NOM NOM NOM Meets Temples on Temples on Temples?! CK Takes Vietnam and Cambodia

Day 1: Sunday March 25^th 

“Good Morning Vietnam!” You movie watchers should understand this reference as it is the name of the movie?! Naturally I am clueless on the reference (so not a movie watcher)… Moving right along, I can’t wait to tell you ALL about Vietnam/Cambodia!

Before I begin on my journeys, I shall start off with explaining that I chose to do a SAS trip that took me to Cambodia. This is the only way I would be allowed to travel to Cambodia as it is SAS policy that you have to stay in the country we are docked unless you travel with a SAS organized trip. Going into the trip, I was almost kicking myself that all of my friends were going to be together in Huelong Bay (in North Vietnam), while I along with the rest of my group would be traveling to Cambodia… clearly I an extreme case of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out!). As I now look back on my decision I am so happy that way back in January I chose to sign up for the Cambodia trip as it truly was a monumental experience.

My trip to Cambodia didn’t leave until 1:30 PM on Monday so that gave my friend Maddy and me some time to shop in Vietnam before our departure… my friend Katie had a field trip in the afternoon so she too shopped with us as well! We decided that the best use of our time would be to go to the market called Ben Thanh Market --- this market was one huge building that was open on all sides and had stalls all throughout. They sold anything and everything you can imagine: food, jewelry, shoes, clothing, fabric, bowls, souvenirs, shampoo, candles, DVDs, and more--- it is actually so overwhelming to go shopping when there is so much you can buy at your finger tips. Here is a picture of me in one of the stalls picking out some bowls!

A really popular thing for SASers to do in Vietnam is to get clothing custom tailored as the quality is great, the price is right, and the speed in which you can have your one of a kind product is amazing! Maddy, Katie and I really wanted to get dresses made and knew that if we didn’t order them today, we may have lost our one opportunity, thus with about 45 minutes until we had to run back to the ship, we managed to pick a fabric, find a tailor, and have measurements taken for our custom dresses. As you can imagine I was a nervous wreck about the darn dress coming out properly as it ended up costing me around $50 including the fabric and tailoring, which was more than I had wanted to spend… but I was SOOO pleased with the finished product ;)

Here is the process that we went through to get our dresses made:

Step 1: Pick out fabric from the market… obviously for Maddy and Katie this was an easy task, but for me… no such luck. I’ll be honest, after a good 15 minutes of looking I was near tears that I couldn’t find anything I liked… that is until I found this beautiful periwinkle color:

Step 2: Select your dress style…I didn’t do my homework before coming to Vietnam, thus I didn’t know the style of the dress that I wanted made, but lucky for me as I looked around the store I found this really cute magazine picture of a one shoulder dress so I pointed to it and the tailor said that she could recreate the dress for me!

Step 3: Take all of my measurements

Step 4: Arrive on the last day of Vietnam (Thursday) to see the finished product! I had to of course snap a photo with my AMAZING tailor… (ps this was the most hilarious line of Vietnam as the boys would constantly tell everyone how they had to “go to their tailor” for a second fitting… we are getting not only worldly, but also classy!)

4. Finished Dress

After we were finished with the tailor, we went immediately to the shuttle bus and returned back to the ship. We quickly grabbed a bite to eat, gathered our belongings and were off to Cambodia! I will admit that I was a little nervous because the group size was about 55 people, however it ended up not feeling that large at all as there was a variety of people from different groups so it seemed like everyone could hang out together as opposed to many little cliques which can sometimes happen on the larger trips.

We arrived at the airport early because we were taking an international flight and ended up having plenty of time to relax and of course enjoy free wi-fi access! There is nothing quite as precious as FREE wi-fi when you haven’t had it for 3 months… we literally get so excited to be able to surf the web for free! Don’t get me wrong, it is actually even more accelerating to not be on the internet constantly, but every now and then it is nice to be able to search the web with a FAST connection ;)

We landed in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia around 5:00 PM and we were off for our first activity, a tour an orphanage that is run by Semester at Sea alumni. Because of my international service learning class I see community service environments in an entirely different light. That being said, I did not like the way in which we toured the orphanage as you will read in my explanation below which is actually part of my service report for the class:  

As I entered the orphanage, Srey Nit, a 7-year old girl, initially introduced herself then proceeded to hold my hands followed by handing over a yellow sheet with information about Palm Tree. At first, I was touched by the act, thinking this girl must be extremely out-going, for I would never have had the courage to go up to a complete stranger at the age of 7 and be so hospitable. However, as I began to look around, I realized that I was not the only one getting the royal treatment, for all of us were greeted by one of the children. Honestly, I was taken aback by how rehearsed the children appeared, as each one seemed to be programmed with the exact same agenda.

The first stop of the tour was for Srey Nit to take me to a room full of art projects that had been made by the children and were sold to raise money for Palm Tree. I am more than understanding to Palm Tree, as I know that as a non-profit it is a constant struggle to raise funds, however the way in which Palm Tree chooses to solve this dilemma made me feel quite uncomfortable. Lucky for me, the room was too crowed for us to enter, thus I avoided being put in the awkward position of feeling forced to make a purchase, but many of my peers that did go into the room felt obligated to buy something from their child. Additionally, as I reflect on the experience I question who acted as the cashier when one purchased an item from the market, as I am fairly certain that the child took the money as opposed to giving it to one of the adult volunteers.

The tour of the orphanage concluded with all of the children wanting to get our contact information. As I surveyed the scene, I once again found that all of the children were partaking in this act. I could not help but wonder why Srey Nit, a 7 year old with limited computer access wanted to have my email address. I have come up with three possible reasons as to why she wanted my email address. The first explanation is that she does not have much steady contact with an older person and would like for me to fill this role. Another explanation is that Srey Nit, is acting like any young child would act when under the influence of older children and simply mimicking their actions. The final explanation, and the one in which I am most apt to believe is that Palm Tree Organization has instructed for the children to get our emails so as they can gather our information for an email list.

I would like to clarify that my problem with the Palm Tree visit was the following: I assume (but have no way of knowing for certain) that whenever Srey Nit or any of the children see a visitor at Palm Tree they draw the conclusion that all visitors have a lot of money. That being said, there is no doubt in my mind that we made an impact on the children of Palm Tree Orphanage and am therefore satisfied with the visit. Although I viewed the experience in perhaps a negative light, I feel that I made a difference in the lives of the kids at the orphanage and at the end of the day that is all that truly matters about the visit. We made the kids feel special and gave them an opportunity to have an older person’s undivided attention.

After the orphanage visit, we were back on the bus and ready for a yummy Cambodian dinner! My favorite part of the meal was definitely the delicious vegi spring rolls! Hellloooo Asia, I have certainly made it ;)

That night a bunch of us went out to celebrate my friend Kira’s 21^st birthday! In Cambodia Sunday night is apparently the popular night to go out as it is common for people to have wedding celebrations on Sunday Night… A fun fact about Cambodian weddings is that unlike in the US where the bride’s family pays for the wedding, in Cambodia it is the groom’s family that pays for everything!

The night was tons of fun when I was able to keep my blinders on and only hang out with Semester at Sea people, however whenever I looked around and saw the Cambodian women in the bar, I became immediately saddened… I am currently reading the book, Half the Sky, which is about women’s rights in developing countries and the need for us to invest our time and money into helping oppressed women around the world (I urge each of you to read it as it is both eye opening and powerful) I’ll be the first to admit that I could certainly be jumping to conclusions, however many of the women were wearing provocative outfits and I couldn’t help but to wonder if the women were being sex trafficked. As you can probably imagine it was a lot to take in and I think freeing oppressed women may be the next issue that CK tackles… this doesn’t mean out with recycling and in with women’s oppression, rather it means that I will be working for both causes.

Day 2: Monday March 26^th, 2012

We rose bright and early on Monday morning and were off to see the Palace and the Silver Pagoda. The Royal Palace as you might guess is where the King of Cambodia resides. An interesting fact about the King is that he was appointed King because he was the next in line in terms of his family and was forced to take the throne, however he had no interest in the position as he studied photography and ballet in college and wanted a job in this field. Here is a picture of the Royal Palace:

The Silver Pagoda is right next to the Royal Palace and once again must be honest that I am pretty sure I missed the importance of the Silver Pagoda. I do know that its floor is made from silver and they have put down carpets so that visitors do not walk on the silver flooring… additionally there are millions of Buddha’s inside the Silver Pagoda… just a side note that I don’t have any pictures of the Silver Pagoda because this was one of those “No Flash Photography” Zones.

