Around the World in 110 Days

During the last four months on this journey I think I have learned a lot of things, mainly the culture of other countries that we've been to. I also thought that poverty was a lot of people that were poor and were sad. But on this trip I've realized that poverty doesn't always mean poor and sad people. There can be a lot happiness in poverty. For example, I've noticed on this trip, in Ghana everyone was happy because everyone has the same wealth( and they are happy because Obama is the president of the United States). Also especially in Ghana their normal is considered for us poor so in a way they can have normal wealth. But in Morocco since there is a really big gap between rich and the poor it was worse poverty there.

I noticed that there is a lot of traffic in Asia. In India mostly the trouble was the crazy Indian rickshaw drivers. Also a very big problem is that they have no sense at all of traffic. The lines that separate the lanes are just suggestions. Also you could feel the pollution coming out of their cars and motorcycles. I've noticed that at least the countries that I've been to are really in to motorcycles especially Vietnam. Ghana was the only place in Africa that had bad traffic and the traffic they had was extreme chaos. When there was a traffic jam the whole street turned into a market. There would be sales people walking down the roads pulling out stuff and asking you to buy the stuff that they were selling.

I also have noticed on this trip that other countries, at least the ones that I have been to, are trying to look more developed. McDonalds, and KFCs (even thought they don't know what Kentucky is) are everywhere. I've also noticed that in spite of all the poverty literally everyone has a cell phone. I've seen a lot of people smoking in poorer countries and they don' t know that it is bad for them. They are trying to look more westernized.

I thought the ship was kind of cool because we were basically a floating university that is going around the world. We would have school every day even if it was a Sunday or a Saturday we would have school unless we are in port. We are completely not in touch of what day of the week it is because we have only a-days and b-days, so our first day was a-1, and our second was b-1, our third day was a-2, our fourth day was b-2, and on and on and on until the trip ends( we don't have a-days or b-days in port). There is 6 decks, actually 8 counting 2 two others that only the crew is allowed on. We live on deck 5, room 5016 ( actually room 5020 because a pipe in our bathroom broke and flooded our room). The only bad thing about this trip is that we are going East so we have time changes between every time zone so we have 23 hour days and we have go to bed early.

I really like the ship and I want to go back in college. It was interesting being on the ship because I learned that the earth is really 80% water. I never thought I would go to India and other places like that, that are amazing. See you back in the united states or where ever you are in the world!
Cyrus

P.s these are my favorite countries,

1, China, 954 Rating
2, South Africa, 927 Rating
3, Vietnam/ Cambodia, 873 Rating
4, Maurititus, 781 Rating
5, India, 753 Rating
6, Hawaii, 734 Rating
7, Spain, 714 Rating
8, Japan, 654 Rating
9, Ghana, 632 Rating
10 Canada, 523 Rating
11 Morroco, 457 Rating

HONOLULU

Day 1

Today we arrived in Hawaii in their capital, Honolulu. We hopped on to the bus to take us to Pearl Harbor. When we got there we got tickets that had pictures of people that fought in the war. There were also five survivors of the war who were signing autographs (I got one). Then we went in the theater to watch a documentary of the war, Pearl Harbor. After the documentary we took a boat out to the Arizona ship memorial. Inside there is a really big wall with the name of every person who died in the war. You can also see 60 year old oil coming up from the bottom of the ship. After we finished looking at the monument we took a boat back to the museum. Then we got back on the bus and we went to lots of mountains. We went up to some that were really, really big and actually battles took place there and people were shoved of the mountain about 1,000 feet tall. Then we went back to the port and then we got picked up by my dad’s friend that lives in Hawaii, and drove through really good landscape. When we got there we met their daughter, Radhika who I think is from... well I'm not sure but I know she is from somewhere else not in Hawaii. We went outside and played soccer with Radhika (Radhika and my brother vs. me and Eli). Then after a while we met Songa (who is from Cambodia) and he played too. Then after we had dinner and played we went back to the ship

