Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon, Vietnam

I was surprised at how modernized and touristy Ho Chi Minh City was. The city center was full of tall buildings, hotels, malls and nice restaurants. Semester at Sea offered a shuttle bus for us from the port to the Rex Hotel every 30 minutes, which was extremely convenient and nice because we did not have to deal with taxi drivers. The Rex Hotel is very famous because it was the site of the daily news briefings during the Vietnam War and the rooftop bar was a popular hangout for military officials. The first day I did an all day trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels, which is a very large network of underground tunnels over 200 km long used by the Viet Cong in the war. We actually got to go in the tunnels and even though they have been enlarged to accommodate tourists, they were very small and claustrophobic. It was amazing to think that many Vietnamese soldiers lived down in these tunnels making weapons, traps and fighting the Americans for long periods of time. There were 3 stories of tunnels underground and they had small holes at the top so that the soldiers could get some fresh air. We got to see a bunch of the different traps and weapons that they used, which were quite scary. The traps were camouflaged with the ground and a person would fall in and land on about 50 metal spikes. There was also an opportunity for us to shoot AK-47’s and other guns that were actually used in the war given to the Vietnamese by America. I did not participate in this but the noise was unbelievably loud and unpleasant, I could not imagine hearing that constantly for many years during a war. We also visited a Viet Cong War memorial, which had thousands of tombs and many were very young teenagers who were war heroes. We also went to a local market where there were lots of different fruits and meats for sale, including fish that were still flopping around in little pans.

The next day I spent at the Me Kong Delta, which “is a very rich and lush area, covered with rice fields. It produces about half of the total of Vietnam's agricultural output, and is the place for timeless sceneries of farmers planting or harvesting rice” (Wikitravel.org). We drove about 2 hours to get there and then got into a boat to cross a large river. We then got to try a bunch of tropical fruits, many that I had never even heard of before but were pretty good. Next, we got into tiny little canoes that were rowed by local Vietnamese people and went through small canals that were very beautiful with a green tree covering above us. We stopped at a place where they made coconut candies by hand and got to try it and buy some. Even though I don’t usually like coconut flavoring, these were delicious because you could taste the fresh coconut flavor. We also tried some lime and honey tea, which was also very good. Then we went on to have a very traditional Vietnamese lunch where they brought out a big fish that looked like it had just been taken out of the water and immediately fried. It was quite shocking when the waitress came over and just started cutting the fish open, pulling chunks of meat off and serving it to us in rice paper with some noodles and basil. I tried it and it wasn’t that bad but I don’t usually eat fish and I couldn’t stop thinking about the practically live fish on the table. Most of the other food we had I did enjoy although it was mostly weird looking seafood. The waitress came out with some shrimps that still had all of its body parts on it and I didn’t even know that that’s what shrimp looked like until then. She just ripped off all the parts and then served them to us and they were pretty good.

The third day I finally got to eat some Vietnamese pho (pronounced fuhh), which I enjoy at home a lot and really wanted to try the authentic version. Pho is basically just a Vietnamese style chicken noodle soup with lime juice, basil, onions and other sauces you can choose to put into it. It tasted basically the same as I have had in America and was very delicious.  I then proceeded to the War Remnants Museum, which everyone said was something you had to do. It was half outdoor and half indoor, so the first thing you see when you walk through the gates are a bunch of U.S. army tanks, bombs and airplanes. An Asian man asked my friend and I to take a picture with him in front of one of the tanks, so I’m not sure what he was trying to represent by that picture but hopefully it’s not a bad thing! There were 3 large rooms full of pictures from the war and each room had somewhat of a different theme.  The first one was more or a timeline of war with the French and then with the Americans and it had many photos and quotes to help tell the story. The next room was dedicated to the 134 war reporters/photographers who were killed during the war and it showcased hundreds of their photos, and many were very famous that most of you have probably seen. The third room was by far the hardest to look at because it contained hundreds of pictures of war crimes, the effects of Agent Orange and napalm, and many innocent people who were injured or killed. Most of them were extremely gruesome and showed the awful deformities caused by Agent Orange. There were also many not so nice quotes from U.S. generals or the president that were put there to make a point. At the very end of the hall of pictures was the quote from the Declaration of Independence stating, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Putting this quote there was obviously to make a point and it definitely did. It made it even harder to understand why all of these horrible things were done to the Vietnamese people. It is already hard to understand the war because I was not alive when it happened. The statistics are very astounding, that 3 million Vietnamese people were killed (2 million of which were civilians) and because of that 2/3 of the population today is under the age of 30. One other thing that I noticed was that many of the fighting pictures were taken in the Me Kong Delta, which I had just been to so it was weird to think that I was canoeing through a place where many Americans and Vietnamese died just 35 years ago. Going to the museum was definitely a very memorable experience for me and I’m very glad I went.
The last two days I spent just enjoying Ho Chi Minh City. I walked around the city a lot, shopped at the markets, and enjoyed good Vietnamese food. I also went to visit this place that taught uneducated teenage girls how to embroider so that they would have a skill to make money. There were about 75 girls there when we went and we were told that they work 8 hours a day and they sold their embroideries right there. They were very beautiful products and I would assume that they also sold them to vendors and the proceeds would go directly to the girls. There is so much more to see in Vietnam so the next time I go, I would want to go up North to Hanoi and Ha Long Bay, which are supposed to be really cool and beautiful places. We will be arriving in Hong Kong tomorrow morning and I will only spend one day there and then fly to Beijing for 4 days, which I am very excited about. The next time I send a blog, I will have seen the Great Wall!

