Hawaii

Family and Friends,
On Tuesday I had one of the greatest experiences of my life. Early on in the trip, George, Dani and I joked about going skydiving in Hawaii. I took it as just that, a joke. When George actually asked me to sign up with him I was unsure, but I figured I could still get out if I wanted to. We got picked up at noon from the ship and driven about an hour away from Honolulu. On the way there, I essentially signed away my life and all of my legal rights just so I could get strapped to someone and thrown from a plane. There were a lot of people waiting to go when we got there so for about two hours I sat and watched the planes go up and then waited for the parachutes to float down. My instructor’s name was Mike, and he has been living in Hawaii and doing tandem dives for more than ten years. He has been skydiving since he was fourteen, so I felt reassured when he told me how it was all going to happen. Getting on the plane, I was extremely nervous. My two top fears are heights and flying, and I have never even flown in a plane that small so even getting in to the air was going to be a challenge. There were four tandem groups on the flight, and the only other person I knew was my friend Patricia. As we took off and kept getting higher and higher, we kept exchanging silent glances that meant “what are we doing?! This is crazy!” Once the plane got to 14,000 feet, one of the instructors opened the door and the wind came rushing in. I saw the first tandem get sucked out of the plane, and at that point I knew that there was absolutely no going back. I didn’t watch the next two divers go out because the first one freaked me out so much, so before I knew it, it was my turn to go. I scooted to the edge of the plane, trying not to look down, and let my feet dangle over the edge. The moment I looked downward, I froze. Mike had to scream at me to cross my arms and put my head back, and I did as I was told and then he started the countdown from three. I leaned back once and then I was out. I did a barrel roll and then flattened out so I could see the clouds and ground below. Mike pointed outward and I looked out to see the plane I just jumped out of doing a nosedive about 50 yards away from me, and the pilot was smiling at us and flashing the hang loose sign. The free fall is essentially impossible to describe, it is more like flying than falling. After a minute of free fall we passed through a cloud and Mike pulled the chute. The next five minutes were completely silent and peaceful, I could see the entire North Shore and Mike pointed out where some of the landmarks like Waimea and Pearl Harbor. Our descent was smooth, but my landing wasn’t exactly graceful because all of my extremities were numb and I did a full on face plant. I was glad to be back on the ground, but I probably would have done it again immediately if I had the chance. Thinking back on it, even as fresh in my mind as it is, I can’t believe I actually did it and even though I didn’t get the DVD or picture packages I stole some shots from George so I can show everybody the view from the sky. I would like to say sorry to my dearest Mother for any distress I may have caused her, but I made it Ma! It was a day that I will never forger. Well I am on the last leg of the voyage that includes class and I will write my final entry in the beginning of May after my two days in Costa Rica. I hope that everyone is doing well and I am very excited to be coming home and to see you all again soon.

