At the request of a few people who feel that I have left my blog open and wonder if I'm going to update anymore I am sorry to say that I am not.  I only wish that my daily life at home was exciting enough for people to want to read about.  And unfortunately now that I'm back home and not hanging at the retirement home abroad anymore, I have a life and no more time to write about my daily activities.  I never said anything about our last week in London, but it was great! My mom and hannah were able to come fly over and meet us there which was so much fun.  We took the chunnel to Paris for a night, where my mom was able to see me speak French to real French people for the first time since sending me to my little French school so many years ago.  Thanks for being interested in my life and giving me a reason to keep up with my travels. 

Barcelona, Spain

We left Barcelona and are in route for three days at sea before reaching our final destination of Southampton. Barcelona was a short day trip where we spent our time on a tour, which highlighted buildings designed by architect Gaudi. We visited one church, which was never finished, and is still under construction.  It should be finished in about 40 years.  I guess I will have to add that to my places to come back and see too. This once in a lifetime trip seems to be making itself a list for a twice in a lifetime trip for sometime in the future.   

Rome, Italy

When in Rome, for only a day, drive around town and take a picture of as many major landmarks as possible.  And that’s exactly what we did.  We saw the Trevi fountain, The Sistine Chapel, Vatican, The Coliseum, The Forum, oh and somewhere in there we managed to stop for lunch and eat.  Having only one day to see all of Rome is just not enough. I had pizza in the true taste of Italy style, at a local Italian Ristorante, and could not stop taking pictures of each street we passed by, trying to capture every inch of the busy city life that was going on down each quaint alley way between buildings. 

Now that I have reached Europe and am visiting places I’m sure most of you have been, I will keep my point of view and opinions to myself and keep you updated only to let you know that I am still alive and well. We had a really great day seeing Rome, but I wish we could have spent more time here. I guess I will add it to my list of places I hope to revisit. 

Athens, Greece

I spent the day today with the best tour guide of my trip so far.  I found out a friend of mine from college, Paige, is living in Athens and she volunteered to spend the day with me while I was there. I was free of fancy tour busses and old folk tours for the day, and was able to see the city from the perspective of a local. We hiked our way up to a viewing place that overlooked the whole city and Acropolis and was completely tourist free. We continued our walk through the busy streets, passing by the merchants who were selling local trinkets, t-shirts, and snacks along the way.  Paige took me to a few shops that were not as easily recognizable by the typical postcard and t-shirt display. I loved getting to see places that I usually would have missed had I been walking with a large tourist group. For lunch, we went to a local favorite of hers, and now mine too.  We sat outside the restaurant along the path of people walking by, bumping into our table as they passed. I stared, feeling clueless, as Paige spoke to our waiter, and ordered for the both of us, in Greek. We had the most amazing Greek salad and kebab with pita that I have ever had.  Ok, it’s the only Greek food I’ve ever had, but I’m sure it will be the best of future experiences as well. 

 

After lunch, I got to experience the real life of the locals, as we took the metro to a coffee shop up towards the part of town where she lives.  Millennium coffee shop is a quaint little place that has couches taking up most of its floor space, and walls covered with a design of black velvet paisley wallpaper.  The iced frappes we had, with a side of powdered sugar nutella filled donuts were the perfect taste to this eclectic little place. If you’ve never had nutella, you need to have some. The chocolate hazelnut peanutbutterish stuff is quite possibly the best thing I have ever tasted.  With about 30 minutes until I had to be back, we went on a desperate mission to find me a jar of nutella to take back on the ship. The local grocery store was closed on Sunday, so it was up to the few neighborhood sales men in the small one room “convenient” stores. After Paige tried describing to him in broken Greek what it was we needed (it’s hard enough describing the stuff in English), the language barrier finally fell and he showed us he had what we were looking for.  After all that, the jar stayed right there on the shelf where we found it, because the guy looked at me like I was crazy when I showed him I was going to pay in dollars. The first time dollars have been denied on my trip, I knew now that I was truly in a local area of town. My second option of a credit card didn’t work either and one guy even examined my card like he had never seen one before.  In the end, I did find a place that was up to date in the world of credit cards and accepted my visa.  Of course though not without a charge of at least 10 Euros.  With about five minutes until I was going to be left behind, Paige, the salesman and I quickly searched the store and we each threw a few things on the counter to help my total. I left with the much needed nutella jar, a pack of gum, and some true Greek olive oil and liquor…it’s a good thing I only have a week left on this ship, or I might find myself alone in my room with an empty bottle of Greek liquor.  Whether it was Greece itself, or the fact that I haven’t hung out with anyone above the age of 12 and under the age of 50 in the past two months, I had such a fun day exploring Athens with Paige.  

Mykonos, Greece

If ever there was a place that looked exactly as it is described it would have to be Mykonos, Greece.  The white buildings on the hills of the Greek Island, surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea are incredible. Between the white buildings are a maze of small paths that lead you past local shops, cafes, and restaurants that have small tables with picturesque white table clothes set up over them. Each home or business along the way is marked by blue, green, or turquoise doors, which match with the perfect blue sky that is peeking through between the white walls of the endless buildings.  The nutella crepe that I picked up along the way from one of the local cafes was the perfect thing to have, as I got lost amongst the beautiful white walls and colorful doors. 

