Tour De Ghana

This is a good one!

It all started in South Africa, my friend Michael and I were planning on doing a lot of high risk activities! Although it didn't work out due to weather, we still had 3 more ports. We all knew Ghana was gonna be awesome but we didn't expect a lot of things that happened. It all started with arriving that morning, mike and a lot of others that ended up joining in decided to bike across Ghana. 150 miles! We got off the ship in search for bicycles, what we didn't know is that they would end up being the crappiest bikes we would ever ride. We walked into town, got some money from the ATM and found a few street vendors selling bikes.

We went over there and the brakes, pedals, handle bars all destroyed. Flat tires, missing tubes and barely any paint. We thought we scored big time.

We bought the bikes and the owner said he would fix everything and give them back to us within a few hours so we left, walked around Takoradi for the remainder of the day. It was a blast, we played soccer with a few of the kids and hung out a lot of the time. Honestly it was constantly over 100 degree's all day. We drank out of bags of water and I don't believe they were BPA free haha.

Anyways at the end of the day, we made our way back to the bike shop and picked them up. We tested them and rode them around but we didn't test them as hard as we probably should have! The plan was to leave the next morning, get a good night's rest, hydrate up and get an early start. We ate breakfast in the morning on the ship and we were burning up at 7 A.M. We knew it was going to be a rough day! We got our bikes and within 60 seconds of starting, my pedals, gears, and chain all fell off completely! I could barely stop my bike I just jumped off. Cody and Marine Mike's bike also broke within 10 feet, one lost a tire literally just popped off and mike's chain popped off. Our first thought was "DAMN IT!" After trying to fix them for roughly 4 hours we finally got out of town and slowly but surely started making our way to cape coast.

We had the shortest leg the first day, it was so hot we drank over 1 gallon of water an hour. None of us had pee'd all day, just sweat everything out. We were absolutely disgusting! It took nearly 6 hours to finally reach a town where some of the guys decided to drop out and take a cab to cape coast. Phil (roommate/machine) decided that he wasn't going to quit! I was with him all the way, roommate love haha. So the 9 that started 5 ended up continuing, Phil, Cody, Marine Mike, Shaun White Mike and Me all decided that we would continue on, we kept a good pace, 13 mph until cody's tire popped. What a party pooper! We all decided to shop and take a look, we found a table on the side street and took a look, it was a european tire...we had american tools! We just looked at each other and sighed! Cody yells "you know what this means? BONDING TIME!"

We were in the middle of a jungle, we had been biking with flashlights, sun went down about an hour ago and probably in the most dangerous part of Ghana ..the side of a highway! Fortunately I had planned ahead and bought a sim card for my phone in case of emergencies! Although there was a lot of testosterone involved so we didn't think about the phone. A man approached us and said "Hey guys! Don't you know it's dangerous out here?" We just looked at him and thought "duhhhh, we aren't here for fun". He said "I have a gun!" We just froze! Phil went and hid behind a tree, cody grabbed a stick and a pineapple, Marine Mike and I are staring into the barrel of a hand made pistol that had a 410 Shotgun shell...and there goes shaun white mike saying " Awesome man...Can we see it!?" I literally just about killed him, as did all of us.

This guy pulls his gun out and starts pointing it at all of us. We were literally freaking out, we didn't know what to do. We tried to diffuse the situation by saying we were his friends and that he spoke amazing english. He wasn't really buying it. He told us that we should go to his village that was right through the bushes, at that point I just thought "you showed me your gun, no way I am going anywhere with you."

He looked over at the stick cody had brought over and said "that's not gonna hurt me!" At this point I knew I had a phone and I needed to use it. I called a friend that had a car and was following us to make sure we were safe. I gave him a call and told him that he needed to get to us like RIGHT NOW! I told him that he could find us on the side of the road flashing flash lights. Literally within 15-20 minutes Max shows up and saves the day. The guy with the gun knew he was clearly out matched so he decided to leave. At this point phil is still in the "never give up" mentality, he's a brainwashed student that goes to a military school, totally makes sense.

