Cambodia

I am currently on my SAS Cambodia trip to the temples of Angkor Wat! We took a short one hour flight from Saigon to Siem Reap last night after spending the day in Vietnam. I am having an absolutely amazing time in this country. We have spent the day seeing temple ruin after temple ruin. This place is unreal- I feel like I am in Tomb Raider (which was actually filmed here). Tonight we are going to Ankgor Wat temple at sunset, which should be really phenomenal. I am really excited for tomorrow because we are touring a floating village and market. Everything on this trip has been a blast and we have the greatest group of people, which really makes all the difference. SAS really did a good job with this trip and I am so glad that I chose it!

Good Morning Vietnam!

We came into port early this morning to beautiful Ho Chi Mihn City, Vietnam. I am sorry for not being consistant with my updates, but I have had to put this blog site on the back burner while playing catch up during this last stretch at sea. I leave for Cambodia tomorrow afternoon and could not be more excited. I am going on a SAS trip to see the Temples of Angkor Wat. Updates to come...eventually...I promise!

Good-bye Burma

I am currently aboard the wonderful MV Explorer…passport and all! I am so happy to be back on the ship with everyone. They changed our on-ship time to 11:30am this morning, even though we are not leaving until this evening. Since there are no tug boats in this port we needed to turn the ship around when the current was just right. We are currently anchored in the middle of a river, waiting for the tide to change so that we can make our way back out to the open ocean. This port was unique in that the ship docked nearly an hour from Yangon. Most people stayed in town last night and made their way back to the ship by shuttle or taxi early this morning. Most people are spending the rest of our day catching up on homework or sleep. I have so much school work to catch up on since I missed three class days! After I finish my massive amounts of homework, I hope to start writing my Myanmar post (and maybe even my belated India post). Myanmar was incredible…unlike any place I have ever experienced in my life. In the last few days I have actually gone where no American has gone before…literally. I have so many amazing stories to tell! Despite all the controversy surrounding our stop in this country, I think most of us are really glad that we got the chance to visit and would do it again if we had the choice. Check back soon for details!

Status Report:
Anchored in Burma…on the ship…with my passport :)

Home at Last

I have successful made it back to the Explorer! Part of me really never thought I would see the ship again, but I made it home afterall. My room and door were all decorated and there were signs everywhere from my friends welcoming me back. I have never been so happy to see everyone! We are in Myanmar for three more days and I am out and about enjoying this fascinating country. More details to come...

Singapore

I thought I would update you on my travels back to the Explorer. I am currently in Singapore and am proud to say that I have one less country to cross off my list of places to go before I die. Singapore is incredibly clean and modern. Did you know that it is against the law to chew gum here? CRAZY! I had to take a picture of the bathrooms here because they are unbelievably immaculate. This is quite a different place than India! Only a few more hours until I should be in Burma. Thank you for your prayers. I'll keep you posted...

Unfortunate Events (Part II)

Left behind...
Sorry to my faithful blog readers for leaving you hanging for so long between updates. My trip to India did not go exactly as planned to say the least. I am not posting a long reflective description of this port yet as my time/energy/internet access has been running on low to empty for the last few days. I could easily write a book on my experiences over the last week, and perhaps some day I will. As some of you may know (depending on how fast the international SAS rumor mill has been running) the MV Explorer pulled safely away from port in Chennai, India with all passengers minus one...me. As fate would have it, on our last night in port on my way back I got pickpocketed about 100 yards from the ship. I wasn't the only victim of theft here but unfortunately I was the one who lost my money belt containing my credit cards, money and passport. With about an hour and a half until on ship time I worked with the port security and the SAS admininistration team to try and recover it. Unsuccessful in this attempt I boarded the ship and met with the Indian immigrations officials who decided that it would be alright for me to still sail. It was decided that I would pick up a new passport in Burma and work on getting new visas from there. I was warned that I would most likely not be able to get off the ship in Burma because it is one of the most difficult countries in the world to get into. You can imagine what was going through my mind at this point. Disappointment. Shock. Frustration. A little before midnight I was informed that the top immigration official had changed his mind and decided that I could not leave India on the ship. !!! The SAS office was very helpful and tried as hard as humanly possible to keep me aboard the Explorer but in the end it wasn't enough. The officials needed a letter or statement from the consulate to let me stay aboard. The US consulate was of course closed and so I was told that I would have to wait until the next day. SAS arranged for me to stay in India for a few extra days so I could take care of the official paperwork. To me there is nothing more terrifying than being told that you are being left in a foreign country like India with no passport and no credit cards. It has been an experience to say the least, and all bad things aside I wouldn't change it for the world.

