Two days ago, we left our last port of Hawaii. If I could sum up my experience there in a sentence it would be, "I am definitely back in the United States." Ford F350s dotted the roads, American flags were everywhere you looked, and stores like Walmart and Target stood there for us to marvel in the middle of a sea of parking spaces. These were the things that told me I was home, even if I am still essentially on the other side of the world from my little ole' golf course community in Oldsmar, Florida and my "Animal House" college house in Ann Arbor.
During our day in Hawaii, I had a FDP to a volcano. It was not exactly what I had imagined a volcano to be, with lava spewing from the center. It really was just a large hole in the ground with some smoke rising from a recess in the middle. It was cool though and I am happy I'm able to say I have seen a volcano. People don't need to know it wasn't erupting, right?
Leah, Nick, and Alexis had been researching hostels for that night while they were waiting for me at the station. They had found another capsule hostel in a prime part of town. They booked four beds for that night and we headed straight there to check-in and drop off our bags.
At the hostel, we met a group of Danish people who were going to a baseball game that night. We had heard that baseball games in Japan were quite the experience. And a night of baseball would not do us any harm after a crazy day and night of travelling. After we bought our tickets, we went to the Harajuku district. Yes, as where the Gwen Stefani's Harajuku girls hail from. Stores were filled to the brim with those fun, funky outfits, and accessories you see in her music videos. It was too much fun. We all, kind of, split up and explored in smaller groups. There was too much to see for us to worry about sticking together. We met back up for dinner and then headed to the game.
baseball game at the tokyo dome! go giants!
The game was a lot of fun! I am not sure how much the fans actually cared about who won and who lost (from what I gleaned, the competition aspect is not really there, there is kind of a “You’re all winners in our hearts and we're gonna have fun anyways”-attitude). They are definitely serious about showing their pride for their team. I don’t know about many other teams but certainly the cheers of Yokohari Giants and Chunichi Dragons fans sound more like harmonized chants than raucous cheers you may encounter in the United States. Not to mention, these fans can scream until they are as blue in the face as the average college-football fan.
The next morning I had a FDP (essentially a class field trip) to a Kabuki theater play. I am not going to lie. It was brutal. Four hours of play completely in Japanese with slow motion dancing. Afterwards, I met up with some people at the hostel we had stayed at the night before and we got sushi at a place where the rolls go by on a conveyor belt.
I was really excited about this because I love sushi! Being the sushi lover that I am, I had imagined Japan could be like the Candyland of sushi. Everywhere you went there would just be sushi and you would always have chopsticks to grab a roll or two as you walked down the street. Not so much. Sushi is a delicacy in Japan. It took us awhile to even find a place that served sushi. But when we finally found this place, it was totally worth the search. The sushi was so good.
Our last day in Japan, it was rainy outside, which definitely limited what we could do. It was kind of nice, though, because I was able to hang out in a coffee shop that morning, which, though it sounds crazy, is something you have to plan to do on this trip. It is one of my favorite ways to get to know a city and I really enjoyed the opportunity to "take it all in"when I feel like my mentality has constantly been, let's see how much I can squeeze into the time I have.
That afternoon, I went on an adventure with my friend, Brandon, to find the Japanese version of a Best Buy so that he could get an external hard drive. We were successful, but it was definitely an adventure. Picture a Best Buy on steroids, six stories tall, with every tech accessory and device you could imagine, all in the Japanese, and no one that works there speaks English. This is where I chose to spend my last hours in a foreign port.
The next day, we took the subway to Kyoto. It was the first day of the entire trip where rain seemed to put a damper on the situation. We toughed it out anyways and spent our morning at an old Buddhist monastery and gardens.
We got very lucky that our stay in Japan coincided perfectly with the peak in cherry blossom season. Cherry blossoms, as in the cherry blossoms that bloom in D.C. around this time of the year but not the imported kind, are beautiful and Kyoto is the place to see them. The gardens of this monastery were dotted with cherry blossoms, all over the place.
After our visit to the temple, we made our way to the train station to investigate how we would get to Tokyo. It is amazing how much time on trips like this needs to be devoted to logistics. We ended up purchasing 4 tickets on an overnight bus to Tokyo for $50 a piece. I was a little bit hesitant about this but bit the bullet and told myself it would be an adventure and go for it!
