The Final Post from the MV Explorer

Here in the bowels of purgatory of the MV Explorer, I await my floor's departure. The wait is made to feel longer by the fact that we aren't really doing anything on the ship by watching other people leave. It also feels longer by the fact that I am running on 6 hours of sleep for the past 50 some odd hours. Sleep has been one of the most lacking activities in this adventure and finally on the last day I hit the wall pretty hard.
Lots of enjoyable and not so enjoyable activites have taken place over the last couple of weeks including prom... i mean the ambaasador's ball. Which is really more of an ambassador's dinner because the dance was awful. Would it really have been so hard to set up a lesson of teaching everyone how to ballroom dance. This contemplation of SAS dropping the ball on a great opportunity had me thinking about the many times SAS has definately suffered from a lack of leadership and direction.


I came on this trip with key personal goals in mind, learn to get closer with people, improve my diction, and find confidence. I think my discoveries in lack of leadership ties in alot with finding confidence. Only in hindsight do I realize the faults in leadership and someday I hope to let kids know about them. One example of this is the administration. I've seen sloths, and I've seen this administration team and I am not quite sure which one moves faster. The number of faculty that actually interacted with the students was increidbly dissapointing. Only the voice Tom Jelke and Scott Sherman seemed to really interact with the students and try and challenge them about the world. Not all, but majority of the faculty really seemed to only be on the ship for their extended vacation.
There's lots I will have to reflect on like this after I return to home. I will miss alot of things on the ship, including the sunsets at dinner, playing guitar out into the ocean everyday and listening to stupid, stupid questions. Like... while we were in Hiroshima... no joke... someone asked "Who bombed these guys?"

Seeing San Diego today was an amazing sight and it was weloming to be back in the United States.


Closing my eyes outside and opening to them to a beautiful mountainous backdrop and we all began to realize, we were home. For now... hope you enjoy all the ambassadors dinner pictures.

Dear Missers and Well Wishers,

R.I.P. Helia Erickson. My great grandma of 105, the queen of the north, I’m sure you will take care of everyone in the next life just as good as you did in this one. Thanks for being a true inspiration of the human spirit and being a source of strength and compassion for all to admire.

https://mail.stthomas.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.legacy.com/StarTribune/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory%26PersonId=17477813

I think my desire to explore and be different stems from her side more than anyone elses. The fact that she played baseball and went to college which was something girls weren’t supposed to do. I am the same way in that if I am supposed to spend my college years drinking away and partying, I’d rather be running marathons and traversing the world in a way that isn’t the same as anyone else. That’s what brings me happiness, is being able to strike off on my own in a whole new direction and find a new sort of happiness. I hope I can do that for the rest of my life.




Stepping off the young MV explorer, I entered the wonderful place of Kobe, Japan. My first idea was natural, head to the much rumored insane baseball games. My spirits for the game were quickly dampered by the lingering seattlesque rain and the game was officially cancelled. After this I proceeded to have one of the most interesting SAS experiences yet. After taking the subway back to the station I decided to pick a temple on the map, throw the map away and make my way there on my own. It was truly a fascinating experience to just get lost in an unknown country where you can’t read anything and have no idea where you are going. It was nice to be on my own and away from any groups for a day because anywhere I wanted to go, I could just walk into without discussing it with anyone or worry about losing anyone. I found out a couple things on my journey to get lost, one was Japan truly is the mecca for all that is video games. There are playstations 2’s in all the internet café’s and the arcades are all on a grand multiplayer scale where people will spend a lot of time and money on these ‘brain builders’. After wondering into several golf shops I found my beloved temple. It happened to be a historic landmark with tickets and stuff so I happily observed the end of my quest and then headed out to dinner with some friends. Dinner was always an interesting experience in Japan because we always ate next to the nicest people would explain the entire menu to us and give us some of their food and share some drinks.

