Friday, December 12, 2008
Bienvenidos a Panama
Hola family, I'm writing you from the Panama Canal. It takes about 8 hours to go through and we've gone through a bunch of locks (the tanks that fill up and move the ship). Now we're in one of the man-made lakes which is huge. You wouldn't even realize the lake was man-made if it weren't for the locks we had to go through to get here. There's a bunch of small, densely forested islands in the water and for whatever reason I had imaged Lake Tahoe style water when they said lakes but no it's more like muddy, brown water. Over the next few days I'll just be packing and hanging out. They have random workshops we can attend but I think I'll mainly just finish things up and hang out. The ship will be getting into the port around 8am but I won't be alllowed off until 1 or 2 o'clock but I'll be back in the US soon! Everyone's getting a bit nostalgic which is sweet and sad though I'm still looking forward to being home. I can't wait to decorate for Christmas and everything. I hope you're all doing well.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Costa Rica
I just wanted to go a quick update that I'm in Costa Rica for my last stop before the US. Costa Rica is absolutely beautiful with luch hills and tropical blue water. I'm in San Jose staying with our lovely family friends Juanita and LeRoy. We've just been relaxing and exploring San Jose. I already can't wait to come back!
Cambodia
Thus one actually goes after Vietnam but I can't figure out how to move it.
I had a once of a lifetime opportunity to travel to Cambodia for three days. I flew from Ho Chi Minh airport to Siem Reap Cambodia. Ho Chi Minh airport looked identical to SFO International but shinier and with fewer people. The Siem Reap airport looked like any small airport in Hawaii oddly enough. Parts of downtown Siem Reap look a bit like a beach town downtown with all the travelers coming through, ice cream shops and Internet cafes. Much of the Siem Reap on the way to the main entrance is either dirt roads and jungle or rows and rows of new condos and hotels. There is so much construction going on. In five years it’s going to be filled with sterile new hotels and condos. We did a sunset tour of Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is a huge temple complex built and rebuilt between the 7 and 11 century as a Hindu then a Buddhist religious and administrative site at the height of the Khmer civilization. I believe during the 11th century it was the largest city in the world. After too many invasions from Thailand and wear on the temples the king moved the capital to the current capital of Phnom Penh. After this the jungle retook the complex until the arrival of the French. It’s unbelievably surreal to wander this site. You can basically walk on anything and touch anything in this massive complex. At first I thought it was smaller than I thought it would be with only the famous site of the main temple with its five towers but the next day I realized that I was only at the west gate as in 1 out of 4 sections of the complex. It’s really interesting because many Cambodian 18 year old men still have to become Buddhist monks so there are still many saffron robed monks wandering the temple.
At night we went to a cultural show and dinner in which dancers performed. They dressed and performed like the pictures I’ve seen of Thai or Balinese dancing and the food it similar to Vietnamese and Chinese. The food in general is amazing. I could eat it almost everyday for lunch and dinner. At breakfast they eat things that just seem so foreign to me that are fun to eat once in awhile but I couldn’t want it everyday. At breakfast they drink sweet coffee or tea with a soup made of broth, rice noodles, lemon grass, bean sprouts, maybe stir-fried beef and a dumpling (with additions like lime, chili or other spices) or they have what we would think of as a curry with rice and maybe chicken. The fresh spring rolls are amazing here though they are seriously lacking in the dessert department. Every time we ate out dessert consisted of a gelatin cube thing- like squares of sturdier Jell-O flavored with fruits or I didn’t know what (one of the signs said Grass Jelly and it was green and did have a grassy flavor). At a buffet there might be 5 or 6 varieties of these gelatin products!
The next day, I can’t believe I even get to write this but I watched the sunrise over Angkor Wat. Later in the Angkor City section of the complex I went to the Bayon Temple of the complex, which is an edifice of 54 towers, each with the four faces of Buddha carved on them and bas-relief events. Every corner of every wall is carved with dancers, temple scenes, ships, animals, market scenes, and everything else imaginable. While staring at the carving and trying to sneakily take a picture of some nearby monks one of the monks comes up to me and does the universal hand motions for “can I take a picture with you?”so I got someone to take a picture for my camera too. After taking a picture with one of the monks the monk taking the picture with the digital camera also “asked”if we could take a picture! In a lot of the shops here women and children have petted and pulled my hair while one of my friends whose parents are from Ghana got legitimately stared at and whenever she made eye contact with anyone they started giggling hysterically. We wander tons of temple sites for the rest of the day. At the Elephant Walk you can walk across the pavilion the king sat on to watch performances and parades. Across from where he sat there are 5 carved towers, which they used to put rope between and have trapeze acts perform. At the Leper Terrance a king who prayed have his leprosy curved built a temple to thank the gods and the bas relieves often have three levels with get of the figures progressively going through the stages of leprosy carved into the stone! Another site used to be a university for the Buddhist monks while another was a hospital with a man made pond in the middle and in the four corners are altars for lack of a better world to the four main elements. So when you were diagnosed with an illness it meant one of your elements were out of order so you would then go pray or bathe in that element’s section. At sunset we climbed to the top of this huge temple in the jungle and watched the sun set with the Thai border behind us and the main 5-towered Angkor Wat temple complex in front of us. Once you get away from the main famous temple the number of people decreases so you really feel like it’s your own private adventure. At night we went into Siem Reap to the night market, which was really fun except for the bargaining which for me is kind of stressful and I’m not very good at it.
