India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia

So here's a BIG ONE! :)

Hey everyone. Sorry it’s been so long since I last posted. Since India we have had only 2-3 days on the ship between ports. I just left Vietnam this morning. After India I went to Malaysia. From Malaysia I went to Vietnam and to Cambodia and back to Vietnam. Now we have two days until we get to Hong Kong.

Anyway, as I mentioned earlier India was a pretty difficult port to grasp. I don’t think I’ll post much about it except that it was a great experience. I went on a SAS program with about 70 other kids and I regret signing up for it. I wish I traveled in a smaller group. We landed in Chennai which is a smaller city on the Eastern coast. The smell of burnt rubber permeating throughout the ship and actually woke me up. Since then the smell would continue to be very intense throughout my time in India. The trip I was on traveled to Delhi, Agra, and Varanassi. Varanassi was definitely the highlight and I almost wish I just went there. Along with the Ganges Varanassi seemed to be the most like the India that was shocking. Cows walking through the street, numbers of men peeing on the side of the road, trash everywhere, layers of dirt coating the road and buildings, street vendors and hawkers shouting at people, beggers lining the street. It was a difficult city to process and I think it was made even harder when traveling by huge bus with so many American students. In Agra we saw the Taj Mahal and some beautiful forts. When in Delhi we traveled around the city viewing different major monuments including Ghandi’s memorial, the holiest spot for Buddhist’s in the world, and (my favorite) an amazing Muslim Mosque in Old Delhi. The trip was about 6 days, I flew to four cities, took two train rides, drove at least 10 hours by bus, and slept a total of 7 hours in a four day period. India was a wave of exhaustion, depression, shock, and peacefulness. It’s hard to explain but that’s what I’ll say on it now and maybe in the future I can elaborate.

Right away after India we had a few days and then got to Malaysia. In Malaysia nine of us flew from our port Penang to Kuala Lumpur the major city in Malaysia. We were in the country during Formula 1, a major speed car-racing weekend, which made travel hectic but not terrible and the city packed with tourists and promotional events. KL was much like an American city. Big and bustling with some great aspects and some not so great aspects. The nine of us managed to stay in a ridiculously nice hotel that had a number of positive amenities including free food and drink until 10:30 pm, free internet (good for skype-ing), and an amazing pool. We probably spent more time than we should have in our hotel suite, but had a blast regardless. The first day Natalie and I explored the city and managed to find a small section of the city called Little-Malay. The small part of the city was full of locals and Natalie and I just walked around hanging out with little kids, taking photos, and walking in and out of shops. After that we went on an elevated train to Park Titiwangsa, a park with a manmade lake and running lap and badminton courts. After that we made it back to the hotel where we met up and hung out with everyone in the group. The next day the whole group went to the Batu caves, a huge cave with a Hindu temple in it, and then to the Thean Hou Temple, a Chinese temple just outside KL. It was cool to all go together in a big van and see these really cool temples and monuments in the city. The last day we spent traveling back to Penang. When in Penang the first night, I spent a lot of time traveling with Kelly, Matt, Meggie, and Natalie. We had a blast one night trying to find an internet café. We didn’t really get internet until it was too late but we did find and enjoy a Starbucks, Pizza Hut, and a 7-11. The last day I spent exploring different aspects of Penang including a Chocolate Boutique, a major mall, and Chinatown. I managed to find a great cheap DVD store and purchased about 20 DVDs for around $40 – pretty excited about that! We left Penang the next morning and ended up stopping in Singapore to fuel for almost the whole day. I spent the day hanging out with friends and trying to recuperate from some intense traveling in the past few days.

The next few days on the ship I spent a lot of time reading about the genocide in Cambodia (since that was the next stop) and studying in my classes. We arrived in Vietnam and I was scheduled to do a Faculty-Directed-Practicum (FDP – required for everyone to do a certain number of FDP’s). The FDP was a trip to a UPI photo-journalists home just outside Ho Chi Minh City. A small group of us walked through his home where he had blown up pictures from the various wars that he worked on. Listening to the man speak about the Vietnam war was pretty interesting and the photos were haunting to say the least. We had trouble communicating with him directly, but managed to get some major points answered. There was also a little shrine/memorial for the 200 journalists killed in the Vietnam War. After visiting his house the bus took us to the WAR museum. We had about an hour to walk through the museum, which had some fascinating and depressing exhibits. I spent most of my time viewing the exhibit on Agent Orange and the exhibit of current/recent genocides and child soldiers. All in all the day was difficult to digest but really interesting and important. I came back to the ship and washed up so I could meet with Meggie and her parents who were visiting. I met up with Natalie and Jimmy and we took the shuttle bus to downtown where we walked to the Vietnam House to meet with about 35 other students and have dinner. There were about three sets of parents, all of Wisconsin girls on the ship visiting through the parent program, so the group was mostly Wisconsin and the dinner was great. It was really cool getting to meet the parents and all hang out together for dinner.

The next morning I had to wake up very early to get to the airport and fly to Cambodia. I was on a scheduled SAS trip to Siem Reap in Cambodia to tour the temples of Angkor Wat. As we got to Cambodia the group checked into our really nice hotel and then traveled straight to the major Angor Wat temple. We spent about 3 hours touring around the grounds of the temple and it was HOT and humid. Then we went to a dinner with a cultural dance performance that was really cool to see. At dinner we met up with 2 other SAS trips and there must have been about 200 of us at this dinner.

