it's definitely been a while since my last post and I've LOTS to tell and 4 countries to cover! For this post I'll just cover two of the countries...India and Mauritius
The india adventure began in a tuk tuk (a type of motorized bike taxi) with a slap to the face of dust and sewage smells. A group of 8 of us took the tuk tuk to a hotel for some gourmet indian cuisine to start the trip off right. Two of the guys with us decided it would be a good idea to ask the chef for the hottest peppers he had to offer....needless to say they quickly regretted that decision after the first bite! We spent the rest of the day at a mall/ market and further perfected our bargaining skills.
Most of us ended up not sleeping that night because we had to meet for flight to Delhi at 3:30am!
While in Delhi we saw an old mosque, cows randomly crossing the road, and had lunch where we were serenaded by a little indian boy dancing around our tables.
The next stop was to the city of Agra and we had to wake up that morning at 4 am to catch a train at 5am! The train station there was one of the dirtiest places I've ever seen! People were sleeping all over the place..against walls, cuddled up on the dusty floors, and even posted up against trashcans. The train car we were in was considered "first class" but that was only because it had air conditioning! The train car itself was super super dirty....I didn't even want to sit on the seat!
We finally got to Agra and got a nice breakfast at a hotel that looked out to the Taj Mahal in the distance. After breakfast it was off to the famous Taj Mahal!
Of course we ran into monkeys on the way and had to stop and feed the little guys. None of us had any food with us except candy...so that's what one of the monkeys got! That monkey quickly grabbed the candy and starred at it for a good minute before realizing it wasn't a banana...but he ate it anyway; food is food!
We finally got to the Taj and took our sweet time looking around. Everything about the structure was incredible; from the symmetry to the marble to the carvings! While looking around, casey and I probably had 4 different groups of indians come up and want pictures with us "american girls"....I thought for sure all that stopped after china...guess I was wrong!
The next stop was to Agra fort, a marble shop, then off to a deserted city, and then we headed out for our 6 hour bus ride to Jaipur...aka "the pink city".
We arrived in Jaipur around 9pm and just in time for another gourmet indian buffet and a party with 6 DJ's all in the comfort of our Ramada hotel! First of all, 6 DJ's playing in a hotel we were staying at? That's a college kid's dream come true! Second of all, a 5 star RAMADA? That def. Doesn't happen in the states!
After breaking it down with the locals the night before, we woke early to venture into the pink city and catch elephants up to the Amber Fort. Yup that's right...ELEPHANTS! We rode two by two up a mountain on elephants and were greeted at the top with awesome indian music!
After that exciting morning we went to a small family owned textile and carpet store where we watched and learned how they literally made everything by hand! It's no wonder they charged about $800usd for a bathroom sized carpet!
The rest of our time in the pink city was spent in markets, more tuk tuks, and by the pool on the roof of the Ramada hotel.
The next day was a travel day to the city of Cochin. That night it was a good friend's 21st birthday who rented a party room in a hotel for all of SAS to celebrate her bday. Between the room and DJ, I felt like I was in middle school again at a bat mitzvah! Of course we all managed to have a good time!
Next stop: the paradise island of Mauritius! We were only there for two days, but it was the best 2 days ever!
I along with 60 SASers rented 3 villas in the same small complex right on the beach! I'm sure you can guess the shenanigans that went on from there!
More to come on South Africa and Ghana!
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
the Friedman fam meets Nam and Cambodia!
Warning: this is a long one...2 countries worth of stories :)
The first day in vietnam I was welcomed by my family and our tour guide named Fat ( or in the words of Don Friedman..."Fat boy") the ironic part is he was skinny! We take a van over the bridge where I was first introduced to thousands of motorbikes. I have never seen so many of these things in my life! It was like being in NYC traffic except all the cars are motorbikes! We shortly get to our 5 star hotel where I am in shock because the words 5 and star hadn't been in my budget the whole trip. By that point it was time for lunch and if it hadn't been for my newly found adventurous palate, we probs would have ended up at KFC. After a hearty vietnamese lunch we ventured to get dresses made. I was told there would be tons of stores that could custom make literally any dress as long as I had pictures...that was only half true. They got the sundress down to a tee, but the BCBG dress needs work! Next up: a war museum, the hard rock cafe, and in search of pepto bismal for mom. Charades came in handy at the pharmacy until they tried to give her acid reflux meds for an upset stomach!
