It's all about the thumb

Before getting to Malaysia, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. Come to think of it, I’m not even really sure if I had even seen a picture of it. For some reason, the only image that came to mind was “jungle” which ended up being kind of correct.

We anchored off the coast of Penang, Malaysia. Penang is a small island state off the mainland. We were only a few degrees from the Equator so the weather can be described as hot, humid, and hazy. (By the way … I hear it was snowing in New York) Since we were anchored offshore and not docked, we had to take tenders to the pier (a.k.a. take the lifeboat shuttles). Malaysia was the first time we’ve had to use tenders, and it was a pain because you couldn’t just get on and off the ship when you wanted.

The first three days I spent on a Malaysian home stay. When we arrived, we were greeted with music and refreshments. Right away it was clear that everyone was extremely welcoming … and unable to speak English. Unfortunately, my Malay isn’t exactly up to par either. Four of us were put up in the community center because our family’s home was being renovated. At first, I was excited because we were staying right there at the meeting place, but it wasn’t until later that I realized we weren’t actually living with a family which was a little disappointing. Luckily, my host parents had an eighteen year old daughter named Shima! Shima spoke English fairly fluently, and she was a great “sister” to have for a couple of days. That first afternoon, Shima gave us a little walking tour of the town. We saw some goats, and then headed over to her relatives’ home. (I think). The house was very nice. I think it was the first time I’d been in a real living room for about two months … odd … watched a little English CSI: NY. Haha. We also went to an herb farm and drank lime juice that is “good for the body.” That evening, the town put on a cultural show and dinner for our whole group.

Now … Malaysian food is delicious. I would say it’s a mix between Indian and Chinese food. While we were on the home stay, I felt the food was closer to Indian. There was lots of rice, vegetables, fish, and chicken. And, of course, there is curry on EVERYTHING. Everything was pretty spicy. I’ve discovered that I have a fairly strong stomach, so I’m lucky because (Boozy, this is for you) I don’t think my thigh muscles would have been strong enough to endure three days of being sick, considering we did not see a western toilet for three days. Sorry, that is disgusting. But anyway, whenever we had a meal in our “home” a bunch of women would come prepare it for us and then sit and watch us eat it (with our hands of course… it’s all about the thumb push). They would prepare like seven bowls of food for us to put over our rice. One day there were whole fish sitting there. We were told it is rude to leave food on your plate so I piled on that curry and was stuffed. One morning for breakfast there was SO much food. I had eggs, crepe things, and delicious corn balls which kind of reminded me of the corn casserole we have all the time at home. I hadn’t really eaten any of my rice that morning, and one woman kept pointing at this bowl of fishy goop. Now … I am not a big sardine fan so I kind of just smiled and said no thank you. Eventually she was like “good fish!” and puts some on my plate. And then I had sardines for breakfast. Since they were watching us, I don’t think anyone wanted to finish first so we just ate and ate and ate.

Wow, that was a lot about food so back to the “cultural show.” Several children’s groups performed dances or songs which were adorable and pretty impressive. After that we found a flea and went to sleep. Haha…

The next day we were bused around to see different aspects of Malaysian life. We revisited the goat farm and went to an ostrich farm, batik factory, rice paddy, fishing village, and the beach. Now, one of the best parts of the day was the air conditioned bus so by the time we got to the beach a lot of us girls (myself included) were annoyed that we could not get in the water. (Malaysia is a very conservative Muslim country. In fact, all the women and most little girls wore head coverings in the town.) So we get to the beach to play “traditional Malaysian games.” For being traditional, they held a surprising resemblance to games you would play at a camp in the U.S. We were split into four teams for relay races. Game 1: using three bricks as stepping stones, make your way across the beach then pick them up and run back. Game 2: potato sack race. Yes. Potato sack race. Game 3: run to the ocean and then, using a sponge, fill up a plastic bottle with bottle with sea water. Game 4: twenty m&m-like candies are in a bowl buried with flour. Without using your hands, find two candies and put them in the container next to the bowl. Now, by the end, there were balls of spit in the bowl, and we were absolutely covered in flour. But whatever, my team won so it was all worth it. And that’s how we won the Malaysian Sea Olympics. Haha

