Singapore

The following is a shared journal entry:

November 1, 2005-November 2, 2005
Silent at Sea

As we navigate through the channel between Singapore and Malaysia, an area of the Pacific Rim, the hushed silence of an unruffled sea surrounds the ship. The small wavelets and rivulets are soundless; the only resonance is the swish of air outside our window, almost like the little surf at the beach. November 1st we will loose a half an hour – generating the now twelve-hour difference from home.

As we study every spare minute for the Global Studies exam, we become more confident in the material and information that will comprise the largest quantity we have learned thus far for a test. With four articles, about fifteen lectures, and four country reports – India, Vietnam, Pacific Rim and Myanmar – the amount of information is overwhelming but we have managed to master the bottomless pit of ideas in the four articles and the four country reports, leaving statistics and lectures. The statistics we memorized November 2nd in the morning. The rest is up to reviewing the materials again and again, and looking at the lectures.

Otherwise, our classes are running smoothly and we enjoy sharing our experiences from the ports in Tourism and Field Methods, preparing our Documentary Projects to present November 24, 2005. Heather will outline the architecture of Cambodia at Angkor Wat and Megan will discuss the role of Semiotics in Tourist Art, largely African. Our second paper in Traveler’s Journals was due November 1st and we expect equally as high grades as the first. The paper was 500 words selectively and artistically depicting a consumer oriented topic, Heather choosing High Tea at the Table Bay Hotel, Megan the Aquila Game Reserve. On a side note, we do hope to post some of these stories as they tell a great deal about our experiences, so hopefully we can do this in sections during our final crossing of the Pacific Ocean.

November 2nd is a Crew Talent Show and we have been told it will be fabulous, which means arriving early for good seats and taking the camera. Of course, this interferes with the notorious studying, but we suppose by nine o’clock we will be ready for an hour break. Donations were accepted before the show to aid in crew activities. Such events include the crews free city orientation tour of Myanmar, several of their familiar faces we met at Shwedagon Pagoda. Heather and I made a donation from our shipboard account, in which we still have hundreds of dollars from the cancelled Kenyan safaris and hot air balloon, so we donated fifty dollars total. We felt that it was a good way to give something to so many members of the crew that we would not be able to do in our final tipping at the conclusion because they are all so wonderful. Previous voyages have garnered enough support to raise as much as nine thousand dollars!

The crew calls twenty countries home, 137 from the Philippines alone. With 189 onboard, it was quite a party. A celebration of dance, music, and comedy. The highlights included the “Hoteliers,” our room stewards dancing in navy uniforms, “Male Attraction,” the dining guys behind the counter in a hip hop performance, the pool deck crew in a song and dance, a waiter with an amazing voice singing “Hello Dolly,” and the Caribbean crew members balancing fire and paper flowers on colorful trays on their heads dancing to reggae music, Mezraim and Ormond our two favorites. Mezraim later sang a song from Jamaica, being from the island himself, although it reminded everyone a lot of American Idol as his voice was not too fantastic. We taped several clips of some of the performances, which will be fun to watch again at home and to share some of the excitement with the family. We recorded some things back when Desmond Tutu was aboard, and have come to enjoy recently capturing a sound, a procession of monks, any small tidbit that will allow others to share in some minute element we enjoyed.

After Halloween, in which you were able to view some of the pumpkins carved online, our mission of the evening was to document ALL pumpkins. On November 2nd in Anthropology of Tourism we discovered one pumpkin we missed, a giraffe with a long neck curving around the circumference. After class we snuck back to the room with a camera to capture Megan’s most favorite pumpkin!!

Tomorrow is our family dinner with our adopted family, Betty and Bob – or Boris and Dreesilla as they have come to be called. Bob feels better, after being under the weather on Halloween. We will most likely print a picture of us in our gowns to give them and write on the back thanks for the boo grams. This way he can see our gorgeous outfits. The Interport student from Vietnam will join us for dinner, we have talked a little and she is incredible friendly with such a bubbly personality. Chris the photographer showed us one of the pictures from Halloween of the two of us that is just fabulous. As he is bound by a contract he cannot sell or distribute prints during the voyage, but placing several hundred on his website for students to see is a fantastic start. At the conclusion of the voyage you can purchase any of the prints online.

On a side note, an update on Professor Strumpf: He has arrived in Bangkok in what is a five-star hospital and hotel. He will rest for a week before, hopefully, returning to the ship. The classes he teaches continues, students submitting all grades to the Dean for comparison with the course grades left by the professor. Their music practices alone are still magical, especially when you hear the glittering chimes of the gamelan issuing forth from the hollow Union, the cavernous reflections of fairy-tale twinkles echoing on the stairs down to deck four.

