Eye on Malaysia is really similar to the London Eye. It's basically a ferris wheel in which you can see the entire city from. Eddie was scared of heights which made it even more fun for Ashley and I because we got to make fun of him.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Bus ride to KL
Here is Eddie and I on the bus. Ashley, Eddie, and I left for Kuala Lumpur (KL) on our first night in Malaysia. We missed the overnight train and were stuck then with the overnight bus. We left Penang around midnight and arrived in KL just around 5:30 am. The air conditioning worked well... too well. We were freezing cold, but we managed to get a little sleep. We dedicided not to miss the train for the ride back to Penang!
Sunrise in Malaysia
This is the sunrise from the day our ship pulled into port. It was a pretty one and hard to choose the best shot for posting on the blog!
MaLaySia!
I had the time of my life in Malaysia. I didn’t do too much the first day as I was still recovering from the cold I received while in India (bad souvenir). I was up for the sunrise, went back to bed, and slept until the early afternoon. Our ship was not able to dock in Malaysia so we anchored near the docked and used a lifeboat as a water taxi to get people from the ship to land (this process is called tendering). The early tenders were reserved for people who had trips to be on and flights to catch. I didn’t feel bad about sleeping so late because I wouldn’t have been able to get off of the ship anyway. I made it out after lunch and went to use the internet to attempt to make some plans. I couldn’t find much that made sense. Plane tickets were too costly and the bus schedules varied. I looked into catching a train to Kuala Lumpur but couldn’t really figure out how to read the rail schedule. I gave up and decided to just “go with the flow” of things and be adventurous again. I went back to the ship in time for dinner and ate with some friends who had been out on trips all day. Ashley, a friend here, hadn’t had a good day on her trip so we decided that it was time to have some fun. I told her that I wasn’t able to figure out too much as far as traveling within Malaysia, but that we should ask the locals who were on the ship at the time. They told us that there was one more train to Kuala Lumpur that would leave at 10 pm. We ran downstairs, packed our bags, grabbed Eddie to come with us, and then got stuck waiting for 30 minutes for the next water taxi. We didn’t make the train that night but were able to catch a taxi to the bus station. We bought tickets, boarded the bus, and started our unplanned adventure. The bus was crazy and we arrived, finally, to K.L around 5:30 in the morning. We got a room in a hostel and slept for a few hours. We spent the next three days in K.L having so much fun. We did some touristy stuff, met some really interesting people, shared some American food and drinks with a guy from Holland at Hard Rock Café, went to a theme park that was inside of a twelve story mall, and survived a day playing in rain as we made our way around that wonderful city. At the National Art Gallery, we met a man who had traveled the world and is now drawing replicas of his photos to make a 1km piece of art made up of many canvas rolls. He had great insights to travel and theory behind the human race. He made quite an impression on me as a person, and his art work was incredible. I just stood there gawking at it wondering why I struggle with stick people.
We didn’t plan a thing and it was probably the most fun I have had, ever. I told Ashley at one point that I felt like I had waited my whole life for this. As a kid, you tired of the rules and secretly wish that there was no one around to tell you what you could or could not do. You just wish that you can go wherever you want and do whatever you want. That was exactly what we did. We were fortunate enough to take the overnight train back to Penang. We wondered how it would be, but it was pretty fun as well and I met a guy from Iran who kept feeding me chips. He was great. I have a lot of funny pictures from that train ride. It is not too suitable for the best sleep of your life, but again, we arrived about 5:30 in the morning, caught the ferry from the mainland back to the island, and walked back to the ship just as the sun was rising on Easter morning.
I had a box (Easter basket) waiting for me when I returned home. I ate some breakfast, showered, and got some sleep. When I woke up, I grabbed lunch and then headed out to Cheshire Home, a residential rehab facility for handicapped people between the ages of 12 and 45. There, I met a 25 year old man and we just sat and talked for about 2 hours. I shared some things with him such as postcards and Easter candy. He was a wonderful person to meet and has a great attitude about life. I still think about him often.
Before going back to ship, I wondered around Penang with Eddie and Jocilyn, my roommate on ship, and ate some street food. I’m not at all sure what I ate, but I started getting the hang of those goofy chopsticks and it really didn’t taste too bad. I took a picture of my plate because the noodle things looked like thick, juicy, white worms. But I ate ‘em.
We headed back to the ship and got ready for classes the next day. Our ship did not leave until early morning for some reason or another. I definitely want to go back.