Before finding my new favorite vacation spot in Mykonos, we took a trip to a small deserted island called Delos.  It is an ancient city of which other than that, I don’t know much more about, since I spent most of my time here running around, exploring with the kids rather than listening to our tour guide.  Secluded on this island are ancient ruins, which take up enough area worth of a good two-hour hike through fields of wild flowers and overgrown grass.  We found an old theatre, where we made up our own performances, and a water hole full of frogs that could have been heard from a mile away with their loud “ribbit” noises. We ended up at the one and only small café on the island where we met the only resident to this island.  He lives upstairs, and sells a selection of hot chocolate, fresh squeezed orange juice, pringles and mentos downstairs.  We contributed a good portion to his yearly sales I’m sure, and then headed back on the ferry. 

This was one of the places I was most excited to visit, and now that I’ve been here, I hope that someday I will get to come back to Mykonos and continue wandering the beautiful streets and eat at some of the local restaurants.     

Istanbul, Turkey

I am quickly running out of adjectives to help me describe these places without sounding repetitive. So, to put it simply, Turkey has been my absolute favorite country.  The mystery that it was to me before I came here, gave me no prior expectations and the ability to thoroughly enjoy everything I saw. Istanbul is unlike any city I have ever seen.  Did know that it is the only city in the world that is part of two continents? There is a large bridge connecting the part that is Europe to Asia. It is a beautiful port city full of life and busy streets to explore. We started off the morning by sitting in slow moving traffic, eventually getting out and walking the rest of the way to our first sight to see which was the blue mosque.  It is the second largest mosque in Istanbul and is beautiful. We walked past the green grass, tall trees, and beautiful spring flowers that surround everything in the city. We removed our shoes and stepped inside to see the large domed ceilings, which were covered with floral blue tile designs.  Hanging from the hundred foot tall ceilings are long cable cords that are used to hold up the low hanging light fixtures only a few feet above your head.  Now, these light fixtures hold bulbs in each one but once were individually lit oil candles. The blue mosque, as well as many others in the city are used for the five daily calls to prayer a day. At any place in the city you can hear the foreign song that calls the Muslims to prayer.  To see people simultaneously stop what they are doing, whether it be walking, driving, working or eating, and go to pray is something that does not go unnoticed, even in this busy city. 

Our day continued as we waked the endless streets that are lined with colorful tulips. Passing by shopping bazaars full of oriental rugs and silks, street vendors who have an appealing selection of roasted chestnuts, corn, and circular shaped sesame breads.  Oh and of course the overwhelming assortments of Turkish Delight, which if you ask me, sound like a magical treat, thanks to the advertising done by Narnia. I will say that, as somewhat of an expert on sweets, it is not magical, but will have to do as a replacement for Easter peeps this year.  I could have wandered these streets for days finding new places to see, I hope someday, I will get the chance to come back.

Kusadasi, Turkey

The green hillsides of Turkey were a breath of fresh air after visiting the continuous desert cities that we have seen for the past few weeks.  The beautiful coastline, hit by turquoise blue waves from the Mediterranean Sea, was a scenic welcome to the country of Turkey, which I could not have guessed to be any more of a unique place.  Even before seeing anything, we were told some interesting facts about Turkey, by our tour guide.  One that of course caught my attention was that one of their main crops is olives.  Stacy and Ali, I think we were meant to live in Turkey, the Thanksgiving olive fingers would be endless here.  And did you know that black and green olives grow on the same tree? In addition to the enthralling facts that I learned, I also saw some amazing ancient ruins.  We visited the Virgin Mary Shrine, Saint John’s Basilica and the most impressive in my opinion, the remains of the city of Ephesus.  The remains of the city of Ephesus are broken and scattered, but to be able to see the small part of what was left was incredible.  The city has been excavated to leave the remains of some of the original streets, marble statues, and buildings that are all engraved with detailed Greek text.  The large theatre that is found in the city is where Paul preached the book of Ephesians to the people here.  Paul found himself preaching to a population of Greeks who believed only in Gods and Goddesses and wanted nothing to do with the idea of a new religion.  His repetitive and unwanted appearances eventually found himself being taken to the local prison and kept there for about a week before being released and sent off.  I have been reading a lot of the stories of the Bible lately, that take place in this region of the world, and to actually be in this city and be able to picture where it was taking place is something I know I will most likely never be able to do again.  To stand in the theatre and know it is where Paul once preached is an experience I will always remember.  I really enjoyed Turkey, and am excited for the one more day we have tomorrow to see one of the bigger cities of Turkey.   

Cairo, Egypt

We arrived in the Suez Canal early Monday morning to get off for a 2-day, one-night adventure in Egypt. We pulled the kids, and ourselves, out of bed at 3am and were waiting downstairs, along with about 100 other passengers who would be taking this trip with us, to be let off the ship and onto the tenders that would be taking us ashore.  With lethargic looks on all the faces around, and coffee cups in hand, everyone waited patiently for about two hours when they finally announced to us that for weather and wind related reasons, we could not go ashore and they had cancelled our trip. So here we are at 4:30 am, finally awake, wondering what to do with 3 kids who, the night before were drugged at 5pm with Benedryl to help them go to sleep early in preparation for this early morning wake up, and are in effect now ready for the day to begin.  It didn’t take us long to find our newest favorite morning activity of playing hide and go seek amongst the rows of seats and lofted boxes found in the large, dark and empty Royal Court Theatre on the ship.  Here we were, running, screaming and hiding through Cunard’s finest and most elegant theatre at the wee hours of the morning, and no one was around to tell us no.  It was one of our finest moments on the ship so far. 

