World Blog: Vietnam

Vietnam was definitely one of my favorite countries. Geographically and climatically it is about the same as Thailand, which was EXTREMELY hot and humid, but still awesome. I think I just liked Vietnam better because we did a lot of cultural stuff. We docked in Ho Chi Minh City, which was a few hours up the Saigon river, so it was cool watching our ship go up a river that wasn't very wide at all. There were all sorts of little row boats and stuff with fishermen in them, and then our big huge boat. The first day we just walked around Ho Chi Minh City, which is very modern, did a little shopping and visited the War Remnants Museum. I bought a new lens for my camera, too. Its really crazy how the shopping here works, they are all really tiny stores open to the outside run by families. There are blocks or districts for each item, there were like 4 blocks of camera stores, a few blocks specifically for video games, etc. So shopping for my lens I was able to compare prices really easily at whatnot. Anyway, after that we visited the War Remnants Museum, which is a halfway outdoors museum, mostly very intense black and white photographs taken of the war. After about an hour there, we headed back to the ship. That night, we met up with Bill's sister's friend, who just happens to be teaching English in Vietman. She and her friends took us to eat dinner at the night market and then we walked around and went to their favorite bar. It was really fun and interesting to see what some of the locals like to do in Vietnam

The second morning, we left for our trip to the Mekong Delta. It was a few hours away, but well worth it. The Mekong Delta is the center of life for everyone in the Greater Mekong Delta area. Every single aspect of their life, from getting to school to selling their crops, is completely dependent upon the delta and the many canals and water-roads. When we first got there, we went on a boat ride around the delta and saw everyone buying and selling in the water-marketplace, the houseboats, and the stilt houses. Our guide told us that it would be much more interesting and bustling when we go in the early morning, however. We made several stops along the river and saw how rice and coconut candies are made, as well as tea and popped rice. We also went to a brick factory, which was interesting but also random and out of place. After that we stopped at another place and got bikes and road around through this jungle path for a little over an hour. That was really cool, we rode by all these little houses and got to see first hand how the Mekong Delta people live. We rode over canals and bridges on the little pathways. After that, we rode on a traditional Vietnamese paddle boat, which was really cool. Everyone there wears the Vietnamese rice hats to protect them from the sun. After that, we headed to the stilt house where we were saying.

The stilt house/inn place was AWESOME. We pulled up (we had a group of about 15), where the family greeted us. There were two large, outdoor rooms right over the water full of cots under mosquito nets. We all claimed our beds and then went walking around. There were a bunch of hammocks on an open deck with tables and stuff, so we all layed around on the hammocks until dinner tie. The family also had there bedrooms in this stilt house as well. There were outdoor bathrooms and showers, and also a kitchen. Everything was outside, no air conditioning or anything. They showed us how to make spring rolls and let us make them as part of our dinner. We also at fish, pasta, and rice. It was very delicious. The fried fish was literally a whole fish, served in one piece standing up in the middle of the table. It looked sort of scary at first.

Sleeping that night was hard. At about 3 am, some people across the river from the house, only about 15 years, spent the entire morning trying to start their boat and was EXTREMELY loud. All of the boats around southeast Asia, if they have motors, have automobile motors connected to a long axle with a propeller on the end. So sleeping was pretty much out of the question. We left the stilt house pretty early and headed to another city on the delta, Can Tho. We checked into our hotel there around noon and had some lunch. After that, we headed out to a Cambodian style Buddhist Temple about an hour and a half away. There, we were able to see and talk to the monks, who wore bright orange robes, which is apparently the common attire for Buddhist monks. Inside the temple was an extremely elaborately painted story of the life of the Buddha. After that we just headed back to Can Tho and ate some dinner and went to bed because we had to wake up really early the next morning to go visited the Mekong Delta floating market.

The floating market was incredible, and extremely bustling. All of the boats put whatever they are selling on top of a big pole (for example, a bunch of bananas on top of the pole if they sold bananas), and people pull up next to each other to buy and sell. It was really evident how much the people depend on the river for their livelihoods. After that we just headed back to Ho Chi Minh City and the boat.

The last day we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels, about an hour away from Ho Chi Minh city. These are the tunnels that were dug underground and used during the Vietnam war. We watched a short, extremely biased, movie about the war and then went on a walking tour of the area. We walked around the grounds and saw craters from bombs and then got to crawl through the tunnels. It was incredible to learn that the Vietcong soldiers would stay underground in these tunnels for days. The tunnels started out tall enough so that you could crouch over and walk, but they gradually got so small that you would have to army crawl to get through them. We only went through it for about 150 yards (not everyone made it, there were exits every 30 yards), but it was extremely hard, pitch black, and unbearably hot. The tunnel system was extremely intricate, and designed specifally to take advantage of the weaknesses of American soldiers. On our walking tour, we were also shown the actual “booby trap,” such as swinging trap doors over huge, deathly spikes. It was even more intense than the War Remnants Museum. There was also a shooting range on the grounds of the Cu Chi Tunnels, so the whole time there were gunshots going off, as if it was during the war. It was crazy and really, really eerie. Interestingly though, everyone we kept talking to explained that the Vietnamese have no hard feelings toward the United States. They recognize that both sides did extremely terrible things, merely for the sake of war. Now, there is a very good relationship between the US and Vietnam. Side note- Vietnam was also our first communist country, but there was really no noticeable difference at all (unlike China, which was our next country).

After we got back to HCMC we just walked around and did some last minute shopping before heading back to the boat.