The second day I was off on my last official Semester at Sea sanctioned excursion. Our long bus ride to the town of Nara began with visting a…. TEMPLE!! It was cool, but even more beautiful was the fact that our guide told us that once a year that cherry blossom trees go into full bloom for 5 days and we happened to arrive in their prime. They were very beautiful and by the end of our trip you could tell they were starting to wilt. But for a while that tree’s were littered in pink dots and it was quite beautiful and quite cold. We also found Deer park, where deer would roam freely amongst the people and they were very fat and well fed and I continued to feed their addiction to cookies, bread and even paper. After this we proceeded to our wonderful ryokan which is a Japanese traditional style in and you have to where a robe everywhere you go and no shoes which I really enjoyed. The room’s were a hallway, a bathroom and then futons for sleeping! As I made my way to the bathroom I discovered the greatest invention of all time… Heated Toilet Seats. It almost makes a trip to the bathroom exciting. This was joined by such toilet accessories as the butt washer and water noise maker for potentially embarrassing situations and it came fully equipped with a volume control button. After a cross legged dinner, I made my way to the public bath. As is tradition I proceeded to the male only section and got out of my clothes and was prepared to wash up when much to my surprise an 80 year old woman was currently occupying the bath. I closed the door and came back a couple hours later. The bath was actually excruciatingly hot but at the same time felt incredibly nice. After such a relxing evening it was off to bed.

After exploring some more temples in Kyoto which all blend together (and have been since burma) we headed back to Kobe for another interesting dinner experience. I finally got to a sushi restaurant. After a very delicious meal, we were notified that once a year they have baby eel at this restaurant and they gave me a small bowl full of baby eels which were still SWIMMING and very much alive and told us it was custom to take it as a shot. After feeling like a contestant on Fear Factor, I decided to give it the ol’ college try and it was actually sorta tasty albeit squirmy.




The rest of my time was spent going to another cancelled baseball game and going to several Sake factories and exploring the shopping district of Kobe I just continued to walk around with some of my friends. It was on this trip I realized that out of all these great places we’ve seen in the world, it’s this circumstance of being in college and traveling with friends that truly made semester at sea a unique experience. It’s like the old saying, it’s not what you see but who you see it with. We had an absolutely amazing time bowling, doing Karokee (in private rooms with just our group) and I truly found it to be one of the best ports I have been to. Everything about Japan’s geographical setup says it should be at a complete disadavantage in terms of space, limited resources no countries linked to it. However Japan in some ways is more technologically advanced than the U.S. and also it was A LOT cleaner, and the people were very kind, the geisha’s were very beautiful. It’s strange that Japan has come so far in a short time because while the US was starting off in the 1800’s Japan was still settling domestic disputes with Shoguns. Japan is also the first country that doesn’t accept US dollars because they are very proud of their yen and really strive for excellence. I was very impressed with the countries ability to function. It was weird being in Japan seeing that it’s the only organized country to make an offensive strike against the United States since the colonial days. However they welcomed the US as friends and we were treated amazingly well everywhere we went. The memory of Japan will stay with me for a long time and its definitely a place I will return to someday just to see the behemoth that is Tokyo. After a magical experience I am sad to say that we have now begun the long journey home (14 days, ugh cabin fever and rough seas to account for as well) classes were cancelled the day after japan due to rough seas which makes up for me missing the one snow day in Minnesota. Everyone can expect a special friendly blog after our stop in Hawaii and then a blog when I hit my basement in Plymouth, MN. Until then, thanks again to Hank for another fantastic letter in Japan and all his letters really kept me smiling and were wonderful to receive. Thanks to Grace and Jenna for more awesome postcards and I hope this blog has been fun. We also had a charity auction on the ship where I took place in getting a bottle of merlot, a group of 10 friends for a week in a cottage on the coast of England, a 2-10 day photography expedition (may or may not be for someone depending on schedules) and we bought for 21 dollars a piece our very own table at lunch and dinner. Their were many tempting items including a week long hunting/fishing trip in south Africa. But I made sure my friends were included in all my thing and considering that all my things altogether are less than some of the SAS sanctioned trips like to the amazon (so its less that 1250) I thought it sounded like fun and hopefully we will have some great fun! Time to begin studying for final exam…

If I Start Digging Now, I could be home within a day

Hello Joggers and Sprinters and TV marathoners
(DONT FORGET TO CHECK OUT MY MOMS PERSPECTIVE ON VIETNAM IN THE POST BELOW THIS ONE!!!)

