So the sail between Vietnam and India is about 6 days. There really isn’t too much to tell about life on the boat, except we did have Sea Olympics one the 7th. Now, this has been the highlight of ship life. Sea Olympics is Color War…you know overnight camp Color War. Now each section of the hallway is divided into sea’s. This has been this way from the start. My sea is the Bering Sea and my LLC is Rob. They split you up so that your LLC can hold Sea Socials and other fun events so that you can meet people in your sea/part of the hallway. It’s like how an RA sets up events so you can get to know everyone in your hall/dorm floor. Now our sea has been pretty close from the start. Because we can’t get internet in our rooms we always sit out in the hallway (we can pick up the signal there). So we’ve gotten to know everyone that way. People from other seas always walk down our hall in astonishment, because it is always a party out there. We are also one of the only seas that have been talking about the Sea Olympics since day one. Color War, at least at EKC, was always 2-3 days. Here it was only one day. You signed up for different competitions and tried to win. The award for winning…being the first of the ship in Ft. Lauderdale. Win or lose I was not even planning on getting off the ship right away. I want to be able to say goodbye to everyone, but at the same time I don’t like to lose. I signed up for Tug of War, Dodgeball, and Wheelbarrow race. I ended up dropping out of the wheelbarrow race because it was part of the relay race and me and this other girl Kerry wouldn’t have been fast enough so we got two boys to do it instead.
Now we decided our team would be called the Bering Sea Ninja Crabs and the color we were assigned was black. You had to make up a cheer so ours was to the Men in Black theme song and went like this:
“Here comes the sea in black
Gold medal defenders
We are the Ninja Crabs
Other seas surrender”
We would the repeat that and at the end we go BBEERR-IINNG (I’ll have to imitate it for you) and then make claws with our hands and make a pinching sound. It was hysterical.
Tug of War was embarrassing. The Red Sea had a stacked team. They had two guys both way over 200 pounds, plus this huge girl who plays softball. Everyone lost to them in two seconds. Our team was the smallest for sure and we got pulled about like rag dolls. The first time we didn’t hear them say “go” and no one even got a chance to pull. We asked for a redo and they gave it to us…not like it mattered. But we thought if we were going to lose, we were going to lose trying. We lost worst the second go around haha.
Then we got third in trivia but the person who proctored it gave a hint to the team that knocked us out in the finals. The question was how many students are on this boat…we guessed 585, and the correct answer is 586, and the proctor was like “ew so close” so the other team knew what to guess. Then we had dress up your LLC and it had to go with the topic of sustainability (since that is the theme of the voyage). We collected water bottles and punched holes in them and made a dress out of them for Rob and we didn’t even place. Once you see all the other ones you’ll be amazed at how we didn’t place. Then there was the lip sync competition. The songs were randomly given out and we got Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” (a pop song). We had probably a top 3 performances and didn’t rank because the judges didn’t know the song and picked all the kid friendly ones (Yellow Submarine, Thriller (and they just repeated the dance), Bohemian Rhapsody (which was funny and deserved to place), and Under the Sea). While I know I’m bias, the top 3 should have been our, Bohemian Rhapsody, and a sea that did the Spice Girls.
Okay, so we got shafted a few times. Going into lunch we were not ranked very high at all. But after lunch we dominated. We got second in limbo even though we should have gotten 1st. The girl who one ducked her head to the side when she went under which you are not really allowed to do. Kelly, our limb-ist played fair the whole time. Oh well, second is still good. We got first in Dean White Says (Simon Says) and tied for first in the pull up contest, and third for spirit, and second in dodgeball.
Now I was on the dodgeball team. There were four of us, two guys and two girls. I forgot how much I missed playing dodgeball until this game. We rocked it. I was named MVP, unofficially, by my teammates. I have always played defensively. I’m not strong enough or accurate enough to throw but I can catch. So even if it was three on one I would just roll the balls back to the other team and let them throw it at me and it worked. I continually was the last person in and continually kept bringing people back into the game to help win it. We made it to the finals and we ran into some problems. One of our guys shoulder got all messed up and he couldn’t throw it as well. Overall, dodgeball was frustrating because the “ref” kept changing the rules. One rule was if a person gets hit in the head and it is bad enough then the person who threw it is out….not the person who got hit. Well, the first game (it was best out of three) I was the last one in and I got nailed in the head. Dead center on my ear and when I felt to the ground I simultaneously get hit in the butt with another ball. I was pissed because the ref called me out because two balls hit me. But when I stood up I couldn’t hear out of my left ear. It was like right after I shot the gun at the Cu Chi Tunnels. I personally thought that under the circumstances and the rules the guy should have been out and I should have gotten another shot. We lost the game and we got second. Overall, it was a blast and I had an amazing time and will probably do intramural dodgeball when it starts up.
They left a few scores unrevealed for the final ceremonies and going into them we were in third place. We expected to place in some of the events that were being announced but they only one we placed in was spirit. After everything was said and done we ended up getting knocked out of third and into forth. :( But as much of a bummer as it was I had the most amazing time.
That night they cooked us a barbeque and I ate so much corn. Now the pool, I think I mentioned before, is really tiny. After dinner, everyone piled into the pool, clothes and all. We tried to see how many people we could fit in the pool. It was nuts. We got everyone from staff to the children in that pool. There are some crazy pictures. At first I wasn’t going to get in and then I was like ‘hell I’m on a ship’ and jumped in. Uh, it was one of the best days on the ship by far.
Oh and most importantly, that mask I bought in Shanghai finally came in handy. It scared the crap out of so many people because it looks like a real face just painted. It’s so hard to explain. But I wore it every second I wasn’t eating or involved in an event. It was hysterical.
I’m going to try to load some pictures on here from my friend’s computer. So you’ll get to see some of the stuff from Hawaii all the way through the Sea Olympics hopefully soon.
Tomorrow I’ll be in India and will write here as soon as I can.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Vietnam February 26-March 2
Vietnam time….
Abby, Tyler, another Abby (Abby Y), Austin, and I got off the boat and walked around Vietnam. The one thing that we were told to do is get a made-to-fit dress/suit in Vietnam. So we went looking for a place. The girls and guys got separated unfortunately. Abby, Abby, and I all got dresses…for pretty cheap. I wanted a certain dress but with a certain cut and they couldn’t make it that way. So I settled with the original cut, which sucks because it doesn’t fit me very well. But for the price that I paid, it at least makes for a good story. Plus, when am I ever going to get a hand made, made-to-fit dress again? After we were done we realized we lost the boys. However, the plan was to get these clothes made and then go to the War Remnants Museum, so we knew where they were headed. So we hopped a cab there and when we went to pay Abby and Abby got ripped off…again. Abby Y was in the front seat ready to pay and Abby had some money out in the back and the driver reached behind grabbed all the money and gave us change. Either way, the definitely over paid. We got to the museum and they weren’t open yet and as we were walking to find lunch, we saw the boys. The 5 of us found this hotel sort of place and had a small meal. After which, we went the museum. It was one of the most devastating things I’ve ever seen. Before we went into this museum we saw some of helicopters, planes, and tanks from the war. We followed this sign to the Tiger Cages. There we saw a guillotine and cell rooms. There were even wax figures inside. One looked so real, and was looking straight through the peephole, that it made you jump. Inside, there were two floors of pictures and articles. My favorite part was this small gallery room that had pictures kids, from the ages of 11-15, drew. They were amazing and all about peace…definitely drawings I could not have done at that age.
