Friday, April 25, 2008
Hawaii
Hawaii was the mid way stop of our 19 day journey from Japan to Costa Rica, and we only had one day there. That morning Hilton and I decided to go try to see the Arizona Memorial in the morning and then meet up with a group of girls from Oklahoma State to go skydiving with. Unfortunately for us a cruise ship of 7000 old people arrived on the same morning that we did and I think all of them had the idea to go to the Arizona Memorial in the morning. The place was packed and there was no way for us to get over to the Arizona Memorial on the ferry unless we wanted to wait 3 hours. After visiting all of these impoverished and Asian countries the past few months, it was surprising to see the mass amount of fat people at the memorial. Since we didn’t have time to catch the ferry, we walked around the museum they had on sight and then caught a cab back to the ship to meet up with our skydiving group. We got to the ship an hour early so Hilton and I walked across the street and had a sandwich at Subway. After that we met our group outside of the dock area and got a cab ride to the airstrip. Once we got there we filled out some forms and were up in a plane in less than an hour. The plane ride was about 10 minutes and they took us up 14000 feet and shoved us out of the plane. It was the most fun thing I’ve ever done. I paid a little extra to have a guy jump out of the plane with me and take pictures. The freefall was a minute long, plunging 120 mph toward earth. I can’t wait to do it again. After skydiving we went to check out the beach, which was just like every other beach in the world, sand and water. Then we ate at a Wahoo’s Fish Taco’s just like the one in Boulder, and went to a sports bar to catch some of the NBA playoffs before getting back on the ship.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Hong Kong & China
In China Andrew and I made plans to travel with Andrew and James from Hong Kong to Beijing and then to Shanghi. The ship didn't get cleared that morning until around 11, and the first thing we decided to do was go to a travel agency to get our rail passes for Japan that you can only get outside of the country. Then we met a friend of Andrew Green's who has been working in Hong Kong for 4 months and he took us to a good dim sum restaurant for lunch. The rest of the day we spent walking around the streets of Hong Kong, going in the shops and looking around the market. That evening we went to eat dinner at a place that I had read about that was famous for their Goose which was very delicious. The next morning we woke up and went to the peak tram which took us to the top of a mountain that had a great view of the city. We walked around the peak and ate lunch at a restaurant up there. After that we went back to the ship to pack our things and leave for the airport for our flight to Beijing at 5:00. I was impressed with how big and efficient the Hong Kong and Beijing airports were, everything went smoothly for us. Another thing was how quiet the airports were, no one seemed to talk, and it was kind of creepy.
After our 3 hour flight we arrived in Beijing and our driver picked us up and drove us to our hotel. Once at our hotel we ate dinner at the restaurant there and went to sleep to get some good rest for our big day tomorrow. The next morning our driver Tom picked us up at the hotel at 7:00 and we went to the Summer Palace. It was a giant complex with lots of temples and pagodas scattered around a lake. After just coming from India and Cambodia where we saw much more impressive temples, we were somewhat templed-out, and unimpressed with what we saw. We mostly watched and took
pictures of the massive sea of Chinese people walking around us. We ate lunch at a buffet by the palace and then headed to the Great Wall. We walked on the Great Wall for about 2 hours and took tons of pictures before riding a toboggan down to the bottom. At the bottom we walked around the market that was set up there and then we drove back to our hotel in Beijing. That evening we went to see an acrobatic show and we ate dinner at a duck restaurant. The next day we spent walking around the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Later that evening around 6 we got a cab to the train station where we took a surprisingly nice overnight train to Shanghi.
We arrived in Shanghi at 7:00 and we got a cab immediately to where the ship was supposed to be docked but it wasn't there. After a confusing conversation with the port security they finally handed us a phone with someone on the other line who spoke English and they told us that the ship wasn't supposed to dock until later that night because of the heavy fog. Since we didn't want to be carrying our bags around with us all day we decided to get a hotel room. After we got our room we walked around the city all day and went to the shanghi museum. That evening we met up with Ben and Walker, who has been living in China for 7 months, and we went to a Cantonese restaurant to eat. It was nice to travel around with walker because he by now he can speak pretty good Chinese and that helped out a lot when ordering and getting around.
The next day Andrew and I walked around town some more by ourselves and found a place to get a cheese burger. We found a place where he could wirelessly connect to the internet on his i-phone so we could get the play by play on the NCAA national championship game. Since Kansas won, I won $345 on the bracket pool we made on the ship. We went back to the ship around 1 and unpacked our things and took a nap. About 2 hours later we met some friends on the ship and went out to eat and I couldn't help but to order another cheeseburger, I've gotten real tired of Asian food.
