TAIWAN

Diana, Diane and me in front of the soldier

Fruit stand at the night market in Taiwan!

Museum

Lunch at the Grand Palace Hotel

Jeff took us to the night market

Pigs Blood!

Taiwan was a port that was added to the itinerary when our Japan trip was canceled because of the earthquake and tsunami.  The first day in Taiwan was really rainy.  I went to Taipei and walked around the city and went to a night market.  The next day, a sweet local family took me and my roommate around all day.  My Mom's friend, Chen, is from Taiwan and set this whole day up for me, which was so nice.  The family was extremely nice and spoke English very well which was helpful.  They picked us up and took us all around the city.  We went to the National Palace Museum first where we saw the famous Jadeite cabbage, meat shaped stone, ivory ball, Mao dong ding and some old carving in jade, stone and wood.  The carvings were amazing.  Some of them were so small they had a magnifying glass to show you all the detail in the sculpture.  Then they took us to Chaug Lei Ts, which is a memorial where we watched the switching of the soldiers.  This is a little marching ceremony that takes place every hour when four new soldiers come out to replace the four that have been standing there.  Then they took us to lunch at the Grand Palace Hotel.  They just ordered a bunch of food to share.  The dumplings are my favorite!  Then we went to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall.  It was a big white building and inside was a big statue of Chiang Kai Shek.  Then they took us to this mall called Baan Ji to have ice cream.  COLD STONE!!  Then we met up with their son Jeff in the afternoon.  He took us to these two markets, Shi Man Ding and Shi Lin Night Market.  The first market had a lot of shops and stuff.  There were people dressed up as zombies in the streets and a little parade because it was their national holiday to celebrate their ancestors.  The night market was just filled with people and the streets were covered with food stands.  Jeff kept saying oh you have to try this!  Bubble Milk Tea, Hong Kong Waffle cakes, Strawberries on a stick coated with this hard sugar, a type of corn dog looking thing, and some mystery food.  The "most interesting" thing that I tried was a rice cake soaked in pigs blood and then coated with crushed peanuts!  He wouldn't tell me what it was until I took a bite! We had a great day thanks to Diane, Jeff and their family!
The next day I went to Taipeii 101 which is the tallest building in Taipeii.  It is about 508 meters and has the fastest elevator in the world to take you to the top.  You can see the entire city from the top. Then back on the ship for our long journey across the pacific to Hawaii,USA!!!

CHINA..Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai!

Great Wall of China!

Hong Kong view from peak

  

Shanghai

 

China was so much fun!  I spent one and a half days in Hong Kong.  The first day in Hong Kong we did so much.  I went on the longest Line of escalators in the world to the zoological and botanical garden.  I also went to the goldfish market which was pretty strange.  My favorite part of this city was viewing the lights at night on the peak.  I also flew to Beijing to see the Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square, The Summer Palace, The Temple of Heaven, Olympic sites and the Great Wall. The Great Wall was amazing!  It was built over 2000 years ago and it stretches across the mountains of Northern China winding north and northwest of Beijing. It was so beautiful and looked like it just went on forever!  Then I got to see the acrobatic show. It was really good.  My favorite part was the motorcycle stunt at the end.  I tried the famous Peking Duck. It was delicious!
Then I flew to Shanghai to meet the boat because we did not have to be on the boat when it was in transit from Hong Kong to Shanghai.  The lights and buildings in this port were amazing as well.  I ate at one of the best dim sum restaurants in Shanghai called Nanxiang Steamed  Bun Restaurant.  I also did a trip to do Sunrise Tai Chi.  They took us into the city square to do Tai Chi and there were other groups of locals doing Tai Chi as well.

My Home for 104 Days!

 Me as Captain! 

My room! 

NEPTUNE DAY!

NEPTUNE DAY! This is a celebration that takes place on the ship every voyage when you cross the equator.  We woke up to Neptune’s court playing instruments banging walls doors and drums out in the hall way to wake us all up.  During this ceremony, we go from being a "pollywog" to a "shellback."  We had to get fish guts poured on us, then jump in the pool, kiss a fish, then kiss the rings of Queen Minerva and King Neptune and an optional shaving of your head.  Jess actually shaved her head and so did her cousin! I thought they were crazy!

Good Morning Vietnam!