I was with Phil till Cody turned into our mom and started cussing at us and all that. After 20-30 minutes of trying to talk Phil out of it we cabbed it the rest of the way to cape coast. We stayed at a beautiful beach hostel that night, even took a dip into the ocean. Felt absolutely amazing!

The next morning we all realized that our bikes were done, phil's and Shaun white mike's bike were okay though so they kept going. Our group ended up splitting up, it then became me, gary, and juan and zach!! We ended up going to the cape coast castle, kukumb nation park and then to accra on the worst bus ride ever! When we got to accra, we stayed at Gary's best friend's uncle's house and had a blast! More about that story some other time. There's tour de Ghana for ya!

Stay tuned for Morocco!

-Raj Patel

Adrenaline Junkies

South Africa was awesome, it started out with waking up super early to catch the sunrise and I don’t regret it one bit. Cape town is gorgeous! This port was by far my favorite, so much to do and so little time. As we open the door to the deck 7 balcony you get hit by an amazing view of Table Mountain! The sun wasn’t out at this point yet but there was enough light to see the beautiful view. It was also very chilly as they were beginning their winter when we arrived. Phil, Matt, and I just had a great photo-shoot as the sun came up.

When we got off the ship, it was just Phil and I for the entire day, and yeah…we ball hard, we decided to rent bicycles for the day and bike around cape town, I honestly think that was the best way to see that city rather than take a touristy bus. Thankfully our bikes were hybrid bikes (don’t really know what that means) but they worked and rode like a dream. We biked along the coast for hours against the wind in every direction, up and down mountains and hills jamming out with the jambox blaring on my back. I got plenty of looks when people were trying to figure out where the music was coming from.

The photo’s I took during the bike ride also were some of the best I think I’ve taken. We biked for hours; the cost line along Cape Town is a sight to see and should not be missed for those who plan on going there at some point in their life.

After returning the bikes, Phil and I were in search of some sustenance. We went to a place called Mitchel’s and it was great, we also ran into Glenda (she was in charge of the campus store) we had a few drinks and some food with her that night since she was getting off the ship to go home. I love that lady to death, craziest person I’ve ever met!

The next day was action packed!! Shark Cage diving with Great Whites! Yeah, this took some balls, I was pretty stoked about doing this till I saw a video of a great white getting inside another cage just the day before we went, and it was no small shark, it just busted through the cage like it was a toy! It even made it to NBC and CNN!! But anyways, we drove two hours to gaansbai to start this adventure. The countryside of South Africa is also very beautiful, this country is the most beautiful country in the world in my opinion! After we arrived, we had a small breakfast and made our way onto the boat.

Myself and just about everyone else was on edge! Couldn’t imagine seeing one of the deadliest animals in the world in front of my face. We started to leave a chum trail for the sharks to pick up on the scent. It took right about two hours till we saw our first shark but when we saw them, they didn’t stop! It was 7-8 sharks we saw that day and all different sizes, about the size of killer whales! Near the end when we were about to wrap up a shark actually did come inside of our cage and Phil decided he would touch it!! I’m still pretty jelly cause he got to touch it haha. We drove back to the ship and went out to dinner and called it a night!

The next day It was just me and Sarah! We planned on skydiving, 4 wheeling, paragliding…just about everything that gets adrenaline pumping but none of that happened due to weather so we ended up going to see the cape of good hope, cape point and the penguin colony!!! It was also a very good day, we trekked around down town for what may have seemed like hours till we found someone willing to take us, it was pretty cheap for all the things we got to see. Once again, best pictures ever!!!

Over the next few days, we had an overnight wine safari! This was an adventure, we did this through the same company that took us shark cage diving and had a blast! If I were to tell this story it would take days so I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

All I know is that I wish I could go back and redo it over and over again. The safari was breath taking, seeing all the animals in the wild! And for the last day, we decided we were going to climb Table Mountain…while the table cloth was on (huge ass cloud covering the entire mountain all the way near the base). So we begin our trek while its still mildly sunny. Then it starts getting windy which isn’t so bad, then we start climbing inside of the cloud, rocks are starting to slowly get wet and slippery…wind starts picking up more and more, 35-40 mph winds while we are tackling these horrendous rocks. We were told by our cab driver that we were stupid and that we should not do it, but of course by reading this blog by now you should know me pretty well - I do some crazy shit!

