Turkiye!

Well, my summer is officially gone. Gone are the days of Japan, India, and Egypt. In two days my never-ending summer ended with a hail storm welcoming us to Turkey! Despite the fact that I usually hate the cold, it really made the city of Istanbul feel more authentic. This visit was a lot different than my others because it was so relaxed. I did not have any planned trips or agendas and it made enjoying the city wonderful. I could do whatever I liked and make decisions as I went along and we didn’t always have to stay together as a big group because we could always meet back up at the ship. We were docked in a fabulous location right in the city and so the ship was our hotel. From all angles of the ship you could see different areas of Istanbul. The city itself is located along the Bosphorus River and extends on either side of the River. Part of the city is actually in Europe and part is in Asia. Our boat was docked on the “Europe side” and you could walk or travel by tram/cab over the river to the “Asia side.”

I spent a lot of time on the Asian side of the city in a neighborhood called Sultanahmet. This was probably my favorite area of the city because there was so much history and is considered “Old Istanbul.” All of the streets are cobblestone and there are century-old buildings and structures all over. It has a very European feel to it. Istanbul in general, has a very European feel to it considering Turkey is considered part of the Middle East. The rest of Turkey is much more conservative than Istanbul, but Turkey as a whole is the most liberal Muslim state. Anyway, Sultanahmet is home to the famous Blue Mosque, AyaSofia (Hagia Sofia), the Basilica Cistern, and the Topkapi Palace.

The Blue Mosque is famous for its blue tiled interior. This idea came to the Sultan at the time in his dreams and so it was built. The interior is completely tiled in various patterns and all the windows are stained glass. The original lighting fixtures are still hanging. They were originally candle holders (now hold light bulbs) and hang all the way from the very high ceilings.

The AyaSofia was originally a Eastern Catholic Church built about 1800 years ago. It is a beautiful and large church and I can imagine was a huge part of that area’s Catholic religion. When the Ottoman’s came into Istanbul about 500 years ago it was converted into a mosque, not very well, if I do say so. The mosaics of Jesus Christ still plaster the ceilings and walls. Now there are Islamic plaques that look almost cut out and pasted onto the walls in the effect of a child’s art project. None of the original construction of the Church was changed, there were alters added and Islamic words were hung on the walls. It is really a beautiful building and the architecture is very unique and the designs are almost mesmerizing. The variations of stone used in the building are very distinct and the floor is marbled. This building is very monumental to any religion buff because of the fact that it has housed worshipers of two different religions over about the past 2 millenniums.

The Basilica Cistern was hard to find, mostly because none of it is above ground. This cistern was built in the 6^th century on the site of an old basilica. It was used as water storage and you are now able to walk through it on set up walkways through the open room. It is a really huge space, about 30 feet high and all underground. It is supported by many marble columns. It is low lit and feels very eerie. The water is kept low nowadays, but it reminded me of the Phantom of the Opera almost. I was expecting a masked man to float by in his small boat. The fact that such a large underground area only supported by marble columns could survive 1500 years was astonishing.

The Topkapi Palace was home to the Emperor of the Ottoman Empire during the 16^th, 17^th, and 18^th centuries. The palace grounds are beautiful and resembled a fairytale castle. The views were so picturesque. The palace is placed high above the River and offers views of a lot of areas of Istanbul. Inside many of the old rooms the Ottoman treasury artifacts were housed. Many of the jewels, thrones, military paraphernalia, and gifts of the Ottoman Empire are now on display. They even have a 58 carat diamond on display!!! Quite a sight!

There was a lot more to Sultanahmet than just these sights as well. Like I said, we spent a lot of time in this area. Jess, Alex, and I stumbled upon a wonderful coffee shop in the neighborhood and Jess and I ventured there a second time for a second taste of their “banana split” (an éclair topped with a sliced banana and covered in chocolate.) I love the prevalence of coffee in Turkey. You can get good coffee anytime/any place. It made it hard not to drink it multiple times a day. I also have to admit another restaurant we found in Sultanahmet. El Torito! We flipped when we stumbled upon El Torito because we spend so much time talking about how much we miss Mexican food. It was definitely not the same, but any excuse for chips and guac or a quesadilla is alright with me!

Another really great trip we did during the day was a boat tour of the Bosphorus River. The guide book we looked at messed up the times for the government touristic ferries and a man stopped me and offered a private river tour. So we ended up on his really nice tour boat (only 8 of us) that had an outdoor upstairs and back end and indoors as well, which came into handy when it started raining. He took us up the river and hugged the coast. This gave us a great view of each of the neighborhoods of Istanbul. There are many homes, government buildings, Universities, and parks right on the water and we passed right by. This really gave me an impression of just how huge the city of Istanbul is, especially since we didn’t even traverse as far down the river as we could have. After the tour we ate lunch underneath the bridge which connects Europe to Asia. This is the only connection between the two continents besides Russia. Nearby we also visited the Spice Bazaar. This was really cool. A bazaar like all the rest but its specialty was spices, teas, and Turkish delight. There are tubs and tubs of colorful spices and candies all over the place. We spent about 45 minutes in one specific spice shop where the men who worked there were very generous and let us sample everything, of course we well made up for it in our purchases.

