I know I've been WAY slacking on my blog- but I have a ton of work to be getting done right now. This is a travel writing piece I did on India- I figure I'll let you at least have a taste of my India experience! I plan on doing one big blog post about everything once my work is done. Everything is due within the next 4 days, so it will come soon! Until then:
Lilly Sutherland
India piece.
Prior to reaching India, the tour company that I was traveling with emailed our entire group. They told us all the details of our upcoming trip. The email said, “The overnight train will take some tough skin and will not be your most comfortable night of sleep in your life. The train will be full and some of you may be sleeping close to locals you don’t know. Watch out for each other and your belongings and those of you who are brave please step up and sleep on the outsides of the group closest to strangers.” After reading this, I was pretty scared.
Fear was a common feeling for me before reaching India. All my professors were using the same words: hot, smelly, crowded, sad, dangerous, and many more words, none being positive. I tried to erase all the preconceived notions from my mind, as I had attempted with all our other ports, but it wasn’t working for India. The train was just one more reason for me to fret.
The typical trip for Semester at Sea students to do while in India was Delhi, Agra, and Varanasi. I fell into this trap as well, but did it a bit differently. Instead of flying from Delhi to Varanasi, we took a thirteen-hour train ride. There were 38 of us, and none of us knew what to expect. We had all received the same email about having ‘tough skin’ so I think the general feeling was nervousness.
On the bus ride to the train station, our tour guide Joseph stopped the bus. “You all have five minutes… that’s 300 seconds… to buy whatever liquor you want here.” For some reason, every time Joseph gave us a time limit, he broke it down into seconds. We were already cutting it close to our departure time and I knew this was a bad idea. Half the group seemed to agree with me, while the other half was running to the liquor store. We had all just had a little wine with dinner and some people were already a bit tipsy, including our tour guide. Even though I’m sure a few more drinks would have calmed my nerves quite a bit, I also knew that the sleeper train was something I wanted to be fully aware for.
At about 11:15pm, we got to the train station. None of us had our tickets or knew where we were sitting. Joseph called us all together and called out our names with our seat numbers and told us to get on the train. After about 10 names, he started yelling names that none of us had ever heard before. We realized that the rest of the names did not belong to anyone in the group. Joseph just told us to pretend, and sit in the seats anyway. After about ten minutes of the confusion, the train car was completely filled up. The last twelve of us were still standing on the platform with Joseph. The train was going to leave in five minutes and we were not on it. Joseph ran us back about ten cars, and told us to hop on and just find a place. There were only four empty beds, but he told us to just stay there. We all stood in the doorway while Joseph was outside trying to see if there were any more empty cars. The doorway was next to the bathroom, or hole in the floor that people used as a bathroom, and it smelled so incredibly awful. It was like rotten tuna fish, only worse. We were all sort of uncomfortably laughing, not really sure what was going on, and what he had just gotten ourselves into.
All of a sudden the train started moving, and Joseph was nowhere to be found. The twelve of us were standing in the doorway in silence wondering what just happened until someone said “Well, we’re on the train, I guess that’s all that matters!” We all headed back down the narrow dirty isle to where the four empty beds were and claimed a spot. We decided that we could do two to a bed, so the other five people went to find another car. I shared a bed with my friend Ian. I was lucky to have a close friend in the group of people that got left behind, this would have been a pretty awkward night if I was with someone I didn’t know.
Now that we were all as settled as we could be, I had time to take in my surroundings. The ‘bed’ that we were on was no more than two feet wide and filthy. The compartment had six beds, three stacked up on each wall. There were two shorter beds stacked up against the long wall of the train. On that bed, my friend Jamie and another semester at sea girl slept sitting up the entire night. Above them was an Indian man. Ian and I were on the middle bed on the left side. Above us was one semester at sea girl sleeping with all our bags. Below us were two more semester at sea people. Two more girls slept on the top bed across from us, and the two bottom beds were taken up by a young Indian family.
The smell of the train was the most awful smell. We were close to the bathroom again, so the smell of urine was very present. The bathroom itself was just a hole in the floor of the train leading to the train tracks. I hoped so badly that I didn’t have to use it at all that night, but that was just not realistic. I had to hold my breath when I was in there, and I still gagged.