That night we went to another vietnamese restaurant for dinner, but I'd have to say, crossing the street was more exciting then that meal! That's partly because there are no cross walks in vietnam and ur saposed to just slowly cross in the middle of traffic as the motorbikes dodge around people!
After dinner I managed to drag dad and matt to a famous bar called Apocalypse to meet up with pretty much all of semester at sea...it was a great night!
The next day we met our tour guide bright and early to go see the Cuchi tunnels...aka the enemy tunnels. We got to not only crawl through the tunnels where vietnamese people lived for over 20 years, but dad and matt also got to shoot an M16!
After that adventure we decided to take another through the streets around our hotel in search of lunch. I was in search of more vietnamese food, but somehow we ended up at a Japanese sushi restaurant...go figure! The rest of the afternoon was spent at markets where we found a replica of my ship (I guess they know semester at sea pretty well), DVDs for literally 50 cents, all the usual fake stuff, and of course a traditional vietnamese hat (the triangle looking ones with the chin strap). That was the first time I got to show off my new found bargaining skills to dad and he was so impressed he had me doing all the bargaining for the family!
That night I took the friedman family to the ship for dinner...they were quite impressed with life style for the semester.
The next day we woke up early and flew to Siem Reip, Cambodia! This country was literally the easiest visa process ever.... I walked in the airport in Cambodia, paid $20, gave a passport picture, waited 5 min. And voila....I'm allowed to be in Cambodia!
It was a short drive and great scenery to our hotel. We were driving on a newly paved road and all along the way seeing 5 star hotel after 5 star hotel. Our tour guide told us there used to only be 5 hotels and now there's about 150!
We were greeted at the hotel with a green "welcome drink"....we're not sure what it was, but we were sure it tasted funny! The hotel was incredible! The hotel itself was open air and very spacious, but the rooms were enclosed with air conditioning thank goodness! After walking past the front lobby, There was the most incredible, huge blue pool surrounded by lots of greenery and big comfy lounge chairs.
The two days in Siem Reip were spent sight seeing 5 temples, a dinner show, and a ship where silver was hand carved. The 5 temples literally looked like they came out of movies. One temple known as "the jungle temple" was actually used in the movie Tomb Raiders. All of the temples we saw were hand made from lava and sand stone thousands and thousands of years ago! Today they are sadly falling apart, but they are doing their best to restore them. The temples were either buddhist or hindu and mostly used today for tourists, though there were buddhist shrines in a few for people to pray and wish good luck on their family and friends. The last temple was we saw was Ankor Wat (aka a world wonder). This was by far the best of the 5 we saw! There was a long walkway over a moat to get to the temple before we hit the intricately carved entrance. I thought the entrance was pretty cool, after walking through and seeing the temple, I thought twice. It was 3 stories high and more intricately carved than the entrance. Words can't even describe how awesome this temple was!
We flew back to vietnam after our short trip to cambodia and had one day left to visit another world wonder...the Mekong Delta (the 7th longest river in the world!). We ended up having a small boat meant for 12 people just for our family and 2 tour guides! First we stopped at a coconut harvesting place where we learned they use coconuts for everything...including to make a lamp! We tried interesting fruits like one that looked kinda like a grape, but it had a shell in the inside and a big black seed on the inside. Next we took a horse drawn open carriage to a small family business where they make and sell Honey. They also had a huge snake for us to hold, but we said no thanks...friedmans and snakes don't mix well. After some sweet hot tea and a small game of vietnamese hacky sack we headed back to the delta but this time on small gandela like boats. We split up 3 and 3 and took the small boats back to our original boat. Next stop was learning how to make coconut candy...or rather watching people make coconut candy and us buying it. The last stop on the delta was lunch where the greeter was a huge water buffalo tied to the ground through a string in its nose! Ouch!
we sit at a table under a grass hut surrounded by a dirty moat and lots of greenery. 5 min later we see some one walking towards us with a deep fried fish held upright with 4 pegs. Literally they had pulled a fish from their pond, stuck the WHOLE thing in the deep fryer and served the WHOLE fish teeth and all to us! Surprisingly it was quite tasty!