HONOLULU

Day 2

Today we went to a beach that is called Hanauma bay and it is actually a volcano crater that exploded 1,000 years ago and it has amazing snorkeling. When we got there we walked around the beach and then we got in the water. I saw a lot of cool fish and coral. But after a while my mask got filled by water and so did my pipe so I got out of the water. After a long period of time we tried throwing the football but one of the head people of the beach said it was a natural resort so we could not throw any kind of ball on the beach, great. So we went back in the water and I saw a puffer fish, a Humunukunukuap'a (the state fish), and a parrot fish. Then after we snorkeled a little bit more and then we went back to the ship and went to Hilo, Hawaii.

HILO

Day 3

Today we arrived on the big island of Hawaii, in a city called Hilo. We rented a car that took us on a 45 minute drive to a volcano. Now this volcano actually erupted two years ago so they closed down a part that we would have went to but we couldn’t go. So first we saw some steam vents which are holes with steam are coming out of them (I went through one and it felt sticky and really hot). Then we went to a view see of the crater and it looked like the moon. After that we through a big rain forest and came out in a volcano crater! There were a lot of volcanic rock pyramids that were statues and offerings to the Hawaiian volcano god. I made six offerings and six pyramids. In some small cracks in the crater are warmer then outside. There were some really smooth parts and some really broken parts. Sometimes it was hard to get across cracks. There was also steam coming from the ground. Then when we finally made it across the huge crater we went into a lava tube and then we found the parking lot, got in the car and drove back to the ship.

HILO

Day 4

Today we got our rented car and drove to a volcanic rock beach with some tide pools. We walked on the rock for a little bit and then we left. And we went to a really warm pool that was manmade but it still had fish and rocks. At first I went swimming around the pool but then I decided to go snorkeling. There was not that great snorkeling but at least there was fish. The best part of it was that it was warm. Then after we got out of the water we drove to a lava field. After we got to the end of the lava field we found the beach. We stayed there for only a short while but while we were there we played Football. Then we drove back to the volcanic beach, we looked at sea cucumbers while my dad snorkeled and my mom was doing work. Then we went back to the ship thinking it was our last day in port but since there was a big wave coming in Hilo so we went back to Honolulu for one day( but we would still make it to San Diego on time.

HONOLULU

Bonus Day 5

Today we went to a beach called Waikiki beach with three college students, Kyle, Kyle’s sister who I forget the name of, and another college student. When we got there we played football with Kyle( me and Kyle vs. my brother and Eli) even thought there were no end zones and we were just running around trying to get the ball and tackling each other. But when we came out we found that Eli backpack was stolen! After we looked around we had lunch and went back to the ship and headed to San Diego.

I thought that Japan was really cool, with Mount Fuji and other stuff. I wouldn't rate it in my top five favorite countries so far, partly because I don't exactly like the food. I thought it was really interesting that Japan is just an archipelago (group of islands) that has about everything on it. It sort of seems like it is its own continent almost. I also really liked the culture of Japan mostly in the places in Kobe that we went to. I thought that the traditions, like worshiping at a statue, were neat. I liked how they would go up to a statue ring a bell, then throw money in front of a statue, bow twice, then clap twice, after the claps, they hold the bow down while wishing for good things to happen, put their head up after wishing, and then finally bow then leave the statue. I think that the ringing of the bell is for getting the attention of the gods, bowing twice is for bowing to the gods twice, clapping twice is to wake your own spirit up, wishing is for wishing, and leaving is for leaving (obviously [I did it once]).