After about 1.5 hours of climbing, we summited! We literally ran up this mountain, a few of the slower girls in the group made it later but the sense of accomplishment was there! Couldn’t see a damn thing past 5 feet but we made it! Now the harder part was going back down, once again slippery rocks everywhere and I decided to wear my Jordan's to climb this "hill".

It took quite a long time to get down since the wind almost blew me off the mountain or the numerous times I slipped and had that feeling of imminent death. After making it down, I realized South Africa was soon to be only a memory; we went back to the waterfront to have some lunch and then made it back on the ship. South Africa is definitely a country I absolutely want to return to! Alrighty ladies & gents, my fingers are tired!!!

Until next time, expect the wildest post for Ghana, cause shit literally hit the FAN!

-Raj Patel

A moment in paradise

Mauritius was amazing. It started out by arriving there at 8 AM. When we got there we only had 8-10 hours--it was just Carly, Amanda, Sara, and me. It started out with going to blue bay. We decided it was time to get away from semester at sea and just separate ourselves from society. We got off the ship and made our way into McDonalds: as SAS students you are pretty much broke to begin with especially if you had to pay some tuition, unlike some students who got to do this for free! Fortunately for me, I was accepted to the program and I had made up my mind that I was going to go around the world with just a bunch of random people! What a great decision, honestly. It was worth every penny. I met a lot of amazing people and I truly believe that I will be friends with them longer than some of my best friends back home. Sorry to Grant, Rich and, Devin, and Matt. I love you guys

We left in a cab where we met and amazing Indian driver that pretty much understood everything I was talking about. I know my Hindi was a little rusty but we had a great time, we watched a lot of Hindi movies on the way to the beach and honestly I couldn’t have wished for better friends! I really wish we had more time in Mauritius but the 8-10 hours we had there were legit. We got to blue bay and walked onto the beach and came to a conclusion that we needed to rent a boat.

It only made sense that we rent a boat that had a glass bottom, we got some local Mauritian brews and decided to set sail into the middle of the Indian Ocean. Talk about an amazing boat ride haha, we had a lot of local beer and some Mauritian rum. I was kind of the hot mess in the group, I hate to admit it but after India, my time on the ship was pretty rough and honestly I didn’t care one bit. We went out and saw a lot of coral, some brain coral, and some poisonous coral. The brain coral was one of the three in the world and it was the only one in the Indian Ocean. Shortly after we decided that it was time to go back to shore to get back before we missed the ship. In the amount of time that we were there I had thee 40's and almost over half a pint of rum. On the way back to the ship I made it all the way back to port Mauritius and ended up puking in front of McDonald’s and shortly after, I puked inside of McDonald’s. It was a good thing that I had amazing friends to look after me while I was being obnoxious! I ended up having my shirt changed inside the men’s bath room by Amanda. She’s the kind of girl that really doesn’t like to make things awkward, she clearly made things awkward, but thankfully she was there for me. I woke up sober enough to know that I was standing in line to get back on the ship but people were slapping me, feeding me food and making me drink water.

We made it back on the ship without getting dock time and then slowly made our way onto the pool deck to eat some BBQ. I made it onto the 7th deck and ended up passing out after eating one bite of my burger, I don’t know how I made it back to my room after passing out but thankfully Matt (my roommate) was there for me so I wouldn’t get drunk tanked. I woke up the next morning after 12 hours of napping. Great time in Mauritius!!

Next post is South Africa

Until Next time,

-Raj Patel

Home

India was fun; It started out with taking an hour and half ride to Cochin Airport. Kamu (Grandma) had arranged for someone to pick me up, his name was Jacob! On the way to the airport, a truck hit a car, and us yeah sounds pretty casual…cause it is! We were on a one-way road and all of a sudden a truck decided he’s not waiting any longer, he powers through on the road and plows the side of our car. We get out and assess the damage and then a girl on her scooter doesn’t brake fast enough and then plows into the back of the car. Overall I think it was a perfect start to India!