Good morning Vietnam! That’s what we heard on the loud speaker when we arrived in Vietnam along with a line of Vietnamese women holding a sign “Semester at Sea Welcome to Vietnam”.  My trip to Vietnam was so interesting and fun! 

Once the boat was cleared we went on a two-hour drive to Mekong Delta known for its floating markets.  When we arrived we boarded a little boat and our first stop was the fishing farmhouses.  They were just floating houses with cages where the fish were kept, farmed and fed.  Next stop was a smaller village where we saw local honey beehives and were able to hold the part where the bees were making honey.  Then we got to hold a python.  It was really cool. The snake was kind of scary.  His face would come right next to yours and you were supposed to just push it away.  My friend Edmund’s facial expressions were priceless. 

We tried so much local food.  Sweet local honey, yummy banana chips, peanut brittle bars, ginger candy, dragon fruit, pineapple and watermelon.

Then we boarded another boat and went to a village where they made coconut candy.  They gave us a warm piece to try which was so yummy and I don’t even like coconut.

We went to Diem Phuong Restaurant for lunch where we had elephant ear fish, which is a delicacy in Mekong Delta! It was served as a whole fish wrapped in rice paper layered with cucumbers, lettuce, rice noodles and the elephant ear fish with a dipping sauce.  It was delicious!

The next day my friends and I went to Cu Chi Tunnels.  They are famous for its 200-kilometer network of underground tunnels used by the Viet Cong forces during wars against the French and Americans.  We crawled through tunnels that were literally 2ft by 1 ft.  Hot, dark and one tunnel was so small we had to crawl on our hands and knees.  At the end of one tunnel there was a room with a bed, a meeting room, kitchen, dining bunker and hospital. 

There are rice plantations all over Vietnam.  We watched a lady make rice paper.  She had a big bowl of rice water, took a spoonful of that, spread it on a steaming cloth, rolled it off with a rolling pin looking thing, and put it on a mat made of bamboo and put it in the sun to dry.  Pretty cool.

The best part of the trip was we got to shoot a gun!  I shot an AK47! We had to wear noise cancelling headphones because the noise of the guns were so loud!

The next day was my Cat Tien Nationsl Park trip.  When we arrived we were given our rooms, which were not very nice. After relaxing on hammocks we went on a bird watching boat tour down the Dong Nai River.  While watching monkeys we noticed a storm behind us.  Down came the pouring rain, thunder and the lightning that was so close. It was the worst storm I was ever in.  We ran to a building for shelter.  We went to dinner at a restaurant in the park with really good Vietnamese food.  Because of the rain, termites hatched and were everywhere!  It was disgusting! They were flying at us and in our food.  The next day we hiked.  The view was gorgeous and there were so many birds and butterflies.  So my trip to Vietnam was so much fun minus the bugs and the lightning storm.

Me shooting an AK47!

Bee hives! 

Holding a Python!!

Snake Charmer

Me as a Vietnamese!

 Cu Chi Tunnels used by the Vietnamese during the Vietnam War

India

India was so much fun! A little smelly and dirty but its beauty made up for it.  When we first got to India we took a Rickshaw "tuk tuk" to go shopping. They were celebrating "Women's Day" and were doing free Henna tattoos.  I got a beautiful design on my hand which was awesome and they do it so quickly.  I tried on so many saris and I picked a tan and blue one as you can see in my Taj Mahal picture.

On Day 2 in India I had a very fun "American Day"! I was exploring the city with my friend Ryan.  Our tuk tuk driver let us drive in the parking lot by the beach which was fun.  Then we wanted to go to some street markets and he just would not take us there! He would only take us to the shops and restaurants that he gets a commission for taking us there which was really annoying.  Finally we got out and went into a mall.  We ate lunch where I tried so much food I have never had before.  While we were eating we met two people that have been in Chennai for a few weeks. We got a pedicure where the fish eat your dead skin and then we went to the movies!!  We were going to see King's Speech but it was sold out so we saw Hall Pass.  The caramel popcorn was so yummy!

The next day I woke up at 3:30 am for my trip to Agra and Varanasi.  We arrived in Dehli and then had a connecting flight to Varanasi.  All the girls received a rose at our hotel and then we had lunch. Naan bread is so yummy and my favorite.  We visited ruins, New Buddhists Temple an Archeological museum. On our way back to the hotel we stopped at the silk factory which was really cool.  The colors and designs of the fabric were amazing.

