next station where they recorded their name, age, and weight. This took a really long time because the kids are so playful and it was so much work trying to get them all to get in line. I didn’t do the graphing part, but the data was analyzed and each kid had been analyzed to see how many standard deviations away from the mean they lied, so 0 was where they wanted to be, if they were plus 1 they were a little “overweight”, or -1, a little underweight. None of the kids were 0, they were mostly 1’s, -1’s, some 2’s and negative 2’s. Anyways, we were there until about 1pm, then we drove to get lunch at this like fast-food/gas station. There were boxed lunches, but I didn’t grab one, I just got a toasted sandwich at the fast food place. After lunch, we went back to the township to see this performance the kids were going to show us. We walked through the township again and up the hill to this little tiny shack. IT was really small and we all squeezed in. There were these 3 professional dancers, who were originally from here, I don’t know if they were from this specific township, but I know they were form around here, and they all like went to the US on dance scholarship and were like professionally dancing, anyways they moved back to Africa to give back to the community and help. They were such beautiful people and it really touched me how much they cared to help. They told us their story and then the kids did their dance. They had no music, so one of the teacher guys just used a drum and they would just do counts of like 8 for different little steps, the dance is the CUTEST thing I have ever seen in my entire life, I was like almost crying because they were so cute and the kids had absolutely nothing, and they were still so happy and they were so excited to show us their dance and these people were so amazing to help these little kids, it was just so amazing and I was trying so hard not to cry. I have a video of these kids dancing, it is so freaking cute, they are really good too. After the kids danced the professional dancers did a short little dance and they were SO good, I have a video of them too. After their dance, the kids did another little dance that was similar to the last one, but it was shorter, they were so freaking cute, I’m so glad I have it on video, it’s honestly the cutest thing I have ever seen. I watched the video so many times. After their dance, we walked back down to where we were earlier and we gave the kids food, a lot of it was our extra food from lunch. I have the most amazing pictures from this. This was such an amazing experience and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. IT was really emotional though, no one really knows what it’s like until they actually go there. I know I’ve heard about poor people in Africa my whole life, especially on this voyage before getting here, but you really truly don’t know until you actually go there and experience it. I think everyone should have an experience like this, it is so meaningful. I think it is necessary that everyone does this really. No matter how hard I try and explain it, words can’t even explain. It really truly makes you appreciate what you have, it really puts things into perspective too. These kids seem so happy with absolutely nothing, and we live these lives completely different that they do and we still complain. It makes me sick that we can complain about things in our lives that are meaningless, when we could be living in their situation and they are still happy; they don’t know anything better, I can’t even imagine how one of these children would react if they saw how we lived. This experience really had a huge impact on me. Anyways, after the township we got back on the bus and drove back to our box of a world on the ship. IT was around dinner time and I met my friend Noel on the ship. She was with this other girl Christina who I am kind of friends with, she actually went to Homestead. Anyways, us three went to get food on Long Street and we ended up seeing Lindsay, Laurel, and Emily (my other 3 good friends-linds is the roomie too) on the street. We all went to eat at this cute little place and most of us got the best veggie burgers EVER. I got this hummus veggie burger and it was awesome. I was so full after dinner. After dinner we went and got drinks at this really cute place that was outside. Then we went to this other place and sat outside and got drinks for “happy hour”, which was from 10pm to 11, I think. After that we were all so tired and crashing, so we took a taxi back to the ship and went to sleep.
The next day I hung out with Emily and Noel and we started our day going to the craft market, which was near the ship on the water front. It was really cute, they had really neat things. I like African markets so much more than all the other places because they aren’t grabby AT ALL, it is so reliving. The craft market was a little more expensive than other places, so I didn’t buy anything. I just got 2 braids in my hair, they braided colored hair into it, I have one maroon/pink one and another purple one. They are both on the left side of my head, they are cute, they have beads at the end of it too. Emily got 3 of them, Noel got just 1. After we got our braids we went to Long Street. We were starving so we got lunch at this place called the Clay Oven. Noel and I got nachos and then we split a pizza. After lunch we went to the green market, which was this outside market on the side of long street. They had really cool stuff here too. I really liked this market, it wasn’t overwhelmingly large either. After the market we went to the beach, it was like a 15 minute or so cab, everything in Cape Town is so close it’s awesome. The beach was absolutely GORGEOUS. The water was freeezzzzzzing though, we didn’t go in. There was a cute street next to the beach and there was a big cliff/mountain behind the beach, there were tons of little houses on it. The beach was called Camps Bay. Oh, I broke my camera here, such a buzzkill. I was handing it to Noel to take my picture and it someone dropped in the sand and then it wouldn’t work after that. Anyways, we ran into Jenny Finn here too, she’s this amazing LLC on the ship (Living learning coordinator), she teaches spiritual dance too, she’s so amazing. She was with her 2 kids and husband, Noel and I were playing with them and they buried me in the sand. The sand here was so sticky and it would not come off my body. I tried rinsing off the shower, and it would not really come off, the shower was SO freaking cold too, I was freaking out, noel thought it was so funny. We ran into Linds and Laurel at the beach too so we all took a cab back to the ship together. We passed the world cup stadium too on the way back to the ship, it was cool to see I guess. When we got back to the ship we all got ready for the night and stopped at the place next to Mitchell’s for a quick drink, and then headed to Long Street for dinner. Me, Laurel, Linds, and Noel went to eat at the place we got happy hour drinks from the night before. After dinner we met up with Emily at this bar. Emily and Laurel left to go to this Steve Aoki concert, he is this famous Japanese DJ. When they left, we headed to this other bar called Ivy, there were tons of SAS kids here. That was basically it, Emily and Laurel met up with us later after the concert.
