“JAPAN: Island of Elegance and Extravagance”

I grew up reading a book called, Sianora Mrs. Suckleman. I don’t remember what it was about except that there was a little boy and girl in Japan and I loved dreaming about that foreign place. I always imagined my brother and I running around Japan - him dressed up with his hair in little ties like when he was three and we dressed him up. Japan wasn’t exactly like the picture book of my childhood, but it was just as magical.

I found magic in the ancient Buddhist and Shinto shrines whose angular, curved lines and vivid colors are juxtaposed next to the skyscrapers that stand near them. I found magic in the beautiful Japanese maple trees whose leaves have turned stunning crimson and gold hues. I found magic in the view from the observation deck looking over all of Tokyo and onwards to Mount Fugi at sunset. And the hundreds of little girls dressed up in geisha komonos with their hair all done up on Sunday was magical and adorable.

I saw five cities: Kobe, Kyoto, Nara, Tokyo, and Yokohoma – all of which had special character. The time of year was perfect for walking around under the shadows of the fall trees along little streets, which seemed to connect to more endless little alleys. There is something so serene about Japan – all the people are soft spoken and do not get loud; except maybe when you walk into a store and they greet you in cute high-pitched voices. Even in the heavily populated Tokyo I didn’t hear the honking or feel the hustle of places like India or New York.

Although Kobe is the home of the famous beef, I refrained from the $150 meal. Expense is a trend in Japan. Every meal was about $20 and you could not even sleep in a little capsule bed for less than $50. Not exactly a student budget. I only saw Kyoto for an evening, but it was a very cool place with lots of activity and it glowed at night. All the smaller towns around Tokyo are popular for tourists and Japanese alike on weekends so every single hotel or hostel in Kyoto was booked. After a 3-hour search, my friend and I narrowed down our options to sleeping on a hostel couch, staying up all night (with our big backpacks), sneaking into a hidden computer room I stumbled upon earlier, sleeping on a park bench, or going back to the ship to sleep. We settled for the latter, although I will admit it wasn’t the real backpacker route.

Determined not to fail again the next day, we set out for Nara, home of the Giant Buddha. Nara was incredible because we saw so much in just one big park. I couldn’t help but think of my mom and her love for any and everything Japanese. I can appreciate her taste because the Japanese are very exquisite people in their style, their architecture, and their manners. The Big Buddha was incredible and other smaller, but equally magnificent golden statues surrounded it. A special characteristic of Nara was its abundance of deer. Upon sighting the first one I was so excited and took tons of pictures only to soon realize that there was no lack of them and that they were very eager to come right up to you. The most hilarious moment was when I looked over to see a Japanese man in a suit with about 10 deer surrounding him while he fed them.

The Harijuku district of Tokyo has some killer shopping, as it is one of the fashion capitals of the world. I loved seeing the Lolita style – the “doll-like,” done-up fashion of some Japanese women. I even went into a store (which was playing techno Disney music) to play dress up before I was told no pictures were allowed. The Shibuya area was aglow with Christmas decorations and I couldn’t help stopping by Starbucks for some seasonal hot chocolate. Nearby, at the Shibuya crossing, the biggest crossing in the world, I saw hundreds of people walk across the street that millions cross each day. This isn’t hard to imagine since Tokyo is the biggest city in the world. Even a midnight train is packed like rush hour with everyone from businessmen to kids crammed in. Public transportation is incredible though and the trains are so timely that I even watched one leave a group of Americans standing right in front of it.

One of my highlights of Japan was seeing the fish market in Tokyo. Listed as the number one thing to do in Japan, I decided it was worth the 3am wakeup to get there. Because public transportation doesn’t run from 12-5am our only option was to take the $50 taxi ride. Once there, however, the excitement of the fish coming in was well worth it. The place was huge and the narrow aisles of fish chopping, throwing, tossing, slicing, and preparing went on forever. We spent a few hours walking up and down in awe, smiling at the men hard at work and saying “arigato,” aka “thanks for letting us stare at you while you work.” I saw every kind of fish there is from eels to enormous tuna laid out to be bid on at the daily auction. The auction didn’t start till 6am but we had to get there early because the amount of people allowed into the fish market is capped at 145 people. I left the market exhausted, but looking forward to some authentic fresh Japanese sushi.