KAMU!!

I made it to the airport and I was the first to get there out of all the semester at sea students. I checked in and printed my boarding pass, I turned around and then all of a sudden all of semester at sea was there! I sat around and talked to some of the locals that were going to be on my flight to brush up on my Hindi and Gujarati. Good conversations were had with a guy from Ahmedabad (city closest to my house). We boarded our flight and man, I really noticed people were starting to stare, I know I’m Indian, but I thought I would have blended in a lot better.

Casa De Patel

It was about 4-5 hours before I finally landed, first thing on my mind was tons of street food and what a better way to start that that pani puri and a sugar cane lassie? Roshan and Chirag (cousins) picked me up and took me out for dinner, shortly after we finally made it home. Right as I walked into my house, kamu was reading a book, I quickly threw my shoes off and ran over to her and touched her feet (necessity, pretty much a blessing). We talked for about an hour or so and then talked to my uncle for the rest of the time before everyone had decided to go to sleep.

My time in India was mostly spent walking around town, meeting old friends and making plenty of new ones. The minute I got home, everyone knew. Small town problems, everyone knows your name, they know your family and for someone that tries to keep a low profile, too many people knew me! We went and shopped a lot, got shoe’s & pocket squares for my suit, plenty of shirts and a lot more stuff that was pretty useless. Ate food at my uncle’s restaurant, it was called mirch masala, really great food, got a tour of the kitchen and met the staff.

Spending time with kamu and the family was great, I flew kites, went on to the farm and drove our tractor, saw peacocks and went to work with my cousin. I don’t know what he does for work other than point and yell. Its pretty much not even a job, I could do that from my house on the phone! We had one of his employees climb a tree for us to get coconuts and man they were delicious!

The last day at home we made our way to the airport where I was also supposed to meet some of my family on my moms side, they were ecstatic to see me, they brought tea and a breakfast hahaha, we ate it in front of the airport and said our good bye’s before I made my way inside and started back for cochin. After I printed my boarding pass and made it past security, I saw a fight break out between a passenger and a ticketing agent, Airport security just watched as these two duked it out, I was not surprised in any way that had happened, only in India!

I made it back to Cochin that night and went back to the ship to meet up with some friends before going out that night. After everyone had made it back we all went out for dinner at a restaurant called the rice boat, which was fabulous. The next day Kayla, Carly, Sam and I all went on a back Water River cruise in allepey. The scenery was astounding!

The tour lasted roughly around two hours, shortly after we went to get some henna done for the girls at a local’s house whose daughter was more than happy to draw on my friends with henna, It looked great! It was about that time to head back to the ship but Kayla needed to buy some sandals, I talked to the driver and told him to take us to a nice but cheap place to buy shoes. Her sandals cost 10 dollars, but they looked like they were worth a lot more, very stylish! We made it back to the ship and parted ways with our driver Shibu, what a great guy, we had met his family before making it back to the ship which was a great experience overall. India was a blast!

Next is Mauritius!!

-Raj Patel

They call it Myanmar…Or Burma?

Well, Burma was absolutely amazing! It started out with me being sick as a dog! I passed out on deck with a fever of 103 and pretty much started swabbing the decks after I knocked over a table full of water and other drinks. Not only that, there was a memorial service for one of the professors, on our voyage Professor Lancaster passed away in china and had a funeral service on the ship when his wife had returned in Singapore. I was never cleared to leave the ship but since I had already paid for the trip I just left! We were headed up to Mandalay, which was a province in Burma, It was absolutely and had an amazing time, and we drove up into the mountains and saw some very amazing sights!

After taking a short flight into Mandalay, which was about an hour and half and while we were at the airport we had no atm’s, Wi-Fi, or any technology whatsoever. Our boarding passes were pieces of paper that were stamped and we had received a sticker to place on our chest to inform the flight crew that we were on the flight manifest. The plane was not even a jet; it worked with propellers and literally had spiders and bugs crawling around.