We also spent a lot of time in the neighborhood of Beyoglu near where our boat was docked on the Europe side. This area, most specifically the street Istiklal, is a hip shopping, eating, and nightlife district in Istanbul. Because my itinerary was so relaxed I was able to enjoy the nightlife in Istanbul for a few of the nights which is pretty trendy as far as I could tell. One night we went to a fabulous dinner, as recommended by a guide book, at a restaurant called 360. You could tell it was the place to see and be seen and offered an all windowed view and balcony overlooking the evening Istanbul skyline. It was a stormy day and the sky continued to light up with lightning which was really cool. We also had a lot of fun on the same street at “Turkish Pub” watching the soccer game our first night. The Turks are really into their soccer, just like the rest of Europe. The stadium was close and we wanted to go to a game, but the tickets were really expensive, so we opted for the pub.

My last day was really fun. I hooked up with a neighbor of mine’s daughter, Gloria, who is living in Istanbul currently. Turns out when we finally met up that she lived right off of Istiklal, the street I had been hanging out on all week. Her and her husband, Jed, have been living there for about a year and took me to a great breakfast where I had a traditional Turkish egg dish, menemen. They were great hosts and walked me around their neighborhood for 2 or 3 hours. It was great to get off the beaten path and actually experience areas of the city where people live and tourists don’t tread. We would walk for a while and I would be sure we must be far away from the water by then, and all of sudden you would walk upon yet another gorgeous view of the Bosphorus. The view from their apartment is breathtaking as it looks over a vast area of the city as well as a prime part of the River. They could actually even direct me from their balcony exactly how to walk back to the ship because their view is so broad.

I absolutely loved hanging out in Istanbul. I was just happy for the whole week. I really enjoyed playing it by ear and loved every aspect of the city that I experienced. Definitely a place I want to visit again especially because the city is so large and there are so many neighborhoods I didn’t get to visit.

Turkey Pics

My first Starbucks Red Cup! Truly Winter!

Inside the Blue Mosque.
Topkapi Palace

The view from the Topkapi Palace

the spice market

Bosphorus River tour!

Our ship from our river tour.
a full rainbow! after some rainfall while on the boat ride.



crossing the river connecting Europe to Asia. People fish off the bridge for fun. and that is one of the million mosques in Istanbul.

the view of the city from Gloria's apartment.

Walking Like An Egyptian!

I am so happy to have gotten the chance to visit Egypt. It is just incredible the amount of history in one country. All of the things that I saw were about 4,000 years old. It is still hard to fathom that the structures I saw were built so many centuries ago and saw so many centuries pass and are still intact.

For Egypt, I participated in a four day SAS trip with about 154 other SASers. Talk about a lot of people. We had four buses taking us everywhere. All in all it was great. It made traveling so easy. We had four tour guides that traveled with us everywhere, even by plane and back. It got a little hectic at some points with so many people but for the most part it ran really smoothly. We had picked these trips after getting on the ship so my friends and I picked the same trip. We had not traveled all together since Japan and Thailand so it was a lot of fun.

Our first day we arrived in Alexandria, we walked straight onto busses and headed to Cairo. My first impressions of Egypt were wonderful. Alexandria is a well kept city right on the Mediterranean, very picturesque. We departed later than expected and didn’t get on the road till about 1130 (my usual lunch time.) We drove straight to our first tourist stop. But, before even arriving there we were able to see the pyramids while driving through the city of Cairo. I am sure you can imagine it was quite a sight to be driving through a modern city and see these gigantic pyramids emerging from behind.

Our first stop was Sakkara which is the sight of the very first pyramid ever constructed. Our guide guided us through our first tomb and then we were able to wander around the pyramid. This pyramid was called a step pyramid, built up by levels in a pyramid shape. Not as big or as astonishing as the Great Pyramids, but still really cool. My first glimpse at the awe of “how the heck is this pile of rocks still standing over 4,000 years later?”

By this time it was almost 5 pm and we were all dying from the fact that we had not eaten lunch yet. In Egypt, noontime is not the typical lunch time. So, we had lunch when it was dark outside, at the normal time I eat dinner. The only bad thing about traveling in a group this large was our meals. Usually on SAS trips they do a good job of taking students to great restaurants that exhibit the traditional food of the country. But with 154 students in tow the only place we ever had meals were at various hotels, buffet style. While they did serve some traditional dishes the food was always catered to European tourists, so it wasn’t until the last day or so when I was able to experience food on my own. (Maybe I should have stuck with hotel food - I am currently lying in bed with the chills due to falafel gone bad – maybe that was too much info.)

Anyway, that night we went to the English showing of the famed “sound and light show” at the pyramids. It was interesting, I guess, but while viewing I really wish I was able to have seen the pyramids in day light first. They show illuminated the various pyramids and Sphinx in different colors and included lasers and told the story of the pyramids. It was interesting, definitely, but was a bit Disneyland-ish for my first view of the ancient structures. After that our tour guides took us to the largest bazaar in Cairo which was cool. All the shops sold the same touristy stuff though; it wasn’t a bazaar that a local would visit. So, we spent time at a outdoor café that lined the bazaar and enjoyed coffee and some enjoyed hookah, or shisha. This is not like the hookah in the states, it is much stronger. You will see men and women enjoying hookah at all the bars or cafes in the evening. More interestingly, you can see small groups of men smoking hookah even before noon on the streets. They will sit with their friends or colleagues and have a cup of tea, chat, and smoke hookah no matter the time. I suppose it is just like taking a smoke break at work??