At the temples near the entrance there are musicians playing traditional music who are land mine victims. There are still so many landmines in Cambodia and most people are so poor that many try to find and take apart landmines to sell for scrap metal. An unfortunate irony is that the very dangerous scrap metal from the landmines (many of which haven’t detonated yet) is then sold and smuggled across the Thai border where it is converted into steel, which is then resold to build the new hotels and condos in Cambodia. There are many children and women selling tourist things at these sites but since most of the families can’t farm their land in order to make way for the tour buses and the children go to school in shifts and sell souvenirs in the off time. The poverty here was so different than India for example because I almost felt more sympathetic towards the Cambodians. In India there was more a feeling that the social structure and society were to blame for the massive poverty but in Cambodia I felt worse almost for the people because of the American role in the instability extending the Viet Nam War into the region (more bombs were dropped in the country of Cambodia than were dropped on all of Europe during WWII) and the horrors of the Poi Pot / Khmer Rouge Regime who killed between 1 million and 3 million of its own people. There is a greater sense here that the poor and underprivileged Cambodians are working towards a solution- the children go to school, people try to learn English, people make crafts to sell, farmers try to clear the land… Our tour guide for example was orphaned at age 7 when the Khmer Rouge killed both his parents one night. In the orphanage he started to teach himself English and when he was 18 he became a monk (which he said was a way to honor his dead parents). Now he is a teacher and a tour guide in addition to volunteering at orphanages. His wife while pregnant was hit by a motorcycle and though the baby survived his wife is bedridden while he tries to save the money for her operation. The sheer pride he has in his family and his drive to provide a better life for his family was so inspiring. He said he wanted his daughter (who he intentionally gave the American name Jamie) to become a public school teacher because even though it doesn’t pay well he wants he to be able to help more Cambodians. He never told his life story or current problems as a way to gain sympathy but rather as a matter of fact account of the lives of many Cambodians. I felt very proud of my fellow students and faculty members (the 50 of us on the trip) in one day raised $1300 in cash to completely pay for his wife’s operation. The operation cost $900 but for comparison value the guide’s rent for a single room apartment is $80 a month. The cautious optimism and “pull yourself up by your boot straps”idea were prevalent in many Cambodians.
The second largest freshwater lake in the world (after Lake Baikal which is mostly frozen in Russia) is the Tonlé Sap in Cambodia. In the morning we took a boat trip up the lake to visit the floating villages of the Vietnamese and Cambodians living on pontoon boats and structures. All along the banks are rows of homes and shops. The buildings aren’t like the houseboats you see in San Francisco or vacation houseboats- they are all one story and still very mobile. Most are painted a cheery blue color and have a “porch”in front they use to farm fish on and in front some of the houses had large pots of chrysanthemums. Churches, a police station, grocery stores, restaurants and even a billiard hall and a basketball court line float on the water. Women in boats go “door to door”selling groceries and we even saw the Cambodia water version of a U-Haul moving one of the houses up the water. One of coolest sites we saw in Cambodia was later that day when we went to Ta Prohm know for it’s eerie atmosphere result from the encroaching jungle and more importantly as the main filming location for Tomb Raider! Huge trees grow up, over and through the abandoned temple. The temples here aren’t like Christian churches or synagogues or mosques but rather tend to be many series of small rooms, tower and hallways in which to pray and meditate hence it’s a very individual type religious observation. Especially at this temple there is a feeling of being out of the ordinary climbing on 900 hundred year old temples that are intertwined with trees easily 100-200 feet high out in the middle of the jungle with the smell of burning incense and the grass smell from the dense vegetation and the strangest high pitched noise from the insects and the faint sound of string instruments and drums from the landmine victims. As I said- surreal but amazing.