YOKOHAMA
Day 1

Today we arrived in Yokohama, Japan at 8:00 in the morning. We went to a garden called the Sankei-en garden. It had lots of small pagodas, small houses with no furniture in them, and little bridges with small rivers. I was really surprised when I saw the trees because it was fall. Now you might think I'm crazy because it's fall in America but we have switched off seasons from summer to summer to summer to winter with no fall in-between. Also there was a small pond with crazy fish that would extend their mouths when they would go up to eat stuff. While we were feeding the fish this crazy college student named Daniel came up and started to try imitating the fish while making weird fish noises, and he looked quite strange. When we got out of the garden, we went to the Yokohama baseball stadium even thought the season was over, and that meant we couldn't get in. The Yokohama baseball team's name is called the Yokohama Bay Stars. Since we couldn't get onto the field we played a football game at a park next to the stadium with me and Eli against my brother and my dad. I got four touchdowns- 1 rushing, and three receiving. Eli got five touchdowns- three on interceptions (one on the last play from the back of the other team’s end zone) and two receiving. My brother and my dad got 14 points, my dad got one receiving, and my brother got one receiving. So the final score was 63 to 14 us (and if my brother says that on his blog the score is 84 – 14 them, that’s not right at all). After we finished playing we got ice-cream and then we went back to the ship.

YOKOHAMA
Day 2

Today we went to Kamakura with Cathy (Jani's partner [Jani is the ships nurse]) and Dr Dave (the ship’s doctor), and Megan (Jani’s daughter). We took two trains to Kamakura and then we went to some temples. The first one we went to was called Engakuji. Engakuji was the #2 out of Kamakura's top five Zen Buddhist temples. It had a huge bell tower from the 1300s and also there was a very faint view of the top of Mount Fuji in the distance. There were also these monks chanting in a temple in a prayer house. Next we saw Tokeiji, a nunnery with a nun graveyard. And Kenchoji was the #1, Zen Buddhist temples with big praying buildings, people praying on mats, and cool statues. Then we found the train station again, and my mom, Eli, my brother, Cathy, Megan, and Dr. Dave and I went to the ship while my dad went to a big Buddha. Finally we went to the ship and we departed Yokohama and headed backwards on the country of Japan to Kobe.

KOBE
Day 1
After one day at sea from Yokohama, we docked at eight o'clock in the morning in Kobe, Japan. We rushed out at ten thirty leaving my brother behind because he had a high fever. We were supposed to go on a homestay visit, but we got a call from the homestay family saying that their son was sick with a high fever, so they had to cancel. This was sort of good for me not having to deal with the food. It was also kind of weird because it seemed like they were talking about us. Since we couldn't go to the family's house Eli, my mom, my dad, and I took two trains to the center of town. We bought three mystery foods, one that tasted like scallop, another which tasted like potato, and one that tasted like shrimp... and they all tasted really good actually! Then we walked to a palace called the Himeji castle. Inside there was all these kinds of cool symbols on the roof and stuff like that. There was also a big park near the castle that I guess was like a battle field back then. When we got in they made us take off our shoes and put on these slippers. I didn't have to put them on because I was just sockfooted, and apparently I should be very glad that I didn't have to wear them because they are uncomfortable says Eli and Ms. Dewald (even though she wasn’t with us). We walked up about six staircases that were packed with people that were screaming for some strange reason I don't know why. When we finally got to the top it turned out it wasn't that great, so we headed back down and went to the train station, took two trains, and went back to the ship.
KOBE
Day 2
Today was our last day in a foreign country so we went on a trip that my mom and dad were leading to Kyoto (Kyoto was the capital of Japan until Tokyo was). We got our terrible box lunches that the ship gives us (I don’t think I mentioned the lunches before) and got ready with our tour. First we rode the two hour bus to a temple. After we went to the first one which I forget the name of we went to one called the Golden Pavilion, or Kinkakuji in Japanese. The Golden Pavilion was pretty much a house on stilts that was made of gold next to a lake, but it was still really cool. Next we went to another place that I forget the name but I do remember what we did there. When we got inside we took off our shoes and walked sockfoot around the castle. The palace had cool paintings of tigers, birds, trees, and other stuff like that. Also the palace had really, really, really squeaky floors that were called the nightingale floors and apparently they thought it sounded like a nightingale sound (which was quite confusing because it didn’t sound like a nightingale; it sounded like something awful). The palace was used for people called shoguns. Shoguns are people that take the power from the emperor and they have almost as much power as the emperor. In the palace that we saw, was the place where the last shogun out of fifteen of them announced that he would give back all the power to the emperor and end the shogun era. After we left the temple we went to another temple, and then we went to the bus and we went back to the ship (on the way we learned how to do origami [I learned how to do army hats and cranes]) and left Japan and back to AMERICA!!(Hawaii).
Like I said before I really liked Japan, even thought it wasn’t my first nor last (it was my seventh) favorite.
These are my favorite foreign countries,
1#.China 95.7 %
2#.South Africa 95.6 %
3#.Vietnam 86 %
4#.Mauritius 81 %
5#.India 79 %
6#.Spain 75 %
7#.Japan 74%
8#.Ghana 68 %
9#.Canada 56 %
10#.Morocco 45 %