The rest of the time I had that day with the fam. Was spent a another market of course. I found more DVDs while mom talked dad into buying place mats. Little did they know the place where I bought my DVDs had just taken my credit card somewhere to be charged...dad didn't like hearing that! I was soon after that being dragged across 3 busy intersections by a girl younger than me to get my credit card. She literally would grab my arm and lead me through the traffic of motorbike to get my credit card and then back again. It all happened so fast that my parents didn't even realize I was gone!
Well that's how the Friedman's do Vietnam and Cambodia...and if you cant smell it already, look out for india next!
The first day in vietnam I was welcomed by my family and our tour guide named Fat ( or in the words of Don Friedman..."Fat boy") the ironic part is he was skinny! We take a van over the bridge where I was first introduced to thousands of motorbikes. I have never seen so many of these things in my life! It was like being in NYC traffic except all the cars are motorbikes! We shortly get to our 5 star hotel where I am in shock because the words 5 and star hadn't been in my budget the whole trip. By that point it was time for lunch and if it hadn't been for my newly found adventurous palate, we probs would have ended up at KFC. After a hearty vietnamese lunch we ventured to get dresses made. I was told there would be tons of stores that could custom make literally any dress as long as I had pictures...that was only half true. They got the sundress down to a tee, but the BCBG dress needs work! Next up: a war museum, the hard rock cafe, and in search of pepto bismal for mom. Charades came in handy at the pharmacy until they tried to give her acid reflux meds for an upset stomach!
That night we went to another vietnamese restaurant for dinner, but I'd have to say, crossing the street was more exciting then that meal! That's partly because there are no cross walks in vietnam and ur saposed to just slowly cross in the middle of traffic as the motorbikes dodge around people!
After dinner I managed to drag dad and matt to a famous bar called Apocalypse to meet up with pretty much all of semester at sea...it was a great night!
The next day we met our tour guide bright and early to go see the Cuchi tunnels...aka the enemy tunnels. We got to not only crawl through the tunnels where vietnamese people lived for over 20 years, but dad and matt also got to shoot an M16!
After that adventure we decided to take another through the streets around our hotel in search of lunch. I was in search of more vietnamese food, but somehow we ended up at a Japanese sushi restaurant...go figure! The rest of the afternoon was spent at markets where we found a replica of my ship (I guess they know semester at sea pretty well), DVDs for literally 50 cents, all the usual fake stuff, and of course a traditional vietnamese hat (the triangle looking ones with the chin strap). That was the first time I got to show off my new found bargaining skills to dad and he was so impressed he had me doing all the bargaining for the family!
That night I took the friedman family to the ship for dinner...they were quite impressed with life style for the semester.
The next day we woke up early and flew to Siem Reip, Cambodia! This country was literally the easiest visa process ever.... I walked in the airport in Cambodia, paid $20, gave a passport picture, waited 5 min. And voila....I'm allowed to be in Cambodia!
It was a short drive and great scenery to our hotel. We were driving on a newly paved road and all along the way seeing 5 star hotel after 5 star hotel. Our tour guide told us there used to only be 5 hotels and now there's about 150!
We were greeted at the hotel with a green "welcome drink"....we're not sure what it was, but we were sure it tasted funny! The hotel was incredible! The hotel itself was open air and very spacious, but the rooms were enclosed with air conditioning thank goodness! After walking past the front lobby, There was the most incredible, huge blue pool surrounded by lots of greenery and big comfy lounge chairs.
The two days in Siem Reip were spent sight seeing 5 temples, a dinner show, and a ship where silver was hand carved. The 5 temples literally looked like they came out of movies. One temple known as "the jungle temple" was actually used in the movie Tomb Raiders. All of the temples we saw were hand made from lava and sand stone thousands and thousands of years ago! Today they are sadly falling apart, but they are doing their best to restore them. The temples were either buddhist or hindu and mostly used today for tourists, though there were buddhist shrines in a few for people to pray and wish good luck on their family and friends. The last temple was we saw was Ankor Wat (aka a world wonder). This was by far the best of the 5 we saw! There was a long walkway over a moat to get to the temple before we hit the intricately carved entrance. I thought the entrance was pretty cool, after walking through and seeing the temple, I thought twice. It was 3 stories high and more intricately carved than the entrance. Words can't even describe how awesome this temple was!