I had a once of a lifetime opportunity to travel to Cambodia for three days. I flew from Ho Chi Minh airport to Siem Reap Cambodia. Ho Chi Minh airport looked identical to SFO International but shinier and with fewer people. The Siem Reap airport looked like any small airport in Hawaii oddly enough. Parts of downtown Siem Reap look a bit like a beach town downtown with all the travelers coming through, ice cream shops and Internet cafes. Much of the Siem Reap on the way to the main entrance is either dirt roads and jungle or rows and rows of new condos and hotels. There is so much construction going on. In five years it’s going to be filled with sterile new hotels and condos. We did a sunset tour of Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is a huge temple complex built and rebuilt between the 7 and 11 century as a Hindu then a Buddhist religious and administrative site at the height of the Khmer civilization. I believe during the 11th century it was the largest city in the world. After too many invasions from Thailand and wear on the temples the king moved the capital to the current capital of Phnom Penh. After this the jungle retook the complex until the arrival of the French. It’s unbelievably surreal to wander this site. You can basically walk on anything and touch anything in this massive complex. At first I thought it was smaller than I thought it would be with only the famous site of the main temple with its five towers but the next day I realized that I was only at the west gate as in 1 out of 4 sections of the complex. It’s really interesting because many Cambodian 18 year old men still have to become Buddhist monks so there are still many saffron robed monks wandering the temple.
At night we went to a cultural show and dinner in which dancers performed. They dressed and performed like the pictures I’ve seen of Thai or Balinese dancing and the food it similar to Vietnamese and Chinese. The food in general is amazing. I could eat it almost everyday for lunch and dinner. At breakfast they eat things that just seem so foreign to me that are fun to eat once in awhile but I couldn’t want it everyday. At breakfast they drink sweet coffee or tea with a soup made of broth, rice noodles, lemon grass, bean sprouts, maybe stir-fried beef and a dumpling (with additions like lime, chili or other spices) or they have what we would think of as a curry with rice and maybe chicken. The fresh spring rolls are amazing here though they are seriously lacking in the dessert department. Every time we ate out dessert consisted of a gelatin cube thing- like squares of sturdier Jell-O flavored with fruits or I didn’t know what (one of the signs said Grass Jelly and it was green and did have a grassy flavor). At a buffet there might be 5 or 6 varieties of these gelatin products!
The next day, I can’t believe I even get to write this but I watched the sunrise over Angkor Wat. Later in the Angkor City section of the complex I went to the Bayon Temple of the complex, which is an edifice of 54 towers, each with the four faces of Buddha carved on them and bas-relief events. Every corner of every wall is carved with dancers, temple scenes, ships, animals, market scenes, and everything else imaginable. While staring at the carving and trying to sneakily take a picture of some nearby monks one of the monks comes up to me and does the universal hand motions for “can I take a picture with you?”so I got someone to take a picture for my camera too. After taking a picture with one of the monks the monk taking the picture with the digital camera also “asked”if we could take a picture! In a lot of the shops here women and children have petted and pulled my hair while one of my friends whose parents are from Ghana got legitimately stared at and whenever she made eye contact with anyone they started giggling hysterically. We wander tons of temple sites for the rest of the day. At the Elephant Walk you can walk across the pavilion the king sat on to watch performances and parades. Across from where he sat there are 5 carved towers, which they used to put rope between and have trapeze acts perform. At the Leper Terrance a king who prayed have his leprosy curved built a temple to thank the gods and the bas relieves often have three levels with get of the figures progressively going through the stages of leprosy carved into the stone! Another site used to be a university for the Buddhist monks while another was a hospital with a man made pond in the middle and in the four corners are altars for lack of a better world to the four main elements. So when you were diagnosed with an illness it meant one of your elements were out of order so you would then go pray or bathe in that element’s section. At sunset we climbed to the top of this huge temple in the jungle and watched the sun set with the Thai border behind us and the main 5-towered Angkor Wat temple complex in front of us. Once you get away from the main famous temple the number of people decreases so you really feel like it’s your own private adventure. At night we went into Siem Reap to the night market, which was really fun except for the bargaining which for me is kind of stressful and I’m not very good at it.