I thought that China was really amazing with the Great Wall and other stuff like the Forbidden City. China was way more westernized than I thought it would be like especially Hong Kong because it technically used to be a part of Britain and that’s why they speak so much English.
Day 1
Today we arrived in Hong Kong at 8:00 in the morning, and I saw the most sky scrapers I had ever seen in my day. There were buildings that were so tall that they were swaying back and forth. It also had the third largest building in the world. After we got off the ship, we took a ferry across the bay and then we went to a tram station. Then after we got to the tram station and we took a tram up the mountain. When we got to the top we took a hike around the mountain. We all thought it was about a ten minute hike but it was actually a 55 minute hike. After we finally finished the hike we went to a zoo. When we got there, there were these crazy monkeys doing amazing tricks and stuff like that. Then we went to these monkeys that were a mix between a bullfrog, a monkey and some other weird animal. They had a bullfrogs bulging throat, they were monkeys and they had some animal’s ear defining screech. One monkey would make a low weird sound and another would make a high weird sound so they kept doing it faster and faster and faster until one would scream really loudly and then the party was over. Then we went to “the longest outdoor escalator in the world” but it turned out to be a bunch of small escalators so we decided to go back to the ship.
Day 2
Today we got up at 9:30 to go on a three-day/four-night trip to Beijing that my mom was leading. Then we got on the bus and we went to the Hong Kong airport. When we got there we flew to Bejing and went to rickshaws that would take us to a family’s that would be serving us dinner, but it was a little hard for us to get to the same house because Eli and my brother were in one rickshaw and my mom, my dad and I were in another and our driver didn’t speak any English so our guide had to tell him in their language (Mandarin Chinese) to go to the same house as Eli and Gabi. When we got there we had dinner, then we made dumplings, then we took a Rickshaw that would take us to the bus that would take us to the hotel.
Day 3
Today we woke up to the 6:45 wakeup call, and we went to the bus. When we got on the bus we went to the biggest square in the world which is Timemin Square. When we got there we looked around and we saw this person selling these Chinese army hats that were also winter hats. We bought three of them because we were all very, very, very cold. Then we went inside the Forbidden City. The reason that it was called the Forbidden City is because only the royal family could enter. We had to go through about three or four huge archways until we got to the Forbidden City, and when we got there it was packed. We looked around at amazingly painted things and statues. Then we went back to the bus, and the bus took us to a restaurant. When we were done eating we went to a school for kids that weren’t born in Beijing but they moved there because some schools don’t let them in their school. When we first walked in I was quite confused because the class was not repeating the Chinese alphabet after the teacher but they were screaming the Chinese alphabet at the top of their lungs. Then our guide split us up in four groups. Our group went to a fifth grade class. When we got there they sang a song to us and we sang back “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” to them (I don’t know why). After we sang they asked us questions: one of the questions was do we want to play outside with them, and we said yes so we did. While the other kids played other stuff we played basketball with the other kids that are in the school. Yao Ming is very popular in China (because he is Chinese of course) so the minute that we said that we were American they liked us. After we played a little more we went back to the bus. Then we went to an acrobat performance. Then we drove back to the hotel.
Day 4
Today we woke up to the sound of a wakeup call at 6:45 a.m again and we headed to the bus when we got on the bus it took us to a kung fu school. When we got there it just happened that a Kung Fu Beijing tournament was going on. So we watched it for a little bit and then we went to a kung fu show. The kung fu show was really cool. They were breaking pots with their hands and people were holding there arm out and they were breaking thick bamboo on it. Also there was this guy that was breathing FIRE and some other liquids. When we were done with the kung fu school, we got on the bus and we went to a restaurant. After we were done eating we went to THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA! When we got there we took a cable car up the mountain and we started our hike, NOT AROUND THE WHOLE THING just one section that is not just in between two towers. When we started our hike, our tour guide suggested for us to go to the highest point of the tower so we did. First of all I’m not saying that the builders of the great wall are bad builders I’m just giving them a small suggestion: DON’T PUT SO MANY STAIRS IN IT because there was so many stairs. At first it was easy and fun because you can slide on the snow on the Great Wall. The second quarter was a little tiring but fun. The third quarter was tiring but fun. The fourth quarter was tiring and tiring and tiring and tiring and tiring and tiring and tiring and tiring and tiring and tiring but fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun.
When we finally got to the top we realized that at actually wasn’t the top, so we kept going. When we got to what we thought was the top again, but it wasn’t, we kept going again, and this goes on for about two times more until we FINALLY made it to the top. We stayed up there for about five minutes and then we went down the wall, tired and barely getting down the stairs. It was kind of weird because we were sweating in 35 degree weather. Anyway, we made it, took a cable car down to the market, and we went to the bus and back to the hotel.

