Vietnam

It's pretty crazy how fast things can change! Only a generation ago,
Vietnam was NOT a place you would want to go to. Now, it's quite the
tourist destination! I had a great time here, but it was also
interesting to observe lasting effects of the war.

DAY ONE

Today was my day for Ho Chi Minh City! SAS had a free shuttle from
the ship into downtown, and I was a bit surprised by how nice the area
was! We were dropped off at a very fancy hotel, which was surrounded
by designer shops such as Gucci and Prada. Today I was just going to
explore the city with my friends Brynn and Meg. Since we were quite
tired (we always get very early starts on the first day!) we made our
first stop a coffee shop. We went to Ciao Cafe, which was pretty
close to the Rex Hotel. It was a very cute coffee shop, with
delicious lattes and ice cream. I even got an ice cream in the shape
of a snowman! After coffee we just walked around the area we were
in. We all had bought fabric in Ghana which we wanted to get made
into dresses, but every tailor we went to was a little more expensive
than we wanted. We finally asked a hotel's reception desk where we
should go, and they directed us to Ho Chi Minh City's backpacker
district. It was within walking district, and we had a very pleasant
walk through a park on our way. The backpacker district was a
slightly more crowded area, and we instantly found cheaper shops!
After we found a tailor for our dress, we were ready for more food, so
we got Vietnamese food at a very cute little restaurant.

After lunch, we walked around the backpacker district and went into a
few shops. We went to a spa and treated ourselves to $3 manicures! I
wish manicures were that cheap in the states. We made our way to the
Ben Thanh Market, which was a huge indoors market that was full of
different vendors, from food to knock-offs to Vietnamese souvenirs.
This place was very crowded and bustling! We spent awhile exploring
the market. We got pho, a traditional Vietnamese meal for dinner. It
was very tasty! It's a noodle dish that is cooked in a broth, and you
also get additional veggies and spices which you can add yourself to
customize your pho dish. After dinner, we headed back to our coffee
shop from the morning to use its wifi. It's always nice to get some
Internet time in. We found out that Facebook is blocked in Vietnam,
but there are ways to get around the blocks to access the site, which
was an interesting discovery!

DAY TWO

I woke up very early to catch my flight to Hanoi, Vietnam's capital.
This was the first day on my trip to Hanoi and Ha Long Bay with the
company Global Citizens. Once we were in Hanoi and checked into our
hotel, we were ready for lunch. I went with my friends Kellie, Allie
and Lukas to walk around and find a good place to eat. Our hotel was
located in Hanoi's French Quarter. Hanoi was pretty different from Ho
Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh City felt more modern and cosmopolitan,
while Hanoi felt more crowded and busy. We found a very nice place
for lunch, and had some interesting times with the language barrier!
At one point Kellie tried asking for salt for her fries, and they
brought her an empty salt-rimmed glass. The language barrier
consistently keeps things entertaining! We spent the rest of the
afternoon shopping and stopping for some more food. We met up with
other people from our tour for dinner, and we went to the CIty View
Restaurant. The restaurant did have a good view of Hanoi, and the
food was good, but unfortunately the language barrier caused some
problems here. The wait staff did not seem too pleased with us for
some reason. After dinner everyone hung out at the hotel for the rest
of the evening.

DAY THREE

We woke up early to eat breakfast at our hotel before our four-hour
drive to Ha Long Bay. Once we got to Ha Long Bay, we boarded our
junkboat. The junkboat was very cute! Ha Long Bay was very
gorgeous. It is one of "The New Seven Natural Wonders of the World".
I'm not exactly sure who comes up with these lists, but the Amazon and
Table Mountain are also on that list, so now I've been to three
natural wonders! We spent the rest of the day cruising through the
bay. We stopped at a very big natural cave and walked through it. We
also went kayaking for about an hour, which was my favorite part of
the trip. Right before dinner, we hiked up the highest point of Ha
Long Bay, which provided gorgeous views of the bay. It's pretty
funny, Ha Long Bay has lots of "floating markets", where people have
little boats that they sail around and sell stuff on. They even came
up to our bedroom window on the junkboat! While we were there it was
pretty foggy, which gave the area a very mystical feeling. That
evening there was karaoke on the ship, which was pretty entertaining!