I tried to get some sleep because I knew I had two long days in Varanasi coming up, but sleep did not come easily. The smell was hard to stop thinking about, and the chains holding the bed up were digging into my side, so Ian and I switched who was on the outside every once in a while. The train stopped a number of times throughout the night, and I woke up every time. A lot of the stops were very noisy. I wished that I was close to a window so that I could see what all the commotion was about outside, but getting down to look would have just take too much effort. One stop sounded like an all out war. Partly due to our delusional sleep deprived state, we all woke up and thought we were hearing gun shots. Ian even put his shoes back on “just incase I have to make a run for it,” he explained. In the morning, we realized that it was probably just a construction site. Whenever the train stopped moving, I always wanted it to start again because the movement and sound helped me sleep a little. I probably got a collective total of four hours of sleep. I woke up when the sun started shining, but it was only 6:00. We were only half way done with our train ride. Ian woke up too, and soon after the rest of our friends did too. The woman and young son across from us woke up, and then her husband and another man traveling with them came from another part of the train to join them. Ian had coloring pages and crayons with him, so he gave them to the little boy. He said thank you, and colored away.
All the negative things that came with the dark went away as the sun came up. The train was waking up and I could see everyone around me better. There were a lot of interesting people around. People selling chai started walking through the train, making it more lively. The family sitting with us started to talk to us, and they were so nice. I overheard the man talking to the woman, and learned that her name was Esme. She was wearing a red sari, and had a bindi on her head. The man was dressed in jeans and a sweater, as was their son. They were a very goodlooking family, and they all smiled often. The boy was four years old, but wise beyond his years. He practiced his English, and tried to teach us Hindi. I couldn’t see out the windows from where I was sitting, but he would always point out the window and say “In English… cow. In Hindi… “ and then the hindi word for cow, or whatever it was he was pointing to. He would say it and then tell us to repeat. His voice would always rise at the end of his sentences. It made us all laugh. Whenever the train would stop and go again, he would say “My train is going slow now. Now my train is going fast!” His voice rose, almost like a question, after every two words. His mom and dad laughed, and praised him for his correct English.
The mom and dad asked us questions like “Who is your favorite American leader?” “Do you like Obama?” “Who are your favorite actors and actresses?” “Do you know any Indian actors or actresses?” They knew a few of the people we knew, and we knew a few of the people they knew. Their favorite was Shakira. The women started singing a Shakira song and everyone laughed. Ian played them a few songs on his ipod, and they loved them.
While talking to the Indian family, I noticed another white man sitting a few seats over from me. He was sitting next to the window, so the light was coming right in on him. He had blonde hair and a full beard. He was probably about 30 years old. He was handsome, in a scraggly looking way. He was reading a book about Hinduism in Spanish. When I see interesting people like this, I make up stories about them in my head. He looked broken to me. His eyes were heavy and his face looked tired. Not the kind of tired you feel from not getting a good nights sleep, but the kind of tired that you feel when you have seen too much. He looked like he was missing something. I decided that he was traveling India trying to find whatever it was that was missing in his life. I think I made this up because he looked like a blonde Christopher McCandless.
The man was sitting alone for about an hour, and then a girl joined him. Someone in my group started talking to them. It turned out that they were from Argentina, on vacation for two weeks. This ruined everything that I had made up before, he was so much more interesting as a broken man.
There were other interesting characters on the train as well. There was a man on the top bed in the compartment next to us that just stared the entire time. He was very skinny. It looked like he hadn’t eaten in months. He had very long, messy grey dread locks tied on top of his head with a few hanging down in his face. His clothes had a lot of orange in them, and just sort of hung off him. It looked like he had paint on his face a month ago, and never washed it off. He sat cross-legged on his bung but bent over so he could see all of us. He never spoke, and didn’t take his eyes off us… even when we stared back.
I got up every once in a while and walked to the door of the car where I could see outside. The countryside was beautiful. It was a nice change from the cities we had been in the whole time. There were little huts everywhere made out of what looked like cow dung patties. There were stacks of these things everywhere. They were the size of a Frisbee and made out of cow dung. The Indian family told us they were used for fuel, but I’m not sure they were clear on what we were talking about. It was quite the process of drawing pictures and sign language to try and ask what they were. They spoke good English, they just weren’t understanding this one question.
After a while, I realized that without our tour guide, we had no idea when to get off. The stations were not announced. At about 12:30 in the afternoon, the nice Indian family told us that the next stop was Varanasi. We were so thankful to have them there to help us through out the trip. They translated when we needed it, and just made the train more fun and the time pass faster. The train stopped, we said our goodbyes, got off and found the rest of the group. They all had a wonderful nights sleep. They had their own beds and air conditioning. My smaller group just laughed and kept moving. We had just survived an extremely uncomfortable night on a sleeper train in India together, and none of us will ever forget that.
Monday, April 11, 2011
A bit of India
Monday, March 21, 2011
Photo update- South Africa
Photo update- Valentines Day
Me and Jamie at sunset
Me and Adi
The girls and our South African interport student.