DAY 5

Today we went to the Temple of Heaven. It is shaped like a pagoda and has really cool paintings on it. Also it was cool because it had Chinese characters on every side of it. After we looked around, we went to the airport. When we got in the airplane it lifted off, and we flew back to Shanghai to meet up with the ship.

Day 6

Today we were free so we decided to walk around Shanghai. When we got off the ship, we took a cab to the Shanghai Museum. Inside, we looked at bronze that was from 11th century B.C.E. and there were cool Chinese paintings too (I bought two). When we were done with the museum, we walked to a local dumpling restaurant and then we went back to the ship. We were supposed to leave that evening, but there was a huge storm in Japan (where we’re heading), so we delayed the ship until the next afternoon, but we didn’t go out the next day, we just had school like usual.

I'm glad that I was able to see three different cities in China because in some ways they are really different. The thing that was the same about them was that Shanghai and Hong Kong both had a million skyscrapers, but in Beijing there were a lot of buildings, but they weren't as tall. Also, both Hong Kong and Shanghai have buildings that are in the top 5 tallest buildings in the world. In Hong Kong, the climate was tropical (like 85 degrees), but in Beijing since it's north, it was literally freezing. Since Shanghai actually is in the middle of the two, it was in the middle temperature-wise, too, and it was about 50 degrees and rainy. Like I said before, Hong Kong was colonized by Great Britain, so they speak a lot of English now and they also speak Cantonese Chinese, but in Beijing and Shanghai, they speak Mandarin Chinese. China was my favorite country so far, and I'm looking forward to Japan.

I was a little scared of what the Vietnamese would think if we were American, but this is South Vietnam, and we were fighting with South Vietnam against North Vietnam in the war so it was ok. Also, Vietnam is a communist country unlike America, which has a democracy. A communist country means you can’t say that the government is bad, but everyone gets a job. It also distributes the government’s money to the people so the people are equal, but there are still a few kinks.

Day 1

Today we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam. We got off of the ship and went to the city tour of Ho Chi Minh City. First we stopped at Ho Chi Minh Park with a big statue of Ho Chi Minh. Now since I’ve been saying Ho Chi Minh so much, you might be wondering who the heck this is. Well, Ho Chi Minh is a hero for the Vietnamese. He made the whole country communist. Then we went to the history museum. We looked around for a short while, and then we sat down and watched a show. This show was a water puppet show with dragons, dogs, fish, etc. I think that they knew that kids were there because they were spraying water on us and barely missing my camera. Then we went to the ship.