From there we went to the Reunification Palace. When we were in line to buy tickets these three guys asked us if we knew this guy on Semester at Sea…we didn’t. We all got to talking and they were in Vietnam for the weekend because they were studying abroad in Singapore. One of them has an aunt and uncle who live in Blawnox…what are the odds. They were pretty cool and we invited them to join us at a club (where all the Semester at Sea students would be) later that night. We walked around and it was pretty cool. It wasn’t until 3 days later did we find out that we missed the whole second and third floor. It was cool nonetheless. After the Reunification Palace we went to the Ben Thanh Market. This market was huge and it was inside. Now the temperature was in the 90’s with 0% chance of rain. It was humid and then you had this market that was indoors, jammed packed to the point where you could hardly move in between stands. It was soooo hot. I don’t think I’ve sweated that much in forever. This market was pretty cool because at five o’clock it turned into a night market on the street. This market was just like the one in Shanghai and Hong Kong but with different things. We were told the other thing to do in Vietnam was to buy pirated movies…and of course I did. I bought a ton over the span of the 5 days I was there.
We received this list of places to eat and we picked this one called Blue Ginger to go to. It was a traditional Vietnamese restaurant. It was super cheap. I got shrimp spring rolls, both Abby’s got a meal, and Tyler and Austin essentially got two meals. The total cost ended up being 40 dollars, with Austin paying about 12 of it. They also had traditional live music. Overall, it was a really good restaurant and we kept recommending it to people. Now, eating in Vietnam was probably the worst for me. I tried a ton of different things but I also had French fries with every meal. However, the Ketchup had like the after taste that tasted like wine…no joke.
That night everyone was going to this club called Apocalypse Now…go figure haha. We got there pretty early and I just wasn’t feeling it. Abby and I had a pretty lousy time. The drinks were expensive (we’ll expensive in Vietnamese terms, not in American haha) and it was just overrun, again, by SAS kids, but this time I just didn’t have a good time. It got a little better when the three boys we met earlier that day showed up, but in the end…not so much fun and headed back around 1ish.
The next day it was just Abby, Tyler, Therese, and I hanging out. We wanted to go to this Mangrove park thing but it was like a full day/overnight thing and it would have cost about 55 per person. No one really wanted to do that so we spent the day walking around again. It wasn’t as much fun because there really is not too much to do in the city after you see the museums and whatnot, but I still had a great time. Anyway, we got some lunch at a local café that had, Vietnamese food, American food, and French food. It also had a bakery attached to it. It got a pizza and it was delicious. Tyler eventually split off. The three of us girls ventured back to the Ben Thanh Market to look at the movie selection. We ran into these two other girls who told me about this Disney movie collection/box set at this mall right by the Rex Hotel, where we got dropped off (via shuttle from the pier). At most stands you could get movies for a dollar. There was one right outside our ship every night that was one for a dollar, but on our way over to the mall we found this place that sold them for about 80 cents. There I found this box set label “Oscar Awards.” I assumed it was the tapings of all the awards shows. I realized when I got back that it wasn’t. It was every Oscar Award winning movie plus a few. While finding every taped award ceremony would have been like finding the Holy Grail, getting 125 movies for super cheap isn’t something I can complain about. After that we finally got to the mall and of course I got the Disney box set. It’s amazing. We headed back to the ship to figure out what we were going to do for the rest of the night. We decided to go to the Rex Hotel. They had this bar and live music on the roof. We went there and it was filled with a ton of people, with a lot of SAS kids mixed in. It was nice just sitting there and having a few drinks, but it was also a little expensive in comparison to other bars. We didn’t stay out too late because Abby and I, as well the other people we were with had trips the next morning.
The next morning Abby and I woke up and headed out for our SAS trip of the Cao Dai Temple and Cu Chi Tunnels. We had a small group of people, which was nice, and I knew most of them. On the way to the temple we learned about Caoism (as a religion). Once we got there we had some time to walk around. There was a long courtyard, for a lack of a better term, with puppet shows about the religion and the temple. We finally went inside, but first we had to take our shoes off. Our tour guide could not even go inside with us because she had to stay outside and watch our shoes. Once we got in there we were able to observe a service, which was a little boring…not going to lie…but only in the sense that, from an uneducated person (of that culture) like myself it seemed like they weren’t doing that much. Yet at the same time I was fascinated. After the temple we stopped to get lunch. Here is where I tried probably the most Vietnamese foods. It tried their many types of noodles, the most popular being Pho (pronounced Pha). I also had several spring rolls, which I think contained some pork. Overall, the food was delicious.
From there we headed to the Cu Chi Tunnels. The first thing we did was watch a film, from the eyes of the Vietnamese, on the Vietnam War. We learned more about the tunnels and their purpose. Next they took us to one of the hatches in the ground. Our guide from the Cu Chi Tunnels (different than our overall guide) showed us how to get in and out of the tunnels. We all got to try. The space was extremely tiny and there were some really tall guys on the trip; one I think was about 6’3” or so. He had some troubles once he was inside. I, on the other hand, was kind of comfortable. Considering, I am about the size most of the Vietnamese soldiers were, I fit pretty well inside. From there they showed us fake set ups of different bunkers, a real U.S. army tank that was left in the woods (with AK-47 gun holes in it), and all the different types of traps they used. Now, I was really excited because I had heard from trips that went the day before that we were going to be able to shoot machine guns (M16, M60, and AK-47). They took us to the shooting range and I was so pumped…not because I like guns or anything, but how many times can you say you shot an AK-47 or rather shot an AK-47 in Vietnam…you can’t. I bought 10 rounds and headed down to the gun. There was someone there to help you and I needed help. They loaded the rounds for you and got you set up. Because I’m so short I had to stand on my tip-toes in order for the gun to rest on my shoulder properly. Instead of just pulling the trigger and let it go, I fired one round at a time. They gave you earmuffs but it didn’t do much. After you had shot, your ears were clogged. It took a few minutes for them to clear up. And I was down there for 4 other people helping them take pictures, so it took like 15 minutes for my right ear to “de-clog.” But It was so much fun. I don’t think I’ll ever shoot one again, but it was quite an experience. After this we headed to an actual tunnel. For tourists, they took a tunnel and widened it so that they could get through easier and they also added lights. It was awesome. I fit down there pretty comfortably. I mean you had to duck either way. The tall boys were struggling. By the time we were done their backs and quads killed. We didn’t go too far just about 20-30 feet. I really wanted to go further but that’s where they tourist tunnel ended. I had a fantastic time. It was absolutely amazing. When we got back to the ship, Abby and I opted to stay in for the night and watch a scary movie she had bought. We both fell asleep around 12:30.
The next morning I had my Mekong Delta trip and Abby had a service project trip. Luckily, I knew several other people on the trip. The first thing we did was go to a Buddhist monastery and saw another gigantic Buddha. From there we traveled about to hours to the Mekong Delta. We then got to these boats and headed down the river and got off and headed into this little village. We then sat down and ate all these different types of fruit. I tried something called a Jackfruit. It was like rubber on the outside and texture was weird but it wasn’t bad. Then we saw how they make coconut candy, which was very cool. All of this was taking place in huts. It was very touristy but interesting nonetheless. As we were heading to the next stop along the river trash got caught in the engine of the boat and in the middle of the water we had to get from one boat to another. It was humorous. :) Then we stopped off at another dock and saw some more coconut candy making. We walked through this area and everyone was just hanging out in hammocks. Now, this is really cool in Vietnam…rest stops were just huts and hammocks and tables. It’s very cool. Anyway, all of a sudden we see these horses with carts behind them. We took these horses through the village area, which was very cool…again very touristy but I had a blast. We got off the carts and walked a little to another part of the village where we were to have honey tea. But before we sat down for tea, we were allowed to hold this snake. Not just any snake though…a python…a friendly python.