That night, after a nap and showering with a ladle, my family went for a little drive. They took us to a scenic viewing area, and I could see the whole valley below us. It was breathtaking. Then we went to a night market where the street was lined with vendors selling food mostly. I had spring rolls, sweet corn, and ice cream. It was quite the dinner. We ate as we walked around the other vendors selling shoes and t-shirts. Then we drove to Georgetown and around the island for awhile. I had been asleep on the bus ride to Balik Pulua so I hadn’t realized how big Georgetown was. We ended up in Batu Ferengi. There was a huge night market there with hundreds of vendors selling movies and music, knockoffs of everything you can think of, food, and knick-knacks. After exploring there for awhile, we got back in the car and headed back towards our town. Before we got there though, our dad asked if we wanted to stop and get something to drink. We ended up getting this really good food. It was similar to naan except a little softer and more shredded. Anyway, you dipped it in this delicious curry sauce or you could put sugar on it. I couldn’t decide which way I liked it better so I did half and half. It was SO good. The next morning before we left, the families gave all of us little gifts. That last night going to the night markets and just spending the time with my host family definitely made the trip for me.

The next day back in Georgetown I decided that I needed something to wear to church on Easter since good old laundry day wiped me out of all my smelly skirts I wore in India. After a yummy Thai lunch and a milkshake, the shopping adventure began. Now, food in Malaysia was ridiculously cheap (and Georgetown’s seemed more Thai or Chinese style than on my home stay). However, clothes were expensive for some reason. After a couple of hours, we had Easter Sunday outfits ready to go so we got some Auntie Anne’s pretzels to celebrate. Yum. We headed to Penang Hill only to discover that tickets to take a tram thing up to see the temples were sold out for a few hours. Disappointed, we headed to the Botanical Gardens which were beautiful and reminded me a lot of the rainforest in Puerto Rico. There were monkeys everywhere just jumping around and walking in the paths. Now, I like monkeys. I think they are cute. Apparently I looked one straight in the eye. All of a sudden it opens its mouth, and I am an idiot and was like oh he’s smiling! Then he lunged at me. Well not really but it felt like he was about to attack. The friend I was with got the scariest picture of the killer monkey’s teeth. I walked away and there was another monkey sitting in the middle of the path. I froze. It stared me down, and I ran away from it. Yes I ran away from a monkey that was ten inches tall. Scariest monkeys EVER. No longer do I think they are just cute and fuzzy. No. Killer monkeys. Anyway, I ended up back in Batu Ferengi and did some intense market shopping which included about sixty movies. Now I have something to do in between Japan and Miami! Haha

The next morning was Easter Sunday. My friend and I had decided to go to church in Georgetown. Of course, as usually happens when I mean to go to church, I overslept, but I made it right in the nick of time. (is that right? Oh well.) We ended up getting off the ship way early and had time to walk around for a bit and get some caffeine in us before the service. We went to St. George, the first Anglican Church in Southeast Asia. It was a beautiful building; I think they said it was almost two hundred years old? That could be wrong. We sat next to a Malaysian woman and her Canadian husband and talked to them for awhile before the service started. It’s interesting… we were told not to discuss religion or politics in Malaysia and everywhere I went I was asked whether I wanted Clinton or Obama to win the election. McCain isn’t a factor to the rest of the world apparently. The service was really nice… the priest that gave the sermon was actually visiting from Singapore which is cool. He was funny and told little jokes which made me miss dad. (love you) I had never been to a Catholic mass before so I wasn’t quite used to all the readings, but I got the hang of it. A kid’s group did a couple songs and dances which were cute. It was a really nice service, and I’m glad I got to go to it. After the service, there was a huge brunch of rice and noodles, chicken and fish, and this ridiculous dessert of shaved ice and sugary syrup over a bowl of beans, coconut, corn, and a bunch of other random ingredients. I admit I did not eat that. Haha.