To be a foreigner in a strange land...
I have realized that even seeing an American face is something I take for granted now that I have gone a few days on my own. To be traveling as a foreigner with 684 other American college students is one thing... to be doing it alone is a whole new ball game. I have never been more stared at or photographed or questioned in my entire life. I have learned a lot about the way foreign government works and how valuable an American passport can be. I have been with a man (whose name I can't pronounce) who is helping me around the city during my extended Indian holiday. I have learned more about global issues in the past few days than I have this whole semester. Being American, I am told by my new friend, can get you anywhere. There are good people in this world, and there are bad people. When you get dragged down by the bad people, you must take it with a stride and move on. I am experiencing first hand what happens when corruption and poverty prevail in a country. My driver today asked me how much I had to pay off the police to file a report on my stolen passport. He was shocked when I told him I didn't have to pay anything. I guess if I wasn't on the ship when I dealt with the police it would have been a different story. This is the type of reality I am faced with right now. I have never felt like more of a foreigner in my life.

Burma or Bust...
It has been a complicated but rewarding week for me. I have seen so much and wish that I could share every single detail with you all. For now I will just say that I am still in India, I am still safe, and I am meeting up with the ship soon in Myanmar. I am flying to Singapore tomorrow and Yangon, Myanmar the next morning. I am actually really excited because I have always wanted to go to Singapore and now I get to. I wasn't expecting it to be under these circumstances, but there is an up side to every crazy adventure. I currently have a new passport and will soon have a new visa to enter Burma. I am definitely having an adventure out here but in all honesty I can't wait to see that ship again. I can't wait to hear what crazy rumors have been flying around about me and why I am stranded in India. My friends back aboard the ship said they would do some damage control for me and make sure that all the rumors were at least really exciting and cool. Maybe there is some crazy story about me getting thrown in a Indian prison or something by now. Haha, it should be fun to see when I get back. I can't wait to eat the ship food again and put on clean clothes and talk to an American. (Anyone ever seen the movie Brokedown Palace? I feel like I am trapped in it right now.) I am having fun with the situation at least and I really appreciate all the messages and phone calls of support that I have recieved. Hopefully I'll get some time in the near future to reflect more on all the craziness of this week and publish some more details. Cross your fingers that next time you hear from me it won't be from India. Burma or bust baby! More of Amber's crazy trip around the world to come...

Status Report:
Stranded in India! :)

PS- I saw the Taj Mahal for you Aunt Wendy. It was spectacular!

A Series of Unfortunate Events

There has been a change in plans in my India itinerary. We got news in global studies this morning that there has been a series of fatal and religiously motivated terrorist attacks over the last two days in the holy Hindu city of Varanasi, India. As I posted previously, I was planning on going on a trip to this city to see the Ganges River and the ancient Hindu traditions. The on board field office has been working closely with the SAS Pittsburgh offices and the State Department all day to determine how this incidence will affect the trips scheduled. Rumors were flying back and forth about the possibility of them canceling India all together, or the cancellation of all the trips to Varanasi and the Taj Mahal. SAS will absolutely not compromise our safety for any reason. They announced at tonight’s pre-port that, as we all suspected, the Varanasi portion of my trip has been cancelled. I had decided earlier today that if they cancelled my SAS trip, I would try to go independently. My visit to Varanasi was what I was really looking forward this semester. Unfortunately, going independently is not even an option because the entire city is shut down to tourism and is under high terrorist alert. SAS has also banned us for going. I cannot even express my disappointment right now. I knew coming into this trip that flexibility would be a must. There are some things in the world that are just out of our control and we should be grateful that nobody on the ship is hurt or was in India during these attacks. The field office has told us that we will be going to Delhi for two days instead of Varanasi. I can’t say that any of us on the trip really have a huge desire to go to Delhi for two days, but we are making the best of the situation. A couple of my friends and I are hoping to be able to go to another city for one of the days independently. Regardless of what the trip turns out to be, I know that we will have the adventure of a lifetime.