We grabbed lunch and made our way to a part of town, which was known for its cherry blossoms. It was gorgeous. As soon as you got off the subway, about a half hour ride from downtown Tokyo, and walked a couple blocks up, you were at an old abandoned train track with cherry blossoms lining either side. As we got there, the rain had just ended and a really awesome mist was hanging on the track and in the mountains above it.
We explored this area all afternoon and headed back to the train station that evening. Our train didn’t leave until midnight, so we planned on finding somewhere around the station to hang out for a few hours before we left.
We had had a great afternoon and the impending bus trip hadn’t occurred to me since we had bought our tickets. That is, until we reached the train station again that night. It was then that I started to freak out. The idea of a crowded bus in the United States scares me to death. I hate cramped spaces for an extended period of time. Then to imagine being on a cramped bus in Japan, where I did not speak the language, scared me even more. We were in the process of buying coffee when I blurted out, “I can’t do this!” I am usually an easygoing person and I never want to be “that girl.” But, I was about to be “that girl.”
at the old monastery.
My roommate calmly turned towards me and said, “Ok…” while Nick and Leah just sort of stared at me, confused. “I can’t get on this bus.” “Ok. We’ll figure this out. Let’s pay for these coffees and then we’ll see what we can do,” said Alexis. I was just as shocked as she was about my outburst but I felt an immediate sense of relief come over me once it was out there. According to astrology, Pisces are the divas of the divas. Most times I refuse to believe that this would ever be the case with me, but it is times like this where there is no denying, I am a Pisces.
As we paid for our coffees, my mind started moving at a million miles a minute. It was 9 o’clock. Obviously, I could not expect Nick, Alexis, and Leah to stay back with me and figure out another way to get to Tokyo. But, how would I get there? I probably couldn’t leave that night. Where would I sleep? I knew there was a bullet train, the fastest trains in the world, which could get me to Tokyo in 2 hours. But could I still get tickets? First plan of action, go to the counter that sells bullet train tickets. There were two more bullet trains leaving that night. But, I would get to Tokyo around 1 in the morning with nowhere to stay. The first train left at 6:25 in the morning, arriving in Tokyo at 8:30, just a half an hour after my friends were scheduled to arrive at the same station. I bought the $160 ticket. Done.
By this point, Nick and Leah were still in shock and Alexis was attempting to convince me to reconsider and come with them. Yet, in the back of her voice, I could feel that she sympathized and understood that I was not getting on that bus even if it meant I needed to stay in Kyoto for the rest of the trip.
walking along the train track!
My next course of action was to see if the bus station would refund my bus ticket. I did not have high hopes for this happening but was pleasantly surprised when they did with no questions asked.
Next was the trickiest part, where would I sleep? Hostelworld.com had become our new best friend on this trip but we were still in Japan and wifi was still as difficult to find as anything. I found a computer at a hotel across the street where you could pay 10 Japanese yen for 10 minutes of Internet. Done. Unfortunately, hostelworld.com does not allow you to make bookings the night of your stay. I wrote down the name of probably 5 hostels within walking distance of the train station, said a hail Mary, and told Nick, Leah, and Alexis I would meet them right off of the bullet train platform in Tokyo Station at 8:30 the next morning.
I wandered out into the streets on Kyoto and found the first three hostels were completely booked. I started to get scared. It was cherry blossom season in Kyoto, everyone and their mother, and their grandmother, was there. It was getting late. Then, all of a sudden, I saw a group of nice, college-aged-looking students walk down an alley and thought I could follow them to a hostel. Luckily that is right where they led me and it turns out they were Semester at Sea students. My lucky day! It turns out their hostel was full. Yet, they insisted I stay with them, even if it meant pushing two of their beds together.
It worked out perfectly. I woke up bright and early the next morning, caught my bullet train and was in Tokyo by 8:30. By the way, the bullet train was pretty freaking cool. Those things do go pretty darn fast. The only problem was who knew the bullet train platform was the longest thing ever and that Tokyo Station is one of the busiest stations in the world, so that within thirty seconds of arriving I had made up my mind that I would not find my friends. I stood right off of that platform for no more than a minute, made up my mind they were not going to find me in this mess and went to get a coffee. Then, just as I was walking away from paying for my coffee, I heard “Sara!” and saw the arm of my 5’11’’ roommate towering over the crowd. How that worked out, I do not know? But, it did.
I feel like this is one of those “You had to be there” experiences. Even as I reread my telling of it right now, it does not do the story half a justice and, frankly, it makes me sound like a prissy SASer. But, I can only communicate so much of this entire journey to you through words that no matter how many pictures I show you or stories I tell or weird souvenirs I bring home will be lost in translation. I guess that is both the beauty and downfall of this journey.
