Mauritius, a small island to the east of Madagascar, tropical, beautiful and popular tourist attraction:
Day 1: We awoke early and took a water taxi (the only mode of transportation from the ship to the waterfront of Port Louis) to the waterfront and found a restaurant where we had a delicious breakfast of omelet and French fries. Then we walked about for a while. The city was interesting. Kind of dirty and not at all tropical feeling. We headed back to the ship in the early afternoon to go on a service visit to a children’s village/ orphanage. There were about 100 children, ranging from 1 year to 17 years old. They were all very excited to see us and play with our cameras. The organization that runs the place was very inspiring, as were the housemothers that donated their lives to taking care of orphans. For dinner we met up with friends at a local bar for delicious drinks and food.
Day 2: got up early this day and took a bus up to Grand Baie for 30 rupees! About 10 cents or so! It was about an hour-long ride between Port Louis and Grand Baie where all the beaches and resorts are. We went with our friend Rikki and found a nice little public beach as soon as we got there. We wanted to spend the night but we weren’t sure if we could find anything cheap enough. We stumbled upon a little hotel right across the street from the beach and on the strip where all the restaurants and bars were. It was only 9 dollars a night per person! A few other people from the ship met up with us there. We went out to the beach again for sunset and a swim. It was beautiful! Then headed back and got ready for and evening of dining, drinking, and dancing.
Day 3: Woke up early for the bus ride back to Port Louis. Got in and had breakfast at the same delicious restaurant. Sat around for some time hanging with peeps, not wanting to get back on the ship. Eventually caved and got on ship. We both were feeling very tired. Kiah had a fever and a cough. We slept the afternoon away and said ‘adieu’ to Mauritius.

Sailed for 5 days

Finally got to India (a country in Asia, hopefully you’ve all heard of it), here’s the big news!:
Day 1: got into Chennai (Madras) in the morning. We were the first off the ship to leave on our trip to the Taj Mahal and Jaipur. We got on an airplane up to Delhi for the night. When we finally arrived in Delhi (over an hour late) we had a night drive by tour of the old part of the city. We spent the night at a gorgeous 5 star hotel (well, the lobby was certainly 5 star, but the room wasn’t that nice).
Day 2: Woke early (6 am!) the next morning for our drive to Jaipur, about 6 hours southwest of Delhi. The drive was, interesting to say the least. Cows roamed freely through the streets. Rickshaws and motorcycles and bicycles weaved in and out with no attention to lane lines or indicators. Actually, most vehicles don’t even have side-view mirror they just have a sign on the back that says ‘honk please’ indicating that you should honk when passing next to them! Crazyyyyy! The drive was also beautiful at some points. Close to Jaipur is the Amber Fort (which we visited the next day, see below) set atop a stunning and haunting grey hill with prickly looking shrubs and trees. It was incredibly beautiful. We got to Jaipur and checked into our hotel and had lunch there. After lunch we got back on the bus for a city tour of Jaipur. We saw an ancient observatory. It was pretty much a big courtyard thing with enormous structures that calculated the position of stars and the sun and other things. One of them was a huge sundial; it was probably 6 stories tall! We then went to the palace there where the royal family lived before India became a democratic state. While there we saw the maharaja of Rajasthan (a state in India, the maharaja is simply a symbolic leader now). That was pretty sweet. We then had a free night and used it to sleep!
Day 3: got up early again and got into the bus for our drive over to the Amber Fort. We got in line and rode elephants up to it. The fort was enormous and there was an old cobblestone switchback road leading up to it. It was so much fun and the elephants were so cute! And huge! And sweet! We then toured the fort, which was enormous with many little corridors leading to different outside areas and stunning carvings and such. After that we got back in the bus for our drive to Agra for the Taj Mahal! That was a very lonnnnng drive and on the way we hit bit of a snafu! The bus suddenly pulled over on the side of the highway behind many other pulled over vehicles. We were in the middle of nowhere with shacks around and presumably a tiny town nearby. Finally after about 20 minutes of not knowing what was going on our tour guide informed us that there was some sort of demonstration going on up ahead, people were using their bodies to block the road. Apparently, a boy from a Muslim family died and there was fighting going on between two groups (Muslims and some other group in the town) about his burial or something, it was kind of unclear. But in any case they weren’t letting any vehicles through; they were breaking windows and throwing rocks if anyone tried to drive past. So we waited for a while longer. By this time a crowd of children and some adults had gathered around our but and were waiving and such and the tour guide told us to pull the curtains on the bus so we didn’t arouse too much attention or something. He was certain that the presence of foreigners might spark more action in the demonstration. We finally saw traffic moving on the other side of the road after a few military vehicles drove past. So we started moving and all had to slump down in our seats so that no one could see us. The tour guide was pretty nervous, and we’ll admit that we were too. After about 20 minutes more of driving, he said it was all okay and that we could pull the curtains back again if we wanted. It was all safe and fine but still a slightly rattling experience! We stopped at an abandoned ancient city (Fatepurhsikri) and toured that for a bit and finally ended up at our hotel for dinner and sleep.
Day 4: got up EXTREMELY early (5:15) to get to the Taj Mahal for sunrise. It was incredible! We were dropped off 10 minutes walk away because vehicles can’t get any closer and there was a pretty walk through a park of sorts with monkeys running around. We got to the gates and waited for a bit (the gate doesn’t open till sunrise) and got inside a bit after 6. There really is no way to describe the Taj Mahal. It doesn’t look real. The place looks like an enormous backdrop until you are right up next to it. It was great to see the colors of the place change as the sun rises and there weren’t that many people there, which was really great. Our tour guide gave us a 20-minute talk as soon as we got in and then let us wander around for about 2 hours, which was really nice. We were able to just take our time and really have a great experience. We will try to post some pictures soon so you can all see what we are talking about. We then walked back to the bus and drove back to Delhi where we had lunch and were dropped off at the airport for our flight back to Chennai. The flight was delayed a rather long time and we didn’t get back to the ship that night till around 1am, so we were all exhausted.
Day 5: got up at a reasonable hour! Hired an auto-rickshaw for the day (for about 4 dollars each!). The driver was a really sweet old man who had an envelope in his rickshaw with letters and pictures from previous SAS students he had met. He was really excited to meet us and show us around the city. We got some great shopping done and got a bit of internet time in before we headed back for the ship in the early afternoon.
So that was our time in India, that’s a pretty short version and we would love to go into more detail about every amazing experience, but who do you think we are!?!?! We have lots of important and pressing things to see to! We love you all and miss you so so so so much! Keep in touch and have an awesome and SAFE Halloween!
On October thirty-first witches do their brewing
Ghosts and goblins hear them shout
Who knows what they’re doing
Jack-o-lanterns light each door
It’s the night they’ve waited for
Hurry home and jump in bed or Halloween will….
GRAB YOU!!!
xxoo Kiah and Rachael