We didn’t plan a thing and it was probably the most fun I have had, ever. I told Ashley at one point that I felt like I had waited my whole life for this. As a kid, you tired of the rules and secretly wish that there was no one around to tell you what you could or could not do. You just wish that you can go wherever you want and do whatever you want. That was exactly what we did. We were fortunate enough to take the overnight train back to Penang. We wondered how it would be, but it was pretty fun as well and I met a guy from Iran who kept feeding me chips. He was great. I have a lot of funny pictures from that train ride. It is not too suitable for the best sleep of your life, but again, we arrived about 5:30 in the morning, caught the ferry from the mainland back to the island, and walked back to the ship just as the sun was rising on Easter morning.
I had a box (Easter basket) waiting for me when I returned home. I ate some breakfast, showered, and got some sleep. When I woke up, I grabbed lunch and then headed out to Cheshire Home, a residential rehab facility for handicapped people between the ages of 12 and 45. There, I met a 25 year old man and we just sat and talked for about 2 hours. I shared some things with him such as postcards and Easter candy. He was a wonderful person to meet and has a great attitude about life. I still think about him often.
Before going back to ship, I wondered around Penang with Eddie and Jocilyn, my roommate on ship, and ate some street food. I’m not at all sure what I ate, but I started getting the hang of those goofy chopsticks and it really didn’t taste too bad. I took a picture of my plate because the noodle things looked like thick, juicy, white worms. But I ate ‘em.
We headed back to the ship and got ready for classes the next day. Our ship did not leave until early morning for some reason or another. I definitely want to go back.
India
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Well, it really wasn’t even the best of times. Before arriving in India, the administration and faculty on ship try to prepare you for India in the sense that it is often the country to offer rich cultural experiences and some of the most profound sights of people, poverty, and foreign life. I was so excited to go to India, and for no particular reason. For me, it was just always one of those places you hear a lot about and think about going to. After the on ship warning of something along the lines of “If India doesn’t offer you the life-changing experience you’re looking for, then none of the countries will.” I was so excited to see so much and be utterly amazed by something. I felt ready to see things that would make my heart hurt, stomach churn, and the tears come falling down my face. I expected India to be like this, but it wasn’t. And to be quite honest, I was a disappointed.
India turned out to be the place where I felt more targeted as a female, as a tourist, as a “rich American,” and as a white person. Each of those has their own story. A friend and I hired a rickshaw driver for the first night and the following day. We knew it was risky, but thought to ourselves that we were on this adventure and were ready to be adventurous. For a night that started off so fun and so promising, it really turned out to be a big miserable catastrophe. The took advantage of us as people, lied to us more times in one night than I can count sheep at night, and cheated us out of a lot of money. Now, the traveler in me is trying to stay calm and remind myself that this could have been expected and that “it’s all a part of the experience” (that phrase haunts me now). In the end, after demanding that he take us back to the ship in Chennai, my friends and I ended up there around 4am, perfectly safe, but soaking wet from the midnight rains. As we arrived at the ship, about 100 students saw our tired, jaded, wet faces as they prepared to leave for their fantastic four day trip throughout India, including a visit to the Taj Mahal. And that was just my first night.
The next day, I didn’t exactly run off the ship with anticipation to do anything. I had vague plans to visit the Taj Mahal, but they didn’t work out. Later in the day, a group of us went to visit a temple and later grab some dinner. (Dinner in India is relatively late, between 8 and 11pm.) Even the temple visit didn’t go so well. Shortly after we arrived, a man approached another girl and I and asked us what we knew about the temples and we, being experienced from our adventure the night before, shooed him away expecting that he only wanted money. Minutes later, the other people that were with us, not knowing that we just “got rid of him” began talking with him and agreed to let him walk around with us and offer his knowledge about the temple, religion, etc. After one lap around the temple, he said that we each owed him 100 rupees (an obscene amount for India). He began shouting at us as no one paid him. My friend and I knew the deal and had gotten ourselves out of it earlier on. We left the temple immediately to avoid him and I ended up having to steal my shoes back from the shoe keeper who was harassing the people with us for money for “watching their shoes.” (You can’t wear shoes in the temple, so we all had to leave them outside the area. After all of that, we never got to actually go inside of the temple. It was ridiculous.
