Pre Egypt

I want to say that I regret the last part of my last post. It’s been on my mind a lot lately. I keep thinking, how are Democrats responding to my partisanship? I don’t really know why I have to be so demeaning. Democrats are good-willed people and are doing their best to make America the best it can be.

I’d like to apologize for my divisive nature, and promise that I won’t do it again.

I spend the majority of my time on this ship talking to Democrats. My best friends on this ship are Democrats. Everyday I meet Democrats that have good ideas. I’m not anti-Democrat. I want to work closely with Democrats when I am an elected official. I’m a very compatible person by nature and I think I can use this to my advantage. For example, I’m friends with two kids on this ship who are roommates. These two kids don’t get along at all, never talk, and are never seen together. They both say they have a personality clash. I get along with both of them and enjoy spending time with both. I want to take this and apply it to politics, to bring Democrats and Republicans together.

My last post worked directly against this hope of mine. I didn’t realize I felt this way until I wrote that and posted it. This happens a lot to me and is one of the reasons I write. I make realizations I wouldn’t have made before if I hadn’t put it into words on paper.

Now what prompted me to write that were a few things; the Robin Hood Paradox, seeing true poverty, and talking to someone.

The Robin Hood Paradox goes like this. As nations become richer, their governments dedicate more money to social spending. The developed nations of today spend proportionally more on welfare, poor-relief, education, and public health than do undeveloped nations. Countries like India spend very little on these things and do practically nothing to correct the income inequality. Income inequality in poor countries is greater than in rich countries.

The paradox is that the poor countries are the ones that need social transfers most but practice it least. The rich countries need social transfers least but practice it most.

Seeing true poverty in Myanmar and India changed me along with most people on this boat. Everybody seems to be echoing the thought that Americans are whiney and spoiled. Nobody, literally not a single person, in America lives like rural Indians. Homeless shelters, food banks, and public libraries with free access to internet do not exist in India or Inle Lake, Myanmar. Free public schooling of American caliber does not exist in India or Myanmar. People can’t go to Job Corps and get free job training. There are no such things as workman’s compensation or unemployment benefits.

These observations help explain the Robin Hood Paradox. These observations illustrate how the Robin Hood Paradox works.

While talking to someone, they said income inequality in America was a huge problem that needed fixing and America needed to spend more money on the poor. I don’t want to sound like a poor hater by saying we shouldn’t do more for our poor, but the argument held little water for me after seeing what life was like in these other places.

Also, I learned from my economics professor a thing or two about foreign aid. Foreign aid often times falls into corrupt leaders’ hands and does not help the poor of the country. Also, giving foreign aid to countries props up bad institutions. Bad institutions are inefficient governments. Private aid does better things.

Regardless, I have realized that the inequality in the world is a problem that needs to be fixed. I am more likely now to volunteer abroad or do something like Peace Corps than ever before.

My heart breaks for the people of India. It’s just too much to comprehend. I wish I knew what to do. OK I’m not going to go on and on getting more and more emotional, I’m done.

I’m on my way home now. I’m no longer getting farther away. We are past half way. I was quite disturbed to find this out, because my worst fear is coming true; this trip is going by too fast. A few days ago I was sitting up on the 7^th deck forward with the wind in my face, the sun dropping, banging on some bongos while Michael strummed his guitar and sang tunes. Knowing the answer to the question, I asked him, “Has it hit you yet that we are on a ship going around the world?”

He replied, “Yes! This has just turned into the same old shit day after day.” It’s amazing how fast we humans adapt to changing circumstances.

This stretch between India and Egypt is the longest time we are on the ship the entire voyage; ten days. It only takes nine days to cross the Atlantic. After we hit Egypt, there are two days on the ship until Turkey, then two days on the ship until Croatia, then four days until Spain, then nine days until Florida.

Because of this, the classes have been kicking it up. I have tests in all four of my classes. Yesterday I nailed my world music exam, precisely naming which countries each example was from and explaining their cultural context. Today I have to take my earth’s climate exam and explain the Hadley circulation, how the tropical easterlies and mid latitude westerlies are formed, and explain why hurricanes and typhoons are low pressure storms that spin anti clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere. Tomorrow I have to study India and Egypt, state building via military, and the circumstances of the poor for Global Studies. I also have to study the government’s proper role in the economy as well as the history of the rise and fall of socialism in the world for my economics country analysis class.

On top of all of this, I have to try to keep up with the elections. I can not believe it is less than two weeks until the election! It is very exciting for me, but I feel so disconnected because I haven’t heard any of the ads and I don’t know who is slinging more mud. I’ve only heard how low the campaigns have gone. Because most college friends are cemented sophomore year, and the election is also this year, I don’t think I could have chosen a worst semester. I’m not complaining, I’m just stating a fact.

India

I woke up in India. I woke up on a ship that’s no longer moving. It’s just the most surreal thing to do. I went outside to eat breakfast and was greeted by a powerful stench that I wouldn’t get used to. There were probably a thousand Hyundai cars parked around the port. I guess Chennai is the Detroit of South Asia.

After breakfast we got a comedy show from the U.S. Consulate. It was the best diplomatic briefing we’ve had. He gave us the rundown on what not to do, what diseases not to get, and the number to call if we get thrown in jail or lose our passport. Because of the massive Indian bureaucracy it took forever to get the ship cleared, and I didn’t have a chance to get off the ship before my first trip left.

