Beijing

We went to a home in old Beijing.  The owner of the 150-year-old home, an older woman, told us about her family's history.  After the Cultural Revolution, her grandparents moved to the home that she lives in now.  The home is painted grey, much to my mother's dismay, because it is Beijing's city color.  It has a small entryway, which we walked through to get into the main room. The main room had a futon, TV, and table.  In the back room there was a bed and a desk with hand-painted vases lining the shelves.  The wood in the home was very old but still looked nice.  She explained how her family has had generations of vase painters.  She was upset that no one was still painting, so she taught her niece how to paint pictures on the inside of vases.  The bottles have been displayed in museums pictures in books, and were publicized during the Beijing Olympics.  Amazed by how intricate the designs on the bottles were, my mom and I bought two, both with pandas painted inside. 
            The Chinese gain all adult rights when they turn 18. They can get their driver's licenses, drink, and enlist in the army. Driver's licenses only take 2 weeks to get and mostly everyone (men and women) has one.
            The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square are huge. I kept thinking it was going to end, but through each doorway there was another square with another building. The buildings were all very colorful.  Red signifies happiness and yellow signifies royalty.  In the dynasty era, the color yellow was reserved for royalty.
            We had a Tai Chi lesson at the Temple of Heaven.  I tried a few moves with my mom, then realized I was not nearly flexible enough to participate. The amount of animals on the top of the building, after the first one, denotes the level of importance of the building.  9 is the largest amount and it is the most important building. Numbers determine a lot.  Even numbers signify death and odd numbers are good luck. 7,5 are royalty, 3 and 5 are commoners. 4 is the most unlucky; death.
            At night, we went to dinner at a restaurant famous for its Peking duck.  It was a family-style meal, so 10 of us sat at one table with a large lazy Susan in the middle.  The meal started with cold dishes.  I would list what they served us, but I have no idea what I ate. I know I ate broccoli, white rice, pork, chicken, beef, bok choy, and other vegetables.  The Peking duck came at the end.  They carved the duck in front of us, cutting each appendage carefully.  The duck was served with a thin pancake in a tortilla-shape box.  The sauce served alongside was a sweet plum sauce.  To eat the duck properly, you dip the duck in the plum sauce, add a small portion of thin onions or cucumbers, then place the duck and the onions on the pancake and wrap it like a burrito.  If I blocked out the fact that I was eating a relative of Donald Duck that resembled the rubber ducky in the bathtub back at my hotel, the duck was very tasty.  The onions added that necessary crunch.  I also enjoyed the sweetness and I'm glad they served it at the end of the meal.
            Ordering water at the restaurants is very difficult.  Beer and soft drinks are included in our fixed-price meals, but water costs extra.  The servers don't know the English word for water and pointing to the water jug does not always work.  China is the first country I've been to where acting out what I want, even pointing to something on the menu, does not work.  Because of that, I have been very dehydrated.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong was the only port that I watched us dock, and for a very good reason—my mom was waiting on the dock for me! It was odd waking up so early and seeing what a city looks like before 8am. As we pulled up to the Hong Kong cruise ship terminal, I saw my mom standing in the crowd of eager parents, noticeable because of her typical lime green shirt.  Once the parents were cleared to get on the ship, my mom met me in the dining room.  I was so happy to see her! I proudly showed her the cabin I have been living in for the past few months, and then we disembarked the ship for the rest of the week. 

            She escorted me to the hotel room we were staying in for the next two nights—it was beautiful! At that moment, I knew the Semester at Sea parent trip was going to provide me with much nicer accommodations than the ones I have been staying in. That day we explored Hong Kong and went shopping.  It was entertaining to see my mom interact with the same kind of hagglers I have experienced in previous ports.  At first she fell for every act they have used on me, but she learned pretty fast.

            That evening, we went on an evening cruise aboard the Aqua Luna, a historical junk boat.  During our river cruise, we saw the skyline of Hong Kong come to life.  It was a beautiful sight—so beautiful that we had dinner at the top of a hotel later that overlooked the skyline.

            On the flight from Hong Kong to Beijing I rode on the second story of an airplane! I've always wanted to ride on the second floor of an airplane and it was so cool! I couldn't tell that we were on the second floor but it was awesome that there were people below me instead of just luggage. 

Paradise Found in the Vietnam Gulf

Phu Quoc Island

            The second day in Vietnam I took a flight to Phu Quoc Island.  It is an island off the coast of Cambodia but it can only be reached from Vietnam. We took a turbo prop plane, which is the same kind of planes we take from Ft. Lauderdale to the Bahamas. Once we arrived, there was a driver that took us to The Longbeach Resort.  I didn't do any of the planning, so I had no idea what to expect.  The resort was luxurious and was situated right on the beach. Most of the people visiting the resort were honeymooners, so there were virtually no kids.  The first day we relaxed on the beach and enjoyed the sunset.  That night, we went out to dinner for authentic Vietnamese cuisine. 

            The next day we spent our time exploring the island.  We went up the west coast of the island on mopeds.  Most of the roads were dirt so it was not a very comfortable ride.  We rode through markets as well as over bridges that were not very promising.