This was the last international port…I’m pretty bummed. I think I could travel the world for the rest of my life. Maybe I will do just that…stay tuned!

“It is good to have an end to journey towards, but it’s the journey that matters, not the end” –Ursula K. LaGuin

Hong Kong, Beijing, & Shanghai – CHINA: the Vertical Nation of Miscommunication

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA!

Hong Kong at Sunset - View from the Ship!

Panda Hat! And Bamboo of course!

 My Chinese adventure began in Hong Kong, which is still considered separate from China. I had to spend a lot of my time there trying to get a Chinese visa. Thus, Hong Kong for me was RUSH RUSH….wait. I clearly misjudged the Chinese because I thought they were orderly and efficient but this wasn’t the case at the visa office where 2-hour lines were the norm. After rushing over to the Chinese Ministry office, I realized they had JUST closed for lunch. I killed time going to lunch at a local spot where it was obvious that I was the only white girl and the whole menu was in Chinese. My first cultural roadblock.

The rest of the day and the next were spent on a wild hunt for the visa. I was told I couldn’t get it till the following afternoon but when I showed up at 3pm the next day I needed $200 in Hong Kong Dollars and no credit card was allowed. Unfortunately all my money ($200 exactly) was on the ship. I then began my mad dash through the city. Luckily, I conquered the subway system but it was still a fight against the hundreds of Asians perusing the mall that was connected to the ship’s terminal. Then I made another citywide sprint to the train station that led out to the airport. I had another stressful wait as the train sped towards the airport. Arriving at 5:30 when my flight left at 6 was beyond stressful but I was determined not to miss that flight to Beijing. And I didn’t, despite the odds against me such as a gate change and the impossibly gigantic airport. Although Hong Kong was a busy blur, it was fun. I enjoyed my night out there as well, especially the killer view from the Intercontinental while I was there with some friends.

I was so excited to finally catch up with my group and guide in Beijing, and when I arrived at the Red Wall Hotel all my friends were wearing these hilarious panda hats. By the end of the trip, if you didn’t have one you were not really in China. We went out into the freezing cold and bar hopped along an icicle-draped road and danced the Beijing night away. The next morning the sightseeing began with trips to the Forbidden City (the emperor’s palace) and Tiananmen Square – the biggest square in the world. We ended the day in shopper’s paradise, the Silk Road. It was laden with jackets to combat the cold on the Great Wall and knockoffs to die for. Although my mother probably won’t believe this, I wasn’t too interested in shopping so I sat down at a restaurant with 3 German guys. “Prost!” they said, the German word for cheers, and informed me that Mercedes Benz was paying them good money to go out drinking every day in Beijing. How they accomplished this I do not know!

A two-hour drive took us to the epic Great Wall of China. We had dinner at the base of the wall and then braced our bodies for the 10-degree night we would spend sleeping on the wall. It was a long, cold night spent snuggling up in our sleeping bags trying to keep warm. I was worth it though as the next day we had a gorgeous 3-mile hike across the wall. At the end, I was so thirsty that I convinced a Chinese man to give me some water. I was so happy that I gave him a huge hug. It’s the little things like standing on the top of the Great Wall hugging a little China man that make this trip incredible. Looking out of the watchtower into the mountains and across the winding wall wasn’t a bad experience either.