That afternoon I went on a service visit to the Chesire Home. The facility is home to about thirty residents with varying physical and mental disabilities. It was interesting to see the cultural differences in how people with disabilities were treated. After that, my friend and I went to TGIFridays for a little taste of home and then went back to Auntie Anne’s. Normally I don’t think I would admit that I went back, but the cashier recognized us and knew our orders from the day before. Moral of the story: people know me. Around the world. Then our taxi driver didn’t speak English, and we got lost. Whoops! But I am alive and well on the ship so all’s well that ends well.

I had a great time in Malaysia. It was more beautiful and green than I could have even imagined, and even the cities seemed well kept and clean. The people I met were all kind, and I never experienced any anti-American feelings which may be the first port I haven’t seen any. Even though my home stay wasn’t exactly what I had expected and I probably wasn’t as open minded as I should have been, I think it was a really good experience for me to have under my belt. I think that sometimes I’m so focused on having the “best experience” in each port that I forget that it is the little things that make a trip. I also forget that perhaps the most cultural experiences aren’t the ones of how the native people lived hundreds of years ago but what their live are like now. I feel like I made progress in learning about their culture but also about myself and how I deal with situations that are presented to me.

I’m happy.

I just posted a lot of pictures on previous entries so be sure to check those out!

I live in the (last place) Sea of Peace and Love

Life at sea is still awesome. For the next month we spend most of our time on land and then the last three weeks we basically are at sea the whole time. It will be quite the finals week. The internet has been a little iffy lately hence the gap in entry times. A lot of times I’ll have it written and then this website won’t work for me- so sorry. I’m still alive. Obviously. But because of that I’ve missed updating on some fun stuff I’ve been doing onboard!

First of all, each semester there is the Sea Olympics. There were a bunch of seas: Yellow, Red, Bering, Adriatic, Aegean, Baltic, Caribbean, Silver, Arabian, and Mediterranean. I was in the Med Sea, and our captain chose the color pink out of a hat. So our team color was pink. My hall is not very enthusiastic about this sort of thing and we ended up getting tenth place… out of ten. Hahhaa I had a lot of fun though. There was a full day between Mauritius and India that we didn’t have class. Instead, there were events from 9 am to 9 pm. Some events were synchronized swimming, swimsuit relays, (mashed) potato sculpting, limbo, slippery twister, scrabble, poker, global studies trivia, extreme musical chairs, dodgeball, soccer, and volleyball. I was in (extreme) Pictionary, Hawaiian bowling (it involves soap and a Caution: Wet floor sign, and it is probably my life calling), and lip sync. Lip sync was by far my favorite part of the day. All the seas had five minutes each to do a little performance. Most of them were really, really funny and well done. For the Med Sea it was me, three other girls and four guys. We decided to go the cross dressing route. Our songs were “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, “I’m Too Sexy”, “Dontcha”, “Pimpin’ All Over the World”, and “My Humps.” It was SO much fun, and it ended up being really funny. Med Sea didn’t suck at something! But we still got last place overall. The sea that won the Sea Olympics gets to disembark first in Miami. Grrr. Oh sorry, by the way seas are our halls. Like, I live on the third deck port side. Half of that hall is the Med Sea. There are about five halls split in half basically.

The night after Sea Olympics was Mr. Semester at Sea (aka Mr. SASsy). There were a bunch of guys that competed in a fashion show, talent competition, and an open ended question section. It was really funny to sea the different sides of people and how creative some people are. It was an entertaining couple of days.

After India, we had the Crew Talent Show. The crew on the ship is AWESOME, and they work so hard. They are constantly doing this or that, and it has been fun getting to know some of them. Anyway, there was a fundraiser for them and there were about 17 different acts, I think they said. It was soooo much fun. Some songs were just actually really well done while some did the most ridiculous (and sexual) dances I have ever seen. After all that air humping, it’s impossible to look at them the same ever again. Hahaha Basically, I have not laughed so much as I have at these three events. It’s so great when everyone squeezes into the union and just has a fun time. I love it.

