IN two three four, HOLD two three four, OUT two three four five six, HOLD two, again!

•       Stepping off the shuttle that brought us out of the harbor area was like putting your feet in those “cleaning tanks” with fish that nip at your skin. Not sure what I mean by that? Well I step down the bus stairs and am swarmed (first fish reference), then I find every piece of my exposed clothing being pulled at (fish reference #2), then you walk away and they follow, some of them still managing to cling onto your fabric, some get lost in the crowd or attach themselves to the next tourist (fish reference #3), and finally once you past an invisible threshold, only one or two remain. Who are these people you may be asking? Rickshaw drivers.
•       Rickshaw driver: (n) a man whose occupation consists of driving a 3 wheeled golf cart (see def. Rickshaw) as a means of getting tourists from point A to point B in the most inefficient manner possible. More likely than not, stopping at a few stores along the way with the assertion that it is where the tourist really wants to go, or that it is inexpensive. Neither which is true (they get commission, you see). English phases used most often: “One quick stop!” “yes, very cheap” and “no, no, no, no 150 EACH”. Generally a combination of amusement and frustration is elicited from the passengers.
•       My SAS trip: Dakshina Chitra Heritage Village. I’ll give you the honors of looking that one up on their website: artofliving.org
•       For me it consisted of 16 hours of breathing exercises and meditation. And when the trip description says: “Comfortable accommodations with the right ambiance are provided at the popular tourist center,” they mean cockroach filled cots lined up next to one another with a sheet and something they refer to as a pillow (though in the states I think we call it furless road kill whose rigge mortus is setting in).
•       Contrary to how it sounds when I describe it, I found it rejuvenating. I thought that meditating would be like that frustrating time of night when you are ready to fall asleep, but you find yourself still awake 2 hours later and you dare not look at the clock because then you’ll redo the math and realize that you only have 5 hrs of sleep left. But then you realize that you have to pee, just a little, but you know that with that feeling it’ll be even harder to fall asleep. So you cave in, and pull the covers off. And against your will, your eyes wander and sneak a peek at the clock and your brain is all over that math like a fat kid and a bowl of ice cream. 4 hours. Great. WELL meditation wasn’t like that at all. It was very relaxing and entrancing. I found myself snowboarding down a hill for the better half of 2 hours on one occasion and not once did I think about the GRE!
•       I also ate vegetarian India food for the 3 days that I was at the heritage village, and took a bucket shower and used squat toilets. You wouldn’t believe how excited I get when I see a dirty old nasty seat toilet with 4 squares of tp left, TMI? Sorry, but seriously, perspective folks, everything is relative.
•       So India was great even if I did see the Taj. I did see a bunch of adorable wild monkeys. My mom and I laughed when my travel medicine doc circled “monkey bites” under the India section of the fat packets she gave me before I left. But, as cruel humor tends to reveal itself, someone did get bit, eek!
•       Oh! And even though I still don’t like India food, I ate at an “oriental” restaurant the first day and had some amazing southeastern Asian food. Horizons are broadening people, alert the masses. (aka people like Andi and Anna hehe)

Spring Break 2010: Mauritius

Getting back in chronological order...

•       To get from the place we docked to the rest of the land, we took motor boat taxis. Pretty legit.
•       KFC with chicken that tastes suspiciously of fish (it is an island after all so I can’t blame ‘em)
•       Pride of a bird that has been extinct for…like hundreds of years or something (1600’s maybe? Apparently this bird is not as important to me as it is to the Mauritians) The Dodo bird in case you were wondering. They market the sh** out of this unimpressive, but more importantly nonexistent, bird to tourists.
•       I went on the best hike of my life to a waterfall. It wasn’t  one of those “cross back and forth on a small dirt path slowly up the mountain” types. We were hacking our way through brush, jumping over streams, and bouldering up rocks covered in loose dirt. SO much fun. And the reward? A beautiful waterfall, ending in a clear pool of water. I sat in a cave behind the water falling down and watched the rainbow flowing back and forth across the waterfall. Breathe taking.
•       Went to a hotel at night along a beautiful beach.
             o Sandy heels
             o Rock cut feet
             o Unnaturally colored cocktails
             o A night to remember (and for many one that is going to be tucked nicely in the trunk in their heads labeled: “Warning: Do not open)
•       Successful little Spring Break in the middle of a sobering and eye-opening experience.
•       Not honeymoon worthy though

