Myanmar

Myanmar. Wow. It's my first morning back on the ship after five days in Myanmar, and I'm honestly still processing it all. I really don't know how to explain what I saw, or even what to say. Going into this country, I knew so little about the history and culture. We were warned that the government that was heavily focused on military was very oppressive on the population. We weren't to talk about politics, student rights, religion, or anything that could land us, or the person we were talking to in jail. Honestly, I was a little afraid of what I was going to see. It was really hard to see the country and not judge or evaluate it in a way that might not be accurate. I didn't want to be wrong and create negative stereotypes of Myanmar.

For the last four days, I was on a SAS trip to Ngwe Saung, which is essentially a resort town. It was advertised as a 5 hour ride from the ship, but those 5 hours turned into 8 on the way there and 10 on the way back. So I really only had two days to explore. But throughout those bus rides, I was able to see a lot of the country. And our rest stops included a parasol making factory and a bamboo furniture factory. The first full day at the resort, I woke up early to go ride elephants. It was something that I vaguely remember doing when I was little, but definitely really cool now. The next day was spent almost entirely at a local school. We took a pickup to get there, because all of the roads were so curvy and bumpy that our bus wouldn't have been able to handle it. Sitting in the bed of the truck with twelve other college kids is now officially checked off my bucket list. Anyway, the kids there were so cool. They put on a show for us, and we ate lunch with them. The majority of the group left the school around noon, but I stayed until almost 2. At that point, we were able to hang out with them and the experience was a little more personal. We taught them the cupid shuffle and a few games. And despite the language barrier, they taught us some games, too. That night was the eventful night - there was a frog in my room. It was scary. I dealt with it like an adult, and made one of the resort employees get rid of it for me. No way am I touching that thing. Yesterday was spent almost entirely on a bus. It took ten hours to get back to the ship, which was entirely too long, but I got a lot of time to process all that I saw.


Here's a picture of a group of SASers at the school we visited! 

Honestly, I'm still processing it all, and probably will continue to until I get back to the US. That's kind of due to the design of SAS. In four days, I'll be exploring the streets of India, so I have to move on pretty fast to be ready for an entirely new culture. So the rest of this post is a weird combination of all of my thoughts and insights from the country.

In a sense, I was wonderfully surprised with what I saw. It was mentioned to me that this was the land of smiles. And that's definitely true. The Burmese were extremely happy, which surprised me, especially after fifty years of intense military control. Although people were initially apprehensive to the hoard of students walking up and down the dirt roads of the village we were visiting, we soon learned that once we smiled, we were immediately welcome. It was almost as if the smile broke the barrier that's often apparent between locals and travelers. There was a very positive attitude towards Americans and the US. One of the students on my trip said that we was talking to a local man who could only dream of visiting the US, but could never afford it. However, some of the school kids were afraid of talking to us because of the negative stereotype they had of white people from the British colonization. I don't think they had a bad experience, I think it was a warning handed down from older generations. But I could be wrong. Those are just my thoughts.

Myanmar is also a very safe country, which surprised me. Coming from Vietnam, where petty crime was pretty common, I was excited to hear that it rarely happened. Apparently, crime is not common because it's heavily punishable. Pickpockets could spent years in prison. In all of the areas that I visited, I felt extremely safe. Fun fact: It is illegal for women to drink in public.

Along with the instances that I didn't expect, there was a lot that didn't surprise me. It was a place where a lot of the basic comforts of safety (of the US) were neglected. On a SAS sponsored trip, we stuffed twelve students in the back of a pickup to take us to the school we were visiting. That would never happen in the US, but unreliable transportation is pretty common in poorer countries in Asia. Also, there were a lot of food that I couldn't eat, for a couple of reasons. First of all, any drinking water had to be bottled, and we had to be really careful of what we ate. Any salads, ice cream, drinks with ice cubes, and fruit that we didn't peel ourselves were a no go. Second, many of the dishes were way too spicy for me to consume. I'm sure my parents would have loved them, but my mouth was on fire.

