Singapore & Vietnam

In remembrance...
I did write to you today about Andre and the past few days, but when we are on our SAS email for too long it automatically logs you out.  So I spent a long time giving a detailed description and tried to send it but forgot about the allotted time limit and a screen came up telling me “user limit exceeded.”  I became disheartened given the content of the email and I just couldn’t write it all over and relive it again at the time.  But now I’ll try again and hopefully it’s as good as the first.  I’m feeling better about Andre but the constant grim atmosphere on the ship makes it hard to overcome while the wounds are still fresh.  Nonetheless, my group of friends is a source of support as we are helping each other alleviate the pain.  Two days ago we held a ceremony for Andre to celebrate his life on the ship, which proved to be a positive event.  Many people bought suits in Vietnam.  Andre liked to look good when going out so we all wore our newly purchased suits in memory of him.  The ceremony began with some selected readings from the Quran, Torah, and Bible.  Then a couple of his closest friend came up and told a few stories about Andre: his ever-present positive aura, his ability to light up a room with his hyenaesque laugh, and his constant care-free attitude.  As they were taking turns saying these things through teary eyes, I remember recalling to myself that he was all of this and more.  Desmond Tutu then came up and led us in prayer.  Following Father Tutu’s speech was a slideshow of submitted pictures and memories of Andre accompanied with his favorite techno beats.  I constantly had to wipe my eyes to fully see the next set of pictures.  This entire ordeal has been one of the most emotional times of my life.  It really made me think about the relationships around me and to not take the small things in life for granted, which I believe is what makes the journey of life unforgettable.  Then the Captain came up and told us what was going to happen next.  We rarely see the Captain but his confident, proud Slovakian voice is familiar to us through the intercom.  He came up with a shaky voice and teary eyes, he was not the same confident Captain we were accustomed to.  He broke my heart as he spoke because he seemed be to taking it quite hard.  He told us that we were to walk out of the Union where we would each be given a flower and continue to walk to the back of the ship, say a personal prayer, and let go of the flower in to the ocean.  Walking out of the Union, not a word was said.  Our ears still rang with Andre’s favorite techno as all 700 or so people on board walked slowly in a line to the back.  Comforting hugs were given constantly over the soft sobs and sniffles.  In recent memory I have never experienced such a morbid atmosphere, yet, seeing that it was a celebration of Andre’s life it was a combination of sorrow and joyful memories.  All in all, I believe this ceremony helped to ease some of the recent pain as it offered a sense of closing.  Andre and I shared a class together and seeing that he was one of the first people I met on this voyage, he was faint friend of mine.  Please keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

Singapore & Vietnam....

So far on this voyage, Singapore has proved to be the most westernized country yet.  We spent one day on the small Island of Mauritius (which was spent hiking to a waterfall and participating in some cliff jumping) and Singapore is about 1/3 of the size of Mauritius.  If I recall correctly it is about 14 miles N to S and 24 miles E to W. Singapore is home to a very low birth rate and is actually urging young, educated people - mainly from the UK – to come live there.  Most of the people who come to Singapore are on vacation and are looking for some time to relax and enjoy the beautiful land.  It even has a Hollywood Studios theme park and cable cars for enjoyment.  Myndi called it “Singaworld” as in a large country sized Disneyworld.  I unfortunately do not have pictures from Singapore because the night before our arrival, I was uploading my pictures from India to my computer and forgot to charge my camera overnight.  To get out of the port we had to go through a mall, which was actually pretty cool.  Once they cleared our passports off the ship, we were welcomed by a three story mall with all kinds of stores and restaurants.  When I walked out of the mall and gave my camera to someone to take a picture of me, she held it up and told me that the screen was blank.  Hopefully I can get some pictures from the public folder.  I spent the day with some friends – Ari, Kahlil, Myndi, Elliot, Jenna, Ben, and Christina – eating the local food and taking the public transit to places (Singapore actually has some of the best public transit in the world, probably because a $20,000 Toyota Camry in the US would cost nearly $90,000 in Singapore).  My main event for the day was to go the Singapore Zoo.  I heard it was supposed to be one of the best zoos in the world and believe me, it was.  Some people broke off to go to the adjacent botanical gardens and didn’t want to spend the $18 it cost to get in.  But I was to hell with that, I am most definitely going to this Zoo!  Ben, Ari, and I bought tickets and walked around the entire Zoo, which took about 3+ hours if we were constantly moving.  This place had the works: Australian outback, African safari, worlds best bird park, white tigers, ancient giant tortoises, a million different monkeys including Orangutans and Chimps - which we sat and watched in amusement to rest our legs, etc. etc.  Everything.  It made my day haha.  And they had a Leopard which I saw up close to complete my viewing of the African Big 5 (Lion, Elephant, Water Buffalo, Rhino, and the elusive Leopard).  That night we went out to a cool bar area on the water called Clark’s Quay and drank the famous Singapore Sling, among others.  Singapore was a lot of fun and a great segway into East Asia.  It gave us a taste of the Asian culture but still somewhat reminded us of home in a way.

After Singapore we had only a day or two between Vietnam and spent most of my time planning and preparing for Nam.  Vietnam is probably my favorite stop so far; it offered a balanced sense of chaos and order.  Chaos in the sense that the streets are absolutely ridiculous (motorbikes everywhere you look, groups of twenty in between every car) and order in the way that they made it work.  You could practically cross the street whenever you wanted but the constant traffic made it difficult at first.  We then realized that the bikers are respectfully aware of you even though it may not seem like it.  One could probably cross the street blindfolded and not disrupt the moving traffic one bit while not getting hit.  It was also yet another vastly different country from what I’m used to, which I love immersing myself in.  The majority of people wore those hospital operating masks over their mouths, but these ones were made of cotton and decorated in style.  I first thought that people wore them in order to not inhale the hazy air, but I was told later that they wore them to keep from getting sun and to stay pale, which is seen as a sign of beauty.  Either way, they were prevalent and ordinary.