That first night in Osaka, I had a Skype interview for a summer internship scheduled for 10:30 P.M., which was 9:30 A.M. back home. Before that, a group of us were kind of exploring the streets of Osaka, looking for something fun to do. I had told the group around 9:30 that I was going to go try and find Internet, get myself set up for my interview, with enough time to spare, and then meet them back at the same place around 11:15, since my interview was not supposed to be more than 30 minutes long. Well, who knew, in this technological heaven of a place, that finding Wifi is like finding the Holy Grail, impossible. It is so frustrating because there are evidently Wifi networks everywhere. Literally. Because the routers are showing up in the hundreds on your iPhone but they are all locked. So, you go into MacDonalds (which they call MacoDonaldos, btw) or wherever and offer to buy everything on the menu in exchange for the password to their network but no. They will not give you the password because…to this day, I do not know. They shake their heads and say “No. No wifi. No.” When, clearly there is a network called “Starbucks” or whatever showing up with 4 bars on your phone!
So, the hour began to pass, as I went from “Wifi Hotspot” to “Wifi Hotspot.” I went to an internet café that “didn’t have any room for (me),” a hotel that would let me use their wifi in their lobby but where a horrible band was playing tacky Bar Mitzvah-worthy music, every American chain restaurant and store I passed, and every storefront that said “Wifi.” Nowhere worked. Eventually, I ended up in a booth at MacDonald’s half crying, half fuming with anger as 10:30 came and passed.
out in Osaka. what did kyoto say to tokyo? oh, saka that!
All of a sudden, two Semester at Sea students came down the stairs at this random MacDonald’s in Osaka, Japan. I hope neither of them read this but it was almost comical that it was these two. They are two of the nicest boys you will ever meet, but also two of the most attractive boys on the boat. So, these two Abercrombie model-looking boys walked up, sat on either side of me, and listened to my situation like I was reciting the Presidential Address or something and were both like, “We are going to figure this out.” Both of them were so sympathetic. It was like they were late for their own interview. One of them looked like he was going to cry for me, while the other was en route to the counter to demand that they give him the password. He was so persistent but these lovely MacoDonaldo employees were even more persistent and he came back empty handed.
Then, as if right on que, my good friend, Theresa, who goes to the University of Michigan and is on Semester at Sea with me, walked by this random MacDonald’s in Osaka, Japan with the girl whose house she was couch surfing at. Couch surfing is a way to travel where you are able to go online and search for people offering a couch to sleep on for the night. Theresa and her new friend, Yuka, saw us in the MacDonald’s and came in to say hi. I explained the situation to them.
Before I could finish, Yuka pulled out a mobile router she conveniently had in her purse. Within a couple minutes, I had linked my phone to it and signed onto Skype, just 7 minutes late for my interview. Luckily, the woman who was conducting my interview was unbelievably understanding of my situation and the interview went well! And, I got the internship!
At the end of the day, I did not think much about this experience. When you have been travelling around the world for 3 months, things like this become normal. Usually, things just work out and, if they don’t, it’s all part of the adventure. Maybe that’s not only the case when you are travelling around the world, and maybe life, in general? I’m not sure. What I do know is that I will most likely, hopefully, knock on wood, never have an interview like that again but, in hindsight, boy, I am happy it happened that way.
Last dance. Yes, it’s my last chance. So, let’s dance! Let’s dance. Last port! Last port! Yes, it’s my last port. Juuu-pan. Japan! No. But, for real, guys. This is it, my last port. Well, other than Hawaii, but at that point we are back in Amurica and all the fun is gone. It’s back to cell phones and internet and cars and elections and malls. But that’s a different post. Now, we are talking about Japan.
So, let me preface Japan by saying that I was having a…sort of, psychological…thing the entire time I was in Japan. I felt like, because it was our last foreign port, I needed it to be the best it could possibly be but I also wanted all the other ports I had just experienced within short succession of one another to make sense, to be processed and filed away, at least temporarily, in my catalog of ports, by the time I had gotten there. Well, I am not sure I accomplished either of these things. I certainly, even still, have not begun to processed Vietnam or China or Singapore. I think all of that will have to happen when I get home and will continue to happen long into the future.
at the second hand market.