I learned that a lot of the resources of the country were only in the hands of the military, which led the government. Very few of the people had any wealth. None of the farmers owned the land, only the government. And the resort that my group stayed in was owned by the son of the head of the military.

Overall, it was an incredible experience. The country is changing a lot, and in some small way, I got to experience it. It was such a paradox of ancient customs in a modern setting. As we were nearing our arrival to Myanmar, the shipboard community discussed the ethics of the country. On a voyage in 2006, a lot of the students boycotted SAS's decision to visit Myanmar, and refused to leave the ship. I think a lot has changed in the last decade, but there were some times that I considered the ethics of my actions – for example, riding the elephants. It turns out, the elephants were very much well cared for and healthy, which made me feel better about my experience. But as I go into the rest of the ports on my voyage, and travel later in life, I'll definitely consider the ethical perspective of traveling in a country.

 

 

 

Fish Galore in Vietnam and the Olympics of the Sea

The food I ate in Vietnam was by far the best food that I've had on the trip so far. However, I ate almost only seafood for three days straight. I went on a field program with SAS to Ha Long Bay that involved waking up at 3 am to fly to Hanoi and then take a three hour bus ride to Ha Long Bay. It was so worth the pretty sights of all the rocks and islands and the friends that I made while I was there. My roommate for the trip, Sydney, and I got along so well and it turns out that we're in the same class and live in the same hallway on the ship! 

This is a picture of me from the top of a cave in Ha Long. We spent the first night on a mini cruise/junk boat. It was really fancy, and my room there was bigger than my room on the ship. It was perfect weather for shorts, but too cold to swim. Also, I'm not sure I would have swam in the water there anyway because it was kinda gross.There was a ton of trash in the water, as well as diesel from the boats. I don't even want to think about all the harm that's doing to the environment. Despite the trash, we still had a ton of fresh fish. 

When I got back on the ship, I had to write a vignette for my travel writing class. The focus of the class is food, and we're learning how to write about food throughout our voyage. We spend a lot of time watching Anthony Bourdain and watching his episodes, because my professor loves him. The only guidelines we got from my professor was to write about food and write in first person, present tense. Here's my vignette about Vietnam:

I remember saying, "I'm never eating another fish again." I was seven, at the dinner table with my parents and my brother, eating yet another fish. And I was done with it. Flash forward thirteen years, I find myself in yet another fish predicament. Sitting on the Golden Cruise in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam, I'm staring at the set menu. Fish, shrimp, squid, prawns, octopus, clams, crab. Even mystery seafood spring rolls. If it lives in the ocean, I was probably getting served it. There is no chicken or pork to be found on the menu. No comforts of landlocked Indiana. The dread builds up as the tables fill around me and the countdown to lunch continues. There are two ways to deal with this situation: to eat or not to eat.

Honestly, I'm a nonconventional picky eater. I will (probably unfairly) decide not to eat things just by the name or description. However, if something looks good, despite my opinion on whether or not I've liked it in the past, I will eat it. For example, almost any fried food; more specifically, fried mushrooms from Cruiser's Grill in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. I'm not a mushroom fan. I can say I've probably unknowingly had them before, because I'm sure my mom's snuck them into chicken casseroles or between the layers of meat and pasta in lasagnas. But my first positive experience with mushrooms happened when they were battered and fried, and of course, covered in ranch dressing. So as I consider this, I decide to be open-minded. This seafood is steps away from the frozen fish sticks I've eaten in my childhood.

We're spending the night on the boat, so it's got to be fresh, right? I'd just take it one dish at a time.

