China - Shanghai, Guilin, Yangshuo & Hong Kong


Day 1
We arrived at the port in Shanghai relatively early in the day but there were a few complications with immigration and many people were not able to disembark the boat until noon that day. I had an all day field lab for my World Architecture class so I spent the first day in China on and off a bus trying to fit in as much Chinese architecture as possible. Our lab consisted of visits to the Urban Planning Expo Center, walk down Nanjing Lu Commercial Pedestrian Mall, the Bund, Yu Yuan Gardens, China Art Museum, Love Tunnel and the top of Shanghai World Financial Center (the photo above is the view from the top, by far the coolest place we went on the field lab). The late start to the day made our field lab extremely rushed and the lab ended up lasting from 9:30 am to 11:00 pm that night so that was about all I did the first day in China.


Day 2
The second day started at about 4:00 am because we had to get the Pudong airport, which is about an hour from the city center, for an 8:30 am flight to Guilin, China. Lucky I had asked the field lab guide from the night before if we would be able to catch a cab at 4:00 am and she had informed me that it would have been impossible. She was kind enough to set up a ride for us to the airport at 5:00 am and we ended up making it early to the airport and had no issues making it on our flight. Once we landed in Guilin we made our way to the hostel. On the cab ride there, I was extremely shocked by the amount of poverty I saw. I had not expected China to be so underdeveloped after seeing what Japan was like. It was a lot for me to take in and it definitely took me a few days to process it all. That afternoon at the hostel we met a son, Ringo, and his father that were traveling together. They were both originally from Hong Kong but had moved to Vancouver, Canada 30+ years ago. Since they both spoke fluent Chinese they offered to travel with us and we spent the rest of the day exploring the streets of Guilin.


Day 3
We spent all of day 3 traveling to and exploring the Longji Rice Terraces. I have been obsessed with the rice terraces in Longji for years now and finally being able to go there and explore made the trip for me. The drive there was a about 2 hours but once we got there we spent about 4 hours hiking up the terraces and taking in the entire landscape. There are no words to describe it and photos cannot do it justice, it was breathtaking. I want to go back there again during the actual growing season to see all the terraces flooded with water but the trip there was still amazing. The rice terraces were an all day trip so we didn't make it back to the hostel until about 8:00 pm that night.


Day 4
Early in the week after we had met Ringo and his dad, they had recommended we stay our last day/night in Guilin in Yangshuo so we switched our last night in the Guilin Wada Hostel to Yangshuo Wada Hostel. We left Guilin early and took at 1 hour bus ride to Yangshuo. All I have to say is bus rides in China are an experience and I don't recommend looking out the window ever. Once we got to Yangshuo we headed out on bikes to explore the countryside, it was well worth. Yangshuo was beautiful and the farming families were very tolerant of all of us taking tons of photos of them. We spent that night shopping around the Yangshuo night market before heading back to the hostel for the night.


Day 5
We checked out of the hostel in Yangshuo at around noon and started making our way to the airport for our flight to Hong Kong. Thank god we left for our flight 4 hours early because the bus ride to get to the airport, which is only supposed to be an hour, ended up taking about 3 hours because our bus got stuck on a one way road due to construction...it's a long story that I'll have to explain later but it was total chaos. We caught out flight to Hong Kong and were back on the boat by 11:00 pm that night.


Day 6
I got up early and went to explore the Ladies Market in Hong Kong which was an experience. I also went to a camera complex/building that Ringo had recommended I go to find camera lenses. I spent a couple hours in there about almost bought a lens but decided to save the money for something I can't buy in the US. I headed back to the ship early so I wouldn't get dock time and we headed out for Vietnam that night.