I decided to travel Japan with a small group of just four. The nice thing about Japan was that it was small enough and easy enough to travel that we could constantly run into other Semester at Sea’ers if we wanted to or explore on our own as a small group if we wanted to. Fun fact: Japan is about the size of California but 128 million people live there. About million shy of half the population of the entire US. Japan was organized like China by Semester at Sea, in that you were able to travel overland from Kobe to Yokohama or choose to get back on the boat for the one-day transit to Yokohama. I chose to travel overland again.
The first day, we decided to explore Kobe. We wanted to find some Kobe beef but decided we didn’t want it bad enough to pay the $30 a bite it costs to say you had Kobe beef in Kobe. Literally. Thats what is costs. Instead, we explored a secondhand market downtown. This market was so confusing because it was not a market full of secondhand Japanese items but a market full of secondhand clothes and knick-knacks from the United States. They had random things like old pins, old football jerseys from high schools in places like Nevada and Iowa, just the most obscure things you could think of.
We spent most of the day there and then took the subway to Osaka, which is only about 45 minutes away. That night we stayed in a capsule hotel. This is "a thing" in Japan and its so interesting! Each person gets their own little capsule with a bed, a T.V., towels for the showers, all the necessities in a probably 6 by 3 foot space. It’s actually really comfortable and was only $12 a night!
The following day, I went for a run in the park next to our hostel. It was the Chinese version of a central park. Cute older Chinese people came out to the park for their early morning tai chi. Jungle gym type things, which reminded me of what would be built for children in the U.S., were all over the place and adults would use them for their morning workouts.
We had a dim sum lunch and then Emily and I split up for the afternoon. I explored a hip area of downtown called Soho. I spent a lot of time at a completely organic, hippyish restaurant owned by an Californian. He told me about the great revolution he sees brewing across the world and how everyone, sometime very soon, is going to come together and banish all wrongdoing, and hatred and war in the world. It was very interesting. After that I needed something a little more..."chinese" so I hung out in a dumpling restaurant, tried bubble tea at "the first bubble tea stand ever" and wandered through a flower market.
Josh suggested we go to horse races that night. But, once we got there, we found that the regular races weren’t happening because it was a public holiday.
We had to wake up early the next morning to get to the airport for our flight to Shanghai. Luckily things went smoothly at the airport and we were in Shanghai by 2 o’clock. We took the Shanghai metro, which is the largest subway system in the world, right from the airport to the boat.
That night, we went to the tallest bar in Shanghai on the top of the Park Hyatt, which has an awesome view of the city and extremely overpriced drinks.
the park hyatt.
The next day, a group of us explored the streets of Shanghai, eating amazing street food and walking through the garment district. We ate lunch at an awesome restaurant called Din Tai Fung. It was a dim sum restaurant. They have one in Seattle and another in Los Angeles. So, if you live in either of those places, I highly recommend going there. It was kind of a fancy restaurant and we order a good amount of food, but everything came out to $12 each.
That night was the first night of Passover. I reserved a spot at the Shanghai Chabad’s seder. What an experience that was. There were people from all over the world there. A good amount of people from Semester at Sea. A soccer team from Miami. People from South Africa, England, Spain, Austria, all over the world. The rabbi had everyone who knew a different language say the first question of the four questions in that language. It was pretty cool. The food was…interesting. I think their resources were quite limited considering the seder took place at the Renaissance hotel in Shanghai. But, the experience was still pretty cool, to be celebrating this holiday with people from all over the world in China.
at the seder in shanghai.
The last day, a large group of us went to an electronics market filled with knock-off Dr. Dre Beats, iPods, iPhones, whatever you could want. The indoor market was 4 stories tall and pretty overwhelming.
A group of four of us broke off from the group and eventually stumbled upon a park filled with small printer-paper sized posters with information about single individuals. People come there to find their partners. It was like the Chinese version of match.com. This was just the craziest thing ever to me.
Our last couple hours in Shanghai we hung out by the water, just talking to people and soaking it all in.
The next morning we visited a large Buddha statue. At the time, I was under the impression that it was the largest Buddha statue in the world (and its pretty big so it's not hard to believe) but a quick Google search revealed otherwise. It’s not even the biggest in China. Fail. But, it is one of the biggest in Asia and that makes it pretty cool. It sits on top of a hill on Lantau Island, just off the coast of Hong Kong, right next to a Buddhist monastery. People come from all over China to pray to the Buddha. Just to get to the base of the statue, you have to walk up a flight of probably 200 stairs. But, Buddhists who visit have no problem stopping every third or forth step to kneel down before him.