The next morning was an early one (but just wait, it gets worse.) We had to meet at the buses at 5 am if we chose to make sunrise at the pyramids. This was such a good decision. They took us to the Giza Plateau which is not close to the pyramids actually, but offers an uninhibited view of all three of the pyramids with the sun rising in view. The area doesn’t open for tourists until 8 am so we felt really privileged to get to see the pyramids at sunrise. It was really cold at first, surprising to me that I felt the coldest so far on this trip in Egypt of all places. The desert sunrises (and sunsets too) are wonderful. They are hazy and pink and orange in color. The sun rose right between the pyramids and after it came up we got to ride camels to one of the pyramids and back.

You have to drive to each of the pyramids because they are not as close together as they look. We visited each of them up close which was really cool. Just seeing these humongous slabs of stone weighing tons each really gets you thinking about how the heck some one was able to put them together and build them so high and so sturdy. Apparently, when originally built they were smooth, so not leveled at all, completely flat on each side and white. It just got me thinking how it would feel to be walking for thousands of miles through the uninhabited desert and then stumble upon this humongous structure resembling nothing you had ever seen before. We visited the middle sized pyramid and actually went inside of it. They have one entry way that tourists are allowed to enter and it takes you straight into the center of the pyramid. It was quite a hunched walk to get to the center (think CuChi Tunnels) but the center room was rather large. There were painted hieroglyphics on the wall and the only thing left inside was the empty sarcophagus. All of the things that were originally found inside the pyramids are housed in various museums, many in the Egyptian Museum we visited later that day. We then drove to visit the Sphinx which offers a full frontal view of all three of the pyramids. All in all, tops the coolest sights I have ever seen.

We then visited the outdoor museum at Memphis which includes many statues from the ancient Egyptian dynasties. For lunch, we boarded a boat along the Nile River. We ate lunch and were entertained by a belly dancer and whirling dervish performer. The belly dancer didn’t really know how to move her belly, but the whirling dervish knew how to whirl. That was quite an experience. We saw another perform at our hotel in Luxor. If you haven’t seen one before, it is pretty intriguing. They dance for 20 minutes in huge skirts and do not stop twirling. It makes you sick to your stomach to watch almost, but it was fun. The chance to cruise along the Nile was awesome. The Nile is nothing like I pictured because it is surrounded by city. Just from learning about ancient history, you think of the Nile River and you think of desert and the ancient Egyptians and Cleopatra. Today, as it runs through Africa’s second largest city, it is surrounded by tall buildings, hotels, freeways and multiple bridges. I did bear witness via airplane view to the fact that there is nothing in Egypt except in the areas that fall right along the Nile. Ninety-six percent of Egypt is uninhabited desert, if you can believe that.

That afternoon we saw the Citadel, which is a very large and beautiful mosque dedicated to Egypt’s Mohamed Ali in the 19^th century. It overlooks the city and offers beautiful birds-eye views of Cairo from above, if you can see it through the smog. Our last stop of the day was the Egyptian Museum which was built in 1901, making the actual museum an artifact in itself. The Museum is filled with statues, coffins, sarcophagus’s, and goods found in tombs than have been discovered and emptied over the years. It is unreal the amount of remnants there are from a four thousand year old society, even though these things are but a fraction of the actual goods in use at the time. Around all of the artifacts they have pictures of what some of the tombs looked like when they opened them for the first time. It is so interesting that the people really believed that by leaving things like jewels, weapons, or a bed in the same room as a dead human, the deceased could use them in the afterlife. A popular exhibit was King Tut’s coffin and jewelry.

That night called for an unusually early bed time due to our unusually early wake up call. I woke up at 2 a.m. the next morning and we caught a 5 a.m. flight to Luxor. Our first stop in Luxor was the Valley of the Kings. This is literally a valley in the middle of a small mountain range in the desert where pharaohs’ tombs are located. We got to walk inside of these tombs which are built right into the mountainside. The walkways to the sarcophaguses are long and are covered in floor to ceiling hieroglyphics. They are mainly tombs of Ramses, followed by subsequent number. Surprisingly, King Tut’s (short for Tutankhamen) tomb was the smallest and least embellished. King Tut is such a popular symbol of Ancient Egypt nowadays, but he was actually pretty insignificant and only reigned for six years and died at 19. Because he was so insignificant, his tomb was never looted as many of them were over the years. In more recent years, when his tomb was found it had most artifacts inside and his face covered in a golden mask (he was then tagged “Egypt’s Golden Boy.”) It was really interesting to learn the real stories behind such symbols of Ancient Egypt.

Growing tired, we visited the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, which was really cool because it was carved into this huge mountainside, had lunch as then rest time! It really got tiring being outside because this day was in particularly hot. For the most part the weather was hot, but dry. After the humidity of S.E. Asia, dry heat did not seem bad at all. After it cooled down, we visited the Luxor Temple which is a huge temple illuminated by lights in the evenings. The visits to these ancient Egyptian temples were a bit of a change from the sort of temples I have visited in S.E. Asia. They actually today don’t look like more than piles of rocks and columns. There are no roofs left on the buildings anymore, but the fact that the walls, columns, and statues are still standing is a testament to the intelligence of the Ancient Egyptians. The next morning we visited Karnack Temple, which was a larger version of the Luxor Temple. Walking through standing remnants of the compounds of these once holy structures really didn’t get old. There is so much more there than just rocks and stone. If you really think about how and when these structures were built and what they have meant to the original generation and subsequent generations in the past 4,000 years it is just mind boggling. Learning about the processes that the Egyptians used to mine these gigantic solid pieces of stone and how they maneuvered them all over the country using the Nile is fascinating. Not to mention, how they carved them and placed them where they needed to be. These temples are hundreds of feet tall. But, then again, I guess that is nothing compared to the pyramids.