            At night, we met a lot of people but only one Vietnamese.  The language barrier made it very tough to communicate.  There was a family of 4 that were at the bar we went to the first night, DS Bar.  They were from England and have been in Vietnam for over 3 weeks.  I spent most of the time talking to this family and comprehending what they were saying.  The mother, Deborah, told me that her children were getting a better education because they were teaching their children about culture.  She believed there was no other way to teach her kids about the rich cultures in these countries.  I thought about my experience thus far with SAS and I agreed with her.

            The food in Vietnam was delicious.  I didn't have any food there that I did not like.  It was probably my favorite food because everything was cooked with lime.  Phu Quoc is known for its seafood, pepper farms, and pearls. One night, I ordered a seafood bowl and I cooked everything myself.  They brought out a portable stove with a small propane tank attached then they brought out my metal plate and placed it on top.  The plate had a bowl in the center with boiling soup.  The server showed me how to put the fish, squid, shrimp, and numerous vegetables into the soup and cook it.  The spices and flavors in the soup combined with the experience of making it myself made this my favorite meal so far.  

“That One Time in Nam…”

Ho Chi Minh City

            The shuttle from the ship took us to a 5 star hotel in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City.  The Rex hotel had cool air-conditioning, live piano music, and marble floors throughout.  Inside the hotel there were numerous luxury boutiques. Outside of the hotel on our way to Ben Thanh Market, the shopping was more affordable.  There were tourist boutiques and vendors selling t-shirts, hats, and other Vietnamese trinkets.

Singapore

22 March 2012

One day in any country is never enough time.  We had a really hard time deciding what to do with our single day in this fascinating, extremely globalized, small island off the tip of Malaysia. After going through customs off the ship, we realized the walkway took us straight to a shopping mall. The first sign of globalization was right in front of me.  Students came running to the ATM area where everyone was withdrawing Singpore Dollars with Starbucks cups.  Immediately, the group I was traveling with wanted to go get their Starbucks fix.  I ordered a passion fruit lemonade and I was so excited to have a drink that was familiar to me. Even thousands of miles away from the original Starbucks in Seattle, the drinks tasted exactly the same.  I never really understood why they needed to call the sizes of the cups tall, venti, and grande until I ordered my tall drink and it was exactly the same size.  By regulating the sizes throughout the company, I knew that I was getting the same amount of the drink as I would in America.

            Once we finally got through the mall lined with half American, half Asian stores, we took a taxi to the Marina Bay Sands resort.  The taxis were metered and had GPS devices that showed us exactly where we were going.  It was a huge difference from the tuc tucs in India in that he actually took us where we wanted to go and didn't try to rip us off because we were tourists! Inside the Marina Bay sands it looked like the Contemporary Resort in Disney World.  I was expecting a monorail to come whizzing through at any moment.  We wanted to view the top of the resort, which is world famous for an infinity edge pool that overlooks the ever-expanding and developing city skyline. In order to view this pool, we had to either be guests of the hotel or purchase a ticket to the observation deck with hopes of getting a tour of the pool area.  We lucked out and were able to purchase tickets to the top and signed up for a tour. The view at the top was magnificent. Everytime I saw someone walking up to the edge of the pool, I thought they were going to fall over the side of the building. Next time I go to Singapore, I am going to stay at the resort so I can see how it feels to walk to the edge of the swimming pool and off the side of the building.

            After we viewed the top of the hotel, we went shopping.   The mall attached to the resort was incredible.  It reminded me of the Gardens Mall at home in that there were not very many stores that were affordable.  They had all of the classic stores along with many other designers: Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Tiffany and Co., Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Prada, etc. The Louis Vuitton store was the 5^th largest in the world (according to the security guard. Our research ahead of time said it was the largest). Once we walked through the gallery within Louis Vuitton, we took an escalator to the main area of the store. From the outside, this store looked like a glass box in the middle of a lake. 

            Whenever I go shopping in large malls that have the same stores as I do at my local mall, I only purchase goods that I cannot find at home. I looked for something in every store that was exclusive to Singapore.  I could not find anything.  I got extremely frustrated in Armani Exchange.  Why were we shopping in a store I have in my mall, looking at t-shirts that say 'Established in NYC'?  I like shopping at stores that have not been globalized and still have a local feel.

            And then came the food.  When it came to food, I was very happy that Singapore had choices and not just the local food.  I wanted something that reminded me of home, and I was able to have that.  For lunch we went to High Society and I had a crab Caesar salad, club sandwich, and a glass of Moët Chandon Brut. I thoroughly enjoyed the Singaporean taste on the classic American club sandwich.  For dinner we went to Osteria Mozzo. It was a fine Italian dining experience.  I had an appetizer of fresh mozzarella, with an entrée of steak marinated in balsamic vinaigrette topped off with an arugula salad with fresh parmesan and a glass of red wine. 

Last Day in India

17 March 2012--St. Patrick's Day
And no green beer was to be found. The closest I got to green beer was a green bottle of Kingfisher. This was my first holiday away from America where I couldn't celebrate in my traditional style. Looks like i'll need a second round of celebrating when I get home--Ireland anyone?