I feel like the anticipation of getting to India tomorrow morning has just been building and building. All day the crew has been lining the hallways and stairways with cardboard and plastic to protect it from dirt and keep the ship sanitary. Our logistical pre-port meeting was pretty intense, with lots of details and safety concerns that needed to be discussed. We were told that the immigrations and clearing of the ship will be complicated and lengthy for both our arrival and departure from Chennai. The list of health concerns and risks we were given seems to go on for days. Nobody is allowed off the ship without closed toed-shoes on. We aren’t even supposed to wear flip-flops on the ship while we are in port. The current temperature in Chennai is in the 90s with a 60% humidity! My friends and I just got done playing drinking games for two hours…with water! We are determined to start out the week hydrated. I have never had so much sober fun in my life! Since I have had some time to get over the initial disappointment of missing Varanasi, I have to say that I am absolutely stoked for India. I know that I am going to have a great time no matter where I go. India is supposed to be one of the most culturally stimulating and diverse places that we will be visiting. Pray for safety and no traveler’s diarrhea!

Status Report:
Very close to India!

The Day Before the Day Before

Today is the day before the day before we get to India. (Can you tell I have no real concept of time and date anymore?) You know you are on Semester at Sea when you start to refer to dates as “the day after Mauritius” or “the second B day before Asia right after Africa.” Yesterday was an interesting day because we crossed the equator…again. Sadly I once again forgot to flush my toilet mid-crossing. There was no Neptune party this time because I guess they consider us all professional globetrotters by now or something. We also had to set our clocks one half hour forward last night, which I found to be very strange. I officially decided that we have about the coolest ship captain ever! He decided that he wanted to test the ship’s engines and run them on maximum speed. Let me remind you that we are aboard the fastest passenger ship in the world. We were cruising at a speed of 31 knots! It was incredibly fast and the wake behind us was out of control.
Tonight I had dinner with the two Indian inter-port students. They were a lot of fun and shed a lot of light on what it is really like to be a young person in India today. I asked them about everything from arranged marriages and dating, to dress and customs, and food and transportation. I realized that they aren’t all that much different myself. They told me that students in India all have a pre-conceived ideas about what American young people are like, just like we have of them. The thing I remember from our conversation the most was their observations that, aside from our more liberal culture, American students and Indian students have very similar interests, goals, and hobbies.

India…
This is actually the first port that I am not doing my own independent travel, so it should be interesting to see how it compares to the others. Since I don’t know if I will be posting again before India, here is some of what I am planning on doing while in port-

The first day I am signed up to go on a SAS city orientation of Chennai. Here is the description:
During your brief orientation to the fourth-largest city in India, you will drive through the city center on Mount Road, the commercial hub of Chennai. You will also drive through residential areas that present a striking contrast between rich and poor. You will drive past an important landmark, Fort St. George, which contains St. Mary’s Church and the Fort Museum – monuments reflecting the history of Chennai from the days of British India. You will continue your drive along the elegant promenade of the Marina, one of the longest beaches in the world. You will see the stately buildings of the University of Chennai, the Senate House and the former palace of the Nawab of Arcot. Upon reaching the oldest section of the city, you will visit San Thome Cathedral (where the apostle Thomas was buried) and the ancient Kapaleeshwar Temple. Along the way, you will also have an opportunity to visit a local home.