The next morning I woke up early and walked to the mall right outside the ship to get a new camera. I bought a nicer digital camera from this cute older man. He asked me if I wanted a case and I said sure how much and he just said I’ll give it to you for free because I’d been so nice, he was so cute. On my way walking back to the ship I ran into Lindsay and Noel, and we walked to Mitchell’s for breakfast, we got breakfast pizza, it was really good. After breakfast we walked back to the ship to get Emily, but we couldn’t find her, so we just left her a note and left to go to table mountain, it’s this flat top mountain in Cape Town. We had the cutest cab driver, it is how I picture white south Africans. He was so friendly and really tan, he loved us, he talked to us about everything, he was such a nice man. He talked about the war he fought in, I don’t really know what one it was. I took a picture with him, he was unforgettable. We got to table mountain and we were being touristy and looked in the shops right there, I just bought a sticker. Lindsay was being so funny, she bought Cape Town shirts and she regretted it after she bought it, it was so funny, we were all in a really weird mood and we were laughing at everything and just being so weird. Anyways, we got tickets for the cable car, we didn’t want to hike it, the cable car looked like more fun. There were two giant cable cars that went up to the top of table mountain that fit a huge group of people in one at a time. We waited for a little while for our turn. We got in the cable car and it was so funny, the floor spinned so we got a view from every angle; I don’t think this is normal, but some how our group in the cable car started screaming so loud, everyone was yelling, it was so funny, I think we started it, it was absolutely hilarious. We could see the entire view of cape town and the ocean, it was so pretty. When we got on top of the mountain it was really foggy when we were up there so we couldn’t see anything, it was seriously really cold too. We just walked around for a little while and then got in line to take it back down. While we were near the line to go back down, Noel heard these men speaking Arabic, and Noel’s parents are from Sierra so she speaks fluent Arabic so she just said something to them in Arabic, and they started talking to us, they were from Egypt and they were professional chess players from Egypt and they had a match or something in Cape Town, haha. We talked to them for a little bit, they loved us, they wanted pictures with us. Anyways, we took the cable care back down and got in this random shuttle to take us to long street. We walked around long street and went in some of the shops; we stopped and got nachos and a drink at the Clay Oven again because it was almost dinner and we were starving. After we ate we took a cab back to the ship. Before we got back to the ship we walked around the giant mall right next to the ship for a while. After the mall we all got ready and met up with Emily and we went to dinner at this really cute restaurant in the waterfront, it was really nice. I got a salad because I wasn’t very hungry, the food was so good though. WE got two bottles of white wine with dinner, the wine was SO good. We stayed at the restaurant for SO long, we closed it down, when we left there was no one there. After dinner we went to meet Emily’s friend Ari that is studying abroad in Cape Town, we hung out with him and his friend all night, they were cool, the went to Wisconsin and Michigan. We went to two places called the waiting room and Joburg’s. The next morning we woke up and we went to lunchish at this restaurant in the mall, we brought our computers with us to try and get internet somewhere, but we didn’t really find anything. We walked around the mall for a while after lunch at random stores, the mall was seriously huge, it was so overwhelming. By the time we were done it was around five, and we had to be back on the ship by six so we went back to the ship. WE were supposed to leave that night, but the winds were too strong so they closed the port, we ended up leaving later the next day, it was so weird sitting in class in Cape Town, everyone just wanted to get off the ship. Ah cape town was awesome, were acuatlly sitting in Ghana right now, waiting to get off the ship, I’ll write more later!
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Mauritius
MAURITIUS
Mauritius is so beautiful, it’s so much prettier than I thought it was going to be. There were mountains all in the background of the Port (Port Louis) we were docked at. Mauritius was an island owned by the French for a long time, but now it is considered part of Africa, but it doesn’t have much to do with Africa. Mauritius is really cool because there is like no poverty, and everyone gets along, There are a ton of different people on the island and everyone gets along, it’s like the perfect society. It was really nice being in a tropical vacation spot place, and you don’t walk out of your resort and see poverty everywhere (like you do in places like Dominican Republic and Mexico, and all those other places). Mauritius is the prettiest island I’ve ever been too. There are forests all over the mountains too, it is just so gorgeous. Everyone on the island speaks French, and mostly everyone knows English. We were only here for one night, so we had two full days. When we got off the ship it was raining, it was not nice out. Lindsay, Anne, Emily, and I signed up for this Adventure Park and Beach Semester at Sea day drip (my first SAS trip this whole time). We got on the buses and we drove to the southern part of the island, it took us a good hour and a half to get there. As we left Port Louis everything was so pretty. There were mountains and green everywhere. The adventure park was kind of in one of these mountains. I have pretty pictures. The adventure park was really cool, except we gotten EATEN ALIVE, oh my god, I probably had at least 100 mosquitoes bites, they were all over my legs, and we had bug spray on, good thing there’s no Malaria in Mauritius, because I would definitely have it after that. We had these harnesses on and we went through the first course, which was a bunch of bridges in the forest, they were really cool, it took us an hour or so to go through the first course. The second course was a lot more challenging, we got so muddy. They had rope nets we climbed across, there were a bunch of different rope things we climbed across to get from one thing to the next. They were really hard, I was sore after it. There was a zip line that was short at the end, but it was really fun. The ropes course was so cool, minus the muddiness and bites. Our legs were covered in mud and our shoes were just like ruined. After the course we got lunch there, which was horrible it was rice and this gross chicken I didn’t even eat it looked so gross. After lunch we took the bus more south to Flic en Flac beach, it’s like a really famous beach I guess. We stopped when we were almost there at this lookout thing looking over the beach and it was this huge aerial view of the beach and ocean, with gorgeous mountains on the side, it was the most amazing view, I cant belive im doing these things while my friends and everyone is back home in boring WI and Iowa. We got to the beach and we just relaxed on the beach, there were some other SAS kids there that had villas near there. We went swimming in the ocean for like the hour we had there, the Indian Ocean is by far my favorite ocean. It is so warm, it is so much saltier too, its funny, you can totally tell you float a lot more. After the beach we drove back to the Port (which was in middle/Northern part of the island). Lindsay and I met up with Noel and Laurel on the ship and we didn’t have any hotels booked, we just decided to wing it and go up to Grand Baie (a ton of SAS kids were going here, it was pretty much split between Flic en Flac and the other half went to Grand Baie, I’m glad we got to see both). Grand Baie was like a 25 minute cab from the ship. We were with some other girls who were going up to Grand Baie also, so we had to split up in 2 cabs, Noel, Linds, and I were in one cab. Our driver was this old man who was bad at English and driving with him was seriously scary. He seemed like he was drunk, he was going SO slow, we lost the other cab, it was so far ahead of us. People on the other side of the road were flashing their lights at us all the time, people were passing every second, and we were like yelling at the cab driver asking him to drive better or let someone else take us, but we wouldn’t do anything or respond. I’m not kidding, a bus passed us, it was awful, this was a one lane road too. We FINALLY got there, and met up with Laurel, thank god we made it. We went to these villas where the other girls were staying and we asked if they had extra room, and they did, the other girls paid $70/night so we just said we want the same price and they gave us a way bigger room it was so big, it had like a kitchen in it. The bed was a king bed, and we put four of us in it. The view was absolutely amazing. It was right on the ocean, and so gorgeous, the water is SO blue. After we got our room we went to this cute restaurant across the street from the villa. The service was so slow, it took us so long, over an hour to get our food. I got this fish currie, it was really good, but it gave me the worst diarrhea the next day(sorry). After dinner we went to Banana bar, and it was just packed with tons of SAS kids, it was really fun. After Banana bar a bunch of us went to Zanzibar next door to Banana Bar and danced for a while. We walked back to our hotel from the bar with a bunch of people, it was a really close walk. The next morning we woke up early, around 8 or so, and we went to the cutest breakfast place. The lady was so nice and she had this little place like in her house kind of. She was from Cape Town and she told us about stuff to do in Cape Town. After breakfast we went to the beach, which was so pretty, I loved the beach we were at, it was really small and the water was so blue. There was the craziest guy named “Superman” who was trying to sell us stuff, and he was ripping us off so bad, Superman was so crazy. Noel bought a ton of stuff from him it was so funny because they argued for so long about the prices. We also met some locals there, one looked like Bob Marley, they were so cute and barely spoke English. After the beach we left around 2 or so and took a cab back to the ship. We stopped at the grocery store on the way home to get some food. When we got on the ship we dropped our stuff off and took a water cab to the waterfront, which was right near the ship. Water cabs are weird, we picked up random people from a fishing boat then they dropped us off at the waterfront. The water front is so cute, but it is definitely very touristy. It is a really nice area with tons of restaurants and cute little shops. We got pizza at this random restaurant and used internet because we brought our laptops with us. We had to be on the ship by 6 and it was a little after 5 so we went back the water taxi, he was really slow again and we were nervous about getting on the ship late. There was a huge line to get on the ship and if it was after 6 would have gotten dock time in the next port. We finally got on the ship with only 3 minutes left, we were so lucky, and there were a ton of kids behind us. We left later that night and set off for CAPE TOWN!