The first plate is set down before us. Shrimp. With eyes. Pass. The next is a stuffed crab. The sharp-edged shell on the bottom of the crab freaks me out a little, but I'll try it. The table filled with other Semester at Sea students seems to be entertained by my reservations to try the food. I lift the fork with a tiny bit of crab to my mouth. Not bad. Although I'm squeamish at the thought of eating a crab, the taste isn't awful. I get up to go to the bathroom and return to a giant bowl of clams. I'm not sure how to eat them, and figuring that out seemed like a lot of effort. The lunch progressively gets better as more and more plates are placed in front of me, the highlights being mystery seafood spring rolls, fried rice, and finally pineapple.

Overall, the seafood isn't that bad. I realize that maybe I should be a little less judge-y and a little more open-minded about what I eat. Not every country I visit throughout my semester at sea will have chicken tenders and ranch, but every country will have food that is just as good. Moral of the story: when in Vietnam, eat the fish.

I haven't gotten a grade back from my professor, but I'm not that worried. We peer edited our first drafts, and Clarissa told me it was funny. So if it's not, blame her. 

After almost 24 hours spent in Ha Long Bay, we took the three hour bus ride in Hanoi to spend some time there. By the time we had gotten off the mini-cruise and eaten lunch, it was past noon, so we didn't get to Hanoi until after 4. We were there just in time for a underwater puppet show. That was an experience, but mostly because of all of the other tourists that surrounded us. One thing I've learned on the trip, that I kinda already knew going in, was that not many Americans travel around Asia, particularly a large group of college students. I lost count of how many pictures were taken with us or of us. 

My last day in Vietnam was spent in Hanoi and on a plane back to Ho Chi Minh. We visited the Confucian temple of literature, where we got to explore. It was a really exciting to be in Vietnam because it was Tet, or the lunar new year. Growing up in Hong Kong, we had celebrated Chinese New Year, and it's very similar in a lot of aspects to Tet. But it was interesting to experience it in another country. So all of the temples and pagodas were bustling, and all of the stores and markets were closed. It wasn't so good for shopping, but I enjoyed witnessing the celebrations. 

Now, I'm back on the boat. We passed Singapore yesterday, and could see it from the boat. We also had a study day, which means no classes. I promise you that very little studying happened. It was Sea Olympics. Basically, every hallway on the ship is assigned a sea. Mine is Arabian, so we all wore orange and nominated our mascot to be a tiger. Throughout the day, the entire shipboard community competed in events such as lip sync, tug of war, synchronized swimming, speed chess, relay race, rap battle etc. We were awarded points as a sea the entire day, and my sea came in third (out of seven!). Honestly, I didn't expect us to do as well as we did, because our preparation was a little shabby. We did lose to all of the children and old people on the ship, which is a little embarrassing, but our lip sync at the end of the night killed. It got a standing ovation from the crowd, and I was definitely proud to be an Arabian Tiger. Most of my friends are in the Yellow Sea, and they lost. So sucks for them. But it was all friendly competition, and we got to spend a day with no worries. I wish more days were like that on the ship, because we get stuck in such a routine that sometimes we forget to take a break and have fun while we're at sea. This voyage is flying by, and I can't believe that exactly two months from now, I'll be getting off the ship in Southampton. 

In two more days, I'll be in Myanmar. I'm signed up for another field program with SAS, but I have a lot of friends going on it and we get to see elephants, so I'm excited. Hopefully it'll be a good experience. I know virtually nothing about Myanmar, so I'm excited to be there and experience a new culture. 

Feel free to email me if you're bored! lauren.wiley.sp16@semesteratsea.org

 

Driving in Vietnam

So this next entry is one that I submitted as a blog post for my Intercultural Communications class. After every port, we write about something that made us stop and think. It's a way of incorporating what we do in port with what we learn in our classes. 