We flew back to vietnam after our short trip to cambodia and had one day left to visit another world wonder...the Mekong Delta (the 7th longest river in the world!). We ended up having a small boat meant for 12 people just for our family and 2 tour guides! First we stopped at a coconut harvesting place where we learned they use coconuts for everything...including to make a lamp! We tried interesting fruits like one that looked kinda like a grape, but it had a shell in the inside and a big black seed on the inside. Next we took a horse drawn open carriage to a small family business where they make and sell Honey. They also had a huge snake for us to hold, but we said no thanks...friedmans and snakes don't mix well. After some sweet hot tea and a small game of vietnamese hacky sack we headed back to the delta but this time on small gandela like boats. We split up 3 and 3 and took the small boats back to our original boat. Next stop was learning how to make coconut candy...or rather watching people make coconut candy and us buying it. The last stop on the delta was lunch where the greeter was a huge water buffalo tied to the ground through a string in its nose! Ouch!
we sit at a table under a grass hut surrounded by a dirty moat and lots of greenery. 5 min later we see some one walking towards us with a deep fried fish held upright with 4 pegs. Literally they had pulled a fish from their pond, stuck the WHOLE thing in the deep fryer and served the WHOLE fish teeth and all to us! Surprisingly it was quite tasty!
The rest of the time I had that day with the fam. Was spent a another market of course. I found more DVDs while mom talked dad into buying place mats. Little did they know the place where I bought my DVDs had just taken my credit card somewhere to be charged...dad didn't like hearing that! I was soon after that being dragged across 3 busy intersections by a girl younger than me to get my credit card. She literally would grab my arm and lead me through the traffic of motorbike to get my credit card and then back again. It all happened so fast that my parents didn't even realize I was gone!
Well that's how the Friedman's do Vietnam and Cambodia...and if you cant smell it already, look out for india next!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
ni hao ya'll
We began our China travels in the well known city oh Shanghai...this was such a cool city! Our ship docked right in the middle of the city and overlooked two giant glass sphere shaped buildings that looked like the world and a tall needle looking building in the middle.
We hit the streets as soon as we could and eventually stumbled upon a street full of restaurants. This wasn't just any old quiet street of restaurants...all the workers were standing out side waving and yelling at us to come into their restaurant. It was like being in the mall when all the chinese restaurants want you to try their food.
After lunch we walked around a main shopping area in desparate search of a cheap market. Little did we know that they didn't really exist where we were so we went to plan B....following the random chinese people who would come up and sketchly show us pictures of fake watches and purses..."You like you like"!
We were in a big group and figured if something went wrong we (or atleast the big guys we were with) could take em down...they're little people anyway. The back allys turned out to be a HUGE success! One sketchy room after another full of Louis, Prada, Gucci, Fendi, ...you name it! They even had nike, uggs, Polo, and North Face! We ended up meeting some students who were studying abroad in shanghai and gave us the low down on the goods in the back allys...they said some of it was def. Real and some were just really good copies.
We ended up meeting up with the students studying abroad in shanghai at an all you can eat and drink sushi place later that night. If its any indication of how the night was...there were 20 college students singing the national anthem before we left. But of course the all u can drink place wasn't enough fun for us college students so we headed to a club called Muse2. The funny part behind this. Is that there was a bar in japan called Muse that we got lost trying to find and were disappointed when we did to find out that it wasn't some crazy club. Muse2 was a different story and had tons of crazy lights and loud music... We LOVED it!
The next day started our 6 day Semester at Sea sponsored trip to xi'an (pronounced shian) and Beijing and ending in Hong Kong to meet our ship. This trip was amazing! First we flew to Xi'an and got right off the plane to learn how to write some chinese caligraphy. Then we headed to our hotel for a quick change and off to our dumpling diner where we tried 18 different kinds of dumplings! The sad part is I only liked about 3 of them :(. The next day we went to go see the xi'an city wall, a mosque, and a an old bazaar. I quickly learned the art of bargaining when I tried to buy a northface jacket. The guy started at 60usd and I got him down to 40usd...I had given in and was going to pay that amount when I realized I only had 30usd with me. Thank goodness for the chinese new year! A girl with me looks at him and says "oh come on its the new year!" He said "ok happy new year!"... Great success!