That afternoon/evening we traveled back to Alexandria and said goodbye to our tour guides and hello to the ship. That night and the next day was my first experience with falafel and I am now obsessed. They did make me sick, but I won’t hold grudges. The last day, I visited the famous Bibliotech Alexandria, which is a very modern library in Alexandria on the site of the proposed oldest library in the world. We also enjoyed exploring a bit of the picturesque seaside city.

I would say, “Next, I am off to Turkey,” but I have already actually been and gone. I have become a blog slacker! Istanbul was amazing and I will write all about it ASAP. I will be back on U.S. soil in 3 weeks. Quite the mixed emotions now: excited cause I haven’t been home in 2 ½ months, but cannot believe I have to stop living these incredible experiences. As much as I miss home, I never want to stop traveling. Who is up for just heading over here and doing it with me? I wish!

Egypt Pics!

The first pyramid ever built (a step pyramid). At Sakkara.
Alex and I riding camels after sunrise at the pyramids.
Sitting on the biggest pyramid!
Really excited to be at the Giza Pyramids!! =)

Two of the pyramids and the Sphinx
The Luxor Temple at night.

On the Avenue of Sphinxes in Luxor.


the collumns at Karnack Temple. There originally was a roof rested upon them.
4,000 year old Heiroglyphics at the Karnack Temple.


A view of the Nile at Sunset.

Blog Post to Come!!!

India Pics!

Here is India!!
A Shanty town along a river in Chennai.
A typical streetcorner.
Sunrise opposite the Taj.

The Taj Mahal, up close and personal!

Kristi and I in front of the Taj. (looks unreal doesn't it!)
I took this on one of our long drives. This is not uncommon to see - a typical way to take people to and from work. (It is a big rig filled to the max with people, if you can't tell)
These are the bridge school kids! They are child laborers, hopefully not forever!

Me and some of the children from the village. The blue bottom and white top means that they attend government school.

This is in the dalit village. Outside a typical hut.
These are the women in the self helf group. The blue sari they are wearing is the RIDE uniform.

I can't believe I failed to mention in my post, my shock at how everyone wears saris. I thought that the modernization of India would bring more western clothes, but I saw maybe two people in jeans.
This is opposite the rice patties. Rural India is so gorgeous.

I couldn't resist putting this one up. This was in a nomad village we passed through. They had a litter of puppies. Pick which one is cuter.
This was a difficult picking and choosing process. More to come in December!
Miss you all!! Don't forget to email me if you would like: ninaburke@sbcglobal.net

India! Get comfortable!

So I have been putting off writing about India because it has seemed like a daunting task. I was pretty much in awe the whole time. I had so many different experiences in five days and felt so many different ways. There was a small emotional rollercoaster going on inside of me. There were times that I was in love with India and there were times when I just wanted to get the hell out. I saw a lot of ugly, but a lot of beautiful, and sometimes was lucky enough to find the beautiful in the ugly. I will also say that India is a humongous country and there is so much disparity. While I was spending time in Dalit villages I had friends who were staying in homes of the wealthiest people in Chennai. So this, as always, is simply my small impression of the vast country that is India!

I guess I will start off with our first day. My first two days in India I spent traveling with my friend Kristi, her roommate Steph, and our friend Steve. Most people took more extensive trips to Delhi, but we had other engagements on our third day and had to get back sooner so we traveled together. As soon as we got off the ship the first day we headed straight to the airport for our flight to Delhi. Before being able to leave the ship yard we had to go through a government check point. They looked you up and down and wrote your name and customs information down in a huge handwritten ledger. It just seemed unnecessary to have to do such a thing before entering and leaving every time. Anyway, we walked through the gate and haggled with some rickshaw drivers and piled into one to the airport. We were five minutes out and still arguing with the driver over the price. It was about a 40 minute ride to the airport and was quite an adventure. The expressways in India are as wide as six lines, but have no lane demarcations. There are big rigs, cars, rickshaws, and motorbikes all fighting to go the fastest and it just seems unreal. When you stop at a light, you can literally reach out and touch the people next to you. We survived, and had a relaxing 2.5 hour flight to Delhi. Our airline had personal televisions on the back of every seat, so I was content.

We got into Delhi at around 9 and had hired a driver to pick us up. This was probably the best decision we made regarding our trip. The Taj Mahal is about a 3 hour drive from Delhi so the driver was ours until the end of the next day when he would bring us back to Delhi. It was really nice not having to worry about train schedules and cabs because haggling gets really annoying. It ended up being about $40 for each of us for the driver, and a lot of saved trouble. We had our driver, Sukhbir, take us to eat and then headed out for Agra. Another reason I am glad we drove rather than took the train was because of the views. I feel like all my traveling time wasn’t wasted because I got to see so much of India from our window. That first nights drive was so interesting. We weren’t on the road for five minutes and we were dodging herds of cows walking through the street. This continued for the rest of the trip. As it got later, the nightlife died and not too many people were out, but I was able to see some really shocking things. I can’t tell you how many people I saw sleeping on the side of the freeway or streets with nothing more than a blanket covering and no possessions. The shop owners pull out for post woven rope beds in front of their shops to sleep and the rickshaw drivers sleep in their vehicles with their feet dangling over the edge. The thing that makes everything in India so interesting is how large their population is. So anything that you see, you never see one or two of, you see mass amounts.