Mauritius is so beautiful, it’s so much prettier than I thought it was going to be. There were mountains all in the background of the Port (Port Louis) we were docked at. Mauritius was an island owned by the French for a long time, but now it is considered part of Africa, but it doesn’t have much to do with Africa. Mauritius is really cool because there is like no poverty, and everyone gets along, There are a ton of different people on the island and everyone gets along, it’s like the perfect society. It was really nice being in a tropical vacation spot place, and you don’t walk out of your resort and see poverty everywhere (like you do in places like Dominican Republic and Mexico, and all those other places). Mauritius is the prettiest island I’ve ever been too. There are forests all over the mountains too, it is just so gorgeous. Everyone on the island speaks French, and mostly everyone knows English. We were only here for one night, so we had two full days. When we got off the ship it was raining, it was not nice out. Lindsay, Anne, Emily, and I signed up for this Adventure Park and Beach Semester at Sea day drip (my first SAS trip this whole time). We got on the buses and we drove to the southern part of the island, it took us a good hour and a half to get there. As we left Port Louis everything was so pretty. There were mountains and green everywhere. The adventure park was kind of in one of these mountains. I have pretty pictures. The adventure park was really cool, except we gotten EATEN ALIVE, oh my god, I probably had at least 100 mosquitoes bites, they were all over my legs, and we had bug spray on, good thing there’s no Malaria in Mauritius, because I would definitely have it after that. We had these harnesses on and we went through the first course, which was a bunch of bridges in the forest, they were really cool, it took us an hour or so to go through the first course. The second course was a lot more challenging, we got so muddy. They had rope nets we climbed across, there were a bunch of different rope things we climbed across to get from one thing to the next. They were really hard, I was sore after it. There was a zip line that was short at the end, but it was really fun. The ropes course was so cool, minus the muddiness and bites. Our legs were covered in mud and our shoes were just like ruined. After the course we got lunch there, which was horrible it was rice and this gross chicken I didn’t even eat it looked so gross. After lunch we took the bus more south to Flic en Flac beach, it’s like a really famous beach I guess. We stopped when we were almost there at this lookout thing looking over the beach and it was this huge aerial view of the beach and ocean, with gorgeous mountains on the side, it was the most amazing view, I cant belive im doing these things while my friends and everyone is back home in boring WI and Iowa. We got to the beach and we just relaxed on the beach, there were some other SAS kids there that had villas near there. We went swimming in the ocean for like the hour we had there, the Indian Ocean is by far my favorite ocean. It is so warm, it is so much saltier too, its funny, you can totally tell you float a lot more. After the beach we drove back to the Port (which was in middle/Northern part of the island). Lindsay and I met up with Noel and Laurel on the ship and we didn’t have any hotels booked, we just decided to wing it and go up to Grand Baie (a ton of SAS kids were going here, it was pretty much split between Flic en Flac and the other half went to Grand Baie, I’m glad we got to see both). Grand Baie was like a 25 minute cab from the ship. We were with some other girls who were going up to Grand Baie also, so we had to split up in 2 cabs, Noel, Linds, and I were in one cab. Our driver was this old man who was bad at English and driving with him was seriously scary. He seemed like he was drunk, he was going SO slow, we lost the other cab, it was so far ahead of us. People on the other side of the road were flashing their lights at us all the time, people were passing every second, and we were like yelling at the cab driver asking him to drive better or let someone else take us, but we wouldn’t do anything or respond. I’m not kidding, a bus passed us, it was awful, this was a one lane road too. We FINALLY got there, and met up with Laurel, thank god we made it. We went to these villas where the other girls were staying and we asked if they had extra room, and they did, the other girls paid $70/night so we just said we want the same price and they gave us a way bigger room it was so big, it had like a kitchen in it. The bed was a king bed, and we put four of us in it. The view was absolutely amazing. It was right on the ocean, and so gorgeous, the water is SO blue. After we got our room we went to this cute restaurant across the street from the villa. The service was so slow, it took us so long, over an hour to get our food. I got this fish currie, it was really good, but it gave me the worst diarrhea the next day(sorry). After dinner we went to Banana bar, and it was just packed with tons of SAS kids, it was really fun. After Banana bar a bunch of us went to Zanzibar next door to Banana Bar and danced for a while. We walked back to our hotel from the bar with a bunch of people, it was a really close walk. The next morning we woke up early, around 8 or so, and we went to the cutest breakfast place. The lady was so nice and she had this little place like in her house kind of. She was from Cape Town and she told us about stuff to do in Cape Town. After breakfast we went to the beach, which was so pretty, I loved the beach we were at, it was really small and the water was so blue. There was the craziest guy named “Superman” who was trying to sell us stuff, and he was ripping us off so bad, Superman was so crazy. Noel bought a ton of stuff from him it was so funny because they argued for so long about the prices. We also met some locals there, one looked like Bob Marley, they were so cute and barely