Conor

Japan

Family and Friends,
My time in Japan went by faster than any other country. It was one of the countries I was most excited about visiting before my trip even started, so to see it come and go has been bittersweet. I bought a Japan Rail Pass before I got there so I was able to travel by train around the country. I must say I was amazed at the Japanese railway system. The Shinkansen high-speed trains travel at 180 miles per hour, but if you didn’t look out the window to see the countryside in a blur you would think that you were cruising along at 60. All of the trains are one time and there is a train to the other side of the country just about every thirty minutes. I couldn’t help but imagine how nice it would be to have a similar mode of transportation in the U.S. To be able to show up at the station 10 minutes before the train leaves and not have to worry about checking bags or anything like that.
The first morning my friend Mike and I took off for Hiroshima. We spent the afternoon at the Peace Memorial Museum and Park. The museum showed through pictures, artifacts, and personal accounts what happened when the bomb hit and the destruction that has ensued in the years after. It was another place that made me look back on the history that I had learned during my time as an American student and think completely differently about it. To see the pictures of a quaint city full of innocent civilians and the corresponding pictures of the destruction caused by the bomb was hard to understand. Obviously, the war was a backdrop for all of this to put it in to context, but much like the Vietnam War Museum that I visited I came out of the building shocked that we continue to find our way in to wars that destroy countries and families alike. The park around the museum is very pretty, and it is filled with various peace monuments. If any of you know the story of Sadako and her effort to make 1000 paper cranes, there is a monument dedicated to her and it is surrounded by glass cases full of paper cranes made by children from around the world. Another monument in the park is the A-Bomb Dome, which is the only structure in Hiroshima that withstood the bomb and has been left standing to this day. All that is left of what used to be the Industrial Promotion Hall is the steel frame and a few bricks, and it is a harsh juxtaposition to the beautiful city that has flourished around it, but it serves as an effective reminder of what happened to the city.
My only night in Hiroshima Mike and I decided we wanted to experience a Japanese baseball game, and luckily enough there was a game in town that night. We rooted on the hometown Hiroshima Carp against the Nagoya Dragons. I bought us two tickets the day of the game at the box office for thirty bucks apiece and when we got in to the stadium we realized that our seats were in the first row on the first base line directly behind the home team’s dugout. The team wasn’t great, they always finish below .500 and could be called the Kansas City Royal of the Far East, but the fans were wild and we even got on the jumbotron during the seventh inning because we were doing some serious cheering and crowd pumping.
The next morning I split off from Mike who was headed to Tokyo and I headed to Kyoto. When I got there in the afternoon I had no place to stay, which I thought wouldn’t be a problem, but getting a room in Kyoto on a Saturday night during cherry blossom season is a difficult task. I walked to a few hostels before realizing that nowhere had vacancy and I must have called ten different hotels and hostels before I decided to just take my bag and see what I wanted to see that day with or without a room for the night. I traveled across the city by subway and visited the Heian-Jingu Shrine, which can be seen in one of my favorite movies, Lost In Translation, which gave it a little extra personal significance. It was very pretty but also very crowded. I ended up finding the last available bed at a hostel that was decent and stayed there for the night.
On my third day I took a train to Nara, a small city near Kyoto that was Japan’s first capital and is full of famous temples and gardens. I had a guidebook with me and it suggested a walking tour that took me about 6 hours in total. My favorite part of the day was my visit to a Japanese garden that I discovered while wandering around. When I got inside I realized that I was the only person there, and it was a refreshing change from not only the Japanese tourist sights, but also all of the other cities that I had visited in the previous month. It was exactly the kind of natural Japanese beauty that I had been looking for. It was a relatively small enclosed area with a pond in the center lined with moss covered rocks and beautiful flowers. I ended up staying there for over an hour just listening to the fountains and streams, it was my own personal version of meditation. The rest of the day I spent walking around the city seeing many different shrines and temples and then I made my way back to Kyoto for the night.
On my final day in Kyoto I took the bus around to three different temples that I had wanted to see. The first temple I saw was the Kiyomizu-Dera temple, which is famous for having a waterfall which is split into three streams that are supposed to give you good luck or wisdom. Needless to say I drank from all three of the streams and I have since won the lottery (I spent it all in a Pachinko parlor, don’t ask) and been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. In the afternoon I visited Kinkaku-Ji, which is a golden temple that was originally built in the 14th century but was burned to the ground in 1950 by a monk and fully recreated in 1955. The outside of the building is completely covered in gold leafing and it sits across a pond against the hills of Kyoto. My last stop for the day was the Ryoan-Ji temple, which is famous for it’s giant Zen rock garden. It was created by an anonymous monk in 1450 and he gave no reasoning behind his design which includes 15 rocks spread throughout the bed of pebbles. After leaving the garden, I walked through the largest group of cherry blossom trees that I had seen. It was like stepping in to a different world. The ground and the sky were covered in pink petals and the petals were constantly falling like snowflakes in slow motion. I took a lot of pictures to try and capture what I was seeing, but it really didn’t do it justice. I ended up taking a short video, which I think shows it a little better, but it could have been one of those moments that can’t be reproduced.
After my train back to Kobe where the ship was docked I met up with George and Dani for a Kobe Beef Dinner. Let me say that regardless of the price, if you are ever in Japan you need to try it. The restaurant that I was at was set up like a Benihana, minus all of the showy tomfoolery, shenanigans and hullabaloo of the chef. I have eaten quite a few premium steaks in my life, but none of them were quite like this one. I wouldn’t have had to chew the meat if I didn’t want to because it immediately melted in my mouth. It was a fabulous finish to a great trip and I know that Japan is a place that I want to go back to see the places I didn’t get to see sometime in the future. It completely lived up to every expectation that I had, which is saying a lot.