Our next stop was by far the most meaningful stop of my entire voyage thus far and that is the visit to the Killing Fields followed by the visit to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Before going to Cambodia I was clueless on the Mass Genocide that took place between 1974-1979… I actually left our visit feeling angered that not once in my multiple history/ social studies classes had we discussed the Genocide in Cambodia… come on MCPS this is RECENT history! Sadly, I was not alone as many members of the group also felt the same anger that we were not taught about the horrid events!!!!

For those of you who feel in the dark about the Mass Genocide in Cambodia, please allow me to explain… in 1974 the Khmer Rouge, a group of uneducated Cambodian citizens, teamed together to over throw the government and start a revolution for the country… their main goal was to kill anyone with an education and then have an entirely brainwashed population. This included doctors, lawyers, teachers, students, children of the above groups, the entire upper class (as they clearly had been educated)… for some it was obvious that they were educated, but those that were unsure of they would actually look at their bare hands to see if they had callous on them… those that had callous were kept alive because this indicated that they used their hands for farming, those without these marks were taken to be killed. They ended up killing 3 million people.

A victim was first taken to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, at the time this was not a Museum, but rather a jail site. The person was stripped of their humanity as they had photographs taken in order to record their existence for the Khmer Rouge--- throughout the Museum they have placed boards and boards of the innocent victims photos and as you look from one picture to the next you can see the terror on each person’s face that screams HELP ME! After their photo was completed, the victim’s clothing was taken, thus stripping them of any remaining humanity…

The Khmer Rouge would then torment the people in hopes of receiving more information on other educated people that were in hiding throughout Cambodia. Some of their torture practices included: beating and starving their victims, pulling out their victims finger nails and then pouring acid or alcohol on their fingers… They were given 2 meals a day, but clearly the food was anything but adequate. One of the most terrifying aspects about being at the jail site was that because the events were so recent I could actually still see the blood stains on the walls… Additionally, the original purpose of the jail was a school, thus as I walked around I saw evidence of the school building such as the playground equipment (which the Khmer Rouge used as tormenting devices) and chalk boards as seen in the background of this room which was used as jail cells.

After a victim was tortured long enough, they were blindfolded and then taken to the Killing Fields. When a victim arrived at the Killing Fields they were forced to literally dig their own hole in which their body would be “buried.” Now you see, The Khmer Rouge was scared that bystanders would hear the screaming from their prisoners, so instead of killing them in gas chambers or with guns, they chose to beat adults and kids over the heads with bamboo until were dead. Babies on the other hand were taken by their feet and then viciously thrown against a tree until they were dead. One of the most horrific aspects about the killing fields is how new it all appears…the grass has not fully grown back above the Mass Graves (the holes) and you can also still make out pieces of tattered clothing that were so clearly worn by the victims before they were murdered.

Walking through the Killing Field and Museum was an emotional experience… I wrestled with feelings of sadness, anger, guilt, depression, and tiredness… Honestly, the reflection process takes time, thus I have not fully comprehended all that I saw, but it seems to help my thought process by questioning all that I experienced:

v  What did it feel like to dig your own grave or know that you were walking to your deathbed?

v  How can one be an innocent bystander and allow such horrific events to occur?

v  How can I be clueless about a genocide that occurred a mere 35 years ago?

v  Why was I NEVER taught anything about Cambodia in all of my courses?

v  What other historical atrocities do I not know about?

v  How am I going to stay better informed in the future?

v  Who am I going to share this information with so they are not left in the dark and so history CAN NOT repeat itself?

I would like to make one final comment about the Killing Fields/ Museum… I am proud of my fellow peers during our Killing Fields and the Museum “visit” (it feels wrong to use even the word visit as it implies a positive connotation). Earlier in the day people were hung-over, tired, and full of complaints, but as soon as we got to these 2 sites, everyone put on a serious face and knew better than to make any negative commentary on their own well being as what we were seeing was far worse than the minor head-ache or exhaustion that we were feeling. We acted as intelligent travelers who were genuinely curious, yet concerned with all that we were experiencing and together were able to lean on one another to try to make sense of the events.

Our next stop was lunch, which consisted of nothing to “blog home about” and we also went to a Museum in Cambodia, again nothing to “blog home about.” Our day concluded with a flight to Angkor Wat… home of the TEMPLES ON TEMPLES ON TEMPLES--- oh my!

Well, I guess our day was not over completely as we arrived to Angkor Wat around 5:00 PM with time to shower and get ready for our delicious buffet dinner of Asian cuisine! Yum yum yum… it was really fun because there were a bunch of other Semester at Sea trips also at the restaurant so we all sat at one long table and chatted about what everyone had seen/ done in Cambodia and Vietnam. After dinner there was a great authentic dance show and as you can see the costumes were beautiful!

My friends and I decided to leave the dance show a little early in order to take advantage of the night market… we were all exhausted, but chose to rally on, I mean why not spend a few more dollars on some souvenirs right?! And how could I forget the AMAZINGLY CHEAP yet OUT OF THIS WORLD massages? So Cambodia/ Vietnam are known for having these things called fish pedicures in which there is a giant tub of water full of fish and they all bite at your dead skin to make your feet mucho soft ;) Some people are terrified of the foot massage; I on the other hand loved the feeling of the fish pecking at my toes and allowed them to continue biting away ;) The cost of this bad boy… take a guess--- if you predicted $1.00 then you are correct!!!

Additionally, Maddy and I enjoyed getting our feet massaged for once again, $1.00…

After we were fully pampered, we chose to call it a night at which time I made a quick call home to mom via facetime… shout out to Jilly for learning how to take full advantage of her electronics… you go girl!

Day 3: Tuesday March 27^th 

Tuesday was filled with Temples on Temples on Temples… yes, I know I already used this expression once, however I feel it is needed once again to enforce how OVER Temples I was after Tuesday March 27^th. Alright, alright that’s a lie they were actually incredible, but after an entire day in the heat at the temples, it was enough already ;)

We began the day with an optional sunrise tour of Angkor Wat… that was actually really cool because we sat down directly across from Angkor Wat and were able to literally just watch as the sky began to get lighter and lighter and then finally bam out of nowhere it was normal outside! We were there for about an hour and then it was time to get back on the bus to the hotel for breakfast…

After breakfast we were back on the bus again, this time to actually take a walk around Angkor Wat! We received the guided tour of the Temple in which we learned about the Temple, but if you know me well enough by now, you should know that the information has all blended together, thus I only know bits and pieces of what I was told. I can tell you that Angkor Wat was the capital of Cambodia, but in 1432 it was moved to Phnom Penh (the first place I went to in Cambodia)… it was moved because of water problems and also a clash between the Hindu and the Buddhist…

I found it particularly interesting that at Angkor Wat there was a sacred Temple that unlike any other place I have traveled thus far, as a female I was required to wear something that covered my shoulders, but a shawl was not acceptable… good thing I stuck a t-shirt in my purse! I find this noteworthy as even at the Western Wall in Israel, a female can get away with covering her shoulders with a shawl, yet at Angkor Wat this is unacceptable… I wonder who on earth comes up with these rules?!

Here is a picture of my friend Taylor and me at the Library in Angkor Wat… notice us reading our books?!

Our next stop was drum roll please… you got it, another temple this time: Ta Prohm Temple. The claim to fame for Ta Prohm Temple is that this is where Angelina Jolie’s film, Tomb Raider” takes place. Had I been in shorts and sneakers, I would have had a field day climbing about in the ruins, not to worry I still climbed, but it was a bit more painful in a long dress and sandals… It reminded me a lot of the big foam pits that you can jump in at a gymnastic center, except if one were to jump into the ruins, the fall wouldn’t be nearly as cushioned! Below is a picture of the famous scene from the movie:

After exploring the Ta Prohm Temple, it was time to head back to the hotel for lunch! WAHOOOO some much needed air conditioning! After about an hour, we were naturally, back on the road for yep, you guessed it folks … MORE TEMPLES! In this Temple Maddy and I chose to find a nice quiet place and just sit, chat and take in the beautiful view of a Cambodian Temple… I have to say this was the way to do it ;)

After about 30 minutes, we all met back up once again only to find that our tour guides wanted us to go to more temples… By this point, the group was really lagging and had had it up to HERE (use your imagination for how high that must be) with seeing Temples, thus we put our American Democratic power into action and held a little vote to see if we should stop at another Temple or if we should just do a drive by… what’s your guess on the outcome? (trying to have some audience participation!!) BINGO--- we went for the drive by of the Temples and  it was equally as rewarding. After the Temple drive by, it was time to say so long fair well to Cambodia and head back to NAM! Side note: I think I visited only 3 of the 300 Temples that apparently reside in Cambodia… additionally fun fact to know and tell is that the Cambodian flag is the ONLY flag in the world to have a building on it!