DAY FOUR

We spent the morning cruising through the bay again. Lunch was our
last meal on the junkboat, then it was time to head back to Hanoi. We
had enough free time in Hanoi before our flight to do some more
shopping and grab dinner. After that it was time to go back to Ho Chi
Minh City! I'm glad I did the Global Citizens trip, Ha Long Bay was
probably my favorite part of Vietnam. It was unlike anything I've
ever seen, and so beautiful.

DAY FIVE

Today I was on a SAS trip for the whole day. The first part of the
trip was to the Cao Dai Temple. The Cao Dai religion is a new one,
founded in the 1920s. The temple was built in the 1930s. The
religion blends many elements of different religions, especially
Buddhism and Confucianism. The temple was very beautiful and
elaborately decorated. We got to witness part of a service, which was
very interesting even though I couldn't understand a single word! It
was interesting to see such a unique religion, and I loved all the art
in the temple.

After lunch we went to the Cu Chi Tunnels. These tunnels were used by
the Vietnamese guerilla forces in the Vietnam War. On our way there
we saw a short propaganda video on the bus. This video had a very
anti-American slant, and it was very strange to hear about the war
from that perspective! The video highlighted child guerrilla soldiers
who had killed over a hundred American soldiers. I hadn't realized
that the guerillas were not just made up of soldiers, but also the
local women and children. We visited different points of the
tunnels. We saw an entrance point that was so tiny - I can't imagine
how people fit in there! We saw some of the traps that were used by
the guerillas and this was again strange as they had illustrations of
Americans falling into the traps. We got to walk through a section of
the tunnels, which was very small. It's lucky I don't get
claustrophobic! I'm glad I went to the tunnels, because I learned
more about the war and I think that it's important to see history from
a different side. It really showed that where you live determines how
you learn history. However, it did stir up a lot of mixed emotions in
me. For me, it really strengthened my feeling that war is truly one
of the most horrific things imaginable and I have a hard time seeing
how it is justified.

A Day in Singapore

Singapore is a fantastic place! I wasn't quite sure what to expect
here, but I really enjoyed the city and I want to come back. I wish
we could have spent a night here!

As soon as we got off the ship, we knew Singapore was going to be very
different from all of our other ports. The cruise terminal dock in
Singapore looks like a very nice airport terminal! There were TVs,
moving walkways and Starbucks was one of the first stores we saw.
Very different from our port in India! Surprisingly, I was able to
resist Starbucks. I went with my friends Brynn, Meg and Sara to just
walk around and explore Singapore. Our first stop was Chinatown.
Singapore's Chinatown was pretty similar to the Chinatown in New York
City. We found a local coffee shop here that was much cheaper than
Starbucks, and had a mini coffee museum in the back. It was really
cute! It was pretty funny, we actually didn't do anything related to
China in Chinatown. We saw a very elaborately decorated Hindu temple
and for lunch we went to an Indian restaurant! It was a very cool
place, because it was an all-you-can-eat buffet run by volunteers, and
at the end you simply paid whatever you wanted to. It was very
delicious, we enjoyed one last taste of India!

After lunch, we decided to head to the colonial district. Here the
buildings were a bit bigger and more modern than in Chinatown, I think
this was more of a business district. We went to the Singapore Art
Museum, and it was only $5 to go with a student ID. The museum had a
lot of modern and contemporary art by Asian artists, and it was very
cool! We also talked to some workers for awhile, and they were very
impressed by the SAS program. One of the coolest exhibits was a
tunnel with pages from books taped everywhere, that lead into a little
room with a writer's desk and all his notes and books. I was very
impressed with all the different art here and how nice all the workers
were. After the art museum, we went to the famous Raffles Hotel.
Raffles was the British man who founded Singapore, and the hotel
considered one of Singapore's most famous landmarks. Its bar is
famous for having all sorts of famous people come drink Singapore
Slings here over the years. It was a very pretty and fancy hotel. We
wandered around for awhile, but unfortunately Singapore Slings cost
$30 here - so no imitating famous people in the lobby!