World Blog: Thailand

Thailand was definitely one of my favorite countries. It was very hot, very humid, and very beautiful. I was especially excited for it because Thai food is my favorite type of food in the US, so I was excited to try some authentic Thai food. It was delicious! I was registered for a trip through Semester at Sea that lasted the entire time we were there. My first impressions were that Thailand is a very wealthy country, a huge contrast from India. The roads were very clean and everything seemed very modern. As soon as we got off of the ship, we went straight to the airport for our flight to Phuket. The first day was sort of a huge waste of time – we left at 9:30am to go to the airport, and our flight wasn't until 4:30pm – so we basically spent our whole day at the airport. The airport in Bangkok was beautiful – one of the nicest in the world. I got really lucky when we were checking in to the airport and was upgraded to 1st class, which was awesome. So we had 2-hour flight to Phuket, where we were served juices and snacks for free. One we landed at the airport, we had an hour bus ride to our resort, which was really nice and really beautiful, right in the center of everything in Phuket, which is a resort area in southern Thailand. I went out to dinner with a bunch of girls on the trip, and they picked a really really expensive place, but it was oceanfront and REALLY nice. I ate grilled prawns over some spicy rice. It was delicious but smelled disgusting.

After a really expensive dinner tab, we went out. Thailand is absolutely crazy, like Panama City to the extreme. The streets are blocked off and turn into basically one big huge, wild party with all of the bars and stuff combined. It was insane. There were strippers and prostitutes everywhere, and people passing out pamphlets for “sex shows.” I didn't go to one but a lot of people did, and from what I heard it was absolutely disgusting, involving live birds and live fish. Gross. There were also creepy old European men EVERYWHERE. There were also a lot of games at the bars that the bartenders challenge you to. One of the bartenders challenged me to a game of Connect Four, which I won, which meant that the bartender had to climb up the stripper pole (which were everywhere) and write my name on the ceiling.

The next morning, we had to get up really early for our 3-hour bus ride into the RAINFOREST, which was absolutely beautiful, extremely green and extremely lush. There were also lots of tall random cliffs (they are called a “Tepui”when they are located in the Brazilian rainforest, I don't know what they are called elsewhere), and trees were even growing out the sides of the cliffs. Incredible. It was also extremely loud, with the sounds birds and frogs and waterfall filling the air. It was a little more lush than the rainforest I visited in South America, granted I didn't get into the depth of the rainforest there as I did in Thailand. When we first got there, we were told of our agenda, which, unfortunately, extremely structured.

First, we went on a short hike on a path through the rainforest. It was cool but sort of boring, we didn't see much and I kept getting yelled at for taking too long because I was trying to enjoy it and take pictures. The leader wouldn't let us slow down. We also got to see how they harvest rubber from the rubber trees, which was cool and very primitive. They cut little lines in the side of the trees and tie a little bowl underneath and let it drip down into the bowl. After our hike, we got to go through a stream in canoes, with someone else paddling. This was definitely my favorite part of the day. It was extremely beautiful and we were able to see frogs, lizards, birds, and amazingly bright dragonflies in so many different colors. This paddle definitely did not last long enough- it was only about an hour but I wish it was all day long. After the kayaking, we had a short elephant ride through the rainforest, which was also really fun. It started raining at the end of the elephant ride, which enhanced the total 'rainforest' experience. After the elephant ride we had our 3-hour bus ride back to the resort, we went out to dinner – much cheaper this time – and then did a little shopping (the shops- which are more like little booths of pirated goods – were open until at least midnight) and went to bed.

The next morning, we had another full day of the outdoors. We got up early again and headed about 30 minutes by bus and then go on a boat to several little islands on the coast of Phuket. The islands were everywhere, and many of them stuck out of the water like little gumdrops – with really steep, tall cliffs forming a circle. Once we got to one of the islands, we got off the big boat and into canoes (once again we had someone to paddle for us) and went through these sea caves into the lagoon in the middle of the island. It was really really cool, straight out of something like Pirates of the Caribbean. We had to duck really low in the canoe to get in, and the ceiling was covered with bats. Inside the lagoon was also amazing – the water was so calm and such a pretty color turquoise. There were a lot of monkey and jellyfish. We also saw some creatures known as “sea toads” which looked like half frogs and half fish. We went to a few lagoons and paddled around, and saw an island called “James Bond Island,” which was were some part of James Bond was filmed. After paddling around in several places, we had a buffet lunch on the boat and then went to an island to relax on the beach for about an hour. We were allowed to use the canoes during this time, so I canoed around a little bit. After that, we headed back to the bus and then to the resort.

When we got back, we did a little more shopping (hunting for art, specifically). We came across this really cool gallery where the painters were all at work. They seemed really cool and could speak English, so we ended up talking to them for a while and buying some paintings from them. They were really nice and we became friends with them. They had never heard of St. Patrick's Day (which is what day it was), so we decided to invite them out to an Irish Bar with us that night. First we went and ate dinner and then met back up with them to go out for the night. It was really fun.

The next morning, we had to be out of the hotel by 11, so we didn't get to do much. We made our way to the airport and then flew back to Bangkok. This day was wasted by a lot of traveling, as well. We got to Bangkok and checked into our hotel, which was BY FAR one of the nicest hotels I have ever been in. It was extremely elegant. We didn't get to Bangkok until sort of late, so we only had time to eat some dinner and then go for a Thai Massage, which we were told was a “must” in Thailand. The massage was really cheap – it was only about 10 USD for 90 minutes of a massage. The massage was not enjoyable at all; it was extremely painful and left me more stiff and less relaxed than before. Other people who also got a “traditional Thai massage,” as we did, also said theirs was unpleasant. Apparently, the massage to get there is the “Thai oil massage.” O well, it was really cheap at least.