After tea we got back in the boat and went to lunch. Lunch was pretty decent we had elephant fish and prawns. I tried the fish rice wraps and it wasn’t too bad. We also saw a water buffalo just hanging out in the water right next to where we were eating. After this we walked a little ways and got into a canoe…the type the women and fishermen use. The villagers paddled us down the river and back out to the open Mekong Delta and then hopped back into our boat and headed home.
The last night was one of my favorites so far. As soon as I got back a bunch of my friends, who were coming back from Nha Trang, wanted to go to the Hard Rock Café…ya I know, we’re in Vietnam and we went to the Hard Rock Café. The group was Austin, Kate, Rebecca (a professor’s 18 year old daughter), Abby, Martin (from Norway) and me. What made the night even better than good American food was that they had Southern Comfort and Lemonade (my favorite). Part of the reason I wasn’t having a fun nightlife the first day was the lack of my favorite drink and Hard Rock had it, which just made my night. Because I knew that wherever we went there wouldn’t be SoCo and Lemonade so I had three in the span of about 2 hours and because I’m tiny and can’t hold my alcohol I was a little drunk haha. From there we went to a hookah bar. Austin has smoked in every country so we went along with him to fulfill his Vietnam quota. So the running joke of the night was that I was drunk by 8:30, dizzy by 10 and sobered up again by 10:30. After the hookah bar we went looking for another one and decided to head back to Apocalypse Now…I wasn’t happy about this. On our way there these women who owned this small bar literally dragged us into their empty bar…Hot Chili. It ended up being a great time. Kate convinced them to give her a free tequila shot if she bought two. Then she did a bunch of card tricks and bet them another one. They were amazed! Absolutely astonished that she continually guessed their cards. After a few more drinks we left, promising them we’d return, and headed to Apocalypse Now and it was just as bad as the first night. Austin, Abby, Kate, and I left and went back to Hot Chili where we played extreme Jenga. It was ridiculous. The shapes they made out of the Jenga blocks were crazy. Abby, Austin, two bartender ladies, and I played several games, while Kate taught two of the other women how to do card tricks. We hooked up our ipods and rocked out. It was one of the best nights I’ve had so far. We came back at about 2 am that morning and woke up at about 7:30 for my trip the next morning.
It was our last full day in Vietnam and I had one last trip. This trip was a short four-hour trip to a local elementary school. It was by far my favorite trip. Kate was on the trip with me, as well as my LLC’s (my RA) and his family. Words cannot describe how much fun this trip was. Once we got there they gave us a little information about the school. The headmaster couldn’t speak any English so our guide had to translate for us. After that they let us go in the courtyard where the kids were playing and just hang out. At first it was like “ooookkk, what do we do?” But then kids started coming up to us and then they all started bombarding us with their notebooks and pieces of paper for us to write “Hi, my name is Natalie,” or some variation of that. You felt like a rockstar signing autographs. After a bit of that Sam, my LLC’s 8 year old son, and I wanted to play hacky sack with the kids. Now, their version of a hacky sack is not an American version. It has feathers and it’s flat, but has like foamy springs to it. It’s hard to explain. Anyways, Sam and I wanted to play but we didn’t know if/how we should ask. You almost felt like you were back in elementary school and sheepishly going up to people and asking if you could play with them. Well, we ended up asking and had a great time trying to play this game.
After they were dismissed we were separated and went to different classrooms…about 4 of us per room. The first room I went in was full of 8 year olds and they immediately started throwing paper at us to sign. Then they too started writing their names for us. I have a pile of them that I will keep forever. There was this one girl, who probably spoke the best English in the class, who was absolutely awesome…definitely my favorite…probably because she kept giving me hugs. It was precious. I was in heaven…high on life. We then rotated room and the next two or there were really well behaved. You definitely felt awkward because of the language barrier and if they weren’t asking questions, you didn’t know what to say. Each class sang us this song that of course I recorded. I came back to the ship about 12 in the afternoon, soooo hyper. I had an amazing time and it just made me high on life and giddy. I was bouncing off the walls, nuts.
The day before a friend of mine Aaron told me of this place where I could get 2 movies for a dollar…so of course I wanted to go there. Back at the ship, after my trip, I met up with Rebecca (a professor’s daughter, who I’ve become good friends with), Kevin, and Austin and the four of us hit up this movie place. We were there for at least 2 hours going through every bin of movies. I was in heaven. I mean why would you not raid the store…when else are you going to find 50 cent movies.? Austin and I headed back right after that and then hung out on the pool deck of the ship and played some ping-pong. At about 8 o’clock the boat left Vietnam and was sailing for India.
Abby, Tyler, another Abby (Abby Y), Austin, and I got off the boat and walked around Vietnam. The one thing that we were told to do is get a made-to-fit dress/suit in Vietnam. So we went looking for a place. The girls and guys got separated unfortunately. Abby, Abby, and I all got dresses…for pretty cheap. I wanted a certain dress but with a certain cut and they couldn’t make it that way. So I settled with the original cut, which sucks because it doesn’t fit me very well. But for the price that I paid, it at least makes for a good story. Plus, when am I ever going to get a hand made, made-to-fit dress again? After we were done we realized we lost the boys. However, the plan was to get these clothes made and then go to the War Remnants Museum, so we knew where they were headed. So we hopped a cab there and when we went to pay Abby and Abby got ripped off…again. Abby Y was in the front seat ready to pay and Abby had some money out in the back and the driver reached behind grabbed all the money and gave us change. Either way, the definitely over paid. We got to the museum and they weren’t open yet and as we were walking to find lunch, we saw the boys. The 5 of us found this hotel sort of place and had a small meal. After which, we went the museum. It was one of the most devastating things I’ve ever seen. Before we went into this museum we saw some of helicopters, planes, and tanks from the war. We followed this sign to the Tiger Cages. There we saw a guillotine and cell rooms. There were even wax figures inside. One looked so real, and was looking straight through the peephole, that it made you jump. Inside, there were two floors of pictures and articles. My favorite part was this small gallery room that had pictures kids, from the ages of 11-15, drew. They were amazing and all about peace…definitely drawings I could not have done at that age.
From there we went to the Reunification Palace. When we were in line to buy tickets these three guys asked us if we knew this guy on Semester at Sea…we didn’t. We all got to talking and they were in Vietnam for the weekend because they were studying abroad in Singapore. One of them has an aunt and uncle who live in Blawnox…what are the odds. They were pretty cool and we invited them to join us at a club (where all the Semester at Sea students would be) later that night. We walked around and it was pretty cool. It wasn’t until 3 days later did we find out that we missed the whole second and third floor. It was cool nonetheless. After the Reunification Palace we went to the Ben Thanh Market. This market was huge and it was inside. Now the temperature was in the 90’s with 0% chance of rain. It was humid and then you had this market that was indoors, jammed packed to the point where you could hardly move in between stands. It was soooo hot. I don’t think I’ve sweated that much in forever. This market was pretty cool because at five o’clock it turned into a night market on the street. This market was just like the one in Shanghai and Hong Kong but with different things. We were told the other thing to do in Vietnam was to buy pirated movies…and of course I did. I bought a ton over the span of the 5 days I was there.