Brynn had a friend living in Singapore now, and we were going to meet
her for dinner at a restaurant on Arab Street. We decided to head to
Arab Street a little early and have a nice snack before dinner. We
got on a bus that we thought went directly to Arab Street.
Unfortunately, the bus did not go to Arab Street at all! We got off
when we figured this out, but it worked out because we found a very
yummy snack place right where the bus dropped us off. We got pastries
and boba tea, and it was delicious! After our snack, we then took the
metro to Arab Street. When we got off the subway we heard a loud
crack of thunder and then it was a torrential downpour! We ran from
the subway through the pouring rain to the restaurant, which luckily
was pretty easy to find. We found Brynn's friend and had a really
yummy dinner! After dinner Meg and I did quick souvenir shopping and
then we all went out for gelato. After gelato, it was time to get
back to the boat. This was a shame, because Arab Street was really
starting to come alive! I think it would be a great place to go at
night, because there were many restaurants with everyone out on the
patios. I wanted to stay so badly!

We only had an hour to get back to the ship, spend our remaining
Singaporean dollars, and go through immigrations again! The terminal
was full of SAS students running around, trying to make it back to the
ship. For the second time, I clocked in right at on-ship time! I
didn't get any dock time good, so that's good. I'm simply maximizing
my time in port!

Elephants, Yoga and More in India

India! Our port was Cochin, India, located in the southern state of
Kerala. Even though we were so far south, 75% of the ship went north
all the way to the Taj Mahal. However, I stayed in Kerala, and I have
absolutely no regrets about this! I had a wonderful time, and I saved
a lot of travel time - the people who went to the Taj had to go on a
day's worth of travel time there and back!

DAY ONE

Today was our arrival in India! We were all very excited to get off
the boat and experience the country as soon as we pulled into port.
My roommate and I both had SAS trips around 2 so we decided to just go
out and try to do some shopping and get lunch. However, we had been
warned about delays in India, and we experienced our first Indian
delay before we even got off the ship! We started the immigrations
process at 8, and customs didn't clear us until 11:30! By that point,
we decided that we should just get, so our friend Meg joined us for
lunch. We found a taxi and told him to take us to a good lunch spot.
He took us to a place called The Tourist Net Cafe. It wasn't exactly
what we'd had in mind, but we didn't have time to look around too
much. The food here was surprisingly good: I had fish masala and
coconut rice, and it was absolutely delicious. Good start to Indian
food! Lunch took awhile, so we had to head right back to the ship so
Brynn and I could make our trips.

That afternoon I had an FDP for my art history class to see some
buildings showing influence of Western architecture and to go to a
spice market. We started by going to the Mattancherry Palace. This
was a palace that was built by the Portuguese, renovated by the Dutch,
and is now home to a museum. The highlight of this museum was a
series of remarkably well-kept Hindu murals. They were all
beautifully done, and fascinating to look at. After the palace, we
headed to Jew Town, a large market area with lots of different shops.
It was very tempting to buy stuff everywhere, but we didn't have any
time to stop! Our destination was a Jewish synagogue. This synagogue
was really beautiful and eclectic on the inside. It was filled with
different chandeliers, the walls were painted a bright blue and the
floors were made of hand-painted Chinese tiles. We didn't stay here
long, because we had to get to a spice market. This part of the FDP
was a little disappointing. I was hoping we were headed to a huge
spice market, with lots of different sellers and a variety of spices.
Instead, we headed to New Cochin, a more developed part of Cochin than
Jew Town, and just went inside one spice store. There was a great
variety of spices there, but it was not quite what I had expected.