The boys
Ben, Jojo, and Will.Photo update- Ghana
My four little girls that stuck with me. Patience is second in on the left.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Little updates!
Hey all! I'm sorry I haven't updated my blog recently, it's pretty hectic on the ship right now. I have to write about India, Mauritius, and Singapore, and to be quite honest I'm a bit sick of writing about India right now! I'll get to it eventually though! So with all the things going on in Japan right now, they have decided to take us to Taiwan instead. I would have loved to go to Japan and do some relief work, but with the nuclear power plants, it's just too dangerous. We have three more ports before reaching the states! Vietnam tomorrow, China next, and then Taiwan. I'm meeting a friend in each of these places, and I'm SO excited! I'll write about India soon, and then a short bit about Mauritius and Singapore (we were only in each place for about 8 hours). Thanks for being so patient!
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
South Africa, February 21/22, Day 4/5.
Today, Jamie, Kayla, and I went to the aquarium at the waterfront. It was pretty much like any other aquarium, with a few different species. I don’t know anything about fish, so it’s not like I could tell the difference between an African fish and an American fish! They had these GIANT crabs though, and I have never been so freaked out in my life. I don’t get grossed out or freaked out by things like that, but for some reason I saw these things and my heart dropped. I looked for one split second and then couldn’t look again. They were so huge that they stood more than a foot off the ground. I’m getting chills thinking about them. I’m not a squeamish girl, but these things were insane.
After the aquarium, the three of us headed to the Market. I felt like I was back in Ghana with all the bargaining I had to do! I found a few gifts for my friends and family, as did Jamie and Kayla. We had lunch at a little restaurant near the market, and then headed back to the waterfront. I had a ticket to go to Robben Island at 3, so I caught the ferry as soon as we got back. I met up with my friends Greg, Gabby, and Erin on the ferry, so I wasn’t alone! When we got to Robben Island, we were put onto busses and met our tour guide Craig. I had heard from previous students that he was the best one, and to request him if we could. He was probably about 25, and very well spoken. When you visit Robben Island, you have two tour guides: One on the bus, and one in the actual prison. Craig told us a lot of amazing stuff, and I have a lot of is on video.
He told us that the greatest weapon of apartheid wasn’t bullets, but propaganda. They taught children at a young age to think negative things about the other race. These kids have grown up with the wrong idea about other races, and even taught their kids that way. It is passed down from generation to generation. “What will happen in that society, is that it will happen for so long that the people of that nation won’t even realize that it’s there any longer. It’s the norm, it’s the way of life for those people.” He say’s that even 17 years after apartheid ended, they still do racists things. He tells us a few stories giving examples of this. He tells us a story about how whenever he walks into a store, being a colored man, the security guard will follow him until he leaves. He says that rather than getting angry (because then he’d be angry ALL the time) he pretends that the security guard is his secret admirer and gets on with his life. He also says that racism isn’t just one race vs. another. It happens within racial categories as well. He tells a story about going to a party where everyone is white except for himself and another colored man. When his cell phone goes missing, he automatically assumes that the other colored man stole it. He says that now, racism is a subconscious thing that Apartheid instilled in all South African citizens. It is amazing how far this country has come… but they still have a long way to go.
Craig dropped us off at the prison, where we met our second tour guide. This tour guide was a former prisoner on Robben Island. He was there for 5 years, arrested when he was only 18. He showed us the room that he was held in, and then took us to Nelson Mandela’s cell. (Random fun fact: There is a guy in one of my classes named Mandela. What a sick name! haha) Nelson Mandela’s cell was a lot smaller than the normal cells, because they kept the leaders and important people separate from everyone else.
The tour guide told us an awesome story. Someone asked him if he ever met up with any of the guards when he was released and Apartheid ended, and he said yes. A few of them apologized, but a few just don’t really care. He said that two of the guards actually work there now, which is really cool. The best story though, was of a very young guard. He was 18, and had no idea what was going on in the world… he was just doing his job. He made a connection with Nelson Mandela though, like a father son type bond. Mandel was this older wise man that would advise him about education, sports, and life in general. So one day, the young guard had the task of driving Mandela to a hospital. It was just Mandela and the guard in the van, and the guard decided he wanted to introduce him to his parents! He didn’t even think that this was a bad idea… taking a prisoner to his home. Of course Mandela did nothing bad, but his parents were so freaked out! The guard didn’t get in a lot of trouble (I don’t think) because it was really out of sheer ignorance. He just wasn’t thinking. Mandela and that guard are still close today!