We received this list of places to eat and we picked this one called Blue Ginger to go to. It was a traditional Vietnamese restaurant. It was super cheap. I got shrimp spring rolls, both Abby’s got a meal, and Tyler and Austin essentially got two meals. The total cost ended up being 40 dollars, with Austin paying about 12 of it. They also had traditional live music. Overall, it was a really good restaurant and we kept recommending it to people. Now, eating in Vietnam was probably the worst for me. I tried a ton of different things but I also had French fries with every meal. However, the Ketchup had like the after taste that tasted like wine…no joke.
That night everyone was going to this club called Apocalypse Now…go figure haha. We got there pretty early and I just wasn’t feeling it. Abby and I had a pretty lousy time. The drinks were expensive (we’ll expensive in Vietnamese terms, not in American haha) and it was just overrun, again, by SAS kids, but this time I just didn’t have a good time. It got a little better when the three boys we met earlier that day showed up, but in the end…not so much fun and headed back around 1ish.
The next day it was just Abby, Tyler, Therese, and I hanging out. We wanted to go to this Mangrove park thing but it was like a full day/overnight thing and it would have cost about 55 per person. No one really wanted to do that so we spent the day walking around again. It wasn’t as much fun because there really is not too much to do in the city after you see the museums and whatnot, but I still had a great time. Anyway, we got some lunch at a local café that had, Vietnamese food, American food, and French food. It also had a bakery attached to it. It got a pizza and it was delicious. Tyler eventually split off. The three of us girls ventured back to the Ben Thanh Market to look at the movie selection. We ran into these two other girls who told me about this Disney movie collection/box set at this mall right by the Rex Hotel, where we got dropped off (via shuttle from the pier). At most stands you could get movies for a dollar. There was one right outside our ship every night that was one for a dollar, but on our way over to the mall we found this place that sold them for about 80 cents. There I found this box set label “Oscar Awards.” I assumed it was the tapings of all the awards shows. I realized when I got back that it wasn’t. It was every Oscar Award winning movie plus a few. While finding every taped award ceremony would have been like finding the Holy Grail, getting 125 movies for super cheap isn’t something I can complain about. After that we finally got to the mall and of course I got the Disney box set. It’s amazing. We headed back to the ship to figure out what we were going to do for the rest of the night. We decided to go to the Rex Hotel. They had this bar and live music on the roof. We went there and it was filled with a ton of people, with a lot of SAS kids mixed in. It was nice just sitting there and having a few drinks, but it was also a little expensive in comparison to other bars. We didn’t stay out too late because Abby and I, as well the other people we were with had trips the next morning.
The next morning Abby and I woke up and headed out for our SAS trip of the Cao Dai Temple and Cu Chi Tunnels. We had a small group of people, which was nice, and I knew most of them. On the way to the temple we learned about Caoism (as a religion). Once we got there we had some time to walk around. There was a long courtyard, for a lack of a better term, with puppet shows about the religion and the temple. We finally went inside, but first we had to take our shoes off. Our tour guide could not even go inside with us because she had to stay outside and watch our shoes. Once we got in there we were able to observe a service, which was a little boring…not going to lie…but only in the sense that, from an uneducated person (of that culture) like myself it seemed like they weren’t doing that much. Yet at the same time I was fascinated. After the temple we stopped to get lunch. Here is where I tried probably the most Vietnamese foods. It tried their many types of noodles, the most popular being Pho (pronounced Pha). I also had several spring rolls, which I think contained some pork. Overall, the food was delicious.
From there we headed to the Cu Chi Tunnels. The first thing we did was watch a film, from the eyes of the Vietnamese, on the Vietnam War. We learned more about the tunnels and their purpose. Next they took us to one of the hatches in the ground. Our guide from the Cu Chi Tunnels (different than our overall guide) showed us how to get in and out of the tunnels. We all got to try. The space was extremely tiny and there were some really tall guys on the trip; one I think was about 6’3” or so. He had some troubles once he was inside. I, on the other hand, was kind of comfortable. Considering, I am about the size most of the Vietnamese soldiers were, I fit pretty well inside. From there they showed us fake set ups of different bunkers, a real U.S. army tank that was left in the woods (with AK-47 gun holes in it), and all the different types of traps they used. Now, I was really excited because I had heard from trips that went the day before that we were going to be able to shoot machine guns (M16, M60, and AK-47). They took us to the shooting range and I was so pumped…not because I like guns or anything, but how many times can you say you shot an AK-47 or rather shot an AK-47 in Vietnam…you can’t. I bought 10 rounds and headed down to the gun. There was someone there to help you and I needed help. They loaded the rounds for you and got you set up. Because I’m so short I had to stand on my tip-toes in order for the gun to rest on my shoulder properly. Instead of just pulling the trigger and let it go, I fired one round at a time. They gave you earmuffs but it didn’t do much. After you had shot, your ears were clogged. It took a few minutes for them to clear up. And I was down there for 4 other people helping them take pictures, so it took like 15 minutes for my right ear to “de-clog.” But It was so much fun. I don’t think I’ll ever shoot one again, but it was quite an experience. After this we headed to an actual tunnel. For tourists, they took a tunnel and widened it so that they could get through easier and they also added lights. It was awesome. I fit down there pretty comfortably. I mean you had to duck either way. The tall boys were struggling. By the time we were done their backs and quads killed. We didn’t go too far just about 20-30 feet. I really wanted to go further but that’s where they tourist tunnel ended. I had a fantastic time. It was absolutely amazing. When we got back to the ship, Abby and I opted to stay in for the night and watch a scary movie she had bought. We both fell asleep around 12:30.
The next morning I had my Mekong Delta trip and Abby had a service project trip. Luckily, I knew several other people on the trip. The first thing we did was go to a Buddhist monastery and saw another gigantic Buddha. From there we traveled about to hours to the Mekong Delta. We then got to these boats and headed down the river and got off and headed into this little village. We then sat down and ate all these different types of fruit. I tried something called a Jackfruit. It was like rubber on the outside and texture was weird but it wasn’t bad. Then we saw how they make coconut candy, which was very cool. All of this was taking place in huts. It was very touristy but interesting nonetheless. As we were heading to the next stop along the river trash got caught in the engine of the boat and in the middle of the water we had to get from one boat to another. It was humorous. :) Then we stopped off at another dock and saw some more coconut candy making. We walked through this area and everyone was just hanging out in hammocks. Now, this is really cool in Vietnam…rest stops were just huts and hammocks and tables. It’s very cool. Anyway, all of a sudden we see these horses with carts behind them. We took these horses through the village area, which was very cool…again very touristy but I had a blast. We got off the carts and walked a little to another part of the village where we were to have honey tea. But before we sat down for tea, we were allowed to hold this snake. Not just any snake though…a python…a friendly python.
After tea we got back in the boat and went to lunch. Lunch was pretty decent we had elephant fish and prawns. I tried the fish rice wraps and it wasn’t too bad. We also saw a water buffalo just hanging out in the water right next to where we were eating. After this we walked a little ways and got into a canoe…the type the women and fishermen use. The villagers paddled us down the river and back out to the open Mekong Delta and then hopped back into our boat and headed home.
