There are some things I feel like blogging about
Being Asian onboard:
Coming onboard the ship, I didn’t know what to expect being in the minority. Throughout my life, I’ve always been in a majority meaning I have always lived in Asian dominated areas. Semester at Sea was the first time I’ve lived in an area for a considerable period of time where most of the people were not Asian.
One of the most common things many non-Asian students would do is confuse me with other Asian students that look nothing like me. It was frustrating for me, but I had to understand that many of these students come from areas where there are no Asian people. Another thing that many people onboard the ship would do is ask if I was the exchange student. I was a little surprised by this because I thought most people would know that Asians can Americans too.
Studying onboard:
Studying onboard is the hardest thing to do. On land, I would not have any problems completing my work on time, but when I’m switching from land to sea all the time, it’s very hard to concentrate on academics all the time. Moreover, all my classes are boring. I thought I would enjoy my classes since the topics seem interesting. However, most of my professors are uninteresting and give ridiculous amounts of reading.
Alcoholism:
I choose not to drink much alcohol, maybe one or two beer once in a while; however, I am fine with others getting drunk. It is people not drinking responsibility and acting stupid I have a problem with. So many times have I felt embarrassed to be associated with being American because students have acted ridiculous when drunk at inappropriate times. For example, I was in a club in Malaysia; all the Malaysians were not drunk, and many of the Semester at Sea students were uncoordinated and extremely loud. Another example, some students decided in an overnight train in India to get drunk while there were other Indians next to them; I heard one of the SAS students got do drunk that he urinated on the wall in the cabin next to one of the beds.
I feel extremely irritated that some students just cannot live without alcohol for 4 or 5 days. I wish these students would actually realize the impact on themselves and Americans in general they have when they act like fools when intoxicated. It seems like these students do not know how to have fun without alcohol. Some people still have not learned to be responsible when drinking.
On a positive note:
The ship is arriving in Vietnam today, and I will be flying to Hanoi soon to check out Ha Long Bay. I am very excited for this trip because I have heard Ha Long Bay is one of the most beautiful places in the world.
Until Next Time,
Alan Shih at Sea
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Overwhelming India- Nothing Like It
Before I start writing about India, I would like to apologize for not updating the blog for almost a month. To be honest, I have been pretty busy with class work, tired, and a “little” lazy. However, below is a very long India update. I will update you guys on South Africa in another entry very soon.
There is nothing like India: India was the most eye-opening experience I have ever had; I felt like I was on another planet. India is different; it looks different, it smells different, it feels different from anything I have experienced. It was a sensory overload: people and rickshaws were everywhere, and no one had personal space. I don’t know if I would describe my experience as particularly an enjoyable one, but it was an exciting and thrilling one. It was an adventure to say the least.
The MV Explorer stopped in Chennai (Madras), and soon after, a group of 47 of us left for a tour of Agra, Varanasi and Delhi. The walk to the bus to drive us to Chennai Airport was a funny experience; it was extremely hot and humid, and all of us were pouring with sweat by the time we reached the bus; the bus had no AC, but it had flies/mosquitoes everywhere.
After we reached New Delhi by plane, I noticed many differences in between Chennai and Delhi. Most of the people in Delhi were lighter-skinned than those in Chennai, and much of the city seemed more developed than Chennai. Soon after we arrived at the airport, we boarded another bus to take us to Agra, the location of the Taj Mahal; the bus ride turned out to be a six hour bus ride, not a two hour ride that I was originally told. The ride was quite the adventure itself too; a few of us in the back played ten fingers and hot seat; we revealed more about our personal lives than we would have wanted too :) . Moreover, the bus ride was the bumpiest ride ever; I felt like I was on an Indiana Jones Ride in the middle of the night. We finally arrived at the hotel in Agra 3:40 in the morning.
The next morning we visited the Taj Mahal; the Taj is a wonderful piece of architecture; however, I was not awed by the Taj, and I think visiting it once is good enough for me. At the Taj, most of us were taking pictures, including many jumping photos. When we left the Taj, a barrage of boys and men attacked us trying to sell us souvenirs, but I was not tempted by anything and was successful in avoiding most of them. After the Taj, we visited Agra Fort, which I thought was much more interesting than the Taj. It was a large red fort where the Taj creator was imprisoned by his son. The fort had many interesting rooms that made it seem like a labyrinth. The most interesting attraction in the fort had to be the monkeys; they were running everywhere, and they were not afraid of the humans. Some of us even saw the monkeys getting it on, not only between males and females, but also between males and males.