So we didn’t really get much sleep that night, about 3 hours. We stayed within five minutes of the Taj Mahal so we could make it to sunrise in the morning. I couldn’t be happier that we did this. The Taj made our long trek soo worth it. The building is really spectacular and pictures just don’t do it justice. The sun rose at about a 45 degree angle to the Taj and it made the building glow! They say it changes colors every hour based on where the sun is positioned. We saw a few fellow SASers there which was fun. Also, we had an interesting photo shoot with an Indian man. He offered to take a picture of us and then began telling us how to pose and things. After the third shot I knew we were going to have to pay him. But, he knew where all the great places to take pictures were so it was nice. He wasn’t happy with my payment though, which really annoyed me because we never asked him to help us. But, often they will say things like that because you are white and they know you have money. Doing something for someone without being asked and then expecting money is popular in India, so you have to make sure to ignore them if you don’t want the favor.

After we saw the Taj, Sukhbir took us to some shops in Agra before heading back to Delhi. We went to a marble shop and watched them make engraved pieces in the style of the Taj which was really cool. Our drive was great again. It was cool to see what I had seen at night during the day. We came to learn really fast that honking is part of the way Indians drive. It is actually part of their driving laws that you should honk when you are passing, so napping wasn’t really gonna happen.

We got to Delhi that evening. I really had mixed feelings about Delhi. I wanted to explore the city and see the sights, but it really overwhelmed me. It is a huge city and is very fast paced and loud. There aren’t too many sidewalks. We were really tired anyway from so much traveling and had an early flight back in the morning so we retired early. Pretty much everyone that traveled to the North of India like we did agreed it was a lot of traveling. I am so glad that I saw the Taj. I really didn’t know if I would ever be back to India again and so I thought it would be worth it, and it was. At this point, I was not the biggest fan of India. It really scared me. It felt so ungraspable. It was also really dirty, they don’t have trash policies, so they just throw it anywhere. Parks are filled with trash, in fact, any open space is. Men pee anywhere and everywhere so the smell of stale urine is quite common. The poverty was so evident everywhere. In between every building there were huge shanty towns where peoples homes where made of random tarps, fabrics, and aluminum making a thatched hut look luxurious. We had learned so much about India’s rising economy and globalization and the flattening of the world and I didn’t see any of it. I never thought there could be such extremes in one place. One of my teachers has since referred to India as a developed country within a developing country, which I think is a much better way of presenting it. I know there is homelessness everywhere; I just couldn’t imagine driving a Mercedes Benz past shantytowns where children have no shoes. The proportion of people with money to homeless at home is so different to the situation in India because there are millions and millions and millions. The caste system in India is so alive. Though illegal, the labeling of these castes still occurs and hinders Indians’ ability to move up in the world. This idea, that fixing a problem runs deeper than charity, kinda leads me into the next portion of my trip. (in between here, I left Delhi, arrived back in Chennai and am now embarking on another trip, sponsored by SAS)

The trip that I signed up for through SAS was called “Child Labor in Rural India” and was sponsored by an NGO. We had to drive about 2 hours to the town of Kanchipuram, which was a wonderful scenic drive through rural India. During our visit with them we focused a lot on child labor, but that is only a small portion of the work that they do. The NGO is called RIDE (Rural Institute for Development Education.) Their main focus is empowerment and gender equality. They do a lot of work in the village communities focusing on encouraging women to work and not be dependent on men for money, explaining the value of savings, and teaching people the ins and outs of getting micro credit loans and helping them manage them. Their headquarters is not in a village, but in a very modest neighborhood. Their home and kitchen was on the bottom floor, their offices on the second, and their meeting room (which also served as our dining room) was on the third. We went here first and met with the director of the program, Jeyaraj. He started the program in 1984 and it has only grown since. He and his wife are both Catholic, but surprisingly none of their work has a missionary tone to it. They began to incorporate the child labor issue into their work in 1994. Now they have multiple bridge schools in these villages to encourage children to go to school and socialize them for government school. We visited one that afternoon.

The school is located right near the quarry villages. This is where the families that work in the stone quarries live. Children as young as 3 are working 200 feet down in these quarries, mining stone. The parents of these children do not understand the value of an education. They don’t understand what kind of jobs a child could get after attending school so they begin them working young to bring in money for the families. The teachers at the school have to round up the children from the village. Some days they can come and other days their responsibilities at home are too great and they cannot. This bridge school is working to get these children out of the quarries for good and trying to give them the skills they need to be able to attend government school. We were able to meet with a group of the children and interact with them. They performed for us a little and Jeyaraj engaged us in some questions and answers providing translation. He asked a few of them things like “do you like school?” “do you like working in the quarry?” The boy responded that working in the quarry was very hard work and he didn’t like it. They all said they loved school and to learn and to play. One said he only liked school to play. The children were absolutely adorable. I thought they were all aged about 5-7, until I was told they ranged from 8-10. I was shocked. Their malnourishment really had affected their height and facial features. They were still adorable though. Many of them were really talented artists and dancers and they loved to just run around. It was really fun to engage with them. It was crazy to think I was playing with little kids who had spent more hours of their life working than I had. And not only that, these kids spend their work day chipping away at stones for less than one dollar. It was hard not to feel badly, but their jovial spirits really helped. When you got them into a school environment with their friends they really acted like any normal children. It wasn’t hard to make one of them smile or laugh and it was really great just seeing what RIDE has done to help these children be children. We then got to walk through the quarry village and see the families and meet more children, many of which went to government school. In this village all of the homes were made of thatched roofs, most without four walls. Because these huts were single rooms, I believe there are separate huts for sleeping and cooking and cleaning. They actually have fire inside of the huts. The huts are pretty close together and a lot of families shared the land.