The last night was one of my favorites so far. As soon as I got back a bunch of my friends, who were coming back from Nha Trang, wanted to go to the Hard Rock Café…ya I know, we’re in Vietnam and we went to the Hard Rock Café. The group was Austin, Kate, Rebecca (a professor’s 18 year old daughter), Abby, Martin (from Norway) and me. What made the night even better than good American food was that they had Southern Comfort and Lemonade (my favorite). Part of the reason I wasn’t having a fun nightlife the first day was the lack of my favorite drink and Hard Rock had it, which just made my night. Because I knew that wherever we went there wouldn’t be SoCo and Lemonade so I had three in the span of about 2 hours and because I’m tiny and can’t hold my alcohol I was a little drunk haha. From there we went to a hookah bar. Austin has smoked in every country so we went along with him to fulfill his Vietnam quota. So the running joke of the night was that I was drunk by 8:30, dizzy by 10 and sobered up again by 10:30. After the hookah bar we went looking for another one and decided to head back to Apocalypse Now…I wasn’t happy about this. On our way there these women who owned this small bar literally dragged us into their empty bar…Hot Chili. It ended up being a great time. Kate convinced them to give her a free tequila shot if she bought two. Then she did a bunch of card tricks and bet them another one. They were amazed! Absolutely astonished that she continually guessed their cards. After a few more drinks we left, promising them we’d return, and headed to Apocalypse Now and it was just as bad as the first night. Austin, Abby, Kate, and I left and went back to Hot Chili where we played extreme Jenga. It was ridiculous. The shapes they made out of the Jenga blocks were crazy. Abby, Austin, two bartender ladies, and I played several games, while Kate taught two of the other women how to do card tricks. We hooked up our ipods and rocked out. It was one of the best nights I’ve had so far. We came back at about 2 am that morning and woke up at about 7:30 for my trip the next morning.
It was our last full day in Vietnam and I had one last trip. This trip was a short four-hour trip to a local elementary school. It was by far my favorite trip. Kate was on the trip with me, as well as my LLC’s (my RA) and his family. Words cannot describe how much fun this trip was. Once we got there they gave us a little information about the school. The headmaster couldn’t speak any English so our guide had to translate for us. After that they let us go in the courtyard where the kids were playing and just hang out. At first it was like “ooookkk, what do we do?” But then kids started coming up to us and then they all started bombarding us with their notebooks and pieces of paper for us to write “Hi, my name is Natalie,” or some variation of that. You felt like a rockstar signing autographs. After a bit of that Sam, my LLC’s 8 year old son, and I wanted to play hacky sack with the kids. Now, their version of a hacky sack is not an American version. It has feathers and it’s flat, but has like foamy springs to it. It’s hard to explain. Anyways, Sam and I wanted to play but we didn’t know if/how we should ask. You almost felt like you were back in elementary school and sheepishly going up to people and asking if you could play with them. Well, we ended up asking and had a great time trying to play this game.
After they were dismissed we were separated and went to different classrooms…about 4 of us per room. The first room I went in was full of 8 year olds and they immediately started throwing paper at us to sign. Then they too started writing their names for us. I have a pile of them that I will keep forever. There was this one girl, who probably spoke the best English in the class, who was absolutely awesome…definitely my favorite…probably because she kept giving me hugs. It was precious. I was in heaven…high on life. We then rotated room and the next two or there were really well behaved. You definitely felt awkward because of the language barrier and if they weren’t asking questions, you didn’t know what to say. Each class sang us this song that of course I recorded. I came back to the ship about 12 in the afternoon, soooo hyper. I had an amazing time and it just made me high on life and giddy. I was bouncing off the walls, nuts.
The day before a friend of mine Aaron told me of this place where I could get 2 movies for a dollar…so of course I wanted to go there. Back at the ship, after my trip, I met up with Rebecca (a professor’s daughter, who I’ve become good friends with), Kevin, and Austin and the four of us hit up this movie place. We were there for at least 2 hours going through every bin of movies. I was in heaven. I mean why would you not raid the store…when else are you going to find 50 cent movies.? Austin and I headed back right after that and then hung out on the pool deck of the ship and played some ping-pong. At about 8 o’clock the boat left Vietnam and was sailing for India.
China February 16-February 23
So 6 days in China and 2 days in Hong Kong to cover…here goes.
The morning of China was a little rough…frustrating. There was an original set group and more and more slowly it expanded from 6 to about 13. That’s WAY too big of a group to really travel, especially in the crowded streets of China. It was just frustrating because while you didn’t want to be mean and leave people behind, you also didn’t want to hang with such a large group either. In the end it worked itself out and there were only 8 of us.
The first thing we did in Shanghai was go to the bank and then ate food. We ate at a place that had the Chinese name and then the English translation, which was “Come A Pot of Spinal Cord Lamb”…hysterical. We were cracking up. There were a lot of poorly translated things in China. It was a steam pot lunch…of mutton…yum my favorite. Unsurprisingly, I did not each much for lunch. The whole idea behind this meal is that they give you a huge pot of raw mutton and uncooked potatoes, yams, noodles, and a few other things that no one knew what they were. I only ended up eating a little bit of the noodles and this gigantic bottle of coke (about the size of two of my hands).
So after that my friends and I went shopping…my roommate Abby, and my friends Austin, Tyler, Kevin, Mem, Alyssa, and Buddy. We walked around this street called Nanjing Road in the Bund Area and immediately found this knock off store and the family that owned it was really nice. We stayed there for a bit because Austin got 16 pairs of socks for 2 dollars and Tyler and Kevin were haggling over a zippo lighter and a laser pointer. Eventually Tyler got both and Kevin got just the laser pointer. This laser pointer was ridiculous. They said you could see it up to 2 kilometers and I definitely believe them…it flashed so far.
They took us from one of their stores to another. The one woman gave me a super discount on a purse because she liked my face. We continued to walk around and then decided to take a rickshaw ride to this other blackmarket shopping center called Tao Bao. The rickshaw was soooo much fun. The motorcycles looked like they were going to break down any second. It was two per cart and really somewhat shady, but extremely fun. Austin and Abby filmed it so I’m going to get a copy for sure. The one told us that it would be 30 yen per cart and then as we were trying to organize our money to pay, the guy was like 300, 300, and then “assuming” we didn’t understand took the money out of our hands and hopped back on his bike and left…we got majorly ripped off but since there were 8 of us it wasn’t that bad and made for a really funny story.
The shopping center was a five story inside mall. But not how you would think. It was just stands all lined up in a row and while they said each floor had different things, they generally were all the same. We shopped around and of course I got some stuff for super cheap and had a blast and I learned how to haggle. I had lost my scarf at that internet café in Japan so I got a knock off Burberry scarf. I really wanted a Longchamp bag so I got a navy blue one. The last thing I got has a pretty funny story. We were walking around and found this story, which had army helmets and gear (like “vintage” stuff—collectables). There were these masks, a green one and a black one. They looked like real human faces (but without the eyes, of course). I think they were meant to hold goggles but Mem and I really wanted to try them on…so we did. Then Austin decided to buy it. We all continued to walk around and as we were leaving Mem, Tyler and I decided to buy black ones as well. The masks are really creepy. I had no idea when I was actually going to use it but it has come in handy (I’ll tell you about it later) :)
We then ate at a Chinese fast food restaurant and I got this really good shrimp but the sauce that it was in was only so so. It was so hard to order. At first we weren’t going to go because we didn’t think they would have an English menu. We started walking next door to a sit down Pizza Hut but the wait was too long so we went back to the fast food Chinese place, which turned out to have an English menu and the food was delicious. Kevin decided to try pig ears. Again, unsurprisingly, I did not. He was the only one that thought they were ok. Everyone else was gagging.