While being at sea is great, I really, REALLY want a Wegman’s turkey sub… but what else is new? But since that is the worst problem I have in life right now, I think I’m doing alright!

Hope all is well on the other side of the world! (Seriously though! I am now 12 hours different than you guys! Ah!)

I didn't even see rats!

I don’t even know what to write about India- so much was crammed into five days. India was definitely the biggest culture shock I have experienced on the trip so far. There are 1.1 billion people in India, and I honestly feel I saw at LEAST half of them. The streets everywhere were constantly bustling and crowded.

We docked in Chennai which is on the southeastern tip of India and is a very non-touristy, industrial city. I think SAS was trying to save on dock money because usually when we dock the view is really pretty once we get in. This time, I looked over the edge and saw rows and rows of cars. It looked like the most monstrous car dealership I’ve ever seen. Later we realized they were waiting to be loaded onto a cargo ship, but it wasn’t exactly a sweet first view of India. Customs getting on and off the ship were a lot different than what I had experienced in the other countries. We all had to have two different forms everywhere we went and had to sign in and out of the gate. It was a little bit of a hassle but not a problem. Since I wanted to see a lot of India while I was there and not worry about any of the details, I signed up for a SAS trip to travel to Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur which are all in the northern part of India. My group had about seventy people total but thankfully we split up into buses so I was really only with about twenty people. I didn’t know anyone going on my bus, and it ended up being really nice because I feel like I met a lot of different SAS people. We left the first afternoon to catch a flight from Chennai to Delhi. It was only a two and a half hour flight, but the drive to the Chennai airport was an hour or so in itself. It was evening by the time we got to Delhi, so we headed to our hotel (Ashok). It was really nice. I had a delicious Indian buffet, ate a TON of naan, and listened to amazing music. After dinner, some girls and I hung out and watched BBC world news. It was the first time I’ve watched television since home, so it was awesome to watch English news and see what was going on in the world.

The next morning we got up super early to make our train to Agra. After two hours or so, we arrived and headed to yet another hotel for breakfast. Finally, I got in my bus (bus 2!) and set out for the Taj Mahal. When we arrived at the gate, it was nothing like I had expected. Beggars and vendors surrounded the entrance asking you to buy things or give them rupees or food. Graffiti and posters covered the gate as you walked into the entrance. Once we got inside and past all of the vendors following us, the buildings were beautiful. I took a million pictures in India As we walked through an arch, I got a glimpse of the Taj. I can’t even believe I was there. It was so magnificent- it was unreal. The Taj Mahal was probably the site I was most excited to see on this trip, and it was completely worthwhile. The story of the Taj goes that one emperor (I am sorry but there is no way I can remember his name so google it if you really care) who was very much in love with his wife. When she died, she made him promise to never marry again and to build a monument of his love for her that everyone would admire. After twenty-two years of labor, the Taj Mahal was finally completed. It’s marble, and there are intricate jewel designs laid inside. In all of my pictures, it looks like a backdrop. It looks as if I just super imposed myself onto this picture of the Taj Mahal. It feels unreal to have been there. After leaving the Taj (boo), my guide, D, took us to a shop where they do marble and jewel work like that used on the Taj Mahal. It was interesting to see how much work is put into even the smallest piece. No wonder it took twenty-two years to build. Once we left there, we headed to Agra Fort. It was at this fort that the emperor whose name I still can’t remember was imprisoned by his own son. (The power hungry son wanted the throne for himself so he imprisoned his father.) We saw the room/balcony where he was held. From there, you have the most amazing view of the Taj Mahal. It must have been heartbreaking yet comforting at the same time to see the magnificent building that he himself had built to symbolize the love he had for his wife. After a delicious lunch, we headed out for Jaipur (about a six hour bus ride from Agra). Part way through our trip, we stopped at the Ghost City. This city was suddenly abandoned centuries ago, and no one is really sure why. Most guesses are that the water and the heat were just so bad and unbearable- they just got up and left. It was beautiful though, and some of the woodwork was unbelievable. and most of them are just buildings and architecture because the designs, carvings, and jewel work were so intricate and stunning.