I did a YMCA Community Center service visit. I really had no idea how large the YMCA is or the extent of its reach. First we went to the boys’ home. There were 100 boys living here. They were ready to have a good time when we showed up. They sang and danced for us, we sang and danced for them, and then we got the chance to interact. These kids love to play the thumb war game. I had thumb war after thumb war. The kids seemed enthralled with my camera, so I gave it to them for the time I was there. I got my camera back at the end and I thought it might explode from overheating. About ninety pictures had been taken.

It was sad to leave them, especially because one of them asked me if I was coming back tomorrow. We drove to the working women’s home. Women can live here for a while if they are down on their luck. It was Sunday so a bunch of them were watching TV. We had some tea and snacks before going to the boys’ school.

The boys’ school has 1200 students, and the YMCA is picking up the bill. I think 200 of them are living at the YMCA, and the rest are just members of the community who want some free schooling.

When we got there, the boys sang us some songs and then we sang them some songs. I kind of wanted to play some more thumb wars with the kids, but one fellow in our group decided to sing for them for the rest of the time, which was probably 45 minutes. He studies theatre.

After this we went to the YMCA guest house where we met all 20 or so of the administrators of the program, including the head guy, who had traveled all around the world and been to America multiple times for the YMCA. We had dinner with them and ate with our hands. Eating cooked vegetables, rice, and sauce with my fingers was so strange. There was just some ingrained manner in me that wouldn’t let this feel right. I enjoyed it though. Then we went back to the ship.

I just can’t believe how much the YMCA is doing for this community here. I had no clue the YMCA was this big, this multinational, or this good. It is putting poor kids through school, and giving “semi-orphans” a place to live. How is all this funded? I’m going to need to do some research on this incredible association.

My roommate and I just spent the next day in Chennai. We met this fantastic rickshaw driver in the morning who took us around all day and the next. His name is Giri and he has a book with a bunch of references. Students from SAS Spring 2001 had written that Giri is an honest and good rickshaw driver. It was pretty sweet.

First thing we did was go get some food. It was quite a struggle to find a restaurant that served beer. There are no such things as bars or clubs here. Apparently only people on the margin of society even drink. I guess it’s hard to get a license to serve alcohol. Anyway the food was fantastic.

Witnessing people treating the streets and sidewalks as toilets was a real eye opener about how these people live. I took full advantage of the opportunity though. When else am I going to have the chance to urinate on the sidewalk of a main street during rush hour?

After a late breakfast and an early start on the beer, we headed to Guindy National Park. There was a zoo with all kinds of snakes and crocodiles. I enjoyed it. We went to some markets for Giri. He said we just had to go in and walk around and then come back out for him to get a little commission. I appreciated the honesty so I did it for him. I really don’t enjoy going into some of these stores because the people are so pushy. We went to a Hindu temple, where this strange guy gave us an unsolicited tour.

As it got towards the end of the day and the beers began piling up, I decided I wanted to try driving a rickshaw. Giri, being the great guy he is, said I could drive his. I really wanted to give it a go in the city, but Giri was having none of it. He drove us to the beech where the traffic was light and let me have a go at it. He was reluctant to take his hand off the handle bars because he thought I would try to turn too sharply and flip it over. It was fun, what else can I say?

We told Giri to meet us the next morning at 9:30 because we were going to Mamallapuram. My roommate ended up having a fever the next day and the doctor wouldn’t let him off the ship, so I went by myself. I was actually pretty excited about it. I had been wanting to travel by myself, but this was the first time I had the chance.

Giri was right there waiting for me, and we headed to Mamallapuram. It’s about a two hour drive by rickshaw. The hot Indian air was blowing across my face as the city dissipated and we transferred into rural areas. I saw tsunami victims’ housing projects on the way, beautiful beeches, and open fields.

I really enjoyed Mamallapuram. It just felt really authentic. It wasn’t touristy at all, and I didn’t run into any other SASsers. First thing I saw was the lighthouse built by the British. Then I saw a number of rock carvings, including the Five Rathas. Some of the carvings go back 2000 years, and they haven’t been restored so it was neat to see.

My favorite thing in Mamallapuram was the Shore Temple. It’s the temple on the beech in the picture. I just really felt like I was stepping back in time while I was there. I could totally imagine a bunch of Indians carving it out of a massive stone in 700 AD. I sat on the beech for a while and saw three Indian men go into the ocean, throw some leaves backwards over their heads, and then splash water on themselves. They were praying.

Giri and I stopped at the “Ideal Resort” on the way back for a late lunch. I bought him lunch and we relaxed. Back in Chennai I stopped at a few more shops for him, bought some spices, and then headed back to the ship.

The next morning, the fourth day, I left for my Dalit Village Overnight and service project. The Dalits are the lowest caste in India. They are the poorest people and have the least opportunity. India has reservation, which is like affirmative action, for Dalits.

We drove for a few hours to get out into the middle of nowhere. Before going to the village, we visited a place called the Delta. It is a Dalit training and schooling center. We met the doctor who got the grant to do it and runs it. He runs a nursing school for women. We got a nice welcome by the nursing students who sang and danced for us. It was quite special.

We played throwball with the girls after lunch. Throwball is basically volleyball except you just throw it over the net and catch it. The ball can’t touch your body and you can’t fumble it at all. It has to be a clean catch and throw. It was pretty fun and the girls got pretty competitive, and I was on the losing team both times we played.

