CAPETOWN - DAY ONE

Capetown: March 31, 2010
So surprisingly, we got into Capetown earlier than I had imagined..customs took a quick 30 minutes and we were out roaming the port before we knew it! The port was absolutely beautiful!



The weather was great, as it was fall/winter season right now in Capetown so it was 70 degrees and sunny…The port was actually pretty expensive in terms of food, transportation, etc. I soon learned that the area we were in was the most posh and elite area in all of South Africa! It definitely was a fun area to hang out in..but I knew right when I stepped off of the ship that this isn’t where I wanted to spend the next five days…I needed to get out of the city to interact with locals and immerse myself in the culture.
So anyways, the first thing on my agenda was hitting up Robben Island. Robben Island is one of my most famous prisons in the world, specifically because it was used as a political prison. It became a place to keep the mentally ill, those affected with leprosy, and those people who protested against apartheid. They were banished to the island away from public view. This political prison was in operation until early as 1991!!! The most famous person who was held in prison at Robben Island for 17 years was Nelson Mandela.
Anyways, I was told that tickets to go the island were sold out well before we arrived, but I still went to the ticket counter and decided that I may be able to use my great persuasive skills and get 2 tickets for Chi-Chi and I! Initially they told us that they were sold out for the next five days, but after a lot of pushing, begging, and sweet-talking (skills which I have gradually acquired over the last 21 yrs), a gentleman came up to me and said…2 tickets for 11am, is that okay miss? I tried to keep calm, but was jumping with excitement inside… I said…yes sir, that’s perfect, thank you! I was soooo excited…Chi-Chi was positive that we were going to get in somehow, but I was definitely nervous at first; I’m so glad it worked out, as my top priority in Capetown was to visit the prison and see Mandela’s cell. Chi-Chi just looked at me when I got the tickets, and kept saying..how did you do that Neha, how the hell did you do that??…and I really myself didn’t know how I did it! She proceeded to say, “Neha, girl you’re my ace!” I shook my head and said..i know..i know! 
We had 2 tickets in our hands and we were off on a ferry to Robben Island!
The ferry ride took about 20 minutes and about 300 people fit on the ferry in total. We were actually the only Semester at Sea students (all the other students didn’t get tickets and/or didn’t get to the ticket counter early enough for the 11am ferry..).



So as we arrived at Robben Island, I was a little surprised because the island was actually an entire city! It had a church, a school, offices, homes, and multiple prisons.




I soon learned that it was because the guards and their families all lived on the island. The prisoners were forced to do hard labor; mostly breaking stones in the searing and blinding sun.



All prisoners had long term eye damage and many were now blind because of this. Our tour guides of the prison were actual previous inmates! I couldn’t believe that I was standing next to a man who had been locked in prison for eleven years because he was peacefully protesting apartheid.






In 1990 Nelson Mandela was released and the last remaining prisoners were released in 1991. Mandela the believed that instead of a prison, Robben Island was actually a university because of the immense life lessons he learned from others and about himself. Most former prisoners agree that they never want to forget Robben Island, and thus volunteer educating the public about the history of the prison. They believe that it represents all who sacrificed their freedom for the sake of democracy, the triumph of human condition, and the birth of the new South Africa. Inmates were put into 3 different groups depending on their “crime”; they were allowed only 30 minute visits every six months and only English or Afrikanas was allowed to be spoken. There were over 1,800 prisoners, and I was especially surprised to see graves of people with the name Iyer or Patel. I couldn’t believe there were even Indians who died at this prison! One of our tour guides was named Benjamin Tao and during apartheid he saw his girlfriend shot in the mouth. This event not only scarred him for life, but it motivated him to stand up for his beliefs. He moved to Turkey for a few years and learned how to make explosives..he was part of a huge plan/activity, but unfortunately he miscalculated some parts of the plan and was caught and sent to prison. He stayed at Robben Island for nine years.
We had a chance to see Nelson Mandela’s prison cell.