We took the overnight train to Varanasi from Agra. The overnight train felt very dated and dirty, especially the restroom; I felt like cringing every time I went to the restroom. My hand sanitizer was in good use most of the time. Surprisingly, I slept better than I expected; I think it might have to do with me taking sleeping pills. After a 12 hour train ride, we went to a hotel to wash up and have lunch. What do I think about Indian food? It is awesome! It is up there with Chinese and Japanese food for me; I love naan and curry. I will definitely eat more Indian food when I go back to Berkeley.
Driving through Varanasi, I felt like the city was more chaotic and crowded together than Delhi and Chennai. There were bikes, rickshaws, cars, cows, even elephants all on the street together. The city also felt a little less developed than the major cities. We first visited a temple, which was nothing special, and then we went to the Ganges River. We went on a river ride with a local boy as a guide. It was a very interesting ride. There were many temples next to the river, and next to them were people bathing in the water or burning bodies. We did learn before arrive to the river that the river is extremely polluted with human feces and such; one group even saw bloated dead bodies in the river; thus, I was extremely careful in not getting any mud on myself. One person did graze his mud-ridden shoe on my hand, which I immediately sanitized with hand sanitizer. The boy was drinking the water and washing their faces with it which made me wonder if his body is used to the amount of pollution in the water.
We then took another overnight train, but this time to Delhi. This train was nicer and cleaner, and I was able to sleep better than I did on the first overnight train. At Delhi, we visited a massive Hindu temple, which I thought was much more interesting than the Taj Mahal. The huge temple had intricate marble carvings everywhere, from top the bottom; it was unfortunate no photos or videos where allowed. The temple did, however, feel like a tourist attraction like the Taj; it felt commercialized. For example, there was an “It’s A Small World” style boat ride where we were told that the Indians were the first to think of geometry, plastic surgery, democracy, etc. Also, there was an IMAX theatre and water show, which we skipped. After the temple and some time in Delhi, we went to a nice Indian restaurant, and once again, I ate massive amounts of curry, rice and naan; I’m surprised I have not gotten sick/diarrhea because I’ve heard that most first time visitors get sick in India. It must be due to the massive amounts of pepto I take before each meal in India.
At night, I went to a market briefly, where I ended up not buying anything. My friend Ben did buy two belts though for two US dollars. The vendor was going to charge him five US dollar per belt, but Ben did not budge; most of us have become pros at bargaining after several experiences of taxi drivers/vendors trying to overcharge us everywhere in India and previous ports. As the night went on, a bunch of us went to F-Bar, one of the “best” clubs in Delhi, to celebrate our last night in India and two person’s birthdays. The “discotec” (club) cost twenty USD to get in, and it was well worth it. The club was extremely nice; the ambience was exciting. I danced much of the night with mostly students in our group. The only downer to the club was that there were not much people on the dance floor; I think might be due to the reason that Indians are more conservative. For example, when one of our male compatriots tried to go up to an Indian girl to dance, she immediately stepped back, and her Indian male friend jumped in between her and our male friend. Our birthday boy, Ryan, got trashed, and some of us had to help him back to the hotel; he had several shots, including a sick flaming shot, which I bought for him with my alcohol voucher (I’m not a big drinker). I did not sleep that night because I got back to the hotel at 2:30 AM and we needed to catch a bus to the airport at 4 AM to fly back to Chennai.
The last day in India, couple of other people and I went to a shopping mall called Spencer’s, which I ended up not buying anything at too; I’m not too big on souvenirs, pictures and videos are my souvenirs. However, before reaching Spencer’s the rickshaw driver gave us a big headache by trying to rip us off; he acted like he did not know where Spencer’s was and took us to an expensive store designed specifically for naïve tourists. He eventually did take us to Spencer’s, but after telling us it’s going to take hours to get there and that it’s already closed. I did wonder why it took so long to drive to Spencer’s; I even almost felt asleep in the hot and humid rickshaw, but my rickshaw partner told me it was from the massive air pollution in Chennai, and that I was “slowly dying” from carbon monoxide poisoning lol.