spoke English. After the beach we left around 2 or so and took a cab back to the ship. We stopped at the grocery store on the way home to get some food. When we got on the ship we dropped our stuff off and took a water cab to the waterfront, which was right near the ship. Water cabs are weird, we picked up random people from a fishing boat then they dropped us off at the waterfront. The water front is so cute, but it is definitely very touristy. It is a really nice area with tons of restaurants and cute little shops. We got pizza at this random restaurant and used internet because we brought our laptops with us. We had to be on the ship by 6 and it was a little after 5 so we went back the water taxi, he was really slow again and we were nervous about getting on the ship late. There was a huge line to get on the ship and if it was after 6 would have gotten dock time in the next port. We finally got on the ship with only 3 minutes left, we were so lucky, and there were a ton of kids behind us. We left later that night and set off for CAPE TOWN!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
The rest of Indiaaaaaa
India Day 2
We woke up around 7am and went walking to look for a place to eat breakfast. We woke up so early that everything was closed. People were sleeping in the streets all over the place, the poverty in India is so sad. So many people live on the streets (in Delhi) it’s sad. There are little shacks set up all over on the sides of the roads. We walked back to the hotel and Kishen Singh was there to pick us up. While we were putting our stuff in the car there was this Indian man walking this cow down the street that was decked out in this crazy outfit. It was all dressed up, it had to have been for a wedding or something. When we got in the car the first place we went was to a Lakshmi (idk how to spell it) temple, it’s a Hindi God. We weren’t allowed to take pictures in it, like almost all Hindi temples, and we also had to take our shoes off, which you have to do everywhere too. It was so pretty inside with tons of colors. After this temple we went to a Baha’i temple. Baha’i is a world religion that’s a combination of Christinanty, Hindi, Muslim, and some others, I think. There’s another really famous Baha’i temple in Chicago. The one in Delhi is sooo pretty, it’s HUGE, surrounded with walkways and gardens, its so pretty and green. It is really big and all white. We went in and we weren’t allowed to talk, the ceiling was so pretty. Since this is a touristy place for Indians, as well as others, we got a decent amount of stares here because there are people from rural India that visit. After we left we went to another temple, that was a form of Hinduism, it was called an Iskcon temple. It’s some sory of international society of Krishna (Hindu God) consciousness. There were people talking in there lecturing to little kids about something, Jacie told us they normally sing, but we weren’t there for that. When we left there were buses of kids in uniforms pulling into the parking lot and gathered outside of the temple. They were all so cute and everyone was so excited to see us walking out to our car and they were all waving. After the temple we went to this textile type market that Kishen took us too, we didn’t want to go at all, but Kishen like made us go because he gets commission if we go. After the maket, where we didn’t even buy anything, we set off on our 4 hour or so drive to Agra (where the Taj is). About an hour or so in we stopped at a local restaurant on the side of the road, it was sooo good. We did the family style type meal with northern Indian food. We ordered a lot of Naan (which is like this type of cooked bread, SO good) and dipped it in different currie sauces. More than halfway to Agra we stopped at this famous Hindu temple in this random village, it is the birthplace of Krishna. Kishen told us a lot of tourists go here, but he didn’t specifiy it was ALL Indian tourists, this was definatley a very cultural experience, it was really amazing though. We were the ONLY white people int the whole temple and the temple was absouletly huge, there were so many different buildings in the temple. When we were going into the temple they patted us down sooo much. We got SO many stares here, so many people were staring and pointing and bowing at us, it’s so funny. I specifically remember standing in line to walk through this temple with people playing a bunch of instruments and there were like 3 older ladies touching me and I could totally feel it so I turned around and they were all just smiling and laughing. We walked thorugh like 3 of the buildings and then we went through like this man mad cave type thing, it was kind of like the pirates of the Caribbean at Disney world and you walked thorugh it and you looked at all these little windows of Hindi Gods. When we left the temple we were bombarded with little kids trying to sell us stuff. We were stuck for a little while trying to get out because a bunch of sheep and their herders were crossing the road. When we got to Agra we went to our hotel which was so cheap, it was right next to the East gate of the Taj Mahal. It was literally like six dollars a night. It was not that nice though. The beds were fine, but the bathroom was gross. The shower was just like a showerhead in the room of the bathroom, just right next to the toilet, so weird. We dropped our stuff off then we went to dinner on this rooftop where you can see the Taj, it was cool, but you couldn’t see the Taj because it was dark out, you could faintly see the outline of it. At dinner we got Tandori chicken and other currie food, it was pretty good. When we were on the rooftop we heard this parade in the distance, and they slowly approached us and there were people dancing everywhere, people were playing instruments, it was just chaos. We then saw there was a bride and groom, it was so cool to see the wedding. It was so long, they passed us for like 10 minutes or so. After dinner we went back to the hotel and went to bed.