It brought chills throughout my body to imagine him sitting in this exact cell and hundreds of others, who really had done nothing wrong besides standing up for their basic rights as individuals. I guess the hardest thing for me to wrap my mind around was the fact that this all happened only less than 20 years back! Apartheid was in full swing even after I was born!! That’s insane..it took more than 30 years for the effects of the western nation to be brought about in South Africa..
Anyways, the entire experience was amazing, heart-wrenching, and inspiring. It’s hard to put into words my exact emotions, but it was life-changing for sure.
We got back on the ferry and headed back to Capetown…
The view from the island was gorgeous though...





Our next stop was the market place on Long Street. The market on Long Street was a very different experience then all the other markets I’ve been to so far…One of the most interesting things thus far in this trip has been checking out all the local markets in each country. You get a great sense of the local people, culture, language, smells, and so much more! The market on Long Street was clearly meant for foreigners, so I didn’t have AS much fun as I had had in previous markets, but it was still nice to see traditional handicrafts, jewelry, and interact with an array of people.




I came across a number of diverse restaurants and people. I was surprised at the number of Indians who had recently moved to Capetown from India..they had small “chaat” stores and were surprised when I started speaking to them in Hindi! Although there were many Indians, Europeans (a lot of Dutch), about 65% were Africans from the entire continent. I met many from Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Uganda. The main language people were conversing in was Afrikans, which is has a bit of a Dutch influence.
I had lunch at a small Indian hole in the wall place (I know I was in South Africa, I should have eaten some authentic South African food, but you would be surprised at the few number of authentic restaurants they have! Most restaurants were extremely westernized and served burgers and fries) And besides, I have been craving Indian food ever since I was in India last month! The owner of the restaurant had just moved from Bombay a few months back … we had very interesting conversations..

After that, Chi-Chi and I had to head back to the ship for our Semester at Sea trip, “A Night of Theater” We went to the Artscape Theater in downtown Capetown to watch a performance of one of my personal favorite musicals…GREASE!



Although I was hoping we were going to see an authentic South African performance, I still had a great time as we were lucky enough to go backstage prior to the performance and talk to the actors, directors, and dancers in the musical! Most of them were from Capetown originally, but I was surprised that 99% of them were white. On top of that, in a theater with 500 seats, I could literally count the number of colored/blacks (maybe 3-4). It definitely didn’t feel as if I was in South Africa…but after talking to some locals later on regarding this disparity they simply said that theater and those types of performances were not their idea of entertainment. They suggested that I attend the jazz festival which was going on in South Africa that entire week, as I would probably have a more cultural and diverse experience there. I did just that the next day, and it was AWESOME! I’m so glad I went, as it was an outdoor performance, and every one was singing and dancing along with the musicians..
I didn’t have any plans for the next day since all of my friends were leaving for 3 day safari trips (I had a 1 day safari trip)…So I was just planning on playing it by ear…. little did I know tomorrow would be one of the best days of my trip thus far!

Heaven on Earth - Mauritius!!!

So this is probably hands down the most beautiful place I have ever visited in my life! Crystal clear waters, blue skies, sunny 80 degree weather, amazing food w/ an Indian kick, and posters and billboards of my man – Salman Khan – every where! This country was literally heaven on Earth!



Mark Twain once wrote, “ You gather the idea that Mauritius was made first, and then heaven; and that heaven was copied after Mauritius”. And man was he right! We’ve all seen pictures and movies shot in Mauritius, but actually being there, looking out into the blue waters and beautiful sunrise almost feels unreal it’s that amazing! No picture/video can ever capture the beauty of this island!