Round 2 for getting off in Egypt, on Tuesday morning, was a success.  We skipped out on seeing our port city of Alexandria, and chose instead to go to Cairo and visit the Pyramids and Sphinx (what we would have seen had we gotten off the day before).  We were camped out in our usual spot, the long back row of chairs, on our tour bus for a fun filled 3-hour ride to Cairo. And by fun filled, I mean that at one point we had Isabelle filling up the only available plastic bag found on the bus, with her carsickness, Jeanie pinching off the corner of the bag that had a hole in it so that remnants of regurgitated breakfast weren’t leaking onto the bus floor.  During this time, Grisha is on the other side of the bench watching the movie Cars on the hand held DVD player as he’s licking a scoop of peanut butter off of a knife, while, let me remind you, on the very bumpy ride in a moving vehicle.  I’m not sure how we all survived, or how we got so many comments at the end of the day about how well the children were behaved…obviously people aren’t aware of the trick where you put a movie in the kids lap, and stick a knife in his mouth and they shut up.  Needless to say, we all took a deep breath of relief, as we stepped off the bus at the Pyramids of Giza.

You always hear about the famous Pyramids of Egypt, and I remember learning about them in school for years.  They’re one of those places that are found in the book about 1,000 places you have to see before you die.  I realized, that’s just what they are, something to say you’ve seen.  Maybe I’m being a travel snob by saying this, but I really wasn’t as impressed with them as I thought I would be.  Up close, they looked more like loose rock formations slowly falling apart, unlike the much more impressive look they gave from a distance. The coolest part of Cairo to me was when we were driving around the city and amongst the crazy traffic and dirty streets, you would look up and above the rooftops, you could see the tip of the Pyramid, standing out and above, unlike anything else around it.  When we made our way around to the Sphinx, low and behold there were both a Pizza Hut and KFC no more than 50 yards away that we of course had to make a lunch stop at. There’s nothing quite like the experience of looking out the window of a Pizza Hut to a view of the ancient Sphinx and Pyramids of Giza.  Traveling with kids takes on a whole new meaning to “seeing ancient history”.

The local sales people here are just as aggressive as in any other country, eagerly showing you the postcards and small pyramid models they are selling.  But here, they have this creative, and might I add annoying, sales tactic that I of course fell for and gave me a reality check and stupidity slap in the face that I guess was well deserved and needed.  I try to have a good attitude around these people, who swarm you like you’re some movie star the second you step off the bus.  They ask you where you’re from and tell you how grateful they are that you have come to their country, welcoming you with much thanks, as if you’re any different than those other thousands of American people who they see every day.  This one kid comes up to me and shows me some headdress he is selling and I tell him I don’t want it.  “No it’s a gift for you, no money, free,” he says. FYI, nothing is free in Egypt, nothing. Before I can walk away, he has the thing wrapped on my head and is telling me that I need my picture taken in front of the pyramids with the camel.  Gosh, he really knows the way to a tourist’s heart…  Trying to be nice I said fine and walked with him over to the guy selling camel rides and he tells me to get on the camel, “no ride, just sit for free”.  I’m thinking ya right, I know this game, the camel stands up, you run off with my camera and I’m too high off the ground to jump off the camel and chase after you.  I refuse and after his third attempt to get me to sit on the camel, he finally just agrees to take the picture of me standing by it, all the while I’m saying cheese, thinking “I’m not some stupid American who will fall for your trick”. Well, I did. Before I know it I have two guys telling me I owe them money, one for taking my picture and the other for standing in front of his camel.  After trying to tell them I had no money and walking off, the camel guy finally gave up on me, but the other kid (the one who “gave” me the headdress at the beginning) kept following.  Giving me more gifts and then pointing to my pockets, telling me I owed him money.  Somewhere along the line after handing his gifts back several times and then finding them back in my hands a few seconds later, I pulled out five dollars, and he said “I give you change”.  Under his discretion of course as he started adding up all my charges for the picture and the camel and the headdress and the dumb pyramid model.  I impatiently waited for my change, and finally threw his “gifts” at him and ran off annoyed before he could give me back any more than 2 of my 5 dollars.  So basically I paid 3 dollars to be reminded that I’m more of the naïve American tourist than I had believed myself to be.  All in all, this might have had some play on my somewhat negative view of the pyramids.

The dreaded three-hour bus ride back to the ship became closer to a four-hour drive as we moved slowly through the traffic of a wreck.  Driving in Egypt must have very little limitations and I noticed as we were driving around, that lanes don’t really exist here.  The worst wreck I have ever seen in my life was the effect of the wreck less driving that takes place here. At least 15 cars were piled up, scattered across the road, going the opposite direction we were on as we headed into port.  Cars under trucks, squished between cars, and at least 30 people out of their cars in the street trying to pull cars out from under other cars, was the last scene of an already chaotic day in Egypt.

Aqaba, Jordan (The Lost City of Petra)

Our five consecutive days at sea, were filled with April Fools jokes from the crew about there being a glass bottom to the ship for guests to come look through, and the not so joking pirate waters of the Gulf of Aden.  Luckily, no pirates came near our ship as we were escorted through the waters for two days by naval ships and the occasional helicopter.