India Day 3
We woke up really early to try and see the sunrise at the Taj, but the line was so long to get in there’s no way we were going to see it. We waited in line for probably 30 minutes once they actually opened the gates, maybe more. Walking in through the walkway and actually seeing the Taj Mahal was soooo surreal. It was way cooler than I expected. I thought it was going to be one of those things that’s so talked up and going to be cool, but not that cool. It was totally not like that, it was so gorgeous and so cool. We couldn’t take pictures inside it (even though people were kind of), but the inside wasn’t that cool. I don’t know if you know this, but it’s a tomb for this King’s wife, he was going to build a black Taj across from the white one, but he went to prison or something or he died, I forget exactly, but it was never built, obviously. The inside was pretty small, most of it was blocked off. The flowers engraved in the wall were really pretty, they were like orange and red, it was all marble and every one was hand carved. It took like 20 years to build I think. There were people everywhere trying to give us tours, but you’re not supposed to get them, they’re just a rip off. After the Taj, we went to breakfast at the same rooftop restaurant as the night before, we just got omelets and toast. This time you could actually see the Taj and it was really pretty. After breakfast we met Kishen Singh and we started our drive to Jaipur, which is like a five hour or so drive. The long drives are so funny because you drive through tons of small villages and people in cars next to you stare so much. The rickshaws pack like seriously 20 people in them, it’s so funny, its just filled with Indians hanging all over the rickshaw. About an hour into the drive we stopped at this “ghost town”. It was an old town on top of this hill that this king built for him and his like 300 wives or something, it was abandoned because there was no source of water near it. We happened to run into the actual semester at sea trip when we were there, I saw my friend Emily. The “town” was really cool, but it looked similar to stuff we had already. It was this red brick town that was really open; it kind of reminded me of a prettier and smaller version of the Forbidden City (China). There was this disgusting green like moldy looking water that was below us, we were looking at it from above on a ledge, and this random Indian guy jumped in it for 100 rupees(like 2 bucks), people threw him more though after he jumped in it; I have a video of it, it’s so gross. The vendors at this place were so ridiculous and grabby, they would not stop following us. We were at the city for about an hour and then we made the rest of the drive to Jaipur. Jaipur is a much more of a smaller city, there are no tall buildings or anything. There are definitely a lot of poor people, but it is a really cute city. Jaipur is famous for being “the pink city”, a huge area of Jaipur is like this old salmon looking color, all the buildings are this color, it’s really cool. We drove thorugh it a bunch of times while in Jaipur. Our hotel was SOOOOO freaking cute, for a really good price too. We stayed at this place called the Diggi palace, it used to be a wealthy Indian’s old house a long time ago. There was this gorgeous green courtyard in the middle of it, they had tables on the side of it where people could eat. It was so cool the hotel was totally like an old rich home just renewed. Our room was big and actually really nice, really pretty tiling; the bathroom was big, but it had the same type of shower with the showerhead just coming out of the wall in the room, I think that’s such a random/funny thing to have, I guess it is India. Anyways, after we got our stuff situated we went to dinner at this AMAZING restaurant (Indian) that was pretty cheap. After that we went out to meet up with Tom (Tom is a kid on our ship my friend Angela is like dating, and Tom was with semester at sea on a trip and they were in Jaipur the same 2 nights we were). We went to the hotel they said they would be at, but they weren’t there; it took us a while to figure out where he was, we got in contact with someone on Tom’s trip and we found out they were at the Radisson (lame); we ended finally getting to the Radisson and just staying there because there was ACTAULLY a bar in the hotel (there are no bars/clubs anywhere in India, its hard to find because of their religious practices). We just stayed at the club in the Radisson and then went back to our hotel. It was really weird drinking in India, it felt so weird and like a taboo.
India day 4
The next morning we woke up and got breakfast in the courtyard, the juice was really good. The food was okay, but the fruit was so good. After breakfast we relaxed at the hotel for a little while and then Angela, Anne, and I took a rickshaw to go shopping. It was so ridiculous, our driver was named Raj and he was like our own personal little driver, he loved us, he wasn’t a typical Indian, he was the craziest free spirited Indian ever; he was obsessed with us and he had music and he was singing to it. He took us to this jewelry shop that was like this unknown local place which sold a bunch of really cool silver stuff; after that he took us to some leather place which was nice, but kind of a rip off; after that we went to a cool textile place. The people there loved us and they put saris on us. The saris were SO pretty, all saris are pretty. Raj was loving us all day he was so crazy. He lived right next to our hotel so he always parks by our hotel, he wanted to like go out with us that night, but we just kind of nodded our heads and didn’t plan on it. We got back and relaxed in the court yard for a while and then Kishen picked us up at two and we drove to this Monkey Temple; we later found out from a local there that it was where some Hindi god lived for like 60,000 years until he reached enlightment and when he did the mountain split and water came rushing through, so it is very holy to wash yourself in this water area in the middle of the temple. The monkey temple was kind of on the outskirts of Jaipur and we got A LOT of stares here, we were like the only white people; I think it was a more local place than tourist. There were tons of people bathing in the water. It’s so weird because even when bathing the women still cover their shoulders, even with their breasts exposed, it’s crazy. There were a group of guys that kept making us take pictures of them and they were making all these poses, it was cute. But holy crap, there were monkeys EVERYWHERE and they were so scary, I was so afraid of them. We had peanuts and they knew that we had them so they were greedy, we all ended up just throwing our bags because they were getting scary. The monkeys are mean. The temple was so pretty, it reminded me of something that would be Western theme, it wasn’t really a “temple” it was this area that we just walked up the mountain and it was like this abandoned town. After the monkey temple we picked up Tom at the Radisson and then went back to our hotel. We sat in the courtyard for a while and ate some appetizers and got a drink or two. After that we went to dinner at the same place because it was such good food. After dinner Jacy and John went back to the hotel and the four of us went to the Radisson again. When we got there someone told us about this carnival going on about 4 blocks or so away, he said there was music and a ferris wheel. We tried getting a beer before we went, which took us forever, probably an hour. Then we finally went to the carnival, it was around 11pm, and we happened to get there right when everything was ending. Me and two of the semester at sea guys got trapped in this circle of people immediately, it was mostly children and then it started to turn into men. It was the worst it has ever been, I shook one persons hand and after that like 30 hands just flew at me. People were getting really touchy and we all started getting uncomfortable. We all found each other and we treid to get out as fast as we could. This huge group of men kept following us all the way to the hotel, it’s the most unsafe I’ve felt yet, I was so glad the Radisson was so close. They followed us all the way to the hotel and when we got there with the guards our guy friend was like yeah whats up now, it was really funny, beucase there was nothing the people could do. We made it a calm night after that, no one was at the club this night anways; we just sat at the downstairs beer and got one drink then we took a rickshaw back to our hotel.