After the game I met this beautiful girl named Priya. She was a twenty year old Dalit who was going to become a nurse. It was sad to leave, just like it always is.

We then proceeded to the Dalit Village. We were told they were expecting us, but we were not expecting the welcome we got. When we showed up the entire village was waiting by the road. Everyone from babies to old men and women was there. They started screaming and yelling and jumping up and down. There was a group of guys playing drums and a bunch of people dancing. It was so surreal. I couldn’t believe it was happening.

We started the walk towards the village four-way. We were stopped every fifteen feet to be blessed with water and to have yellow paste put on our face. We joined in on the dancing and everyone was smiling.

We got to the village center and got a wonderful show of dancing and singing, again. The little girls of the village even did a dance that was just precious and so cute. There was instrument playing, women dancing with things balanced on their heads, acrobat shows, and fire spitting. Power died halfway through the show, but some guy scurried up the power pole and amazingly fixed it.

After that we were expected to give them a show. I guess this is common all across Asia. Every place I go we are expected to sing and dance, and I’m always made aware that Americans can’t entertain at all. We did the hokey pokey and shook it all about, sang the national anthem and Amazing Grace and called it good.

We went to the roof of the only concrete building in the village and did some meditation. I actually really enjoyed it. We each had little clay dishes with oil and a wick. We just watched our flame and thought about life in rural India for fifteen minutes.

We then grabbed our sleeping bags and laid them out on the concrete, ate our boxed dinners from the ship, and tried to sleep. The stars were out, the bats were out, and it only rained once during the night. We were up at 5:30 AM the next morning, along with the sun, the crows, and the roosters. The bathroom was the bush across the road, away from the village.

We walked around the village, visiting the families. Our guide would tell us about the family, which almost every one of them the husband was working in the field and the wife was a house wife. The men have worked the fields for generations. The kids were running around being kids. We got to go inside the palm leaf roofed houses. Five people were living in a probably 80 square feet room. The village was about 75 families, or 400-500 people. Nobody in the village owns the land.

The Communist Party in India is actually in control in a few states, and they have taken land from the land owners and given it to the poor people. Who would have ever thought that I would agree with the Communists? I have no solution to the problem of the Dalits. If this trip has made anything clear to me, it’s that I don’t have the answers to everything, and that maybe the free market doesn’t solve every single problem. I actually don’t have any answers to any of the world’s problems. I have some ideas, but really I’m clueless.

We left the Dalit village and went back to our comfortable ship. I felt like a slime ball after two days without a shower. It felt so good to take a hot shower, something the Dalits may have never done. It just blows my mind.

India is the dirtiest place we’ve visited. It’s kind of strange how this trip has worked out. We have gone from rich to poor to poorer, from developed to less developed, almost exactly in order of the countries we visited. Japan was in great shape. China is on its way. Vietnam is poor but not as poor as Myanmar. India is worse off than any other country.

The big debate is over India or China and which one will be the next superpower. Both are so incredibly far away it’s just hard to fathom either of them ever being an economic powerhouse. Neither has the infrastructure. After visiting both countries, I have no clue which one will come out ahead. They both have their pros and cons, and I haven’t a clue about what the future holds for either.

I feel like India was talked up too much. Everybody says India will change your life; you won’t be the same person after visiting India. Maybe my senses are overloaded, or dulled from everything I’ve already seen, or maybe I don’t know how to LOLA enough to see India for what it is, but India was no more affronting or surprising or mind blowing than any other country I’ve been to. Don’t get me wrong, India is way different, just like all the countries.

Seeing people sleeping on the streets and throwing trash on the road and defecating on the beech and selling fish in a market that smells bad enough to make a person gag was eye opening, but I don’t feel like a different person. I realize that I could never live in India. Some students on a panel in Global Studies said they could live in India no problem. I couldn’t do it, and I don’t believe the kids on the panel. Maybe I’m a spoiled whiny American, and I feel bad about that. I feel guilty about how much better off I am than the rest of the world. The contrast between America and every place I’ve been outside of North America is unbelievable. America is simply so far ahead, so much better off than everybody it is enough to make a person question themselves. Why me? Why you? Why not me? Why not you?

I don’t think India will hit me until I’m back in Montana.

I don’t think a lot of this stuff I’ve seen will hit me until I get back to the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. I spend time thinking about Montana and my hometown of Manhattan, and it makes me feel sentimental and nostalgic. I guess I realize I won’t be able to see it the way I saw it before. It feels so far away right now. Montana doesn’t seem real to me right now, just like India didn’t seem real to me before I visited it. As far as I’m concerned, I haven’t been to Montana. The new me hasn’t been to my hometown. I think about going home and I can’t imagine it. I don’t want to prepare myself for it either, because I want it to hit me like a ton of bricks when I get there.

Back on the ship, the second day away from India we had our Bering Sea Social. The ship is divided up into Seas for administrative reasons. Our social was so much fun, but India hung over our heads. We hung out in a posh, air conditioned lounge, drinking imported beers, singing karaoke, and dancing on a rocking ship. Meanwhile, Dalits went to bed when the sun went down, and tried to sleep in sweltering heat without AC to be well rested for the following day in the field that will earn them less than two dollars.

I guess it makes me realize that everything we have in this world is given to us. We haven’t earned anything. I don’t deserve it at all. Everything is a gift, and the only thing I can do is be thankful, and try to do anything for the rest of the world.