The next morning, we had to get up early again to tour some temples and stuff before heading back to the boat. We went first to the “Grand Palace,” which was a huge area of palaces and temples that was incredible. Everything was gold and shiny and extremely ornate – more ornate than any European architectural monument that I have seen. It was also home to the “Emerald Buddha,” which was very impressive (not actually emerald, but called that because of its color). The story behind this is that a piece of land was struck by lightning and someone dug it up and found the Emerald Buddha. Then we went to 'The Largest Jewelry Store in the World,” where we were able to see how they mined and made gemstones into jewelry, and then go shopping. I bought a black star sapphire ring and matching necklace for only about 30 bucks total. After this, we headed back to the boat to heat to Vietnam!

Overall, Thailand was absolutely amazing, and was my favorite port up to this point (later to be tied with Vietnam and Japan). I can't wait to go back!!

World Blog: Photos

Photos from Thailand, South Africa and India: http://picasaweb.google.com/elliott.elizabeth.m

World Blog: India

Hello everyone, sorry it has been so long. I still haven’t gotten a chance to get pictures from South Africa up, and now I have India pictures as well (there wasn’t much internet available in India). Hopefully in Thailand I will have access to some wifi somewhere.

Anyway, India was very interesting, expensive (in total, I bought a lot of stuff, plus plane tickets), and really dirty.

The first day, we arrived in Chennai, which is a port city on the Southeast side of India. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Chennai is 60 degrees Fahrenheit. So, needless to say, it was extremely hot. In addition, Chennai is the most polluted city in India, which is extremely polluted as a whole, so it was dirty, as well. I don’t recommend visiting Chennai. We got off the boat and got in a rickshaw (which in India is a three-wheeled mini car) and asked to be taken to Spencer’s mall - one of the few areas that have “fixed” prices, in an effort to not get ripped off. It took us over an hour to get somewhere that should have only taken about 30 minutes because our rickshaw driver kept taking us to his “friends’” shops and telling us that it was Spencer’s mall, hoping that we would buy stuff there instead. He finally took us to Spencer’s, but we only had a little bit of time before we had to start returning to the boat. The rickshaw driver followed us all around the mall because he wanted to be the one to drive us back to the boat, as well. It was very obvious that he was trying to cheat us. In the mall, we were looking for camera lenses (hoping they would be dirt cheap) because I really want a new lens for my camera. Well, because our driver knew that we were looking for lenses, he made us stop at some more camera shops that “his friends” owned one the way back to the ship, almost making us late. In total, we were only out around Chennai for about 2 and a half hours, but judging from the looks of my clothes, you would think that I just spent a week in the woods without taking a shower or anything. The air is literally disgusting, and it smells horrible everywhere. Most people had masks on just to walk through the town. Another thing is that the traffic is absolutely insane - think of the worst rush hour traffic and multiply that by 99. There is no specific “rush hour” because less the 20% of the work in India is “organized” work (as in a 9-15, regular job), the majority is self-employed stands or odd jobs, if they have any employment at all.

Interesting fact to think about: VERY few people in India own cars, less than 10%. If the same percentage of people in India owned cars as in the US, the effect on global warming would be even more exponential, and with India being one of the BRIC countries, that’s where they are headed.

Anyway, we had to get back to the ship relatively early the first day because I had a trip to go on for my Nonprofit Marketing class. We went to visit an organization called the “Working Women’s Forum,” which is a micro-lending organization that lends small amounts of money to women so that they can start businesses of their own (usually just fruit stands or other small endeavors). We learned all about this organization and got to talk to some of the women and see how they are trained and everything, which was pretty interesting. I have to write a big paper about how they can be improved. Anyway, after that the bus driver dropped some people off at Spencer’s mall, which allowed me to shop without someone following me to every store. I bought some small stuff, a ring and matching pendant, and some scarves, etc. Then we went back to the ship relatively early, because we had a taxi coming to pick us up at 3:30 the next morning for the airport.

The next morning, we got into the taxis and drove about 45 minutes to the airport. You’d be amazed how many people are awake at that hour in India - its seemed like there are just two sets of people, some that come out during the day and others that sleep during the day and come out at night because it was equally as crowded at night as it was during the day. An interesting way to deal with overpopulation. Anyway, our taxi driver completely ripped us off, forcing us to pay WAY more than the agreed upon price once we got there, and we ended up paying $60/car (we had 2 cars because we had 5 people), when we really should only have paid about $7/car. Not good. Our flight to Delhi was only about 2 ½ hours, and went by relatively quickly. There was a man on the plane reading a newspaper that had an article about Semester at Sea students visiting Chennai in it, and Henry asked to see the article. Then we got to talking with the guy about Semester at Sea and everything, and he seemed very interested. His name was Sethu, and he invited us over to his house for dinner that night.

At the airport in Delhi, we went to a travel agency and arranged a hotel for the night and a PREPAID taxi driver to get us there, which worked out very well. The hotel was only about $16/night and wasn’t too bad at all. Once we got checked into the hotel, we took the free taxi service over to another travel agency, where we went to figure out the rest of our trip. We were doing a common tourist “route” known as the “triangle,” which includes 3 cities: Delhi, Agra (where the Taj Mahal is), and Jaipur. Originally, we had planned to take trains between each of these cities (about a 5 hour train ride each), but the trains were already booked. Apparently, you have to book trains well in advance because of how populated India is. It is not uncommon that people ride on the tops of trains and buses when they are sold out. Anyway, the travel agency arranged a driver for us for all 3 days at a TOTAL of $200 (only $40/each…much cheaper than our $120 taxi ride to the airport).

After getting everything settled there, we walked around Delhi for a little while and then ate a snack at a restaurant. The whole time, we were trying to get a hold of Sethu (pronounced Say-too) and figure out where he lived so we could go over there for dinner. We couldn’t get a hold of him, but we had his address so we just got in a cab and gave it too the cab driver. The cab driver couldn’t find it, so he dropped us off at the “Taj Mahal Hotel,” which is the nicest hotel in Delhi. We waited there and had coffee while we tried to get in touch with Sethu. Eventually we did, and he picked us up and drove us to his house.