There I was stepping off the comforts of the boat into the wonderful land of Hong Kong, when I realized we aren’t at your typical harbor here in HK. I was most definitely in a mall the instant I stepped off the ship, I guess it was the equivalent of sail in shopping. The first thing I saw, McDonalds and Starbucks! In mass quantities, they were everywhere with a few KFC’s sprinkled in for effects and diversity and a pizza hut if you are a real hunter of Americanization. The second thing that became somewhat painfully obvious was that the delicious Chinese food down at your local Leean Chin or your local jade fountain wasn’t really Chinese food. It’s kinda like summing up all the McDonalds as American food and expecting all the food in the US to taste like McD’s. Not only was there lots of buildings, ships and people here in HK, there was the pollution to show for it as well. Every city in China has an incredible smog surrounding the horizon preventing anyone from looking too far into the distance. Our time here in Hong Kong passed quickly and it was time to meet our driver and head out of town to meet Michael and Christine Wu.
My friend Nicki and I began our fantastic adventure of the big red giant known as China. The first thing I asked to my local friend was, “Is China really going to be the next big superpower?” and he laughed. He explained to me that most Chinese people are really just looking for peace and it is against their nature to try start a war for any reason (say oil, money, you know like some other countries) Which I didn’t believe at first. But after walking around China it was clear that most people are very laid back and are also very into nature and the natural workings of the world.


The first town we visited was Shanghai (which is preferable to Shanglow) and we went straight to… a German restaurant! It was very tasty and considering the hordes of Chinese that was to come, I didn’t mind just having a tasty steak. After dinner we visited a local bar joint where a local band was playing on stage. They asked in Chinese if anyone wanted to play and Michael Wu volunteered me for the assignment. After singing (a very fast and out of time) when I come around by green day, I got a huge round of applause for the foreign song that nobody knew the words to. It was a really cool experience. Next we visited a dance club and the only people making asses out of themselves dancing… were from California! The next day we explored some beautiful gardens and enjoyed a nice dim sum lunch. After walking by the waterfront and the Bundt we called it a night and headed off for good ol’ Beijing following a particularly exciting argument in Chinese between my friend Michael Wu and the ticket agent lady. You haven’t lived until you watch two people argue out loud in public in a language you don’t understand.
Beijing didn’t quite have the same evil looking skyscrapers as Shanghai, but it was still a avery large city. It reminded me a lot of uptown Minneapolis, only an uptown that stretched on forever and ever. Our first order of business was to visit the temple of heavan. It was very beautiful, including my graceful fall down the steps, with all the shrines. Two highlights included the echo wall very similar to the ceiling of the house of congress where you could talk into the wall and the sound would travel all the way to the otherside of it. Another highlight was the center of the building contained an area where when you talked your voice would reverberate and echo through the entire chamber.
The food in Beijing was exceptional. I am not allowed to talk about a lot of it so as to prevent any jealousy between other parties that do business with Michael Wu, but the duck was particularly amazing. It was cool to eat in a restaurant where bush sr, Arafat, and… yanni? Had eaten. Yes yanni’s picture was up there next to all the world leaders. Every meal was delicious and was very different than what I was expecting.
The next day greeted us with a cold rain and I knew it was going to be an interesting day. We set out with one goal in mind, to scale the Great Wall. As we drove to the wall, the weather felt more and more like fall in Minnesota. It especially felt like fall because it didn’t take long until there white flakes falling from the sky. There was quite a chill to the air and the snow had accumulated to perfect snowball making height. There were lots of people walking along the wall which looks like the most twisted spine any chiropractic has ever seen. With the bricks getting slipperier by the minute, there was lots of people falling especially when the wall gets steep and it got amazingly steep in some places. It was then I whipped out Michael Wu’s cell phone and made a nice 50th birthday call to my mom. HAPPY 50th MOM! It was quite amazing to be on one of the biggest and most prestigious wonders of the world and a structure that I had built in so many cities on my old computer game Civilization.



Our next tourist stops included the Tiananmen Square and the amazing Forbidden city. The lowlight of the forbidden city was the Starbucks that was inside of it. It was more jaw dropping shockingly amazing than anything else. The history in the city was amazing as well and how perfectly square everything was and how it all lined up according to the emperor’s plan. I was amazed with China because it was setup in a style that’s made for industry but there are now random tourist things spring up all over the place. I felt fortunate to exist in a time period where I am even allowed to enter the forbidden city because that kind of access is something that wasn’t available for the first 3,000 years of time.
After all the tourist things we finally made it to the market where a couple fans of handles and steel may soon be rewarded for their odd devotions. The market is interesting because they don’t try and keep you there with words but the ladies in store will grab you by the arm and try and get you not to leave. It was also fun to see all the Olympic stuff setup and the merchandise already selling like beer on the ship, I mean… anyways.
The best part about the entire trip though had to be my interaction with Michael Wu. He was recommended by my good friend Mike and was very instrumental in creating the best time for me possible. I didn’t truly appreciate how good our time was until I got back to the ship and heard about everyone who struggled to communicate with people in China while I had no problems whatsoever in any manner. Every night seem to bring a new surprise and a new joy and I loved every minute of China. The sea’s are pretty rough right now and we will be entering a communications black out tonight at midnight till the day after we leave Kobe. Not too long now till the voyage home!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH MICHAEL AND CHRISTINE WU!!