The next morning, also known as my twentieth birthday!, we started our day in Jaipur with French toast (not as good as your French toast, dad, no worries). Now, after the first two days I was starting to wonder if I should have done a different trip or gone independently or something, but Jaipur ended up being great. We started out early and headed to the Amber Fort. On our way there, we drove through the city which we had only seen in the dark driving through the night before. In the 1800s, the Prince of Wales traveled to Jaipur, and the maha raja wanted to celebrate his arrival so he painted the entire city pink. It’s really more of a terracotta color, but it’s been called the Pink City ever since. Even though it was still dirty and poor, Jaipur felt a lot different from the other cities I visited. I guess it just felt a little more like going back in time. I don’t know- it’s hard to explain.

So anyway, we drive out of the city a tiny bit and suddenly see this huge fort. Supposedly it is the most difficult fort to get to physically. I don’t know what it’s compared to, but it looked hard to get to so I believe it! Right next to it was the Amber Fort which was the one we were going to see. It was so big, I really wasn’t expecting it. Right away, I knew that Jaipur had been a good choice. We had gotten there before eight so we got in line for our elephant ride up the hill to the fort. The elephants’ trunks were brightly painted and had a two person cushion seat on its back. My elephant’s name was Bubbly! Riding up the hill on Bubbly was a lot of fun, very bumpy, and a little scary because I was pretty sure I was going to fall off and plummet to my death in India. Thankfully I did not! I just had an amazing view of the city, the fort, and had a lot of fun. Once we got inside the fort, there were some people playing music up in one of the buildings. If you know me well, you know I have a thing for Indian music, so I pretty much loved it. Anyway, I had a great time exploring the fort. In this fort, the king had twelve different wives and lots and lots of concubines. Pretty interesting. On our way down from the fort, there was a snake charmer on the side of the path! It was awesome!

After the fort, we went shopping. By shopping I mean expensive SAS shopping because our guides get commissions. But it was cool to see how things were made. First we went to this textile shop. They showed us how the use printing blocks and looms. Then they gave us a demonstration of all the carpets. The patterns were so detailed and beautiful. (Think the magic carpet from Aladdin.) Then we went to a jewelry store where we didn’t even look around much because most of us aren’t exactly in the market for diamond rings right now. After lunch, D took us to the palace of the maha raja. Interesting side note, up until India gained its independence in 1947/8 whatever it is, there were hundreds and hundreds of kings throughout India, each with his own land, currency, and army. So we went to the king of Jaipur’s palace basically. A different bus from my group actually met him in the market- pretty cool! We looked around there for a bit and did some shopping. All day we had been begging D to take us to a market because we all wanted really cheap souvenirs and stuff like that. I bought an awesome skirt for 150 rupees which is approximately four dollars! I was pumped, but the market quickly became very overwhelming as vendors were all around you, asking to show you this or that or telling you you’re beautiful or whatnot. Side note: there is a crew member on the ship who is from India, and he told me that if anyone gave me trouble I should just open my eyes as big as I can. He said that they are so huge and light that it would freak any Indian out. It didn’t work, but I still thought it was funny.