India day 5
The next morning we woke up really early to go elephant riding. This was very touristy. There were tons of elephants that were dressed up and painted. We waited in line for a good 20 minutes before we got on; I rode on the elephant with Anne, it was really cool, but I felt bad for the elephants, they just walk up and down this hill all day. They rode us to the top of this old city where we stayed for a while. Angela and Anne got more henna. This was another abandoned city, that looked a lot like other ones that we have already seen. It was this old palace too, we had to pay to get into that part. It was cool to see, there were tons of little pathways to go to different little rooms, except it reeked like pee, Indians are really open about peeing ANYWHERE in public, its so gross and dirty. After the palace we left and made our way back to the hotel. On the way back we stopped on the side of the road to look at this palace that’s in the middle of a lake, its literally just this building just in the middle of a lake, its really cool, but no one can get to it. There was this little kid there who did this little magic show for us (for money, of course), he was so adorable and he was seriously so good, I didn’t know how he was doing his little tricks. We went back to the hotel to grab our bags then we went to this area in the pink city where they have these cute street markets called bizarres. We shopped in them for a while, they are actually really nice and not as grabby as other markets. We also stopped at an internet café for an hour or so. We met Kishen around 330 or 4 and made our drive back to Delhi. We stopped for lunch right on the way out of Jaipur, which was okay, I ended up getting Chow Mein because I needed a break from Indian food, my stomach was getting a little upset from it. When we finally got into Delhi, about 5 hours later or so, we went to this hotel next to the airpot because we (me Angela and Anne) were flying out at 6am to Cochin. The hotel lied to us on the phone and totally ripped us off, it was some King palace hotel or something. The hotel was pretty decent for India, but it wasn’t anything special. We went to bed right when we got there because we had to get up early
India day 6
We got our shuttle at three am (SO tired) to the airport. There ended up being some other SAS kids on our flight. We flew Spicejet this time, and we had to make a stop in Bombay/Mumbai airport to drop people off and pick new people up, we stayed on the plane though. I was so nervous about checking my bag because the ship left later that night and if we didn’t get our bags they were going to be long gone. We landed on time and Thank God we got our bags., of course they were like the last ones. Anne has extended family that lives in Cochin (her moms cousin, I think, married this Indian man, and his family lives in Cochin), so she planned with them to pick us up at the airport and hang out with them for the day until we had to get back to the ship later that day. Cochin is SO MUCH DIFFERENT than the rest of India; it’s very clean, and there’s not much poverty, its very nicely developed. The state Cochin is in is the richest state in India(there are 28 states). They also have the highest literacy rate. Oh, I asked him and most people aren’t Hindu here either, it’s a lot of Christians and some others. Cochin was nothing like the India I saw the whole trip. Anyways, the family names every first born boy in the family Joe, so there were like 4 Joe’s I met that day, anyways, one of the Joe’s picked us up at the airport and took us back to the main big house. Their house was SO pretty, its been in the family since forever, and its right across from the ocean. They own some family business for some weird kind of carpet, they sell it all over the world, they are very rich. Their house was so pretty and antique looking, it was so cool to see. The grandma was so cute, she was so excited to meet us and everyone was so welcoming, I was so thankful. We talked for a little while with the family and they gave us this amazing lemonade. They made us this special occasion lunch, we ate with 4 of the men in their family, and 5 or so of the girls made it all home-made for us and just stood there and watched us and served us, I was so thankful, I appreciated their generosity so much. They made the best homemade food, we had a fish pie (sounds gross, but SO good), garlic bread, these currie potatoes, chicken, and some other stuff I don’t remember. Everything was so amazing, I loved everything. After lunch the Grandma gave us presents, Anne and Angela got these wooden letter holders and I got this really cool wooden box. She was so nice and so warming. We said goodbye to the family and then Joe (the one that picked us up at the airport) and another Joe (who acuatlly went to Purdue, and was only a few years older than us) took us to drive around. We first stopped at this market and I bought some random stuff. The market was right next to the ocean and it was really cute. After the market we went to this fishing thing right next to the market; it used to be a huge place to catch fish, but after the Tsunami or something they don’t really catch anything. Anyways, there were a bunch of them on the pier, and we walked out to one of them and they helped us do it. It was this huge net that you pulled up and down. We caught like a net full of tiny little fish, they looked like really big minnows. Of course, we had to pay them. Anyways, after that we just went to this restaurant right on the water, it’s a known spot for filming smaller local movies. We saw a bunch of SAS kids there too. We just got a beer with some other SAS kids, and then we went back to this ship, which was like a twenty minute drive. I’m so forgetful when I’m overtired, just like in the China airport where I forgot my painting, I forgot a bag full of stuff in the car. It was just a plastic bag with the stuff I bought at the market that day, and the box that their grandma gave me, and a scarf, I felt so bad, I realized it like 5 minutes after I did it, and he was long gone by then. When we got back to the gate, they let Angela and Anne through, but they wouldn’t let me because I didn’t have my passport copy stamped (we were supposed to do that getting into Cochin), so I had to go to the customs office like a few minute drive away. Anne and Angela got on the ship, but they had to get back off and go get it after me. Anyways, after that whole mess, I finally got back on the ship, and we left crazy India that night.
We woke up around 7am and went walking to look for a place to eat breakfast. We woke up so early that everything was closed. People were sleeping in the streets all over the place, the poverty in India is so sad. So many people live on the streets (in Delhi) it’s sad. There are little shacks set up all over on the sides of the roads. We walked back to the hotel and Kishen Singh was there to pick us up. While we were putting our stuff in the car there was this Indian man walking this cow down the street that was decked out in this crazy outfit. It was all dressed up, it had to have been for a wedding or something. When we got in the car the first place we went was to a Lakshmi (idk how to spell it) temple, it’s a Hindi God. We weren’t allowed to take pictures in it, like almost all Hindi temples, and we also had to take our shoes off, which you have to do everywhere too. It was so pretty inside with tons of colors. After this temple we went to a Baha’i temple. Baha’i is a world religion that’s a combination of Christinanty, Hindi, Muslim, and some others, I think. There’s another really famous Baha’i temple in Chicago. The one in Delhi is sooo pretty, it’s HUGE, surrounded with walkways and gardens, its so pretty and green. It is really big and all white. We went in and we weren’t allowed to talk, the ceiling was so pretty. Since this is a touristy place for Indians, as well as others, we got a decent amount of stares here because there are people from rural India that visit. After we left we went to another temple, that was a form of Hinduism, it was called an Iskcon temple. It’s some sory of international society of Krishna (Hindu God) consciousness. There were people talking in there lecturing to little kids about something, Jacie told us they normally sing, but we weren’t there for that. When we left there were buses of kids in uniforms pulling into the parking lot and gathered outside of the temple. They were all so cute and everyone was so excited to see us walking out to our car and they were all waving. After the temple we went to this textile type market that Kishen took us too, we didn’t want to go at all, but Kishen like made us go because he gets commission if we go. After the maket, where we didn’t even buy anything, we set off on our 4 hour or so drive to Agra (where the Taj is). About an hour or so in we stopped at a local restaurant on the side of the road, it was sooo good. We did the family style type meal with northern Indian food. We ordered a lot of Naan (which is like this type of cooked bread, SO good) and dipped it in different currie sauces. More than halfway to Agra we stopped at this famous Hindu temple in this random village, it is the birthplace of Krishna. Kishen told us a lot of tourists go here, but he didn’t specifiy it was ALL Indian tourists, this was definatley a very cultural experience, it was really amazing though. We were the ONLY white people int the whole temple and the temple was absouletly huge, there were so many different buildings in the temple. When we were going into the temple they patted us down sooo much. We got SO many stares here, so many people were staring and pointing and bowing at us, it’s so funny. I specifically remember standing in line to walk through this temple with people playing a bunch of instruments and there were like 3 older ladies touching me and I could totally feel it so I turned around and they were all just smiling and laughing. We walked thorugh like 3 of the buildings and then we went through like this man mad cave type thing, it was kind of like the pirates of the Caribbean at Disney world and you walked thorugh it and you looked at all these little windows of Hindi Gods. When we left the temple we were bombarded with little kids trying to sell us stuff. We were stuck for a little while trying to get out because a bunch of sheep and their herders were crossing the road. When we got to Agra we went to our hotel which was so cheap, it was right next to the East gate of the Taj Mahal. It was literally like six dollars a night. It was not that nice though. The beds were fine, but the bathroom was gross. The shower was just like a showerhead in the room of the bathroom, just right next to the toilet, so weird. We dropped our stuff off then we went to dinner on this rooftop where you can see the Taj, it was cool, but you couldn’t see the Taj because it was dark out, you could faintly see the outline of it. At dinner we got Tandori chicken and other currie food, it was pretty good. When we were on the rooftop we heard this parade in the distance, and they slowly approached us and there were people dancing everywhere, people were playing instruments, it was just chaos. We then saw there was a bride and groom, it was so cool to see the wedding. It was so long, they passed us for like 10 minutes or so. After dinner we went back to the hotel and went to bed.