We went out to dinner. I couldn’t read the menu and finally just ordered something. It wasn’t bad, but sure had a surprise spice in it that set my mouth on fire about half way through my plate. The rickshaw driver we had hired asked the waiter to ask us if we would buy him some dinner. We did. He ordered it to go and we all paid, and then left. On our way back to the ship, he pulled his rickshaw over to the side of the road and asked us to grab the food out of the back. He gave the food to a little girl who hesitantly approached the rickshaw as he called to her. She took the food from him and ran back to the sidewalk, by a man who shared a blanket with her, and we drove off. THAT made me think. I thought about how much we had agreed to pay him for the time we hired him. I thought about how much that little bit of food actually cost and that those people were going to share it. I wondered if it would be their only meal for the day. I wondered if the driver knew those people. Were they his family? Did he see them sitting there and give it to them for another reason? I will never know. But it astounds me to think about the possibilities that lie there. When we got back, we went to pay the driver the price we had agreed upon before we got into the rickshaw. He laughed at us, asked for more than ten times as much, and got angry when we refused to pay it. I, putting aside the feelings of what I was thinking about, was angry that I was about to be ripped off AGAIN! I know that these people are working hard, that they are much poorer than poorest people I live by, but I still didn’t have the money to fork over to them just because they thought they could get it out of some ignorant Americans. We refused to pay more than we agreed and the man refused to take the money. We walked away from him and he left us alone. He never took our money for that four hour hire. I think he expected us to feel bad and eventually offer more, but we were just irritated.
The next day I had an overnight trip to a village to in Kancheepuram. The trip was to visit RIDE, an organization that works to get kids out of child labor and back into the public school systems. The trip was good and I had a good time. We visited one of the bridge schools on the first day. I had a great time interacting with the kids, even though one of those little rascals had sneezed in my mouth while we played the camera game. I played “slap hands” with a few of them (that’s what I am calling it, but I am referring to the game where the other person has to move their hands from on top of yours before you can slap them). We had some great food at our accommodation. We slept in an open room in the guest house of the RIDE organization. The next day, we got up early and had good food at breakfast. It was then that I started to really feel the effects of that sneeze in my mouth. My throat was soar and I knew I was getting sick. I knew right when the kid sneezed, it was inevitable. We went to a village and walked around with many of the locals as they gave us a tour of the place they all call home. We saw the laboring work they do, the animals, the kids, and the things they call houses. Some of them weren’t too bad, some of them were. Everyone in the village was extremely welcoming of us and excited for their kids to meet Americans. Many of us had things to give away. I gave out several pens (I can’t believe what a huge hit those things are), yo-yo’s, and some postcards and notebooks from school.
We went back to RIDE for lunch (delicious again), and then stopped at a silk shop (that doesn’t sell products of child labor) before heading back to this ship in Chennai. On this trip, I was able to see how tedious of a job it is to run a silk weaving loom and actually make something. It is incredible. I also learned the harsh reality of Indian traffic as I watched a girl nearly get run over by a motorbike while trying to cross the street to use the bathroom at a Shell station. Crossing the street in India is perhaps the most dangerous thing to do there. Seriously. **Oh the things we do for regular toilets.
India turned out to be the place where I felt more targeted as a female, as a tourist, as a “rich American,” and as a white person. Each of those has their own story. A friend and I hired a rickshaw driver for the first night and the following day. We knew it was risky, but thought to ourselves that we were on this adventure and were ready to be adventurous. For a night that started off so fun and so promising, it really turned out to be a big miserable catastrophe. The took advantage of us as people, lied to us more times in one night than I can count sheep at night, and cheated us out of a lot of money. Now, the traveler in me is trying to stay calm and remind myself that this could have been expected and that “it’s all a part of the experience” (that phrase haunts me now). In the end, after demanding that he take us back to the ship in Chennai, my friends and I ended up there around 4am, perfectly safe, but soaking wet from the midnight rains. As we arrived at the ship, about 100 students saw our tired, jaded, wet faces as they prepared to leave for their fantastic four day trip throughout India, including a visit to the Taj Mahal. And that was just my first night.
The next day, I didn’t exactly run off the ship with anticipation to do anything. I had vague plans to visit the Taj Mahal, but they didn’t work out. Later in the day, a group of us went to visit a temple and later grab some dinner. (Dinner in India is relatively late, between 8 and 11pm.) Even the temple visit didn’t go so well. Shortly after we arrived, a man approached another girl and I and asked us what we knew about the temples and we, being experienced from our adventure the night before, shooed him away expecting that he only wanted money. Minutes later, the other people that were with us, not knowing that we just “got rid of him” began talking with him and agreed to let him walk around with us and offer his knowledge about the temple, religion, etc. After one lap around the temple, he said that we each owed him 100 rupees (an obscene amount for India). He began shouting at us as no one paid him. My friend and I knew the deal and had gotten ourselves out of it earlier on. We left the temple immediately to avoid him and I ended up having to steal my shoes back from the shoe keeper who was harassing the people with us for money for “watching their shoes.” (You can’t wear shoes in the temple, so we all had to leave them outside the area. After all of that, we never got to actually go inside of the temple. It was ridiculous.