Moving on, three guys, one girl, and I decided we were done with our shopping excursion. There were cricket fields right next to where our bus was parked, and there were tons of kids playing and running around. The boys decided that they wanted to go play so they went over and were talking to the kids. My girl friend and I decided hey we want to go over to! We walked over and they all were like take our picture take our picture! We did, and we introduced ourselves, and everything seemed fine. We walked around the fence, and as soon as we stepped out onto the field, at least twenty boys ages 8-16 surrounded the two of us girls. They started throwing the cricket ball at us, kissing our arms, grabbing us in all sorts of inappropriate places, and were shouting things in a different language which everyone would start to laugh at. It all happened so fast. The guys we were with didn’t even know what to do and pretty much just grabbed us and walked us back to where we could get back to the bus. As we sat in the hot bus, we watched the guys be treated fine by all the little boys. It was the first time I have ever really experienced something like that, where because I’m a woman I can’t participate or do something that I want to do. It was the first time on this trip that I had ever felt so uncomfortable, which might sound funny because they were such young boys but it was very unsettling.

After that interesting experience, we went out to dinner and got back to the hotel around nine or ten, I’m not really sure. We had to leave at 2 a.m. for our six hour bus ride back to Delhi. It was decided that we would just stay up, so I finished up my twentieth birthday at the bar/restaurant on the roof of our hotel. I requested Indian music (duh) but they would only play American classics like Will Smith and some Hips Don’t Lie. Then Happy Birthday played, and it made me happy. As the night went on our group kept getting bigger and bigger. We ended up meeting some old Indian men who were also up there and two Bollywood dancers. We were all dancing, and I had a ton of fun. It was a great way to finish up my birthday. (And yes, I did use the “It’s still my birthday in America!” line) I got lucky because I was nervous about going on the trip with no one I knew, but everyone was super chill and fun. It was by far the best birthday I’ve ever had.

The next day, (yes that was all in one day) we basically traveled all day long back to Chennai. When we got back, practically the whole Jaipur group went to the snack bar and ordered hamburgers and pizzas. It was delicious. I showered and napped... perfect post-traveling afternoon. That evening I met up with a couple of my friends and went out to eat and ended up getting eaten alive by bugs. Surprise surprise.

For my last day in India I slept in (lame, I know) then went to go shopping. We took an auto rickshaw, and my driver’s name was Babu. The auto rickshaw was a lot of fun and very scary at the same time. Driving in India is madness. There aren’t really lanes, and traffic lights aren’t exactly followed. So it’s a little scary. When we got to the shopping center, we stopped and our drivers told us that we couldn’t go in because there was just a murder inside. Uhhhhhhhh… Supposedly there was a huge gang fight with knives between the Kashmirs and the Tamil, and someone was killed. We decided to bypass that shopping center, and ended up driving around in the rickshaw all day long and not getting much shopping done. I thought it was fun anyway though. I definitely saw a lot of Chennai!

Overall, I really liked India, but a lot of people didn’t. I wouldn’t say that I would never come back. I mean I would never go for a vacation or anything, but I definitely would go back and do some service work or something like that. However, some people just couldn’t get over how dirty it was. It was extremely dirty, and the smell is probably the most memorable thing about India. Well maybe not but it had some intensely bad smells. Such as human feces, cow dung, and hard boiled eggs that have been sitting out in the sun for two weeks. Just to name a few. I can’t imagine being there in the heat of summer when the smells must be intensified. Yum!

One aspect of India I cannot handle is the everyday conversational usage of phrases such as explosive diarrhea, the T. D., addicted to Imodium, or popping the pepto. Boozy (I don’t want to say your real name right now because I am trying to protect your identity), I think of you whenever a conversation such as this comes up. I will no longer have any problem with your bodily function talks because I have heard more graphic details than you can even imagine. Thankfully, I have not gotten sick, but India is doing a number on some people. Ewwwwwww. Boozy, I miss you hahaha.

On our way to India, we talked a lot about the role of women in India. We discussed female infanticide and different religious customs that restrict women throughout the country. My guide, D, has two daughters ages five and two. Someone in my group asked him if he wants a son. He said he is glad that he has daughters because one day, when they each get married, they will go off to their husbands’ families and cause trouble for their mothers in law. He said he’s glad that no one will be entering his family and causing trouble for his wife. It was a really funny explanation, but I wonder how much of that is how he truly feels and how much is more of a defense mechanism story. I also noticed that in most of the advertisements the women were in western looking dress, but I did not see one woman not in traditional clothing while I was in India.