We pulled up in the driveway, where his Mercedes and two Porches were parked. His house was HUGE and incredible. We went inside and sat in the living room and his wait staff delivered lots of little appetizers. His wife was there too, along with his 4-year old son named Vir (which means ‘brave’ in India). After talking with them for a while, we found out that Sethu is a designer for Louis Vuitton and Coach, and that his wife owns a hotel chain in India. We got a tour of his house - he has a huge collection of art. Later, he had his driver take us home because he and his wife had to go to a Vogue fashion show in Delhi. Back at the hotel, we just all went to sleep.

The next morning, our driver picked us up for our drive to Agra (which was about 4 ½ hours). On the way, we stopped at the “Gate to India” and at some tourist/truck spot for lunch. On the drive, we got to see a lot of rural India and the way the people live. Cows (which are considered very sacred), camels, and mules, and sometimes elephants walk in the streets right along with the cars. Most people farm or sell produce and other items along the side of the street. If was obvious that these people had very little and were very very poor, but they seemed to be getting along just fine. They just live a different sort of life than we do. They seemed much better off than those in poverty that we saw in Africa. We finally got to Agra and went straight to see the Taj Mahal for sunset!!

The Taj was BEAUTIFUL and extremely intricate. It was also very crowded. We had a complimentary tour guide that we picked up on the way that came with our driver (we had no clue that the travel agency organized this for us, but it was very helpful). We learned about how they built the Taj (which is a tomb for a King’s wife), and how they got all of the gemstones in the marble walls. The secret formula for the glue that they used to lock the gemstones in has been unknown except by the descendents of those who built the monument. After leaving the Taj, we went and checked into our hotel (which had a rooftop view of the Taj Mahal for only $20/night). After checking into our hotel, our driver took us to several shops. The first one was a Marble Shop owned the descendents of the builders of the Taj Mahal. They gave us a demonstration and then we went into their store, where they had thousands of beautiful marble masterpieces. Most of them were extremely expensive, up to $50,000 USD. Once they realized we didn’t have the money to buy anything, they took us to another room where they had much cheaper item, such as little coasters and candlestick holders and stuff. I bought two matching coasters for $55 USD each (they are so expensive because of how intricate the work is - one coaster could take 3-10 days and because they have gemstones in them -mine has coral and jade in it). After that, we went to a silk fabric store and I bought some silk fabric so that I could get a dress made in Vietnam. We were starving and finally our driver took us to eat some Indian food at a local restaurant. Then we went back to our hotel and went to bed, and got up at 6:30 am to watch the sunrise of the Taj Mahal. Then we left for our 6 hour car ride to Jaipur.

One the way we stopped at some other palaces and forts and got tours of them. It was extremely hot - about 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and these weren’t very enjoyable. And we were all extremely hungry - our driver had very specific places he would take us to each food when we were on our drives.

Jaipur was beautiful. It is located in the foothills of mountains, so has a different topography than Agra and Delhi, which were all flat. The first place we went to is a place called “Monkey Temple.”

This was the weirdest/coolest thing ever. This palace was built hundreds of years ago to the Hindu Money God. Since then, it has been taken over and inhabited by hundreds of monkeys - no joke. We walked around it for a while and watched all of the monkeys. There was also a crew from National Geographic there filming for a series called “Monkey Thieves,” which is all about the monkeys that took over the temple. After that, we went to another palace, and then to downtown Jaipur, where we got to ride elephants through the town, which was cool. Then we went an restaurant for dinner and a dance show. There were two girl dancers who just did a lot of cool spinning stuff, but then danced on top of a board of nails facing upward.

After that, we dropped the other people in our group off at their hotel because they were staying in a hotel that night and flying out of Jaipur in the morning - we had to drive back to Delhi because that’s where our flight left from the next morning (it was much cheaper to do a round trip to and from Delhi). So Henry, our driver and I left at around 11 pm for our 5 hour drive to Delhi, and we got dropped off directly at the airport and flew back to Chennai.

Overall, India was much different than what we had been used to so far in the counties because they are much poorer, and it is a much less westernized country. It was very intense and a great experience overall.

I still haven’t been able to get to an internet café to get pictures up, but I will try really hard to in Vietnam.

World blog: South Africa

Hello everyone! Sorry its been so long since I've last sent an update, but I have had a lot of tests since I last got back on the boat, so I've been really busy. South Africa was absolutely amazing, I definitely want to come back here next year for the World Cup.

Okay, so the first day we were a little delayed into port in Cape Town because there was a lot of fog. We ended up docking around 10 am and able to get off of the boat around 11 am. The “VMA Waterfront”(thats the newly renovated dock/port part of Cape Town) is extremely nice and beautiful. There is a big mall right on the water and a bunch of little shops and restaurants. Its awesome. When I first got off of the boat, I just walked around that area and explored for a little bit. Cape Town is a really safe city by night, in contrast to Johannesburg (Jo-burg as everyone there calls it), which is the world's most dangerous city. After walking around, Henry and I decided to take a taxi over to Table Mountain, a big mountain basically right downtown in Cape Town. So we got on a taxi and drove over there. Our taxi driver was very nice –he is planning on starting his own taxi business and was telling us all about it for the whole drive (which was great because one of my projects for a class is to interview an entrepreneur, so I started taking notes and everything so now I can use this as one of my interviews). When we got to Table Mountain, it was closed because of too much fog (we were planning to take a cable car up to the top because we didn't have enough time to hike it), so we went back to the boat.

