So right now I am in Cambodia. I know I am behind on blogging, we are actually sitting in the airport waiting for our plane to board so I am going to keep it short. I have finished part 2 of Singapore and I am working on Viet Nam. India will be put up soon as well. I can't post them for some reason from my laptop...i guess Corri knows how to do it better than I do.
This journey is awesome and cool(just for you dad...just for you). I am learning so much about myself and about others and the world. We're over halfway done with the voyage which is crazy to think about. None of us can figure out if we're happy or sad about it. I think it's a mix of both. We're ready to be home but also want to just keep going. It's hard to believe that we've been on the ship for over two months and that we'll be back to the U.S. soon. I can't wait to share my stories and pictures with everyone and to tell you all about the amazing people that I've met. It's been a wild ride and there are many more adventures to come.
Just a quick thank you note to everyone. First, again to the Golon's for taking me out to dinner in Singapore. I have known them since I was really little and it was nice to see people that treat me as one of their children. Getting to spend time with them was just what I needed to keep my spirits up. Second, to Corri, she's been posting all my blogs for me because we have practically no internet time and it's so hard to access internet. Also, to my parents for everything they've done for me. And lastly to everyone reading this blog, including those that I don't know, like Ryan's mom. I met Ryan on the ship and he told me that his mom has been reading my blog which was so neat to hear. I love hearing from everyone about it. Thanks again!
Time to board the plane!!!
Friday, November 5, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
The end of WWII
Day two of Singapore was a little nutty. On ship time was 17:00 which was an hour earlier than normal b/c immigration likes to be really annoying and demanding and take forever. Especially Singapore, every time we went to the ship we had to pass through immigration and security. It was time consuming and frustrating. Going through immigration could take 5min or 25min…it all depended on the people working and how long the line was. This could really get in the way of things because you had to make sure you gauged your time correctly especially so you wouldn’t get dock time.
I had no plans for that day so I just showed up at breakfast and figured I would see people I knew and take it from there which ended up being perfect. I met up with some friends and we talked about our plans. A few people were planning on going to the zoo or the aquarium and others were just going to tour around. I ended up hanging out with Wes for the day and we made plans to go to Santos, the island that is right next to Singapore. Wes and I had some tentative plans from the information that we had picked up the day before in the mall. Once we got to the mall, we went to the Sentosa Info/Ticket Place and picked out some things to do. We decided to get a package of things to do. The ones we chose were the Segway, Fort Sentosa, a 4D movie, and Tyger Tower. Getting to Sentosa was pretty easy because they had a monorail right next to where we were that you could take back and forth for S$3 for the whole day, which was about $2USD. It was also possible to take a taxi, or a bus, or a cable car. The cable car would have been cool, but we would have had to go to another building and spend a bunch more money.
First we made our way to Tyger Tower, which was closed due to wind, so we went to the movie instead, except they weren’t going to be starting shows for another half hour or so. We knew we wanted to do the Segway’s last so we decided to go to the fort and figured that by the time we got there it would be open. We went to the fort and took a cool little tram thing to the main part of the fort. Fort Sentosa is one of three forts that were in Singapore and the only one that is still in good shape. It was remarkable how much history actually took place there. In 1942, the Japanese took over and the British were forced to surrender and the in 1945, the reverse happened. It was actually at Fort Sentosa that the treaties officially ending WWII were signed. The whole fort was full of interesting things that I would never have expected from a place as small as Singapore. Next we made our way to the 4D movie, which was a cute movie about pirates and they sprayed water on you and wind blew and it was interesting and in 3D too, but nothing terribly exciting. Before we did the segways we went up Tyger Tower. It’s called Tyger after an Asian beer and they say that it’s the “tallest glass of beer.” It went 300+ meters up in the air and you could see most of Singapore, all of Sentosa, and parts of Malaysia and Thailand. It was spectacular to look at all of it at once especially because you were seated and the top part simply spun so you could see everything. Last we wandered over to the Segway which was cool. We learned how to ride the Segway’s and then got to ride them around a course that they had set up. It was fun and funny riding them because it is a lot more difficult at first than one would think. After Wes and I had finished our adventures we headed back to the monorail to get back to mainland Singapore. We were starving and couldn’t pick a place to eat and eventually decided to go to Pizza Hut. It was really yummy…eating food from home is so weird in these other countries and often seems to taste much better too. Then Wes got Wi-Fi and I got Starbucks which was sooo delicious. I haven’t really had any sort of coffee throughout the voyage so getting Starbucks was awesome. We hung out in the mall for a while and I eventually headed back to the ship because I had nothing to do in the mall and I didn’t have my laptop with me. I went back to the ship and decided to send out some postcards (if you want one send me your address!!!). That night we all hung out and discussed what we had done in Singapore and what we were going to be doing in Viet Nam.
I had no plans for that day so I just showed up at breakfast and figured I would see people I knew and take it from there which ended up being perfect. I met up with some friends and we talked about our plans. A few people were planning on going to the zoo or the aquarium and others were just going to tour around. I ended up hanging out with Wes for the day and we made plans to go to Santos, the island that is right next to Singapore. Wes and I had some tentative plans from the information that we had picked up the day before in the mall. Once we got to the mall, we went to the Sentosa Info/Ticket Place and picked out some things to do. We decided to get a package of things to do. The ones we chose were the Segway, Fort Sentosa, a 4D movie, and Tyger Tower. Getting to Sentosa was pretty easy because they had a monorail right next to where we were that you could take back and forth for S$3 for the whole day, which was about $2USD. It was also possible to take a taxi, or a bus, or a cable car. The cable car would have been cool, but we would have had to go to another building and spend a bunch more money.