That night, we headed back to the headquarters and Jeyaraj’s wife had prepared us a really nice dinner. Indian hospitality is really one of a kind. This whole portion of my trip really made me love India and their hospitality and welcoming nature was a large part of why. Currently the have a German volunteer staying with them who is assisting them at the school, she told us that they really toned down the spice in their food for us, which I really appreciated. I was surprised that I liked most of it because I really do not like curry, but it actually isn’t in everything. That night, we stayed in a building they owned across the way which had a few stories of empty rooms and a few bathrooms. They had woven cots and pillows for all of us, which was a surprise for us. We didn’t know what to expect, we were thinking sleeping bags on the floor, so that was so nice.

The next morning was really hot!! After breakfast, we set off to visit a dalit village whose female members are part of RIDE’s self help groups. Dalit means that the members of this village are not part of the caste system, they are below the lowest caste, also known as “untouchables.” These are the most oppressed people in Indian society. We were in an extremely rural part of the town in the middle of all these beautiful green rice patties. This is where the majority of the village members work. The village people were very welcoming to us and first brought us to the center of their village in front of their temple. Their temple is a small one room shrine, but every village has something of this sort that they can pray too. Anyway, Jeyaraj explained to us that they as a village have received microcredit loans and as a village have bought cows and are selling the milk. I found this very interesting that they are doing this as a whole village. They were very proud of their ledgers and came around to show us their savings and loans ledgers. Jeyaraj had explained to us earlier that savings is a really crucial part to breaking the cycle of poverty. Many Indians, while still making very little money, make enough money to eat, live, and still save some. He explained though, that tradition and religion in India brings people to spend excessive amounts of money, all of their savings, on things like weddings or traveling to a certain area in India at a certain time of year to pray to a certain god. The village members then invited us into their homes so that we could see the way that they lived. Most of their huts had four clay walls and rooms, but had thatched roofs. Have no doubt, they all had cable television though!! The cables run really low, you have duck under them when walking up to a house and they have televisions in their common room, but nothing else! Each hut had running water so there was a washing area behind the hut. One of the houses I went in to I got to see a three day old baby in her mother’s arms!! It was so cute, but very sad to know that they do not name or photograph the child until it reaches one month old. Most of the children in this village were at school, so it was just the older family members around, but they were so very nice even though we could not communicate at all. Before we left, they gave all of us bindis (for our foreheads) and flowers for our hair. They really wanted to show us where they worked so they walked us through the rice patties outside the village. This was quite an experience. There is less than a foot of grass walking space between each patty, yes, I slipped once. It is just gorgeous out there cause everything is so green.

On our way back to the headquarters we stopped by another village that also was participated in their self help groups. I forgot to mention that RIDE has reached over 70,000 people with their self-help groups. They put these together in villages and this is where they discuss things like loans, savings, empowerment and self respect. This village was a caste village and they were in the business of silk making. The clay houses each had a silk loom in their common area which takes up the whole space. They are humongous. It takes 15-30 days to make one sari, depending on how fast you are working. It is a really slow process, we went to a silk factory later and watched first hand.

Before heading back to the ship we sat down with Jeyaraj and the senior members of RIDE once more to ask questions which was really cool. They have a very powerful message of self-respect that is really easy to appreciate no matter where you are from. Many of the women who now work for RIDE began as members of the self-help group and now want to give back. Many of them have children in college who are on their way to being very successful. Jeyaraj was very proud of one of their daughters who just became a police officer. This meant a lot to him because another thing (there are so many) that they work for is honest politics and policing.

So that trip was fantastic and really allowed me to see a completely different side of India than I did in the first day. While I saw a lot of tough things, meeting child laborers and oppressed members of society, I also saw a lot of great things. The people in the dalit village were so proud of their accomplishments. They are now awaiting a 100,000 rupees loan to buy even more cows and open a fruit stand. I saw laughing and dancing children. I saw a three day old newborn! Not to mention that rural India is really lush and beautiful!

We headed aback to the ship that night and I spent my last day in Chennai. (Almost done reading guys!!) That morning, my girlfriends and I all reconvened from our various Indian adventures and decided to visit the Missionaries of Charity Orphanage not far from the ship. They have morning visiting hours and SAS had offered trips there, but we had all been off traveling. I am really happy we visited. It looked exactly like you would expect a Mother Teresa’s orphanage to look like, like literally straight out of some video I watched in high school. It was really shocking at first because all of the children are either mentally or physically disabled, but once you found a child to connect with it was comfortable. They ones who are so physically disabled that they cannot walk or sit, they have laying on mats or bean bags. I sat down next to one, learned his name, and just started talking to him. I found the easiest way to communicate with them was to just touch them. Their faces lit up when you rubbed their arms or head. Sanjay was really ticklish and his mouth would open so wide when you tickled him. He couldn’t pull his head down to look at you, but he got excited if you made it into his line of sight. The sisters there are amazing, they really treat these children as if they were their own. (again, literally watching that movie from high school.) They held them, fed them, changed them, everything with such ease. It is really inspiring to watch someone have no judgment and treat someone so respectfully. I played with many other children too, but really now, I’ve been talking forever.