OK now let’s switch gears here. Actually let’s switch more than just gears, let’s switch vehicles entirely. Maybe you want to read this next section at a different time, because I wrote it at a different time, and it might be hard to think about both issues simultaneously. But if what I’ve written so far has had no impact on you, read on.

A kid asked me why I am a Republican, expecting it to be some tough question which the response would be easily rebutted. I told him I believe in the power of the individual rather than the power of the government. In case after case, this is the basic difference between Republican and Democrat.

I explained that I don’t believe in the seatbelt law. If someone wants to drive without a seatbelt on, I think they should be able to. I think our cops should be doing more important things than pulling people over who didn’t buckle up. I’ve heard the reason that people who don’t wear their seatbelts drive up the cost of insurance because they get hurt more often. If you are prepared to take away everyone’s freedom just so you can see an extremely marginal decrease in insurance rates, you have bigger issues that I don’t know how to deal with. I believe the individual should decide if he or she wants to wear a seatbelt, not the government.

We can take this same philosophy and turn it to foreign aid. Consistently, Democrats complain that the government doesn’t give enough foreign aid. The U.S. only gives 0.1% of GDP, while other countries give 0.2% or 0.3%, with some even giving the UN goal of 0.7%! The U.S. didn’t give enough in tsunami relief!

What people fail to take into account is the private charities that come out of the United States. For example, tsunami relief donations from the American people outweighed what the American government gave. The power of the individual trumps the power of the government. I can’t even begin to name or describe all the private non-profit organizations that are dedicated to helping the poor in other countries. The YMCA comes to mind. The American people consistently show that they are willing to give money from their own pockets, money that we get to keep because of low tax rates. Democrats want the government to take that money and give it away for them.

Democrats love to blame President Bush for what happened after Katrina. They expect a massive, inefficient bureaucracy to handle all the nations’ problems while they sit and watch people die on their TV. They expect a bankrupt government to give out money it doesn’t have. It doesn’t make economic sense. It is bad fiscal policy. Maybe the people who blame the government the most should get up and do something about it themselves like many of their fellow Americans do and did. People need to stop relying on the government for everything, and start relying on each other. I just don’t understand the philosophy that preaches higher taxes and more foreign aid, thereby taking the money that would have been given to charities away. Isn’t it more rewarding to give the money yourself rather than have your government give it? Do Democrats have no faith in the goodwill of Americans?

These are pictures of all my good friends from the Bering Sea. 

The top left is Giri and his rickshaw. The top right is me in Giri's rickshaw. The bottom is Giri and I eating. 

The top left is a housig project for tsunami victims. The top right is the Shore Temple in Mamallapuram. The bottom picture is the boys from the YMCA. 

Food pictures. 

Pictures from the YMCA. 

Myanmar

I love these ports where we have to cruise upriver to dock. I watched field after field float past, each dotted with a house made of bamboo. Occasionally there would be a stupa, or a few houses clustered together, or a herd of cattle.

The first morning on the bus ride to the airport, I saw a truck with a canvas covered back and four soldiers in it carrying what appeared to be M-16s. Later I saw a whole convoy of these with their lights flashing, and I looked around at the local people, and nobody seemed to notice. I once wrote a blog about a police car that careened through a parking lot on the Missoula campus, and everybody stopped to watch it and only until it was gone did people continue on. Nobody here stopped to watch a military convoy go past.

We had a one hour flight from Yangon to Heho. On the descent I looked down and saw plains of fields surrounded by mountains. The landscape of this country was the closest I’ve yet come to being in Montana. Most of the people live in rural areas, the mountains are similar, the fields are similar, and the low light, air, and water pollution is similar. The similarities stop there.

There was a one hour drive from Heho airport to Inle Lake. On the way we stopped at the first of many monasteries. We took our shoes and socks off, listened to the monk reading the texts, and tried to imagine life here.

When we got to Inle Lake we transferred to the canoes that are best described by their picture. We used these canoes the entire time. We had the most relaxing one hour ride to the other end of the lake. This first ride was an amazing experience. I spent a lot of time LOLAing (Listen Observe Learn Act). I couldn’t believe what I was seeing; houses on stilts, floating gardens, and fisherman gathering nets. The lake was absolutely beautiful. There were no skyscrapers. There were no paved roads around. There was nothing that reminded me of a city, and that’s what I really liked. I spent a lot of this ride in prayer, and I’m not sure I’ve ever felt closer.

We pulled up to a restaurant and were greeted by a group of Burmese banging on gongs and bongos. It was a nice reception. The restaurant, like everything else on the lake, was built on stilts. We sat and ate outside.

After lunch we headed for the main town area of the lake. We went to the main pagoda and walked around, observing people bowing to Buddha. I found a vendor selling beetle-nuts and because I’d learned about this and seen it done on video, I bought five of them. It is a leaf that is wiped with a white lime mixture and then wrapped around what are called beetle-nuts. I guess it has tobacco in it and some other kind of stimulant. I chewed and spat for a while. The locals loved to laugh at me. It didn’t taste bad at all. It quickly became apparent why many of the people here had bright red mouths and bright red teeth that looked like they could fall out any minute.

When we got to our hotel, I immediately realized why Lonely Planet describes the Golden Island Cottages as honeymoon material. There is a beautiful main lodge with elevated walkways leading to individual cottages that have private balconies. The whole complex, obviously, is made of wood and built on stilts.