We finally arrived in Jordan, a city that, unlike Dubai, holds much more true to its culture.  We got off the ship, stepping onto the desert that extends all the way up to the edges of the sea.  Through the city of cookie cutter square buildings of cement slab walls, and small cut out square holes for windows, we traveled the lone highway out of the city towards the lost city of Petra.  My hesitations for liking Petra came with the initial two-hour bus ride, but the irritation from cramped seats and feeling of Closter phobia was gone after seeing how beautiful this place is.

We began our walk down a long dusty, gravel road.  Walking was short lasted with the appeal of a horse ride, and before I knew it a local boy was running along side, pulling the rope of the horse that I was riding past the masses of tourists.  The young horse owners say that they work only for tips, but then of course once you pay them, ask for more tips. After paying, I tried to tell him my tip was “don’t run with scissors in your hand”, but I think the language barrier was too much for my cheesy “dad” joke.  After the short horse ride, we continued our walk down a long narrow way.  Looking up, there are hundred foot high walls of rock on either side, with a sliver of clear blue sky peeking through.  Passing by down below, horses pulling small carriages were running by, their tails grazing my arm as they pass. At the end of the long dusty cobblestone path, there was an opening and the sight of the face of what looked like a building (the view from the picture).  This incredible temple, carved perfectly in the side of a jagged rock face.  In the wide opening, surrounded by the massive rocks and carvings are tourists having their picture taken on a camel ride, buying local treasures, and staring in awe at this incredible sight that could in no way be imagined or pictured perfectly through words.  The walk continued, as did the carvings of buildings into the rocks that surrounded us.  People passing by on camels, donkeys, and horse carriage, in front of the street vendors selling hand made jewelry; there wasn’t a second where my interest wasn’t caught by the busy movement of life amongst this forgotten city.  We found some local teenagers who followed us, persistent on their offer of a donkey ride through the city.  One of them went as far as to offer and ask, how many camels for my hand in marriage. We all laughed, not sure if he was serious or not, and in the end took the offer solely for the donkey ride. I figured my parents wouldn’t be too happy missing my wedding but the even bigger problem was how to get the camels back on the ship. 

Of all the places I have seen so far, Petra was by far the most incredible.  I wish I could fully describe how amazing everything about it was.  Hopefully this will help a little, but by no means do it justice.  

Dubai

So I got my spring break snowboarding day after all.  Not exactly the way I had planned, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.  The hot and dry desert that is supposed to be Dubai welcomed us with a cold and rainy day.  Not the most ideal weather for a one day stop in any city, but we of course didn’t let us stop us from having fun.  We drove through the city on our way out to the desert sand dunes.  A parade line of 12 Land Cruisers, we arrived in the wet sand of the desert for a day of 4-wheel driving through the dunes.  Having kids around always makes things more fun so our driver made it a point to make our drive more “extreme” than the other cars.  We fishtailed our way through the sand doing donuts, and driving up and over steep mounds of sand.  The description may sound lame, but the drive was not.  Between the sprays of sand that were hitting our windows, we looked out to see camels wandering the desert.  After about an hour of the bumpy roller coaster ride, we stopped for lunch at a desert camp sight that was set up for us.  They had food, camel rides, hookah, belly dancers, henna tattoos, and what made my “spring break” complete, snowboarding down the sand dunes.  Tennis shoes strapped right into a snowboard; you go straight down and can make no turns on your way because the sand is too thick.  The ten-second ride down was only worth the walk up once for me.  Ok so maybe it’s not as cool as skiing indoors, but it’s the next best experience I could take home from Dubai. We spent the rest of our afternoon participating in the more eclectic activities of tattoos and hookah. 

 

On our drive back towards downtown Dubai, we passed a herd of about ten camels who were taking a stroll down the highway.  Dubai is such an interesting city. The only way I can think to describe it would be that is has a traditional Middle Eastern culture, with an American attitude.  The best example of this would be the guy I saw walk into the gas station wearing his full length white robe, his traditional head dress on, with his iPod headphones in his ears.  The whole city looks of that small glimpse of a man I saw.  The buildings are all the tallest, newest, and biggest.  They have construction going up everywhere that is eager to be the best of the best.  And as you’re driving past all of these fancy buildings you look through the tinted windows of the Range Rover passing you on the highway and see the driver is wearing his white robe gown and turban on the head get-up.  These two ideas seem so conflicting to me but here in Dubai, it is completely normal. 

Mumbai, India

My expectations were set high for the city of Mumbai, both because of my love for the movie slumdog millionaire and the excitement of getting to visit the city it was filmed in.  It was naïve of me to think that enjoying the movie in the safe confines of a movie theatre would have the same feeling as wandering the streets of the city.  This is the first city where I have really felt a sense of danger.  I can’t really explain it, but there was something about the city that made me feel as though something could happen at any second to put my at risk of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