After our 3 hour flight we arrived in Beijing and our driver picked us up and drove us to our hotel. Once at our hotel we ate dinner at the restaurant there and went to sleep to get some good rest for our big day tomorrow. The next morning our driver Tom picked us up at the hotel at 7:00 and we went to the Summer Palace. It was a giant complex with lots of temples and pagodas scattered around a lake. After just coming from India and Cambodia where we saw much more impressive temples, we were somewhat templed-out, and unimpressed with what we saw. We mostly watched and took
pictures of the massive sea of Chinese people walking around us. We ate lunch at a buffet by the palace and then headed to the Great Wall. We walked on the Great Wall for about 2 hours and took tons of pictures before riding a toboggan down to the bottom. At the bottom we walked around the market that was set up there and then we drove back to our hotel in Beijing. That evening we went to see an acrobatic show and we ate dinner at a duck restaurant. The next day we spent walking around the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Later that evening around 6 we got a cab to the train station where we took a surprisingly nice overnight train to Shanghi.
We arrived in Shanghi at 7:00 and we got a cab immediately to where the ship was supposed to be docked but it wasn't there. After a confusing conversation with the port security they finally handed us a phone with someone on the other line who spoke English and they told us that the ship wasn't supposed to dock until later that night because of the heavy fog. Since we didn't want to be carrying our bags around with us all day we decided to get a hotel room. After we got our room we walked around the city all day and went to the shanghi museum. That evening we met up with Ben and Walker, who has been living in China for 7 months, and we went to a Cantonese restaurant to eat. It was nice to travel around with walker because he by now he can speak pretty good Chinese and that helped out a lot when ordering and getting around.
The next day Andrew and I walked around town some more by ourselves and found a place to get a cheese burger. We found a place where he could wirelessly connect to the internet on his i-phone so we could get the play by play on the NCAA national championship game. Since Kansas won, I won $345 on the bracket pool we made on the ship. We went back to the ship around 1 and unpacked our things and took a nap. About 2 hours later we met some friends on the ship and went out to eat and I couldn't help but to order another cheeseburger, I've gotten real tired of Asian food.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Vietnam & Cambodia
The morning that our ship pulled into the Saigon River to Ho Chi Minh City we woke up amid a sea of students scrambling to get all of their paperwork to get off the ship as well as parents who had come to Vietnam to meet their children on the ship. From the area our ship docked in there was a shuttle that ran from the ship to the middle of Ho Chi Minh City where most of the shopping and sights are located. It took around 30 minutes for the bus to get from the dock to the city, but if you took a motorcycle it would only take around 10 minutes. Almost everyone in Vietnam rides a motor cycle, and no one abides by any sort of traffic laws. When crossing the street we couldn’t just stand there and wait for the traffic to eventually stop. What everyone does is simply walk out into the traffic and trust that the motorcycles are going to drive around you, and once you start walking you can't stop because they judge your walking speed and steer around it. The first thing we did once we reached the city was to go find a place to get some cheap suits made. We walked around the market for a while and after bargaining with different tailors we settled on a store on the main street, which looked like they would do the best job. The rest of the afternoon we spent walking around the city, visiting different stores and spending our $1 bills on shirts and DVDs. Everywhere we went in Vietnam they accepted American currency and most restaurants and stores had all their prices listed in American dollars. That evening we rode the bus back to the ship and then Andrew and I went to dinner with a group of girls at a sushi place.
The next day Andrew and I teamed up with Andrew from Kansas and we got a taxi ride outside of the city to the Cu Chi tunnels. It was a very interesting presentation that the Vietnamese had there. First we are put in a room where we watch a video about the Vietnam War, which is much different in their eyes than ours. Most of the video was about communist war hero's that ousted the evil American troops. Then they took us to different areas where they had props set up of how the Vietnamese soldiers lived in the tunnels and we were able to crawl through the tunnels and explore on our own. Then we went to an area where we were able to shoot Ak-47's, M-30's, and M-60's, which needless to say was the highlight of the tunnel experience. Later that afternoon when we arrived back in Ho Chi Minh City we walked around and bought some more DVDs before dropping it all back of the ship. Later that evening after eating Vietnamese cuisine in the city we decided to get a cab ride to a bowling ally I had read about in a book on the ship. Our cab driver didn't speak any English and he took us 20 minutes away to a bowling ally outside of the main part of town which wasn't what we had in mind. When we walked in every eye stared at us, but we were not deterred and ended up playing 2 games. After bowling we got a cab back to the ship because the next morning we had to wake up for our trip to Cambodia.