After the FDP, I had just enough time to grab a quick bite to eat
before heading to the Welcome Reception. This was a gathering of SAS
and Indian students. I got free henna here (not great henna - it's
already disappearing!) and there was also a variety of different
Indian snacks. The food was delicious! The best part of the Welcome
Reception was the chance to talk with Indian students our own age.
They were all very interesting and friendly. They taught us that the
best way to eat Indian food is with your hands, just ignoring the
silverware! We were also treated to a traditional dance performance -
one of the dances was the national dance of Kerala - then a couple of
students sang for us. They sang so beautifully, I wish I could sing
like that!

DAY TWO

When I asked people for advice on what to do in Kerala, everyone told
me the backwaters was a must-see. Today I went on an SAS trip to the
Alleppey Backwaters, the "Venice of the East". The trip was pretty
small for a SAS trip, which was really nice, and the backwaters were
very beautiful! The backwaters consist of connecting canals, and are
very peaceful and incredibly green with all the vegetation. We just
took a relaxed cruise along the backwaters, where we could just sit
back, talk, and enjoy the scenery. There are a lot of villages right
by the backwaters, so we got a very intimate view of the village life
while we floated by. We also had fun looking at all the elaborate
houseboats! Renting a houseboat here is a popular tourist attraction
for many Western and Indian tourists. It was a very relaxing
afternoon! When I got back, my friend Lexi and I went to a very fancy
hotel and got an elaborate buffet dinner and hookah. The dessert part
of the buffet was incredible! They had a dozen different deserts,
with names like "Chocolate Melt Duet Surprise". We of course had to
sample every dessert!

DAY THREE

Woke up bright and early today to leave for the boat at 7! My friend
Lexi and I were headed to Mata Amritanandamayi Math, an ashram about
three hours south of Cochin. It was a very interesting experience!
Staying at the ashram was super cheap - only $5 a night, all meals
included. Other things at the ashram were very cheap too - they sold
other food, including mochas and other western food, all for under a
dollar. Lexi and I didn't know anything about this ashram when we got
there. It was a beautiful place - it's right by the seaside, so it's
surrounded by palm trees, and the backwaters on one side and the ocean
on the other. The whole ashram is centered around one woman, Amma,
who is known as the hugging guru. She has given hugs to over 30
million different people in her life! The process of getting a hug
from Amma is known as darshan, and this was actually going on when we
went. For the first couple of hours we were there, Lexi and I looked
pretty clueless as we wandered around trying to figure out how the
ashram worked. We made our way to the beach, and sat there for
awhile. The beach was a very beautiful and peaceful area, and we
enjoyed sitting there and watching the crabs. At 5 we had a long
overdue orientation meeting. Here we learned more about Amma and what
she does. They showed us a very powerful video describing Embracing
the World, the non-profit charity organization run by Amma. They do
some pretty incredible things, namely helping out with disaster relief
worldwide. We also got a walking tour of the ashram and learned more
about the people who live there. Some people believe Amma is a
religious leader who has a direct connection with a higher power.
Other people there just think she is a very admirable leader. There
are about 2,000 people who live at the ashram full time. I can't
really imagine that - I think I would last about a week before I
desperately needed more civilization. After dinner we went to receive
darshan. Apparently we were pretty lucky that Amma was there, she
normally travels this time of year. Darshan was a pretty odd
experience. We waited in a line to receive a hug from Amma. This was
around 9 at night, and I'm pretty sure Amma had been giving hugs for
about 12 hours that day. We received some rules for darshan - you
couldn't actually touch Amma, but you had to support your weight with
the arms of her chair. I'm not quite sure what to make of the whole
thing - my hug just felt a little awkward and she whispered something
in my ear that I couldn't understand because it wasn't English - but I
could tell that some of the other people were truly affected by
receiving their hug.