At the temples near the entrance there are musicians playing traditional music who are land mine victims. There are still so many landmines in Cambodia and most people are so poor that many try to find and take apart landmines to sell for scrap metal. An unfortunate irony is that the very dangerous scrap metal from the landmines (many of which haven’t detonated yet) is then sold and smuggled across the Thai border where it is converted into steel, which is then resold to build the new hotels and condos in Cambodia. There are many children and women selling tourist things at these sites but since most of the families can’t farm their land in order to make way for the tour buses and the children go to school in shifts and sell souvenirs in the off time. The poverty here was so different than India for example because I almost felt more sympathetic towards the Cambodians. In India there was more a feeling that the social structure and society were to blame for the massive poverty but in Cambodia I felt worse almost for the people because of the American role in the instability extending the Viet Nam War into the region (more bombs were dropped in the country of Cambodia than were dropped on all of Europe during WWII) and the horrors of the Poi Pot / Khmer Rouge Regime who killed between 1 million and 3 million of its own people. There is a greater sense here that the poor and underprivileged Cambodians are working towards a solution- the children go to school, people try to learn English, people make crafts to sell, farmers try to clear the land… Our tour guide for example was orphaned at age 7 when the Khmer Rouge killed both his parents one night. In the orphanage he started to teach himself English and when he was 18 he became a monk (which he said was a way to honor his dead parents). Now he is a teacher and a tour guide in addition to volunteering at orphanages. His wife while pregnant was hit by a motorcycle and though the baby survived his wife is bedridden while he tries to save the money for her operation. The sheer pride he has in his family and his drive to provide a better life for his family was so inspiring. He said he wanted his daughter (who he intentionally gave the American name Jamie) to become a public school teacher because even though it doesn’t pay well he wants he to be able to help more Cambodians. He never told his life story or current problems as a way to gain sympathy but rather as a matter of fact account of the lives of many Cambodians. I felt very proud of my fellow students and faculty members (the 50 of us on the trip) in one day raised $1300 in cash to completely pay for his wife’s operation. The operation cost $900 but for comparison value the guide’s rent for a single room apartment is $80 a month. The cautious optimism and “pull yourself up by your boot straps”idea were prevalent in many Cambodians.
The second largest freshwater lake in the world (after Lake Baikal which is mostly frozen in Russia) is the Tonlé Sap in Cambodia. In the morning we took a boat trip up the lake to visit the floating villages of the Vietnamese and Cambodians living on pontoon boats and structures. All along the banks are rows of homes and shops. The buildings aren’t like the houseboats you see in San Francisco or vacation houseboats- they are all one story and still very mobile. Most are painted a cheery blue color and have a “porch”in front they use to farm fish on and in front some of the houses had large pots of chrysanthemums. Churches, a police station, grocery stores, restaurants and even a billiard hall and a basketball court line float on the water. Women in boats go “door to door”selling groceries and we even saw the Cambodia water version of a U-Haul moving one of the houses up the water. One of coolest sites we saw in Cambodia was later that day when we went to Ta Prohm know for it’s eerie atmosphere result from the encroaching jungle and more importantly as the main filming location for Tomb Raider! Huge trees grow up, over and through the abandoned temple. The temples here aren’t like Christian churches or synagogues or mosques but rather tend to be many series of small rooms, tower and hallways in which to pray and meditate hence it’s a very individual type religious observation. Especially at this temple there is a feeling of being out of the ordinary climbing on 900 hundred year old temples that are intertwined with trees easily 100-200 feet high out in the middle of the jungle with the smell of burning incense and the grass smell from the dense vegetation and the strangest high pitched noise from the insects and the faint sound of string instruments and drums from the landmine victims. As I said- surreal but amazing.
Hawaii
Sorry it's been so long but I just got finished with finals. On Thanksgiving we spent about 12 hours in Honolulu to celebrate Thanksgiving. After being at sea for 9 days and having been out of the US for about 3 months we were very excited. I spent the morning serving dinner at the Salvation Army for mainly the homeless and elderly. It was very fun and even though we weren't there for long I at least got some turkey, rolls and pumpkin pie. I spent most of the rest of the day grocery shopping and hanging out on the beach. Waikiki Beach was crowded but beautiful. The weather was perfect and since it's such a tourist destination everything was still open. While it was a far cry from cranberry, mashed potatoes and pecan pie at home, swimming and reading on a tropical beach wasn't too bad.
It was very strange to be back in the US after so long. Everyone was so much louder and more energetic than most of the Asian countries I had just come back from. Everyone was much heavier and more colorful than the Japanese especially. I went to Safeway (it's a big grocery store like Shaw's or Gerdardi's or Alberstons) to stock up for the long haul to Costa Rica and it was a bit of a culture shock. Firstly I forgot that everything is air conditioned so much in the US and all the drinks come with so much ice. When I first walked into Safeway I was, well freezing and also completely and utter overwhelmed with the number of choices. I just wandered the aisles in a daze before I started to get back in the swing of things. I did regress a bit when I decided to get some yogurt and when I got to the dairy section I was overwhelmed with non-fat, low-fat, no sugar, fruit on the bottom, fruit flavored, low calorie, made with Splenda, dessert style, European style, small, medium, large, Dannon, Yoplay, etc. I ended up just getting some plain yogurt, pretzels (which I haven't had since South Africa) and Diet Coke (since the "Coke light" tastes more like Dr. Pepper than Cola in other countries).
After our fuel stop in Hawaii (we also had stops in Puerto Rico, Mauritius and Singapore but we couldn't get off) we were back in the Pacific. The weather was beautiful and we spent most of the days studying for finals or pretending to study and enjoying the great weather while sunbathing out on the deck. I don't actually tan and chill outside as much as people might expect because I'm either too busy or the weather isn't good. Off the Pacific though, the weather was perfect with great sunsets and I even saw some dolphins. Finals are over so we're totally done with school before we get to Costa Rica. I can't believe it's almost over!