Conor

China

Family and Friends,
I just got done with my six-day visit to China, and now two days later I am in Japan starting my travels here. This is a picture from my photo shoot on the Great Wall, Mo wanted me to be like the America's Next Top Model girls so I did it for her. The thing is, I liked it! I am actually never going to come home and I will continue to travel the world modeling for whoever will pay me. Yeah!! The ship initially docked in Hong Kong, and I was there for only a day. I spent the day walking around the city and taking the ferry between downtown and where the ship was docked. I was amazed at the Hong Kong skyline, it’s the most amazing one I have ever seen. They day I was there it was very foggy though so I couldn’t get any good pictures to bring home. It is an amazingly metropolitan city, all of the shopping malls are full of high-priced designer stores and there are Mercedes and Rolls Royce’s everywhere. I expected it to some degree, but the city’s size and modernity was very impressive.
The next morning I took off for Beijing on a Semester at Sea sponsored trip with a bunch of my good friends. The flight was long, and we didn’t do much when we got there, so we decided we needed to do something fun on our first night there. We decided on KTV, or karaoke as we call it in the states. There were nine of us and we rented our own private room for the night. I started off the night with my own rendition of N’SYNC’s “A Little More Time On You”. The rest of the night followed suit with such classics as “Afternoon Delight”, “Puff the Magic Dragon”, and Mike McQueeny’s unforgettable take on “Lady in Red”. I recorded some of us singing so I could bring the tapes home and try to get some of us signed on a record label. In all honesty, the singing was pretty terrible but it was one of the most fun nights that I have had on the trip.
The second morning I spent at Tian an Men Square. It was by far the most crowded tourist spot I have been to on the trip. The amazing part about it is that the square is huge, but still it was packed like the mall during Christmas shopping season. Obviously the story behind the place is important and very intriguing, but there is nothing like masses of people to take away from the ambiance of a historical monument. After that I visited the Forbidden City where the emperor used to live. It was a lot like a museum, you could look at a lot of things, but most of it was behind glass so it didn’t feel quite authentic.
I considered everything before the third day a precursor to the thing I was most excited about seeing in China, the Great Wall. I really had no expectations going in to my Great Wall visit, all that I had heard from some other people was that it was quite a hike to actually get to the wall. I spent about three hours in total on the wall, thankfully the rumors weren’t true and it only took 15 minutes of stair climbing to get there. The weather wasn’t exactly beautiful, a very foggy and chilly grey morning, but I think the fog added a little mystique to the experience. It’s my story and I am sticking to it. Along with a few other sights I have been fortunate enough to see on this trip, the wall is something you have to see with your own eyes. It has a certain indefinable quality that needs to be experienced firsthand. It seems to stretch on forever, and when I was done the guide told me that to travel the entire wall at a good pace it would take three months.
As far as being in Beijing during the current turmoil between China and Tibet, it didn’t affect my stay at all. I never saw any protests or anything that seemed out of the ordinary. I will be interested to see how China is perceived as an Olympic host country. The language barrier is the most difficult I have experienced so far during my trip and even cab drivers and hotel employees aren’t sure of the English names of certain places. I drove past the Olympic complex, and the building for the opening and closing ceremonies was very cool looking. It looks like something from outer space, a bird’s nest made of a spider web. They were still doing construction so I couldn’t get very close to the building, but it is all very centralized in the heart of Beijing.
The fourth day was spent mostly in transit between Beijing and Shanghai. Shanghai is more of the financial center of China. I would compare it to New York and Beijing to Washington D.C. It is a huge city, and considering I only had one day to spend there, I saw about one neighborhood. It was also pouring rain the day that I was there so it wasn’t the best day to be out and about seeing the sights.
This entry was definitely a little on the short side, considering how much time I spent in China, but it is due to the fact that I have only had two days between countries so the time I spend on the ship is mostly catch up on sleep time. There is less than a month left on my voyage, and the majority of the countries are behind me. Hopefully Japan will live up to my lofty expectations and then I will be off to cross the Pacific. I hope everyone at home is well and I hope to talk to you all soon.