We went out to dinner. I couldn’t read the menu and finally just ordered something. It wasn’t bad, but sure had a surprise spice in it that set my mouth on fire about half way through my plate. The rickshaw driver we had hired asked the waiter to ask us if we would buy him some dinner. We did. He ordered it to go and we all paid, and then left. On our way back to the ship, he pulled his rickshaw over to the side of the road and asked us to grab the food out of the back. He gave the food to a little girl who hesitantly approached the rickshaw as he called to her. She took the food from him and ran back to the sidewalk, by a man who shared a blanket with her, and we drove off. THAT made me think. I thought about how much we had agreed to pay him for the time we hired him. I thought about how much that little bit of food actually cost and that those people were going to share it. I wondered if it would be their only meal for the day. I wondered if the driver knew those people. Were they his family? Did he see them sitting there and give it to them for another reason? I will never know. But it astounds me to think about the possibilities that lie there. When we got back, we went to pay the driver the price we had agreed upon before we got into the rickshaw. He laughed at us, asked for more than ten times as much, and got angry when we refused to pay it. I, putting aside the feelings of what I was thinking about, was angry that I was about to be ripped off AGAIN! I know that these people are working hard, that they are much poorer than poorest people I live by, but I still didn’t have the money to fork over to them just because they thought they could get it out of some ignorant Americans. We refused to pay more than we agreed and the man refused to take the money. We walked away from him and he left us alone. He never took our money for that four hour hire. I think he expected us to feel bad and eventually offer more, but we were just irritated.
The next day I had an overnight trip to a village to in Kancheepuram. The trip was to visit RIDE, an organization that works to get kids out of child labor and back into the public school systems. The trip was good and I had a good time. We visited one of the bridge schools on the first day. I had a great time interacting with the kids, even though one of those little rascals had sneezed in my mouth while we played the camera game. I played “slap hands” with a few of them (that’s what I am calling it, but I am referring to the game where the other person has to move their hands from on top of yours before you can slap them). We had some great food at our accommodation. We slept in an open room in the guest house of the RIDE organization. The next day, we got up early and had good food at breakfast. It was then that I started to really feel the effects of that sneeze in my mouth. My throat was soar and I knew I was getting sick. I knew right when the kid sneezed, it was inevitable. We went to a village and walked around with many of the locals as they gave us a tour of the place they all call home. We saw the laboring work they do, the animals, the kids, and the things they call houses. Some of them weren’t too bad, some of them were. Everyone in the village was extremely welcoming of us and excited for their kids to meet Americans. Many of us had things to give away. I gave out several pens (I can’t believe what a huge hit those things are), yo-yo’s, and some postcards and notebooks from school.
We went back to RIDE for lunch (delicious again), and then stopped at a silk shop (that doesn’t sell products of child labor) before heading back to this ship in Chennai. On this trip, I was able to see how tedious of a job it is to run a silk weaving loom and actually make something. It is incredible. I also learned the harsh reality of Indian traffic as I watched a girl nearly get run over by a motorbike while trying to cross the street to use the bathroom at a Shell station. Crossing the street in India is perhaps the most dangerous thing to do there. Seriously. **Oh the things we do for regular toilets.
Mauritius
Mauritius was a great place for relaxing. It has, by far, the prettiest beaches I have ever seen. The sand is white, the sea shells are clean, the water is see through and so blue it takes your breath away (and almost looks green sometimes), and there aren’t so many people that you can’t enjoy yourself.
