Malaysia & Singapore

Malaysia is a country that I had never dreamt of visiting before this trip, but I’m glad I did. Our port city, Penang, is an island and if you look for it on a map you might find George Town which is on the mainland. The first day I did an island orientation trip with SAS in which we visited a Buddhist pagoda, a snake temple and a botanical garden that featured free range monkeys. For dinner I went to a fish market that was also a large restaurant. They had tanks full of Australian lobsters and huge emperor crabs that where white and their bodies where the size of a football. Not to mention a vast array of other fish and other edible aquatic life including Canadian geoduck (it’s weird, look it up). I got a Malaysian dish but played it safe with the grilled honey chicken, which was pretty delicious. The next morning I was off to Singapore, a sovereign island nation state that is southeast of Malaysia. Singapore is known as a “fine” city as in there are a lot of fines for things like spitting out chewing gum, littering, jay walking and you can even be put to death for drug possession. In addition to fines and standard prison sentences they still practice caning where you are systematically beaten across the back with a cane that has been soaked in antiseptic fluid. There is always a doctor and nurse present during the procedure and if they feel that the person can’t take anymore they will stop and let you heal. However they may extend your prison sentence in order to dispense the proper amount of strokes as determined by the judge at sentencing with a maximum of 24. While this seems draconian, it actually works. I felt very safe in Singapore; there is almost no violent crime and less than 0.4% unemployment. Singapore is a very modern and very western. Everyone spoke English very well. Singapore is a highly developed business hub and has a bustling financial district. Singapore even has its own air force, although don’t have a base in Singapore they have one in Australia and they even send their pilots to Texas and New Mexico were they have training facilities. One of my favorite parts of Singapore was Clarke Quay [Key]. Similar to the riverwalk in San Antonio there are a lot of good restaurants and nightlife on this part of the Singapore River. One of the places was called the Clinic were people sat in wheelchairs and drank their “medicine” from hanging IV bags. This might sound strange but I think that its fair to say that Singapore feels like the future.

I’m not sure that anyone can fully describe India with words, or even get more than a glimpse in a five day visit. India very different from the US, on the roads there are truly no rules except “Blow Horn” and “Use Dippers at Night” the dippers refer to the stalk used to flash your brights. These two rules are painted on the back of nearly every truck in an attempt to maintain a certain level of order slightly above chaos. Believe it or not cows are king of the roads in India then trucks, buses, SUVs, cars, auto rickshaws, and finally people. For those unfamiliar cows are a very holy animal and many Hindus would be honored to be reincarnated into one, even stepping in cow crap is considered good luck. Also don’t drink the water in India, not even the locals drink straight from the tap in a lot of places. People do however drink from the Ganges River were they also bathe, use the toilet, brush their teeth and dump ashes of those cremated on the riverbanks. Although they won’t burn children, lepers, or pregnant women they do put them in the river as an honorable burial. It was hard for me to believe until I saw it with my own eyes. The Ganges is in Varanasi, the world’s oldest constantly inhabited city. We also saw the Taj Majal and the Red Fort in Agra that is also the handicraft capital of India. According to our tour guide the Taj cost $60 million USD over 350 years ago. It was really impressive, and pictures do not do it any justice. I spent the first four days traveling and seeing the sights that I just mentioned, but on the last day I did a service visit to a disabled children’s home. This facility is home to over 100 children aged five and up. They aim to educate the children, and train life skills as well as vocational skills if possible. Although they only used to care for children who suffered from polio, cases are very rare today in India. Now they deal with cerebral palsy, mental retardation and various physical handicaps. One of the children affected by CP who is now actually thirty now was found in the garbage, some lady saw his toes wiggling and brought him in. Today he uses those same toes to paint, use a computer, and even a cell phone. He is actually a talented artist and I brought several of this postcards and one of his prints. While at the children’s home we got a brief tour and spent the morning cleaning and doing small projects around the grounds. After eating lunch (off of banana leaves and with our hands) we spent the rest of the afternoon playing with the children. They absolutely loved to have their picture taken and then see themselves on the screen, and especially liked taking pictures on their own. We played board games, and socialized with the kids over ten. The younger kids just ran around and climbed on me, they really liked it when I picked them up to spin around and circles. They probably don’t get a lot of human touch, especially from foreigners. Although they never seemed to get tired of it, it sure wore me out. Overall I’m glad we went to India, but I’m also happy that it’s all over. Nobody had classes the day after India, so that people could just process everything and rest.