At noon, I headed back to the ship to meet up with a trip I was going on for my international media class. We visited this Indian film laboratory which was really cool. They produce Bollywood-esque films. (Bollywood films are from Mumbai and are in the language Hindi; In Chennai their films are in the language Tamil – but they are the same type of films if you have ever seen one.) We got to watch a ton of clips from various movies which was really the best part of the trip. Their films are really a kick. The dancing, singing, drama, costumes and decoration are just so out there and like nothing you would see in America. We got to walk through the areas where they actually print the film reels and then the mixing and editing studios. Interestingly, all movies in India are dubbed. No dancer/actress is actually singing and often they even have a different person speaking than acting. So their lip synchronization can be quite bad sometimes. That was a really cool visit!

So, India. Wow! That was long! I hope my impressions were not too drawn out. Again, though, I do wanna stress that I was only there for five days and I really saw practically nothing of India on the grand scheme of things. My experiences were very emotionally charged but so different than many of my fellow students. There is just so much disparity throughout Indian society is hard to grasp it all. A lot of the stuff I saw and felt is really hard to put into words, but I attempt. I have sooo many pictures from India it is going to be really hard to decide which ones to put up, I would love to share them all with you when I get home.

While in India I hit the halfway mark. Looking forward to hitting U.S. soil, but still got a lot more experiencing to go.

P.S. another addendum to this hideously long post –

I saw a volcano erupt today! We were passing by an island in the Red Sea that recently erupted. It was still smoking and my handy dandy binoculars allowed me to see red lava spewing out of the top as well as the damage from the big spill! Very exciting!

Thailand Pics!!

The Standing Buddha in Bangkok



The following three: at the Grand Palace in Bangkok



















Ko Samet: the evening fire show












Ko Samet: a view of the beach from the water.



















This is an example of the took-tooks that are all over the city! This was one we rode our last day in Bangkok!






Out to dinner our last night in Bangkok!

My Thai! - Thailand!

I had a really awesome time in Thailand but it definitely lacked the cultural immersion that my other visits have had. I spent the first and last days of my trip in Bangkok which is a beautiful city that is soo westernized. This was the most western city we have visited and probably will the whole trip. Japan was modernized, but still “Japanese.” Bangkok’s architecture and city plan modeled a very American style. The middle day of my trip was spend on the island of Ko Samet which is a small piece of paradise! This really broke up the visit to the big city.

Thursday, we ported in Thailand at Laem Chabang. This port is unfortunately about 2 hours away from Bangkok. As soon as we could get off the ship Jess and I were on a SAS sponsored bus to Bangkok for independent travel. Immigration took quite a long time so we made it to Bangkok barely before dinnertime. We ate a great first meal with some friends from the ship who took off for other adventures soon thereafter. We headed to our hostel in the Sukhumvit district of Bangkok. After settling in we strolled the neighborhood for a while. At night, the sidewalks are turned into markets and merchants sell shirts, trinkets, DVDs, etc. on either side of the walk. The city streets stay busy pretty late in Bangkok and there is always traffic on the roads. We enjoyed taking in the city but called it an early night.

The next morning our full day mission was seeing as much of the “can’t miss” sights of Bangkok as possible. Our transportation of choice for the day: a took-took! These are three wheeled motor vehicles with a motor bike apparatus on the front and a covered bench in the back. They are a really fun way of seeing the city. We visited the Dusit Zoo and saw so many animals. This was a really cool zoo to visit because the way they present the animals is very up close and personal. The only caged animals we saw were tigers and some monkeys. The rest of the animals are separated by shrubs from you so you have a really clear view of them. We saw beautiful bears, tigers, leopards, giraffes, and the infamous albino barking deer. We also got to get really close to the elephants. I really wanted to ride one on this trip and am really upset that I never got the chance to. As we exited the zoo we found a took-took driver who offered to drive us to multiple sights for a fixed price. He first took us to the Marble Temple which is a Buddhist temple made completely of white marble. It was beautiful and it was so cool to see monks walking around everywhere. Next, he took us to the standing Buddha. This Buddha, which Thai’s come to pray to, probably stood 100 feet. (Buddhism is practiced by 95% of Thais) A very common theme in the Thai religious architecture is the gold mosaic tile, they don’t underdecorate! Next, we visited the Grand Palace and Temple of the Emerald Buddha. This was an amazing sight. So many elaborately decorated buildings in such close proximity, I was so impressed. No inch of wall was not tiled with gold or brightly colored glass. Each building or chapel of the Grand Palace has a different story behind it (from different Kings) and a little different architecture.