Then we decided to go back to the ship and get dressed and go to this club called M2. It was this really swanky…like high end. You had to “buy” a table. You had to spend so much money on food, alcohol, and drinks. You could have just stayed at the bar but we were there so early that we had to buy a table. It was so much fun. We drank, we danced, and had a great time. The morning was a little rough haha but it was one of my favorite nights yet.
So the next day Abby and I went to Suzhou with a Semester at Sea trip. This is a town built on the water. It was really fun. We saw about three different gardens, which surprisingly hasn’t gotten old yet. We also took a boat ride down the Grand Canal. So we traveled via this tiny boat through the village area. It was really neat…pretty impoverish…but very cool. Instead of doing about 4 different gardens we went to the local silk factory instead. They showed us the whole process of how the make clothes and quilts. I even got help stretch out some of the silk to create the comforter. It was a great day. It’s one of those trips that is too hard to explain and only pictures will do. Hopefully, you will all get to see my pictures. On a side note…I’m going to try to put some up via my friends computer. Anyway, I didn’t end up going out that night because I desperately needed to pack for my Hiking the Great Wall trip.
The next day was when I was to leave for the Great Wall for 4 days in Beijing. The first day was pretty boring. We just got on a plane, which was about 2-3 hours and then we had another 1-1:30-hour bus ride. We stayed in a 5 star Chinese hotel. This hotel had a bowling ally and an archery range. It was fabulous. The rooms were gorgeous. I wish I had taken pictures of everything and the rooms. Before dinner we walked around the strip area and went to this mall, which was a lot of fun. A girl from my hall, Kate, who I have become good friends with, was on this trip with me. She and I walked around the mall together looking for a hat and some gloves for here (which we wouldn’t end up needing). She was hungry so we thought we would check out the food court. It was a really small food court because on the ground floor there was a grocery store. As we walked around everyone, and I mean everyone was starring at us. I started getting really hot and she started turning red. I mean we must have unknowingly been naked or something because, without exaggeration, every head was turned. It was the first time I felt like a foreigner. After which we went to the area with the massage chairs and sat there for about 45 minutes. Then we had dinner at the hotel and this became the first of many family style, Lazy Susan meals. We pretty much all just hung out and after dinner Kate and I went to McDonalds for a late night bite.
The next day we woke up pretty early and headed to the Great Wall. We walked the Simatai part of the wall to the Jinshanling part of the wall, which was to be the hardest hike of the two days…and it was. This part of the wall really looked like what you expected the Great Wall to look like…high walls, stone, bricks, etc. It was definitely a lot hillier than expected. A lot of the people on the trip expected a much flatter terrain. We hiked for about 6 hours and in total about 6 miles. We had a bagged lunch on the wall, which was not very good. Luckily, Kate and I planned ahead and bough food in the grocery store and brought it. There were these farmers who stand at the start of the wall and try to sell you things…including themselves. You can pay for them to carry your bags and anything like that. One person paid for a farmer to be here photographer. The farmers would walk the length of the wall with you in hopes that you might by something. I also met this kid Martin, from Norway, but studying in New York, who is also a film major. He and I talked movies for the majority of the day. Haha Anyway, the hike was rough and exhausting. It was by far one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. Some of the steps were up to my waist, which made it that much harder to walk up. All the guys with the long legs were fine and then there was me whose quads were on fire. It was so much fun and absolutely an amazing experience. That night we all just hung out at the hotel and Kate and I got more McDonalds later that night after another Lazy Susan dinner.
The next day we woke up and headed out and hiked from the Jinshanling part of the wall to the Gubeikou part. This was more of a typical hike. We were walking through the mountain areas and there were no walls along the Great Wall. It was almost like a raised path. Everyone had voted the night before on what we should have for lunch and the consensus came to getting McDonalds ordered to the Great Wall. So the first time in SAS (and this trip coordinator) history, McDonalds was delivered to the Great Wall. They (other tour guides, farmers) had to hike 2 and a half hours just to bring it to us. You only had the option of chicken or beef, but the chicken was a spicy chicken sandwich and I struggled eating it after one bite. And if that wasn’ upsetting enough, there were no French fries. Anyway, we hiked to the highest part of the two hikes, which was pretty cool. We actually could not take pictures facing one direction because it was owned by the military and we’d get in trouble. We hiked about 4-5 hours and about another 6 miles. And then bused to a different hotel in the city of Beijing. There were three other trips going to Beijing and all of them were at this hotel. Because the other trips had been there earlier all the double rooms were taken so almost all of us got a single, king size bed, with a couch, all to ourselves.
Now all meals were included and there was some amazing food. I don’t think I have ever eaten that much rice and chicken before in my entire life but each were different so it was amazing. All of the restaurants we went to were Lazy Susan style, which meant you ate way too much food because there was just so much of it. I have finally gotten down the skill of the chopsticks. Our first night at the new hotel we ate a restaurant called the Roast Duck, which is famous for the roast duck. I was a little worried at first because I didn’t like the rice and the chicken was really spicy. But then they brought out these shrimp that were doused in garlic and butter. They were so good that I had to order another plate.
That night we went to a bar across the street called Blue Green Club. The bar tender was amazing and apparently had won a ton of awards/competitions, including the Absolute Vodka Competition. I’m not really sure what that means entirely, but he was really good and made some really unique drinks. It was a lot of fun and it was filled with all SAS kids. It was the firs bar to have my drink Southern Comfort and lemonade. Yum I didn’t get back to the hotel until like 2 and one of the trips had to be up at 4:30 for their 7-8 o’clock flight. Austin was on that trip so he didn’t want to go to sleep…just wanted to pull an all-nighter. I ended up hanging out in his room until 4 am talking, having a heart to heart. It was a good time.
So I went back to my room and got 3 hours of sleep. I had to be up at 7 am for our last day in Beijing. We went to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Both of which were amazing. We learned a lot about the architecture and meanings behind the buildings. Interestingly enough but not surprising, the one topic that was off limits was talking about the Tiananmen Square Massacre. I definitely took a ton of pictures. After that we went to a traditional Chinese Tea House and tried some teas…well everyone else tried different types of teas…I just sort of hung out. Then we left for the airport and headed to Hong Kong. The flight from Beijing to Hong Kong was about a 3-4 hour flight. Had you been sailing with the ship from Shanghai to Hong Kong, you would have had an extra day in Hong Kong, but if you were on a Beijing trip you got one less day there. The night I got back I just stayed in because we didn’t get back from the airport until 10:30-11 o’clock.
The next day, my first day in Hong Kong, Abby and I slept in and then went to lunch at McDonalds…haha I know a lot of McDonalds on this trip. Then we and two other girls from Bucknell, Therese and Mary went shopping in Mong Kok. It was almost set up like New York City with its “grid format.” There were three streets we went to for shopping. One specifically for sporting goods, another for electronics, and other called the Lady’s Market, which was just knock off/cheap stands everywhere (like the Shanghai “shopping center”). For dinner we went to a place called Modern Toilet. Here you sit on real toilets (not hooked up to the plumbing obviously) and ate off of sinks covered in glass. There were urinals on the wall that would like up different colors and all your food was served in ceramic shaped American toilets, Asian toilets, and urinals. Part of the menu read: With every one meal you get one large urinal. We all got a good laugh out of that. The lamps were shaped like poop, as well as display windows with pillows shaped like poop…hysterical. We were super embarrassing because we couldn’t stop taking pictures, but it was just such a clever idea…how could you not go wild with your camera?