Mauritius

Mauritius was interesting, it is most known for being the land of the dodo. Mauritians definitely haven’t forgotten this fact, practically every souvenir t-shirt and knickknack within sight serves as a reminder of this peculiar bird/icon. The main island is about the size of a Texas county and is technically part of the African continent, but is primarily influenced by French and Hindu culture. English is one of the national languages, but the newspapers are in French and English seemed to be everyone’s second or third language. Mauritius is a popular vacation spot for Europeans, there are direct flights from Paris and it seems to be similar to a Hawaii for them. While in Mauritius we hiked Tamarand (hope that’s how it’s spelled) falls which is a series of seven waterfalls. We jumped in two of the pools to cool off and had a picnic at the bottom. We also went deep sea fishing the second day, and Mauritius is known for marlins and we just happened to be there for marlin season. We decided on a half day (6hrs) fishing trip, but we didn’t catch anything. We did have about 10 seconds of action though when we finally got a bite, but it was short lived and the fish was gone before we knew it. The guide told us it was a wahoo, I guess he could tell by the type of bait that it went for, but who knows. After a frustrating day we spent the afternoon relaxing on the beach with the gentle Mauritian tide. The last day we went horseback riding on the southern part of the island at the bottom of some foothills. The horses we rode were well cared for retired race horses from South Africa, that now live at a destination horsey retirement home of sorts. Overall Mauritius was fun, and I think it will prepare us ever so slightly for the Indian culture shock, but word is that Semester At Sea will most likely be going to Mozambique next time they come around South Africa.

South Africa

I loved South Africa. Cape Town is an amazing city with so much to offer. I spent two days there and didn’t even get to half of the things I wanted to see. The majority of my time in South Africa was spent on safari, we went to a private game reserve called Kapama and stayed at the River Lodge that was built only two years ago. The food, the people, the scenery, the accommodations were all top notch. To get there we took a plane to Johannesburg and then got on a historic DC-4 built in 1947 that brought us to Hoedspruit which is about 10 minutes by Land Rover to the lodge. Flying on the DC-4 was unforgettable. The pilot said that we’re welcome to use our cell phones during the flight, because there was no electronic instrumentation to interfere with. He also told us that it was normal for the old engines to leak oil, but if they stopped leaking oil then we should let him know. On our safari we saw four out of the big five, missing the leopard, as well as many other exotics. We got up each morning with a five a.m. wakeup call, tea was at five-thirty and we left at six for our morning game drive. During the morning drive we would stop for tea after a few hours and then be back around nine for breakfast. We had free time to nap or sit by the pool during the day and lunch around one. After that there was another tea time at four-thirty before our evening drive. During the evening drive we had a cocktail break around sunset and were back for dinner at eight. Upon reflection I think I could really get used to the vicious routine of eating opportunities. I know, I know you want to hear about the animals. We saw lions, cheetahs, elephants, rhino, buffalo, zebra, giraffe, kudu, impala, warthogs, springbuck, vultures, and many others. Lions were by far the most exciting to see, it was awesome seeing all their powerful features and confident gaze. We eventually returned to Cape Town were I went to the company gardens, as in the Dutch East India Company, in the older part of the city. It was really cool seeing all of the old world architecture in the middle of Africa. It's going to be really tough for another country to beat South Africa, but I'm excited to see what happens.