DAY FOUR

Woke up way too early - 5 AM! - to observe one of the ashram's daily
practices, archana. This is the chanting of the 1,000 names of the
Divine Mother, and it lasts for an entire hour. I didn't really know
what was going on, but I was struck by how many people were in the
temple and had this chant memorized. After archana, we went to 6 AM
meditation at the beach. It was very relaxing to just sit at the
beach and zone out for awhile. Right after meditation we went to a
yoga class. I thought it was pretty funny that everyone at the yoga
class was a white woman. The yoga class was quite good though - it
had been awhile since I'd done yoga, so it felt really good! After
yoga Lexi and I just had a leisurely breakfast at the Western Cafe,
and then went to see if we could get an astrology reading. I've
always wanted to do that, but never wanted to spend the money. We
were in luck, and the astrologer wasn't doing anything and was able to
give us a reading. He didn't tell me much about my future though, but
he said I was a priest or some kind of spiritual leader in a past
life. It was mostly just things about my personality and current
life, and he was right about most things. It was pretty cool, but I
certainly wouldn't pay more for an astrology appointment!

We left the ashram right after lunch to head to the Periyar Tiger
Reserve in Kumily, a 3.5 hour drive away. We found a very cute hotel
named Coffee Inn, where we spent the night. Coffee Inn bordered the
inn, and as soon as we got there the receptionist showed us a wild
boar that was right by the hotel! We went out to a very nice dinner,
but called it an early night - we were tired from waking up at 5!

DAY FIVE

After a good night's sleep, Lexi and I spent the morning walking
around Kumily and did some shopping. It was funny, I noticed some
things advertising the "Wild Five" at Periyar - surely a play on the
Big Five from Africa! Around noon, we went for an elephant ride!
This was such a cool experience. We got to ride an elephant on a
trail for about a half hour, and then take a lot of pictures with the
elephant. We also got to feed the elephants bananas! This was lots
of fun, the elephants really like their bananas! I'm very glad I got
to do that, I've always wanted to ride an elephant! After the
elephants, we went on a spice tour at a local spice gardens. We
wanted to do this because we were in an area that was so well-known
for its spices. The spice tour was very interesting, our guide was
very informative. We saw a plant that folded its leaves when we
touched it, and we saw an incredible amount of different spices and
plants. After the spice tour, we got a head, face and shoulders
massage at a local Ayurvedic center. They are all over Kumily! The
massage was pretty different than any other massage I've had, but it
was very relaxing! We went back to Cochin around dinnertime, and a
local Indian woman helped us find a cheaper taxi. She was very nice,
and told us that her daughter is currently abroad, and she's hoping
someone is helping her out too. Our taxi ride was uneventful until we
got into Cochin. Our driver didn't know where the port was, and it
took us an hour to find the ship!

DAY SIX

For the last day in India, I went with some friends to Fort Kochi. We
got a couple of rickshaw drivers to show us around for the day. We
saw a place where the locals do their laundry, a local church, the
outside of a Hindu temple and the famous Chinese fishing nets. After
all that, we went back to Jew Town to do some laid-back shopping and
spend the last of our rupees. India flew by so quickly! It was an
incredible place, and I know that I need to come back. There is so
much to see and do in India, I would love to come back to travel
around the whole country.

Maurit-ish and Mauritius

Mauritius is sometimes referred to as the "Spring Break" of SAS, and I
was really looking forward to spending a day at the beach! It falls
in the middle of a fairly long stretch of sea, between Cape Town and
India, so it's a very welcome break. However, our time in Mauritius
did not come easily!

Right after Cape Town, the seas were getting very rough! Apparently,
we were following a cyclone, which was causing the rough seas and
making us go slower. A couple days before we were supposed to get to
Mauritius, the dean made a very sad announcement: Since we were
falling behind schedule, we would only stop in Mauritius to get fuel,
and no passengers would be allowed to get off. This was to make sure
we got to India on time. Obviously, the news was very disappointing.
Even though it isn't a major port, everyone was still looking forward
to it.