The first day I went to the Jummah Mosque in downtown Port Louis. This was a trip which was part of one of my Semester at Sea courses…History of Pakistan: The Islamic Frontier. We headed out at around 9:30am and with my favorite professor, Nillifer Medora, and around thirty other students. It was about a fifteen minute drive to the mosque, as it was located right in the heart of downtown Port Louis (right across the street from China town!)…As we entered the mosque we were greeted so graciously by the President and the Imam at the mosque. This was my first time going to a mosque, and I have to admit I was a little nervous at first on how I would be greeted. Although I was aware that Mauritius is a very diverse and open country in terms of religion, I was debating whether or not I should take off my Ganeshji around my neck and all that jazz…but I decided to just let it go and enter with a open and optimistic attitude…Much to my surprise, everyone at the mosque was extremely accepting and they were all most anxious to talk to me! They spoke to me in Urdu, which is extremely similar to Hindi. They were interested on how I was treated in the U.S. as an Indian and especially after 9/11. They were extremely well versed in U.S. politics and we went into great detail about the similarities between Hindu and Muslim religious practices…


Most of the people at the mosque had grown up in Mauritius, but had roots back in India (in Surat, Gujrat)…some of them had been back to India, but most of their families were settled in Mauritius. Mauritius is actually about 70% Indians and of that around 12% are Muslim and the rest Hindu. The Imam began the program by showing us around the actual mosque and then giving us a brief history on the mosque as well as on the religion of Islam. The presentation was actually extremely interesting, as he focused on clearing up many of the common misconceptions people worldwide often associated with the religion and practices of Islam – I asked him what the biggest misconception, in his opinion, is of Islam, and he said, “unfortunately people have started to regard Islam as a violent religion, when in actuality, it is one which promotes peace and acceptance”. One thing that stood out to me throughout the presentation was when he said NEVER to judge Islam by judging Muslims..you should never evaluate a religion based on the actions of the followers, but rather, you should evaluate it based on the teachings of the actual religion itself…so in this case, by reading and understanding the holy Quran. The explanation behind this is because people are never perfect and they are prone to error; thus, it doesn’t make sense to judge an entire religion based on its followers. He also said that it doesn’t matter if you come to mosque and pray inside the mosque, what matters most is what kind of person you are outside of the mosque..how you act towards others in everyday life. After speaking with my professor on the thoughts of the Imam and the leaders at the mosque, we concluded that this mosque has based many of its beliefs and thoughts on the Sufi and mystical tradition beliefs. It focused a lot on the person and his/her actions rather than strict laws and rules which are sometimes enforced in other more conservative mosques.

This entire experience was a great start to the rest of my trip, as I continuously saw such a great fusion of so many different types of people living in total harmony and peace. Temples, mosques, and churches were all aligned side by side and many locals whom I ran into frequently said that they had never come across any discrimination based on their faith or religion. Actually, the Imam at the mosque mentioned to us that he had been called by one of his good Hindu friends to inaugurate the opening of a temple! Mauritius should be a model for the world and society as a whole…Although they became to be a republic only in 1992, the government has done an excellent job in stabilizing the country and making it a peaceful and enjoyable country to live in. It has only about 1.2 million people, but it is SO diverse, it’s unbelievable! People can usually speak in about 4-5 different languages minimum…including: Creole (their local language which is like a broken French), Bhojpuri, English, Hindi, Mandarin, and many others…After the lecture, we had the opportunity to interact with local students at the mosque and eat biryani with them..although it was no Hyderabadi Biryani, I think people really enjoyed it. Because I was vegetarian, I thought I would probably go hungry the entire day, but the people were incredibly kind and right away brought up hot daal and rice with mango achaar! It was perfect and definitely hit the spot! They even brought out amazing halwa for dessert..that definitely was an added bonus!


After the visit to the mosque, I took a taxi along with some other friends to Flick and Flack, which is about an hour North of Port Louis..as we were trying to bargain the price of the taxi, our driver kept swearing in Hindi, and not realizing that I understand almost every word coming out of his mouth, he kept talking and talking under his breath..finally, when we agreed on the price, he asked me in English, “did you understand what I was saying?” I said yes, and he said, yeah I was just saying how great of customers you guys are…I rolled my eyes and said oh yeah, thank you so much! He was quite a character and kept us entertained the whole ride…

I met up with a few of my good friends, including Chi Chi and Jenny, at the Hilton in Flick and Flack! This was basically like a resort and was absolutely gorgeousssssssssss! We sat down next to the beach and the bartenders kept bringing us drinks and smoothies nonstop (complementary too!)