Japan - Yokohama, Kamakura, Tokyo, Kyoto & Kobe



Day 1
For my groups first day in Japan we originally planned on meeting a friend of mine but we had to scrap that plan and ended up wandering around the port and Yokohama. We found the Chinatown in Yokohama, which is one of the largest Chinatowns in the world outside of China itself! We shopped around for a bit and stumbled into an arcade that had photo booths where you can widen your eyes...those pictures we weird to say the least. We finally ended up meeting my friend and we went and got sushi for dinner. It was my first time eating sushi but I tried everything and absolutely loved it. The crazy thing about the sushi restaurant was that there was a fish tank, they would take the fish out, kill it, put a blow torch over it for 30 seconds and then it would be on the plate in front of you. We spent the night on the boat that night because a few people had field labs the next day.



Day 2
We got up early and headed out to the Kamakura Diabatsu, the second largest buddha in the world. I found out that the buddha is over 700 years old, I would never have believed it. The town the buddha was located in, Hase, was an extremely cute little town and fun to explore. We then headed back to Yokohama to pick up our friends and head into Tokyo for the night. We stopped at the largest and busiest intersection in the world and my friend Em took us to a famous ramen restaurant. To order there, you pushed a button with the type of ramen you wanted like a vending machine and it dispensed you a ticket which you handed to a person behind a screen at your seat and 10 minutes later they brought you your ramen. After dinner we headed to our hostel to check in which ended up being right next to an ancient temple in the historical district.



Day 3
I found at the beginning of the trip that my credit card was not being accepted by the ATMs (to any future SASer's reading this, don't trust that your card is going to work in every country, I recommend getting at least $50 in currency cause it will save your life if your card ends up not working) but I was able to find a bank that took my card and passport and withdrew money for me. We spent the day in Tokyo shopping in Shibuya and had some amazing Japanese curry for lunch. We explored the shopping district, Harajuku, where we got free stickers and other stuff from people as gifts. You find out really fast that if you're American many Japanese people will give you small gifts for free. We also received a bag of beans from an old man on the train. We then went to what is Japan's equivalent of Central Park, and saw the large temple in the center of it. We then headed to a night market and found a pet shop that was filled with puppies and kittens that we got to hold and play with. We went to Tokyo tower for the evening and saw the entire panoramic view of Tokyo. We ended up meeting with some of Em's friends who took us to an extremely local Japanese bar, we got a lot of looks because they don't normally get foreigners but it ended up being a blast. They ordered us chicken intestines and a few other weird things but they all ended up being amazing. We almost missed the last train back to our hostel but we made it on.



Day 4
We spent the majority of today wandering around Tokyo again. We got up fairly early to make it to the fish market but it ended up being completely finished by the time we got there and we didn't see anything. The local people also didn't appreciate us being there according to my friend who could understand what they were saying to us.  From there we headed to Em's family's restaurant. We found out once we got there that it was a much nicer restaurant then we were expecting and her dad was a well known chef. He cooked us a 5 course meal and I had some of the most amazing food I have ever had. We then made our way back to the center of Tokyo to take an overnight bus from Tokyo to Kyoto which was an 8 hours long and no on slept but is was only $20 compared to the bullet train that was $135. 



Day 5
We arrived in Kyoto at 5 am with no where to go and it was pouring rain. We ended up at a 24 hour restaurant and all had noodles for breakfast. It was an extremely rough and long day to say the least with all of us running on zero hours of sleep. We trekked around Kyoto in the pouring rain with our backpacks on looking at temples, took a quick break to eat some amazing green tea noodles then headed out to see one last shrine. Making it to Fushimi Inari Taisha, the last place on our list, made the entire day worth it. The shrine was absolutely breathtaking. There were thousands and thousands of torii arches that lined a path to the very top of the mountain. We ended up making it to the top for sunset which made up for our soaking clothes and sore backs. We then headed to the train station, said goodbye to Em who spent the last three days traveling with us and made our way to the boat in Kobe.

Day 6
I woke up pretty late today but ended up tagging along with some friends to a few Sake museums and spent the final bit of my yen on snacks for the boat. I ended up spending a total of $275 in Tokyo (including travel, sleep, entrance fees, food and souvenirs) which I'm extremely proud of. I then got back on the boat and we made our way out of port to China, which I will be at in less than 48 hours!
 