We arrived into Mandalay airport, which wasn’t even in Mandalay, they just called it that! We had roughly a 3-hour bus ride to where we were going to stay, the scenery was astounding, and I wouldn’t have imagined seeing pagoda after pagoda literally every few hundred yards. I didn’t even need to go to bagan to see the land of a thought pagodas, they were literally everywhere on the side of the road! Our food any things were already paid for so every time we ate dinner, we paid in fat stacks of cash. No credit cards or atm’s only paid in thick wads of paper.

Our hotel was in the mountains, it was nice and cool, and fortunately it wasn’t humid at all! While everyone else in Yangon suffered from intense humidity we were drinking brews and eating food next to a warm campfire every night. The bus ride was mostly a one-way road all the time, if you looked to the right or left you pretty much starred death into the eyes! Cliffs on both sides with jacked rocks at the very bottom, it was quite scenic, but also really scary!

Our itinerary consisted of going to a school for the blind, it was very interesting to see how kids that were born blind still continue to live their daily lives. We sat for a while observing the kids and how they go about their daily routine, some kids would walk around with cell phones to make noise to let others know to get out of their way and some walk around knowing exactly where they are headed with out any guidance. We quietly observed as we saw them eat lunch, every meal they pray and thank the donors for the help in maintaining the school and giving them food to eat. On behalf of semester at sea we had donated 10,000 Kyats to the school to put towards new housing for the kids.

Shortly after, we went to a nun school; it was here when all the little girls had their heads shaved to become nuns! While we were at the schools the little girls would run around or away from us, they were very shy! Shortly after they all grouped up and sang us songs. It was like a battle between them and us! I don’t know at all what they were singing but when they were done we sand itsy bitsy spider and if you’re happy and you know it. We all had a great time; at the end of this we also donated more money on behalf of semester at sea to the nunnery school.

This entire time I was still really sick from my what ever I had, people definitely said I had yellow fever & dengue, some people just thought I had a stroke and yelled CPR!!! So not only was I sick but it didn’t help that I was traveling in the cold, with no jacket, not drinking any water, and definitely not eating enough, It started to get worse! For the last few days I powered through and tried to enjoy what was left of Burma. Since I’m very tired I'm gonna wrap this up by fast forwarding, we also went to a botanical garden, the longest bridge in the world, boated through some lakes and rivers and Also we ate plenty of local food, met a lot of monks and visited a lot of holy places. The people in Burma are very friendly and this is definitely a country I would love to come back to!!

Stay tuned for India!!

-Raj Patel

Singapore Slingers

Ahh, Good Ole Tiger City! The day started out with the Kayler and I, we decided that it was just gonna be the two us of roaming around Singapore! The plan was to go to the zoo, therefore Kayla had decided she would be my shadow, We arrived at the MRT (metro) and Kayla had just stopped talking for a while, she said that all she was gonna do is follow me and observe how I like to travel or some crap like that. After a while she began being herself again which made my day! Great sense of humor and always smiling no matter what, an amazing person to be around when ever possible! We made it to our stop on the metro and from there we had to take a 40-minute bus ride to the zoo!

There was never a dull moment, we had a blast! As soon as we made it to the zoo, it was about that time for lunch. Kayla and I had decided to eat a restaurant right outside of the entrance of the zoo, so here is where it gets interesting! Even though Singapore is known as the cuisine capital of the world, of all things Kayler gets porridge not knowing what it was, in the mean time I had ordered chicken curry with French bread. She dug into her porridge and said that it was great, while I knew what it was I thought I’d let her keep on eating this lovely dish, after a while she asked me what porridge was made of! I had the break it to her and tell her it was pretty much blended rice or oatmeal. I offered her some of my food but she’s quite the stubborn one, she refused and kept on going with the porridge! She later gave up and decided to try some of my food, which I was more than happy to give her, she ate two to three bites and said she was done.

I knew she was still hungry but after we ate, she refused to eat anything else so we made our way into the zoo, Kayler was really looking forward to seeing giraffes and while walking towards them she asked me what my favorite animal was and like any guy I was pretty much stumped! It took me 10 minutes to tell her I’d let her know by the time we left the zoo. We got to the giraffe’s and I never thought someone would be so ecstatic to see an animal we would see in South Africa at a Zoo in Singapore, but as long as she was happy, so was I. We took plenty of pictures at every animal and slowly moved on.