A parental perspective in Vietnam!!

Mom's journey blog entry- 4/8/06
After 9 planes, 12 buses, 5 boats. 1 train, 2 taxis, 1 tuk tuk, and an
elephant ride in 14 days later, we finally returned home. One of the
father's on the trip, Russell, said when he watched the boat leave the
harbor in Nassau, he thought to himself, "What have I just done? I just
sent my daughter off with 849 complete strangers on a boat for 100
days." This time we watched the boat leave going back down the Saigon
River out to sea and we all knew we were watching 680 Young American
Ambassadors head for China. (680 students plus staff-no-we didn't lose
150 people from the boat). After sharing their journey with them
through Vietnam and Cambodia, we all knew we were with some very
special students who had discovered themselves and found their voices
somewhere within those 100 days and many countries later. We as
parents were ready to take on our roles once more, "Have you been
eating right?", "Are you OK?" "Do you need anything?" But we only
heard, "Come on, we have many roads to go down yet, mom and dad." So!
Off we went.

Suffering from jetlag and heat shock, we arrived in Bangkok. We had
our first class in foreign language from our guide, Mae. "Sawadee-ca"
for women to say, and "Sawadee-crap" for the men meaning welcome,
hello, good-by, and thank-you." Bangkok has 4 seasons, as does
Minnesota: hot, hotter, hottest and wet. We only have one of the four,
and having had 20 inches of snow fall the week before we left, it was
quite the shock to arrive in over 100 degree heat and humidity and
being told this is the hotter season. Hottest starts in April! I
loved Bangkok, The City of Angels, but I refer to it as Buddaville. We
floated down the Chao Phraya River and through the Thornburi canals,
feeding the carp, eating lunch along the shore and watching the boys
swim in the water on our first day. We saw beautiful temples, the
Grand Palace, toured the Ayuthaya, the former capital, and visited the
"Summer Palace" which I found to be stunning. We saw Buddha: The
Golden Buddha, The Jade Buddha, The Laying Down Buddha, fat Buddha,
skinny Buddha, and meditating Buddha for our enlightenment. We
definitely want to return to Thailand and see more of the countryside
including Chiang Mai.

Vietnam was interesting for all of us but for many, we spent the first
day casting off our old images of Vietnam whether they were from a TV
screen, cover of Life Magazine, or because of a visit courtesy of Uncle
Sam. A thriving city, Ho Chi Minh was a bustling city along the Saigon
River. Our first lesson: how to cross the street. It is an exercise
in faith! Follow three rules: don't look, just start to cross; don't
change your pace; don't look back. It is the city of a million
scooters. Scooterville. I thought it was a special parade but no,
just everyone drives scooters. Women dressed as ninjas surprised me but
I was told the Vietnam women don't want to have any tan lines from the
sun. The 'whiter' the better and how they do not pass out in the heat
dressed in a total cover up including the face covered, long sleeved
gloves and hats and socks is beyond me. I first thought they wanted to
be more white as in Caucasian but I quickly learned the other reason:
the whiter the skin, the more education, which in turn meant more money
and not a job working in a rice patty. 60 % of the population in
Vietnam is under 25 years old so one girl I was with from the boat had
to find someone to interview about the war for her class assignment but
that was not as easy as I thought it would be with everyone so young.
Imagine how different the US would be if over half the population was
barely drinking age! The second day, we parents stood on the rooftop
of our hotel watching for the first sighting of the ship as it came up
the Saigon River at the crack of dawn. The ship was enormous sailing
by the Sampans, the Vietnamese fishing boats. Hardly able to contain
our excitement, we dashed to breakfast and boarded the bus to take us
to the pier. Grab your Kleenex! Tears of joy came out of our eyes as
our kids hung over the ship rails hanging signs of greetings to us.
Bursting out in song of Happy Birthday to Nicci's dad, and one girl
yelling, "Guess what Mom, I am pregnant!" (Just a little joke since
the ship is 2 girls for every boy.) Little did we know, the country
had its own greeting committee with 12 women dressed in traditional
Vietnam clothes holding their own personal greeting sign of welcome to
our country. Charlie was right: the Vietnamese were very warm and
welcoming to all of us. Vietnam was the capital of Tailors as most of
the students wanted clothes made so off we went to be outfitted after
we greeted the boat's arrival. As Charlie said, "It is just another day
for us at school", we hit the ground running once the students joined
us and after our lunch on board the ship meeting the fantastic crew, we
were off to Cambodia the second day.