There was a massive political demonstration where India’s highest grossing film star was trying to establish a new political party when we were returning from Spencer’s. His picture was literally everywhere; every feet, and every corner of the street, his picture was up. There were even seventy feet high posters of him. Almost everyone on the street had a yellow shirt on with a picture of him, and we drove for almost an hour without missing the yellow shirts. We did learn afterwards that most of the people were poor individuals who went to the demonstration because they were paid rupees and were given shirts and hats for free; I have also heard that some of them go because they were bribed with alcohol. The middle/upper-class, however, do not participate in these type of demonstrations.
In the end, I did not particularly enjoy my India experience, but it was something I did not regret. It opened my eyes to another dimension of the world I have never seen before, and I now know Americans are very VERY lucky; we are lucky to have food, shelter, and we should not take anything we have for granted because I now know through experience that hundreds of millions of people see my life as heaven. India was an overwhelming experience, which definitely left a huge imprint on my mind.
Until next time after Malaysia,
Alan Shih at Sea
PS Check Pics on my facebook
There is nothing like India: India was the most eye-opening experience I have ever had; I felt like I was on another planet. India is different; it looks different, it smells different, it feels different from anything I have experienced. It was a sensory overload: people and rickshaws were everywhere, and no one had personal space. I don’t know if I would describe my experience as particularly an enjoyable one, but it was an exciting and thrilling one. It was an adventure to say the least.
The MV Explorer stopped in Chennai (Madras), and soon after, a group of 47 of us left for a tour of Agra, Varanasi and Delhi. The walk to the bus to drive us to Chennai Airport was a funny experience; it was extremely hot and humid, and all of us were pouring with sweat by the time we reached the bus; the bus had no AC, but it had flies/mosquitoes everywhere.
After we reached New Delhi by plane, I noticed many differences in between Chennai and Delhi. Most of the people in Delhi were lighter-skinned than those in Chennai, and much of the city seemed more developed than Chennai. Soon after we arrived at the airport, we boarded another bus to take us to Agra, the location of the Taj Mahal; the bus ride turned out to be a six hour bus ride, not a two hour ride that I was originally told. The ride was quite the adventure itself too; a few of us in the back played ten fingers and hot seat; we revealed more about our personal lives than we would have wanted too :) . Moreover, the bus ride was the bumpiest ride ever; I felt like I was on an Indiana Jones Ride in the middle of the night. We finally arrived at the hotel in Agra 3:40 in the morning.
The next morning we visited the Taj Mahal; the Taj is a wonderful piece of architecture; however, I was not awed by the Taj, and I think visiting it once is good enough for me. At the Taj, most of us were taking pictures, including many jumping photos. When we left the Taj, a barrage of boys and men attacked us trying to sell us souvenirs, but I was not tempted by anything and was successful in avoiding most of them. After the Taj, we visited Agra Fort, which I thought was much more interesting than the Taj. It was a large red fort where the Taj creator was imprisoned by his son. The fort had many interesting rooms that made it seem like a labyrinth. The most interesting attraction in the fort had to be the monkeys; they were running everywhere, and they were not afraid of the humans. Some of us even saw the monkeys getting it on, not only between males and females, but also between males and males.
We took the overnight train to Varanasi from Agra. The overnight train felt very dated and dirty, especially the restroom; I felt like cringing every time I went to the restroom. My hand sanitizer was in good use most of the time. Surprisingly, I slept better than I expected; I think it might have to do with me taking sleeping pills. After a 12 hour train ride, we went to a hotel to wash up and have lunch. What do I think about Indian food? It is awesome! It is up there with Chinese and Japanese food for me; I love naan and curry. I will definitely eat more Indian food when I go back to Berkeley.