At the center of the zoo we went into some sort of green house where animals would come up to you and not be afraid at all. It was essentially like a petting zoo, you could get as close as you want to the animal but I don’t think petting was allowed! We then made it quickly out of the zoo and by the time we had reached the exit I told Kayla my favorite animal would have to be penguins, although we never made it there to see penguins, they just seemed to be the only animals that seemed awesome at the time!!

We left the zoo and I knew Kayler was starving, she was to stubborn to tell me so we went ahead and made our way into Ben & Jerry’s! I bought some really good Ice Cream and moved along in to the air conditioned KFC. Kayla and I had decided we would go watch a movie. We both wanted to see Safe Haven so we ended up trekking from one end of Singapore to the other to find out that it wasn’t going to release till the next day. Of all the movies playing in the theater we ended up watching a movie called Parker! Surprisingly it was a decent movie and Kayla and I got a kick out of it! So far the Valentines date I had owed Kayla was going great! Or that’s what I thought, who knows what was going through her head! After the movie we had decided to eat dinner at a hawker center! This was by far the cheapest food in Singapore and it was decent. Food cost around 4-6 dollars and the portions were huge! We ordered a big order of fried dumplings and a lot of noodles!

As soon as dinner was over we got some fruit juice and made our way back to the Metro, it was time to start heading back towards the ship! We had a long train ride back in to the city; we were probably the furthest out in Singapore than any other SAS kid. It took nearly 50 minutes to get back to the Marina Cruise Bay center and at that point I was in the mood for brews! We were in the middle of down town and I had just started walking in one direction and that was towards the marina sands bay hotel. I was ready to get a Tiger and possible a Singapore slinger. We walked for a good 30-45 minutes blasting the Jambox while walking down the streets of Singapore. As soon as we found a cab we got in and told the guy we needed to get to a bar. He was a native and he was really expressive as far as descriptions and talked in a very unbearable condescending way but at the same time it showed his love for Singapore!

We were dropped off at the Marina Sands Bay Shopping center; it was time for find some Tigers! We walked around the mall for what seems like hours until we came across a place called Café B! Up until this point my day was probably one of the best yet! Don’t know what Kayler was thinking but she seemed to be having a good time! We ordered 3 rounds of 750 ml Tigers and 2 Singapore Slingers right on the pier.

At 9 o clock there was a light show on the pier that no one had seen but the two of us, it was absolutely beautiful! Water, bubbles, and lights were everywhere it was amazing! The show had lasted around 30 minutes and in that time our minds were blown! I’d have to say the bill at the end of the night was out of this world but it being a valentine’s date it was well worth it! I had to be back on the ship by midnight since I had a field lab the next morning, while on the other hand sitting at the pier and drinking for Kayla was just the pre-game. From what I heard, she went out and partied like a boss!

The next morning I woke up and it was time to learn about the Japanese occupation of Singapore. My history class was amazing to begin with but after going to the places where the Japanese had attacked and where soldiers had stood it really made an impact about the way I view history. I was standing on land where blood had been spilt for the defense of Singapore and it’s people! Two professors were guiding us at the national university of Singapore. The day was pretty much an over glorified lecture but at the same time I had learnt a lot, by the end of the field lab we went to a cemetery where a fraction of the soldiers had been buried. As we arrived I had began scrolling through the names that had been chiseled on to the memorial and I had just then realized how many Indian immigrants were apart in defending Singapore and what it had meant. Although the field lab was absolutely eye opening it was quite depressing at the same time know that so many had died due to the Japanese ruthlessness. The two days we had in Singapore were absolutely amazing and now that I look back on it there’s not one thing I would change. Had the best time of my life those two days!

Next post is Burma!!

-Raj Patel

Back In Nam! And Cambodia!!