After Robben Island, I headed back to the ship and got ready. Jojo and I went to a sushi place to get dinner, and then met up with all our other friends. This was our last night in Cape Town, and everyone was super sad! We all went to this club called Mercury, and danced to dubstep all night. I have never been to a dubstep club… it was SO much fun! Some people hated it, but most people loved it. Depends on your taste in music, I guess! We got back to the ship early in the morning, and I got to sleep in until about 10 (Luxury!)
When I woke up, I got ready and went to meet Gabby and Elias… we were going skydiving! Gabby had set up this trip before, so we had a driver waiting for us and took us (and a few other people) to the drop zone. Surprisingly, I wasn’t nervous at all! When we got there, they had us sign a paper and then strapped harnesses on us. They didn’t give us any instruction or safety talks, just strapped us up, walked us to the plane, and flew away. We flew up for about 25 minutes in the tiniest, ricketiest plane I’ve ever seen. Still though, I wasn’t nervous. About 23 minutes into the flight, the guys we were jumping with strapped themselves onto us, and opened the side of the plane. I still wasn’t nervous. (I was getting worried that I wasn’t getting worried… I felt like I should be SO scared! Hahah) Elias went first… he just scooted to the edge of the plane… and then he was gone. Ok, now I was getting a bit nervous. Something clicked when Elias jumped out… he was just… GONE. Gabby was next, and then Jessie (the guy I was jumping with) and I scooted to the edge of the plane and OUT we went! It was the most amazing feeling in the world! For the first few seconds, I had no idea which was up or which way down. We were free falling for about 30 seconds because Jessie pulled the shoot. He then said “You’re going to feel a click, but don’t worry” and then he detached the bottom part of our harnesses! I was only attached to him from the shoulders! He let me steer the parachute for a while, before he took over for the landing. The view of Cape Town was spectacular! I was in the air for probably three or four minutes, and it was incredible! The landing was a lot easier than I thought, Jessie steered us straight for the sand and then I just put my feet down!
A little backstory here: Before SAS, I planned this big trip in South Africa with a man named Gav to go bungee jumping and shark cage diving. A lot of SAS kids have gone through him before, so I knew his business was pretty reputable. When I got on the ship, I was told that planning such trips was not aloud, and I would not be allowed to go. A lot of people still went, but I had already found other things to do. So when Gav found out I was skydiving, (all the extreme sports in Cape Town pretty much go through Gav’s company… so they are all his drivers and everything) he was on the phone with the driver that took us to the drop zone, and asked to speak to me. He thanked me for planning such an awesome trip, and said that he was on a film shoot all day but maybe he’d stop by the drop zone to say hello in person. So when I landed from skydiving, Gav was there! It was so nice of him to come say hello and thank you! I put a lot of effort into planning that trip, only to en up not even going! This is just one example of how amazing and kind South African people are. Seriously, the people are a huge part of why I fell so in love with that country.
After skydiving, we had to go right back and get to the ship for on-ship time. Leaving Cape Town was extremely emotional for me. I felt embaressed until I looked around and noticed that I wasn’t the only one tearing up. In fact, there were quite a few people. Something about that city captured my heart and I can’t WAIT to go back. Later that night, Gina and I were in our room talking and sharing pictures/videos when Idin came in. He said he had a present for us! He took out two jars of nutella, each with our names on it. He said “Remember when you girls told me that when a girl breaks up with her boyfriend and their heart is hurting so they just sit infront of the tv with chocolate all day? Well this is because you both left a piece of your heart in South Africa.” Hahahah most thoughtful gift ever! Of course, nutella is a luxury on this ship, so the whole world found out we had it and it’s pretty much gone now!
We’re on to Mauritius for a day- we’re calling it “Spring Break.” I’ll update you all after!!
South Africa, February 20, Day 3.
Today, I slept in for a little while (only until about 9am, but that’s considered sleeping in while in port!) and Kayla and I went to the mall to find some internet. We sat outside and got online for a while, and decided what we were going to do that day. I got to skype with my dad for a few minutes (and then my computer died! Sad.) which was nice! It was only 4am at home, but he works super early, so I can always catch him up! After about an hour, Kayla and I decided that we were going to hike Table Mountain. I am not an avid hiker, but I can always be up for a challenge. Our friends did it the day before and said it was hard, but so worth it, so we decided “why not?”