Our trip started at 10 a.m. with the infamous Semester At Sea trip breakfast of a hard boiled egg, chicken wing, and sandwich. Sixty students piled into 2 separate buses and set off for the airport for our flight to Phnom Pen. Getting through security was easy and the flight was only 45 minutes. Days before we arrived in Vietnam the Semester At Sea staff reminded us over and over not to forget a passport sized photo when going to Cambodia or you wouldn't be able to get a Cambodian visa. Well as luck would have it I forgot my passport photo in my room. Andrew had an extra copy of his photo, so for a while on the plane I debated weather I should try to use his photo or not once we arrived in Cambodia. Luckily I remembered that I had a copy of my passport in my luggage, so I
ripped out my picture and used that when we arrived. In the airport in Cambodia I decided that I would pull out some cash from the ATM because all we had was American currency and I didn't know if it was accepted in Cambodia. At the ATM I realized that the only currency I could pull out was American. In fact Cambodians choose to use American dollars over their own currency, so even most ATM's in Cambodia give out American currency. This is because most money that Cambodia has received since they have become a democracy has come in American dollars, and because their own currency is so weak.
That afternoon we went to different Hindu and Buddhist temples as well as some museums. When the evening came we went on a riverboat cruise on the Mekong River to watch the sunset. After the river cruise we went to an orphanage, but before hand we stopped by a supermarket to buy candy and gifts for the kids once we arrived. I bought Hershey’s kisses and a bucket of little packets of some sort of fruit jello which none of the orphans liked. I talked to the different orphans but one that had the most impression on me was an 18 year old who was brought in off the streets when he was 14. He was so excited to talk to us, and he asked me many questions about my family, school, and the ship we were on. He especially enjoyed practicing his English because he wanted to become a tour guide. After the orphanage we went to eat at a Cambodian restaurant and then finally to our hotel for a much needed shower and rest.
The next morning Andrew and I and two others decided not to go with the group but to split off and do our own thing. We had read about a place in Cambodia called Thunder Ranch where if the price was right you could shoot rocket launchers and rpgs. We asked around the hotel and found a took-took driver who said he knew what we were talking about and he could take us there, so the four of us jumped in with him to see if it was true. First before we went we had the driver take us by the killing fields where the Khmer regime killed millions of Cambodians that did not agree with their political ideals.
After walking around we got back in the took-took and headed with our driver to what we hoped would be Thunder Ranch. Where he took us wasn't Thunder Ranch, but was a spot for tourist on a Royal Cambodian Air force base. When we arrived they gave us a menu, but it wasn't food on the menu, it was weapons. One of the best menu's I've ever seen myself. I scanned all the way down on the back to the rocket launchers, and inquired about them. In order to shoot them we had to drive an hour away into the mountains to fire it at the side of a mountain, and we only had two hours time until we needed to be at the airport to meet the rest of the group so we didn't have time. But what we did have time for was to shoot Uzis, Tommy Guns, and throw hand grenades. After thoroughly enjoying ourselves we bought a few t-shirts and left to go to the airport. On our way back we saw a sign for a raceway and we asked if we could go race and our driver turned around and took us there. At the racetrack we raced go-karts that went up to 60 km per hour, and after going the the F-1 race in Malaysia I got really into it and had a great time. Oh yeah and I won.
Before the Airport we stopped at a pizza shop and I ordered us a large supreme pizza with a crust stuffed with sausage and cheese, something I had never seen before and just had to try. At the airport we met up with the rest of our group and got on a plane to Angkor. Once we arrived we went straight to Angkor Wat, which is a huge Hindu temple complex over 1000 years old. We walked around the temple snapping pictures everywhere for 2 1/2 hours until sunset. After sunset we went to a restaurant with an excellent international buffet and a stage where dancers performed the traditional Cambodian dance. Once we left and got to the hotel I went straight to sleep without even taking a shower. That next morning Andrew woke up at 4:30 to go see Angkor Wat at sunrise but I kept sleeping because I wasn't feeling too well. At 8 I woke up and joined everyone else on the bus to go visit some more temples at Angkor Thom. This is where Laura Croft: Tomb Raider was filmed and it was a lot of fun to explore because we were able to scramble up the ruins of the temples all the way to the top. We drove to different temples (they seemed endless) until the late evening and finally to the airport for our flight to Vietnam and back to the ship.
The next day Andrew and I teamed up with Andrew from Kansas and we got a taxi ride outside of the city to the Cu Chi tunnels. It was a very interesting presentation that the Vietnamese had there. First we are put in a room where we watch a video about the Vietnam War, which is much different in their eyes than ours. Most of the video was about communist war hero's that ousted the evil American troops. Then they took us to different areas where they had props set up of how the Vietnamese soldiers lived in the tunnels and we were able to crawl through the tunnels and explore on our own. Then we went to an area where we were able to shoot Ak-47's, M-30's, and M-60's, which needless to say was the highlight of the tunnel experience. Later that afternoon when we arrived back in Ho Chi Minh City we walked around and bought some more DVDs before dropping it all back of the ship. Later that evening after eating Vietnamese cuisine in the city we decided to get a cab ride to a bowling ally I had read about in a book on the ship. Our cab driver didn't speak any English and he took us 20 minutes away to a bowling ally outside of the main part of town which wasn't what we had in mind. When we walked in every eye stared at us, but we were not deterred and ended up playing 2 games. After bowling we got a cab back to the ship because the next morning we had to wake up for our trip to Cambodia.