SingaWorld

Singapore apparently went from a 3rd world country to a 1st world country during the last 40 years. At the cultural pre-port (the one hour presentation the night before we arrive in a country where a local talks about their hometown--what the traffic is like, what food is good, and tries to make awkward jokes about prostitution)…okay that was such a long parenthesis that I will start that sentence over. At the cultural pre-port they explained to us how this transformation took place. It sounded sort of like they took a lot of highly educated business people from around the world and had them come to work at Singapore and thus upped the GDP there, and also something about becoming a center of Eastern trade and some other mumbo jumbo. My analysis: they created SingaWorld, an international attraction that takes tourists’ money. Now this isn’t the official name of the international attraction that is Singapore, but I thought it had a nice ring to it. If you like Disneyworld/land or Universal Studios, overpriced rides, 3D “terrorizing shows” and the like, then you’ll definitely enjoy Singapore. In fact, they even have a branch of Universal Studios. AND they have a “ride” (or 20 minute movie) in 4-D! My friend Brian and I looked at each other a little confused. With furrowed brows he said what we were both thinking, “but the fourth dimension is time”. A few moments passed and I finally proclaimed, “OH! It’s just real life!” He looked at me puzzled (I guess he missed my sarcasm) and so I explained further that maybe you pay your $40 (each) and walk into a room that has another door on the other end with a sign that says “prepare yourselves for 4D!” and the unsuspecting tourists walk through the door and, wait for it, ENTER THE REAL WORLD. Imagine that! Sounds fascinating. But considering that Brian and I had just spent 20 bucks to ride a gondola to get to this island in a “Jeweled Tran”, which ended up being the exact same thing as the ones we ride in Tahoe but with a touch screen T.V. in it showing you all the amazing attractions you will be about to see, we couldn’t justify partaking in any of them. Even walking to the top of this giant lion sculpture (called a Merlion--google it) cost 10 bucks. ANYWAY, besides the disappointment that Singapore isn’t really much of a country country, it was kind of cool to see how hi-tech and absolutely CLEAN it was. Especially in contrast to India.

SingaWorld has a few things going for it. It’s the safest place on Earth! What a great and original catch-phrase, eh? Disneyland, Happiest place on Earth; SingaWorld, Safest place on Earth…I guess it’s one of those “had to be there” or “had to have visited there” kind of jokes. Anyway, Singapore is so strict about littering and spitting on the ground and chewing gum and such that it’s spotless as well. I didn’t see a single pot hole. Also, they have some of the highest paid politicians in the world (their president equivalent makes 2.75 million a year, compared to Obama’s $400,000) and consequently, the lowest rates of corruption. But while they seem to be very modernized and civil, guess what their punishment for compromising the modesty of a woman (i.e. whistling at her)? I hear jail time, fine, and the gentleman in the back said “trick question”, well you are all wrong. The answer is caning. How does this work you might ask. Well they have “caning rooms” at their police departments. Let’s say you are sentenced to 5 canings. Well you first go to a physician’s room and they check you out, to make sure you are in good enough health to be caned. Then, presuming you are, you go to the caning room when you are asked to remove all your clothes. Then you bend over, bum out and are striked by the caner 5 times in a row. To make matters worse, it is actually against the law for the caner to hold back at all. So now your bum is throbbing in pain and you might need more medical attention or bandages because you are bleeding. Oh, and good luck sitting down for the next couple weeks. Sounds kind of primitive right?

Remember when, I think it was Clinton, who took a “get tough” policy on drugs (because his childhood days of smoking weed became public and he wanted to cover his un-caned bum), well let’s take a look and how Singapore handles their druggies. Let’s take for example, someone who has half an ounce of weed on them. For those of you unfamiliar with the weight of weed, that’s like $200 worth (sources tell me). So you get caught with it and arrested (same as the states) but now what happens. A fine, jail time, trick question? WRONG! Death. Or if you are really really lucky, life in prison, and a whole lot of caning.

So Singapore was an interesting place full of Prada and Exploratoriums, and zip lines, and roller coasters. But we were only there for a day and a half, so I liked it. I just don’t think I’m going back. Unless I plan on becoming a politician. Then there’s a chance ;-)

I nearly forgot. I did one more touristy, Disneyland type of adventure. A night safari drive at the Singapore Zoo with a Halloween theme. I saw a ton of animals that are nocturnal and got “pee-my-pants” scared (okay so maybe I exaggerated my screams a bit for the entertainment of my fellow jeep riders, but they really did do a great job in their make-up and surreptitious behavior--they even grabbed you unsuspectingly). The buffet style dinner had Indian, Singaporean and Chinese cuisine and wow did I forget how much I love teriyaki beef skewers and kung pow chicken! I can’t even fathom how amazing Taco Bell will taste when my mom picks me up in San Diego with a soft taco and a nacho cheese chalupa (extra beef) in hand.