Although Chi-Chi and I weren’t exactly staying at the Hilton..we decided to make the most of the trip to Flick and Flack so we took advantage of all the amenities that the Hilton offered its customers, since our friends had a room there for that evening! We went kayaking, paddleboating, and jetskiing in the Indian ocean for the afternoon!



It was sooo much fun and the view was absolutely breathtaking…I promise, I am taking all my friends and family back to Mauritius with my first paycheck! You could literally see through the waters, they were so clear. The coral was absolutely stunning – so colorful and unique looking!




We saw the sunset on the beach while stretched out in hammocks! We were a little hungry at the point but only had about 20 minutes before we had to head on over to Grand Bay..so we casually made our way to the buffet dinner which was being provided for all of the Hilton guests. Although we weren’t “technically” Hilton guests, they staff practically FORCED us to sit down and eat comfortably until we couldn’t eat any more! We walked out of that Hilton like we owned the place, and after having some of the best desserts and tortes and chocolate mousse cake I’ve ever had in my LIFE, Baba and his friend were there waiting to take us to Grand Bay!

Baba is actually the brother of my mom’s collegauge- he owns his own tour company called “Moonlight Tours”, so he was an incredibly helpful resource, as he gave us a tour of Flick and Flack, Port Louis, and finally Grand Bay. He arranged a villa for the five of us friends in Grand Bay…the villa was basically a beach side home surrounded with palm trees and scenic beauty! It was absolutely amazing…the man who owned the place was Indian and talked with me for a long time about my Semester at Sea trip as well as how he ended up in Mauriitus! He could obviously sense that I missed my mom a lot, and so he brought over a bunch of old phone cards from past customers, which all had 5-10 minutes left on them! Because I couldn’t find a place to purchase phone cards at this late of on hour, this was absolutely perfect…got to call home from the villa and talk to everyone back home!


Oh - and how could I forget, I had a special, SPECIAL added bonus to my trip! Salil Uncle, my mom's friend from school, came to visit me in Mauritius! I was supposed to meet him in Port Louis for dinner, but obviously overbooked my entire day, and unfortunately didn't make it back to Port Louis in time! I didn't think I would have the opportunity to meet Uncle, but I am SO grateful, he took a cab from Port Louis to Grand Bay at 10pm to come visit my friends and I! It was so nice to see Uncle, and if you are reading this Uncle, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! I promise I will make up this confusion to you when you come visit the states! Life is pretty crazy when you think about it...Uncle is from Delhi, India and I'm from Northville, MI --- and we met up in Grand Bay, Mauritius! Wow!

So, after about 3 hours of sleep, we were up again for another exciting and fun-filled day! This was probably one of the best days of my life! We met up with about 30 other semester at sea students for a catamaran ride from Grand Bay to Port Louis...

For those of you who don't know what a catamaran is (because I sure didn't!), it is basically a huge boat that can fit around 40 people..
We had breakfast while sailing for two hours and then stopped in a nice place to dive off and snorkel! While we were snorkeling, the captains were BBQ-ing a fresh lunch for us!



Snorkeling was amazing -- Although I have been snorkeling in Hawaii with my family, I don't think I really remembered how amazing the feeling was to be so close to coral, fish, and all these beautiful living creatures!



The entire day was full of sunshine, music, dancing, eating, and just enjoying the scenery and beauty we were surrounded by! After about four hours we sailed past our home and the catamaran dropped us off right at our door!



Home Sweet Home!

I loved Mauritius, and I truly can't wait to go back!!!