I would like to reiterate how thankful I am that I chose to go on the Cambodia trip as I truly feel I learned so much and although the Temples were repetitive at times, they were well worth it. If you ever plan a trip to the Vietnam or Thailand region, I urge you to visit Cambodia as well, specifically the killing fields as they are one of those things that one must experience on their own for the pain to really sink in…

We made it back to Vietnam around 8:00 PM at night… I was exhausted, but not willing to go to bed for I was CRAVING MEXICAN food (funny story on why I was craving Mexican). In a nut shell I had read Maddy’s sister’s blog (she did SAS 3 years ago) and she had mentioned that in Vietnam she had gone out for amazing Mexican food … therefore as soon as I read this line (mind you it had been about a week before we had even arrived in Vietnam) I too wanted some scrumptious Mexican food… well, I did get Mexican, but not the Cali N Titos (shout out to my UGA-ers) that I was craving... the chips were a joke, but now that I think about it, I’m the one who is a joke… who on earth goes to Vietnam to eat Mexican food!? Teheheh don’t worry I redeemed myself with my night 4 dinner ;)

Day 4: Wednesday March 28^th 

On Wednesday I woke up bright and early for a field trip for my International Service Learning Class where we visited a School for the Deaf and Disabled children in Vietnam. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the trip as I was expecting to not have much interaction with the kids, however the group size ended up being perfect (there were about 15 of us) so we actually got to play with the students. Below is the majority of an essay that I had to write as a reflection to my service visit (no need to reinvent the wheel on this one!)

After a brief introduction meeting with the Principal and his assistant, we were broken into pairs and then off to the classrooms! My friend Marisa and I chose to be partners and were immediately directed to a class of students that were around 12 years old.

As we entered the room, the eight students and the teacher all stopped everything they were doing to smile, wave and nervously giggle at us. It all of the sudden hit me that communication was going to be a major issue for Marisa and me as neither of us knew any sign language or Vietnamese. As the moments ticked by, Marisa and I waited nervously for instructions on what we were supposed to do with the students, however due to the language barrier, we had to wait on the side of the room. I felt like a burden on the teacher and could tell from her body language that she did not know quite what to do with us. The teacher continued with her lesson, but of course, the students were distracted by our presences. It just so happened that the principal walked by the class and ended up directing us to a different teacher, as our body language must have read that we were of no help to this teacher.

              

We went to a class of students who were around the age of 6 to 7 and as soon as we walked in, I knew this was a way better fit. In this classroom, I did not feel like a disturbance, but rather it appeared that the teacher was waiting for our arrival and immediately stepped back to allow us to interact with the students. Although we had no assigned task, Marisa and I immediately began to color with the students. The children in this class all appeared to be deaf, but some seemed to have other disabilities as well. Just from the 30-minute visit, I could see the need for extreme patience when working with kids with special needs. Although the teacher could speak the same language as the students, it was still difficult for her to communicate with them. I give the teacher’s at this school a lot of credit for if this teacher taught at my Elementary School back in the United States there would have been at least 1 other person in the room helping her to control the class.

              

Our next activity was recess in which the students from all of the classes were outside together playing on the jungle Jims or else hanging out with one of the Semester at Sea students. I ended up spending recess time with a little girl who after meeting me decided to hold my hand for the remaining break period.

At the conclusion of recess it was time for our de-briefing session with the Principal and his assistant at which point were able to get our questions answered. One thing that particularly struck me is that aside from the Principal, every other teacher at the school was female. When I posed this as a question, the assistant laughed and told me that this was an excellent observation yet did not expand on whether or not this was common for this field of work. Another question that I asked the Principal and his assistant was if people stayed teaching at the school for a while, they both smiled and said yes as the Principal had been at the school for 8 years and his assistant had been working there for 17 years!

              

For many of my peers this experience would left them feeling unfulfilled as they would come back saying, “I feel like I did nothing,” but I have the opposite reaction. As I peered into the teacher’s classrooms during recess time I noticed many of them sitting at their desk in peace and quiet with a smile on their face enjoying a break from watching their students. I’m glad that my actions not only made the children’s days a little brighter, but I was also able to provide a much deserved break for the teachers who are enabling these children to have the opportunity to an education even though they have a disability. This project was particularly meaningful to me because I learned the importance of a smile. The students at the school, my fellow Semester at Sea participants and I could not communicate with one another because of our language differences, however, there was one thing that we could convey and that was the universal symbol of a smile. Regardless of the age, gender, ability, or nationality everyone on the playground that afternoon was grinning from ear to ear.

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Maddy, Marisa and I had all decided that we wanted to go to the Cu Chi Tunnels in the afternoon, thus Marisa and I promised Maddy that as soon as our field trip was done we would meet her back at the ship. As Marisa and I were getting on the ship, we ran into 2 of our guy friends, Austin and Zach who also wanted to go to the tunnel. However they needed to go to their “suit fitting” (this is what I mean by how hilarious the boys are with their fittings)…we told them to go to their fitting and meet us at the bus station… we decided to really culturally immerse ourselves and take the bus!

Well, if you know me by now, this plan couldn’t have gone on smoothly… thus please bear with me as I try to set-up the hilarious scene…

Marisa, Maddy, and I all reached the bus station and after our first encounter with, “WELCOME TO VIETNAM, no one speaks English here!” we eventually were able to use hand motions and pointing on a map to communicate to the staff that we needed to know which bus to ride to get to the Cu Chi Tunnels. A las--- the lucky bus #13… As we were waiting at the bus stop, we suddenly realized that buses may only run every hour… we didn’t want to be rude, but a #13 had just driven by and been waiting in the lot for a long time, thus it was probably in our best interest to hop on and hope for the best as far as the boys making it on time… After about 5 minutes on the bus, the driver came on so the 3 of us attempted to ask him the time the bus would be leaving? His response was that it would leave at 2:00 PM! WONDEFUL, the boys had plenty of time to meet us… Maddy sent a quick text to the boys letting them know they had to be at the bus stop before 2:00. Now flash forward 20 minutes and out of nowhere the doors on the bus close, and we begin moving… ut oooooo! I let out a sigh, and was feeling ultra guilty, when all of the sudden I look out the window only to find Austin moseying across the street!

Alright, so what would any normal person do… cause clearly that’s not what CK would do! I ended up getting up and yelling to the bus driver that I had to go get my friend who was standing across the street and asked him to PLEASE wait for me! Hahahah as I write this, I laugh at the ridiculous-ness of the situation… the bus driver nods his head, and I assume of course he understands, thus I leave my bag on the bus, with the mindset that by leaving by bag, the bus won’t be able to leave without me…

I sprinted across the 3 lane road (once again this is apparently a good idea in my frantic state of mind) nearly get hit by multiple cars, and finally make it to Austin. Like any boy, Austin acts calm, cool, and collect as I am freaking out that we need to find Zach … Side note: the boys took motorcycles to the bus stop and had somehow separated while they were driving to meet us. Now just let out an OY VEY!

This time, out of the corner of my eye I see a yellow jersey mosing across the street and turn my head to find non-other than Zach! Hip hip hooooory… now I just had to get these darn boys to run with me to the bus… well, not so fast… suddenly we turn around to look for the bus only to find that it has started to drive away… OY VEY! OY VEY! OY VEY!