It was very strange to be back in the US after so long. Everyone was so much louder and more energetic than most of the Asian countries I had just come back from. Everyone was much heavier and more colorful than the Japanese especially. I went to Safeway (it's a big grocery store like Shaw's or Gerdardi's or Alberstons) to stock up for the long haul to Costa Rica and it was a bit of a culture shock. Firstly I forgot that everything is air conditioned so much in the US and all the drinks come with so much ice. When I first walked into Safeway I was, well freezing and also completely and utter overwhelmed with the number of choices. I just wandered the aisles in a daze before I started to get back in the swing of things. I did regress a bit when I decided to get some yogurt and when I got to the dairy section I was overwhelmed with non-fat, low-fat, no sugar, fruit on the bottom, fruit flavored, low calorie, made with Splenda, dessert style, European style, small, medium, large, Dannon, Yoplay, etc. I ended up just getting some plain yogurt, pretzels (which I haven't had since South Africa) and Diet Coke (since the "Coke light" tastes more like Dr. Pepper than Cola in other countries).
After our fuel stop in Hawaii (we also had stops in Puerto Rico, Mauritius and Singapore but we couldn't get off) we were back in the Pacific. The weather was beautiful and we spent most of the days studying for finals or pretending to study and enjoying the great weather while sunbathing out on the deck. I don't actually tan and chill outside as much as people might expect because I'm either too busy or the weather isn't good. Off the Pacific though, the weather was perfect with great sunsets and I even saw some dolphins. Finals are over so we're totally done with school before we get to Costa Rica. I can't believe it's almost over!
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Konichiwa!
The ship first docked in Kobe (home of the famous beef) on the southeast side of Japan. Most of Kobe was destroyed in 1995 in an earthquake so the parts that survived or have been restored are extra special and more money is put into their preservation. The first day I went to lunch for some amazing traditional Japanese food then I went to a Shinto temple. The temple was a beautiful bright red color with a fountain to purify yourself in by washing your hands, a huge bell you pull and make a wish/prayer on, lanterns, scrolls with the imperial crest on them and mediation/prayer areas. I went to a random wood-working museum for a class which was sort of interesting. At sunset I explored a beautiful garden, which was once privately owed by a wealthy silk trader. You can meander by the pond which has huge trees with red and orange leaves, rows of chrysanthemum bushes and lovely mini gardens. The weather is perfect luckily- fall crisp breeze and sunshine.
My second day in Japan I took the train about two hours outside Kobe to these restored 17th watchtowers and a shopping center. After that I went to a completely restored ginormous castle/city complex from the 1600s called Hijemi. It's used in a lot of samurai video games and movies. It's a bit hard to explain but basically has gardens, stables, towers, barracks and castles inside a big moat. The buildings are a bright white color with metal roofs up on a hill with beautiful trees of fall colors around it. The central building is about 7 stories and completely restored wood interior. It looks so new you could move in tomorrow. The really cool thing is that the feudal lords used it as the final defenses in case of attack so it has tons of hidden rooms, moving walls, arrow slits, hidden gun racks and shelves to the outside wall which they used to drop tar or rocks on invaders. I don't think it's the kind of thing everyone would like to spend hours in but I definitely could. The world really can be a small place- while taking pictures a family asked me to take a family photo for them and of course they were from Los Altos, CA (which is next to my town for non-NorCal people). Around the castle were these guys dressed as ninjas who would pretend to attack you so you could get a cool photo. The odd thing was that they didn't ask for money or anything or seem to be official photo ninjas just two guys that dress up as ninjas for kicks.
Many people elected to get a bullet train pass and travel around Japan that way and just meet up with the ship in Yokohama the last day but I decide to stay on the ship. Japan has a super efficient, clean and extensive public transportation system. You can get anywhere in Japan via the subway, bullet trains or local trains. Almost everything is super expensive here (especially in comparison to the pervious countries we've visited). For example a bottle of Febreeze is $10 or a decent cup of coffee is about $4. You can definitely find food that isn't too expensive but almost everything else you really have to search out in order to not break the bank. Staying on the ship saved a lot of money and was actually kind of relaxing. When we got to Yokohama I spent most of my time exploring, eating and walking along the shopping malls and skyscrapers. A couple friends and I took the train to Tokyo. Tokyo is huge though the area I was in seemed to just be malls, hotels, offices, restaurants and train stations which was fun for an afternoon though I don't know what tourists do during the day after a while here. There are actually more people in Tokyo than the entire continent of Australia. The greater metropolitan area of Tokyo has over 30 million people (LA's metropolitan area has about 13 million to give you an idea of Tokyo's size). Tokyo is very impressive as a testament to modern abilities- it's very clean and efficient with miles of skyscrapers, office buildings and shiny glass malls. There is something a bit sterile though about parts of it. I've heard that unless you know locals you'll never see the real Tokyo. All the interesting/fabulous places you apparently have to be "in the know" to know about which I apparently am not. The sections of Tokyo I was in looked a bit like 5th Ave or the financial district of New York but much cleaner and less colorful. There are so many really nice shopping malls here selling Dior, Tiffany's and really nice boutique style Hello Kitty/Sanrio stuff. You can buy everything from a toaster oven to wedding cake toppers with Hello Kitty on it! There seems to be Starbucks on every corner here too but they're cleaner and more polite. The Starbucks and malls were all covered in Christmas decorations too- music, garlands, trees, the whole shebang but it seemed as authentic as green-obsessed St. Patrick's decorations in America must seem to Irishmen.