China was fun; it was time for a change in scenery in Vietnam and Cambodia! We set sail from Hong Kong that night just as the light show had started, what a great way to remember China!? We arrived in Vietnam in a short two days and the boys and I had planned on getting custom tailored suits. Little did we know that TET was in full effect the day we got there and all of the shops were closed L. We had our eyes on one specific tailor; the shop was called Cao Minh, their tailors from Hoi Ann were the finest tailors in Ho Chi Minh so we had to check it out. We arrive at the shop and look inside and it literally looks like a shop you would see in London or the states! We saw the suits they had on the display models and the hype was building immensely! We started walking to the door and there it was, a massive “closed for TET” sign.

We looked for another tailor for hours but had no luck at all, finally we gave up and ended up finding a tailor. The girl that was showing us the fabrics was really cute, she knew English really well and also at the same time she was hitting on all of us like no joke. We picked out our fabrics and suit styles and slowly began getting measurements, we told her we needed the suits before we left Vietnam and she said they would be done, so we trusted her!!

Matt and I were headed to Cambodia the next day so we had just dedicated our focus on that, as pumped as we were, we couldn’t stop worrying about how our suits would turn out. We had invested so much time into these outfits it was hard not to think about them. We slowly decided that we would shift all of our attention to Cambodia and leave the tailoring to the tailors.

We left for Cambodia on bus and it literally took forever, matt and I had just decided to kick back and relax but that never happened. It started out with a speed boat trip to the cu chi tunnels where we saw what had happened during the Vietnam war and how it had affected both the Vietnamese and Americans as far as guerilla warfare. We saw traps that just made you cringe, knowing that people had stepped into these traps and suffered immensely made me realize how fortunate we were for living in the 21’st century!

Shortly after we got back on the bus and began our 8-hour trip to Phom Phen where the depressing part of the trip began! It was also valentines day, I had bought a card for a girl I'd give it to on the ship, It ended up winding into the hands of a very beautiful girl named Kayla Hauser! (White tank on the left) Im sure I've talked about her in the previous posts and she's in some of the pictures in the past blogs, along with this one as well. I know going to a killing field wasn't going to win her heart over but it was the thought that counts! It started out with going to the killing fields where thousands of kids, parents and elders were killed. Pol Pot, a communist leader who thought that killing the richest and smartest people would benefit him in becoming the next leader of Cambodia bashed kid’s heads into trees and wacked their parents with bamboo sticks until they died! We saw a stupa with 17,000 skulls that were excavated from the killing fields. People were killed because one man thought that if he got rid of the smart and rich people, he would be able to control the rest of the population.

After spending most of my Valentines Day there with Kayla (the killing fields were too depressing so we had valentines day in Singapore which will be in the next post) Still had a great time with tons of ice cream and a great card I gave her! We moved on to Siem Reap where we went to Ankgor wat (temple where mortal combat was filmed) and Tomh Prah (where tomb rader was filmed). We had a great time, had plenty of brewski’s with my bro’s and had a yoga session during sunset at Ankgor Wat, Good Times! We made our way back to Vietnam ready to get our suits and we found out that they weren’t ready!

After making it back to Vietnam, we spent most of the day messing around and walking to museums! I never knew how much the U.S. had screwed up in Vietnam, Agent Orange was the first time I became aware of what the U.S. had done in Vietnam and was ashamed of everything that had happened. After walking through the museum I felt as if Vietnamese people hated that we were in their country after everything that had happened between our two nations!

After a while it was just too depressing to keep looking at the photo’s, matt and I had decided to leave and make our way back to our tailors to pick up our suits! When we got their, our tailor told us that our pants weren’t ready! Our ship was leaving in an hour and half and we had nothing to take with us, Matt and I left and began walking towards Cao Minh!

Matt and I decided we weren’t going to waste anymore tine since our suits weren’t ready so we went back to Cao Minh, They were open this time around so we got measured and suited! Those new suits will be shipped to India and I have no regrets, although if they don’t fit, that would be a different story!

We made our way back to the ship, they bribed us to come back early with BBQ so Matt and I couldn’t resist after easting pasta, pork and potatoes for the last month. After making it back to the ship, we ate like pigs, the ribs, chicken and mac and cheese were absolutely amazing! Shortly after we set sail for Singapore and that was it! That was Vietnam and Cambodia In a nutshell!

Until next time!

-Raj Patel