Alright, so you probably are not picturing the bus stop correctly, basically there is a giant 3 lane traffic circle that reminded me of the streets of DC or NYC so think busy busy busy… the 3 of us decide alright we can either sit here together and pout or else chase after this darn bus…

In our frantic state, we decide to chase after the bus. I totally wish we had a camera taping our mad dash to the bus, as it probably was one of the funniest scenes EVER! HAHAHAH We literally went sprinting through the streets of “NAM”… this included dodging cars, people and anything else in our way! At first I was able to kind of keep up with the boys, but after about I’d say a good 2 minutes I was like I’m over this, if they get on the bus, it will have to wait for me! I question if that was before or after the fall… as I most definitely face planted on the grass during the sprint… not to worry this story has a happy ended. We made it safe and sound to the bus, huffing and puffing of course, but not to worry, we were on our way to the Cu Chi Tunnels ;)

The ride took about an hour and 15 minutes costing a womping 30 cents! When we got to the bus station we had to hop onto motorcycles for an amazing 20-minute ride to the tunnels. Before I continue (and since any of you moms out there are probably freaking out) traveling by motorcycles is the way to go in Vietnam… it appeared that many locals owned their own motorcycles as the traffic is super congested in Vietnam, thus why not motorcycle--- then you can just whizz past everyone! I kid you not, the Vietnamese are CRAZY drivers as they are constantly zooming about… they also don’t stop for pedestrians so you cross the road at your own risk. We were lectured several times on how to properly cross the road, the task includes keeping a steady pace so that the drivers can anticipate your walking, if you run across or stop in your tracks, then drivers don’t expect you and therefore BAM! You are donzoooo! Naturally, my first time crossing the street I went sprinting across completely ignoring the constant reminders that we were given by SAS--- tehehehe ;)

Now back to my motorcycle ride, the ride to the tunnels was amazing. Ho Chi Minh City (the place where the boat was docked) was a great city, but I felt I really missed out on seeing rural Vietnam, which is why the ride was ideal. I got to see more of the rice paddy fields and got a sense of the now peaceful country of Vietnam.

We arrived to the tunnels around 4:00 PM where we began our tour with a video about the tunnels. For some reason they shuffled us into the movie a bit late, thus we missed the beginning, however certainly got the gist in that we all got our first taste of what I like to refer to as, “oh wow, maybe the US is not as great as I once thought we were… “ I’m going to be honest and say I don’t know enough about the US involvement with Vietnam, however after my time at the tunnels (and museum on which I went to on Thursday) I feel justified to say that I left with a sense of guilt by the way in which we left the country after we lost the war. (More on this subject when I explain the War Memorial Museum)

Now on the specifics of the tunnels: they took us on a tour of the army camp site where they showed us replica weapons, old tankers, and best of all, the village underground. I of course knew a little about the underground villages as this was key to the success of the Vietnamese people but was beside myself when I found out about the complexity of the tunnels… there were actually hospitals, hide out spots and army bases all underground. Another interesting fact that I learned is that the tunnels were originally built for the Vietnamese when they fought for their independence from France and they just used them again when the big bad Americans came to town.

Alright, let’s cut to the chase… what was it like being in the tunnels? Of course I was nervous about the claustrophobic aspect of going down under, however it was not nearly as bad as I had anticipated…;) We were at the end of the day and our tour guide was rushing us through the tunnels, thus we didn’t get to crawl around for as long as I would have liked, but it was still an incredible experience. I don’t think I was able to grasp the concept that people actually hid out in the tunnels as a way to protect themselves during the war… that’s nuts!

My day concluded with a drive home from the tunnels via motorcycle and bus. I got back to the ship, took a quick shower, and headed out for a night on the town of Vietnam! All my friends met up for dinner at a hole in the wall Vietnamese restaurant where we sampled many Vietnamese delicacies which include a variety of seafood entrees… it was tasty! But once again, don’t ask me what I ate because I couldn’t even begin to tell you… I just know it was seafood! Austin’s mom who is an avid Food Network TV watcher recommended the restaurant to us. Apparently there is a show on Food Network where they find amazing restaurants around the world… so look at me going to 2 top rated restaurants in Asia (remember I went to a top rated Indian restaurant in India)! WOOOOW WOOOOOT!

Day 5: Thursday March 29^th

On Thursday morning, Jenna, Austin and I decided to go to the War Remnants Museum. We all were adamant in visiting the museum, as we wanted to understand the war through the Vietnamese people’s eyes. The Museum was a difficult place to tour as an American. There was a room dedicated entirely to nations around the world supporting the Vietnamese and stating that there was no reason for the Americans to get involved in a war... The worst of it all was the specific rooms dedicated to the toxic chemical: Agent Orange and its everlasting effects. In a nutshell the Americans used a highly toxic chemical to kill thousands of lives, without considering the environmental consequences… not only did we kill a generation of Vietnamese people, but the effects are still being witnessed today. A major side effect of Agent Orange is that once it gets into your blood stream, it has the power to cause birth defects such as physical deformities... The chemical companies knew better than to be producing this deathly chemical, as it was stated on one of the boards, “chemical companies knew their Dioxin laced products would be used in Vietnam; yet they continued to manufacture and supply the agents with very high levels of Dioxin to the US government.”

One of the major struggles that I found myself wrestling with as I walked around the museum was the guilt I felt for my Vietnamese peers… I am an American girl who has parents that were alive during the Vietnam War (just like my Vietnamese peers) the only difference is that the war was fought on their soil, thus they must suffer with the aftermath of the war. This includes being born with physical deformities such as missing body parts, skin defects. Life is unfair, that is nothing new, but how am I supposed to make sense of this situation?

Below you will find a picture of a letter to President Barack Obama from Tran This Hoan, a 23-year-old woman who is a second-generation victim from Agent Orange. She lives today without legs and a left hand… I hope you can click on the picture so you can read her powerful letter to Barack Obama. I have also included a picture of Tran following the letter

I came to Vietnam with little knowledge about the Vietnam War, although I learned a lot from visiting the tunnels and the Museum, I would like to continue to learn more on this area of history. If you know of any good books on the subject, I am open for suggestions…

My time in Vietnam concluded with a wonderful field trip to QST. QST is a waistband manufacturer that has one of their factories in Vietnam… they produce waistbands for companies such as North Face, Levi Straus, Abercrombie, Hollister, and the list keeps going and going! At the time of our factory visit, one of the top managers, Mr. Kussman (works in the Chicago office) was taking a business visit to the various Asia factories. He was able to rearrange his trip so that he would be in Vietnam during our visit. With Mr. Kussman leading our factory tour, I gained a lot of insight on operating a global company and was able see my various business classes coming to life!

NEXT STOP: China--- that means you get to hear all about CK meeting up with Jilly and Andy (sadly B-rad and Roy both couldn’t get off of work!!!) 

Could it be that CK lives 367 Days?

Helllooo Helllooo just wanted to post a quick HELLLOOO from the deep blue Pacific Ocean as all of you have seen I have been slacking on the blog posts, but want to show my face (or my writing) and say I AM ALIVE, not to worry!

The posts will be coming slowly as I am currently busy getting caught up on school work that has built up over the past month or so… why I’m letting homework getting in the way of writing my blog is still something I am struggling with hmmm… We are currently on our 11 day trek to Hawaii ;/ ;/ ;/ Obviously I am stoked to go to Hawaii, however this is our last port so it’s hard to actually get excited. This entire week I have been questioning where in the world (hahah) the past 3 months have gone? The time has flown by (or I guess more correctly it has sailed by) and I am not at all ready to be done. If any of my fans would like to plan/fund WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CK- Season 2, please contact me ASAP!

That being said, I want to update you on the AMAZING phenomenon that occurred to THE Caryn Alyse Klein a few days ago… can you guess? Alright, alright I’ll tell you… I lived my 2^nd Friday April 20, 2012. Over the night we crossed the International Date Line and therefore re-did the day! My computer doesn’t think this concept is nearly as cool as I do as poor poor Mac-y (my Macbook computer) is all confused how I worked on documents “tomorrow” teheheh… these were documents that I worked on before I turned my clock back a day… Opps!

If you don’t understand the above paragraph, then simply put, I am now 8 hours behind the East Coast… booo I really liked being ahead of all ya’all! LAME!

Additionally, I wanted to show everyone how Mara, the SDT house mom correctly predicted that I would take over the MV Explorer as the Captain hand selected me to be the newest Staff Captain of the MV Explorer!

Well, maybe he didn’t actually do that, but the other day my friends and I took a bridge tour! We really enjoyed learning all about the ship… a few fun facts to leave you with:

·        There are currently 197 crew members that work on the MV Explorer

·        They only steer the ship when they are close to the port, otherwise it is on automatic (minor-ly terrifying!)

·        The boat is officially registered in Nassau, Bahamas this is why we always wave the Bahamas flag proudly when in port! Additionally, it is common nautical courtesy to hang the country flag of the place we are visiting…

Cheerio Young Lads, I shall go to work on my Vietnam/ Cambodia blog and hope to have that posted in the next few days! 

Sorry I'm not SARI--- CK Made it to INDIA!

PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT I AM HAVING SOME TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH uploading the pictures for this blog post... I know I am currently really behind on the blogs, but I am in JAPAN and loving every minute of it aside from the fact that JAPAN IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE COUNTRY EVER.