That night, I went on a Semester at Sea day trip called “Jazz Safari.” It was one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life. First, we went to this Jazz Bar called “Best Ugly”and saw some live jazz in the top part of the bar. It was a really nice, classy bar. The band was really good, and I was able to buy a CD that had some of their music on it. After the jazz bar, we drove about thirty minutes outside of Cape Town to guy Robbie Jenson's house. Robbie Jenson used to be a world famous jazz artist, but his lungs collapsed and now he only plays occasionally in Cape Town. He has played with people such as Eric Clapton and John Butler! Anyway, so we drove out to his house where his son (who is a chef) cooked us dinner and we just hung out with him and his wife. It was really cool. After dinner, we all sat around in his living room and he played a little bit of saxophone for us and told us lots of amazing stories about his life. It was an awesome experience. I bought a CD of his as well. Then we went back to the boat.

Day 2 –The second day, I had to get up early because I was sighed up for a SAS Safari in a reserve called Kagga Kamma (look it up, its really cool). We had a pretty long bus ride –about 4 and a half hours. It would have been faster, but the bus was having a really hard time going up the dirt mountain roads (understandably). The geography was really cool. There were lots of huge, strangely-shaped rock formations. When we got to the reserve, they had lunch outside waiting for us, and then we were able to check into our rooms. THE ROOMS WERE CAVES BUILT INTO THE SIDES OF THE ROCKS. They were really nice, too. We had free time for most of the afternoon, so Henry and I hiked around. Some other people went to the pool or drove ATVs around. The reserve wasn't a typical South African reserve in that it didn't have lions or elephants or anything, it was more of like a “ranch,”very untouched and used a lot for historical research –it was known for its cave paintings and other things of historical importance. That night, we had an evening game drive before dinner, where we saw lots of elk-like species and ostrich. When we got back, they had dinner waiting for us around this big camp fire. Then, we all hiked up to this peak area where they had a telescope and everything set up to look at the stars. I didn't even need to look in the telescope –I have never, and probably will never again, see so many stars. You could see every detail of the Milky Way and everything. I have pictures, but they don't really do it justice at all. It was spectacular. Then I went to bed in my cool cave room (I have pictures of that, too).

Day 3 –After breakfast, our whole group went on a guided hike to some caves to see some cave paintings. We had two guides, one lady leading in the front and then another guy, Eugene, in the back. Eugene was new working there and had never done that hike before. He was the best nature guide, he was extremely passionate about everything and wanted to tell us about every plant and animal. So we were hanging out in the back with him learning about everything, such as a giant red and black grasshopper and other stuff. Needless to say, we were inspecting all of the wildlife too closely, and got lost. So Eugene tried to figure it out with us for a while, but we ended up just going back to the main area. Eugene was upset that he got lost with us, so he offered to take us back that afternoon and explore around with us so he could figure out the trail. After lunch, we first drove to some cave paintings that were a little further away. Then we got back and went on our exploratory hike with Eugene. We had a really small group this time, and we could take as long as we wanted. This was awesome, I want to be Eugene. I asked him how he got into just being an awesome nature guy... well in South Africa they have what is called “The Nature College” and you go and just learn about nature and everything so you can be trail guides. He wrote down all the information for me and showed me his books. Really cool. I want to do it. Anyway, we found lots of new cave painting and saw some more animals on the hike. After our hike (we didn't get lost this time), we went back to the lodge and watched cricket and rugby and just had some dinner. It was really relaxing. Also, because we hadn't seen any real “safari”animals, Henry and I were talking with the front desk at the lodge trying to plan a way to get to “Big 5”game reserve (the Big 5 are: Lions, Leopard, Rhino, Elephants,and Buffalo). We got it all planned out that a driver would take us the next morning (we were leaving the Semester at Sea trip, they all went back that day), after a sunrise game drive in Kagga Kamma, to another game reserve where we could go on a real safari.

Day 4 - It ended up only being about $180 USD total for all transportation (from Kagga Kamma to the Fairy Glen Reserve and then to Cape Town afterward) and for the safari and a nice buffet lunch. TOTALLY worth it –we got to see lions, zebra, rhino, and giraffes, and everything. I took about 1000 pictures just at the safari. It was so cool –we were able to get really close to lost of the animals. After the safari, we were driven back to the Waterfront where the ship was. After taking a well-needed shower, Henry and I headed out to Long Street, the center for nightlife in Cape Town. We met up with some other students and had a late dinner at this little Cuban restaurant that was basically a shrine to Che Guevara. It was pretty cool. Then we walked into some Irish bar, and lo and behold, the old A/V guy from SAS is rocking out on his guitar and was basically the band for the night. There were way too many Semester at Sea kids here, so it wasn't really that fun. Then we left and it started to rain, so we just got a taxi back to the boat around midnight.

Day 5 –This morning, I had to get up really early because I had another Semester at Sea day trip planned to go to a township. Townships are basically the huge expanses of slums outside of Cape Town. It was about a 30 minute drive, but seemed like we were going to a whole different planet. It was crazy how quickly it changed from nice, cosmopolitan Cape Town to these extremely poor slums. We got there and were swarmed but kids. Surprisingly, they weren't asking for money or anything. They just really liked to see foreigners –and absolutely loved getting their picture taken. It was very strange, but everyone in this extremely poor slum seemed genuinely happy. I was so taken aback because I had never seen such extreme poverty (there weren't even actual constructed houses –it was all just old billboards and industrial material that had been made into shacks where everyone lived.... and it went on for miles and miles). It was very intense. Also, there we SO MANY children. The population in South Africa is extremely young –over half of their population is under the age of 18 because of the prevalence of HIV/AIDs and the extremely high birthrates. Most of their populations didn't reach higher ages. Anyway, first we visited a place called “Vicky's Bed and Breakfast,”she is a woman who started a small bed and breakfast in the slums so that people could visit and get an idea of life in the slums. Her establishment has won many awards. After that, we were able to walk around a little but before getting back in the buses and going to a marketplace in the township. I bought a few things in the marketplace. After that, we went to a church and then to another bed and breakfast called Kopanong, where we had some snacks for lunch. We were EXTREMELY lucky, because the day we visited the township was also when the current South African President was coming to make a speech, and there was a HUGE political campaign rally for the ANC (African National Congress) political party (elections are in April). Everyone was extremely celebratory –literally dancing in the streets. It was amazing to see how involved and extremely proud everyone was. I got plenty of pictures.
After the township, we went back to the waterfront and had some lunch and just walked around and did some last minute shopping before we had to be back on the boat to set sail again.