Our trip started at 10 a.m. with the infamous Semester At Sea trip breakfast of a hard boiled egg, chicken wing, and sandwich. Sixty students piled into 2 separate buses and set off for the airport for our flight to Phnom Pen. Getting through security was easy and the flight was only 45 minutes. Days before we arrived in Vietnam the Semester At Sea staff reminded us over and over not to forget a passport sized photo when going to Cambodia or you wouldn't be able to get a Cambodian visa. Well as luck would have it I forgot my passport photo in my room. Andrew had an extra copy of his photo, so for a while on the plane I debated weather I should try to use his photo or not once we arrived in Cambodia. Luckily I remembered that I had a copy of my passport in my luggage, so I
ripped out my picture and used that when we arrived. In the airport in Cambodia I decided that I would pull out some cash from the ATM because all we had was American currency and I didn't know if it was accepted in Cambodia. At the ATM I realized that the only currency I could pull out was American. In fact Cambodians choose to use American dollars over their own currency, so even most ATM's in Cambodia give out American currency. This is because most money that Cambodia has received since they have become a democracy has come in American dollars, and because their own currency is so weak.
That afternoon we went to different Hindu and Buddhist temples as well as some museums. When the evening came we went on a riverboat cruise on the Mekong River to watch the sunset. After the river cruise we went to an orphanage, but before hand we stopped by a supermarket to buy candy and gifts for the kids once we arrived. I bought Hershey’s kisses and a bucket of little packets of some sort of fruit jello which none of the orphans liked. I talked to the different orphans but one that had the most impression on me was an 18 year old who was brought in off the streets when he was 14. He was so excited to talk to us, and he asked me many questions about my family, school, and the ship we were on. He especially enjoyed practicing his English because he wanted to become a tour guide. After the orphanage we went to eat at a Cambodian restaurant and then finally to our hotel for a much needed shower and rest.
The next morning Andrew and I and two others decided not to go with the group but to split off and do our own thing. We had read about a place in Cambodia called Thunder Ranch where if the price was right you could shoot rocket launchers and rpgs. We asked around the hotel and found a took-took driver who said he knew what we were talking about and he could take us there, so the four of us jumped in with him to see if it was true. First before we went we had the driver take us by the killing fields where the Khmer regime killed millions of Cambodians that did not agree with their political ideals.
After walking around we got back in the took-took and headed with our driver to what we hoped would be Thunder Ranch. Where he took us wasn't Thunder Ranch, but was a spot for tourist on a Royal Cambodian Air force base. When we arrived they gave us a menu, but it wasn't food on the menu, it was weapons. One of the best menu's I've ever seen myself. I scanned all the way down on the back to the rocket launchers, and inquired about them. In order to shoot them we had to drive an hour away into the mountains to fire it at the side of a mountain, and we only had two hours time until we needed to be at the airport to meet the rest of the group so we didn't have time. But what we did have time for was to shoot Uzis, Tommy Guns, and throw hand grenades. After thoroughly enjoying ourselves we bought a few t-shirts and left to go to the airport. On our way back we saw a sign for a raceway and we asked if we could go race and our driver turned around and took us there. At the racetrack we raced go-karts that went up to 60 km per hour, and after going the the F-1 race in Malaysia I got really into it and had a great time. Oh yeah and I won.
Before the Airport we stopped at a pizza shop and I ordered us a large supreme pizza with a crust stuffed with sausage and cheese, something I had never seen before and just had to try. At the airport we met up with the rest of our group and got on a plane to Angkor. Once we arrived we went straight to Angkor Wat, which is a huge Hindu temple complex over 1000 years old. We walked around the temple snapping pictures everywhere for 2 1/2 hours until sunset. After sunset we went to a restaurant with an excellent international buffet and a stage where dancers performed the traditional Cambodian dance. Once we left and got to the hotel I went straight to sleep without even taking a shower. That next morning Andrew woke up at 4:30 to go see Angkor Wat at sunrise but I kept sleeping because I wasn't feeling too well. At 8 I woke up and joined everyone else on the bus to go visit some more temples at Angkor Thom. This is where Laura Croft: Tomb Raider was filmed and it was a lot of fun to explore because we were able to scramble up the ruins of the temples all the way to the top. We drove to different temples (they seemed endless) until the late evening and finally to the airport for our flight to Vietnam and back to the ship.
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