We spent a lot of our time here riding the tour bus through the busy streets, not traveling far, but taking a long time fighting slow moving traffic. Our bus finally stopped along the busy street to let us out for our walk up to the temple. We wandered the back alley, too narrow for the bus, with open-aired shop vendors lining both sides of the street.  The shops were filled with flowers, candy and other small gifts.  Although you would assume they were for tourists, they are for the local Hindu people to buy as offerings to their gods on their walk up to the temple.  When we arrived at the temple, we were asked to remove our shoes, as usual.  Here in the middle of the busy alleyway we took our shoes off and placed them along the wall amongst the hundreds of other pairs of shoes.  I left my beloved rainbows with much hesitation and felt a slight anxiety as I imagined the rest of my trip without them. (Those of you who know me well, know this would have been a hard last month without my rainbows.) There was an irony in the metal detectors that we walked through to reach the insides of the temple. The outside courtyard had a small simple building in the middle where the lines divided men and women from walking up separately.  Hindu men and women carried their offerings up to what looked like a counter where you would order food.  Their offerings were handed off to the man behind the “counter” who would set them in front of the gold statue god to be blessed and then handed back.  A red powder dot was then placed on your foreheads to cleanse your spirit.  I opted out of every part of the previous explanation, but watched from afar in great interest.  I was both relieved and surprised to find my shoes where I left them when I got back.  I don’t know how the people here do it every day and come home with the same pair of shoes, especially because all of their shoes look exactly the same.  I have never seen so many people wearing sandals in all my life.  They wear sandals with everything here. Not that I am against this idea at all, I actually would fit in quite well with that aspect of their dress code here. India has a very unique cultural dress code. Most countries have adopted a westernized look to their clothing but everyone in India still wears very traditional clothing.  I only saw a handful of people wearing jeans.

The second temple we visited was even more crowded than the first.  The same gift shops lined the streets as the first, with people carrying their baskets of flowers and presents with them into the temple. Here, we waited almost fifteen minutes in line to get up to the “counter” where the golden statues stood awaiting their offerings.  The massive crowd here must have been a result of lunch hour or something.  After waiting our turn in line we got up to the counter which felt like a crowded bar; people surrounding you, pushing to be the next in line to be served.  I was made aware of my staring expression as one lady even tapped me on the shoulder and told me to hurry up.  She was probably wondering what in the world I was doing here, I very much looked like I didn’t belong.  I quickly pushed my way through the crowd to a more open room where people were lying on the floor with their arms out in front of them, worshiping to the golden statue that stood behind the crowd of people surrounding the bar.  Another statue of a mouse had a line of people waiting to whisper things into its large solid gold ears. It was a very surreal experience, watching people of another religion and culture so engaged in their daily rituals as I sat on the outside wishing I could ask the hundreds of questions that were racing through my mind.  My experience in Mumbai was one I will never forget as I left with knowledge, wonder, and my rainbows safely on my feet.   

Cochin, India

The heat of India was a warm welcome to the dirty streets of the city.  Unfortunately, it met up to it’s stereotypes and expectations I had for India so far.  The people of India have a sort of privacy to them yet were very intrigued by seeing tourists.  We first visited a local temple.  As we stood outside the side gate, cars quickly passing by only a few feet away, we were all asked to remove our shoes before entering.  This is something we are used to however most temples we go see are inside.  This side door opened up to a large courtyard of hot pavement, so most of us, including myself opted out of burning our feet.  I think I made a good choice, since only a few minutes later, everyone who had gone in was on their way back out after a Monk had come over and unexplainably yelled at them.  We still aren’t sure why, but we quickly got back on the bus to head our next stop, a local factory.  It was a small building, one room downstairs and one upstairs, with about 30 women manually operating loud machinery.  They make cotton sheets all day in an un-air-conditioned building, and get paid only two dollars a day.  I couldn’t believe how hard they work for so little pay.  The local village was our next stop.  We rode through the dirt roads on a three wheel open aired taxi called a tuk tuk and were welcomed by a family who placed hand made flower petal necklaces over our heads and a strange dot of orange cream on our foreheads.  It was to help cool our bodies down in the heat, and not the typical red dot that is used in the Hindu religion.  We walked around with them as they showed us their homes where laundry hung in the yard, and toothbrushes sat along a ledge on the outside of the house.  We walked slowly through their helpless homes, snapping pictures on our digital cameras of their reality to take home with us.  The snap shots we take with us of their lives will never help us understand how they live.

 

Back on the ship, we continue to stand apart from the other passengers on board.  There is a comedian who is performing on board who has been on the ship for the past few days with us.  I’m sure he expected to have a nice peaceful vacation time for a few days, but little did he know that there are children on this ship and he has 3 very big fans on board.  They are the only ones here who recognize him from his small role he plays as the dad on the Disney channel show “Cory in theHouse”.  The kids have made it a point to point him out and say his name every time we see him.  Luckily he’s been very gracious to give us a wave back every 15^th time or so.  Tonight we sat front row at the music show in the theatre.  Mostly we sit front row because the kids think it’s the best seat in the house.  The performer was playing a lot of classics, some Led Zepplin and Beatles. We didn’t realize that no one else in the theatre was into it until he handed the mic over to the crowd and we were the only 5 voices singing “goodness gracious great balls of fire.”  Like I said before, we continue to stand apart.  I’m just glad someone is here to make life on board a little more fun.  

Phuket, Thailand

We were welcomed to the beautiful beaches of Phuket by gray skies and rain.  Although it wasn’t the weather of choice, we couldn’t complain compared to the devastating tsunami weather that was here very recently.  During Christmas 2004, less than five years ago, the city was awakened by an unexpected tsunami that took a devastating number of lives from this small beach town.  People’s lives were turned upside down after the tsunami hit without any prior warning or time for evacuation. To help you see it better, the tsunami took only 30 minutes to travel from Thailand to Sri Lanka, destroying everything in its path.  Out ship has been traveling from Thailand for a day and a half and is just now reaching the waters surrounding Sri Lanka. I have never been able to put anything into perspective so well as the realization of truly how fast the tsunami moved into these people’s lives and homes.  It was pretty incredible to see the city and how it has recovered remarkably in the past 5 years. 