We had 4 days at sea after that, during which I had three tests and two big papers due, so I was extremely busy. Yesterday we arrived in Mauritius in the morning. Mauritius is a small island off of the east coast of Madagascar that was colonized by the French. It basically the paradise destination for many Europeans. We got off the boat and got in a taxi in search of some waves... that we never found. We went to Grand Baii, about 30 minutes away. The whole island is extremely small, about 55 miles at its longest point. When we got there, I tried to use my debit card at an ATM, and the ATM machine wouldn't return my card. So I went inside the bank, and they said they needed my passport. Well, the ship didn't give is our passports because the Mauritius Immigrations said that we didn't need them. So I went all the way back to the ship, and they wouldn't give it to me. So I called the bank, and they said that an embossed, signed, stamped copy would do. So the purser's desk got that all ready for me, and I called the bank again, and they said they couldn't give me my card back at all because it had been reported stolen. So I gave up on that, and we just went and walked around Port Lois, which was nothing special at all. I called Bank of America, and they didn't know why but for some reason on Feb 18th the card was marked stolen in their system –they have no record of anyone called and reporting it stolen or anything... and I called them and notified them of my itinerary before leaving the US, so it wasn't that the card was being used abroad. They are getting a card sent to me ASAP. Anyway, then we just returned to the boat that night (we just had the day in Mauritius, set said again last night at 10pm).

Now I am back at sea for 5 days before I get to India. The Indian Ocean is extremely calm and extremely blue. It looks like a lake almost.

Anyway, I will try to get pictures up ASAP in India... its taking a while to sort through and edit them because I took so many. My camera is possibly the best purchase I could have ever made before going on this trip.

Worl Blog 3: Namibia

Namibia was absolutely incredible. Definitely my favorite country so far.

So, the first day we got here and they had Namibian school children come on the boat to sing and dance for us. Then we had a diplomatic briefing from the US Ambassador to Namibia and from the Chief Security Officer of Namibia.

Then we got of the boat and immediately got into a taxi (we were traveling in a group of 7: Me, Henry, Kyle and his girlfriend from Hawaii named Amelia, and then two of Amelia's friends Kristen and Kelly... Kelly has cousins in Pawleys Island and lives there every summer.. I remember her from summer in like 10th grade, as well as another guy.

Anyway so the seven of us got in a taxi and went to Swakopmund (our ship was docked in Walvis Bay, but that is a really industrial area, and Swakopmund, about 30 miles north, is the place to go). We had a beach house rented, which was only $190 bucks a night, and really nice, only a block from the beach, and so we checked in and got our stuff dropped off, and went to walk around the town.

The entire country of Namibia is the size of Texas and Oklahoma combined, but has fewer people than in Houston alone, so it is VERY sparsely populated. Swakopmund is about the size of Pawley Island, and has the same small beach town feel. It is very westernized because it used to be a German colony. So we walked around the town and did a little shopping at a market, I bought some sweet salad tossing forks that are wooden and have elephants carved in the handles, and then we walked along the beach to this cool restaurant on stilts on the ocean and had lunch there.

Namibia is known for its oysters, so we had some of those at lunch, they were really good but kind of small. Then we went to the beach for a little bit. After that we went back to our beach house and got ready for dinner. We went out to eat at this oceanfront restaurant called Lighthouse, which was really good, and the sunset over the water was absolutely stunning (I took exactly fifty pictures of it).

The next morning, we got picked up at about 9:30 am to go SANDBOARDING on the dunes!

A little bit about the geography of Namibia: Basically, you have the ocean, and then a road that goes between the ocean and these HUGE SAND DUNES - overall, the sand dune area is about a mile wide. After the sand dunes, there is about thirty or so miles of flat, dry, sandy desert. Then, almost out of nowhere, the landscape drops down into an area knows as the Moon Landscape. It used to be an underwater ocean, but not it looks like the surface of the moon, and then there are bigger mountains off in the distance…but we didn‘t see anything past the big dunes until the second day.

So we went sandboarding on the dunes, it was fun but very hot trekking up the dunes carrying a snowboard. Well worth it though. It was only 35 USD and included lunch, drinks, and all equipment.

Henry and I had to leave early because we were signed up for a Semester at Sea trip that night and had to be back at the boat at 1:30 to leave for that. So one of the sand boarding instructors drove us to our beach house from sandboarding and dropped us off. On the way, he drove us through a township, which is basically a community for the poorer people of Africa, and showed us around.

The driver was really cool and loved Henry's shoes (they were the Reef flip flops with the bottle opener underneath), so Henry traded them to the guy for two sandboarding t-shirts.

Then we got back to the boat and left for our "Camping and Stargazing"trip. It was awesome, and nothing like I expected.

We got into some 4-wheel drive Landcruisers and left for what was about an hours drive to our campsite. Until this trip, I assumed that the sand dunes when on forever, and that that is what the desert of Namibia looked like. Wrong.

So we drove past the dunes into the flat dry desert area and then down into the dried up bottom of the ocean area that looked like the moon. It was incredible looking; I can’t wait to get my pictures online so everyone can look. Our campsite was in a valley between two huge cliffs - they had tents set up and everything for us, as well as a local band.