Conor

Vietnam/Cambodia

Family and Friends,
I had a great time in both Vietnam and Cambodia. I wish that I could have spent more time in both places because I feel like I only scratched the surface. I spent my first day in Ho Chi Minh City and did a Semester at Sea trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels. The Viet Cong used the tunnels during the wars against both the French and the Americans, and it was interesting to see the tactics that the opposing side used during the war. They were very crafty and smart with the techniques that they used, and even though they didn’t have a lot of money, they used their knowledge of the area to create the elaborate tunnel system that helped them fight off the French and the Americans. It was a bit of a tourist trap but it was informational and effectively showed how some of the Vietnamese soldiers lived during the war.
The second morning I was off to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. I was placed in the parent’s trip, which was fun because not only did I get to meet new people, I got to meet their parents as well. We spent the afternoon touring the imperial grounds within the city and visiting an art museum. As the sun was setting we boarded a boat and floated down the Mekong River. While on the boat we saw a floating village, which is just that, a village of small homes that float on the river away from the surrounding communities because the people who live there are actually Chinese and not allowed to be in the country. The most special part of the day though was our visit to an orphanage that evening. As with every other country where I have done something with children, they were all very excited to have visitors and they brightened everyone’s day. When I got there, a little boy jumped in to my arms and didn’t leave me side for the entire time I was there. The orphanage where they live is run by private donations and over 100 children live and go to school there. We got there after it was dark, and there were no lights on, but the kids wanted to play anyways so we played on the swing-sets and played soccer with them, and once again it was hard to leave them behind knowing the hard lives that they will have to face.
My experience the following morning affected me more than probably anything I have ever seen. In the morning I went to one of the killing fields where Cambodians were ruthlessly murdered by their fellow countrymen in the late 1970’s. A political party called the Khmer Rouge and its leader Pol. Pot. came into power in 1975 and sparked the mass killings that ensued. The field that I visited was used simply as a place to murder people after they had either given a confession of being a spy working for another country or refused to give one. Over 9,800 people, women and children included, had been murdered and buried in the field. I walked around the area and read the signs that described the details of the massacre, which I will leave out of my blog but I would more than willing to talk with anyone about when I get home. The area was still littered with bones and clothes from the victims, and all of the mass graves have been left as open holes, as if to symbolize the loss of such a large percentage of the population. After four years of genocide, 1,700,000 people, 25% of the country was dead. Perhaps the most affecting part of the killing fields was the building in the center that has been erected in remembrance of the victims. The building is about 4 stories high, with 17 levels from top to bottom filled with the skulls of the excavated bodies. It’s one thing to hear the numbers of people that were killed, but to see the numbers in such a raw form was shocking and disturbing. After leaving the field I traveled to a former prison and interrogation center that has been converted into a genocide museum. It showed the horrific conditions that the people were kept in and depicted the ways that prisoners were interrogated and tortured. The museum also has a collection of hundreds of mug-shot style photos of the prisoners that were taken right before they were either tortured or taken to the killing fields to be executed. I don’t know if there is something more profound or affecting than a person’s eyes, and these pictures proved that. Just by looking into the eyes of all of these people, I could see that they had given up hope, they were already dead inside. I could do nothing more than to walk around and shake my head in disbelief that something like this occurred thirty years ago. Violence, hate and destruction of that kind is almost incomprehensible, one would think that the people of the world would learn from the mistakes of the past and learn from them, but these types of things are still going on today in different places around the world.
The entire morning was obviously emotionally draining, and I spent the rest of the day traveling to Siem Reap, another city in Cambodia to visit the temples of Angkor Wat. The Angkor Wat temple complex is the largest religious site in the world. It is more than 400 square kilometers and holds 292 temples. The most recognizable temple is the main temple at Angkor Wat and if all goes well then I should be able to post a picture of it on the blog. I woke up for to see it at sunrise, and it was definitely worth the lack of sleep. I took some of my best pictures from the entire trip during the perfect sunrise that rose directly behind the temple. After the sun came up, I spent the rest of the day going to other temples in the complex. I was surprised at the amount of people that were there to see all of them, but when I was finished with the day I understood why they were all there. The temples are essentially temple ruins, most of them were built in the 12th century and they are now covered in moss, which makes them a beautiful contrast of grey stone and emerald green. My favorite temple from the day was one that was in the movie Tomb Raider, and there are 52 giant faces carved into the stone. It’s hard to explain exactly how they look, but they are so big, and every piece of stone was hand made, so each face is unique. I felt like I was at an amusement park or in a movie the entire time I was in the temple ruins because they looked so surreal. I think the pictures that I took are nice, but they don’t do it the same justice as being there in person. After an entire day of temple hopping I flew back to Ho Chi Minh City for my last day in port.
I visited the Vietnam War Remnants Museum the last day in port, and it was another experience that was much different than anything I had ever done before. The museum’s main building was full of stories of civilians who had been affected by the war. There were photos of Agent Orange babies, napalm victims, and the victims of some of the atrocities committed by the American troops. It was a new experience for me to see a museum from the other side. All of the photographs made me think about all of the wars that happen in the world and ask myself why they continue when they bring out the worst in people. It also showed me that terrible things happen from both sides of the spectrum, and the bad things that you hear about are relative to the country in which you live. The museum was probably the most worthwhile thing I did in Vietnam. The rest of the day I spent cruising around the streets of the city on a scooter. Vietnam is full of scooters; literally hundreds of scooters will stop at every red light. It makes everything seem very hectic in the city, but I think I got used to it pretty quickly. As far as poverty goes, Vietnam and Cambodia have poor people just like India does, but the poverty is not nearly as widespread or as visible in the cities. To see the extreme poverty you see everywhere in India you usually have to go to the rural areas. The two countries are very similar to each other, I would actually call Cambodia a more quiet and rural version of Vietnam. I really loved my time in both of the countries and they are both places that I would absolutely want to explore further in the future if I ever get the chance.
I hope everyone is doing well back at home. I know everyone in my family has a heavy heart right now because of the death of our beloved dog Pip. He was a great pup and we will all miss his presence around the house. I will be in Hong Kong tomorrow, and then the next four days I will spend in Beijing on a trip with some of my best friends on the ship, which I know will be a great time. And until my next post, good night and good luck…

Conor