The second day I am leaving on an overnight trip-
DELHI/VARANASI/AGRA (0430 Friday, 10 March – 1400 Monday, 13 March)
This trip combines the bustling city of Delhi, the majesty of the Taj Mahal, and the “eternal city” of Varanasi, one of the most important pilgrimage sites in India. Located on the banks of the sacred River Ganges, Varanasi is the holy city of the Hindus. Often called “the heartbeat of India,” it is the oldest inhabited city in the world. Varnasi has been a center of civilization and learning for over 2,000 years. Here you can observe the ritual bathing in the Ganges at dawn, a practice that has continued virtually unchanged over the centuries.
Day 1: Depart the ship for the Chennai airport and your 3 and ½ hour flight to Varanasi via Delhi, arriving in Varanasi around 1150. After check-in and lunch at the hotel, visit the ruins of the ancient city of Sarnath where the Buddha preached his first sermon. Sarnath is as holy to Buddhists as Varanasi is to Hindus. See the stupa and ruins of the ancient monastery as well as the new Buddhist temple. Return to the hotel for dinner and overnight. An optional shopping rip, with your guide, is available. (B on flight, L, D; Radisson Hotel in Varanasi)
Day 2: Depart the hotel before sunrise and drive to the banks of the River Ganges. Board a boat and sail along the river to witness a spectacle of religious practice that has continued unchanged over centuries. At dawn, pilgrims converge at the holy waters for the ritual immersion and prayer to release their souls from the cycle of rebirth. This is one for the most memorable experiences of a visit to India. Continue on a city orientation and then depart for the airport and your flight to Delhi. Upon arrival in Delhi, enjoy some late afternoon sightseeing including visits to the Memorial, Parliament House, Secretariat Building, and the official residence of the president of India. Continue to your hotel for dinner and overnight. An optional shopping trip is available. (B, L, D; Hotel Ashok in Delhi)
Day 3: Following an early morning wake-up call, depart for the train station and your two-hour journey to Agra. Upon arrival, transfer to the hotel to freshen up before proceeding to Fatehpur Sikri, with its red sandstone palaces which are remarkably preserved. Return to Agra for lunch at the hotel and then visit the Taj Mahal at dusk. Transfer to the railway station for your journey to Delhi and transfer to the hotel. (B on train, L, D on train; Hotel Ashok in Delhi)
Day 4: Depart for the airport and your return flight to Chennai. (B on flight) Note: This is a rigorous itinerary involving a lot of traveling and early morning departures.

So that is what my India trip will be in a nut shell. It should be pretty intense so I’ll let you know how it goes. We only have two days on the ship in between India and Myanmar, but I’ll do my best to get my final India blog up ASAP. It is going to be a crazy/exciting/tiring next two weeks in the life of Amber! Until then…


Thought of the Day: In India, three and a half times more people than in the United States are living in one third the amount of space. In all, some 35 percent of them live in poverty, half of those in extreme poverty.

Status Report:
02 degrees Latitude
078 degrees Longitude

I’m half way around the world!

I am officially ahead of home by twelve hours and counting! I have hit the half way mark and it is the strangest feeling in the world. It is completely surreal to think that the sun that I just watched set is the same sun that you are all waking up to right now. We have a week of sailing and classes between Mauritius and India. The first two days we hit really rough seas. A lot of people were really sick and some classes were getting cancelled because even the teachers couldn’t make it. I think I probably slept completely through the first two and a half post-Mauritius days back at sea. Everybody was completely out of it, I felt like there should have been a fume leak or something funny in our water to explain why we were all such zombies. In general it seemed that if you weren’t sea sick, you were still recovering from the lack of sleep/intense sunburn/heavy partying/greasy Mauritian Chinese food. I have never seen the shipboard community so lifeless. By the third day however, I woke up to the calmest seas I have I seen in my life. The ocean literally looks like glass, it is unreal, eerie even. I feel like it looks more like an endlessly clear lake than the ocean. It has been so much better for those poor sea sick souls, and things are finally getting back to normal. We had a karaoke night a couple days ago and it was a ridiculous amount of fun. I mean, who needs a pub night when you can sing karaoke?

Sea Olympics…
Yesterday was one of the biggest events aboard the Explorer…the Sea Olympics! I knew that the Olympics would be fun, but I wasn’t expecting everyone to get as into it as they did. People went all out for their teams...there were cheers and banners and body paint and that craziness. Each sea (aka the hallway you live on) competed in a series of events scheduled all day long. Even the senior passengers formed a team and competed with us. Events ranged from limbo and board games, to big hair and chubby bunny contests. My two favorite events had to the synchronized swimming competition and the lip syncing/karaoke contest. People were so funny and so creative, I was really impressed. I was laughing until it hurt. There were no classes all day so people were able to just go from event to event, competing and cheering each other on. The winning sea will get to be the first to get off the ship in San Diego (I’ve been told that it is a long and grueling process). I live in the Arabian Sea and unfortunately we got second or third to last place in the closing ceremonies. Oh well, maybe next time. We all had a lot of fun with the whole thing and I am determined to stay on this ship as long as possible anyway. The hotel director surprised us and decided to throw us another barbeque that evening. The barbeques here are just amazing…props to the crew for making it such a special day for us all.