Driving through Varanasi, I felt like the city was more chaotic and crowded together than Delhi and Chennai. There were bikes, rickshaws, cars, cows, even elephants all on the street together. The city also felt a little less developed than the major cities. We first visited a temple, which was nothing special, and then we went to the Ganges River. We went on a river ride with a local boy as a guide. It was a very interesting ride. There were many temples next to the river, and next to them were people bathing in the water or burning bodies. We did learn before arrive to the river that the river is extremely polluted with human feces and such; one group even saw bloated dead bodies in the river; thus, I was extremely careful in not getting any mud on myself. One person did graze his mud-ridden shoe on my hand, which I immediately sanitized with hand sanitizer. The boy was drinking the water and washing their faces with it which made me wonder if his body is used to the amount of pollution in the water.
We then took another overnight train, but this time to Delhi. This train was nicer and cleaner, and I was able to sleep better than I did on the first overnight train. At Delhi, we visited a massive Hindu temple, which I thought was much more interesting than the Taj Mahal. The huge temple had intricate marble carvings everywhere, from top the bottom; it was unfortunate no photos or videos where allowed. The temple did, however, feel like a tourist attraction like the Taj; it felt commercialized. For example, there was an “It’s A Small World” style boat ride where we were told that the Indians were the first to think of geometry, plastic surgery, democracy, etc. Also, there was an IMAX theatre and water show, which we skipped. After the temple and some time in Delhi, we went to a nice Indian restaurant, and once again, I ate massive amounts of curry, rice and naan; I’m surprised I have not gotten sick/diarrhea because I’ve heard that most first time visitors get sick in India. It must be due to the massive amounts of pepto I take before each meal in India.
At night, I went to a market briefly, where I ended up not buying anything. My friend Ben did buy two belts though for two US dollars. The vendor was going to charge him five US dollar per belt, but Ben did not budge; most of us have become pros at bargaining after several experiences of taxi drivers/vendors trying to overcharge us everywhere in India and previous ports. As the night went on, a bunch of us went to F-Bar, one of the “best” clubs in Delhi, to celebrate our last night in India and two person’s birthdays. The “discotec” (club) cost twenty USD to get in, and it was well worth it. The club was extremely nice; the ambience was exciting. I danced much of the night with mostly students in our group. The only downer to the club was that there were not much people on the dance floor; I think might be due to the reason that Indians are more conservative. For example, when one of our male compatriots tried to go up to an Indian girl to dance, she immediately stepped back, and her Indian male friend jumped in between her and our male friend. Our birthday boy, Ryan, got trashed, and some of us had to help him back to the hotel; he had several shots, including a sick flaming shot, which I bought for him with my alcohol voucher (I’m not a big drinker). I did not sleep that night because I got back to the hotel at 2:30 AM and we needed to catch a bus to the airport at 4 AM to fly back to Chennai.
The last day in India, couple of other people and I went to a shopping mall called Spencer’s, which I ended up not buying anything at too; I’m not too big on souvenirs, pictures and videos are my souvenirs. However, before reaching Spencer’s the rickshaw driver gave us a big headache by trying to rip us off; he acted like he did not know where Spencer’s was and took us to an expensive store designed specifically for naïve tourists. He eventually did take us to Spencer’s, but after telling us it’s going to take hours to get there and that it’s already closed. I did wonder why it took so long to drive to Spencer’s; I even almost felt asleep in the hot and humid rickshaw, but my rickshaw partner told me it was from the massive air pollution in Chennai, and that I was “slowly dying” from carbon monoxide poisoning lol.
There was a massive political demonstration where India’s highest grossing film star was trying to establish a new political party when we were returning from Spencer’s. His picture was literally everywhere; every feet, and every corner of the street, his picture was up. There were even seventy feet high posters of him. Almost everyone on the street had a yellow shirt on with a picture of him, and we drove for almost an hour without missing the yellow shirts. We did learn afterwards that most of the people were poor individuals who went to the demonstration because they were paid rupees and were given shirts and hats for free; I have also heard that some of them go because they were bribed with alcohol. The middle/upper-class, however, do not participate in these type of demonstrations.
In the end, I did not particularly enjoy my India experience, but it was something I did not regret. It opened my eyes to another dimension of the world I have never seen before, and I now know Americans are very VERY lucky; we are lucky to have food, shelter, and we should not take anything we have for granted because I now know through experience that hundreds of millions of people see my life as heaven. India was an overwhelming experience, which definitely left a huge imprint on my mind.
Until next time after Malaysia,
Alan Shih at Sea
PS Check Pics on my facebook
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