The next day we woke up at five AM to go to some boat races that were the culmination of a festival that had been going on. We got there and waited until ten before we decided to leave. The festival was being held up because a general was supposed to come but never showed up. Supposedly he was second in command, and the races wouldn’t start without him. Later we heard somebody said the festival was for Buddha and not the general and the races did start, but we missed them.

After that we rode up one of the rivers feeding Inle and hiked to another pagoda. There was people selling stuff the entire way up. These people weren’t anything like other vendors though. They wouldn’t badger a person and yell stuff. They would smile and laugh if you didn’t want to buy something. It was refreshing. We stopped and saw some ruined pagodas and then headed for lunch. We ate at another floating restaurant and it was very tasty.

We visited a cheroot making factory. A cheroot is the local cigar. One person working here could make about 1000 in one day! It was quite interesting to see how proficient they were. We then visited a blacksmith and watched people pound on metal with sledge hammers. Then we visited a weaving place and watched women put to use the classic weaving machine that I don’t know how to describe. Then we went to a silversmith and watched people make necklaces and what not. I bought a silver necklace that had the local design. Dinner was at the hotel.

The next morning we went to a small village and walked around. Our guide did a great job of explaining all sorts of things. I took great interest in watching a group of little boys climbing over fences and running around. I took a guess that they were being quite mischievous. It was great to see.

We went to a boys and girls orphanage. I have no idea how I felt about it. I did not feel like myself while I was there, that I know for sure.

We hiked up to a monastery in the middle of the woods and fed the monks before dining ourselves. Monks have to be given their food before they can eat, and they can’t eat after noon. After this we had the choice to hike more into the forest, or head back to the hotel for a relaxing afternoon and canoe rides with people who row with their legs. I chose the relaxing afternoon, and I’m so glad I did. The group got split up and lost. The kids showed up to the hotel at different times. The group that was able to stay with the guide said they ended up hiking around ten miles. I have no idea how exaggerated that is, but one of the kids did have a GPS.

When I got back to the hotel my roommate Nick and I decided to take a relaxing leg driven canoe ride. The Shan people, who are the people that live in Inle Lake, have developed a unique way of rowing. They stand on the back of the canoe and hold the paddle with their right hand and wrap their right leg around the ore. They paddle this way, and then paddle sideways to keep the canoe going straight. It is quite interesting. Our guy took us in these extremely small canals where we saw tomatoes growing. Then he paddles us through what must have been his village because everyone knew him. He seriously had little conversations with probably twenty or thirty people. Everyone laughed and smiled and chit chatted and stared. We came to see them, but we are also here for them to see us.

Another group’s guy took six of us and brought us into his home. There was a family of about ten that lived in this one building. Everyone was happy and glad to offer us fruit and tea. It was quite unbelievable.

After the relaxing, hospitable, and educational canoe ride I went and sat out on my balcony and drank a beer and smoked a cheroot and watched life go by on Inle Lake. Dinner that night was accompanied by a dance and song performance by the hotel workers. It was wonderful, and afterwards I got a chance to play the eight foot bongo.

The next day we transferred back to the entrance to Inle Lake, where we got to see a flooded town. We saw the other group’s hotel that was flooded. They had to wade through knee deep water to get out of their hotel. Our bus was creating massive waves that were washing up on people’s front doorsteps.

Back in Yangon, we went to a tea shop in China town and enjoyed what our guide referred to as “dynamite” tea, green tea, and snacks. Then we walked through the insane marketplace. Then we headed to the pier where there were lots of people waiting for the ferry. They were still using ferries built during World War II.

We visited a glass blowing factory where I watched them create a fish. There were trails through the massive piles of glass ornaments.

Then we went to the Shwedegan Pagoda. This is the main attraction of Yangon. It is massive and beautiful and supposedly holds four relics of Buddha. I slept on the ship that night.

The next morning I got a free trip called “Local Life in Yangon.” I just can’t believe how many of these free trips I keep getting. This was a fantastic trip too. Our guide was great! The first thing we did was go to a local market. It was totally insane and was selling fish and vegetables that I had never seen in my life. It was quite interesting.

After the market we took a ride on the bike taxis. They have a seat right beside the peddler. It was quite fun. Then we walked through another village which was highly educational because of our guide. Then we got to ride on horse drawn carriages. There were pretty bumpy but entirely enjoyable. After that we went to another tea shop and enjoyed life before going back to the boat.

We had to be back on the boat by two PM because the ship had to leave while the tide was high.

Myanmar is the first country that I don’t really know what to think. I know my post so far has been pretty dull and boring and that’s because I don’t know what to say about all this stuff.

There is a great contradiction between the military rule and the people. The people here are amazing. Everyone smiles all the time, and it is a genuine smile. The people I believe are very happy even though they want democracy as illustrated by the last election but live under a military regime.

This country is so far behind in everything. Something like 80% of the population lives in rural areas. The newest car around is no newer than 20 years. There is about one TV per thousand.

I really don’t know what to think about all this. I wish I were confident about how I felt and that I had a solution like sending in the 101^st Airborne, but I don’t. I don’t know what this country needs, if it needs anything. I don’t know if I would vacation here, or bring my family.

The country is beautiful, unspoiled by development or industrialization. I don’t know if globalization is what this country needs. I don’t know if the people would be happier with a consumer mentality.