MAURIT-ISH DAY

However, to try to make up for it, SAS planned a Maurit-ish Day on the
day we would have gone to the actual Mauritius. This day was actually
a lot of fun! They served brunch until 1- very exciting, since
breakfast normally stops at 8:30! There were also various activities,
like a Zumba class and an improv workshop. The day ended with a big
barbeque on the pool deck. I was at the afternoon Zumba class when
they made a new announcement - we were going to Mauritius after all!
We wouldn't get to Mauritius until about 10 PM, but the next day we
were allowed to leave the boat for four hours, from 8-12. This was
very exciting news! Not only did we get a fun day off, but we still
got to experience Mauritius - for only four hours, but it was
definitely better than nothing. Everyone was in very high spirits
during the barbeque!

MAURITIUS DAY

Real Mauritius day started bright and early - the immigrations
officers got on at 6:30, and we had to quickly go through immigrations
to get off the boat as soon as possible. Around 7:30 AM, everyone was
cleared to leave. I went into Mauritius with my friends Kathy and
Lucy. We wanted to check out the beach and do a little shopping for
some souvenirs. When we got off the boat, everyone quickly remembered
that it was barely 8 in the morning - no shops would be open for a
couple of hours! We decided to head to the beach before really doing
any shopping, but we got to see a little bit of Port Louis. Port
Louis is Africa's wealthiest city, and it's very busy and chaotic - a
little unexpected for an island that is known for its relaxing
beaches! Kathy, Lucy and I got a taxi to take us to Pereybere Beach,
a half hour away. The beach was very nice, with white sands and
clear, blue waters. It reminded me a lot of the beach in the
Bahamas. We spent about an hour swimming, and it was a lot of fun.
We're constantly on the ocean, but we never get to swim in it, so the
chance to go to the beach was very satisfying!

An hour went by very quickly. When it was time to leave, Kathy and I
were feeling very hungry, so we asked the taxi driver if we could go
to a lunch place on the way back to Port Louis. He took us to a
little shopping center. It was still before 11, so many food places
still weren't open, but we found a little convenience store, and I had
a delicious salmon quiche. After lunch, we really didn't have time to
do much but head back to the waterfront. We ran into a little bit of
traffic, and by the time we got to the stores it was already 11:30 -
only a half hour before on ship time! SAS has a dock time policy,
where you get two hours of dock time for every 15 minutes that you're
late to the ship. Dock time refers to the time in the next port where
you are "grounded" on the ship, and can't leave and go into the
country. We quickly picked out souvenirs, and got on a water taxi at
11:45. The water taxi people wanted to wait until the taxi filled up,
which would have taken awhile, but luckily the ship photographer got
on with us and stressed to the driver that we needed to get back to
the ship immediately. We clocked into the ship right at 12 - perfect
timing to avoid dock time!

I thoroughly enjoyed my very brief visit to Mauritius! I'm very glad
I made it to the beach, and didn't just spend the day shopping at the
waterfront - I think Lucy, Kathy and I really maximized our four
hours! It was a welcome break from the ship, and now we are looking
ahead to India!

South Africa!

