Hawaii is here! Disembarking in about 8 hours or so…
First stop: U.S.S. Arizona memorial.
Afterwards, we’ll see what happens. Beach?
Also, from the Ambassador’s Ball:
Archive for the ‘Plans’ Category
Plans - Hawaii
Monday, May 7th, 2007Plans - Japan (and Day 1 recap)
Wednesday, April 25th, 2007The land of the rising sun! We arrived in port this morning, got molested by the thermoscan device (we all thought it would be something cool like an x-ray machine, but it ended up turning out to be a video camera-looking thing we walked past), and the ship quickly emptied out as most everyone went to pick up their Japan Rail Passes and went onto Hiroshima, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, and Tokyo. Due to some unforseen circumstances, my Japan group ended up having to kill our plan of Kyoto/Osaka/Nara, and instead of making a day trip or two to those cities.
This morning, however, I found out everyone in my group was on the waiting list for overnight homestays and that every single one of them got in, meaning that I will be solo for two days. They get back on Friday afternoon, and we will be travelling to Kyoto either that night or the next.
Today we spent the day shopping in the Sannomiya district of Kobe, where I finally purchased a new camera - a Canon Ixy Digital 90 (which I believe is the same as the Ixus/PowerShot SD900). Pictures and videos shall return!
FYI: No one has been able to get cell service here. It’s not because our cell phones don’t support the GSM bands here (Some of us have multiband ‘world’ phones), but it may be that Cingular and T-Mobile haven’t set up international roaming with the local providers. This is quite inconvenient for many of us - I may actually have to purchase my first phone card.
While at this mall, I was finally able to find a rap CD. You see, I’ve been trying to get my hands on asian rap and hip-hop CDs since Malaysia, but have had no success. I picked up Mic Banditz - Sixth Sense and have been enjoying it for the past hour.
Lessons learned:
-ATMs that would accept our cards were somewhat difficult to find. We did eventually find one, but it would only spit out 10,000 yen bills (about $83 USD).
-Sushi is REALLY, REALLY hard to find in Kobe. We ended up settling for a restaurant that at least had some sashimi.
-Japanese people are super nice. We’ve had to ask several for directions, and they’ve always pointed us to a direction and have even walked alongside a short distance to guide us. Also, the ex-pats living here have been tremendously helpful in clearing up confusion with directions. Shout outs to the Brits!
Plans - Hong Kong/China
Monday, April 16th, 2007We’ll be there in 7 hours, woohoo.
Day 1, which is today, is the beginning of my 5 day SAS trip to Beijing and Xi’an. We’re the first ones off the ship at 0930, and after spending a few hours in Hong Kong (all of it at the freakin airport), we’ll be on our way for a 3 hour flight to Beijing. Upon arrival we check into a hotel, have peking duck for dinner, and have the rest of the evening to ourselves.
Day 2 - We visit the Great Wall, followed by an afternoon visit to the Summer Palace. Dinner and the rest of the day are upto us. This is where the Lonely Planet phrasebook comes in handy.
Day 3 - Visit Tianamen Square and then the Forbidden City. Afternoon visit to the Temple of Heaven, and then we take a 2 hour flight to Xi’an, where we check-in and have dinner.
Day 4 - Visits to the Terra Cotta Warriors Museum, Shaanxi Provincial Museum, and the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. In the evening, our entertainment consists of a Tang Dynasty Dinner and Show.
Day 5 - Breakfast, calligraphy lesson in the Museum of the Forest of Stele and/or free time to explore Xi’an. Lunch at a local restaurant and fly to Qingdao and return to the ship. Originally we were scheduled to return at 4pm, but we’re now being told 11pm. Wha?
Day 6 - Run around Qingdao with 700 other students, eat the good food, take advantage of internet cafes, buy all the good Chinese stuff, finalize our plans for Japan, hang out with SAS alumni. And back on the ship at 9pm to set sail at 11pm.
Since there’s only two days in-between China and Japan…expect the Vietnam/Cambodia, Hong Kong/China, and Japan recaps to all be posted after Japan. Hopefully I can get pictures up by then too.
Plans - India
Friday, March 23rd, 2007We crossed back into the northern hemisphere yesterday. I believe we’re roughly 100 miles off the southern tip of Sri Lanka. Whoop. Only 1 more day to go.