I’m having trouble processing Myanmar. I’m having trouble reflecting on it and realizing what I thought, and tomorrow I’m in India. India, the land of contradictions, awaits me tomorrow morning, and while reflecting on Myanmar, I’m reminded that I’m not prepared.

In shipboard news, somebody stood up in Global Studies and yelled at the professor. How rude I thought. My heart went out to Farkas. We just got our second test back, and there are a lot of unhappy people. Most of the unhappy people are the ones who have missed class or not done the reading. I haven’t missed class yet, and I have done all the reading. I am quite confused about how I could have been one of fifty out of 560 students to score above 40/50. I’m not sure how I did better than a few of the professors even.

I went up to Farkas and told him that I supported him, thought he was doing a good job, and that his tests are fair. I just feel bad for him. If there is an explanation for the public sentiment about global studies, it would be described as Mutiny on the Explorer in the Wave Free Bay of Bengal.

The top left is the fire station, where people stand watch during the dry season and ring a bell if there is a fire. The next one is me and a monk, then me in a market, then me at the Shwedegan Pagoda, then my face in a market. 

Market shots and the still in use ferry built in 1942. 

A meal before and after. 

Top left is our room, top right is my roommate and I in our classic Shan dress, the bottom left is our cottages we stayed in, the bottom right is a picture off my balcony I took at night that I touched up in Picasa. 

The top left is a picture of Inle Lake, the top right is a river we rode up to get to a pagoda, and the bottom is one of the restaurants where we dined. 

Top left is me and my beetle-nuts. The top right is some pagoda ruins, the bottom left is me in the cheroot factory, and the bottom right is me and the eight foot bongo. 

Toilets. 

The top left is my view from the canoe that is pictured in the bottom right. The top right is just typical buildings, and the bottom left is Inle style rowing. 

Heho Airport and the propellor plane we took. 

Same Same, But Different... Vietnam

Vietnam will be the first country to receive a rave review from me. I loved this place. This is without question my favorite port so far, followed by China and then Japan. This is the only place I extremely want to come back to. The country is beautiful, there isn’t that much pollution, and the people are amazing. It is the smile of Asia.

The first day I spent in Saigon, and spend I did. I’ll refer to it as Saigon rather than Ho Chi Minh City because the locals do, and Uncle Ho is a Communist. The Benh Than Market is very dangerous. Everything is extremely cheap, but that doesn’t mean you won’t spend a lot of money. I seemed to think everything was just a fantastic deal, so I bought it. Things add up very quickly. I had a tailor make a suit for me, and it turned out perfectly. Nothing has ever felt or fit so well. We bought so much stuff that we had to make two trips back to the ship to drop it off. We had lunch at Pho24, which serves the traditional Vietnamese noodle “Pho.” I can’t say enough about it. It was just flat out tasty. It wasn’t hard at all to spend the entire day roaming around Saigon.

That night we went to Apocalypse Now, a popular bar. It was pretty fun, but there were way too many SASsers there, and I had an early trip the next morning, so I left early. I got one of the motorbike drivers to take me back to the ship, but when we got there I was having too good of a time so I asked him to cruise around for a while. We had a great conversation and he showed me many of the sights in Saigon. This was just so enjoyable. Saigon must be enjoyed by motorbike to really get the feel of it, and because most locals own and use them the chance is there to enjoy the city as they do.

There are two million motorbikes in Saigon, and it is very apparent. The traffic is absolutely out of control. Find any gallery of Saigon, and pictures of the traffic will be one of the first things shown because it is such lunacy. The Executive Dean during our pre-port gave us this advice, “The best way to cross the street is to just walk out and have the traffic flow around you.” That was followed by the U.S. Consulate to Vietnam who told us the most dangerous thing we will do is cross the street because there are no traffic laws. I had quite a good time confidently walking out into oncoming traffic, trusting the Vietnamese to swerve. There is no hesitating. I’m honestly beginning to believe in this idea of controlled chaos. Between Saigon and Beijing, I’ve begun to believe that traffic laws are only good for incarcerating or fining people, and slowing down the general flow. Granted, 35 people die everyday in Vietnam because of traffic, but you can get places very quickly because you don’t have to wait for traffic lights or walking lights. If SAS would allow us to rent motor vehicles, I would have definitely rented a motorbike just to see if I could survive a day on it.

The next day was the Mekong Delta day trip. We drove by bus and then transferred to a boat and docked on an island. We walked through some thick foliage and emerged into a hut with tables in it. Keep in mind that everything on this trip was a total surprise the second it happened, because there was no itinerary, and the professor didn’t even know what was going on because it was all up to Destination Asia. After we took our seats, they brought out a bunch of exotic fruits and tea. I wish I knew what they were, and now that I just realized I don’t, I’m going to find out. Regardless, it was fantastic. Suddenly there was a family playing traditional Vietnamese music. I bought there CD.

We transferred to canoes for a ride through the canals. This was exactly what I was expecting from every picture I’ve ever seen of the Mekong Delta. It was beautiful. We arrived at another island and after walking through more thick foliage emerged on a candy/honey production place. It is just so weird how on these islands there are little production centers and what not. There is no way I could ever get a feel for the area. This place was making the same candy my sister brought back, and they gave us a sample and I was sold. I bought seven packages. Then we were served lemon/honey tea and it was scrumptious. Then they gave us shots of rice wine. I took three. While Terris, who is a drummer from Baltimore and a great friend, and I were taking these shots a giant python appeared in the front. Of course we both took the thing and cuddled with it around our necks.