Hoping to have pictures in here at somepoint... for now please enjoy the writing!

xx CK

Helllooo Helllooo Helllooo--- you are now hearing from a 21 year old! Yes ladies and gentleman, the Caryn Alyse Klein turned the big 2-1 in INDIA. Can’t wait to tell you all about my travels throughout India in the following blog post. I would like to start with a disclaimer however, please note that my blog posts will probably begin to get a bit shorter (which some of you are probably excited about) this is because we are starting to hit the peak of our schedule in which we only have about 2 days between some of these ports so having time to catch up on sleep, continue to socialize, tan, do homework, and blog gets VERY difficult! That being said, I shall begin to tell my tale of the epic journey through India.

Day 1- Monday March 12:

Our shipped docked in Cochin-- a state in the South part of India. The weather in Cochin is very hot, sticky, and humid this time of year, thus the Jew fro was in full force (at times I do aspire to be just like B-rad circa 2002-2006…for those of you who joined the CK fan club after this time period--- B-rad= my brother who had a huge mound of curls throughout his high school years--- it’s still debatable whether this expression was to portray his individuality or to annoy our mother… please cast your votes!) 

Anyways, day 1 of India was filled with a class field trip to a local fisherman’s village. We departed the ship a bit behind schedule because of immigration so instead of shortening our tour we just sped through the various points of interests (which might I add was fine with me because I like to be on the move so mind as well make it snappy!)

Our tour began with a canoe ride to get us to the fisherman’s village! As we boarded the boat we were handed out these wonderful hats that I of course LOVED LOVED LOVED… throughout the pictures of my day please note this great new accessory which I plan to sport once I get back home as well ;)

Once we arrived at the village we had a warm welcome by the community members. As we got off the boat we were given huge coconuts and were instructed to sip away at the coconut juice… I am not a huge fan of coconut juice, but I decided that drinking it was probably a good idea considering it has millions of great nutrients for your body (this is at least what my resident doctor/ roommate Dr. Jenna Binkhorst tells me). After sipping on our coconuts and meeting the village people, we began our journey through the village in which we got to see the products that they produce.

They began by showing us how they collect coconuts from the trees. Now let me interject in here that Andy Klein used to love impressing the fam by climbing up trees in foreign destinations and gathering coconuts… well let me tell you Andy Klein, this villager could do a number on you—the man actually got up and down that tree in I would say hmmm less than 3 minutes!! While climbing the tree he wore this piece of cloth tied around his legs so he would just jump his way up the tree… After descending from the tree we watched as he carefully cracked opened the coconut and we were all offered pieces of coconut to eat.

Our next stop in our tour was to see how the villagers use some of the pieces of the coconut to produce coconut milk. We all gathered around one of the women in the village who graded the coconut into small little pieces… she then added water and I believe some of the coconut juice (although I am going to be 100% honest with you and say that I can’t remember the exact ingredients), but in a matter of minutes a scrumptious coconut juice was produced.

So you are probably thinking alright, they have done enough with the coconut by now, they must just throw the remaining pieces away… Well Toto we are not in Kansas anymore (aka America), thus in India they are RESOURCEFUL and use every last bit of material. I was actually amazed when we went to the next “station” to watch as the women carefully cut off the fur from the coconut in which they used it to create rope…

They make a variety of different sizes of ropes:

Thin Rope

Thick Rope

I am still astonished that all the products produced in this village are made by hand… that means no electronics, no electric machines--- purely teamwork. How amazing is that? I would also like to mention here that the adults who were producing the various products appeared to be of the older working generation… Our tour guide actually made an interesting comment on this idea: “As you can see, all the elders now do these jobs, whereas the younger generation is getting trained in technology field. Many of them are going off to Mumbai to get training in this industry” I like to mention this because throughout my travels this week, I had often questioned whether countries such as India would ever be able to fully develop, but it is signs like these that give me hope that it may not happen within my life time, but these are the steps that are needed to turn a developing country into a developed country!

The final products that we were shown included: seafood, pottery, and hand woven baskets out of leaves! The most notable of all the products was the seafood that they catch and export to both Mauritius and Singapore… look at this mud crab that they caught for us--- it sure makes the good ol’ Maryland Crab look super wimpy! Additionally, they catch these oysters and instead of just throwing away the shells they use them to make cement and paint--- how eco-friendly is that, impressive, right?!

We were guided to this beautiful tented flat area that had a wonderful view of the river to eat our lunch. This place certainly is a bit less rustic than I had originally imaged it was as the toilets were a bit too Westernized for this to be a legit village in the middle of India, I’m not complaining of course, but just trying to note the facts. With all do respect for my Indian food lovers, CK IS NOT A FAN OF INDIAN FOOD--- the spices kill me--- yuck yuck yuck! I ended up eating some plain rice and kindly tried the other foods, but nothing seemed to hit the spot.

After lunch, we were graced by a lovely traditional dance put on by village girls around the age of 14 or 15. The dance is one in which a bride would commonly be given the day before her wedding day by all of her best friends… from the make-up to the costumes to even the music, I could really see the Indian culture coming to life!

At around 3:00 PM it was time for us to continue our field trip and go to another village/ community… this time instead of riding the canoe back to the bus, we instead got to ride in auto-rickshaws. For those of you who don’t know, an auto rickshaw is a cheap alternative to riding in a taxi as they are way easier to come by then taxis… Essentially they are golf-carts, but more enclosed--- they have a back seat (fits about 3 people if you snuggle together) and then just the driver is supposed to sit up front (of course we often squish someone up with the driver), there are no doors so you have to hold on for dear life ;) One uses an auto-rickshaw for shorter distances… Below you will find a picture of an auto-rickshaw:

Auto Rickshaw

And here is a Regular Rickshaw

Once we got back on the bus, it was 20-minute power nap-time for my class as it had been a long day of standing outside in the heat… We arrived at another village, but this one appeared to be more of a community, not nearly as rustic… in all honesty, I am not sure what the connection or rationale was for us to go to this community as it seemed really random in terms of my field trip, but it was certainly an eye-opening experience. One family allowed my class to tour their home and I must admit, it is at times like these when I get hit in the face with how much Americans live by the motto, “Go Big or Go Home.” This home I believe (although can’t be certain because there was a bit of a language barrier) is home to a mother and father and their 2 son’s families (2 kids each) with a grand total of 10 people living in the house. It is common in India for families to all live together including ones extended family (the husband brings his wife to live with his family). The house was all on one floor—it had electricity, but not the way we as Americans would think of electricity (they had a TV, but no air conditioning). Each of the kids shared a room with their sibling and the rooms doubled as family gathering space… the children shared what appeared to be sized in between a double bed and a single bed.

Prior to this trip, I would have reported that this family although they have so little is happy, thus making the generalization that “money doesn’t buy happiness.” I no longer feel justified to make this assumption. In my service learning class, I have been probed to think outside of the box: How can I really know the thoughts/ feelings of these people? Are they really happy living the way that they do? Perhaps they are, perhaps not, but what on earth makes me justified to draw this conclusion for I am merely a tourist visiting their home… That being said, I am now trying hard not to make generalizations about the way in which others feel, which I have to say is a really harder than one would imagine. I challenge each and everyone of you to incorporate this mindset into your daily lives—you can of course say they appeared this way or that way, but try steering clear of making the rather large generalizations.

My FDP concluded with a little bit of shopping time, but I didn’t have my rupees yet (the Indian currency), so I just walked around and embraced what would seem like a never ending game of being attacked by vendors selling products that I actually DIDN’T want to buy. It was nice being truthful to the vendors and saying, “No, No, No I really don’t have money to even consider buying your product!” As you will hear throughout my post about India, after a while the vendors became old and I just wanted to be left alone… it gets tiring appearing to be purely a $$--- perhaps the vendors should take my advice and STOP generalizing all tourists!

Day 2- Tuesday March 13 (Dana’s 21^st Birthday!):

On Tuesday, I was off for my SAS trip to Delhi, Agra, and Varanasi, which are all, located in the North. Lucky for my trip, we didn’t leave the ship until 9:30 AM… I make this comment, as there were other trips that left for the airport at 4:30 AM--- oy vey! It was nice to actually get some rest before traveling for 4 days! The trip was jam packed with 75 people (I would say 95% were students and the rest were either life long learners or else faculty/staff). I was really happy with the mix of people on my trip, but must admit that by the end it got tiring to have to constantly count that we had all 75 people with us… that’s one of the things that makes independent travel so much better--- you go on your schedule, never having to wait around for 74 other people to get their act together--- this was by far my biggest complaint about the trip… we spent lots of time waiting for the group to meet back together/ being worried that you were holding the rest of the group up!