Sorry: Out Of Order

These signs are so annoying to read on vending machines when you’re craving Cheetos and Sprite, and even more so on the only bathroom available on a 5 hour stretch of highway. But at least, for those things, there is the silver lining that one day (presumably soon) it will be fixed and someone just like you will walk up to that vending machine or bathroom and use it problem-free. Unfortunately, in the manner for which I am using it in my blog, it will never be fixed for I am using it for its literal meaning. The next blog you read is for Singapore. BUT as you might have guessed, I’ve been to Mauritius AND India between S. Africa and Singapore. But I am writing my blogs out of order. Mostly because… okay I actually can’t think of a good excuse at the moment, but just accept it and move on. Read about Singapore, and then tomorrow, or when I get a chance I will write about Mauritius then India, then Vietnam (since I’ll be there in 8 hrs!!). So don’t go getting your panties in a bunch when you see that the next blog is Singapore. I gave you fair warning. Enjoy!

Afrikan at Heart

It has been called to my attention that this blog didn't get through the first time, however I have in my "sent" box proof that I did send it to my blogspot via email, so I blame SAS (as usual). Mauritius to come tomorrow. And I'm halfway through my India visit. Time is a curious matter.

So, South Africa was the port that I was probably the most excited about before embarking on this voyage. I was actually was planning on going abroad during winter quarter to the new Stanford overseas program at Cape Town. But during last winter quarter when everyone was finding out where they would be studying abroad in the Fall I had an “oh shit” moment. I realized that many of my friends would be off campus, I wasn’t going to get very good housing because I was using my tier 3 housing lottery number and it just sounded lonely. But all the deadlines had passed for applying to be abroad in the Fall. That’s when I came across Semester at Sea and fell in love with the idea. And even though I was excited that I was going to get the opportunity to visit 11 countries, I still had a burning desire to get to South Africa. But then Morocco and Ghana blew my mind and I tried to convince myself that I was just excited to get to Africa. But I didn’t fully convince myself as evidence by my giddiness on the ship sailing to Cape Town.

I had a safari the first 3 days and nothing planned for the last 3. My group was actually the first to get off the ship and step onto South African soil (or pavement, or whatever). I kind of wish I had run to the front of the group so I could be the first off, but being the 15th person off the ship out of 800 still felt pretty cool. So we were off to the airport to go to Kariega Game Reserve (I bet there is a website if you want to see our standard of living- which was unbelievable by the way in case you are too lazy to type that into google). And guess who was at the airport?! Rugby players! Okay maybe that’s only really cool to me, but my mom made me watch Invictus before leaving for SAS. And there were pictures of Nelson Mandela at the airport and holy cow did that movie do a great job at Morgan’s make-up! Anyway, it was all a pretty unreal experience, and I hadn’t even seen any animals yet!

So the safari. Well actually one more thing about the plane ride. Turns out that South African’s aren’t as cheap as American’s when it comes to complementary food on planes and we had amazing juice boxes and yummy meat sandwiches. That was the way there at least. On the way back we had some kind of meat sandwich that was florescent opal in some areas. I took a picture to prove it because I was a little shocked and didn’t think you all would believe me. It kind of looked like the inside of a muscle shell on the beach. Anyway, that was weird, but off topic. The animals. So we dined like royalty, buffet style with all kinds of foods, and PIZZA. I also tried ostrich and alligator, neither of which I’m a fan of, but at least I tried it! My sister is probably shaking her head right now in disbelief, but hey, when in Africa right?

Well, then we went on a game drive. Our tour guide, Timbre (or at least that’s what it sounded like) was a very nice, but serious type of guy. He told us right away that we might not see every animal we want to. They are in their natural habitat and we have to track them. If we were disappointed about that, we should have gone to a zoo. I liked his attitude. I was not signing up to see lions in fake plastic rock beds behind a fence. So we start driving along the dirt road and on one side of the reserve were the giraffes, impala, zebra, wildebeest, water buffalo, and some others that I can’t think of at the moment. On the other side were the lions, elephants, rhinos, hippos, and food for the lions (more impala and such). Over the course of the 3 days I saw all of those animals! Sadly, the first night I didn’t feel so good after the food and went to bed early but didn’t sleep much, and when I did I’m fairly positive I dreamt of Pepto-Bismol. So I missed the morning game drive and didn’t get to see the warthogs which is actually upsetting since I had just rewatched Lion King a couple days before (greatest decision of my life, I swear) and I really wanted to see Pumba. Oh well, I still had a great time and got to see the lions and the cubs, who were like teenagers in size. It was definitely a once in a life time experience that I want to have again someday.

Every morning was a 5am wake up call, and we were up late seeing nocturnal animals, so I was really tired the day I got back to the ship, but still managed to walk around Green Square Market and get some really cool crafts. I’m stalking up on gifts for Christmas and I’m really excited about my purchases from the market. The people are so nice and pretty fun to bargain with. It’s a fine line between getting the price lower, and not robbing them of the little money that they do make. It’s also good to get out there early in the trip because SAS takes over every city we go to and the locals learn that they can actually get a lot more money out of us than then usual European tourists.