We ate a large lunch at the monastery and then took the metro to the Fa Yuen market, which was filled to the brim with fun, Chinese fashions and delicious street food. I told emily I would meet her back at the front of the market in 6 hours. I had so much fun just wandering the streets. I didn't even end up buying anything, mostly because I was overwhelmed at the amount of stuff they had there. I talked to a bunch of different type of people. People who owned stores, backpackers, everyone trying on shoes with me in a shoe store. It was great. There is something very freeing about experiencing something on your own. You know for certain that nothing but your own inhibitions hold you back so you dive into whatever you are doing.
a bakery at the fa yeun market.
Once I met back up with Emily we headed back to our hostel for the night. Marcos was right, this hostel was great! And in a great part of town. We bunked in a room with 6 girls and the entire hostel only housed around 12 people at a time so was cozy. Everything was very clean and brand new. We later found out is had only opened up 5 days before so literally brand new.
That evening, we met up with Josh, my cousin’s brother-in-law who lives and works in Hong Kong. It was so nice to see a familiar face! I had an interview for a summer internship that night so Josh let me use his computer and internet at his apartment. How crazy is it that I can casually have an interview in Hong Kong?
Looking back on my time in China, I see a major transition from the other ports. I think India scared me a little. It was the first port where I felt like maybe I had messed up. There are a million and one ways you could spend your time in any given port. Yet, you choose one and go for it, with everything you have. Hindsight is always 20/20 and the grass is always going to be a least a little bit greener on the other side. In the end, though, you could sit there for hours analyzing each port and each minute you had there and how you chose to spend it, making yourself crazy. When you have an amazing opportunity like this, it is only natural to have the fear that one day you will look back and think, "Maybe, I didn't do it right. If only I had done this instead of this." Yet, there is an unspoken art in learning to be happy with what you did and what you will do in the future. This is what I was coming to terms with in China.
I had felt constrained by the group in India. And, that is the last way you want to feel when you are traveling the world. Then, the very next port, Vietnam, I went on another Semester at Sea organized trip to Cambodia and, though I did not feel nearly as restricted, the larger group innately made me feel like I could not completely experience everything exactly as I would have wanted.
Thus, I was determined to experience China on my own. I was still secretly looking for that Eat, Pray, Love revelation, even if it didn't happen in India. And, it seemed like China was the perfect port to do it in because I had been there before. Nearly everyone I knew was determined to see the Great Wall. We initially ported in Hong Kong and had the option of getting back on the boat or traveling overland to meet the boat in Shanghai. Hong Kong is in the far south, Beijing is in the north, and Shanghai is somewhere in the middle to the east. So, while the Great Wall is pretty cool I didn't really see the need to travel an additional 2 and a half hours by plane to see it again.
Luckily, my friend, Emily, was not interested in going to the Great Wall either. We booked plane tickets straight from Hong Kong to Shanghai and agreed that we wanted this port to be our own so, while we would stay in the same hostels and, for the most part, eat together, neither of us would be offended if the other wanted to go off on our own.
Emily, in our hostel the first night.
The first day, I had a FDP to the offices a social activist group. It did not start until the afternoon, so that morning, a group of us set out to hike "The Most Beautiful Urban Hike in Asia," Dragon's Breath Peak. We thought we would be able to ask a couple of people along the way how to get there but, whether because of the language barrier or more likely because people in China just don't hike too much, no one had heard of it. Everyone had heard of Victoria’s Peak, though, a viewing point on the top of a hill in the center of town. From the top, you can see the entire city below. So, we eventually grew tired of asking and gave up on Dragon's Breath. We set out to hike to the top of Victoria's Peak. Yet, we failed at that as well. No one walks to the top of Victoria's Peak. You can walk down, but you can't walk up? Even if you ask where the exit to the walk down is its a secret. No one will tell. So, we gave in and took the tram ride up. And it was completely worthwhile, even if we did not get to hike at all. It is definitely one of the coolest viewing areas I have ever seen.
That night we went out on a street called Lan Kwai Fong. It was a lot of fun. I guess I would say it is kind of like Hong Kong's version of Bourbon Street. Bars line the street but they are so packed that people just spill out onto the streets and its like one big party.