Thailand

Thailand

The first day in Thailand, I went to the Sri Racha Tiger Zoo where I got to see some unique animals up close. First, they have an elephant that was trained to pick people up with its trunk for a picture. It was kind of scary because you really have to hold on to their trunk to avoid falling but it definitely made for a good picture. I think that was the first time I have ever touched an elephant and I realized how rough and thick their skin is. I also got to feed an elephant bananas, which they just eat whole with the skin and all. He ate about 10 bananas in 2 minutes so I can only imagine how many they could really eat without being full. We saw a tiger show, which was basically like a circus where the tigers jumped through fire and did some other tricks. Then we saw a crocodile show and if you didn’t know crocodiles are quite lazy so the trainers basically had to drag them around to make them move. The main attraction there was the trainers putting their heads in the crocs mouths, which I got some good pictures of. After that we got to hold a baby tiger and feed it milk in a bottle, which was by far my favorite part of the day. They had lots of baby tigers that were very cute and I spent a lot of time just watching them play and taking lots of pictures. That night we went to a city called Pattaya, which was quite an interesting experience. Thailand has been having a lot of problems with sex workers and so we witnessed many prostitutes that were everywhere promoting themselves and lots of older men who were not there for the food.

The next day, I went to a Red Cross Rehab center for one of my classes. The owner of the center was a doctor who started it about 30 years ago and has really built it up into one of the best and only rehab centers in Thailand. The patients were mainly victims of brain and spinal cord injuries as well as amputees and autistic patients. It was very impressive how this one doctor had done so much in this particular field of medicine and even at 75 years old, he was still running the place and going strong. We got to tour the facility and actually see the rehab patients being helped and it was very obvious how much rehabilitation can increase a person’s quality of life from almost nothing. After that, my friend and I made the 90 minute trip to Bangkok where we spent the next 3 nights. I was surprised at how modernized Bangkok was; it really almost looks like New York City. There are lots of tall buildings, taxis and vendors everywhere and 7-11’s on every corner! The first thing we did that was on our to-do list was get a traditional Thai massage for next to nothing in terms of money. It was very different from a typical massage in America because they basically stretch your entire body and even stand on you some of the time. I enjoyed it very much and felt incredibly stretched out and relaxed afterwards. That night, we went out to dinner and then to one of the main strips called Khoa San Road in Bangkok. It was really cool because as you walk down the street, they have a night market where you can shop at the vendors and get delicious pad thai made in front of your eyes from a cart. Bangkok is known for having a big nightlife scene and so there were lots of people out and we ran into many Semester at Sea friends just walking down the street.