The first day in Mauritius, I had a ticket (someone gave it to me for free!) to do a Blue Safari and Marine Conservation trip. There are only ten places in the world where you can experience the blue safari submarine. We first stopped at a beach and watched a presentation about conserving marine life (interesting, but boring…). The marine life around Mauritius is absolutely beautiful. I was able to see it for myself, underwater! That’s where the Blue Safari comes in. We took a small boat away from land to a vessel that was anchored in the ocean. From there, we boarded the submarine that took us about 35meters underwater to see all the pretty fishies! (There is a picture somewhere on here of me getting into the submarine.) It was hard to get good pictures because the water made everything look blue, however, the pictures almost look black and white because they show so little color. The windows were also pretty thick, so the quality of my pictures weren’t great either. It was awesome to see in person, though. We spent about 30 minutes in the submarine and came back up, then went back to land where we received a certificate (souvenir!) for our dive. I am glad that I was given the ticket because the cost of this trip was just over $100 (that included the transportation and a box lunch). However, I did not think it was worth that amount of money and was really glad that I hadn’t actually paid for it. Too bad for those who did, but they seemed to enjoy it. Later that day, I went with some friends to a street market in Port Louis. I didn’t really like it all. They weren’t selling anything worth buying, it was over-crowded, and really hot and stinky. I only bought a bottle of water. L
The second day was absolutely incredible. It was my ideal perfect day. (This one was also free, and also expensive!) I had never been on a sail boat before so I was really excited for the catamaran. I dropped my towel down on the front, lathered on the sunscreen, and we sailed out into the crystal blue waters of Mauritius. Right away we saw dolphins swimming in the water and we soon stopped for snorkeling. Now, I am not much of a swimmer. In fact, I still have to hold my nose when I go under water. However, I was excited to snorkel (something else I had never done before) and wasn’t going to let my lack of water breathing skills stop me. I started by getting in and swimming around for a while. Then, I attempted to snorkel. I’ll admit, I freaked out a little. Not being able to breathe, in the middle of the ocean and about 65 feet away from the catamaran was a little scary. Meanwhile, I just wanted to see the fishies underwater. I couldn’t even manage to just have my face on the water with the goggles on. I did get better at that though, just long enough to see a few things. I stuck with it, closer to the catamaran, and was finally able to stay underwater long enough to see the beauty of it all. There were millions of black and white striped fish all around me and I didn’t even know it. The colors of the coral and other plants are so vibrant! I am getting some pictures from someone who had a camera they were able to take underwater. The fish are so colorful, though. They really looked just like the ones who helped find Nemo! We spent the day laying out in the sun, listening to good music, snorkeling, and eating some delicious (an understatement) Mauritian food. Our guides even cooked it on the catamaran. It was a great day and I had a lot of fun. I could do it every weekend, and I said at one point that I was thinking about buying a catamaran after retirement.
The rest of my stay in Mauritius, several friends rented a villa and I stayed with them in Grand Baie (on the Northern coast). There was a rather huge mix-up in getting the whole thing arranged, but in the end, everyone had a good time.
While in Mauritius, I also visited a village called Bambou. It is set up much like a community. There are several houses each with a “mother.” There are classrooms, playgrounds, and a few other facilities. Children that live there are either orphans or are children who the courts ordered away from their parents for various reasons. The village keeps the children through the age of 18 if they are not given a home before then. Often times, the village keeps the children for most of those years and when the child leaves, they often keep in close touch. We toured the village and played with many of the younger children for a while. Like children from the other countries, they are amused, amazed, and intrigued by our cameras. A young girl (her picture is on the blog) in a yellow dress took my camera for a while and took so many pictures. She was having so much fun with it. However, the battery died and she became a little disappointed. I looked at the pictures later and they were so random. She had taken numerous pictures of the sky and the ground, as well as pictures of people who seemed to have lost their heads or half of their bodies. It gave the phrase “point and shoot” and a whole new meaning. There was also a young boy who seemed upset about everything. He wasn’t interested in much and just looked sad. I sat with him for a while, trying to cheer him up by showing him some things I had in my bag. He smiled, finally, when he got his hands on an ink pen I had and it was the most profound moment. (It makes you really think about the simple things in life.) I gave him a little notepad and he started to write his name. I was very impressed because this little boy was so young.
The last day, I went to the beach before leaving Grand Baie. We stuck it out through the rain and I wondered to myself… what exactly are the signs of a tsunami? The bad weather passed slowly and when we made it back to Port Louis, I spent the rest of the day relaxing, using some internet to post pictures, and eating out. Before rushing back to the ship, I was able to make a few phone calls. It’s always nice to hear the sounds of home.