After that wonderful experience we took another boat ride to the restaurant where we were eating. We were served a seven course meal! I was so incredibly full after this I could barely move. We then took a boat ride back to the bus. We stopped at a Cai Dai temple on the way back. Cai Dai is a religion that incorporates facets from all major religions. It’s kind of interesting.

When we got back to the boat, I set out to accomplish my major goal for Vietnam; a haircut. I got a ride from one of the fifteen motorbike drivers that all wear purple shirts and bug everybody to death who comes out of the port. The first day these guys followed a group of us for like fifteen minutes. It was unreal. I videotaped it so if you want a comedy show you can see it. Anyway these guys are part of a union or something that gets commissions from places that they bring tourists to. I told my guy “haircut” and he immediately knew where he was taking me. We passed a few barbers on the way that he refused to stop at. He took me to a place and the barber had already gone home for the night, so he had another one in mind. I was on to the guy by this time, so the next barber I saw I told him to stop and he said no and I told him he has to listen to me, and he stopped. You’ve got to be tough with these guys.

The haircut, shave, and shoulder massage was somewhere around five dollars. I’ll admit right now that I’m just flat out bad at bargaining. Some of the kids on the ship are straight hard-liners, using the walk away technique constantly. I’m just like, “hey this is a good deal yea I’ll pay that.” I was extremely happy with the haircut, and it was done in what I would call a car port. It was nice to be able to watch traffic as my hair was cut. The guy used nothing but a comb and clippers, and was pretty proficient. He also had this white dust that he would dab on my head to see how even it was. Then he gave me a shave with an actual razor. If I lived here I would never shave myself, I’d just come down here every few days and throw out a dollar for a shave. After that was all done he had this vibrating thing that he rubbed all over my shoulders. That definitely doesn’t happen in America! I’ve received nothing but compliments on my haircut, and everyone who paid twenty dollars for a shipboard haircut is now kicking themselves. It’s great to have a plan and have it go through flawlessly. My driver waited for me and took me back to the ship, where I probably paid him a week’s wages.

Sporting a three dollar button up Ralph Lauren shirt, ten dollar Diesel jeans, a three dollar haircut and a two dollar shave, Terris and I headed for the jazz club. The music started at nine, and I didn’t move until it ended at twelve. It was amazing. I was blown away. Here I was in Saigon, Vietnam hearing some of the best jazz music I’ve ever heard, and it was being played by Vietnamese. They did have one guest from France on the sax, and he blew my socks off as well. Everyone here was obviously world class. The drinks were outrageously priced for Vietnam, meaning that very few people could afford to come here. This was place classy, something I wouldn’t expect in Vietnam. I downed a few drinks, smoked the Cuban that Terris bought me (which was honestly the only cigar I’ve ever enjoyed my entire life) and just sat there, enjoying life.

The next morning, which was the third day in this five day stay (amazingly everything I’ve said so far was only two days) we headed for Cat Tien National Park. After Honolulu, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Saigon, I was ready for some wilderness! We stopped at a fishing village on the way, and witnessed the fisherchildren pulling in an empty catch. They lived on the river. When we got to the park, we watched an educational video about the park, which, oddly enough, was very educational. We took a boat ride up the river to a minority village. This is where we started to get to know our two guides, Trong and Cung, who would become very good friends. There are 35 minorities, each with there own unique language. We were taking pictures of this village, and some guy kept taking out his cell phone and showing it us, obviously trying to prove something. He was laughing and having a good time. After this we went back for dinner. Cung was the party animal of the guides. During the excellent dinner, he handed out shot after shot of banana wine. It was hysterical because he was obviously out to get all of us wasted. He quickly earned the nick name “one more.”

At about eight we left for a night safari. We sat in the back of a truck while a guide shown a spotlight on the jungle. We saw a porcupine, deer, and various birds. It was cool, but not as cool as the four or five feet long monitor lizard I saw the next day.

After the safari and more time in the mini bar, I went to get a massage and got robbed. It’s kind of crazy they had a bar, restaurant, massage, and karaoke all in this national park. It was a great place and an even better time. I left my backpack in the dressing room, and when I got back my digital video camera was gone, along with the only other guy who was there. It was fairly obvious he stole it.

The next morning I told Cung and Trong that this guy had stolen my camera. He was the waiter at the only restaurant in the park, the one we ate at everyday. They questioned him and he said they had the wrong guy. Then Trong went to the massage place and they told him that he had indeed been in the dressing room at the time. The boss was called, and then my camera showed up. Apparently the thief had put my camera in a safe in the parlor and told them that I had put it there. It was obviously a lie and everybody knew it. I filled out a little report about this scoundrel, and I hope he gets sacked. It was definitely a well learned lesson. I’m not in Montana anymore, where I can leave backpacks and wallets sitting under locker room benches. I was simply amazed I got it back at all. Between my bag on the plane and my camera, I don’t know how much more blessed I can be.

After breakfast we started out on our six mile hike to Crocodile Lake. We saw lizards, bugs, and all kinds of insects. We saw a 700 year old tree and all kinds of flora and fauna. When we got to the lake we relaxed for an hour and a half eating lunch and watching for crocs. We saw two and then hiked back. We had to wear leech socks because the leeches are out of control. One kid took his boots off and found 33 leeches inside. It was simply disgusting. They were everywhere and there was no way to get away from them. They moved like inch worms and left a bleeding wound.