Okay, enough about that, now for the details of the trip. We spent a major part of the day on Tuesday traveling… a quick note about the Cochin airport is that it reminded me way more of a train station than an airport terminal… it just had rows and rows of seats, with no defined sitting areas per gate. Furthermore, when going through security in India, the lines are divided between “ladies” and “gents.” This is because of the extreme modest culture of India where it is VERY rare for one to find a woman wearing shorts or having much of their body showing. After walking through the metal detector, all women go into a room in which they are then patted down by a woman security guard. Certainly an interesting cultural detail--- or at least I found it noteworthy ;)

We arrived in Delhi around 4:45 PM and were immediately greeted by our tour guides and split into 2 buses… as we got on the bus, the driver handed each of us a beautiful necklace lay full of beautiful real flowers!!!

Before getting to the hotel we took a brief tour of the city of Delhi by driving around the embassies… it was weird how much this area reminded me of Washington, DC. The actual buildings of all of the embassies are really cool because they all are uniquely designed, many of which resemble the architecture that one would find within the home country of that embassy. Unfortunately, as I look through my pictures, I don’t have any good ones of the actual embassies, but instead here is one of the general area… don’t you feel like you are in DC?

After our embassy tour, we got to get out of the bus and take some pictures at the India Gates. This monument commemorates those who fought for the British in the Indian War.

Here is a picture of my friends and me at the India Gates:

By the time we got to the hotel it was around 6:00 PM. My friends Amanda, Maddy, Hannah, and I decided to do our own thing for dinner and went to Old Delhi. Hannah’s brother worked in Delhi for a year or so and gave us the name of one of his favorite restaurants. We of course wanted to take an auto-rickshaw to dinner, but the hotel advised us against this idea, so we used our best judgment and jumped in the cab. Compared to New Delhi (the area where we were for the day/ where we were staying), Old Delhi was much more run down and seemed a lot more like one would image India to look: cows roaming the streets, grungy markets, busy busy busy-ness…

As we pulled into the hub-bub of Old Delhi, our cab driver randomly stopped the cab and began to speak to a normal rickshaw driver (fyi- normal rickshaw is the same concept as the auto rickshaw except that it’s a bike!!!) Anywho we are all sitting there trying to figure out what on earth they are saying to one another when the driver looks back at all of us and tells us that we are to go along with the rickshaw driver and that he would meet us back at this spot after we were done eating dinner. Mind you we are literally sitting in this cab in the middle of the road at this point so we didn’t really have too much time to figure out what on earth was going on… eventually one of us uncracked the code of the broken English and discovered that the road to the restaurant where we were trying to get to wasn’t accessible by cars, so we had to either walk or take the rickshaw… Boy would that explanation have been useful had they told us from the start! After a minor heart attack (literally I saw cars whizzing by me) we decided to jump on the rickshaw and make our way to the restaurant!

Taking the rickshaw was an incredible experience and probably humorous for all the Old Delhians… come on it was 4 American tourists making this poor rickshaw man peddle us around… we all kept being like, “sorry sir, we know we are fat Americans! Eccckkk” hahah. As we looked from shop to shop, we all seemed to notice one thing in common which was that we saw few women strolling the streets at night. It was probably at this point that my heart began to pick up speed once again and I questioned how good of an idea coming to a random city at night as 4 American girls (not dolls… just girls… get it? American Girl Doll hahahah). To our happiness, after a 10-minute bike ride, we saw the sign for our restaurant Karim! WAHOOOOOOO--- Victory!

Signs for when you are in a foreign country and want to determine if you are eating at a good restaurant:

1.       Many locals are eating the food

2.       Restaurant is crowded

3.       You can see where you food is being prepared aka can tell that you are eating FRESH food

4.       Sign hanging in the front of the restaurant with an article from the Times Magazine stating that the restaurant has been rated as one of the best in Asia!

We were seated at a table surrounded by all locals… as I just stated a VERY good sign. Of course, as soon as I was handed the menu I was automatically intimidated, so we left Hannah in charge of ordering our meal... at the same time that Hannah was trying to select what to order 2 more American women were brought up stairs and the host was about to sit them down with us… awkward that they clearly thought we were all together because we were the ONLY Americans in the restaurant! HAHAH the 4 of us however, wanted some fellow American company so invited the 2 to sit with us. It ended up being a great experience as we met 2 fascinating women. They had been traveling for about 8 weeks in both India and Nepal and were at the end of their journey… one of the ladies owns a gardening company in Maine and takes off 2 months to travel around the world each year as her “summer vacation” since those are obviously slow months for a gardener. She said that this is by far her favorite restaurant in all of India and had carefully chosen this to be her last meal in India--- how good did we do!? It was perfect having them sit with us, as we were able to just copy everything they had ordered;)

As I had already stated, I am not a fan of Indian food, however I must say that this food was probably the best I ate while in India. I attempted to pretend it was from one of my favorite restaurants at home (Moby Dicks) and just imagined the thick grilled tomatoes combined with the delicious rice and chicken and somehow managed to finish the meal full. My friends on the other hand were in absolute heaven--- so take our suggestion, if traveling in Old Delhi make it a must pit stop at Karim.

After dinner, our rickshaw driver was waiting for us as promised and decided to take it upon himself to give us a tour of Old Delhi. It was at this time that the 4 of us managed to walk our way into an Indian wedding! The wedding took place in this tented area, but there was no roof… it was carpeted and had chairs set up throughout the room. We got to the wedding before the bride was there which was probably a good thing since I felt like we were stealing the show just a bit… we legit were asked to speak into the camera for the bride and groom! The wedding seemed to be whimsical as the entire atmosphere was full of color--- to an American it would have seemed tacky with bright colors and silver streamers, but once again this is just a mere sign of the culture.

It would be wrong for me to leave off about the wedding without making the following commentary… Country after country I am exposed to this phenomenon that because I am a white American I am able to do whatever I want even though I am a visitor in a foreign country… I find this to be rather uncomfortable and altogether entirely wrong. It would be easy to write off that this simply occurs because they want to invite me into their country with open arms, but we all know that is not the case. It’s one of those things that is really hard to deal with because sometimes it’s unavoidable and also there are those times that you don’t even realize you are being treated like a Queen until it’s too late…

We got back to the hotel around 10:00 PM that night and we decided to take it easy for the night as we had once again another jam-packed day…  4:30 AM wake-up call ;)

Day 3- Wednesday March 14^th

Wednesday was a LONG day, but awesome. We woke at 4:30 and had to be down on the bus by 5:00 AM for our short bus ride to the train station… we were off to Agra! How cool is that… got to take a train in India (not to worry though, I opted out of the overnight train trips as the book The Namesake scared me about those trains!) The train ride was about 2 hours which was perfect amount of time for a morning nap… Here is a picture of Amanda and me on the train as we so scholarly read the India newspaper.

Before I continue on about the train ride, I would like to reflect on my first encounter with the severe poverty of India. Many families were camped outside and inside the train station as we were boarding the train. From a young age, the children are taught to come up to train riders and indicate to them that they are hungry and need food. There is no doubt in my mind that these children need food way more than I do, however there are multiple reasons why it is not good for tourists to “feed” into this behavior (no pun intended).

1.       If you feed one child, then multiple other children will come running for food as well/ you start a fight amongst the children

2.       Some of these children are begging for food, but do not actually get to eat the food for themselves, but instead must bring it back to their parents who will then either eat the food or sell it and not share the profits with their children!

3.       You encourage begging as something that is “socially acceptable” and sustainable in that they don’t feel the need to go to school, but instead can beg for food their whole life

The children relentlessly try to get your attention by running to your side and tugging at your clothing… This is actually heart breaking for you know deep down that you are not going to give them anything more than a smile and perhaps a hello.

When we got on the train, I was able to take a deep breath and try to collect myself. However, it didn’t take long for my heart to once again be torn apart. As I peered out the window I saw multiple men and women crouching down to do their “business” (aka poop/pee). I have never before seen such extreme poverty… I can’t exactly put my finger on the difference in the poverty in India, as it is so vastly different to the poverty in Ghana. There is one main difference that I did become aware of… there are way more poverty struck “crippled” people in India compared to those in Ghana. I saw multiple people without an arm or a leg, some in wheel chairs, others just hobbling around on the ground. It is actually so hard to watch… but the worst of all of the “crippled” people was the man who apparently had a disease called Elephantiasis. Most of you probably are like me and have no idea what this disease is so let me explain: this man was sitting in a wheel chair and his foot easily was blown up to the size of a computer screen (probably even bigger). I refused to take a picture of this because this man is a person who has feelings, however feel free to go onto google to find out more information about the disease…

A las we made it to Agra around 10:00 in the morning--- just in time for breakfast at a hotel. I won’t even go into how nice breakfast was at the hotel because honestly it felt so completely wrong… I had just seen the most extreme poverty and now I was supposed to eat from a lavish breakfast buffet that had it been anything but a 10 out of 10 buffet, my fellow peers and I would have been complaining that we didn’t get fed well enough on our expensive Semester at Sea trip. This is only a minor taste of the guilty thoughts and feelings that went through my head throughout the day--- honestly it’s hard not to think like this when you encounter India’s poverty.