As we came back to the hotel my friend David Frisch (from Wisconsin too), and I decided that we wanted to break away from the group and travel independently to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia and the major site of the Khmer Rouge regime during the 1975-78 genocide. Having just studied the genocide, Frisch (who is also in my International Law class on genocide) and I decided we had to see the Killing Fields and the S-21 Torture Prison, which has now been turned into a museum. As I said, there was an SAS group at dinner and they had visited those places the day before so I got some good advice on how to travel and what to see. That night Frisch and I booked our flight tickets and were ready to go. We had to get up around 6 am the next day to head to the airport and catch our domestic flight to Phnom Penh. Upon arrival we found a taxi and told him to take us straight to the S-21 prison. We spent about 2 hours touring the grounds of the torture prison. It was a very important experience to tour through the museum and it was really intense even to just walk the same grounds where such atrocities occurred. The buildings have been maintained and throughout the rooms they outline all that took place throughout the years of the Khmer Rouge regime including training soldiers, torturing prisoners, capturing victims, interrogation styles, confessions from soldiers, as well as showing the barracks as they were during the time. Even reflecting on it now I don’t know how comprehend it all. It was a monumental experience so far on this voyage and it was certainly a call for me to pursue a career and life that works toward preventing something similar from happening or to stop it from currently happening as is in various countries still today.

After the torture prison Frisch and I grabbed lunch at a local Thai restaurants and then traveled to the Killing Fields. This was a very weird experience. We both had a different image of the way it would look and were taken aback by coming in through the gate and seeing a massive monument/building that housed hundreds of skulls of victims (17 levels) that had been excavated from the mass graves. We walked around the fields and it was pretty scary just to roam past the mass graves and see holes where bodies were piled up as well as scattered remains of clothing and even of human bones. They also labeled different stops according to where certain methods of killing occurred. All in all it was incredibly depressing and important to see.

After this our taxi driver asked if we wanted to shoot guns. We both laughed at the idea of being taken to the torture prison and the killing fields and then being asked if we wanted to try out shooting AK-47s for fun. We passed.

Instead we drove to the airport a little early and hung out at a Dairy Queen and read/napped until we caught our flight back to Siem Reap. Back in Siem Reap we took a moped (Driver, Me Frisch in that order on one moped…very humorous) to the place that SAS was intended to be for dinner as it noted on the itinerary. Naturally they weren’t there but Frisch and I decided to stay and enjoy a nice dinner. One of our friends and companions on the SAS trip showed up about 5 minutes after we did also looking for the group and ended up staying with us as we ate and discussed our days.

The next morning I woke up and met up with my friend Amy from Wisconsin. Amy also had parents visiting and they invited me along for the day. We broke off from the group and decided to first go ride elephants. It was pretty cool to ride elephants near and around ancient temples in Cambodia. After that we went this rural town outside of Siem Reap and loaded up on a long motorized canoe-type boat. The drive alone out to the fishing markets and water homes was pretty remarkable. We went off the street and passed shack after shack filled with Vietnamese people relaxing on a Sunday afternoon. On the water we rode passed homes, buildings, and markets that were all pretty cool to see. We also saw a number of animals and fish when we made a stop at the fish museum and market. It was cool to hang out with Amy’s family too as they were really excited just to travel and experience Cambodia. After that we made our way back to the hotel where I met up with my original group for lunch and then to go tour more temples.

We went to a number of temples before making our way back to the airport so we could fly back to Ho Chi Minh City.

Back in Vietnam for the last day I met up with Elivia and we decided to go to the Cu Chi tunnels, old tunnels used during the Vietnam War. The tunnels were about an hour and a half outside of the city and we ended up hiring a driver with four other SAS kids. The driver, Ting, also became our tour guide as we went all over the tunnels and surrounding area. At the Cu Chi tunnels we got to see a number of fascinating things including old weapons, tanks, traps, food, and the tunnels themselves. We crawled through the tunnels which were a tight squeeze. We also were able to shoot guns at a firing range, which was pretty fascinating because as we toured throughout the area we constantly heard the startling noise of guns firing. We also got to try a shot of rice liquor fermented in snake, pretty gross. We ate tapioca and drank tea as well. All in all the experience was pretty crazy and well worth the $10.

After that Ting took us to a local Vietnamese restaurant where they spoke zero English and he ordered for us. It was cool to try it out and the food was pretty descent. After that Elivia and I rushed back to the ship to get ready and meet Meggie and her family for dinner. We ended up just missing them but they left a note so Elivia and I took a cap and eventually found the dinner restaurant where we met up with Sara (Dorsey, another Wisconsin girl) and her mom as well as the Wagner’s. We ate at Lemon Grass and it was one of the best dinners I’ve had on the trip. It was great to talk to Meggie’s parents some more; they are really cool.

After that we took a taxi back to the ship and it took us about an hour longer than it should have since we managed to get lost. It was pretty stressful, but oh well.

So there it is. Everything since India. I have a Global Studies exam tomorrow and five page paper due for my women’s issues class, so I’ve got to run. I’ll be in Hong Kong in about two days and I’m so excited! I wish we had a week to regroup, but that’s how SAS rolls.

I miss you all and hope all is good! Please e-mail and keep me posted on your lives when you get a chance! Huge disappointment for the Badgers vs Davidson, but it’s ok… next year. I’m sure Davidson will take the tourney. Also, enjoy Opening Day for me! I miss my Giants! Also has anyone seen Semi-Pro? Was it good? Is Will Ferrel still amazing? I need a movie update from my family members! Ok, that’s all!

Peace,

E