The first day was spent walking to a hotel that Jenna had booked ahead of time, and we did not want her to go out alone.  She was meeting her boyfriend from the States who was going to stay for the duration of the trip until we had to leave for China.  Even though it wasn’t a short walk, I really enjoyed it because we got to see the way of the land and see things we wouldn’t necessarily see by taxi.  Getting lost and disoriented on the way, we finally found the hole in the wall hotel where Jenna dropped her stuff off and afterwards we all went out for dinner.  I tried Pho for the first time early during this summer and fell in love with it.  Pho is a Vietnamese dish and I had it every possible meal I could.  I think some got a little irritated by me always wanting Pho for every meal.  Oh well, when in Vietnam.

The second day I left early for an SAS trip called Mekong Delta Explorer.  This trip was great, and even though we didn’t really do that much in our three days on the Mekong Delta, the sights and sounds alone made it worthwhile.  One of my favorite trips so far.  We took a bus from the ship to a small boat where we all sat on cushions made from straw sitting on folding chairs in a single file line on both sides of the boat.  I sat in the back so I could have a full 180 degrees of picture taking abilities.  This “river” was amazing.  I believe it touches through 6 different countries including Laos, Burma, Vietnam, among others.  The water was brown but that did not stop the people from doing their laundry in it, cleaning their bowls and chopsticks in it, cleaning their hair and bathing in it, fishing and eating from it; It appeared to act somewhat of a lifeline to the people who lived around it, both on land and on boat.  We stopped at a floating market where our guide showed us how rice paper was made, how toffee candies were made and packed in rice paper, and how rice popcorn was made with a buttery paste that reminded me of rice krispie treats.  All of these were made manually and each more delicious than the last.  It was great because chickens were walking around at our feet, puppies playing together, and kittens swiping at anything that moved.  There was a lot going on.  From the floating markets we went to a school and watched Vietnamese children around the age of 10 doing their “morning exercises” which consisted of the teacher pacing in the back shouting things every 10 seconds or so while the single file lined children would change exercises at the sound of his voice.  These kids loved our presence and laughed at everything.  We did not stay too long because I think that we were disrupting the ones that were in lessons inside.  From there we walked to a fruit market and got back on our boat.  We took a ride through the Delta again and reached a peaceful canal where we arrived to our house on stilts.  We stayed the night here, with the boys all in one room and the girls all in another.  It felt like camp.  It was a fun night of games, lounging in hammocks, eating, and chatting.  For dinner there was a musical show of three stringed instruments (only one of which I recognized to be a guitar) and two singers, a male and female.  They sang in Vietnamese of a love story about a city man and a country girl falling in love.  After the show most of us crawled into our cots, pulled our nets down over our bodies to keep the bugs out, and went to sleep to the sounds of crickets and chirping birds.  Sitting in this bed, wide awake, listening to the night sounds and thinking about where I was, gave me surreal feeling which put a smile on my face.

We were all awoken by the sound of a helicopter outside our window.  It was not actually a helicopter but it was louder than one.  An early morning boat with a huge muffler was heading out for the day and passing our house, surely waking everybody up in the process.  That day we went to a couple of Vietnamese Monk Temples and chilled with a few Monks as they practiced their English on us.  This was also an unbelievable experience.  They had to cut our conversation short as it was time for them to pray.  They went into the Temple and welcomed us in after them.  They sat on their knees at an angle facing a large female Buddha (the one with short spiked hair and long ear lobes) and began to hum sounds in unison.  I stood in the back of the room and found myself lost in the sights and sounds as their hums tranced me into a carefree sense illusion.  That night we had a huge catered dinner on a large boat that went out onto the water.  We sat on the top deck which welcomed a great view of the buildings colorful lights reflecting off the water.  Halfway through our meal I get up to go to the bathroom and guess who I see sitting at the table right next to us… my eye doctor Chris Barry!  I was shocked and amazed and went over to say hello to Chris and his wife and their company.  We were almost too shocked to say anything except to share our pleasant surprise.  Mom and Dad, if they haven’t done so already, I’m RSVPing for them to the Christmas party!  Haha!  Karaoke (which is big in Vietnam) was also going on, and in case being on a moving boat for a catered dinner in Vietnam wasn’t enough, Karaoke gave us an additional form of entertainment.  Eventually by the end of the night a group of us went up there and sang Build Me Up Buttercup to a techno beat that totally had the wrong rhythm for the song.  Thankfully the Barry’s had already left at this point.  After we finished we walked back to our table in the back with every Vietnamese persons head turning to stare at us as we passed.  All we could do was smile and acknowledge the few cheers that were sent our way.  This was very fun, and very funny.

Vietnam has made me excited for China and I can’t wait to arrive in two days.  I have a trip planned to see the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Great Wall, an Acrobatic Show, and other unforgettable things that are only adding to my list of wonder.  With the recent tragic incident on board, many people have been in a state of frozen numbness and as we complete our journey we will surely be thinking of Andre and completing it for him as joins us spiritually.  He would want us to continue to have the time of our lives, and those of us who had spent time with him know that he would have made sure of that.  Those of you who have emailed me, thank you so much for that and it’s a blessing to have so many people thinking of me while I’m abroad.  I love you all so much and I can’t wait to see your faces again.  Keep Andre and his family in your thoughts and prayers as they work through this unfathomably tough time.  Talk to you all after China.