It’s midterm season, and just in time. From March 25th to April 29th will be a non-stop frenzy of disembarkations in five asian countries with 2 or 3 days of classes in-between. With the alternating A/B day schedule, that’s 1 session per class between each country. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out both from the students and instructors POV. It would seem inefficient to conduct classes in such a manner, but we’ll see.
Anywhos, India. We’ll be pulling into Chennai on Sunday, March 25 where from 1200 to 1800 I’ll be visiting an Indian village to observe village life, visit village homes and interact with the residents. Then we’ll be checking out a small working farm to observe the difference between the village and farm life, and also enjoy a traditional Indian lunch prepared and served by the owner of the farm. Yes, this is a SAS trip and no, it’s not an FDP, so it’ll be interesting to see who else is going on this trip as it has more of an academic appeal than most.
The very next morning at 0430 begins the part we’ve all been anticipating - Delhi/Agra/Taj Mahal! A 2.5 hour flight to New Delhi starts us off, followed by an early lunch and a train ride to Agra, where we check into the hotel for the night (and possibly do some shopping).
On March 27, we’ll be going to the Taj Mahal at dawn, coming back to the hotel for breakfast, and checking out the deserted city of Fatehpur Sikri and it’s sandstone palaces. Then afternoon visits to Agra Fort and the Taj Mahal again, and then we take the train back to New Delhi and check into our hotel.
The next day brings us to a city tour of Delhi, where we drive past the War Memorial, Parliament House, Secretariat Buildings, and the official residence of the president of India. We’ll also be viewing the most famous New Delhi landmark, the Qutub Minar. Finally, we stop at the Gandhi Museum, get lunch, and fly back to Chennai.
I have the 29th free in Chennai, where I’ll most likely be checking out the local market (part of my Field Research class is to observe interactions between people at markets), taking advantage of the internet cafes, do some shopping, and getting liquored up before we leave in the evening (a classic SAS tradition).
March 30th, the day after India, is a very special day for more than one reason - I’ll be starting a new chapter of my life. I’ll write more about that later.
Plans - Mauritius
Monday, March 12th, 2007We are almost to our vacation spot! Semester at Sea in itself may seem like a vacation for most, but Mauritius is the one place where learning opportunities are hard to come by. If you look at the field programs, they are all somehow related to touring the island, hiking, snorkeling, etc. There’s a couple of service projects and 5 FDPs, but even those are mostly “tour this nice area with the pretty sights, eat local food, and learn a little about the history”.
Not that I’m complaining. In addition to two short SAS programs, I’m spending a full day deep sea fishing.
On Thursday, immediately following our pre-port briefing, I’ll be put in some type of moving transport, which I’ve been told is air-conditioned and will travel to a elevation of -114 feet. It’s also apparently only one of ten places in the world where I can do this. Anyways, I’ll be “discovering” the undersea world: corals, different species of fish, and the wreck of the “Star Hope”. Afterwards, I’ll be visiting Marine Conservation at Pointe Canonnier and having lunch before we return to the ship half past noon.
At which point I’ll probably spend the rest of my day shopping, going out to the clubs, or chowing down some sushi.
Friday, I’ll be participating in a FDP at L’Adventure du Sucre (The Sugar Adventure). Sugar seems to be fairly important - this program has been adopted as an FDP by 3 instructors. We’ll be at a restored sugar factory, learning about the history of sugar, immigration, and the island’s population through DVDs, giant screens, historical documents, walking through cisterns and crushing mills and even an old field locomotive. And of course, no site in tourist-crazed Mauritius can’t be without a museum, restaurant, boutique, and auditorium. We get back to the ship at noon, where I’ll be repeating the aforementioned shopping/clubbing/sushiing routine.
Saturday, my most anticipated day in Mauritius, I’ll be deep sea fishing with five other SASers for nine hours, returning to shore around 4pm. I arranged this independently, and I’m surprised that there were others on the ship that were interested in fishing, and even moreso that they’re all females. Score for Alex, Master Pimp of the M/V Explorer. Afterwards, we’ll have about four hours to eat/drink/play before we set sail….for INDIA.
The majority of the ship’s population seem to be renting villas and staying there for our three day stay, opting to swim and tan on the beaches, cook for themselves (a big deal for many, not so much for those of us whose culinary masterpieces include Kraft Mac and Cheese and various other types of pasta), and party all night long. Bums.
This will be our last port in the southern hemisphere, and our last port in which there will be nice beaches and water-related activities (not entirely true, but who wants to goto the beach in Japan?).