The next day I had to wake up at 4:30 am to make it to the River Ganges at sunrise.  It is the largest river in India and is extremely holy for Hindus and is worshiped as the goddess Ganga in Hinduism.  Many Hindus believe that the water of the Ganges can cleanse a person's soul from all their past sins and it can help cure illnesses.  When we arrived we bought these little floating flowers with a candle in it before we got on our boat.  We lit them when we were on the river.  They have something to do with their ritual. We sailed down the river and watched the famous bathing rituals take place with a beautiful sunrise.  Then we saw where the cremations take place.  The bodies are wrapped in silk first and then burned.  Their ashes are then put in the River Ganges.  When we were leaving we had to walk through the city.  There were cows just walking around and cow poop everywhere.  The coolest thing I saw was a snake charmer.  He had two cobras in a hypnosis state as he played music on a "pungi".

The next day I had to wake up at 4:15 to catch our train to Agra to see the Taj Mahal!  There were so  many disabled homeless people and beggars.  The Taj Mahal is so beautiful.  It is made entirely of white marble. 

River Ganges

Washing their cloths

The Cremation of bodies 

Spiritual Bathing Ritual

River Ganges

Indian Lady Selling the floating flower candle.

Henna Tattoo! 

Floating flower with a candle to light while we are on the river

Tuk Tuk with Ryan

The Taj Mahal!

I rode this Camel! 

Mauritius

Mauritius is a little island of the coast of Madagascar. We only had 8 hours there, but I still had a lot of fun.  I did a catamaran type to go snorkeling. The coral was actually more amazing than the fish. The coral had a lot of sea urchins that we had to be careful of because they were pretty poisonous. The water was pretty warm and refreshing because it was hot outside. After snorkeling, we got back on the Catamaran and cruised a little and enjoyed a BBQ lunch. It was all really yummy. Then they took us to a beach. we had to take a small boat to the beach because the water was super low.

After Mauritius on our journey to India, the captain came on to the loud speaker in the morning saying that we would be making an unexpected stop as a few passengers were really sick and we needed to get them better medical attention. Sad yes I know but there is a cool part that came out of it. We stopped for them at Diego Garcia which is a military island! No civilian has ever been on land until now. Those 2 students and 1 crew member were the only civilians to ever be on that island since it became a base in the 60s.
Also ships are not allowed within 20 miles of this island or they would be approached with military force. So we are actually the first civilians ever to get this close to the island too!

Cape Town, South Africa

South Africa
Feb17-21

  Today we were supposed to get to Cape Town, So Africa!! Only to find out that it was too windy and rough to go into port so we had to wait. We just circled around the outside of the port for 26 hours!! My original safari to Kariega Game Resort was canceled because of the delay.  I was so disappointed  but I ended up finding another safari call Inverdoorn. We got to pet cheetahs while we were there. On our first safari, we boarded the 4x4 jeep and met out driver, "Delicious."  On our safari we saw Springbok, blesbok, eland, kudu, lots of zebra, Wildebeest, a male rhino that was just laying on the ground and looked so sad, Black Mane "Barbary Cape" Lion, a female rhino and its baby and cheetahs.  The coolest thing about the cheetahs was getting to see how fast they run!  In the morning we had our second safari.  This time we saw all three of the rhinos together, wildebeest, giraffes, more African gazelles and hippos in the water.
The next day I hiked Table Mountain. We made it up the mountain in about an hour and 20 minutes. It was a pretty tough hike.  It was pretty much like climbing up stairs the whole time. But it was worth it. The view was amazing! You could see the whole port of cape town. At the top you are pretty much in the clouds.  We took the cable car down.
In the afternoon I went to Cape Point and Boulders Beach to see penguins in the wild! They were so cute!
The last day I went Cage diving with Great White Sharks!  This was the coolest thing I have ever done! The sharks would come right up to the cage. It was crazy.  The water was so freezing! It was about 50 degrees! We were in wet suits which made it a little warmer but it was still cold.

Safari Pictures

Great White shark inches away from me. Cage diving in Cape Town South Africa.

Hiking Table Mountain, Cape Town South Africa.