It was indeed the calm before the storm on November 2nd as the gray clouds were a precursor to the thunder that rolled in around eleven o’clock in the evening. It was a peaceful night sleep, though short.

November 3, 2005 – November 5, 2005
Bunkering

Today we bunker in Singapore, close enough that the immigration officials will board the ship to stamp everyone’s passport. We will even receive stamps from Cambodia, as we will utilize one of those additional passport photos and twenty dollars to receive the Cambodian visa upon our arrival.

For almost the entire day we sat anchored in the harbor in Singapore where we could see the city skyline. The coast in the distance was etched in colors of gold, while cranes from the shipping port made a sort of candy land like striped peppermint stick in red and white. It makes us think about candy making and we absolutely cannot wait to make candy, eat candy, share pictures, eat candy, tell stories, and eat candy. I guess we should add another make candy in there just for good measure.

The tanker pulled alongside and there we sat all day cheek to cheek with the other ship. Near sunset we took pictures on the front deck as the sun sunk below the horizon and painted a jet-black landscape of the city and nearby islands. It felt so strange to not be at sea, though we also picked up the immigration officials for Vietnam who will sail with us to begin the process of checking passports, mainly because our noon arrival has created many conflicts with the field programs that leave for other parts of the country.

The day cruised past in such a flurry of studying of notes and lectures that the family dinner arrived in no time. The cultural pre-port and exam review session will last two-hours tonight after which we will study, study, study. At two-fifteen in the morning we will crawl from our beds to the computer lab to register for the spring semester courses at our home university. Two fifteen because that is the time we are assigned, not in the morning but the afternoon, and as there is a twelve-hour time difference it means we sign up in the early hours of the morning.

As luck would have it, the Internet connection was down at this early hour in the morning so our rise-and-shine-wake-up-call-of-the-alarm was nothing more than a big disappointment. We checked constantly through the morning, the connection finally being re-established around eight-thirty. Because of our course through the Malacca Strait, PIRATES BEWARE (not kidding), and our increased velocity through the region, the link has been quite temperamental. We were able to sign up for every course that we wanted, thank goodness.

The exam went smoothly, but we shall find out the grades later… A’s all the way, hopefully!

ATTENTION ALL FRIENDS AND FAMILY, MOM AND DAD:

So, this is your chance to choose something you would like us to do. We want to experience something specific to Vietnam, for example you would not go to India without seeing the Taj Mahal. What would this equivalent be in Vietnam? On our last day there are three interesting trips.

1. The Cu Chi Tunnels that will offer us an opportunity to explore the tunnels utilized by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War (aka American War). Most of the tunnels have been enlarged for easier access though some narrow passageways in the lower levels would be a tight squeeze.
2. The Cu Chi Tunnels and the Museum of War Remnants trip is basically parallel to trip number one, except the addition of a visit to the museum which is supposed to provide an almost shocking experience in illustration of the atrocities during the war.

Our reflection on these two: We feel that because grandfather Lundy fought in the Vietnam War this would be an invaluable experience into some of the realities of this conflict, helping us to face insights on what he may have encountered and endured. Is this what shouldn’t be missed in Vietnam?

3. The Mekong Delta Day Trip provides a private boat on the river to one of the islands in the delta to observe a traditional farmers home and the fruit orchards. The opportunity to sample exotic tropical fruits is a highlight of the trip.

Reflection: Is the Mekong Delta a “must see” of this region? The chance to see sampans, floating homes, and a vibrant market is indeed a fascinating cultural opportunity.

We are feeling stuck between the two, as the openness of the markets and the people would make for some great photos of the local culture, and while the tunnels may be too dark for photography they could prove to be such an interesting exploration of such a well-known era of American foreign policy. We are concerned about the available shopping time, however inevitably there are always shopping stops, as in India (shh!) and most temples usually offer products of local vendors and crafts, not to mention that we may find many things in Cambodia from our hotel accommodations. Sorry but time is limited to ponder these trips, but don’t be shy and let us know what you think as soon as possible. Of course, it always depends on whether or not there is additional space on the trips, or someone selling tickets. As these are on the last day, most students find themselves on alternate trips with friends and do not show up.

We opened our cards for Vietnam, and love the poems in them. The poem on friendship with comparisons to fruit makes us lean towards the Mekong trip even more. Of course, Megan’s all time favorite poem was called Giraffe by Yoshihiro Okumura. We are really enjoying the surprise of poems in each port. Mom, you did a good job!

Vietnam tomorrow, so stay tuned.