Plans - South Africa
Thursday, March 1st, 2007Tomorrow, dependent on the weather, I am skydiving! Knowing I’m just a little under 18 hours away (it’s 9:30pm now…yes, I tend to write out blog posts for a while) from being picked up for this, I’m starting to feel a bit nauseous. I can only hope that just like during my bungee experience, I’ll be too tired to have that adrenaline pumping through my veins when my tandem partner propels us off the plane tomorrow.
On the morning of the 3rd, I’ll be flying out from Cape Town to Johannesburg, and then being picked up and driven to the site of our 3 day safari in the biggest national park in the world, Kruger Park. That’s 3 days and 2 nights of being driven around Kruger Park, on the hunt for giraffes, rhinos, lions, elephants, and so on.
I’m currently free on the 6th and 7th.
On the 8th, I’ll be rafting on the Breede River.
Now, I rest early so I can get up early and take some shots of us pulling into Cape Town.
Plans - Brazil
Friday, February 16th, 2007We’ll be disembarking the ship in less than 24 hours to beautiful Bahia (Salvador) where I’ll be spending 4 days deep in the heart of Brazil. My itinerary (yes, there was a lot of copying and pasting involved):
On Saturday, February 17, we’re being picked up by an air-conditioned van that’ll take us to the colonial mining town of Lencois, “the gateway to Chapada Diamantina National Parkâ€. It’ll take 5 to 6 hours to get there (267 miles), of which time I’ll try to spend getting to know my tripmates. Once we get there, they’re giving us a quick city tour and we’ll be checked into our hotel “Pousada Alto do Cajueiroâ€. It was an extra $30 upgrade or so from whatever hotel we had before, but this one offers us a panoramic view of the town and Sincora Mountains. The other selling points they make are the fact that it has a tropical garden, balconies, hammocks, and ceiling fans. Definitely not a Ritz or Hilton – which is why I love it.
Afterwards we have free time for lunch, and later on in the day we’ll be meeting children from the community who will guide us to a trail that once served as the road used by the region’s gold and diamond miners. We’ll then walk along the margins of the Lencois river and visit the sand saloon, where colored sand is extracted for handcraft production. And then I suppose we have free time for dinner/shopping/whatever.
On Sunday, after breakfast, we’ll be hiking to Cachoeira de Fumaca (“Smoke Fallsâ€), which is apparently the most famous attraction in Chapada Diamantina. We’ll be driven to the falls themselves and hike 45 minutes to the top, followed by 90 minutes of walking along the top. This will be my first physically exerting activity on this voyage and I can’t wait to sweat off these extra calories from the ship food.
On Monday, we’ll be headed to the Poco Encantado (“The Enchanted Poolâ€), an underground pool with deep blue water so illuminated that we’ll be able to see the rocks at the bottom, 60 meters below. We’ll then goto the equally stunning Poco Azul, where we’ll be having lunch and allowed to swim (bad combination?). Then it’s back to town for dinner. In the evening we’ll be meeting some kids from the community, who will be bringing a percussion, music, and dance cultural workshop to us.
And finally on Tuesday, arguably the most exciting day of all, we’ll start off by hiking 4 kilometers to the Gruta do Lapao, one of Chapada Diamantina’s grottos that features “unique and beautiful†rock formations. Once we get there…we’ll be rappelling 45 meters into the depths of the grotto. Afterwards, we’ll be bungee jumping from the top of a 50 meter (150 feet) cliff. Rappelling and bungee jumping are two things I’ve always wanted to do, and even though I feel a little queasy thinking about it, I can’t wait to go through it.
Afterwards, we’ll be returning to Lencois to have lunch and pack, and return to Salvador. And that’s when the party begins – at Carnival.
Most of you know about Carnival in Brazil and how the entire country shuts down for 6 days (including government offices, banks, schools, shops, etc). And what a party…it’s estimated that there are 1.5 million people dancing on the streets at any given time. There are these Trio Eletricos, which are huge trucks loaded with thousands of wattage of sound equipment with a band playing on top, that slowly drive around the city. Hundreds of security guards carrying a rope surround the trucks. Entrance into the trucks and roped off sections are determined by a t-shirt called an Abada. These act as entry tickets. The company we went through were able to provide us with Abadas for $100 each. So at 1900 hours (7pm), we’ll be partying it up in Salvador!