Early the next morning, Emily and I went on a mission to find a hostel. The boat was leaving for Shanghai that night and we wanted to be sure we had somewhere to stay when it left port. We noticed online that there was an area of town with a proportionately high number of hostels. So we decided to go there, choose one and be on with the rest of our day.
This was not as easy as we had hoped. We arrived at the first hostel, which was located in what is called a mansion. Mansions are essentially apartment buildings, with everything from hostels to restaurants to currency exchanges inside. We had arbitrarily picked a hostel from the list and took the elevator up. Just getting onto the elevator was an adventure. Because so much is packed into these mansions, that there is a line to get onto the elevator.
We reached our floor, squeezed out of the elevator and knocked on the door that read "R ception." A small, older Chinese woman came to the door. She inquired (maybe screamed would be a more apt word) as to whether or not we were the British girls she had talked to earlier that day. We said we weren’t and, without a blink, she began to close to the door. Could we make a reservation for tonight? “No! Reservations only make online!” We went to two more hostels and had the same exchange with the people we met there. We finally made our way back to the ground level of the mansion.
the view from our hostel room.
As we looked for somewhere to reevaluate our strategy, we noticed a bunch of small Indian food stalls on the main floor. We hadn’t left India that long ago but the food looked too good to pass up. And, let’s face it, when is a bad time to have Indian food, even when you are in Hong Kong. We stopped in one of the stalls for some curry, naan and samosas. The restaurant’s owner was from Punjab. He was so excited that we had been to India, even if we hadn’t been to Punjab, and that we were from the United States that he told everyone that came into the restaurant our story. We stayed there for a while after we ate, just chatting to all of the people who came in, all of whom were from India. How cool is it that I can talk to Indian people about India while I am traveling in Hong Kong?
Eventually, we resumed our search for a hostel. But, apparently we looked pretty lost because a guy name Marcos stopped us and asked if we needed help. He was from Spain but had just lived in Australia for three years and was now traveling the world for 3 months before he went back home. He was an expert hostel booker and told us there was no way we were even looking at a hostel unless we booked the reservation first. Since it was getting late, we wanted to find internet right away and make a reservation for at least the first night. Marcos helped us find internet and gave us a list of everything he had done and everything we should do while we were in Hong Kong. He was leaving that night but was a huge help. He probably spent a good 2 and a half hours of his time helping us get everything situated for the rest of our trip. He even told us about a hostel on the other side of town in a really nice area that he had heard of and, though it was booked for that night, helped us book beds for the next two nights that we were there.
If someone had approached me in a similar way in the United States, I would have been skeptical and creeped out. But, I guess when you are traveling, you learn that, at some points, you are going to have to rely on strangers. You could do a background check on everyone you meet. But, you probably won't and you will end up using your absolute best judgement and gut. And, ultimately, at least I learned, that people will surprise you.
Marcos had helped us book a 2-person room at a guesthouse in a mansion just down the street for that night. We decided to go there right after we left Marcos and drop our stuff off. It was satisfactorily clean and safe and the woman who ran it invited us to "a party" on her roof "with beers and her new British friend." We politely declined and went out to find some dinner. Afterwards, we were exhausted so we went to the top of the Sheraton hotel to watch the light show that happens every night across the Hong Kong skyline. By the end of the day, we really had not accomplished that much but I was sure it had been a day that will hold its weight amongst others on this amazing trip.
getting ready to ride a motorcycle taxi in ho chi minh. safety first!
The last day in Vietnam I went to the War Remnants Museum. This was an amazing experience. It was unbelievably interesting learning about the war that we call the Vietnam War through the eyes of a people who call it the American War. The museum, in fact, used to be called the Museum of American War Crimes. While it was evidently a museum created with a pro-Vietnamese sentiment, I got the impression that it was somehow catering to the foreign tourist. For example, the entire first floor was designated to pictures and paper clippings from the time of the war from all over the world, including the United States, illustrating opposition to the actions of the American government. I learned, after the fact, that you were meant to begin at the top floor of the museum and work your way down. However, I found it interesting that the very first thing you saw as you walked into the museum was a sort of validation to the argument that the American government was wrong.
After the war remnants museum we explored Ho Chi Minh for our last couple of hours there. We wandered through the markets, tried the street food, spoke with the people we met along the way. For our last meal we attempted to find the place that we had eaten at on the first day but failed miserably and ended up wandering around asking people for directions. We found ourselves at a restaurant that served pho but was not the one we had initially eaten at. At the time, this was frustrating but after all is said and done and I am back home driving to get lunch somewhere I have eaten a thousand times, its this experience that I will miss. How lucky am I that I can say I got lost looking for a restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City?