Brazil

Another great port. With the Bahamas and Puerto Rico in the rear view, Brazil felt like a real foreign country. The first day we got off the ship in Salvador and went straight to the airport to see if we could catch a plane to Rio de Jinero, on the last day of carnival, one of the busiest travel days in Brazil. We where lucky enough to get on a plane, and in just a few hours we arrived in Rio. Will had made reservations at the Copacabana Palace on none other than Copacabana Beach which is right next to Ipanema, which you may know from the Bossa Nova song “The Girl from Ipanema”. The hotel was first class all the way. We had people opening doors for us left and right, greeting us in Portuguese and playing along when we would try and speak it back to them. Thankfully they knew English as well. Included with our stay was one of the best breakfast buffets that I had ever seen, half of it was fruit another half was pastries and the rest was bacon, eggs, meats, cereals, and yogurts (I know my figures don’t add up, the buffet was that big). There was also a selection of about 7 different fruit and melon juices to choose from. On as side note: let it be known that henceforth my favorite fruit shall be mango or as they say in Brazil “manga”. We where there during mango season and I ate and drank mangos whenever I could, there was a restaurant that had mango juice that was more like a smoothie, but it was 100% mango and 100% delicious. The most impressive site I visited was the Christ the Redeemer statue. Located on Corcavado Mountain overlooking the entire city, it’s really an amazing site. Although it was kind of cloudy, we could see all of Rio for a couple of seconds as the clouds blew by. It also gave a mystic feeling to the statue being shrouded in white one minute and then clearly visible the next. Another highlight was going to a pro soccer game in the largest stadium in the world. We watched Flamengo versus V. Redonda, it was really great, although there where no yell leaders in sight, all of the Flamego (home team) fans where beating drums clapping and singing the entire game. The most impressive thing was the 30 foot bamboo flagpoles that littered the fan sections; some looked like pirate flags while others had portraits of their favorite players. These diehard fans wrestled their giant flagpoles, incorporating their entire bodies, for what seemed like the most tiring activity I could imagine. The last day Wes and I went to the embassy where we got the VIP treatment simply for being passport carrying Americans. Although, we couldn’t see a lot of the internal workings because of the strict security rules, it was great to see our tax dollars at work. Yesterday before we left I had a chance to see Salvador, it was the original capital city of Brazil so it has a lot of history and neat architecture. I one of the coolest parts was going to a capoeria school. For those of you that forgot capoeria is a fighting style developed by the slaves in Brazil in order to fight against their oppressors while still bound by their shackles. It is very rhythmic and uses a lot of kicking, twirling and handstand maneuvers. By now I’m sure you are growing tired of my rambling, and there is so much more to tell. But know that I am well, and excited about the adventures yet to come.

By now we are half way to Brazil. Puerto Rico was a blast, I tried some strange food, explored Old San Juan and put good use to the little spanish that I learned in highschool. For the first time I felt like suffering through spanish classes for three years was worth it. The first night I saw the "biolumenecent bay" where a large population of microrganisms that emit light live in the still waters, but the human eye can detect them when its very dark and they are stimulated by movement. Basicly it was a normal kyak trip until we got to the bay, and whenever the water was stirred up it would shimmer, like pixie dust... I know you're probably thinking "Riiight, Porter must have had some really good Puerto Rican rum", well I did but that was a different night altogether. So the "bio bay" was really neat, its a natural phenomena that cannot be capured by normal photography. And Puerto Rico has something like 3 of the 5 birghtest occourences in the world. As for the rum, I did have a great DonQ mojito with my even more delicious dinner of a mahi-mahi cerviche with a creamy rizotto and some asparagus the next night. On our last day I did a canopy tour where we took ziplines through the mango and palm treetops. Lots of fun and the scenery was even more beautiful (BTW I'm not going into anything reguarding the 70/30 ratio of girls to guys on the boat, but its really not too bad)

And We're Off

Today is my first day at sea, I woke up around 6:30 and went to the deck to see the sea sun and sky in all their glory. I'm still trying to find my sea legs, but I havent needed to take any nausea medicine so far, which is encouraging.

The Bahamas where great. We stayed at the Atlantis for several days leading up to my departure. I had the most fun meeting SaS kids at the water park on Tuesday. That night my parents took me to Graycliff, which is the only 5-star resturant in the Bahamas, amazing. The resturant is a house originally owned by a wealthy pirate, then proceded to change hands from british royalty and even was a US Naval post during the Cival War. When we arrived the host informed me that although they didn't allow shorts they had some pants on hand for me to change into, and I'm glad I did. Before dinner they sat us in parlor to look over the menu and decide on our meal while enjoying conversation and live piano. I had a nice juicy USDA Prime steak with delicious ceasar salad, I could definately taste the ancovie flavor in the dressing. Afterwards we returned to the parlor for some more drinks and a fresh hand rolled cigar from a Cuban gentleman that had been making cigars for 20 years. It was undoubtedly the best cigar I have ever smoked. We also met some great people over the course of the evening and included them in our after dinner festivities. One family who was also sending their son on the trip and a pair of ladies who where vactationing in the Bahamas.