Plans - Puerto Rico
Monday, February 5th, 2007Scheduled time of arrival in San Juan, Puerto Rico is 0800 on Wednesday, Feb 7. What I’ve got planned:
My first trip is actually one required by my World Civ I: 3000 BC to 1600 AD class. For 1030 - 1430. Description (copied/pasted straight from the field guide):
We will visit the Afro-Caribbean town of Loiza Aldea (commonly known as Loiza) and meet local artists and mask makers. In the 16th century, Loiza was the slave-trading center of the island, and it retains much of the African heritage. Local bomba music has more purely African rhythms than elsewhere on the island, and the local church, the Iglesia de San Patricio, uses drumming in its Catholic services. The town is also famous for its annual festival in which participants wear masks and recreate the battles between Christians and Muslims that took place in Spain during the Middle Ages. We will visit the town, including a visit to the studio of a well-known Afro-Caribbean artist, Samuel Lind, then we will visit the neighboring Ayala family’s yard and shop that sells African masks. Loiza still serves African-style cuisine, such as Yucca with coconut and cassava bread, and we will sample this as we have lunch in the town at your own expense.
Then I get 5 hours to bum around, leading to the welcome reception taking place 1930-2300. We’ll be meeting local university students and hanging out with them, getting the ‘inside scoop’ on things to do and perhaps convincing them to act as guides for the duration of our stay in port. A lot of SAS students are choosing to attend this field trip, and as such, 4 receptions will be held concurrently on different university campuses as none of them are large enough to hold all of us at the same time. Apparently there’s also a welcome/intro to the university and some form of entertainment like a musical performance. Sweet.
Nine hours of sleep (hopefully!)Â later, from 0800-1200, I’ll get to explore San Juan by mountain biking around. It’s an 8 mile journey the starts off at a boardwalk that goes through the largest mangrove forest in PR. We’ll be taking some time here to learn about the local flora/fauna and check out the birds and reptiles (tree iguanas!). The trail eventually leads to the coast where we can ride along and check out the beaches and the crashing surf on the cliffs. We’ll finally end up at a white sand beach with calm water where we’ll be chilling out and swimming/beach games/whatever.
I got a few more hours to bum around, for at 1745 begins yet another trip. We’ll be picked up, bussed an hour northeast from port, and begin our kayaking adventure! We will be going kayaking to the bioluminescent lagoon in Fajardo at Las Cabezas de San Juan Reserve. Guys…this is a GLOWING LAGOON. Micro-organisms in the water glow blue-green when agitated. They get bright enough to read a book! Yes, we’ll be able to swim in this, which is freakin awesome. We’ll be treated to pina coladas once we return to shore, and after the bus ride back we should be back at port around 2300. Where I will immediately collapse on my bed.
I haven no planned field trips for our last day in port. I’m gonna try to get a group together to take a tour of the Bacardi factory (complementary rum drinks at the end!), check out the local markets for food and souvenirs, and do some more photography. We’re required to be on the ship by 2100, so for the last couple hours I’ll be partying it up at Senor Frog’s. And there ends Puerto Rico!
P.S. Hello to other SAS parents reading the blog! According to the last time I checked the GPS a few hours ago, we were halfway between Nassau and San Juan traveling at a rate of around 10 knots/hr. Nothing to be worried about….until port.
Plans - Nassau
Monday, January 15th, 2007So here’s my itinerary:
- Nassau, Bahamas (depart Feb 4)
- San Juan, Puerto Rico (Feb 7 - Feb 9)
- Salvador, Brazil (Feb 17 - Feb 21)
- Cape Town, South Africa (Mar 2 - Mar
- Port Louis, Mauritius (Mar 15 - Mar 17)
- Chennai, India (Mar 25 - Mar 29)
- Penang, Malaysia (Apr 2 - Apr 5)
- Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (Apr 9 - Apr 14)
- Hong Kong (Apr 17 - Apr 18)
- Qingdao, China (Apr 21 - Apr 22)
- Kobe, Japan (Apr 25 - Apr 29)
- Honolulu, Hawaii, USA (May 7)
- San Diego, California, USA (May 14)
I depart on Groundhog Day. My flight leaves Seattle at 6AM, connections in Houston and Fort Lauderdale, and arrives in Nassau at 6:35PM. For 2 nights I’ll be staying at the Atlantis at Paradise Island. It’s this huge, incredible vacation resort/casino with beaches, pools, spa, amazing underwater water slides, and aquariums. Here’s the wiki. I’ll be partying it up and hanging out with the other SASers that night and the next, check out the Atlantis itself on the 3rd, and I’ll be boarding the MV Explorer on the morning of the 4th.