The next part of our day was by far the best when we saw the Terracotta warriors! For those unfamiliar ...these warriors were discovered by a random chinese farmer in the 70's and now the government has taken over and made a museum out of them all. These warriors were built by artists hired by the first emperor of china to protect his tomb. He literally had an entire army (as in like 5000+ ) of these statues made! Most of the statues have been uncovered, but there are still more to be found!
After the warriors we went to visit an orphanage where we played with the kids, watched a show they performed for us, and left them presents. Next stop...Tang Dynasty Dinner show. This was a dinner and show mimicking how royalty durning the tang dynast would have eaten diner.
That night we wondered around the streets in search of a good bar, but none were to be found. Instead, a fireworks show by locals in the city streets of xi'an! Literally these people would light the most amazing fireworks in the middle of the street with tall buildings and powerlines all around and cars passing by! That would not fly in the US!
The next day we flew to Beijing and stayed there for 3nights. We saw Tiennemen Square, the forbidden city, the bird's nest in the olympic village, and how to make silk in one day. For those wondering, the bird's nest was transformed into a winter wonderland for kids to sled, ice skate, and watch shows. Another day we saw kung fu masters, my personal favorite: the great wall of china, and a chinese acrobatic show!
I have to say we cheated getting up to the great wall of china...we took the cable car up :). BUT we did get some pretty sweet pics from the cable car! We walked about a mile on the wall and then got to toboggan down!! it was this giant silver slide looking thing that twisted and turned all the way to the bottom and we had our own toboggans that we could control how fast or slow we went. Of course we all chose to speed down the whole way even though the guards would tell us to slow down! Oops!
That night was the chinese acrobatic show and it was incredible! Tons of chinese men doing flips and stackings 4 and 5 high of people! And then the girls would come out and do crazy things like make a 4 person high pyramid while doing handstands on each other!
Early the next morning (as in 3:45am early!) We left for Hong Kong to meet our ship. Our ship was docked right in the middle of the city and at a mall! And not just any mall...it was the biggest mall in hong kong with hundreds of stores! And of course they weren't just any stores...they were all designer names....Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Faragamo, Polo...pretty much every single expensive brand that exists in the world!
That night we went out to the coolest bar district ever! It was called Lan Kwai Fung (I think that's the name, if not its pretty close). It was this long street solely lined with bars and clubs! Most def. A sight to see!
Well that's all I got for China! Check back for my travels around Vietnam in the next few days!
We hit the streets as soon as we could and eventually stumbled upon a street full of restaurants. This wasn't just any old quiet street of restaurants...all the workers were standing out side waving and yelling at us to come into their restaurant. It was like being in the mall when all the chinese restaurants want you to try their food.
After lunch we walked around a main shopping area in desparate search of a cheap market. Little did we know that they didn't really exist where we were so we went to plan B....following the random chinese people who would come up and sketchly show us pictures of fake watches and purses..."You like you like"!
We were in a big group and figured if something went wrong we (or atleast the big guys we were with) could take em down...they're little people anyway. The back allys turned out to be a HUGE success! One sketchy room after another full of Louis, Prada, Gucci, Fendi, ...you name it! They even had nike, uggs, Polo, and North Face! We ended up meeting some students who were studying abroad in shanghai and gave us the low down on the goods in the back allys...they said some of it was def. Real and some were just really good copies.
We ended up meeting up with the students studying abroad in shanghai at an all you can eat and drink sushi place later that night. If its any indication of how the night was...there were 20 college students singing the national anthem before we left. But of course the all u can drink place wasn't enough fun for us college students so we headed to a club called Muse2. The funny part behind this. Is that there was a bar in japan called Muse that we got lost trying to find and were disappointed when we did to find out that it wasn't some crazy club. Muse2 was a different story and had tons of crazy lights and loud music... We LOVED it!
The next day started our 6 day Semester at Sea sponsored trip to xi'an (pronounced shian) and Beijing and ending in Hong Kong to meet our ship. This trip was amazing! First we flew to Xi'an and got right off the plane to learn how to write some chinese caligraphy. Then we headed to our hotel for a quick change and off to our dumpling diner where we tried 18 different kinds of dumplings! The sad part is I only liked about 3 of them :(. The next day we went to go see the xi'an city wall, a mosque, and a an old bazaar. I quickly learned the art of bargaining when I tried to buy a northface jacket. The guy started at 60usd and I got him down to 40usd...I had given in and was going to pay that amount when I realized I only had 30usd with me. Thank goodness for the chinese new year! A girl with me looks at him and says "oh come on its the new year!" He said "ok happy new year!"... Great success!