JAPAN - DAY 1 ( I know it's a little late! )

So quick note before the rest of my blogs -
All these posts have been written VERY, VERY quickly, and I have not had a chance to go back and edit. You will soon realize that on a trip like Semester At Sea and when you're traveling the WORLD, it's hard to care about grammar, spelling, etc when there are sooo many experiences and travels to document...so many thoughts going on in my mind, my fingers can't even type as fast as my mind is traveling...So please don't judge :) Just enjoy!

JAPAN – DAY 1

So the excitement of visiting another country had been increasing for way too long! We finally arrived in Yokohama, Japan on Tuesday Feb 9. It took a few hours to clear customs, and I was praying that my fever would be gone by then, as they took my temperature before I was able to depart! Luckily everything worked out well! As we stepped into Yokohama, we were greeted by about twenty Japanese drummers, who were welcoming us to their country! In the terminal, we had the opportunity to put on kimonos and have our names written in Japanese as well! And those were the first and last “free” bonuses we received in Japan!



At about 11am, Shunta, a friend of a friend’s met us at the terminal. He is from Tokyo, and was actually was a foreign exchange student at Boston University (the school were my friend Alyssa studies at), a few years back. He took us to the subway station (a place where I spent most of my days!) and took us over to Shabuya! Shabuya is like a district of Tokyo. I would most likely compare it to the Manhattan of NYC! It reminded me of a Japanese Times Square times 10!
Shabuya and Japan in general is incredibly clean and organized. Although there are more than eight million people living in this city (and no public trash cans), the Japanese do a wonderful job of keeping their city clean. The public transportation is so well organized and easy to follow.




The second day after my Cultural Tokyo trip with Semester at Sea, I was planning on meeting my friends at the hotel. I had to travel on my own after the trip to the Sheraton…that was definitely an experience! I was scared/stressed/excited/liberated all at the same time! It took me about 2 hours to travel a total of 10 miles by the subway. I asked about ten people along the way, took a couple wrong subways, got off at a few wrong stops, but somehow I finally ended up at the Sheraton in one piece! The Japanese are very, very helpful people. If they don’t know how to help you, they make sure they find someone who can, and direct you along the right path. Although I knew just a few words in Japanese (arigato (thank you), konichiwa (hello), swimasei (exuse me)) and many Japanese knew just a little English, it was amazing how I could still communicate and figure out what to order, where to go, and more just by using my hands and drawing pictures! Although my Japanese may not have gotten too much better, I have become an expert in universal sign language!
So back to Shabuya – This city was not only bustling with people, but the fashion in Shabuya is totally unpredictable. I felt like I was walking through a Lady Gaga music video. We all felt so underdressed while walking past the fashionable Japanese! Not even a single person was wearing jeans, let along a sweatshirt and backpack!
We ran into a group of school boys who were in their uniforms…they didn’t know much English, but we really wanted a picture with them, so we took out our cameras and they were so excited! They couldn’t believe that us foreigners wanted a picture with them. They pointed to one of my friends and said, “Mariah Carey”, and we said yeah, yeah! They whipped out all of their cameras as well, and we had a little photo shoot with the Japanese highschoolers for about fifteen minutes!