We got back and relaxed for a while before dinner. Dinner was great yet again, with all of the squid and octopus. After dinner we all hit up the mini bar, which is not what you are thinking. It was a hut with a three foot long bar and one normal sized fridge. They had a table that overlooked the Dong Nai River, which is where we sat. We sat with Trong and talked about his life in Vietnam, his family, his plans, his hopes, his wants. I have his e-mail address and when I’m President of the United States I’m going to bring him to my country, because that’s what he asked of me.

After the bar we went to sing karaoke, which was in the same place as the massage. I think Cung was heroine this night, because he wasn’t drinking at all, which is uncharacteristic of him, and he was sitting with his legs spread, arms spread, and head leaned back and he looked like someone on heroine would look like. Not only that, but he told us the night before he likes the H train.

The next day consisted of more hiking and more jungle watching and more animal viewing. It was very sad to say goodbye to Trong and Cung, because they were such nice people and easy to talk to and fun to hang out with. It was nice to get onto the bus, where I slept most of the way back to the ship. When I got back to the ship, we still had about five hours in port, but I was way too wiped. I used this time to lie around my room and watch the educational videos on the close circuit TV. I also put all my souvenirs away, before getting a much need good night of sleep.

Like I said before, Vietnam kicks butt. I would come back in a heartbeat.

Allow me to switch gears to politics.

I talked to a kid tonight who didn’t support any U.S. policy, who didn’t support Israel in their war against Hezbollah, and thought a one state solution would solve the Middle East problem.

What he fails to understand is that Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran, Syria, and all other terrorist organizations are in cahoots with each other. They all want Israel wiped off the map because they don’t think Israel has a right to exist. There is more going on in the Middle East than these minor, localized conflicts, battles, and bombings. They are interconnected. He claimed that Israel had plans to attack Hezbollah before they captured the Israeli soldiers, and he claimed that the U.S. had plans to invade Iraq long before 9/11 or claims of WMDs. I totally agreed with him. The military has to have plans for every scenario. We have plans right now to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities, but that doesn’t mean we will. We have plans to invade Canada if the wrong things happened. The Pentagon’s job is to plan for all possible scenarios. Their job is to protect the American people.

I had to explain to him that most Iraqis support their unity government, they want their freely elected government to secure the country, but it can’t happen because of foreign fighters imported and funded by Iran, whose sole goal is to ferment civil war. I had to explain to him that creating a stable democracy in the Middle East is good for America, the Middle East, and the world. It will take time, no question about it.

Hezbollah is a proxy of Iran, and they started the war with Israel to show their strength and power in the region, to discourage the United States from bombing their nuclear facilities.

There is so much to this issue and if I could put all my thoughts into a coherent essay it would be published, but I can’t. I can’t take the hours of dialogue I’ve had about this and condense it into a blog post that anybody would read, so I won’t.

Allow me to switch gears once more into shipboard issues.

Global Studies, when taught by Dick Farkas, is a no-question class. We have to submit written questions and then he will answer them in a separate session. I disagree with this policy because the questions are not presented to the entire class. However, when other teachers are given the chance to teach the class, they always allow questions.

There is one teacher onboard who, after spending the Cat Tien trip with him, I found is vehemently anti-American. I will disseminate his own notes on his lecture, and then I will tell you my question I had for him, and then I will tell you the response I got from him and some other teachers.

He said America is pursuing cultural imperialism through its media in two ways. One, they are trying to limit all international and national restrictions on media so that our corporately sponsored media outlets can move in. Two, they are trying to undermine all public service non-profit mediums in other countries. This is bad because commercial and non-profit media complement each other. He said commercial media only represents one view and he used the following example. In the six month march to war with Iraq, only 3% of the sources interviewed had any criticism. He said this is the type of media we are trying to impose on other countries.

First of all, I take issue with the 3% statistic, because I personally remember very different things. Regardless of that, my question was as follows. Because you said the US policy is bad, I was wondering why eliminating restrictions is bad, because shouldn’t people be able to hear and read what they want? Shouldn’t they have access to American media if they want it? Also, when you take into account what Professor Bennett said about the amount and style of state owned media outlets around the world, why is undermining them bad? Why is undermining the media outlets of China and Vietnam bad?

He then proceeded to say exactly what he did the day before. My economics professor tried getting the microphone after he was done, but Farkas, who mediates the class even when he isn’t teaching, in his classic style was moving right along and we were on to the next question. Later that day in my economics class my professor, who comes from the top MBA school in Europe, said my question was excellent and she had been thinking the same thing. She said the guy had never lived with state owned media.

To further illustrate the kind of environment onboard, we were shown The Corporation which basically painted the corporation as the next worst thing other than Hitler. Then again in my economics class, we were told the truth. I won’t go into this issue because this blog is already a small novel, but suffice it to say that many people were brain washed and the few of us who believe in economics like our professor really saw the light.

Thank you for reading and thank you for the comments. I think I might go stand pirate watch now.

Top left is Crocodile Lake, the top right is the place we ate lunch and relaxed looking for crocodiles, and the bottom is Trong, our wonderful guide who saved my camera and became a great friend. 

Top left is the fishing boats that belong to the people who live in the top right, and the bottom is the first course of our seven course meal. 

Top left is andy and I on the streets of Saigon, the top right is myself in the Mekong Delta sipping on some coconut milk, and the bottom is the python around my neck in the Mekong.