The next part of our day was by far the best when we saw the Terracotta warriors! For those unfamiliar ...these warriors were discovered by a random chinese farmer in the 70's and now the government has taken over and made a museum out of them all. These warriors were built by artists hired by the first emperor of china to protect his tomb. He literally had an entire army (as in like 5000+ ) of these statues made! Most of the statues have been uncovered, but there are still more to be found!
After the warriors we went to visit an orphanage where we played with the kids, watched a show they performed for us, and left them presents. Next stop...Tang Dynasty Dinner show. This was a dinner and show mimicking how royalty durning the tang dynast would have eaten diner.
That night we wondered around the streets in search of a good bar, but none were to be found. Instead, a fireworks show by locals in the city streets of xi'an! Literally these people would light the most amazing fireworks in the middle of the street with tall buildings and powerlines all around and cars passing by! That would not fly in the US!
The next day we flew to Beijing and stayed there for 3nights. We saw Tiennemen Square, the forbidden city, the bird's nest in the olympic village, and how to make silk in one day. For those wondering, the bird's nest was transformed into a winter wonderland for kids to sled, ice skate, and watch shows. Another day we saw kung fu masters, my personal favorite: the great wall of china, and a chinese acrobatic show!
I have to say we cheated getting up to the great wall of china...we took the cable car up :). BUT we did get some pretty sweet pics from the cable car! We walked about a mile on the wall and then got to toboggan down!! it was this giant silver slide looking thing that twisted and turned all the way to the bottom and we had our own toboggans that we could control how fast or slow we went. Of course we all chose to speed down the whole way even though the guards would tell us to slow down! Oops!
That night was the chinese acrobatic show and it was incredible! Tons of chinese men doing flips and stackings 4 and 5 high of people! And then the girls would come out and do crazy things like make a 4 person high pyramid while doing handstands on each other!
Early the next morning (as in 3:45am early!) We left for Hong Kong to meet our ship. Our ship was docked right in the middle of the city and at a mall! And not just any mall...it was the biggest mall in hong kong with hundreds of stores! And of course they weren't just any stores...they were all designer names....Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Faragamo, Polo...pretty much every single expensive brand that exists in the world!
That night we went out to the coolest bar district ever! It was called Lan Kwai Fung (I think that's the name, if not its pretty close). It was this long street solely lined with bars and clubs! Most def. A sight to see!
Well that's all I got for China! Check back for my travels around Vietnam in the next few days!
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Domo Arrigato Mr. Roboto
Who's ready to hear about Japan!? We pulled into port in Yokohama (a suburb of Tokyo) around 8am, but because of customs we couldn't get off the ship till 11am. A group of 8 of us finally got off the ship and headed to Tokyo for 2 nights. After getting a bit lost on the Japan subway system, we finally made it to Tokyo and our hostel like hotel. That night we were trying to get to a bar called "muse" but of course with our luck we had to get lost first. After searching and playing charades with cab drivers around Tokyo for an hour, we finally made it to the underground bar with the help of my trusty Blackberry and Google. Thank goodness for technology! This next part gets a bit crazy...we decided to stay up till 6am and head to the world famous Japanese fish market. We were told it was definitely a site to see and well worth staying awake all night, and that it was! This was the market where restaurants go each morning to buy their fish, and let me tell you, this place was INCREDIBLE!! Giant fish, octopus, clams, shrimp....pretty much mass quantities of all types of seafood, and not to mention all the bargaining and hustle going on around us! We saw a fish so big, it had to be cut with a chain saw! As if seeing the fish market wasn't enough, our next goal was to taste the market. We soon found ourselves at a small sushi restaurant right next to the market eating the freshest and most amazing sushi I have EVER had...at 7am! Of course we passed out right after.