The last most exciting thing I did was pet a Cheetah! Sadly, all of my friends had safaris the last 3 days so I really didn’t know anyone who was around Cape Town when I got back, so I probably didn’t “do Cape Town” right. I couldn’t safely travel on my own and it literally was like everyone I even just sort of knew (like well enough to tag along with them) was gone. So I didn’t get to go to Boulder Beach which was crawling with penguins, and I didn’t get to go to the aquarium, etc. But I did do one more SAS trip to a Cheetah reserve. And surprisingly, I think the best part about it was the owls! They are my new favorite animal. The Cheetahs were majestic don’t get me wrong, and learning about how endangered they are was moving and petting one was mind-blowing, but  the owls. They were so soft and so loving and SOO cute. Some of them looked like Hedwig (Harry Potter reference for you deprived adults) and one was only a month or two old and still covered in its fluffy feathers. They were just all over these tables for us to pet and hold and I can’t even describe how cool it was. Then we put on a garden glove and learned about birds of prey and they landed on us! Someone even got a video of this hawk like bird landing on me and me petting it.

I am so lucky.

Halfway Away From YOU

To my lovely west coast readers, I just wanted to let you know that we officially read the same time on our analog clocks. (Note to younger readers, analog means the ones that are hard to read, if you invested in a digital one so that you wouldn't be wearing glasses like your adult counterparts (ie parents) then we still read the same time, but you might have a dot near a marking indicating "PM" while that dot isn't on my close right now.)

I also wanted to mention that the South Africa blog post is coming soon, tomorrow soon, I've been a little under the weather (quite literally in some respects, more on that later) and have been busy getting 100%'s on my two tests WOOT WOOT. But as my old babysitter used to say (or actually Tigger.. but I'll give her the cred) Ta-ta for now!

Ghana Returns

Day 2: I woke up early after a good (long) night’s rest and packed up for my SAS trip. We were going headed to an amazing hotel that was more like a full-fledged resort and were treated to a supreme meal of Ghanaian food and lots and lots of Fanta. Turns out, most of the world enjoys bottled Fanta like we drink Hi-C (or is that just me who drinks that at Taco Bell mixed with some Baja Blast! Mountain Dew? Yeah maybe just me) and like Mexico drinks Tequila. We sat under an overhang with a pool and bar area to our left, our rooms to our right, and overlooking a sandy beach and ocean waves. So this is what paradise is! After our bellies were full, we loaded back onto the bus to head to Kakum National Park to walk amongst the canopies of the trees on a thin, rickety, wooden bridge. Oh you thought I meant thin like 3 feet wide! No, no, no, I’m sorry let me clarify. We walked on a series of really long planks of wood. So we’re talking 6 inches wide. Now mom, once again I am going to have to save you from a heart attack. On either side of this “bridge” (or sorry excuse for one) nets extended past the height of my waist which allowed me to have no fears about stepping out over the trees, some 40 meters high and…RUN! We walked across at least 7 of these bridges in the rain forest; get this, while it was RAINING. Now that’s a rain forest. Ghana just does not know how to disappoint. The view was breath taking--looking out AND looking down (and across and side to side and backwards and upwards…). Well it started raining the moment we stepped foot out of the bus, so naturally it stopped raining the moment we stepped foot back on the bus.

Yet another unbelievable native dish was served for dinner (I’m actually enjoying the food, look at me mommy, all grown up!) and a bon fire on the beach followed. The ambiance reminded me of a mix between Stanford Sierra Camp’s Wednesday night family camp fire and again, Survivor. We stripped our shoes and walked about ten feet into the ocean and climbed up on some rocks that revealed themselves during low tide. We stood, chatted some, but mostly just tried to absorb the pure and utter awesomeness of where our lives had brought us. You could see it in people’s faces, in their stance and in their voice: dream-like delight. After we climbed back ashore, dessert was served--some kind of amazing tasting ice cream with strawberries and watermelon at the bottom--while some Ghanaian dancers and musicians entertained us with African dance and music, AND fire breathing. The dancers wore hay skirts, much like the ones Hawaiian hula dancers wear, but let me tell you, they were still pure MAN. In the black of the night their bare chests camouflaged and their lean muscles glistened with sweat in the firelight. These guys were all strength. They jumped and shock and flipped and spun and NEVER stopped moving. Unbelievable! Honestly dumbfounded. Please scoop my jaw off the floor. These kids were talented.

Sadly, I need to wake up in 4 hours for my Safari in South Africa! And thus the third installment of this Ghana blog will be coming soon. But for now: To Be Continued :-P