Never will I ever operate a motor vehicle in Vietnam. Although I'm relatively confident with my driving through the suburbs of Indianapolis, I can only imagine the anxiety of weaving around all the motorcycles and the possibility of getting run over by tour buses with their very aggressive honks and intimidating size. Nobody stays in one lane. In fact, driving in two lanes at once seems like the cool thing to do. Bonus points if you weave back and forth between the two on the wrong side of the road. 
Obviously, driving here is very different from what I'm used to in the US. I'm afraid of what I'm going to see in the countries later on my voyage. Can you say culture shock? On a more serious note, I noticed that they have a lot of the same issues that we have, including drunk driving. However, there are some differences as well. Many more people ride on scooters or motorcycles. I've lost count of how many families of four I've seen loaded on one cycle. I even saw a family of five, and felt pretty proud of that accomplishment. On the flip side, almost everyone has a helmet, which is not the case in the US. 
There's also a lot of honking. Not in the aggressive pissed off at dumb people driving (or not driving) honking in the states. This honking is more consistent. It's a reminder that your vehicle is behind another, slower vehicle. And that they should probably get out of the way. Cue the image of my anxiety attack while driving a motorcycle. It reminds me of learning to drive on the highway. But worse. I'd probably just stop and let them drive around me. 
In my Intercultural Communications class, we look for critical incidents where something we notice makes us stop and think. Here, that's the honking for me. It's just so hard not to notice it and for me, it's almost omnipresent. Over the four days spent in Vietnam, I was on multiple buses, taking many taxi rides, and even just walking around the city. After observing it, I've noticed that it's a necessary part of daily life. The two taps on the horn of a bus coming up behind you is like a polite excuse me as you walk by someone in the grocery store. 
This is sort of a cultural difference that is highlighted in Martin and Nakayama's Intercultural Communications text, where they introduce the notion of high-context communication. That is, "a style of communication in which much of the information is contained in the contexts and nonverbal cues rather than expressed explicitly in words" (p. 233). I believe the honking is a form of nonverbal communication, and without the context of the culture, it can mean different things to different people. The only time I use my horn in the US is generally if I get cut off on the highway. But here, I think I would have to get used to using it much more. 

The Only English They Knew Was "Eat More"

My first day in Shanghai was full of the culture of the city. I participated in an Impact program through SAS called "Daily Life of a Shanghai Citizen," where we visited a neighborhood to dance and play ping pong with the retirees at the community center, visit a farmers market, and enjoy a home-cooked Chinese meal. My favorite part of the day was the home cooked meal. The family we were visiting had prepared so many dishes for us. I think there were about 17 different plates on the table at one point. It was awesome to be able to try the different foods family style. I sat at a table with seven other girls from SAS, all of us equally excited about the food. I made a list in one of my journals of all the different plates of food but it got a little extensive. The entire time, they encouraged us to eat more. Our tour guide would hand out the last item on a plate to random people in order to make more space on the table. I will say my favorite were the spring rolls. They were more of a dessert, because they had banana in them.

The next day was spent almost entirely in the Shanghai Pudong Airport. My flight to Hong Kong was pretty well delayed. I wandered around the terminal twice, bought some snacks, and then out of desperation and boredom sat down to do homework. I eventually made it to Hong Kong with very little excitement, which was probably a good thing.

Yesterday, I hung out at HKIS, the school that I had gone to when I lived here. I was able to observe some classes in the high school to compare the international school setting from the Indianapolis public school setting. It was awesome. I went to two classes: math and humanities. Throughout the day, I chatted with some of the teachers and even promoted SAS to the students. (They can thank me later).

The rest of the day was spent showing my friend Chris around the city. We walked around downtown for a little, then took a double decker bus to Stanley market. I think he was shocked to see the quieter side of the island, but loved it. It was really cool to see how much Stanley has changed and how much has stayed the same. A lot of the stalls in the market were exactly the same as ten years ago. Most of the restaurants are still there. But they did revamp the plaza area and put a ton of shopping in the Murrey building, which took away a little bit of the charm.

Here's a picture from the waterfront of Stanley

Today, Maddie joins me and I turn into a real tour guide. We've got a jam-packed day of all my favorite touristy things, plus my social pysch homework. 

Thanks for keeping up with my blog!