DAY ONE
My roommate and I started the day bright and early to watch the sun
rise as the ship pulled into Cape Town. This was the first port I've
woken up early for and... it might be my last! I definitely like my
sleep, but it was very cool to watch us pull into Cape Town, with
Table Mountain in the background. We also saw seals play around our
ship as we pulled into the dock, so that was really cool.
Today was my last FDP for Marine Biology: a trip to the Zandvlei
Estuary, Boulder's Beach, Cape Point and Cape Peninsula. Zandvlei is
a wetlands area, and it's one of the most diverse places on Earth.
You wouldn't necessarily guess that by just looking at it though: It's
quite pretty, but basically just looks like a lot of grass and some
ponds. We did see several different birds, and in the visitor's
center our guide brought out an endangered leopard frog. After that,
we drove to Simon's Town, right by Boulder's Beach. We had a
delicious lunch of fish and calamari at a local restaurant. Next, it
was time for penguins! I wasn't sure how close we could get to the
penguins, or even how many we would actually see. As we walked into
the beach, right by the boardwalk, were already a couple penguins!
They were just chilling, and they didn't even care when a large group
of people would just stop right by them to take pictures. The beach
itself was very pretty in its own right - the water was a lovely shade
of blue, and was also a nice swimming temperature. The boulders made
the beach very pretty. However, the real highlight was when we saw
more penguins! I was surprised to see a penguin right by the crowded
beach. My Marine Bio teacher had gotten a map of where to go to see
even more penguins, so we climbed over some boulders and waded through
a lot of water. It was more than worth it! At some parts, we were
literally swimming with the penguins, as they would come swim right
next to you. Then, when we got to the next beach, there were dozens
of penguins all over the beach! These penguins have the life: They
just spend all day sleeping and swimming at this beautiful beach. I
really wanted to steal one, but couldn't make it work.
After the penguins, it was time to go to Cape Point. It was a short
walk to the top, where there was a lighthouse. The views here were
gorgeous. Then, on the drive back, we saw some African wildlife! It
was a pre-safari. We saw a couple ostriches hanging out by the beach,
zebra, and even baboons crossing the road. (Baboons are similar to
bears in Colorado: There are a ton of warnings to not feed the
baboons, and apparently they are quite the nuisance). That night, I
went out to eat at the V&A Waterfront with some friends. The
Waterfront was very nice - it was a short walk from our ship. It has
a lot of really nice restaurants and shopping. However, it does feel
very Americanized, but it was a fun place to go out to. After dinner,
we went to a club on Long Street. Long Street has more nightlife than
the waterfront, so a lot of clubs are here. We went to one called
Concept, and it was a lot of fun. There were a lot of locals there,
and it felt pretty similar to some American clubs I've gone to. It
felt like a smaller version of the club Beta in Denver. While we were
dancing, I noticed that literally no couples were dancing together.
Everyone was just dancing by themselves or in groups, which I really
liked! We got some good dance circles going, and had a very good time.

DAY TWO
Today, I left for my safari. I did an SAS overnight safari at the
Garden Route Game Lodge. It was a four-hour drive from the ship, but
the drive itself was quite pretty. We passed some townships, which
were incredibly contrasted with the rest of Cape Town. The Game Lodge
was very nice. It had a very cute pool, and the lodge overlooked the
game reserve, so if you looked into the distance you could see
giraffes and other wildlife, with the mountain range in the
background. Seeing mountains in the distance reminded me of
Colorado! One of my friends said, "It would be so cool to wake up
everyday and see mountains in the background," which I thought was
funny, because that's what I get in Colorado! I guess I just live in
the best state.
We had our first game drive that night. We separated into different
groups, and drove around the game reserve in open 4x4's. My group's
guide, Ronald, was very cool and informative. The first thing we saw
were elephants! They have two elephants living here, and they might
have been my favorite animals. Did you know that elephants revisit
the graves of family members to mourn for 30 years after they've
died? They are very smart, and our tour guide emphasized how he
really feels that elephants have a conscience and are very self-aware
animals. Next we saw the giraffes, and they have a little family
here: A mom, dad, and a two-year-old baby girl, who is about half the
size of her parents. Apparently the mom was pregnant with another
baby while we were there, but you couldn't tell! We also saw zebra,
antelope and buffalo. Buffalo are the most dangerous animals of the
Big 5 (the Big 5 is a hunting term, and describes elephants, leopards,
lions, buffalo and rhino), but crocodiles and hippos are the most
dangerous animals in Africa. We also saw the lions, which have their
own area in the reserve because they eat so much. Ronald gave us many
warnings about the male lion - apparently he's chased Ronald before!
We stayed a safe distance away, and when it was time to leave, Ronald
booked it out of there! On our way back to the lodge, we saw the
family of rhinos, who were just hanging out by the road.
For dinner, we had a buffet back at the lodge, and it was delicious.
We spent the night hanging out with everyone in the hotel lobby and
bar area.