Cambodia was by far the most interesting. It wasn't poverty we were
looking at. It was simply a country still in its infancy in terms of
development. As it said in one of our recommended reading materials,
"Cambodia is like a broken vase. The millions of little pieces have
been glued back together but it is not very strong." It was not the
Killing Fields with the skulls piled up, and clothes or bones still
sticking out of the ground that made one pause. It was the only place
in 14 days the sky tried but failed to open up on us. It was just the
tears of the many lost souls, falling on our faces from the sky as we
just stood there on the dusty dirt roads around Phnom Pehn. On our
second day in Cambodia, we were greeted with 110-degree temps and that
does not factor in the 90 percent humidity, as we stepped off the plane
headed for the city of Angkor. Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, and Angkor Thom
were the highlights of this city.

After Cambodia, we were off to return to Vietnam and cruised the Mekong
Delta along the Mekong River sampling honey tea, exotic fruits and
another oriental buffet. We rejoined the group that went to Hanoi
instead and shared our different experiences with them. All too soon
it was time to wave good-by to our ambassadors. We proud parents stood
on the rooftop of our hotel to wave as the captain of the boat set sail
once again down the Saigon River headed for another stop, another
country, and another day of classes.

The highlights? The woman in the picture Charlie put at the beginning
of his Vietnam entry asked me if I wanted a Vietnam daughter-in-law
after meeting Charlie. Feeding the wild monkeys, riding the elephants,
meeting the wonderful parents of our young ambassadors, entrepreneur
Charlie selling frozen wet towelettes to the kids outside our bus,
watching Katie bargain for a cheaper taxi in H.C.M., Vince bargaining
down the price for his Congo drum, thawing out, gaining the true
understanding of the mission the Institute of Shipboard Education has
for students, Mike finding his soul mate in George for our
entertainment including the dance on stage the two did on our last
night, Charlie ordering two dinners at the French Restaurant
overlooking Saigon River before boarding the boat, and the education we
got in 3 Asian countries.

If I went back to Cambodia, it would be for a mission such as bringing
textbooks since they have very few if any teachers for the kids. I
will never forget the eyes in the little boy who clung to me at Angkor
Wat asking "Madame, One U.S.dollar, Madame". I can still hear him. I
had the great fortune of meeting General Colin Powell before Charlie
set sail and I now agree with him after I told him about Charlie's
semester at sea: We are relying on these 680 young voices to be our
next leaders and giving a voice to those who can not speak to us
directly for they have looked into the eyes of many people around the
world and listened to their messages. I think that is the ultimate
purpose of this journey for our children and I applaud their courage.
We parents are very proud of these students and know we cannot place a
dollar value on the wisdom they have gained.

Thank-you students, parents, guides and instructors for sharing your
journey with us. In three weeks, we will once again stand at the pier
with our welcome signs, Kleenex, and empty suitcases for all your
purchases and tailored made clothes and watch as the captain safely
brings in the ship into the harbor in San Diego. See you there!

Goooood morning Viet 'Mom'

Hi people from Nicki :)