The day continued with a trip to the Olympic Stadium back in Beijing. There are two adjacent buildings – the Crow’s Nest and the Ice Cube that are really incredible works of architecture and their names reflect what they look like. One of the absolute highlights though was the Kung Fu show we saw. It was like a Chinese Cirque De Soleil but for only $15. It was quality entertainment and I laughed and cheered the entire time. Those Asian men can flip, jump, and kick in an impressive way.

 We killed time waiting for the overnight train to Shanghai by grubbing on Micky D’s. Although we gag from it in US, McDonald’s tastes amazing in different countries. It’s not that we are desperate for American food – we get it on the ship, it’s because it really is delish! I would also like to add here that surprisingly there are just as many if not more KFCs around the world. Two hundred of us got on the train where there were 2 bunks to each cabin and I was pumped to discover the complimentary slippers they gave us. The 11-hour train ride was a blast  - quality social time and I met a lot of new students that I hadn’t met before. I didn’t sleep much but it was a ton of fun, especially since I’d never been on a sleeper train before.

When we got to the ship in Shanghai we were faced with a 3-hour line to get onto the ship. I took a moment of wondering why the ship cannot be more efficient – they have to check ids, passports, and search each individual’s belongings looking for anything that cannot be brought onboard. To kill time while the line went down we went to the Hyatt for an unbelievable buffet breakfast. It was the most amazing buffet spread I have EVER seen – although expensive it was worth every penny. They had everything you could wish for and when I asked for OJ or hot chocolate they brought the best OJ and hot chocolate ever.

Although all I wanted to do was sleep, I “rallied” and went out exploring Shanghai. Here I found more culture shocks. A Chinese boy came up to me to shake my hand and tell me he loved me. Then I tried to take a taxi back to the ship but got lost because communicating in Chinese difficult – I often drew pictures of a boat to tell them where to take me. At one point I was dropped off somewhere random so that I had to take a psychedelic tunnel under the harbor to make it back to the ship. Only in Asia would they have a “site seeing tunnel” that was a crazy light show with bizarre crying baby mixed with rocket ship sounds blaring from the speakers. My night out in Shanghai was really fun with a dinner where they cooked on the table in front of you, and an evening watching crazy dancers in an authentic Chinese club.

On the last day I went to the Shanghai Zoo and absolutely loved it. The leaves had turned gorgeous colors and I enjoyed the scenery just as much as the animals. The highlights were the Panda bears and the grizzly bear. The Chinese are allowed to throw food to the animals so the bears and elephants would sit up like dogs begging for food. Quite the scene. The zoo also had every kind of domesticated dog you could imagine and it was so funny to see dogs on display just like a pet shop.

In some closing thoughts, everywhere we went it was incredible to see gorgeous, vertical cities rising against the water. I thought Singapore was incredible but Hong Kong and Shanghai had even more breathtaking views. As we left the port it took many hours to get out of the canal and into the ocean. It seemed Shanghai’s high rises went on forever and you have to wonder just have far they can expand outward and upward before the planet buckles under the weight of all these buildings and people.

“Look away, look back, you’re in Laos”

Laos Love!

Her name's Monster - shes the cutest monster I've ever seen!

The 1st Pencils of Promise school ever built! Its in a village called Phatheung, Laos

The meaning of this quote is two-fold. First, it is true that when I looked away, then looked back, my passport, money, and phone – everything in my money belt was gone. Poof! But this phrase also comes from the hilarious Old Spice commercial that IB kept quoting after I finally made it to Luang Prabang (Lao headquarters for an NGO I interned for called Pencils of Promise -PoP).

I had just arrived Laos when my world came crashing down. I realized I was alone, in a foreign country, where the people speak little English, with no money or identification and the US embassy was closed. But, this is what it is like to travel; things don’t always go as planned and you have to figure it out. And I did. I ran around the capital city, Vientiane, for two days going back and forth between the US embassy, the immigration police station, the local police station, the western union, the Laos consulate, and the Vietnamese and Chinese embassies. All in all I made a total of 20 trips walking back and forth between these places. I learned that in Laos, as in much of the world, bureaucracy is slow and things are not going to happen in a hurry. For example, when I was at the local police station, all the “bosses” who had to sign my police report were at lunch. Three hours later they were still at lunch, then, “oh I forgot, they went to a meeting, come back tomorrow.” Even the Chinese embassy closed before lunch on Friday.