The next day we toured and traveled around Tokyo, and we saw the tech district as well as Hirajuku (anyone remember Gwen Steffani and her Hirajuku girls?!). Our third day in japan, we took the bullet train to Kyoto (my favorite of the 3 cities we saw). Kyoto is known for its traditional japanese buildings and temples. Unfortunatly it rained that day so we only got to see 2 temples before we were soaking wet and freezing. That's when we decided to try out the traditional Japanese public baths...that was def. An experience! These places were created for people who didn't have showers in their homes, but today they are mostly tourist attractions or luxuries for the Japanese. There were 2 separate sections, one for guys and one for girls. Basically it was 2 levels full of hot tubs, showers, and saunas! We talked to one woman there who said it was almost like going to the country club for some women because they come everyday! After that luxurious experience, we cabbed it back to the hotel and attempted to find sushi, but instead stumbled on a korean place where we proceeded to take full advantage of their beer prices :).
The next day we dragged ourselves to the train station where most of our group parted for Hiroshima, and Casey and I split off to venture to Kobe where our ship was "birthed" (as SAS likes to say). I was more than proud of mine and casey's ability to navigate the Japanese subways completely on our own to Kobe considering our lack of sleep and we had never traveled in Japan with just 2 of us.
Casey and I proceeded to pass out for the next 4 hours before it was time to explore Kobe's nightlife! 2 words....Great Success! We ended up stumbling on a bar called Philadelphia where the owner let us drink for FREE, and then we made our way to a Japanese reggae bar!
The next day 4 of us went on a mission to find the famous Kobe beef (2 points for anyone who knows the correct way to pronounce "kobe"!) We definitely hit the Jackpot and found a small hibatchi style restaurant that cooked the meat right in front of us. That was some of the best meat I've ever had! The scrumptious meal was a great ending to our voyage to Japan! Next stop....CHINA! Be on the lookout for a new post in the next few days! Love and miss ya'll lotsssssss!
The next day we toured and traveled around Tokyo, and we saw the tech district as well as Hirajuku (anyone remember Gwen Steffani and her Hirajuku girls?!). Our third day in japan, we took the bullet train to Kyoto (my favorite of the 3 cities we saw). Kyoto is known for its traditional japanese buildings and temples. Unfortunatly it rained that day so we only got to see 2 temples before we were soaking wet and freezing. That's when we decided to try out the traditional Japanese public baths...that was def. An experience! These places were created for people who didn't have showers in their homes, but today they are mostly tourist attractions or luxuries for the Japanese. There were 2 separate sections, one for guys and one for girls. Basically it was 2 levels full of hot tubs, showers, and saunas! We talked to one woman there who said it was almost like going to the country club for some women because they come everyday! After that luxurious experience, we cabbed it back to the hotel and attempted to find sushi, but instead stumbled on a korean place where we proceeded to take full advantage of their beer prices :).
The next day we dragged ourselves to the train station where most of our group parted for Hiroshima, and Casey and I split off to venture to Kobe where our ship was "birthed" (as SAS likes to say). I was more than proud of mine and casey's ability to navigate the Japanese subways completely on our own to Kobe considering our lack of sleep and we had never traveled in Japan with just 2 of us.
Casey and I proceeded to pass out for the next 4 hours before it was time to explore Kobe's nightlife! 2 words....Great Success! We ended up stumbling on a bar called Philadelphia where the owner let us drink for FREE, and then we made our way to a Japanese reggae bar!
The next day 4 of us went on a mission to find the famous Kobe beef (2 points for anyone who knows the correct way to pronounce "kobe"!) We definitely hit the Jackpot and found a small hibatchi style restaurant that cooked the meat right in front of us. That was some of the best meat I've ever had! The scrumptious meal was a great ending to our voyage to Japan! Next stop....CHINA! Be on the lookout for a new post in the next few days! Love and miss ya'll lotsssssss!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
greetings from the deep blue
For those of you constantly checking my blog and sending me dirty emails to update it (cough cough mom)...here's a quick update:
After Hawaii we sailed the ocean blue to Japan for 11 days. While in japan, I rushed around like a crazy person to see as much as possible in 5 days. After japan, we only had 2 days at sea to recover before we made it to China. Those 2 days were def. Not enough recovery time considering we still had class, we had to unpack from Japan, pack again for China, somehow sneak a little homework in on the side ( at this point I've almost forgotten the meaning of the word "homework"), and although sleep is a priority it seems to be geting lower and lower on that priority list. For the past 5 days we've been traveling ALL over china and still probs havn't seen even a tenth of the country. So as you can see I have been super busy, and basically I just havnt had time to sit down and write for my blog, but there are def. 2 (1 for Japan and 1 for China) posts soon to come! Love and miss ya'll lots!