DAY THREE
We started the day early with a morning game drive. We started the
drive with some excitement! One of the first animals we saw was
actually a dead antelope - freshly killed by a cheetah. Ronald drove
up a little ways, then came back and the cheetah was there, enjoying
its breakfast! The cheetah would get nervous when it noticed us
though, and he kept dragging the antelope back into the bushes. After
that, we saw a bunch of ostriches. I think ostriches have to be some
of the silliest animals out there. We also saw more giraffes, zebra,
alive antelopes and buffalo. After the game drive, we went to the
cheetah reserve, which is where they keep cheetahs until they are
ready to be released into their reserve or another area. It was a
pretty cool area, with about three cheetahs just wandering around. We
had lunch at their restaurant, and I tried springbok, which is SA's
national animal. It was pretty tasty, but I liked ostrich better.
After some free time of just hanging out around the pool, we had
another evening game drive. This time, we saw the female cheetah.
She was off in the distance, but Ronald got out and started to call
her. He told us this is what they do to fee her, and he wanted her to
think we had food so she would come closer. At first we weren't sure
if Ronald knew what he was, but the cheetah came right towards us!
When she found out there was no food, she just plopped down by the
car. She was very cute, she rolled over a couple times, playing it up
for our cameras! We also saw the rhino family again, and Ronald told
us a lot about the different birds and plants in the area. He was
like an encyclopedia!

DAY FOUR
Our last day at the Garden Route! We had another morning drive, where
we saw a lot of animals again, including the lions. We all made sure
to get a group photo with Ronald at the end! After breakfast we
toured their reptile center, where they actually keep reptiles from
all over the world. Our tour guide was pretty funny - he took a jab
at Australia when he told us they have 7 of the world's most dangerous
animals. He said, "So next time, don't go to Australia, just come
back to SA! We're much safer." After that, we left and made the
drive back to the ship. Shortly after we got back, I left the ship
again with my friends Kellie and Sarah to go to Table Mountain. We
got there around 5:45, so it was too late to hike, but the cable car
was half price at 6, so that worked out. We met up with a friend of
Sarah's from the US who happened to be studying abroad at the
University of Cape Town. We explored the top of Table Mountain and
saw the sunset, and it was so gorgeous. There were great views of
Cape Town and the ocean from the top, and the sun set over the ocean.
After we got down, we went to the Waterfront again for dinner, and
Kellie and I went to an Italian restaurant. We were treated to an
opera concert there, and we had the most delicious pizza! I hadn't
had pizza in awhile, and it was so good! We had an early night,
because we wanted to be ready for our wine tour tomorrow morning at 9!

DAY FIVE
Today was our wine day! We did a biking tour that took us to two
wineries and a brandy distillery. We had some gorgeous views on the
trails, but the biking was much harder than expected! It was a bit
like mountain biking: There were no paved roads, it was all sand, and
there was some uphill that was fairly strenuous and some downhill with
a lot of rocks and logs in the way! We all made it though, even if
our tour guide put up with a lot of complaining! The first winery was
very cute, and that's where we had lunch. The second winery was also
a cheetah sanctuary, so before we tried the wine we got to go say hi
to the cheetahs. The brandy distillery was last, and the first thing
we tried was a delicious brandy cocktail. Although, I have to say, I
think I much prefer trying wine to trying brandy! It was a very fun
day, but even though I put on sunscreen I got very burnt! I guess I
didn't reapply enough times... That night I went out to dinner on the
Waterfront again, and then went to a pub. The pub turned out to be a
lot of fun, and we spent the evening dancing and meeting some very
interesting locals.

DAY SIX
I saved my last day for a laid-back shopping day. I started at the
waterfront, and ran into my friend Lexi there. We decided to go to
the Green Market on Long Street, and I found a lot of stuff there. We
also got smoothies from a place that seemed like it was straight from
Boulder! Lexi and I felt right at home there. It was a lot of fun to
just stroll along Long Street, which definitely has more character
than the Waterfront. We did not want to go back to the boat!
However, once we'd spent our last rand, it was time to go back. I was
very sad to leave Cape Town!