India Day 3
We woke up really early to try and see the sunrise at the Taj, but the line was so long to get in there’s no way we were going to see it. We waited in line for probably 30 minutes once they actually opened the gates, maybe more. Walking in through the walkway and actually seeing the Taj Mahal was soooo surreal. It was way cooler than I expected. I thought it was going to be one of those things that’s so talked up and going to be cool, but not that cool. It was totally not like that, it was so gorgeous and so cool. We couldn’t take pictures inside it (even though people were kind of), but the inside wasn’t that cool. I don’t know if you know this, but it’s a tomb for this King’s wife, he was going to build a black Taj across from the white one, but he went to prison or something or he died, I forget exactly, but it was never built, obviously. The inside was pretty small, most of it was blocked off. The flowers engraved in the wall were really pretty, they were like orange and red, it was all marble and every one was hand carved. It took like 20 years to build I think. There were people everywhere trying to give us tours, but you’re not supposed to get them, they’re just a rip off. After the Taj, we went to breakfast at the same rooftop restaurant as the night before, we just got omelets and toast. This time you could actually see the Taj and it was really pretty. After breakfast we met Kishen Singh and we started our drive to Jaipur, which is like a five hour or so drive. The long drives are so funny because you drive through tons of small villages and people in cars next to you stare so much. The rickshaws pack like seriously 20 people in them, it’s so funny, its just filled with Indians hanging all over the rickshaw. About an hour into the drive we stopped at this “ghost town”. It was an old town on top of this hill that this king built for him and his like 300 wives or something, it was abandoned because there was no source of water near it. We happened to run into the actual semester at sea trip when we were there, I saw my friend Emily. The “town” was really cool, but it looked similar to stuff we had already. It was this red brick town that was really open; it kind of reminded me of a prettier and smaller version of the Forbidden City (China). There was this disgusting green like moldy looking water that was below us, we were looking at it from above on a ledge, and this random Indian guy jumped in it for 100 rupees(like 2 bucks), people threw him more though after he jumped in it; I have a video of it, it’s so gross. The vendors at this place were so ridiculous and grabby, they would not stop following us. We were at the city for about an hour and then we made the rest of the drive to Jaipur. Jaipur is a much more of a smaller city, there are no tall buildings or anything. There are definitely a lot of poor people, but it is a really cute city. Jaipur is famous for being “the pink city”, a huge area of Jaipur is like this old salmon looking color, all the buildings are this color, it’s really cool. We drove thorugh it a bunch of times while in Jaipur. Our hotel was SOOOOO freaking cute, for a really good price too. We stayed at this place called the Diggi palace, it used to be a wealthy Indian’s old house a long time ago. There was this gorgeous green courtyard in the middle of it, they had tables on the side of it where people could eat. It was so cool the hotel was totally like an old rich home just renewed. Our room was big and actually really nice, really pretty tiling; the bathroom was big, but it had the same type of shower with the showerhead just coming out of the wall in the room, I think that’s such a random/funny thing to have, I guess it is India. Anyways, after we got our stuff situated we went to dinner at this AMAZING restaurant (Indian) that was pretty cheap. After that we went out to meet up with Tom (Tom is a kid on our ship my friend Angela is like dating, and Tom was with semester at sea on a trip and they were in Jaipur the same 2 nights we were). We went to the hotel they said they would be at, but they weren’t there; it took us a while to figure out where he was, we got in contact with someone on Tom’s trip and we found out they were at the Radisson (lame); we ended finally getting to the Radisson and just staying there because there was ACTAULLY a bar in the hotel (there are no bars/clubs anywhere in India, its hard to find because of their religious practices). We just stayed at the club in the Radisson and then went back to our hotel. It was really weird drinking in India, it felt so weird and like a taboo.
India day 4
The next morning we woke up and got breakfast in the courtyard, the juice was really good. The food was okay, but the fruit was so good. After breakfast we relaxed at the hotel for a little while and then Angela, Anne, and I took a rickshaw to go shopping. It was so ridiculous, our driver was named Raj and he was like our own personal little driver, he loved us, he wasn’t a typical Indian, he was the craziest free spirited Indian ever; he was obsessed with us and he had music and he was singing to it. He took us to this jewelry shop that was like this unknown local place which sold a bunch of really cool silver stuff; after that he took us to some leather place which was nice, but kind of a rip off; after that we went to a cool textile place. The people there loved us and they put saris on us. The saris were SO pretty, all saris are pretty. Raj was loving us all day he was so crazy. He lived right next to our hotel so he always parks by our hotel, he wanted to like go out with us that night, but we just kind of nodded our heads and didn’t plan on it. We got back and relaxed in the court yard for a while and then Kishen picked us up at two and we drove to this Monkey Temple; we later found out from a local there that it was where some Hindi god lived for like 60,000 years until he reached enlightment and when he did the mountain split and water came rushing through, so it is very holy to wash yourself in this water area in the middle of the temple. The monkey temple was kind of on the outskirts of Jaipur and we got A LOT of stares here, we were like the only white people; I think it was a more local place than tourist. There were tons of people bathing in the water. It’s so weird because even when bathing the women still cover their shoulders, even with their breasts exposed, it’s crazy. There were a group of guys that kept making us take pictures of them and they were making all these poses, it was cute. But holy crap, there were monkeys EVERYWHERE and they were so scary, I was so afraid of them. We had peanuts and they knew that we had them so they were greedy, we all ended up just throwing our bags because they were getting scary. The monkeys are mean. The temple was so pretty, it reminded me of something that would be Western theme, it wasn’t really a “temple” it was this area that we just walked up the mountain and it was like this abandoned town. After the monkey temple we picked up Tom at the Radisson and then went back to our hotel. We sat in the courtyard for a while and ate some appetizers and got a drink or two. After that we went to dinner at the same place because it was such good food. After dinner Jacy and John went back to the hotel and the four of us went to the Radisson again. When we got there someone told us about this carnival going on about 4 blocks or so away, he said there was music and a ferris wheel. We tried getting a beer before we went, which took us forever, probably an hour. Then we finally went to the carnival, it was around 11pm, and we happened to get there right when everything was ending. Me and two of the semester at sea guys got trapped in this circle of people immediately, it was mostly children and then it started to turn into men. It was the worst it has ever been, I shook one persons hand and after that like 30 hands just flew at me. People were getting really touchy and we all started getting uncomfortable. We all found each other and we treid to get out as fast as we could. This huge group of men kept following us all the way to the hotel, it’s the most unsafe I’ve felt yet, I was so glad the Radisson was so close. They followed us all the way to the hotel and when we got there with the guards our guy friend was like yeah whats up now, it was really funny, beucase there was nothing the people could do. We made it a calm night after that, no one was at the club this night anways; we just sat at the downstairs beer and got one drink then we took a rickshaw back to our hotel.