Our first day in Cambodia was mostly consumed by travel. By the time we flew to Siem Reap, drove to the hotel, got settled, and grabbed a late lunch, it was mid-afternoon. From lunch, we drove to the first cluster of temples built by the Khmer empire, which reigned from the early 800s all the way through the 1300s. Now, they are amazing ruins covered with intricate carvings all over the huge sandstone blocks they are made of. We were able to explore the Angkor Thom and Phenom Bahkeng structures for about 2 hours before we sat down for dinner.
The following morning we woke up at the crack of dawn to see sunrise at the Angkor Wat temple. Semester at Sea seems to have an affinity for waking up people at the crack of dawn, even if there isn’t that much to see. How do we make sure a group of 20 something college students don’t go too crazy at night? Give them something they will feel guilty about missing at 6 AM? I see what your doing Semester at Sea. I see what you are doing. Anyways…this is the largest and most famous of all the structures that comprise the ancient capital of Angkor. It is pretty cool but no different at 6 AM verses mid-afternoon or even mid-morning. The rising sun is kind of hidden by the massiveness of the structure. It was still pretty freaking cool to be there. We were able to go back again after brunch at the hotel and it was still cool 3 hours later.
see me? i'm that little gray dot in the left hand corner.
After that second trip to the temple, we drove to the offices of an organization called EGBOK. EGBOK was started just 3 years ago by a Semester at Sea alum who graduated from Cornell’s hospitality school. He told us that he had fallen in love with Cambodia the first time he traveled there, with his family, even before Semester at Sea. He decided to use the skills he had learned at Cornell to start EGBOK and do his part to help rebuild Cambodian society. Recognizing that the tourism industry was growing rapidly in Cambodia and that many of the high-end hotels were hiring their employees from outside of Cambodia, from places like Vietnam, the Phillipines, and Malaysia, he decided to create an organization that trained Cambodians to work in the hospitality industry. After getting a brief explanation of the organization and its model, we were able to meet some of the students and tour one of the sites where they hold their classes.
part of a land mine that had blown up near by.
That night, we sat down to a four-course meal completely cooked by EGBOK students. It was excellent and super gourmet. It was great seeing the pride the students had for what they were doing and talking to them about it. That dinner really helped me to understand the many ways in which EGBOK benefits the students who participate in its program. And, to see a Semester at Sea alum putting their experience and skills towards something they are passionate about was very inspiring.
The next morning, we went to the Ta Prohm temple. This was by far the coolest temple, in my opinion. It is where they shot the movie Tomb Raider. Trees and vegetation have overrun the ruins and grown in the most bizarre places and ways. One tree was growing right on top of an archway. Like, how does that happen? It was so cool. In the afternoon, we took a boat to a floating village, which probably would have been a lot cooler if it wasn’t the dry season and boat did not keep getting caught on the bottom of the lake…That afternoon, we headed to the airport to return to Vietnam. I was bumped up to first class on a fluke. It was a short flight but I highly recommend flying first class next time you are in Cambodia.
these kids were selling pictures of themselves with that snake for $1.
The second morning, I awoke bright and early to meet the Semester at Sea group I was traveling to Cambodia with. I had always wanted to go to Cambodia. I learned about the genocide inflicted on its people during the Khmer Rouge Regime when I participated in a summer program through Putney Student Travel my sophomore year of high school. Between 1975 and 1979, the Khmer Rouge, headed by Pol Pot, was responsible for the systemic killing of nearly 3 million Cambodians (about one fifth of the population). The regime targeted anyone considered to have connections to the previous government, professionals and intellectuals, urbanites, and anyone remotely related to an ethnic minority. This criteria and the subsequent killings left a very young, unskilled Cambodian population in its wake. Today, 50% of the Cambodian population is under the age of 25 as a result of the genocide.
It was this fact that initially struck me about the Cambodian population. How is it that a population, a country, is meant to recover after loosing such a large and integral portion of its population? Yet, they were doing it, rebuilding their infrastructure and society, when I first heard of the genocide back in high school, and they continue to do so today. The strength of the Cambodian population and their willingness to rebuild and reinvent their nation is what has stuck with me since that summer nearly 7 years ago. It was for this same reason that I signed up to travel to Cambodia through a Semester at Sea sponsored trip months before I got on the boat.