It was an adventure though and I stayed positive with a mission of making it to Luang Prabang, even if for only an afternoon. At night instead of sulking in my room I walked around the safe, backpacker area of Vientiane. One night I met two Finnish boys who shared some of their “snake and scorpion lao lao” with me. It was whiskey in a bottle that also contained a cobra and scorpion. If there was ever a drink that tasted “snakey” this is it – gross! I also met a Swiss guy who was spending a year traveling the world on his own. We got caught up talking about the joys of traveling alone and after three hours I had to sprint back to my hotel before they locked me out. In Laos there is a curfew – hotels and guesthouses all lock their doors around 11 or 12 and if you don’t make it back in time you could be SOL. He was a really interesting guy who made me realize that in the midst of trying to overcome a huge hurdle all by myself, I decided I love traveling alone and would do it all again.

Finally, I got everything done and jumped on a plane headed for Luang Prabang. I met Daak Fi (Leslie, the American PoP country director) for my 24-hour visit just as the huge red sun set into the mountains. It was every bit of wonderful I imagined it to be. Riding on the back of motor bikes, drinking Beer Lao along the Mekong, balling rice in my hands, perfecting the greeting “saw-bai-dee,” getting some longhorn love from a friend named Ryan, going to the local dance club, and hearing all about Pencils of Promise updates made the trip amazing.

Unfortunately, I missed meeting Lanoy, the Lao woman who is the local PoP director with an incredible heart and charming personality. She would have normally been the woman to give me a “Lao name” but luckily a man named Hong – we nicknamed him Arnold, Arnie for short - decided it should be “Nong Malai,” meaning young flower. Arnold was a constant joke because he was the first Lao man Daak Fi and IB (Leslie’s boyfriend) had ever seen who was so built and muscular. “You’re so jacked – will you fight someone so we can watch?” or “Please take off your shirt Arnold, we would like a free dinner.” I thought this was hilarious – especially when we went to the dance club and Arnie went to the bathroom just to change into a muscle shirt.

The highlight of the trip was going to see the first Pencils of Promise school ever built. We took a gorgeous motorbike ride out to a little village along the river called Phatheung. It was just as I had imagined – flocks of adorable kids thrilled to see us. I met the children whose names had become famous in the PoP office. Monster, the center of several photos hanging in the office became the star of all of mine. We played with all the kids for several hours, running from the soccer field in front of the school, to the river where they went swimming. The kids would leap from the bank and belly flop into 1 foot of water and mud then swim out. I wanted to wade in to join them but instead, to everyone’s entertainment, I sunk into about 2 feet of mud and got stuck.

We played shirts and skins soccer, sang sogs, played a funny animal-name game, and had an arm wrestle tournament that Arnie intensely judged. As each of the boys came up to battle, they would rip off their shirts to emphasize their manliness. I loved holding their little hands all day and photographing their beautiful smiles. It was far too short of a trip and I am determined to make it back to see more of this incredible country.


“Agape la Vida” – Andre Ramadan

I came back to the ship still beaming from the end of my time in Laos and dreaming up plans for my future. But, I quickly found out a fellow shipmate, Andre had died tragically and unexpectedly. In his memorial service one student mentioned a wonderful saying of Andre’s, which is both Greek and Spanish, “agape la vida.” – unconditional love of life. I really cherish this quote and think it brings so much meaning to this trip. I truly love my life, I am so happy, and I am thrilled that I didn’t let a minor bump in the road keep me down. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the support of my amazing parents, faithful friends and the Lao people. Your love sustains my unconditional love for life, so thank you!