On my last day in Japan I explored Yokohama, which I actually liked better than Tokyo. It's still a huge modern city but less people and more colonial architecture- it seemed to just have a bit more character than Tokyo. I explored yet more shopping malls and skyscrapers while walking along the city. I really enjoyed wandering the Yokohama Museum of Modern Art, which isn't very big but has some famous Western artists like Salvador Dali, Kandinsky, Picasso and Brancusi. It was really nice just being away from all the Semester at Sea people but not looking at yet another temple. Two other students and I had fun exploring a really high-end mall and gourmet food stores.
The food is amazing here. Sushi, sashimi, tempura, miso soup... yum yum yum! There are tons and tons of bakeries often selling croissants, madelines, brioche, and such. There are also a surprisingly large number of waffle stands which are actually really nice and expensive to-go stands in subway terminals and major financial centers. Apparently it's a very popular hostess and Christmas gift to send boxes of food like these petite pound cake-like pastries from department stores. At the bottom of the department stores (most are like Saks Fifth Ave or Nordstrom's) the have a "food court." They look like an expensive store's makeup counter but instead it's rows and rows of gourmet food. It was heavenly! Counter after counter of fresh sushi, salads, chocolates, cakes, mochi, fish, etc. If I lived here (which would require tons of money) I think I would never cook and eat every meal from these department store food courts. For whatever cultural reason though there's never anywhere to sit or get a drink in these food courts. I think people must go home or back to the office to eat since there was never anywhere to sit and eat. Another popular Japanese dessert is mochi, which is a ball of dough filled with different flavors. It's a very strange consistency but the best way I can explain it is imagine raw pie or pastry dough about the size of a dinner roll with a custard/whipped cream filling that comes in every flavor from green tea to café au lait to apple pie to sweet potato. They are actually pretty good though I'd choose an éclair if it came down to it.
Everyone was very polite (with the exclusion of cultural norms which are different such as holding the door for the person behind you, handshaking or eye contact) and often when we were trying to figure out the subway system someone would come and help. People would make such an effort to communicate with us in broken English, hand signals or having long conversations with us in Japanese even though we obviously had no idea what they were saying. I rarely saw people laughing loudly or shouting. People in general are very reserved and in control. No one ever stared at us or asked to take our picture though we obviously stood out. I don't know if they just didn't care or are so used to foreigners that it's no big deal though in most places I went there was only a few, if any non-Japanese people out of hundreds of Japanese. There is a bit of a two faced quality it seems to me about many Japanese because you see so many people in severe, expensive business suits or uniforms working six days a week acting pretty reserved and restrained but then you see a girl dressed like little Bo Peep and no one bats an eye or rows of arcade/gambling places packed with smoke, alcohol, female "companions" and really hung over looking businessmen on a major street at 2 in the afternoon!
Almost everyone is very well dressed though they looked a bit high maintenance. The men looked a bit fussy and metrosexual with their choppy blow dried hat, tight jeans, shiny belts and layers of clothes compared to the casual/sloppy American boys on the ship. The women obviously put a lot of effort into their look- no one looked even remotely casual. Most looked like the women in New York on Fifth Ave though no bright colors or prints- thin, styled hair, outfits not just clothes, high heels, definitely not low-maintenance. They looked pulled together with lots of layers of clothes though not necessarily sharp or classic looking. I never once saw a person in sweats, a sweatshirt, a baseball cap or in a bright color like red, pink or aqua. I don't know if all schools have uniforms but every high school/elementary school aged person was in uniforms even on Saturdays! All the uniforms were dark blue and most of the girls ones included long skirts and a sailor motif, which definitely would not fly at most American private schools. On the subway you'd see big groups of girls or boys in these modest dark uniforms with leather book bags/messenger bags and really nice cell phones with an anime or manga cartoon charm attached to it.
You know the expression the grass is greener on the other side of the fence? Well they should change it to the grass is greener on the other side of the ocean because Japan literally paints the grass bright green. Sad, dejected, brown grass gets zapped greener by a guy with this industrial sized paint sprayer in public spaces.