Phuket is a beautiful beach town where resorts and local restaurants are not easily missed.  But today’s adventure took us to a much more exotic location to enjoy the culture of Thailand. The venue included many Thai experiences including an elephant ride, a cooking class featuring a Thai food appetizer, a presentation on how rubber is made from rubber trees, and a baby elephant show.  I would have to say that the elephant ride was for sure my favorite part.  We sat on a two-person seat that was saddled on to the elephants back, while our guide sat right on the elephant’s head.  It was actually a very impressive balancing act on his part.  We just sat back and enjoyed the bumpy ride.  At one point we accidentally dropped an umbrella off, and the elephant reached down and picked it up with it’s trunk and gave it back.  Now that’s not something you see everyday.  The baby elephant show was really fun too and the elephants must have gotten more than their share of bananas for the day because we alone fed them each at least a basket full.  After the cultural Thai experience we visited one of the local temples.  It was, like the others I have seen, very beautiful.  But, now that I’m a temple snob and have seen my fair share of temples throughout Asia, I will say that unfortunately, Phuket gets no bragging rights on their temples. Our day would not be complete of course, without a stop at the Thailand Handicrafts Market, to help them fill the yearly quota for their number one income…surprise, surprise…tourism.  (Can you tell that I have been on a few too many “directed towards rich American” tours?)  Not to sound unappreciative of course, I am thoroughly enjoying the tours and countries I am visiting, but sometimes I wonder if they are just putting on a cultural act for all the American foreigners who ride in on the big fancy buses.

Back on the ship, we are on our way towards India and have had a few days to relax and enjoy the warm weather by the pool.  I am finding more and more that the other passengers on the ship are finding it very hard to place me amongst the family and wondering where and how I fall into place with the 3 children and parents I am with.  I have been asked “How old is your son?” when walking with Grisha, who is 5.  And I have also been asked “Is there an adult who can sign?” when trying to buy bingo cards for the two other kids. At home I only thought of myself as an average 22 year old, but apparently now I am old enough to have a 5 year old son, but not old enough to buy bingo cards. I will give my 85-year-old friends the benefit of the doubt and blame it on both their poor eyesight and poor use of common sense.  

Singapore

The month of March is flying by…

We had a long few days off the ship visiting Cambodia.  We flew from Cambodia to Bangkok, Thailand for a short day tour on our way back to the ship.  We had lunch on the 65^th floor of a hotel overlooking the smoggy city and also saw the Grand Buddhist Palace.  It’s interesting how I’ve seen so many temples yet each has a look of it’s own. 94 percent of the people in Bangkok are Buddhist so their temple was very extravagant.  Imagine walking through the Emerald City from the Wizard of Oz.  Large gold towers and perfectly decorated shrines, walls covered with glass beads and glitter. It was overwhelmingly impressive.

 

Our first day back on the ship was St. Patrick’s Day.  We take every excuse to celebrate and spent most of our day making decorations and confetti for our dinner party.  If the crew didn’t already think we were crazy, it is no surprise to them now when we call room service asking for green paper and balloons.

 

We stopped yesterday in Singapore, which officially marks the halfway point of the trip.  This was one of the three major disembarkment stops, so we had a large turnover of 1000 thankful people off the ship, and a brand new group of 700 victims to torture.  Because of the large number of people on and off the ship today, we stayed in port until 1am.  This was our first port to be able to stay off the ship past 5pm and we took full advantage of it.  Our morning consisted of a tour of the World War 2 battlefields where we were able to go underground into one of the battle box protection facilities. It was a very well done display that had figurine models of the people and audio of their conversations that took place at the time of the war.  It felt so real that it completely freaked out Isabelle and Grisha who both thought they were actually a part of this underground war facility. We also visited an old Prisoner of War camp, where Grisha kept wondering when he was going to get to see the prisoners.  As cute as it was, I finally broke the news to him that the prisoners were set free after the war ended. 

 

Self-exploration of the city isn’t something we have had the chance to do much, since most days we have had a tour and had an early return back to the ship.  Our first stop of exploration through the city of Singapore took us all the way to a much needed homemade lunch from Subway! (hey, at least we skipped out on McDonalds for the first time in 2 months.)  We then took a ride on the “ferris-wheel” as the kids called it, but more properly known as the Singapore Flyer.  It slowly takes you up and around in a large glass container that you can look out to see the whole city.  Our afternoon consisted of wandering around “little India”, picking up a jar of peanut butter at the local supermarket, oh and yes we did stop at McDonalds for a McFlurry.  Compared to the other Asian cities we have visited, Singapore was very westernized.  I never wondered if the people spoke English, I could read all of the signs around the city, and just like at home, there is a Starbucks or McDonalds on every corner.  The city is pretty small, not even the size of New York City, and is very well kept with beautifully planted flowers and trees along all of the streets.  It is also extremely clean.  Even when Grisha dropped his McDonalds cone, ice cream scoop down onto the sidewalk, he got an ok from dad on picking it back up and licking it like new.  We wrapped up our 13 hour day in Singapore with a trip to the local zoo for a night safari where we saw lions, and tigers, (no bears).

 

Back on the ship, I have just received a notice telling me that I have officially reached the Gold Membership Level on Cunard ships. Which means that I have new benefits on board and now have the same status as many 65-year-old travelers.  What could I want more than a good conversation starter next time I visit the retirement home.