The next few days were filled with sightseeing, shopping and a couple of foot massages (an hour long foot massage costs about $7). Bangkok has many canals where you can ride boats around to different destinations like Venice. We took one of these to go see the Grand Palace, which is the most famous Buddhist temple in Thailand. It was pretty spectacular. Most of it is made from tiny colored pieces of glass that are put together to form a beautiful sight. There is also lots of gold used on the rooftops and the detail is just incredible all around. There was also a magnificent shrine with a Buddha on top, which the people come to pray to. Every now and then I saw monks around Thailand and they are not allowed to sit next to or touch women. There is a sky train that goes through Bangkok and they specifically reserve seats for the monks, which was kind of interesting. The sky train was very convenient, cheap and fast because there is a LOT of traffic in Bangkok and it can be very slow moving. The difference between the traffic in Thailand and India was that everyone drives faster and they don’t honk, which was a nice bonus. The food in Thailand was delicious every time we ate. Although it was a little different than what I’m used to in Thai restaurants in the U.S., it was still very, very good! Next time I go to Thailand, I would like to see the North, which is supposed to be very different from the South. There are jungle and beach cities such as Chang Mai and Phuket which sound like very interesting/beautiful places from what my friends have said. Now I’m already going to be in Vietnam tomorrow, which is going to be much different and I hope to learn more about the Vietnam War and see it from their perspective because they actually call it the American War. That’s all for now, miss you all!

Mauritius/India

Mauritius

Although we were only in Mauritius for 1 day, it was a very good day! About 30 people pitched in to rent a Catamaran for the day so we had a driver who took us all around the island to different beach spots. I really enjoyed swimming and snorkeling because the water was so warm and blue. We had a BBQ for lunch and just spent the day relaxing in paradise. The scenery was really breathtaking, mountains all around and the clearest blue water. It was a nice little break from being on the boat and then we got back on and made our way to India.

India

India is a crazy place! There is so much to see and so much going on all the time, it was actually exhausting. As soon as we got off the boat, we were bombarded with taxi drivers, auto-rickshaw drivers and bicycle drivers asking where we wanted to go. An auto-rickshaw is basically a 3 wheeled car that is open and can fit 3 people. We ended up in one of these and that was an experience in itself. I’ll try to set the scene for the streets in India. There are cars, buses, motorcycles, auto-rickshaws, bicycles, cows, pedestrians and who knows what else ALL over the roads. There are not really any driving laws so people just do whatever they want and everyone is constantly honking and practically running over things all the time. The irony here is that no one wears seatbelts either! It is quite scary but you just kind of close your eyes and hope that you reach your destination safely. These rickshaw drivers don’t make much money so they have deals with different shops where if they bring people to the store they will get a commission. Basically what this means is that you have to stop at a few different stores before you get to your destination and there is really NO way around this. So the rickshaw driver took us to a saree (traditional Indian dress) store where my friends and I each purchased one and proceeded to wear around all day. This brought a lot of attention to us for some reason, I think because no one was used to seeing a white person wearing the traditional dress. We were getting compliments left and right. I had a city tour the first day, which entailed seeing some different churches, a Hindu temple and then going to an Indian home. At the house, they served us snacks, played an Indian guitar like thing, and showed us some traditional dancing. It was a very cool experience and this is where I first realized how welcoming and nice the Indian people are. They will always invite you to their homes and offer you food even if they don’t have much for themselves. After that I went to a welcome reception where we got to meet some Indian students, enjoy food, and watch more dancing. I hadn’t eaten all day so by this point I was starving and exhausted but once I got some food I felt much better. One thing about India that you can’t really avoid is getting dirty. Just from traveling around all day, I literally had a coat of dirt all over my skin so it was a great feeling to get to shower back at the ship and feel clean again.