The quintessential image of Japan I left with was in one of the many high-end malls in Tokyo with an older businessman and his younger wife/girlfriend. The man was dressed in an obviously expensive suit and browsing while waiting for the woman and text messaging on his phone, which had a cartoon antennae charm which everyone in Japan seemed to have. The woman was in traditional Japanese clothes- the less formal version of the kimono and wearing one of those white surgical masks, which people do actually wear here. In these traditional clothes and surgical mask she spent serious time shopping in a massive and expensive Hello Kitty store from which you could easily have outfitted your entire life in Sanrio gear.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Ni Hao from China
Hello family,
I just got back to the ship in Shanghai from Beijing. I'm going to bed now but I will write more tomorrow night. Beijing was really interesting and fun. We hung out and stayed over at Peking University in Beijing (which is one of the top two universities in China). We hit up all the major sites- the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, acrobatic show, Tiananmin Square, went by the Olympic sites and we even went to a karaoke bar/private room place with the students which was an experience to say te least. Most of the sites were much larger than I excepted- also didn't realize that you have to hike way up the stairs to get to the top of the Great Wall. Beijing is huge. It's sprawling with signs for the Olympics everywhere. In most of the places there weren't many Western tourists- mainly Chinese tourists everywhere though it didn't really feel crowded just massive. I had so many people take my picture and one night a friend and I went to see James Bond and we were literally the only Westernizers for miles around. There is a fairly prominent military/uniformed guard presence at most of the major sites- though at a couple there were troops of soldiers on a field trip for lack of a better word. Other than the Mao and Communist souverniers, random red stars on buildings and the soldiers you could easily forget in Beijing that it's a Communist country. There are so many banks, luxury goods stores, hotels, car dealerships and Westerner chain restaurants in the financial and tourist areas. I'm in Shanghai now and will try to explore the city tomorrow which is our last day in China, then we have two days before Japan. I hope you're well and reveling in our new president elect.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Viet Nam
City Orientation
The downtown section is still called Saigon and retains much of its French colonial flair. The French architecture is very well preserved and the streets in the downtown area near the Opera House, Notre Dame Cathedral and Post Office wouldn’t look out of place in Paris with its cafes, bakeries, and tree-lined boulevards. Granted the streets are crammed with motorcycles and bicycles. They just passed a law requiring everyone where helmets so there will be 2, 3, 4 people and a baby on the motorcycle they all have shiny new helmets on! Crossing the street here is not for the faint of heart. You’d never think it was a Communist country that had a devastating war thirty years ago. In the downtown area the streets are pretty clean, not much visible urban poverty, clean shops and tons of brand new skyscrapers and financial buildings going up. In the Rex Hotel for example which was the favorite haunt of the American officers and press corp. during the Viet Nam War wouldn’t look out of place in San Francisco or London with its rooftop bar, jazz club, restaurants and Marc Jacobs boutique inside.
I went to the National History Museum, which reminds me of a really old school museum with dioramas, no air conditioning, no audio tour, etc. I saw a water puppet performance which is a small stage filled with water so instead of the puppets being controlled from the top they have poles under the water. It was kind of cool but the human figures had a bit of an “It’s a Small World After All”creepy factor. We went by the former American embassy, which is now the American consulate and suffice to say looks different than the famous coverage of the helicopters leaving the embassy and the South Vietnamese trying get clamor on or over the embassy gates. Down the street from the embassy is Reunification Palace which the former South Vietnamese president’s house. It looks identical to a 1970s Howard Johnson Hotel. As you walk in right off the lobby which looks just like a hotel reception room are famous sites like the room in from which the South Vietnamese called the surrender of the South to the North. In the underground floors they’ve left much of the rooms as they were in the 1970s with the original war maps on the walls, typewriters, switchboards, the presidential bedroom, etc. It’s definitely a bit surreal especially as you exit the palace. There’s a famous photo of the end of the war of the North Vietnamese tank crashing through the gates of the palace. The “original”tank that crashed through is next to the gate but now the gate opens and closes for the big tour buses to come through. A few blocks down were the tanks had rolled down are a bunch of wi-fi Internet cafes!
That night I went to the night, which is jammed with, stalls selling blenders, jeans, knock off bags, intense, noodles, key chains…The stall owners are aggressive to saw the least. While it’s kind fun to do a few times I definitely wouldn’t want to do all my shopping this way. I ate at one of the street side restaurants which was all locals except us and the food was so cheap and good. I had fresh spring rolls, a coconut shake, a rice flour pancake filled with bean sports and shrimp and a fried rice dish. They had a tank set up where you can pick your fish, lobster, etc. and they also had a string that gave me a panic attack because I looked up and looked at a string with frogs on it that then moved! They were still alive! I didn’t get a chance to have anything made since I was only in Vietnam one day at the beginning and an evening at the end.