The next major task was finding a bank/currency exchange. This process SHOULD have taken 30 minutes tops, but of course that didn’t happen, and instead we spent three hours trying to find a place to exchange money! It would have been helpful knowing the word for bank, but instead we tried every other method of explaining bank/money exchange to everyone!
We went into a Japanese H&M, and the usual sizes that would fit me, wouldn’t even make it over my hips…I felt a little better when I learned the same was true for all of my American friends! Not surprisingly, we didn’t end up leaving with any new outfits..
We spent the rest of the afternoon roaming around Shabuya and checking out the huge malls..the biggest of which is called 109 degrees ( a separate one for men and women) Man the fashion in Tokyo and Shabuya is out of this WORLD! The styles are very funky and unique. I noticed a lot of leggings, boots, looser clothing, and big accessories - including jewelry and bags! And people there wear sooo much make up! Wow..this was an entirely different culture (so different from anything I have ever seen in India or the states)
So after we met back up with Shunta, we took a little while deciding on where to go to eat...This was definitely a challenge since the Japanese are not very vege friendly type of people...We went into this place where you order dinner through a vending machine! It was soooo neat until we found out that there was nothing vegetarian. Then we went to a restaurant which was incredibly overpriced for anyone's budget (Japan is probably the most expensive country I have visited thus far!) Finally, we found a nice, authentic Japanese restaurant with HOMEMADE tofu! I was extremely excited in the beginning, but quite honestly, I wasn't ThAT impressed with the Japanese food. First of all, I couldn't use those damn chopsticks to save my life. I was sooo hungry, and I couldn't get the food into my mouth as fast as I had hoped to! Moreover, I don't know if I'm generalizing, but the Japanese definitely need to take a trip over to India to learn about some spices and sauces to add to their dishes, because that was probably the most bland food I had ever had! I mean it obviously tasted very healthy and fresh, but it could have used some masala and spice for sure! But...as I frequently had to remind myself, when you're in Japan, do as the Japanese do! So, I put a smile back on my face and ate the flavorless tofu and noodles with the chopsticks which never seemed to want to stay in my hands!




Anyways, it was an amazing day! I had some great experiences, and I can't believe that it just the first of many! Oh my gosh, I almost forgot to mention, the amazing invention of the Japanese has to be the heated toilets!!!!! I swear, when I'm a rich doctor, I am going to by all my friends and family this Toto Toilet from Japan. It is warm, soft, padded, and just feels AMAZING on the tush...
great bonus to the day! I was exhausted by the end of this day for sure!

Suman Women's College Semester at Sea students visit!

India Pictures! (Blog is coming, I promise!)

So my trip to India has been simply AMAZING so far...as it always is! It has been extra special since I've had the unique opportunity to take all my friends around India and introduce them to the food, culture, and amazing people of India! We arrived in Chennai, where Nanaiji and Nanaji met me. From there we flew to Hyd (and my friends flew to Delhi to tour Delhi and Agra), and I met up with seven of my close friends in Hyderabad! I'm so happy and proud to say that Hyderabad was by FAR their favorite city in India! I took them to Birla Mandir, Golkunda fort, Charminar, Lad Bazaar (they LOVED the glass bangles shopping), GVK One, and even my favorite restaurant for dosas - Taj Mahal! THe highlight of the day was definitely visiting the girls at Suman's Women's College. We each made a short speech emphasizing the value of education and importance of hard work and dedication. We had lunch, passed out books and snacks, and spoke with the girls for a bit. Each one of my friends was truly touched after we left the college, as I think my grandmother gave all of us a sense of purpose and hope!
We ended the day with facials, pedicures, and the spa! We had dinner late night at our place in Banjara Hills where we all stalyed up until midnight talking and talking...

Okay - my flight to Cochin is about to leave! Got to go - but I promise I will update very soon!

I LOVE INDIA!

GREAT WALL OF CHINA!!!

The view from on top of the great wall! absolutely breathtaking!


Can't believe I'm actually here!


Amazing weather, great friends, and on top of a wonder of the world...life couldn't be better!!


In the cable car on our way up the great wall!


Here we go!

Orphanage Visit and Local Family Visits In Shanghai!

Learning some great Kung-Fu skills from the famous Kung FU school in Beijing! We taught them the maccarena and soldier boy while they taught us the art of Kung Fu!


At an orphanage in Beijing with 300 kids who were abandoned by their parents...
This was such an emotional moment, and I truly hope I can go back to this same orphange one day and provide them with the care that they each deserve! I taught this little boy my famous "cutting off my finger" trick..he was AMAZED and then showed it to all of his friends!


My badminton buddy at the orphanage..we played for one hour straight!


Tug of war between the kids from the orphanage and the Semester at Sea-ers...I joined the kids' side :)


Rickshaw ride with my fellow Cincy buddy, Katie, as we went to a local home for dinner and dumpling making in Beijing!