Even though India wasn’t exactly the cleanest or best smelling place I’ve ever been, I’m so glad that I got to experience everything that I did. Yesterday marked the halfway point on my trip. I can’t even think about that right now because I already know that I’m going to be a mess and a half when it’s over. The first half of this trip has been amazing, and I have been to five distinct and beautiful countries. I’m so excited to see what the rest of the ports have in store for me. I’m excited for this second half because we are in port a lot more often (aka a lot less time spent on the ship and in class). Also, I feel like these next few countries are a lot less about partying than really going and taking in all that country has to offer. I have met so many cool people, and I really value even the smallest of the friendships I have made thus far. I’m still meeting people every trip I take, and it’s a lot of fun to walk around the ship and recognize so many people from all over the place. I feel like I’m learning a lot about myself and about how I relate to others. After visiting India, I realize how much I take for granted what people in other places can’t even imagine. As they told us in global studies, this trip is costing more than most people in India will ever see in their lives. We’re the lucky ones. It was really an eye opening experience.

I’ll wrap up this monstrously long entry with a quote that someone shared at our post port meeting:

India is beyond statement, for anything you say, the opposite is also true. It's rich and poor, spiritual and material, cruel and kind, angry but peaceful, ugly and beautiful, and smart but stupid. It's all the extremes. India defies understanding, and for once, for me, that's okay.

–Sarah MacDonald

Love and miss you all!

Mauritius beat me up

Spring Break 2008 in Mauritius.


Mauritius is a tiny island near Madagascar and the Seychelles Islands in the India Ocean. Generally on a map it is a dot. The day we docked, I explored Port Louis, the capital city, with some of my friends. There were a lot of craft markets and street vendors selling all sorts of things from shoes to pepto bismol-like juice.


That afternoon, my friends and I headed to the villa we rented in Flic en Flac. It was about a thirty minute drive away to a much smaller beach community. Now after some confusion over villa booking, we ended up booking this villa like two days before we got there. And so did about fifty other SAS students. At first I was kind of disappointed that we were going to be with so many SASers, but it ended up being a lot of fun. I got to know some people who I usually don’t hang out with, so it was cool. There were five of us in my villa, which wasn’t too bad although, yes, we did have cockroaches. Haha- it was two bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room with a plastic table and chairs, and two bathrooms. Whatever- can’t complain! At meal times, everyone headed out from the own villas to Sandy’s house. She and her family were the owners of the villas and provided us with breakfast and dinner each day. Sandy is a cook and gave us free cookbooks (in French) too. So if you can read French let me know! At meals, they had long tables pushed together so that we were all sitting at one huge table. It ended up being a lot of fun!



The second day, my friends and I went on a trip through school called Blue Escape. We basically sailed around a bay on a catamaran alllll day long just snorkeling and laying in the sun. It was SO beautiful and relaxing. And just when we thought it couldn’t get any better… they brought out chocolate brownies. Hahhaa but seriously, it was a perfect day just lounging around and relaxing.


I spent the entire day on the beach the third day. (I said this was spring break of SAS, didn’t I?) Sandy made us delicious lo mein which thinking about now makes me hungry… That night we walked down to the bar where they were having an “MV Explorer Only” night. It was absolutely FILLED with SASers and ended up being a pretty ridiculous night.
The last day, my friends and I packed up and returned to Port Louis where we looked around at the markets and had an AMAZING meal on the waterfront before heading back to the ship.


Although I left with scrapes, bruises, and about two million bug bites, I had a really good time in Mauritius. One thing I was surprised at was the overall Indian presence. Although we haven’t been there yet, I’m guessing Mauritius will be a lot more like India than Africa. While we were there, a Hindu festival was about to take place. On the streets you would always see people making the pilgrimage and carrying altar like floats. They were beautifully decorated. Off to India I go!