Quick Update!

So we are still crossing the Pacific right now, we had to go a few hundred miles off course to miss a storm but we are finally headed in the right direction towards Japan. It has been pretty smooth sailing so far. Only 6 more days! Oh and here's a photo of the sunset tonight, best one of the voyage by far. Enjoy.

Day 7

As of today, I have officially been at sea for 7 days! It has also taken me about 7 days to get my sea legs. The second day at sea was pretty rough for most people and I learned the hard way that you shouldn't put on a full seasickness patch because the side effects are about ten times worse then the actual seasickness.

Once I was able to get used to the constant rocking of the ship, life on board became much easier. My classes are great and the teachers definitely are not letting up on the workload just because we are at sea, so keeping up with everything while adapting to the shipboard environment has been a challenge. I am looking forward to getting to Hawaii and having a much-needed break.

We are supposed to arrive in Hilo, Hawaii early tomorrow morning but we are only there for about 24 hours before we embark on the second leg of our journey across the Pacific Ocean. The trip from Hawaii to Japan is supposed to be a wild one and the crew is mentally preparing us for the rough water ahead. I'm a little nervous but I cannot wait for my journey to really start once we reach Japan. They say that semester flies by once we hit Japan and the next thing you know we are leaving Morocco and are on our way to our final port in London. Hopefully it doesn't go by too quick.

I tried to attach a photo of the ocean yesterday, which was absolutely breathtaking! Hopefully it worked. I'll try to keep this updated more as the trip continues but no promises.

Countdown Time: 60 Days

Wow. This is my first official post on my Semester at Sea blog...this is so weird. I guess I'll start with my itinerary and a brief overview for all of you that are wondering what the heck this is, where I'll be going and when I'll be there:

Ensenada, Mexico                                          Rangoon, Burma
Embark: January 7th                                        February 24th - March 1st

Hilo, Hawaii                                                   Cochin, India
Arrive & Depart: January 14th                         March 6th - March 11th

Yokohama, Japan                                          Port Louis, Mauritius
January 26th - January 27th                            Arrive & Depart: March 18th

Kobe, Japan                                                  Cape Town, South Africa
January 29th - January 31st                            March 25th - March 30th

Shanghai, China                                           Walvis Bay, Namibia
February 3rd - February 4th                           April 2nd - April 6th

Hong Kong, China                                        Casablanca, Morocco
February 7th - February 8th                            April 18th - April 22nd

Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam                        London, England
February 11th - February 17th                        Disembark: April 29th

Singapore, Singapore
February 19th - February 20th


On January 7th, 2015 I will board the MV Explorer (a large passenger ship) from a port in Ensenada, Mexico for four months to attend a semester of school at sea. On the trip I will be traveling to 12 different countries and 15 different cities (all listed above) in 112 days. While on the ship I'm required to be enrolled in four classes (12 credits). You can read a more in depth description of the classes here 'Spring 2015 Courses and Field Labs'. All the classes I'm enrolled in are to fulfill my last general education requirements before I begin the Journalism professional program in the fall. As far as classes go, we only attend classes when we are traveling between ports, on an A and B day schedule. We do however have a required Field Lab for each of our classes, which is a trip you take with your professor and your classmates in a certain country.

These are the classes I'm registered for:

• SOC-2320 Gender and Society
• PLIR-3310 Ethics & Human Rights Politics
• ARH-2500 Experiencing World Architecture
• EVSC-2050 Intro to Oceanography

That's kind of a short and sweet summary of what I'll be doing during my next college semester. I've also applied for my required Visas, India and China, which have all been approved so I'm pretty much set to go with all the paperwork, it's just a matter of making sure I have everything on my extremely long packing list that I just started (which I'll post at a later date). It's so crazy to think that in less than 60 days I'll be boarding a ship off the coast of Mexico that is going to take me around the world. For now, I'm trying my hardest to not checkout of this semester too soon and finish strong before I pack up and head out on the voyage of a life time. So I guess I'll just leave it at that.

See you in 60 days!