That night we went out to this area called Lang Kwai Fan on Hong Kong Island. [Earlier we were on the island of Kowloon and you have to take a ferry to Hong Kong Island]. This area is known as Bar Street and it was overrun by SAS kids. We were all supposed to go to this club called Dragon-I, but it was lame so we hung out at other bars…specifically one called Bull Dogs. It was a lot of fun and packed with SAS kids. The street wound around the corner and there were even more students. We pouring out in the streets and at one point moved the party in this one street area. It was a lot of fun and I think I accidently stole a cup from Bull Dogs. Ooops. Definitely didn’t mean to do that.
The next morning Abby and I had a trip to Lantau Island/Buddhist Monastary. We got to see the largest suspension bridge and got to see some beautiful views. From there we visited a local beach, which really wasn‘t all that special, but I had a good time. Then we traveled to this fishing village. It was really cool and interesting to see how they lived. We walked around the market area…which smelled awful but was very cool. You could have taken a boat ride and have saw pink dolphins (ya apparently there really are pink dolphins), but Abby and I opted not to pay for it. We then took a bus to the Big Buddha…the biggest iron (I think) Buddha outside. It was massive. I got some really great pictures there. We walked down these steps to the monastery area at the foot of the Buddha. There we ate in a monastery and had a vegetarian lunch. It actually was not that filling and I had 6 mini spring rolls, which were delicious. I also accidentally tried tofu. YA I KNOW! It was alright. It came with the lemon sauce, which made it taste better, but it was more of a texture thing for me. It was a little weird and awkward to eat and there wasn’t much to it. It’s not something I think I’ll be eating again anytime soon, but at least I can say I tried it.
We have a two days break and then we are in Vietnam.
The morning of China was a little rough…frustrating. There was an original set group and more and more slowly it expanded from 6 to about 13. That’s WAY too big of a group to really travel, especially in the crowded streets of China. It was just frustrating because while you didn’t want to be mean and leave people behind, you also didn’t want to hang with such a large group either. In the end it worked itself out and there were only 8 of us.
The first thing we did in Shanghai was go to the bank and then ate food. We ate at a place that had the Chinese name and then the English translation, which was “Come A Pot of Spinal Cord Lamb”…hysterical. We were cracking up. There were a lot of poorly translated things in China. It was a steam pot lunch…of mutton…yum my favorite. Unsurprisingly, I did not each much for lunch. The whole idea behind this meal is that they give you a huge pot of raw mutton and uncooked potatoes, yams, noodles, and a few other things that no one knew what they were. I only ended up eating a little bit of the noodles and this gigantic bottle of coke (about the size of two of my hands).
So after that my friends and I went shopping…my roommate Abby, and my friends Austin, Tyler, Kevin, Mem, Alyssa, and Buddy. We walked around this street called Nanjing Road in the Bund Area and immediately found this knock off store and the family that owned it was really nice. We stayed there for a bit because Austin got 16 pairs of socks for 2 dollars and Tyler and Kevin were haggling over a zippo lighter and a laser pointer. Eventually Tyler got both and Kevin got just the laser pointer. This laser pointer was ridiculous. They said you could see it up to 2 kilometers and I definitely believe them…it flashed so far.
They took us from one of their stores to another. The one woman gave me a super discount on a purse because she liked my face. We continued to walk around and then decided to take a rickshaw ride to this other blackmarket shopping center called Tao Bao. The rickshaw was soooo much fun. The motorcycles looked like they were going to break down any second. It was two per cart and really somewhat shady, but extremely fun. Austin and Abby filmed it so I’m going to get a copy for sure. The one told us that it would be 30 yen per cart and then as we were trying to organize our money to pay, the guy was like 300, 300, and then “assuming” we didn’t understand took the money out of our hands and hopped back on his bike and left…we got majorly ripped off but since there were 8 of us it wasn’t that bad and made for a really funny story.
The shopping center was a five story inside mall. But not how you would think. It was just stands all lined up in a row and while they said each floor had different things, they generally were all the same. We shopped around and of course I got some stuff for super cheap and had a blast and I learned how to haggle. I had lost my scarf at that internet café in Japan so I got a knock off Burberry scarf. I really wanted a Longchamp bag so I got a navy blue one. The last thing I got has a pretty funny story. We were walking around and found this story, which had army helmets and gear (like “vintage” stuff—collectables). There were these masks, a green one and a black one. They looked like real human faces (but without the eyes, of course). I think they were meant to hold goggles but Mem and I really wanted to try them on…so we did. Then Austin decided to buy it. We all continued to walk around and as we were leaving Mem, Tyler and I decided to buy black ones as well. The masks are really creepy. I had no idea when I was actually going to use it but it has come in handy (I’ll tell you about it later) :)
We then ate at a Chinese fast food restaurant and I got this really good shrimp but the sauce that it was in was only so so. It was so hard to order. At first we weren’t going to go because we didn’t think they would have an English menu. We started walking next door to a sit down Pizza Hut but the wait was too long so we went back to the fast food Chinese place, which turned out to have an English menu and the food was delicious. Kevin decided to try pig ears. Again, unsurprisingly, I did not. He was the only one that thought they were ok. Everyone else was gagging.
Then we decided to go back to the ship and get dressed and go to this club called M2. It was this really swanky…like high end. You had to “buy” a table. You had to spend so much money on food, alcohol, and drinks. You could have just stayed at the bar but we were there so early that we had to buy a table. It was so much fun. We drank, we danced, and had a great time. The morning was a little rough haha but it was one of my favorite nights yet.
So the next day Abby and I went to Suzhou with a Semester at Sea trip. This is a town built on the water. It was really fun. We saw about three different gardens, which surprisingly hasn’t gotten old yet. We also took a boat ride down the Grand Canal. So we traveled via this tiny boat through the village area. It was really neat…pretty impoverish…but very cool. Instead of doing about 4 different gardens we went to the local silk factory instead. They showed us the whole process of how the make clothes and quilts. I even got help stretch out some of the silk to create the comforter. It was a great day. It’s one of those trips that is too hard to explain and only pictures will do. Hopefully, you will all get to see my pictures. On a side note…I’m going to try to put some up via my friends computer. Anyway, I didn’t end up going out that night because I desperately needed to pack for my Hiking the Great Wall trip.
The next day was when I was to leave for the Great Wall for 4 days in Beijing. The first day was pretty boring. We just got on a plane, which was about 2-3 hours and then we had another 1-1:30-hour bus ride. We stayed in a 5 star Chinese hotel. This hotel had a bowling ally and an archery range. It was fabulous. The rooms were gorgeous. I wish I had taken pictures of everything and the rooms. Before dinner we walked around the strip area and went to this mall, which was a lot of fun. A girl from my hall, Kate, who I have become good friends with, was on this trip with me. She and I walked around the mall together looking for a hat and some gloves for here (which we wouldn’t end up needing). She was hungry so we thought we would check out the food court. It was a really small food court because on the ground floor there was a grocery store. As we walked around everyone, and I mean everyone was starring at us. I started getting really hot and she started turning red. I mean we must have unknowingly been naked or something because, without exaggeration, every head was turned. It was the first time I felt like a foreigner. After which we went to the area with the massage chairs and sat there for about 45 minutes. Then we had dinner at the hotel and this became the first of many family style, Lazy Susan meals. We pretty much all just hung out and after dinner Kate and I went to McDonalds for a late night bite.