O yea, another cool fact, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt adopted one of their kids from Swakopmund, Namibia. The band that we had was the same one that played for the adoption ceremony.

Anyway, we had about 5 hours to hike around before dinner. Everything was really dry and there was hardly any vegetation or animals. It was amazing because most of the landscape hadn’t changed in thousands of years, and is completely untouched by humans. We saw a few desert lizards and the “Dew beetles” (these beetles are about the size of a quarter and burrow their heads under the sand and put their butts in the air in order to catch the dew in the air. Then it trickles down their body into their mouth. I got so pictures of this.).

During dinner, the Namibian band played, and it rained for about 5 minutes. ALL OF THE NAMIBIAN LOCALS WENT CRAZY. The average rainfall per year in Namibia is only 11-13 MILLILITERS!

After that, around 10pm, we walked into this big open valley where an astronomer showed us all sorts of constellations and told us some other cool stuff about the night sky. This was awesome! After that, I went to bed. It was really hot and sort of hard to sleep.

The next morning, we woke up and had breakfast and hiked around a little bit more. There was an ancient riverbed that was completely dry the day before, and we could see a little bit of water start trickling in. About twenty minutes later, the ancient riverbed was about two feet deep and about ten feet wide, full of rushing water. The locals said that this hadn’t happened in over 20 years, and we ecstatic. Then we got picked up in the 4X4 vehicles and headed back to Walvis Bay.

When we got back, it was around noon, and we had six hours until we had to be back on the boat. Henry and I got back into a taxi and headed to Swakopmund again, where we walked around and did a little shopping. Then we went ATV-ING through the dunes on a guided tour for about an hour. It was really fun, but I almost fell down the side of a dune along with my extremely heavy 4-wheeler because I didn’t go fast enough up it. We got some t-shirts and well as some cool pictures and a video that I took from my old, small digital camera. Then we headed back to Walvis Bay and got on the ship. That was the end of my Namibian adventure. I definitely want to come back here in the very near future, it was absolutely amazing.

There are a lot of interesting politics going on right now because 7 uranium mines have been discovered in the moon-valley regions of Namibia - making the country the world’s leader in uranium supply. NOT GOOD for Namibia because MNCs will take this land over and the money will not go to Namibia at all. (Another fact - Namibia has the world’s largest economic disparity between the wealthy and the poor).

By Elizabeth Elliott

World Blog 2: Morocco

Hello Everyone!

Morocco was awesome, and now we are back at sea for a 8 days until Namibia.

We were set a day back getting into Morocco because rough seas in Gibralter delayed refueling for us. So we finally got to Morocco and were able to disembark the ship on Tuesday morning. I had a trip booked through Semester at Sea that left immediately when we docked up.

We got on a bus and drove about 3 ½ hours to Marrakech, an ancient city in Morocco known for the Souks market. We had a tour guide with us from Morocco the whole time named Lurbie who was very hard to understand. The countryside of Morocco was beautiful and looked like it hadn’t changed in centuries. People were herding sheep and using donkeys to transport small amounts of their crops. It was really cool.

The first place we went to when we got there we went to a touristy garden that used to belong to some French guy. It wasn’t impressive. Then we went and checked out a library that had some cool stained glass and paintings. Our tour guide soft of strayed a lot from what we were supposed to be doing and added a lot of random stuff that weren’t on our itinerary, but oh well.

Then we finally went to “the square”where the famous Souks are. The Souks is the name of the market place that has been around since the 900s. We went immediately to a restaurant that had prepared a mass meal for Semester at Sea students. I wasn’t too fond of this meal, or Moroccan food in general. It was a lot of sweet meat. Like honey, almonds, and beef all in one. It was good but not how I like my meat. I felt like I was eating dessert for every course. They had yogurt for dessert that was really good, however. Then our tour guide took us through the Souks at a very rapid pace, we weren’t allowed to stop at all, and we picked up some random creepy dude that was helping our tour guide –a delirious old man that was wearing mascara (no, that’s not custom, no other men were wearing makeup, just this creepy old dude).

Our guide took us to a pharmacy place that had all sorts of herbs, and they gave us a little presentation on the herbs and then sold them to us (this was not on our itinerary, and it was very obvious that Lurbie was making a cut on the sales for taking a group of 30 American students spending their parents money there). I bought some mint tea, saffron (apparently Morocco is the cheapest place to buy saffron), some meat spices (a mixture of 35 different spices), and some perfume cubes. Then we walked some more and Lurbie took us to another store that sold a bunk of random stuff and let us buy stuff only from that store (once again, he was obviously making a cut). Here, I bought a few small silver charms for really cheap.

Then we power-walked through the Souks some more, it was really annoying and unenjoyable. We weren’t even allowed to stop for long enough to take a picture before the creepy old makeup dude started yelling and making a scene. People don’t mind getting their picture taken there, but expect you to pay them after you take the picture. Then we got on the bus and went to check into our hotel, which was pretty nice –a lot better than I expected a Three-Star hotel to be. We had about an hour to change and get ready before dinner.

We got back on the bus and drove for about 30 minutes to this really obnoxious, touristy dinner place. Think Dixie Stampede or Medieval Times, but Aladdin-style. There was a big fake castle thing that was built specifically for hosting large tourist group dinners. There were about 4 groups of like 50 Asians, and another big group of French businesspeople, and then our group of American students. (I forgot to mention, in Morocco, their primary languages are French and Arabic, everyone can speak both languages, and people are, for the majority, Muslim).