First we made our way to Tyger Tower, which was closed due to wind, so we went to the movie instead, except they weren’t going to be starting shows for another half hour or so. We knew we wanted to do the Segway’s last so we decided to go to the fort and figured that by the time we got there it would be open. We went to the fort and took a cool little tram thing to the main part of the fort. Fort Sentosa is one of three forts that were in Singapore and the only one that is still in good shape. It was remarkable how much history actually took place there. In 1942, the Japanese took over and the British were forced to surrender and the in 1945, the reverse happened. It was actually at Fort Sentosa that the treaties officially ending WWII were signed. The whole fort was full of interesting things that I would never have expected from a place as small as Singapore. Next we made our way to the 4D movie, which was a cute movie about pirates and they sprayed water on you and wind blew and it was interesting and in 3D too, but nothing terribly exciting. Before we did the segways we went up Tyger Tower. It’s called Tyger after an Asian beer and they say that it’s the “tallest glass of beer.” It went 300+ meters up in the air and you could see most of Singapore, all of Sentosa, and parts of Malaysia and Thailand. It was spectacular to look at all of it at once especially because you were seated and the top part simply spun so you could see everything. Last we wandered over to the Segway which was cool. We learned how to ride the Segway’s and then got to ride them around a course that they had set up. It was fun and funny riding them because it is a lot more difficult at first than one would think. After Wes and I had finished our adventures we headed back to the monorail to get back to mainland Singapore. We were starving and couldn’t pick a place to eat and eventually decided to go to Pizza Hut. It was really yummy…eating food from home is so weird in these other countries and often seems to taste much better too. Then Wes got Wi-Fi and I got Starbucks which was sooo delicious. I haven’t really had any sort of coffee throughout the voyage so getting Starbucks was awesome. We hung out in the mall for a while and I eventually headed back to the ship because I had nothing to do in the mall and I didn’t have my laptop with me. I went back to the ship and decided to send out some postcards (if you want one send me your address!!!). That night we all hung out and discussed what we had done in Singapore and what we were going to be doing in Viet Nam.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Malls…and malls…and more malls
That’s basically Singapore in a nutshell. We get off our ship, we enter a mall and then we walk through a passageway and there’s another part of the mall. It’s crazy how big this mall was. In the morning we had another diplomatic briefing and then for class I stayed after the briefing where we had a sort of Q&A session with them. It was cool b/c it was an open forum where we could pretty much ask anything. It’s normally hard to do this during diplomatic briefings simply b/c everyone there is antsy and just wants to leave and get out and explore the port. There were only about 20 people so we were actually able to ask questions and they could take some time answering them and didn’t feel a lot of pressure to answer quickly.
After the briefing, my friend Kirsten and I walked around the first mall b/c we were meeting friends at about 12 to go out and explore a little bit. First we walked through a forest thing which was weird but we left there and went to Orchard Street…which was another mall. Except this one was even bigger than the first. It was 4 maybe 5 floors and had 3 or 4 basement floors. It was never ending, which of course meant we had to go up every lever. We didn’t go down all the levels, but it was still amazing to see all the floors. The intent was to get ice cream too…which was on the top floor. It was a good adventure though. We had to come back to the ship b/c Kirsten and Wes were going on the Night Safari and had to be back to meet up with the trip and I also had to get ready to go out to meet up with Mr. and Mrs. Golon and Chris.
Meeting up with them was wonderful. We’re getting to the point on the voyage where everyone is getting sick of each other somewhat and people need space and are hitting that slump where they miss home. Having the chance to see some people from home, especially a little over exactly halfway through was amazing. It’s funny in a way b/c you don’t realize how much you miss home until the little things happen. It was nice to get to go to dinner with them and completely let my guard down. I’m not sure if I’ve relaxed like that in a long time. Other than dinner with Chloe in South Africa, it can prove to be a challenge to completely open up. It’s a lot different being with people you’ve known all your life and people that you’ve known just over two months. Getting to go to dinner and then dessert somewhere else was a perfect remedy. After dessert, Chris and I wandered around Clarke Quay for a few hours which was really good. I was able to talk and not worry about watching what I said b/c someone on the ship might find out. It was also funny seeing people from the ship and having them do a double take b/c they were really confused seeing as they had never seen Chris on the ship before and didn’t quite get why he had an American accent at first. It was equally as nice to be able to end the conversation and just walk away and not feel obligated to have a full on conversation with them. It was a few easy but also hard hours. Letting my guard down and just being myself was just what I needed to feel sane again. On the flipside, knowing that I was only going to be able to spend a few hours was hard. I don’t know if I ever consciously thought about not being at home for so long until now. The other part was that came on to the ship not knowing anyone which was a little different since Chris is there with a best friend. And yet, all that taken into consideration, I have no regrets. I am happy with everything I’ve done and ok with not doing some other things. It was nice to be able to see home in a sense and also to get to be re-energized and ready for the other half. I’m more excited than ever for the rest of Asia and all that is to come.
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