On my last day in Vietnam I went to the Mekong Delta in the south. The Mekong River goes through a number of Southeast Asian countries. We went to a bunch of markets and temples though after a while unfortunately start to look really similar and less exotic. We saw rice paddies and it turns out that they really do wear the wide, triangle rice paddy hats. We took a boat ride down the Mekong River and stopped at some of the islands. On one island after sampling exotic fruits and listening to traditional music we took a canoe/boat ride down the canals. They eat fresh pineapple with a salt/chili powder on it, which they think is healthy since the chili makes you sweat. We took a horse down carriage through the town to a coconut candy factory, shops and honey farms. They made this amazing tea drink of fresh honey, jasmine tea and fresh kumquat juice. For my last night I went to a wi-fi café and tried to upload pictures unsuccessfully. I made amazing iced coffee, which is this fancy set up of condensed milk and fresh brewed coffee then poured over ice. I’m really going to miss the food here in Vietnam.
The downtown section is still called Saigon and retains much of its French colonial flair. The French architecture is very well preserved and the streets in the downtown area near the Opera House, Notre Dame Cathedral and Post Office wouldn’t look out of place in Paris with its cafes, bakeries, and tree-lined boulevards. Granted the streets are crammed with motorcycles and bicycles. They just passed a law requiring everyone where helmets so there will be 2, 3, 4 people and a baby on the motorcycle they all have shiny new helmets on! Crossing the street here is not for the faint of heart. You’d never think it was a Communist country that had a devastating war thirty years ago. In the downtown area the streets are pretty clean, not much visible urban poverty, clean shops and tons of brand new skyscrapers and financial buildings going up. In the Rex Hotel for example which was the favorite haunt of the American officers and press corp. during the Viet Nam War wouldn’t look out of place in San Francisco or London with its rooftop bar, jazz club, restaurants and Marc Jacobs boutique inside.
I went to the National History Museum, which reminds me of a really old school museum with dioramas, no air conditioning, no audio tour, etc. I saw a water puppet performance which is a small stage filled with water so instead of the puppets being controlled from the top they have poles under the water. It was kind of cool but the human figures had a bit of an “It’s a Small World After All”creepy factor. We went by the former American embassy, which is now the American consulate and suffice to say looks different than the famous coverage of the helicopters leaving the embassy and the South Vietnamese trying get clamor on or over the embassy gates. Down the street from the embassy is Reunification Palace which the former South Vietnamese president’s house. It looks identical to a 1970s Howard Johnson Hotel. As you walk in right off the lobby which looks just like a hotel reception room are famous sites like the room in from which the South Vietnamese called the surrender of the South to the North. In the underground floors they’ve left much of the rooms as they were in the 1970s with the original war maps on the walls, typewriters, switchboards, the presidential bedroom, etc. It’s definitely a bit surreal especially as you exit the palace. There’s a famous photo of the end of the war of the North Vietnamese tank crashing through the gates of the palace. The “original”tank that crashed through is next to the gate but now the gate opens and closes for the big tour buses to come through. A few blocks down were the tanks had rolled down are a bunch of wi-fi Internet cafes!
That night I went to the night, which is jammed with, stalls selling blenders, jeans, knock off bags, intense, noodles, key chains…The stall owners are aggressive to saw the least. While it’s kind fun to do a few times I definitely wouldn’t want to do all my shopping this way. I ate at one of the street side restaurants which was all locals except us and the food was so cheap and good. I had fresh spring rolls, a coconut shake, a rice flour pancake filled with bean sports and shrimp and a fried rice dish. They had a tank set up where you can pick your fish, lobster, etc. and they also had a string that gave me a panic attack because I looked up and looked at a string with frogs on it that then moved! They were still alive! I didn’t get a chance to have anything made since I was only in Vietnam one day at the beginning and an evening at the end.
On my last day in Vietnam I went to the Mekong Delta in the south. The Mekong River goes through a number of Southeast Asian countries. We went to a bunch of markets and temples though after a while unfortunately start to look really similar and less exotic. We saw rice paddies and it turns out that they really do wear the wide, triangle rice paddy hats. We took a boat ride down the Mekong River and stopped at some of the islands. On one island after sampling exotic fruits and listening to traditional music we took a canoe/boat ride down the canals. They eat fresh pineapple with a salt/chili powder on it, which they think is healthy since the chili makes you sweat. We took a horse down carriage through the town to a coconut candy factory, shops and honey farms. They made this amazing tea drink of fresh honey, jasmine tea and fresh kumquat juice. For my last night I went to a wi-fi café and tried to upload pictures unsuccessfully. I made amazing iced coffee, which is this fancy set up of condensed milk and fresh brewed coffee then poured over ice. I’m really going to miss the food here in Vietnam.
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