The next day was the beginning of my 3 day home stay, which I had been looking forward to for the entire trip. I’ll preface this story by saying that this was definitely one of the best experiences I have had so far on my trip. There were about 30 people doing home stays so we all got on the bus to go meet our host families. We were paired up with another person and mine was a girl named Ali from Austin, Texas and we got along really well. I would say we kind of got lucky because our hosts were a young couple named Shilpa who is 22 and Tejus who is 26 and they just got married 6 months ago. I say we were lucky because we could really relate to them because they were close to our age and we got to see what it is like to be young in India. The norm in India is when you get married, you both move into the husband’s parent’s house so we also got to spend time with Tejus’ parents. Their family runs a travel agency together and also owns a little ice cream parlor, which we had the pleasure of eating at later on. The first thing we did was go to their house for lunch, which was a traditional South Indian meal. The house was really nice and I think was representative of the way a middle to upper class Indian family lives. They had about 5 servants who helped cook and clean, which was interesting, but I realized that that is a pretty normal thing for the upper classes in India. Something I wasn’t prepared for was that they eat with their hands and although they said we didn’t have, Ali and I both tried it out. The meal was 4 courses consisting of rice and 4 different toppings that were mixed with it. It was kind of hard to get the hang of eating goopy rice with your hand but I got better at it after a while. Also they only eat with their right hand because the left is considered unclean in their culture and religion. The meal was very good and they explained to us that there is a very big difference between North and South Indian food. What I am used to eating in the U.S. is North Indian food so this was quite different. Most Southern Indians are also vegetarians so I didn’t eat very much meat while in India. Next, we did some sightseeing and it was quite humorous because I felt like the tour guide since I had seen the sights the day before. Shilpa just moved to Chennai when she married Tejus so she hasn’t really seen much there and Tejus’ just hadn’t seen most of these places in a while so I knew more about them than anyone else. That night, we went to a reception at their rotary club, which was the organization that puts on these home stays with SAS every year. It was nice to feel so welcomed by them and one Rotarian made a speech that really made me realize the great reputation that SAS has in these countries. He just talked about how he helped start the home stay program 15 years ago and what a great program SAS is. He also helped start a program where Indian students come on the ship for a week or so, so that they get to experience the program as well. That program is now very popular in many of the countries we visit and we have had inter-port students and lecturers in many of the countries so far. His speech made me really proud to be a part of SAS because it is so well regarded by so many different places around the world. One other thing that was interesting was how many people knew where Cupertino and Silicon Valley was! I swear more Indian people know where that is than all of the students on SAS who are from the U.S. Many of them had even been there because they worked for a software company or something so I could relate to them on my hometown.

The next day all of the SAS home stay students were taken sightseeing for the entire day. We got back on the bus and visited many different places, which was cool but very tiring. It was about 100 degrees and humid and we were out in the sun walking around the entire day so we were all exhausted at the end. We went to a bunch of different temples that were carved right out of the rock, which was pretty amazing. Throughout the day we were constantly bombarded with vendors trying to sell us things, which gets pretty annoying after a while. One of the Indian students who came on the ship was with us and she was helping us bargain with the vendors because they were charging us like 10 times the normal price. It was funny because they were getting really angry with her since she was telling us the truth about what the items were worth and so they couldn’t take advantage of us. For lunch we went to this beautiful farm house, which was right on the beach and they prepared a meal for us. After lunch we went to a crocodile farm, where I saw the biggest and largest number of crocodiles I have ever seen in my life. We got to see them feed and they basically just ate big chunks of meat right off the bone and just crunched the bones right up. That night, it was actually Tejus’ birthday so we went straight out to dinner when we got back from sightseeing. We met some of their friends at a Spanish tapas bar that is popular among young people in Chennai. The food and the company were very good and we had a great time there. One of their friends works for a software company that is based in L.A. and he is probably going to go to California for training this summer. I gave him my e-mail and I told him that I would love to show him around if he makes it out there. He actually just e-mailed me a very nice note and said “If I travel to California I am kind of optimistic that I have a friend there, ”which I thought was very sweet.

On our last day with them, we went to a really cool place with lots of Indian crafts. I purchased some things that were made right in front of my eyes, which was really amazing. We then had lunch at Pizza Hut since pizza is Tejus’ favorite food! He spent 3 years in Australia studying and he says he ate pizza for every meal. Pizza Hut in India is not exactly the same as in the U.S. but it was still really good. I got to try some Chicken Tikka pizza, which was quite delicious actually. After lunch, we took Shilpa and Tejus on a tour of the ship, which was really fun to show them where we have been living for the past 2 months. We said goodbye and we both agreed that we want to stay in touch. I also really hope that they can come to California one day so that I can show them around and give them the wonderful hospitality that they provided for me. It was really a great experience and I am SO glad I chose to do the home stay rather than go to the Taj Mahal like most of the other students did. I can see the Taj Mahal later if I really want to but I will never have the opportunity to do a home stay again. The last day in India, I just did some shopping with my friends. There are so many beautiful things in India so I got a lot of gifts to bring home. I learned so much about their culture from Shilpa and Tejus and they were curious about U.S. culture as well. Tejus has visited the U.S. a few times but they both had many questions for us and we had lots for them. Overall, I had a great experience in India and definitely think I will come back someday. Although it is a crazy place, there are so many interesting people, great food, and beautiful sights that you could really never see and do it all but I want to come back and experience more of India.