By 10:45 AM we were back on our bus and on our way to the abandon city of Fatehpur Sikri. In brief summary this was the capital of India until the city was flooded, thus the capital had to move to Lahore?! I know poor explanation, but at this point the tiredness starts creeping in so the explanations for the sights get all jumbled together… the city was really cool to walk around …here is one of my favorite pictures of us:

After the Abandon City we were off to a marble shop to gain an appreciation for the craftsmanship that took place in constructing the Taj Mahal. As they showed us the time consuming process we were all blown away… just to make a small jewelry box takes a good 3 weeks… now think of the entire Taj Mahal!

We spent around 30 minutes at the marble shop, and then went back to a hotel to eat our lunch. Next stop… THE TAJ MAHAL! Prior to going to the Taj Mahal we spent time at the Red Fort… again, I can’t even offer an explanation of this place, but I do know that it was at this point in my India excursions that I caught my first glimpse of the Taj Mahal;) After about an hour, we boarded the bus for drum roll please--- the TAJ MAHAL! So exciting!

As we drove closer to the Taj, my excitement was building up and up and up… probably none of you know this (including Jill, Andy and B-rad), but I distinctly remember coming home from our Mediterranean cruise in June 2010 and seeing an advertisement in a Canada airport for an airline that flew to India. On the ad that lay before me was a photograph of the MAGNIFICANCE Taj Mahal. I quickly turned to Jilly and pointed to it and said, “Mom--- I want to go to India and see the Taj Mahal for myself.” My mother naturally was not nearly as ecstatic as I was, but allowed me to enjoy my happy place of staring intently at the Taj photo. I mention this story because as I sit here typing this blog post I still am in shock that I actually was at the Taj…

For those of you who are not history buffs, the abbreviated background story on the Taj Mahal is as follows:

Built in 1632, this was a tribute to Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan 3^rd wife, Mumtaz Mahal as one of her dying wishes. Today, people visit the Taj in awe as the building was created entirely by hand--- honestly so crazy!

Getting into the Taj was a kinda sad story for poor Pattie my beanie baby ;/ For some reason they don’t want people taking pictures with stuffed animals/ signs at the Taj, so Pattie instead had to entertain the security guards… it’s a bit of a sensitive subject for Pattie as she didn’t get to see the Taj and also thought she was never going to see me again. Not to worry, I have signed her up for group therapy sessions with Mr. Bear Bear (Hannah’s stuffed animal bear) who was also traumatized at the Taj by having to stay with security.

We all walked into the Taj together and although don’t get me wrong, the Taj was magnificent, I am sad to report that it didn’t take my breath away nearly to the extent that I anticipated… I feel this is because of 4 main reasons:

1.       I am getting jaded by seeing so much so quickly

2.       The places I go/ the things I see are not hitting me right now and I think it will take until I get back home and go through my photos to realize WOW I really saw that?

3.       More time was needed at the Taj as I didn’t feel I got enough time just to stare at its beauty and realize holy smokes, this was built all by hand in the 1600s!

4.       As we were leaving the Taj, I actually was way more impressed/ in awe of its beauty as I think I liked it more once the sunset.

Side comment: So glad I had my Dormify letters with me so I could snap a pic with them at the TAJ!

Overall, I would say that it would be a shame to go to India without seeing the Taj, but my biggest pieces of advice would be:

1.       Allocate enough time to be able to just stare at the Taj

2.       If you want to bring a stuffed animal shove it under your clothing (I really Pattie would have made it to the Taj had she been shoved down my shirt or in my waist band)

3.       Wear your best outfit because I forgot about this detail and now am going to have multiple photos at the Taj in something I am not crazy about… the Taj is going to “out beauty me looks wise…”--- bummer!

By 6:45 PM we were on the bus and headed back to the station for our train ride back to Delhi… we probably got back to the hotel around 10:30 PM and it was now time to ring in my birthday. My friends did an absolutely amazing job of making my birthday super super super special please note that birthdays give me anxiety as I don’t like having all the spotlight on myself, but they did such a great job of creating a truly unique 21^st birthday in INDIA!

When we got back to the hotel, I was 100% exhausted, however my friends forced me to go out with them to ring in my 21^st… although I was tired, I felt I had to bite the bullet and am sure glad I did… We quickly changed and then my friends made me come up to their room in the hotel in which they ordered a brownie sundae and flame so I could blow out my candles! We decided to go to a bar at another hotel which was beautiful… side note on my outfit choice: I literally didn't bring anything to wear to go out so I borrowed my Maddy's dress and wore my Teva sandals--- the ones that velro all around you ;) … my Teva’s were worn the entire time I was traveling in India… gotta love the Tevas! After getting into the bar we kept telling everyone that it was my birthday and the next thing I knew there was a cake for me … not only did the cake come out, but also these really cool sparklers!

Day 3- Thursday March 15^th CK’S 21^ST

For the morning of my birthday, Maddy, Amanda, Hannah and I decided to skip out on the SAS trip. The SAS trip was going to Old Delhi and since we had already gone there the first night it seemed pointless for us to go again… alright, alright the real reason: we needed to get some shopping in ;)

Before leaving the hotel, we spoke to the concierge about a good place for us to go shopping, but we were sadly informed that most stores in India don’t open until 10:00-11:00 AM (at this point it was about 9:00 AM)… this is apparently directly related to the poverty in India, thus when there isn’t that much of a population that can afford going shopping, it isn’t cost affective to keep the stores open for such long hours--- I found this extremely interesting. We decided to still sign-off the SAS trip and just wander around until the markets opened. We began walking around Delhi and somehow stumbled upon this BEAUTIFUL hotel and decided to explore… it was actually so odd going into such a paradise hotel in India… it just seemed so out of place. We ended up ordering coffee and just sitting/ relaxing which let me tell you was certainly needed…

We spent around an hour at the hotel and moved onto the markets. What was I in shopping for is probably what you are thinking… well of course I wanted a tattoo ;) yep, that’s right folks I wanted a permanent tattoo on my foot along with my friend Maddy who wanted one on her hand. It just so happened that we found a man to do them for us in the market so we decided to cut our losses and go for it…

What do you think of it?

Did you hear that gullible isn’t in the dictionary? Teheheh have no fear, CK didn’t change that much from her Semester at Sea experience as I was just fooling all of you ;) It’s only a temporary henna! RELAX ;)   

After getting our beautiful hennas, we had to allow them to dry for a long time. Because mine was on my foot I had to hobble around the streets of India… probably one of those “bad idea” moments, but oooo well… desperate times called for desperate measures as my friends and I were in need of McFlurries. Finding a McDonalds was shockingly no easy task as we asked multiple people on the street that looked at us like we were CRAZY and had no idea what McDonalds was… isn’t that funny? Eventually we found a rickshaw driver that understood us so wahoooo we got to go McDonalds alas ;) Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the hotel to meet back up with our trip, eat a quick lunch, and finally say our goodbyes to Delhi as we were moving on to Varanasi!

We got to Varanasi around 5:00 PM and quickly dropped our belongings at the hotel and were off to the sunset viewing of the Holy River Ganges. Now this ladies and gentleman was quite the experience… once again a quick summary of the importance of the River Ganges to the Hindu religion:

Varanasi is considered one of the holiest cities in the world because it is home to the River Ganges. These people believe that the River Ganges possess the spirit of their g-ds. Every day hundreds of people gather at the river for morning and night ceremonies in which I was able to experience both of these rituals. Some of the rituals that take place at the Ganges include: bathing, cleaning clothes, sprinkling loved cremated soul in the water (for those that can afford it, if not then they will gently push the dead body down into the water).

The only religious ceremony that I have seen that was anywhere close to this experience would be when I was in Israel for Shavuot (a Jewish holiday) and I saw hundreds of people waking up at 3:30 AM to make the trek to the Western Wall… I found the River Ganges ritual to be an even more magnificent experience purely because these rituals/ ceremonies occur EVERY day--- it’s mind boggling!