Cambodia

We spent most of our day Saturday touring the city of Phu My, Vietnam.  It was a day full of a bus ride through the city with several stops along the way.  Similar to our first day in Vietnam were the needy people and under priced goods, only this time it was in the city center rather than the country.  The city was full of exposed masses of black telephone wire and fast paced, wreckless moped drivers. Of the 8 million who live in the city, four million drive mopeds, and I’m guessing the other 3 drive bikes or walk because there were very few cars.  It was a quick glimpse into their lives for the day.  We headed off to the airport in the afternoon for our overland 2 night stay in Cambodia. 

 

We arrived late that night and had a full day ahead of us at walking around the ancient temples.  I have to admit that I was not that excited because of the excess amount of temples I have seen while on this trip, but to my surprise this was very different than anything I have ever seen.  The temples were absolutely incredible.  Amongst the jungle are about 70 different temples that are beautiful stone rock carved with so much detail that you could spend days looking at each.  A lot of them have fallen rock and stones in them but the overall structure is still in tact so you can see what it once looked like.  I honestly can’t describe them only pictures, if that, will do them justice.  One of the tombs we saw was where Angelina Jolie shot her movie Tomb Raider.  After bringing their country publicity through the movie and also adopting her ten kids from there, they were proud to tell us that they have made her a citizen of their country.  Lucky her.

 

The people here were just as incredible to me as the temple.  It was hard because whenever I go to these places I want to sit and talk with the kids and play with them for at least the small time I have with them even if it be in passing while walking to the next place.  But, the kids here are different.  They live in small dirt floored huts along the road.  Picture a camping sight but instead of nice tents and sleeping bags, they have straw roofs and mats.  The kids have been trained and are literally human machines.  Just like the people in Vietnam they follow you until you hand over the money but here, they have about three recorded phrases that continue to repeat themselves throughout the day.  “Lady, you like to buy bracelet from me, 10 for one dollar.”  “Please I need money for school, for food, please.”  “You very pretty please buy bracelet from me, only one dollar.” It’s the largest dollar store I have ever seen.  The kids know no different, they were raised to know these few English sentences and have them on repeat all day long. It is so annoying that by the end of the day I had about 30 bracelets, 8 scarves and 2 packs of postcards….I hope you all will enjoy your souvenirs because I’m a sucker for these poor children’s faces and gave them a dollar because I felt bad.  I guess they are doing their jobs right.  Honestly the only things I could think was that a dollar means a lot more to them than it does to me. At the end of the day when we were leaving, I finally talked to some kids who I think were tired of selling and actually managed a sentence without one of the pre arranged phrases being included.  They were just like any other happy kids who wanted to talk to us yet because of their culture and dire needs, they often come across as annoying.  I asked one of the girls if she learned English at school and she said no, I learned it from the tourists.  Good to know we are teaching them the robot language that has become an annoyance upon ourselves.  

Nha Trang, Vietnam

I don’t know what I was expecting from Vietnam, but I was very surprised at what I saw there.  We pulled in to port at a beautiful beach and took a trip today that highlighted the local villages and countryside of Nah Trang, Vietnam.  We first stopped at a market in town that was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I have been to Mexico, and other poor parts of the world before, but I have never experienced anything like this before.  The moment I stepped out of the bus, there were at least five people who had walked up to me and were shoving postcards, hats, paintings, and any other local souvenir product you can think of in my face.  As we walked down the aisles of the market, there were fruits and vegetables lined up next to the smell reeking from the fly covered slabs of meet laying out in the hot sun for sale.  It was incredibly overwhelming and after paying a lady five dollars to stop following me around and about 2 minutes time, we were back on the bus.  But don’t think that was an escape; they actually followed us to the window where our seats were and tried to sell us things through the window. It was one of the saddest and craziest things I’ve ever seen all at the same time. People on the bus with us would ask, “How much did you get that for, because I bargained mine down to a dollar”.  To me, it wasn’t even worth bargaining down for because these people were so desperate for even just a dollar from us.  I felt like without even my small contribution, they might not be eating the next day.  With that said, I don’t think my $20 worth of souvenir shopping today will save the world but it was both incredible and thought provoking to see the combination of Americans, who have thousands of dollars, bargaining for their already under priced small worthless trinket from five dollars down to one dollar, and the desperate locals who will agree to any form of payment.

 

After the market experience where “no” is not a word in their vocabulary, we went to visit a local kindergarten classroom.  It was a small open aired non air-conditioned, two classroom building with a bathroom and small room with a few tables for lunchtime. We were told before hand that we would be going here, so we brought along some candy with us to give out to the kids.  They were so cute and so excited to have candy.  None of them spoke any English, but here it didn’t seem to matter.  Both the smile and chocolate on their faces was enough to know they were happy.  It was a lot like any kindergarten class back home, all of the kids had their nap blankets set out and their art projects were hung on the walls, but something I’m used to seeing was a bowl of toothbrushes by the bathroom sink. I couldn’t ask because they don’t speak English, but I’m guessing the kids don’t have toothbrushes at home, so the school provides them.  Although they were all in a bowl together and it was obvious that they weren’t marked, I guess sharing a toothbrush is better than no toothbrush.