The next day we woke up pretty early and headed to the Great Wall. We walked the Simatai part of the wall to the Jinshanling part of the wall, which was to be the hardest hike of the two days…and it was. This part of the wall really looked like what you expected the Great Wall to look like…high walls, stone, bricks, etc. It was definitely a lot hillier than expected. A lot of the people on the trip expected a much flatter terrain. We hiked for about 6 hours and in total about 6 miles. We had a bagged lunch on the wall, which was not very good. Luckily, Kate and I planned ahead and bough food in the grocery store and brought it. There were these farmers who stand at the start of the wall and try to sell you things…including themselves. You can pay for them to carry your bags and anything like that. One person paid for a farmer to be here photographer. The farmers would walk the length of the wall with you in hopes that you might by something. I also met this kid Martin, from Norway, but studying in New York, who is also a film major. He and I talked movies for the majority of the day. Haha Anyway, the hike was rough and exhausting. It was by far one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. Some of the steps were up to my waist, which made it that much harder to walk up. All the guys with the long legs were fine and then there was me whose quads were on fire. It was so much fun and absolutely an amazing experience. That night we all just hung out at the hotel and Kate and I got more McDonalds later that night after another Lazy Susan dinner.
The next day we woke up and headed out and hiked from the Jinshanling part of the wall to the Gubeikou part. This was more of a typical hike. We were walking through the mountain areas and there were no walls along the Great Wall. It was almost like a raised path. Everyone had voted the night before on what we should have for lunch and the consensus came to getting McDonalds ordered to the Great Wall. So the first time in SAS (and this trip coordinator) history, McDonalds was delivered to the Great Wall. They (other tour guides, farmers) had to hike 2 and a half hours just to bring it to us. You only had the option of chicken or beef, but the chicken was a spicy chicken sandwich and I struggled eating it after one bite. And if that wasn’ upsetting enough, there were no French fries. Anyway, we hiked to the highest part of the two hikes, which was pretty cool. We actually could not take pictures facing one direction because it was owned by the military and we’d get in trouble. We hiked about 4-5 hours and about another 6 miles. And then bused to a different hotel in the city of Beijing. There were three other trips going to Beijing and all of them were at this hotel. Because the other trips had been there earlier all the double rooms were taken so almost all of us got a single, king size bed, with a couch, all to ourselves.
Now all meals were included and there was some amazing food. I don’t think I have ever eaten that much rice and chicken before in my entire life but each were different so it was amazing. All of the restaurants we went to were Lazy Susan style, which meant you ate way too much food because there was just so much of it. I have finally gotten down the skill of the chopsticks. Our first night at the new hotel we ate a restaurant called the Roast Duck, which is famous for the roast duck. I was a little worried at first because I didn’t like the rice and the chicken was really spicy. But then they brought out these shrimp that were doused in garlic and butter. They were so good that I had to order another plate.
That night we went to a bar across the street called Blue Green Club. The bar tender was amazing and apparently had won a ton of awards/competitions, including the Absolute Vodka Competition. I’m not really sure what that means entirely, but he was really good and made some really unique drinks. It was a lot of fun and it was filled with all SAS kids. It was the firs bar to have my drink Southern Comfort and lemonade. Yum I didn’t get back to the hotel until like 2 and one of the trips had to be up at 4:30 for their 7-8 o’clock flight. Austin was on that trip so he didn’t want to go to sleep…just wanted to pull an all-nighter. I ended up hanging out in his room until 4 am talking, having a heart to heart. It was a good time.
So I went back to my room and got 3 hours of sleep. I had to be up at 7 am for our last day in Beijing. We went to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Both of which were amazing. We learned a lot about the architecture and meanings behind the buildings. Interestingly enough but not surprising, the one topic that was off limits was talking about the Tiananmen Square Massacre. I definitely took a ton of pictures. After that we went to a traditional Chinese Tea House and tried some teas…well everyone else tried different types of teas…I just sort of hung out. Then we left for the airport and headed to Hong Kong. The flight from Beijing to Hong Kong was about a 3-4 hour flight. Had you been sailing with the ship from Shanghai to Hong Kong, you would have had an extra day in Hong Kong, but if you were on a Beijing trip you got one less day there. The night I got back I just stayed in because we didn’t get back from the airport until 10:30-11 o’clock.
The next day, my first day in Hong Kong, Abby and I slept in and then went to lunch at McDonalds…haha I know a lot of McDonalds on this trip. Then we and two other girls from Bucknell, Therese and Mary went shopping in Mong Kok. It was almost set up like New York City with its “grid format.” There were three streets we went to for shopping. One specifically for sporting goods, another for electronics, and other called the Lady’s Market, which was just knock off/cheap stands everywhere (like the Shanghai “shopping center”). For dinner we went to a place called Modern Toilet. Here you sit on real toilets (not hooked up to the plumbing obviously) and ate off of sinks covered in glass. There were urinals on the wall that would like up different colors and all your food was served in ceramic shaped American toilets, Asian toilets, and urinals. Part of the menu read: With every one meal you get one large urinal. We all got a good laugh out of that. The lamps were shaped like poop, as well as display windows with pillows shaped like poop…hysterical. We were super embarrassing because we couldn’t stop taking pictures, but it was just such a clever idea…how could you not go wild with your camera?
That night we went out to this area called Lang Kwai Fan on Hong Kong Island. [Earlier we were on the island of Kowloon and you have to take a ferry to Hong Kong Island]. This area is known as Bar Street and it was overrun by SAS kids. We were all supposed to go to this club called Dragon-I, but it was lame so we hung out at other bars…specifically one called Bull Dogs. It was a lot of fun and packed with SAS kids. The street wound around the corner and there were even more students. We pouring out in the streets and at one point moved the party in this one street area. It was a lot of fun and I think I accidently stole a cup from Bull Dogs. Ooops. Definitely didn’t mean to do that.
The next morning Abby and I had a trip to Lantau Island/Buddhist Monastary. We got to see the largest suspension bridge and got to see some beautiful views. From there we visited a local beach, which really wasn‘t all that special, but I had a good time. Then we traveled to this fishing village. It was really cool and interesting to see how they lived. We walked around the market area…which smelled awful but was very cool. You could have taken a boat ride and have saw pink dolphins (ya apparently there really are pink dolphins), but Abby and I opted not to pay for it. We then took a bus to the Big Buddha…the biggest iron (I think) Buddha outside. It was massive. I got some really great pictures there. We walked down these steps to the monastery area at the foot of the Buddha. There we ate in a monastery and had a vegetarian lunch. It actually was not that filling and I had 6 mini spring rolls, which were delicious. I also accidentally tried tofu. YA I KNOW! It was alright. It came with the lemon sauce, which made it taste better, but it was more of a texture thing for me. It was a little weird and awkward to eat and there wasn’t much to it. It’s not something I think I’ll be eating again anytime soon, but at least I can say I tried it.
We have a two days break and then we are in Vietnam.
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