Getting to the river was quite the experience… there were about 35 rickshaws (the biking kind) that all followed one after another until we hit a point where we just weren’t going to be able to get any further because of all the pedestrian traffic… we hopped off the rickshaw and began the final stretch to the river. Literally the streets were filled full of people (no cars) and all of these shops are open in which once again you are seen as purely a $$$ so they are haggling the be-jeepers out of you…

The ceremony takes place all along the rivers and anyone is allowed to go to the ceremony. It is my understanding that the ceremony lasts for about 3 hours (we only stayed for like half of it)… There are no prayer books and everyone is either standing up or sitting to watch as the 7 clergy members perform the service (a combination of reading and singing… but nothing like a service that I have ever been to…way more of a production than what I would think of as a religious ceremony--- many more swift motions not so much involvement from the audience). 

Here is a picture of the River Ganges at the night:

After the ceremony we walked once again to meet up with our rickshaw drivers and then made our way back to the hotel for dinner. Finally my birthday was complete with an Indian version of a Bat Mitzvah type set-up back at the hotel. They had a little dance floor for my tour group and then had a buffet dinner... we all decided that Andy and Jill organized the entire thing ahhahah of course they didn't, but it was hilarious! My friend's thoroughly embarrassed me by ordering a cake (thus the entire group of 70 people sang happy birthday) and then I had to have my first dance as a 21 year old... hahah this kid Justin who is an amazing swing dancer asked me for a dance so how could I decline… here is a picture of the dancing CK! This is on film so we shall watch it when I return ;)

After an amazing, but also exhausting birthday I passed out by 11:00 PM. The sad part about my birthday was that I was unable to get in touch with Jilly and Andy ;/ stupid time differences I tried for a while to call them, but for some reason or another it would not go through ;/ ;/ ;/ My first birthday without talking to them! Yikesss!

Day 5: Friday March 16^th

I woke up to my alarm at 4:30 AM as it was time for our last day in Varanasi and it began with a sunrise canoe ride where we saw the morning rituals of the Ganges River. I am going to be upfront and honest that I did manage to make it to the canoe ride physically, but question if I mentally was awake!? Hmmm… I was just so tired that there were good chunks of time while we were supposed to be watching the people perform their morning rituals, but I instead crumbled myself into a tight ball and had to take power naps (it was such a struggle to keep my darn eyes open) I am trying to just give myself some slack, as I have to face reality that there will be activities throughout this trip (and really my life) that I will miss out on because I am too tired, and just have to keep along and not dwell on the fact that I missed it!

At least mid nap I was able to get a picture of the sunrise

We got back to the hotel around 8:30 AM and naturally by this point I was awake… grrrrr hahahah. My friends and I decided to sign out from the SAS trip because Hannah was in the market for a sari. Hannah’s brother is getting married to an Indian woman so they are going to have a traditional Indian wedding, thus she needed to get a sari. For those who don’t know, a sari is a traditional outfit worn by women and girls in India. They are made out of either cotton or silk. Women wear these on a daily basis, however there is a major difference between an everyday sari and a fancy sari.

The sari shop owner had us all sit on the ground on a pillow type cushion. He then pulled out beautiful fabrics for Hannah to decide on/ for all of us to give our opinion. I honestly felt like I was playing pretend/ a different version of my good old faithful make believe game of shopping at Sincerely Yours (my mom’s company remember she sells invitations? I know some of my fan club needs a clue here and there) Hannah ended up buying saris for her mom, sister and self because there is nothing quite as special as being able to actually have a sari from India! How do we look in the saris for Hannah’s fam?

By 12:30 PM our amazing trip to Agra and Varanasi was complete and we had to head back to Cochin… One funny story from this day was that for some reason the travel agent thought it would be a good idea to put us on connecting flights in which we went Varanasi to Delhi, Delhi to Cochin… naturally, this wasn’t one of those flights where you just sat as they load/ unload the plane, but instead we had to make your way off the plane and actually switch to an entirely different airport all together--- it was about a 10 minute drive with traffic away and I am actually clueless why some flights go into one versus the other airport. Nonetheless, some genius thought it would be a good idea to give a group of 75 an hour lay over… DING- bad idea. Hannah, Maddy, and I all ended up being the last people through security as we legit heard over the loud speaker “final boarding call for Flight 1142 to Cochin is now doing their final boarding.” We ended up having to do a mad dash sprint with our professor (he was the trip leader so had to stay back until the entire group was through security) of which I ended up getting on the plane sweating like crazy, and with a new realization that I was a bit out of shape ecccck.

We got back to the ship around 11:30 PM and after a shower I went straight to bed.

Day 6- Saturday March 17^th (Belle’s or Arielle Berne’s 21^st Birthday)

Upon Jenna’s recommendation, on the last day I decided I wanted to spend the morning at yoga school… Jenna had gone on Monday, thus I decided to copy this idea after hearing all of them RAVE about their amazing yoga experience. I ended up sharing the information with a bunch of people, so bright and early on Saturday morning (around 6:45) we all met on the ship and were headed off to our 7:30-10:30 AM class. The class was absolutely incredible…. Because it was a weekend the yoga instructor, Sanji had us do the class outside which was perfect for a yoga class. I actually was able to get into a tri-pod and even a headstand that day… both of which I have not even close to mastered in the states… so incredible. How sweet is this picture?

After the yoga class was finished, Sanji had a traditional breakfast prepared for all of us. Mind you Sanji is actually the cutest and most fit man ever… such a yoga instructor that you would picture out of the movies… complete with the way he signs his emails (please read below):

EMAIL

Dear  Blessed Soul Caryn Klein,

You are most welcome to our yoga school, I will be at our yoga school at Saturday. After the class there is a spiritual food also. 7.30 to 9.30 is the class...........if any doubt call me on my Mobile 886786882........see you soon Cosmic Love 

Nothing like some COSMIC LOVE…The best part… the class was only $5! How great is that… only in INDIA!

Next we made our way to Jew Town, a great shopping area in Cochin… yes, I kid you not, the name of this area is actually Jew Town. About 60 years ago this area was full of Indian Jews, but after Israel became its own country, many of these people migrated to Israel. Today there are only 9 Jewish people that occupy this town, but to my extreme satisfaction, there is still a synagogue and traces of the Jewish people in this area.

The rest of the day was spent shopping in Jew Town doing what I would refer to as the good ol’ how much junk can Caryn buy with her remaining rupees as she took out FAR too many so better find some cool products! Although it sounds like an easy task, let me caution you that by this point I was 100% exhausted and hot … combine that with being a horrible decision maker and well you most def have a painful day ahead. HAHAHAH but actually! By 4:30 PM I was good and worn out so my friends and I decided it was about time to head back to the ship.

Final remarks on India: I really enjoyed my days in India, but feel that for some reason India was not nearly as much of a culture shock as I had anticipated…

Would I go running back to India?

o    Probably not…

Why?

o    The biggest reason I feel India didn’t do a number on me is because I have traveled to so many countries at this point that poverty is not nearly as much of an anomaly as it was in my first ports. That being said, I feel that in order for India to truly make an impact on me, I have to wait some time and be in a different stage of my life.

o    I also think that by touring India with a group of 75, there really wasn’t much of a feeling of independence which I think enables me to have a much deeper connection with a country

One of the things that I wrestled with as I took both my first and last steps in India was the fact that I am the first of the Klein family to have step foot on India… it’s a really strange feeling to have such a title (of course this is true of most of the ports), but for some reason it really stuck for India… maybe because I saw the Taj?! Who knows…

I couldn’t help but to think of the following as I walked back onto the ship: I highly doubt that Mom, Dad, and Brad will make it to India in their life times. I wonder what I will have to do or say for them to travel here as it is so important for them to come to a country such as India and see how the majority of the world lives each day…if you got an answer for me, I am all ears as honestly, seeing the world is a life changing experience.

That being said, I close this post with some exciting news… Jill and Andy have made it safely to HONG KONG and are now touching ground on China before me. Everyone should actually be really proud of them for that was a pretty darn lengthy flight! Once again, ignore the fact that I still need to write posts on both Singapore and Vietnam/ Cambodia--- I am doing my very best to keep up for all ya’all ;)

I’ll close this post with 2 questions regarding Singapore, although I have already been there, I still want to keep my audience well informed…

1.       What is the law in regards to chewing gum in the country of Singapore? 

2.       How wide is the country of Singapore?