 

Everyone here rode bikes or motorcycles; there were very few cars.  Whether they were weaving a basket, carving a chair, or shoving a postcard in your face, everyone seemed to be hard at work.  The jobs and work being done were all very tedious jobs, which we would normally expect a machine to do. Although the people here seemed desperate and lacking, there was something in their smiles and attitudes that couldn’t help but make me think that maybe their lives are simpler than the complicated ones we often make up for ourselves

Beijing, China

Our first port we arrived in when we got to China was Shanghai.  Because we went on the overland tour, I only saw about 40 minutes of the city on our drive to the airport.  We got on a plane with about 40 other passengers from the ship to all go stay in Beijing for 2 nights and then fly to Hong Kong and meet up with the ship.  Before leaving that day, Jeanie and I raided the ship for bread, apples, bananas, peanut butter, and goldfish.  Survival foods in hand, we were ready to face China.   

 

It’s funny how you can be surrounded by American products and stores every day of your life at home and it has very little significance, but then you fly across the world and immediately American products become the biggest attraction.  You have no idea how many times I’ve heard “Look there’s a McDonalds!”  The minute we got to our hotel, Elliot and I went walking downtown Beijing to find the mall, hopeful for American food of course.  It didn’t take but two minutes before the “don’t step out of the box and try anything new” Americans were walking the mall, Starbucks frappuchino in hand.  As if our looks didn’t scream tourist enough, we have green straws to our lips and are wide eyed pointing out the neighboring McDonalds, KFC, and Pizza Hut along the way.  Much to my surprise, Beijing even has a Dairy Queen…I guess that’s what they like about Texas too.  And if the American food chain restaurants weren’t enough for us to forget where we are, we even got asked by two Chinese girls if they could take a picture with us.  Aren’t we supposed to be asking them that question??  I don’t know what it is about this place, but I love China!  I never thought I would say that, but I really do. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I’m just happy to be off the confined areas of the ship, or maybe it’s even the American comfort foods, but either way China has won me over.  After we unglued our eyes from the golden arches, we actually did find some real Chinese culture.  Amongst the bright lights, and large flat screen TVs that scaled the walls of the downtown buildings was a small alleyway for the Chinese market (sounds sketchy, and it was).  Now I’ve never been one to want to look like a tourist, but there’s no hiding it in China, all guards down I might as well have had on a fanny pack and an American flag t-shirt with the amount of pictures I was snapping at all the food stands down the street.  Raw meats on a stick, squid on a stick, seahorse on a stick, caramelized strawberries on a stick, and of course the most fascinating of them all, live scorpions on a stick.  Yes, live.  I guess they wanted you to see that they were fresh before they cooked and served them to you.  Five live scorpions stabbed onto a skewer moving their little legs around like they were trying to get free before someone fried them up.  Although we didn’t try any, we did go so far as to ask a Chinese man who was eating one to take a picture with us. 

 

Our first day in Beijing was one of my favorite days off the ship so far.  First, we climbed The Great Wall.  It was just as incredible as the pictures, and even better. I think part of the reason I liked it so much was because we actually got to experience it.  So many of the places we’ve been we have gotten to take pictures and look at, but having the experience of climbing the wall made it so much more fun.  It was so steep and actually took a lot of work to get up to the top.  It was extremely cold and windy but by the time we were to the top, we were all hot and tired.  Going down was almost harder than the climb up.  You had to lean way back and go slow, which was extremely hard for Grisha.  He just wanted to run down, and didn’t quite understand that if he fell he would start rolling and probably not stop until he got to the bottom.  Thankfully we all made it down alive.  Later that day, we visited the sacred way that led to the thirteen temples of the important leaders of China (or something like that)…obviously I was having more fun climbing on the statues that lined the path, and playing in the sacred temples with the kids than I was paying attention.  The next day, we visited Tian’Amen  Square, the largest downtown square in the world.  It was really cool to see and very high security.  It’s where the gates to the forbidden city are, and where a lot of their government is run.  There wasn’t really a lot to see there, but it was huge.  We also visited the forbidden city which was so big and extremely elaborate.  Every building had so much detail into it, with special carvings and paintings on the outsides, the inside walls and even the ceilings.  There are bricks that were laid on the grounds of the forbidden city that are still there, and they are 15 layers thick because the emperor was afraid people would try to dig tunnels underground to get in.  For dinner that night, we went to a traditional imperial dinner.  It, like the forbidden city, was very elaborate and we even got to eat with gold ware.  The so called “traditional” dinner didn’t seem to traditional anymore when I heard Kelly Clarkson music playing in the background. Something about that just doesn’t make you feel like you’re in china anymore let alone an imperial restaurant.  The few days in Beijing was great and helped us get to know some of the people from our ship better.  We made friends with an Italian actor, and two gay guys who travel with their teddy bear and take pictures of him everywhere they go.  You think I’m kidding, but no.  Actually they are really nice and very entertaining.

 

So after surviving on rice and McDonalds, I was glad we were headed back to the ship.  Much to my surprise, I loved China and learned a lot about the culture and the people.  A few things I learned while here:

1. Most of the time you are not actually paying for the product, but more paying for the lady to go away and stop asking you for the 100^th time if you want to buy a watch

2. The women must have strong legs after peeing in holes in the ground all their lives

3. I didn’t see one single fortune cookie while in China. Pei Wei is lying to us...

4. I am proud to say that I finally understand and can tell the difference between all of the Asian cultures.  One thing they all have in common though…tall, tall, tall, very ugly apartment buildings fill their cities.

5.  They still take pictures with the peace sign, and I still don’t know why.

Oh I almost forgot, we saw the water cube and birds nest from the olympics! They were sooo cool!