I woke up at 7 (ICT) in the morning to find the boat floating down a river towards Ho Chi Minh City formerly known as Saigon. The first thing that’s noted is that in Vietnam there was no Vietnam war, there was the American and Chinese war crimes. I just found this to be an interesting point of view. Next I think I will answer questions from the latest letter from my Uncle Hank because I think they are probably very common questions everyone has about Vietnam:
Do they like Americans in Vietnam? Do you feel welcome?
Yes. In fact Vietnamese love Americans and are quite welcoming to all of them. Almost everyone we talked to had a positive view about the US and hopes to visit there someday. Part of this is due to the fact that over 60 percent of the population in Vietnam is under 21. So most weren’t even alive during the war and don’t seem to hold any grudges about the stories of old. Although there’s the war remnants museum the only thing that really stands as a reminder is the flag with the red communist star. There are some destroyed buildings but we never confirmed their cause. We did sail to Ho Chi Minh through the straits of Malacca which was FULL of ships. There are ships everywhere in this area which is why we constantly had to have people on pirate watch because any boat is a potential threat. The water is also a lot dirtier in the Indian ocean and there’s constantly debris floating in the water. We had a fuel stop in Singapore but we didn’t get to get off the ship but they were kind enough to stamp our passports. Adding to my growing stamp collection. I would like to say happy trails to Courtney who cut her hand in Myanmar and got an infection and had to be sent home. This is very sad and I hope she gets to come back someday and complete her journey.




After the brief Ambassadors meeting, which happens in every country ambassadors from the American embassy come talk to us about what to expect, Nicki and I prepared her dad’s 50th bday sign and went upstairs to see our parents waiting for us on the dock. It was quite the welcoming experience to share part of the journey with my mom and mike. It was also fun to compare them because this is their first stop and our seventh, so what seems routine and normal to us like crazy traffic and the heat, was almost overhwleming to them at first. The next thing you’ll notice about Vietnam is the traffic. I know the traffic has been zany in every country, but here is especially crazy because there’s a constant stream of scooters at all times which can make crossing the street a challenge. It really becomes an exercise of faith in humanity as you just set your direction and walk and hope the traffic avoids you, it’s fun and dangerous, but altogether part of the great expereience. The next best thing about Vietnam is movies, no not their movies, our movies, that are all out in theatres right now, are all out for sale here. For a dollar. To put it in other terms, C.S.I. the TV show is 75 dollars per season back in the United States. Here, it’s seasons 1-5 for 39 dollars. The only thing you risk is buying a dvd in the wrong regional code so you have to watch on your lap top, OR, you may get one that doesn’t work at all. Although this was very tempting, I don’t watch too many movies to justify ripping off the industry in a grand legal style so I didn’t purchase any.
My mom and step dad were there part of the Semester at Sea parent trip so there was a group of parents there and the next day we all departed for Cambodia. I had pretty high expectations going into Cambodia and I am happy to say they were all easily met. The first day we headed into the mother of all temples Angkor Watt and it was quite the large infrastructure. With all it’s sheer size being amazing I could only imagine what it would have been like in its hay day when jewels were implanted on every stair and the first was lit in every corner. After me and the other 20,000 (not an exaggeration) tourists left my small 30 person group headed back to our very wonderful quaint hotel.
The next day we headed to the Killing Fields. Those that have seen the movie have some idea of what I am talking about. A couple of decades ago, a man by the name of Pol Pot took power, and decided to torture and kill all the traitors (makes sense) and educated people (doesn’t make sense) and you can still see this resonating through the country today. The genocide museum made quite the impact I think on everyone who saw it. After that we explored a some more beautiful temples. One temple was where they filmed the movie Tomb Raider and had trees literally growing from the around and on top of the walls.
After the umpteenth temple, we made our way to the plane and did the one thing no one wanted to do 40 years ago… fly back into Vietnam. Comparatively, Ho Chi Minh City, AKA Saigon, is head and shoulders above its Phenom Penh and Cambodian natives. There was still a lot of anger amidst the people of Cambodia towards its current Vietnamese government. I wouldn’t be surprised to see violence of some sort rise out of Cambodia in the next decade. Which made me very feel very fortunate to have been there in this small window of time.
The last night I was treated to dinner at a fancy French restaurant on the 14th floor of this building overlooking my ship. I ended up getting back to the ship just in time, around 10 30 with required on ship time being 11. However right around 11, there was a mad rush of the gang plank with things getting out of control due to alcohol. So a lot of people got dock time in china which can be anywhere from 2 hours to 24 of required staying on the ship. So now its on to the rising red giant of china to see the next competition, thanks for the wonderful time in Vietnam for everyone who came and everyone who wasn’t, I recommend visiting. It’s an extremely entertaining and cheap town with a 100% Italian wool suit costing only 400 compared to 1400. I haven’t stopped learning now for 74 days, and in the next few days I’ll hit the 75% mark of the trip for the final stretch. Don’t blink now, or else you’ll miss an entire episode of charlie’s adventures. More to come from a parental perspective of this fascinating and wonderful country….