Now that the Olympics are over, it is back to classes and napping…and more classes and napping. My friends and I stayed up really late one night and watched Titanic. It was really strange watching Titanic sink while feeling the ship rock back and forth underneath us, seeing nothing but water outside the window. Needless to say, I’ll never be able to watch that movie the same way again. On a completely unrelated note, it has been excruciatingly hot and humid lately. I can hardly stand to even be outside (and I’m from Arizona!), which makes the ship seem all the more small. I have been told that it is going to be really hot in India, but I hope that it is not like this. We have begun the process of conserving water as we do not have clean access to any for awhile. This means that there will soon be times where the water will be shut off and laundry days will be few and far between. My sea has a laundry day tomorrow and I am pretty much washing everything I own now while I have the chance. Each day the dean’s memo has been filled with more and more facts and warnings about health issues and concerns that we need to be aware of. I feel the build-up to our next port is intensifying by the day. We have been learning a lot about India and its culture in global studies. I am getting more and more excited to get there. It is probably one of the countries that I was most excited about visiting. I have been warned that it is going to be an extremely live changing and humbling experience. I am going on my first major overnight SAS sponsored trip in India. We are going to Varanasi (the most ancient and sacred Hindu city in the world), Delhi (the capital), and Agra (to see the Taj Mahal). The global studies teachers said that he could only pick one major trip to go on during this voyage and mine was the one he chose. I just know that it is going to be amazing. I’ll post more details and my India itinerary before we port!

Today’s Quote: “The future of humankind is increasingly a race between education and catastrophe.”
Status Report:
04 degrees Latitude0
71 degrees Longitude

So Delicious, So Mauritius

When Mark Twain visited Mauritius he wrote, “You gather that Mauritius was made first, and then heaven, and that heaven was copied after Mauritius.” I can now say from my own personal experience that I don’t think that he was too far off. Mauritius, also the home of the famously extinct Dodo bird, has some of the most exotic and endemic species of plants and animals in the world. The island population is primarily composed of Hindus and people of Indian descent, which was something that I wasn’t really expecting. The official languages are English and French, but I found that very few people spoke either. The locals generally spoke Creole, which is a mixture of both French and some African languages.

We arrived in Mauritius and the ship was cleared almost immediately. The process went a lot quicker than in any of the other ports so far. For the first time ever, my friends and I weren’t even really ready to get off the ship right away. We quickly packed our backpacks for the next few days, and then we were off to Flic en Flac beach to find our rental home. We decided to do as the locals do and ride the public bus. It was a small adventure in itself just trying to find the right bus stop and make our way to the other side of the island. Finding the house we rented would’ve been really hard, had the nice local who sat next to me on the bus not helped us. The house ended up being amazing! I was expecting the worst because we got such a good deal on it, and you never know what you’re getting on the internet. From the house it was just a short five minute walk to the beach and town. A lot of SASers rented houses and condos in Flic en Flac, so every where we went, they were there too. Our house was in a more obscure residential neighborhood, which ended up being really nice when we needed to get away from the spring break madness. It was a great four bedroom house with a kitchen, living room, and cute little pool. We spent most of the first day at the Flic en Flac beach, just swimming and hanging out in the amazingly warm Indian Ocean. I bought a snorkel set at a local grocery store because Mauritius is supposedly one of the best snorkeling places in the world. The water is incredibly clear and the entire island is actually surrounded by a coral reef. We spent our time in Flic en Flac eating the local Mauritian food, hanging out with SASers, and partying it up at the beach and at our house. I won’t go into too much detail but there was definitely some NOSing involved (if you don’t know what that is…uhhh…just don’t worry about it). On the last day we ate lunch at a restaurant up in the rocky green mountains. The restaurant itself was outside in the trees and overlooked much of the island. It had an absolutely amazing view and the food was to die for. We also spent some time hotel hopping and enjoying the resort pools and private beaches. I have to be honest with you all, I am just gonna come clean with the fact that I didn’t spend a lot of time “learning” in Mauritius or actually soaking up any of the history and culture. You can probably attribute the shortness of this blog to that …or maybe the fact that I have been warned by my fellow shipmates that what happens in Mauritius, stays in Mauritius. You can take your pick. Either way, I did have a really great spring break/academic endeavor/tropical vacation and wouldn’t trade it for the world. I can’t believe that this was actually a part of school! Best school ever!

Quote of the Day: “Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.” –Ralph Waldo