Day 2

Today we woke up at 4:30am and went to the airport and flew to Cambodia. When we got to Cambodia, they stamped our passports, and we took a bus rise to another very, very, very fancy hotel. After we checked in and had lunch, we went on a bus to a temple called Ta Prohm. There are about 300 temples in the Angkor area. When we walked in, there would be 60 people taking pictures of us, and I was wondering WHAT they were doing! Inside there were all these collapsed parts of the temples, and there were also HUGE trees with roots on the temple and barely holding parts of the temple up. Also, when you first get in there would be this big tower with four faces on every side. When we got out of the temple people were selling these cardboard plaque things with a picture of your face on it and a background of the temples on the cardboard. I bought one of myself. Next, we took a bus to the most famous temple in all 300: Angkor Wat. When we got there our guide told us that the moat around Angkor Wat represents the ocean, the first building represents the earth, and the bridge connecting the first building to Angkor Wat represents space, and Angkor Wat represents heaven. There were also a lot of snake heads and lion heads broken off over times across the bridge. After we looked inside we took a bus ride to a restaurant where there would be a show. The show was about, I think it’s about a demon trying to kidnap someone, but I’m not so sure. Then after the meal we went to the hotel.

Day 3

Today we went on a bus ride to five places and then we went to a big temple with the four face towers and stairs that are impossible to climb. We were going to go in the temple, but we decided to ride an elephant! When we finally got on after me almost getting trampled by the elephants, I was in the middle, my brother was on the right, and Eli was on the left. When the elephant started moving, even if it was very slow the elephant was tipping back and forth (left to right), and we were sliding on the seat and banging into each other. I had an even crazier time because I was in the middle and my feet were on its shoulder blades and his shoulder blades kept going up and down, so my feet went up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down for the whole ride. Oh and if I’m making this sound bad, well it wasn’t. It was AMAZING! Anyway, we rode the elephant around the temple for about half an hour. Then we got off of the elphant and took a bus ride to lunch. Then we went to five temples, looked at the cool stuff in them, and then had dinner and went to the hotel.

Day 4

Today we took a bus to a floating homes village! When we were walking to one of the boats, people were taking pictures of us again and I was wondering why. At first the houses were on stilts, but then they were actually on boats for homes. They had a little church and a small supermarket on boats. After sailing around a little more we went to the bus where people were selling things with our faces on it, but this time it was on plates (even better!). then we went to the airport, left Cambodia, and went back to Vietnam.

Day 5

Today since we were free we first went to a still used pagoda. Inside ther were people lighting inscence sticks, so I did too. After the pagoda, we went to a shopping mall. We were in there for a little while buying stuff, but hen we left because there was almost no air conditioning, and it was burning hot. Then we had lunch and went to the ship.

Day 6

Today we left Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam at 6am. We sailed down the Mekong Delta during the morning until we got to the ocean to head on to Hong Kong.

I think that Cambodia is cool with more than 300 temples, and one of them is one of the seven wonders of the world, which is Angkor Wat. Unlike Vietnam, Cambodia is not a Communist country. It is a democratic country. The population of Cambodia is 14,000, and a A quarter of that the population in Cambodia is tourists. The population is low because of the genocide that happened there in the 70s. Genocide means systematic killing of many people. The government back then killed any person who was educated because they thought they might go against the government and they didn’t fit with communism. They think that two or three million people were killed. The Cambodians have recovered a lot from this genocide, and are surprisingly happy because I would think that they would be really sad because of how many people they lost.

Vietnam was really cool: it had really, really, really nice people, and it has a really cool culture and really good drivers. I really liked Vietnam a lot, and I’m really looking forward to China. Sinchow (hello)! Comon (thank you)!