After Hawaii we sailed the ocean blue to Japan for 11 days. While in japan, I rushed around like a crazy person to see as much as possible in 5 days. After japan, we only had 2 days at sea to recover before we made it to China. Those 2 days were def. Not enough recovery time considering we still had class, we had to unpack from Japan, pack again for China, somehow sneak a little homework in on the side ( at this point I've almost forgotten the meaning of the word "homework"), and although sleep is a priority it seems to be geting lower and lower on that priority list. For the past 5 days we've been traveling ALL over china and still probs havn't seen even a tenth of the country. So as you can see I have been super busy, and basically I just havnt had time to sit down and write for my blog, but there are def. 2 (1 for Japan and 1 for China) posts soon to come! Love and miss ya'll lots!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
a day in the life
For those of you pondering what a day in the life of a student at sea is like.... I wake up, go to one or two classes depending on what day it is, have lunch, lay out by the pool, have another class, then dinner, and then just hang out with friends for the night. Typically at night we'll hang out on the top deck and play games while drinking our allotted 3 glasses of wine or beer for the night (this is what the ship likes to call "pub night", at IU, pub night def. involves more than 3 drinks!). We only have classes when we're at sea, and when we're at port (usually for about 5 days) we are free to travel and sight see. It's like having spring break every other week :). Right now we are in Japan and I'm sooo happy to be on non moving ground! We were at sea for 11 days! In other news: the captain told us we had diverted 190 nautical miles during our 11 day journey(anyone know how many miles is in a nautical mile?) because of a storm. We were also told to secure our belongings because the seas would be REALLY rough for 24 hours! those were def. the roughest seas yet! It was like the scene in Along Came Polly when they're sailing through a huge storm and the waves are just crashing uncontrollably and shaking the ship like crazy! Also for your information: we crossed the international date line on our way to Japan and we are now a 15 hour difference from Nashville. Hope all is well and I miss and love you all lots!! More to come in few days after Japan!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
I know its been a while, but I haven't had much to report till now. As some of you may have heard, we went through ROUGH seas on our way to Hawaii. For 6 days straight! Imagine staring out the window and all you see is the ocean then a second later all you see is the sky! The was even a couple nights were we would be sitting on the top deck outside and everyone would slide to one end of the ship, and then slide all the way over to the other! There were def. Some pukers on board, but no worries I held strong! We finally made it to Hawaii after 7 days at sea and I have never been so happy in my life to see land! Our first Hawaiian stop was Hilo....if you ever visit Hawaii, DON'T go to Hilo! It was a very very small town and not much to do there other than the beach. But, I guess I can't complain too much though... Laying on the beach for 2 days was very very nice! After Hilo we sailed for 1 night to Honolulu...this is most certainly the place to be! Unfortunatly I got stuck going to the Polynesian Culture Center for a class. The center was built to teach people about 6 different polynesian cultures and was def. A tourist trap! This little field trip was saposed to last 12 hours, but me being me I said no way and lasted about 5 before I found 5 others who were looking to skip out as well. We ended up taking the $2.50 city bus (as opposed to the $120 cab) back to the ship which took us 2 hours!! That was for sure the longest bus ride EVER! We finally got back to the pier our ship was at and I of course had to do some shopping. And my most prized possession so far... A Ukulele with the Hawaiian islands sketched in it :) The next day we went to the famous Waikiki Beach (which is really a district and not solely a beach) and looked around the hotels and shops before actually going to the beach. In 1 hotel area, there were 2 parots, but only 1 could talk. So naturally we go try to talk to that 1 parrot. We got it to say "hello" and "aloha" before we started freaking and laughing so hard because this parrot could actually talk! I don't think the parrot liked us laughing at it because soon after our laughing attack it most def. said "f*** you"! I thought we were laughing hard before, but we all pretty much had tears in out eyes from laughing so hard after those last words! As of now we're well on our way to Japan (this is our 2nd day at sea) and I was told we will be at sea for 11 days ahhhhhhh that's a LONG time!!! Thank goodness for board games and movies! Well I should probs stop this procrastination and get back to class work (yes I do actually have to do work on this trip). Goodbye for now and there will be more posts to come!!
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