Besides being so extremely authentically Moroccan (not), the dinner was really entertaining and enjoyable. I was seated at a table with a lot of the Lifelong Learners (Lifelong learners are older people who are no longer in school that go on the trip) and a few students. At first we were served bread and bean soup, which was really good. Throughout dinner, different groups of people in various African, Muslim, and Aladdin-ish costumes came in and sang and chanted and what not. It was pretty cool. The beer in Morocco is called Flag, and it was pretty good too. Then we got some eggs over meatballs with honey (I didn’t really like this that much). Our next course was couscous with vegetables over chicken, which was pretty good. Then we got a big bowl of just-picked oranges, which were delicious. After dinner we had a horse show where they just rode horses around and did tricks and shot fireworks. Cool, but not very Moroccan. It was freezing cold and raining. Then we went back to the hotel.

The next morning we had to be up and checked out of the hotel by 8am, when we got on the bus and rode for about an hour to a Berber Village in Ourika Valley. This place was really cool. There were red-clay snowcapped mountains towering over small Berber Villages. We drove though and went first to check out a little house and a mill. The mill was really cool, it was just a big round, flat stone that was powered by the streams that spins over grains to break them down (see the pictures). Then we walked around the house and took pictures. I thought it was really cool ,and it was a “real”house, despite the fact that every single semester at sea student (whether they were on a semester at sea trip or had planned something independently) went to exactly the same house. O well. The house came complete with a gift shop, too. Mom, I bought you something there.

Then we went to another Berber house and had some mint tea, which was good but a little too sweet. On the way back to Marrakech, we stopped and checked out a school. Then we ate lunch back at the square by the Souks (I left lunch early because I wanted to have some time to walk around the Souks myself). I got attacked by some henna ladies, who had grabbed my hand and drawn “Good Luck”signs all over it before I even knew what hit me, and then demanded money. I tried to give them 3 US dollars, and they replied that the American dollar is worthless because of the depression. Then they followed me to an ATM (I knew they were following me, and I needed to go to the ATM, but I wasn’t going to give them money, I didn’t even want to be drawn on). They tried to make me give them Durhams (Moroccan money) but I gave them 2 Euros and 3 US dollars and told them I didn’t even want henna and left.

In the Souks I bought 2 really cool tapestries for a total of 300 Durhams (about 32 bucks), with a lot of embroidery and beads and glass and stuff sewn into them. After the Souks we all had to meet back at the bus and drive back to Casablanca. It was pouring rain when we got back so I just stayed at the ship that night.

The next morning I got up and went to into town in Casablanca. First we went and checked out the Mosque (but didn’t go inside b/c they wouldn’t let you go without a tour, and there wasn’t another tour starting for a while). Then we got a taxi over to the marketplace and walked around and had some lunch at a French Café. I bought a really awesome painting for about $40 that would easily be at least $300 dollars in the US. It’s really big. Then I went to an internet café and uploaded pictures really fast. I didn’t get to check to make sure everything uploaded okay, I’m told its doubles of everything? I can’t do anything to fix it until I get to another internet café, which won’t be for over a week.

By Elizabeth Elliott

World Blog 1

Hello everyone! Right now I am in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, almost to Spain. We arrive in Spain on Wednesday. Life at sea is great! We've had classes every day for the last seven days (yes, even Sunday), and everyone is starting to get into the swing of things (literally - the boat rocks back and forth constantly, its impossible to walk in a straight line). My classes are great, I have a professor from USC who is really enthusiastic for my International Entrepreneurship class, and then a woman from Zimbabwe who teaches my International Marketing and Nonprofit Marketing classes. I am also taking a "Global Studies" class that focuses on the politics, history, and geography of all of the countries that we visit.

Most of the people on the cruise ship are really cool, and everyone is very excited. Its good that people actually realize the magnitude of this voyage. The food is pretty good - they have a good variety of options for every meal except breakfast. Breakfast is not very good, I started just eating the prepacked yogurt b/c the fruit is starting to go bad. Other than that, however, lunch, dinner and "10pm snack" are all really good. They always have delicious soups at every meal. You can also buy pizzas, veggieburgers, ice cream, smoothies, chips and candy bars until midnight.

In Spain, me and about four other people are starting to get out plans together. We arrive in Cadiz on Wednesday, and will spend most of that day on our own exploring the city. At night we are signed up for a Flamenco Dinner through Semester at Sea, which includes a bloodless bull fight, food, and a flamenco show. We will stay on the boat that night. The next morning we are getting up and taking a 7am train to Seville (about an hour and a half, and only 9 euros), were we will spend the day. Then we will stay at a hostel somewhere in Seville. The next morning we are either going to Grenada (another short, cheap train ride) or Madrid (a little more expensive, and not more than three hours on the high speed train). We are still trying to figure out where to go b/c we want to see a futbol game, and are trying to figure out which city will have a game going on. Then we will stay at a hostel that night and take the train back to Cadiz the next morning. Then we set sail again, have one full day at sea and then arrive in Morocco!!!!

I look forward to hearing from everyone!

Tomorrow we are catching the 6:45 am train to Seville, and staying in Samay Hostel (look it up, its nice, 15 Euros/night) for two nights. We were going to go to Seville for a night and Granada for the second night, but we decided it wasn't worth it: Its a 9 Euro, 2 Hour train from Cadiz to Seville, a 30 Euro, Three Hour train ride from Seville to Granada, and then 50 Euro, 4 and a half hour bus ride (there is no train, and buses are really unreliable) from Granada to Cadiz, so we decided not to go to Granada and just stay in Seville for two nights and take a train back from Seville on the last day to Cadiz.

Cadiz is sorta boring, we went to a flamenco performance tonight, which was sweet but really touristy, reminded me of Myrtle Beach and the horse stampede Dolly Partan place or something lame like that. Anyway, thank you for setting up my phone, I have to go to bed b/c its really late and I have to wake up in 4 hours for the early train. I will let you know how Seville is and everything. I took a lot of sweet pictures today with my camera.

By Elizabeth Elliott

Pictures from Spain are here.