The first day in Mauritius, I had a ticket (someone gave it to me for free!) to do a Blue Safari and Marine Conservation trip. There are only ten places in the world where you can experience the blue safari submarine. We first stopped at a beach and watched a presentation about conserving marine life (interesting, but boring…). The marine life around Mauritius is absolutely beautiful. I was able to see it for myself, underwater! That’s where the Blue Safari comes in. We took a small boat away from land to a vessel that was anchored in the ocean. From there, we boarded the submarine that took us about 35meters underwater to see all the pretty fishies! (There is a picture somewhere on here of me getting into the submarine.) It was hard to get good pictures because the water made everything look blue, however, the pictures almost look black and white because they show so little color. The windows were also pretty thick, so the quality of my pictures weren’t great either. It was awesome to see in person, though. We spent about 30 minutes in the submarine and came back up, then went back to land where we received a certificate (souvenir!) for our dive. I am glad that I was given the ticket because the cost of this trip was just over $100 (that included the transportation and a box lunch). However, I did not think it was worth that amount of money and was really glad that I hadn’t actually paid for it. Too bad for those who did, but they seemed to enjoy it. Later that day, I went with some friends to a street market in Port Louis. I didn’t really like it all. They weren’t selling anything worth buying, it was over-crowded, and really hot and stinky. I only bought a bottle of water. L
The second day was absolutely incredible. It was my ideal perfect day. (This one was also free, and also expensive!) I had never been on a sail boat before so I was really excited for the catamaran. I dropped my towel down on the front, lathered on the sunscreen, and we sailed out into the crystal blue waters of Mauritius. Right away we saw dolphins swimming in the water and we soon stopped for snorkeling. Now, I am not much of a swimmer. In fact, I still have to hold my nose when I go under water. However, I was excited to snorkel (something else I had never done before) and wasn’t going to let my lack of water breathing skills stop me. I started by getting in and swimming around for a while. Then, I attempted to snorkel. I’ll admit, I freaked out a little. Not being able to breathe, in the middle of the ocean and about 65 feet away from the catamaran was a little scary. Meanwhile, I just wanted to see the fishies underwater. I couldn’t even manage to just have my face on the water with the goggles on. I did get better at that though, just long enough to see a few things. I stuck with it, closer to the catamaran, and was finally able to stay underwater long enough to see the beauty of it all. There were millions of black and white striped fish all around me and I didn’t even know it. The colors of the coral and other plants are so vibrant! I am getting some pictures from someone who had a camera they were able to take underwater. The fish are so colorful, though. They really looked just like the ones who helped find Nemo! We spent the day laying out in the sun, listening to good music, snorkeling, and eating some delicious (an understatement) Mauritian food. Our guides even cooked it on the catamaran. It was a great day and I had a lot of fun. I could do it every weekend, and I said at one point that I was thinking about buying a catamaran after retirement.
The rest of my stay in Mauritius, several friends rented a villa and I stayed with them in Grand Baie (on the Northern coast). There was a rather huge mix-up in getting the whole thing arranged, but in the end, everyone had a good time.
While in Mauritius, I also visited a village called Bambou. It is set up much like a community. There are several houses each with a “mother.” There are classrooms, playgrounds, and a few other facilities. Children that live there are either orphans or are children who the courts ordered away from their parents for various reasons. The village keeps the children through the age of 18 if they are not given a home before then. Often times, the village keeps the children for most of those years and when the child leaves, they often keep in close touch. We toured the village and played with many of the younger children for a while. Like children from the other countries, they are amused, amazed, and intrigued by our cameras. A young girl (her picture is on the blog) in a yellow dress took my camera for a while and took so many pictures. She was having so much fun with it. However, the battery died and she became a little disappointed. I looked at the pictures later and they were so random. She had taken numerous pictures of the sky and the ground, as well as pictures of people who seemed to have lost their heads or half of their bodies. It gave the phrase “point and shoot” and a whole new meaning. There was also a young boy who seemed upset about everything. He wasn’t interested in much and just looked sad. I sat with him for a while, trying to cheer him up by showing him some things I had in my bag. He smiled, finally, when he got his hands on an ink pen I had and it was the most profound moment. (It makes you really think about the simple things in life.) I gave him a little notepad and he started to write his name. I was very impressed because this little boy was so young.
The last day, I went to the beach before leaving Grand Baie. We stuck it out through the rain and I wondered to myself… what exactly are the signs of a tsunami? The bad weather passed slowly and when we made it back to Port Louis, I spent the rest of the day relaxing, using some internet to post pictures, and eating out. Before rushing back to the ship, I was able to make a few phone calls. It’s always nice to hear the sounds of home.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Update
I am currently in an internet cafe in Malaysia. I am trying to plan some cool stuff to do while I am here so I will post my stories from Mauritius and India another time. For the most part, the pictures are up to date. Enjoy!
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