India day 5
The next morning we woke up really early to go elephant riding. This was very touristy. There were tons of elephants that were dressed up and painted. We waited in line for a good 20 minutes before we got on; I rode on the elephant with Anne, it was really cool, but I felt bad for the elephants, they just walk up and down this hill all day. They rode us to the top of this old city where we stayed for a while. Angela and Anne got more henna. This was another abandoned city, that looked a lot like other ones that we have already seen. It was this old palace too, we had to pay to get into that part. It was cool to see, there were tons of little pathways to go to different little rooms, except it reeked like pee, Indians are really open about peeing ANYWHERE in public, its so gross and dirty. After the palace we left and made our way back to the hotel. On the way back we stopped on the side of the road to look at this palace that’s in the middle of a lake, its literally just this building just in the middle of a lake, its really cool, but no one can get to it. There was this little kid there who did this little magic show for us (for money, of course), he was so adorable and he was seriously so good, I didn’t know how he was doing his little tricks. We went back to the hotel to grab our bags then we went to this area in the pink city where they have these cute street markets called bizarres. We shopped in them for a while, they are actually really nice and not as grabby as other markets. We also stopped at an internet café for an hour or so. We met Kishen around 330 or 4 and made our drive back to Delhi. We stopped for lunch right on the way out of Jaipur, which was okay, I ended up getting Chow Mein because I needed a break from Indian food, my stomach was getting a little upset from it. When we finally got into Delhi, about 5 hours later or so, we went to this hotel next to the airpot because we (me Angela and Anne) were flying out at 6am to Cochin. The hotel lied to us on the phone and totally ripped us off, it was some King palace hotel or something. The hotel was pretty decent for India, but it wasn’t anything special. We went to bed right when we got there because we had to get up early
India day 6
We got our shuttle at three am (SO tired) to the airport. There ended up being some other SAS kids on our flight. We flew Spicejet this time, and we had to make a stop in Bombay/Mumbai airport to drop people off and pick new people up, we stayed on the plane though. I was so nervous about checking my bag because the ship left later that night and if we didn’t get our bags they were going to be long gone. We landed on time and Thank God we got our bags., of course they were like the last ones. Anne has extended family that lives in Cochin (her moms cousin, I think, married this Indian man, and his family lives in Cochin), so she planned with them to pick us up at the airport and hang out with them for the day until we had to get back to the ship later that day. Cochin is SO MUCH DIFFERENT than the rest of India; it’s very clean, and there’s not much poverty, its very nicely developed. The state Cochin is in is the richest state in India(there are 28 states). They also have the highest literacy rate. Oh, I asked him and most people aren’t Hindu here either, it’s a lot of Christians and some others. Cochin was nothing like the India I saw the whole trip. Anyways, the family names every first born boy in the family Joe, so there were like 4 Joe’s I met that day, anyways, one of the Joe’s picked us up at the airport and took us back to the main big house. Their house was SO pretty, its been in the family since forever, and its right across from the ocean. They own some family business for some weird kind of carpet, they sell it all over the world, they are very rich. Their house was so pretty and antique looking, it was so cool to see. The grandma was so cute, she was so excited to meet us and everyone was so welcoming, I was so thankful. We talked for a little while with the family and they gave us this amazing lemonade. They made us this special occasion lunch, we ate with 4 of the men in their family, and 5 or so of the girls made it all home-made for us and just stood there and watched us and served us, I was so thankful, I appreciated their generosity so much. They made the best homemade food, we had a fish pie (sounds gross, but SO good), garlic bread, these currie potatoes, chicken, and some other stuff I don’t remember. Everything was so amazing, I loved everything. After lunch the Grandma gave us presents, Anne and Angela got these wooden letter holders and I got this really cool wooden box. She was so nice and so warming. We said goodbye to the family and then Joe (the one that picked us up at the airport) and another Joe (who acuatlly went to Purdue, and was only a few years older than us) took us to drive around. We first stopped at this market and I bought some random stuff. The market was right next to the ocean and it was really cute. After the market we went to this fishing thing right next to the market; it used to be a huge place to catch fish, but after the Tsunami or something they don’t really catch anything. Anyways, there were a bunch of them on the pier, and we walked out to one of them and they helped us do it. It was this huge net that you pulled up and down. We caught like a net full of tiny little fish, they looked like really big minnows. Of course, we had to pay them. Anyways, after that we just went to this restaurant right on the water, it’s a known spot for filming smaller local movies. We saw a bunch of SAS kids there too. We just got a beer with some other SAS kids, and then we went back to this ship, which was like a twenty minute drive. I’m so forgetful when I’m overtired, just like in the China airport where I forgot my painting, I forgot a bag full of stuff in the car. It was just a plastic bag with the stuff I bought at the market that day, and the box that their grandma gave me, and a scarf, I felt so bad, I realized it like 5 minutes after I did it, and he was long gone by then. When we got back to the gate, they let Angela and Anne through, but they wouldn’t let me because I didn’t have my passport copy stamped (we were supposed to do that getting into Cochin), so I had to go to the customs office like a few minute drive away. Anne and Angela got on the ship, but they had to get back off and go get it after me. Anyways, after that whole mess, I finally got back on the ship, and we left crazy India that night.
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