Speaking of religion and the King, two interesting portions of Thai culture nestled into this city which could be mistaken for Los Angeles or Chicago are the monarchy and Buddhism. The King and Queen could not be any more respected in Thailand. While the monarchy holds very little power (the military has the real control as of late 06), the Thais hold the King and Queen in very high esteem. Celebrating his 60 years in power, there are humongous portraits of the King and Queen all over the city. Every corner, media, or turnabout you see the King’s face or a picture of him doing a good deed. The last day we were in Bangkok 75% of the population was wearing yellow, mostly “we love the king” yellow polos. They wear this color to support the crown. As far as Buddhism, the Thai’s pray anywhere! There are shrines outside of almost every building. Outside of every mall, high rise office building or small convenient store there are shrines where people lay flowers, light candles and incense, and pray to Buddha. This definitely sets apart the highways and couture malls of Bangkok apart from American big cities. They really make praying as convenient as possible for the modern Buddhist.

Back to my big day in Bangkok, Jess and I spent our last few hours exploring an area of the city and found dinner before hopping on an 8 p.m. bus heading back to the ship. We were heading back to the ship to meet up with two other girlfriends, Liz and Alex, to visit the island of Ko Samet the next morning. I signed up with this one night trip to Ko Samet through SAS during the summer and the girls tagged along and stayed at a hotel not far from mine. While it had been cloudy and muggy our first two days in Bangkok, on our drive down to the coast the skies parted. We had to take a boat ride from the mainland to the island. Ko Samet was amazing. Our large speedboat pulled right up to the main beach and we walked off right onto the sand and straight to our hotel. The beach is less than a mile and is lined with lounge chairs, umbrellas, and restaurants right along the water. Right behind are the bungalow resorts. There is no two story building on this island. The sand is white and the water clear. The island is lush and green. We spent the day relaxing and took quite a wild ride on a banana boat! =) I think our boat driver got quite a kick out of watching us fly off. There was a small village of people that I walked through while walking the back way to my bungalow. I can’t imagine living on this paradise island less than 2 miles long. That evening we went to dinner right on the beach, we would have sat on the sand except it started sprinkling right when we got there so we chose to sat under the awning which was a good decision because ten minutes later it was pouring! So we spent our night at this open-air restaurant and their adjacent bar. We had a great night hanging out with vacationing Thais and meeting travelers from all over the world. I think everyone on the island was hanging out at this one place! They even had a fire show at the restaurant. There was an all-Thai cover band that performed ALL modern American songs. They had a lead female singer and two lead male singers and backup instruments, it was a kick! I do have to share my two minutes of fame moment. At one point, I was dancing with some friends towards the stage and was singing along to the song being performed. The lead female singer saw I knew the words and pointed the microphone my way to chip in on the lyrics. The next time the verse came around, she grabbed me, pulled me on stage, handed me the microphone and stepped back. I was belting this American song in a bar in Thailand; it was too funny! The song was “Ghetto Superstar,” popular in the U.S. when I was in about fourth grade.

The next morning, we woke up early and headed off the island earlier than the rest of my SAS trip. We had a speedboat pick us up right on the beach, take us to the mainland and had a van taxi waiting on the dock to drive us the 3 hours to Bangkok. We were able to do this all for under $20. Gotta love Thailand! We arrived in Bangkok by the early afternoon and went straight to our hotel. We booked a room at the hotel where a large SAS trip to Bangkok would be staying. When we got there they informed us they had no rooms available to accommodate so they were going to have to put us in the Duplex Suite for no extra charge. We were blown away when we walked into our room. We had two floors, two living rooms, two queen size beds and a roll away, three full bathrooms with showers, a walk in closet and flat screen television. We were in awe and thought about meeting the ship in India just to spend more days in our suite. (Just kidding!) That afternoon we took the skytrain (their monorail-like public transport system) to the Chatuchak Market which is a huge, popular weekend market. We could see it from above on the skytrain while approaching. This was the largest market I have ever seen. It looked like it went on forever. It was interesting. It was a mix of vendors selling food, cheap t-shirts and trinkets, and small expensive boutiques tucked in the corners. We enjoyed a nice dinner and night out with some fellow SASers.

We spent our last day doing some more exploring around Bangkok. One especially notable find was the deep sea aquarium on the basement level of the Siam Paragon Mall. This mall is maybe seven stories and the bottom level has an aquarium and deep sea diving and glass bottom boat trips all from the bottom of the mall!! We had took-tooks take us around the city again and I think we stumbled upon a bit more crazy of the crew. The drivers sped around pretty fast which was unnerving, but I supposed they know the city better than I do.

Thailand was quite an experience and seeing the cultural imperialism prevalent was really interesting. There are a lot more interesting places that I would love to visit in Thailand. There are more beaches and untouched rainforests and many more natural beauties. I just wish I had had more time. I do look forward to visiting India and seeing their culture in the midst of their westernizing society. I am heading to the Taj Mahal in the first two days and the third I will be heading to a village in rural India to learn about child labor and recovering families that are a part of micro credit lending program.

Thanks for reading again!

Vietnam Pics...finally!

At the Reunification Palace, blocking the beautiful fountain behind me, how convenient. =)A man canoeing through a rice patty.
This is during the service at the Cao Dai Temple. Females on the left and males on the right. The deco was quite interesting.

This is on the Mekong Delta, a pretty average house boat. The very long bow of the boat is used for moving dirt, and this back area is a home. It is hard to see inside, but it was obvious that cooking and cleaning was done here, notice the clothes drying on the side.


This is going down the river in our sampan boat, an amazing experience. Jess took this of me, Liz and Alex. This is our fish lunch. Its eyes and teeth were positioned right at me. It watched me while we ate right off his bones. =)


This is me and Coung in his outdoor museum of pictures and artifacts.

Here is the dress!!!!!! I couldn't be happier!