We took a cab to the second starting point. There are two points you can start from. One is the “4 hour hike” and one is the “2 hour hike.” Naturally, we chose the easy one. We started in, and after about 15 minutes stopped for a break and looked down. “Oh we have hike a pretty long ways! Maybe this will be easy after all!” ….YEAH RIGHT. After about another 20 minutes, we stopped and talked to this American guy who asked us how far until he got to the bottom. We said about 30 minutes if you don’t stop, but that was just to the road. He said he didn’t care where it went, he just wanted to get a cab and go to sleep. He was hurting! So that scared us a bit… we had no idea what was to come. After that, this man in a big white hat passed us going pretty fast. We lost site of him after a few minutes, but went the way we thought he went. We got to a point where the ground leveled off, it didn’t really go up or down. After about 15 minutes of walking along that trail, we starting questioning whether or not we were going the right way. We decided that it didn’t matter… either way we would get somewhere, whether it be to the cable car and then we would take that up instead of hike… or maybe we were going the right way and we’d make it to the top, we didn’t care. 15 more minutes went by when we met this two guys our age. They asked us if we were going up or down, and we said up. They said “Well… then turn around. You are going the wrong way.” It turns out we had just hiked all the way back to the first starting point! Of course we didn’t want to seem like wimps in front of these guys (Sebastian and Felix, who happen to live very near to my sister in Germany, small world!) so we decided to hike up with them.
After traveling with them for about an hour, Kayla and I decided to tell them to go ahead of us and we’d meet them at the top. We knew we were going to be stopping about every 10 seconds, so we didn’t want to hold them up! Haha The hike got harder and steeper, and we only brought one water bottle for the both of us, so we were struggling! After hiking for about 2.5 hours, we reached this point that looked like the stairway to heaven. The top of the mountain was finally in our reach! Now, I know you are all thinking I’m crazy for dying on a 2.5 hour hike, but let me tell you… it was pretty treacherous (but I still suggest you add it to your bucketlist!). We finally made it to the top, went straight for the little restaurant and bought water and strawberry slushies! I felt like I just conquered the world. The view from the top was absolutely breathtaking. You can see all of Cape Town! We could even see our ship! We met up with Sebastian and Felix again, and got our amazing pictures. I brought up a huge South African flag to take pictures with, so we all took turns standing out on a ledge taking amazing photos overlooking Cape Town. It was like we were on top of the world.
Something pretty funny happened next. Kayla, Sebastian, Felix and I were getting ready to say goodbye and exchanging contact info, when this blonde lady yelled something to us in German. Now, German sounds angry to me all the time, so I couldn’t tell if she was mad or if she was just speaking German. Felix looked shocked, and then yelled back “Say it in English so they can understand you!” but the lady just kept yelling. He kept telling her to “say it in English” but she just kept yelling at him. The husband or boyfriend of the women then yelled over “We just want you guys to be quiet. This is a nice viewing place and we are having a moment!” Felix then started saying something back at them in German, and Sebastian chimed in. I know a few German swears, and I heard them a few times. This was not a nice conversation! I was embarrassed and confused, but it was also quite comical. Finally they stopped, and Felix and Sebastian contemplated whether or not they should tell us what the women had said. They finally told us: “Tell your fat American girls to shut up, this place is too beautiful for loud voices.” (mind you, were speaking in regular voice, not loud ones.) Kayla goes “FAT? And WHO just climbed this mountain?!” hahahaha
Kayla and I took in the view for a while longer, then headed down the mountain on the cable car. Hiking down not only seemed to be too strenuous after the hike up, but it looked way too scary! It’s a steep hike and a long way to tumble if you fall! At the bottom of the mountain, we got a cab to the huge mall called Century City. We wanted to get some shopping done and grab a bite to eat. I bought my roommate a pillow pet, because she left hers at home and says how much she misses it all the time! I couldn’t pass up buying one when I saw it! I got a few dresses and shoes at this store called Mr. Price (pretty much like Kohl’s only cheaper). I love what I bought, and I love that I can say I bought it in South Africa! When we went to the food court, I got California rolls. If you know me at all, you know that I’m addicted. It’s been tough not having them, and I was SO excited to see them in the mall! I could have had 50, but sadly settled for 8. Hahah
We got a cab back to the waterfront, got ready really quickly (I got REALLY good at getting ready to go out in under 20 minutes, let me tell you!) and met up with all our other friends at Mitchell’s. We hung out there for a while, and then got a cab to Camps Bay. Camps Bay is this strip a long the coast with beautiful beaches and awesome nightlife. The place to be that night was St. Eves, but when we got there, there was a 100 rand cover charge and we didn’t feel like paying it. We went tot his cute beach bar called Sapphire instead. It was a ton of fun, and there were still a ton of SAS kids there! After a few hours, we headed back to the ship and called it a night!