Feb 24: Maldives

Hey All!

So for the past 5 days I have been in a little place called paradise. Better known as the tropical islands of the Maldives, which are off the western coast of India and Sri Lanka. There are more than 120 islands that make up the Maldives, some of which are not inhabited. These islands are made from corals and are surrounded by gorgeous bright blue water. Picture a beach paradise with palm trees and that's the Maldives. We are staying in the capital city/island of Male (Maul- ee) where there is virtually no beach. It is mainly used to conduct business and serve as a port for the fishermen. Fishing and tourism are the two main industries here in the Maldives. But we have been getting off the island by boat and visiting other islands for snorkeling and scuba diving.

We have seen many interesting species of fish including box fish, more triggerfish, etc. Yesterday, we saw a 6-foot white tip reef shark while snorkeling, which was amazing. It was just circling beneath us in and out of this little cave in the coral. I really wanted to see a shark and we did! We also saw turtles, moral eels, octopus, spotted eagle rays, and these huge Napoleon fish. The Napoleon fish are so big I thought that it was two fish just one lying on top of the other, and I kept asking Denny what were those fish that were lying on top of one another? He just looked at me like I was nuts! But anyways, they are 2 meters long and about a half meter tall ...They are huge green fish with a big bump on their head. My mask must have been fogging up because I could have sworn they were two different fish. But they were so neat.

So the others have been doing a lot of scuba diving, which I am really bummed that I couldn't go (I blew my ear drum and couldn't complete the course at Hiram). Because every time they come up from a dive they are so giddy with excitement about what they saw. Steven Shaak on our trip has an underwater digital camera though, so I guess I get to scuba vicariously through him. :) We have been having class a lot here, and have started a new book for our interdisciplinary course "Night Thoughts of a Classical Physicist". I guess you can't complain too much about having class in a 90 degree paradise now can you?

I guess that's all she wrote for the Maldives, except for if you ever get the chance to come…do it! It is so gorgeous here it blows my mind (but very expensive and high class so that's a bummer).

I hope February has been kind to everyone. I heard this is a pretty bad winter for Ohio, so I hope you are all staying safe and warm.Take Care!

Peace,

Megan

PS -Tomorrow we leave for Dubai and we are only there a few days then we are off to Cairo, Egypt for only a few days. So you may only get one email from me at the end of those two places. I will try my best though to get emails out in each.

Feb 19: India

So it's been 2 plus weeks since I have written home. So much has happened since my last email in Thailand it feels more like 2 months have passed. We've been in India for a little over 2 weeks now (since Feb 4th I think) and we have been all over this country. We flew into Delhi from Bangkok. Delhi is India's capital city but we only spent one day here and stayed at the YMCA. As soon as we got out of the airport in Delhi the culture shock hit me so hard I nearly fell over. Everything about this country is completely different from ours… the food, culture, etiquette, bathrooms, lifestyles, etc. I was first taken aback by the large mass of people outside the airport, seemingly just waiting around (it was early morning). Hundreds of taxis, buses, tok toks, cars, and motorcycles buzzing around a parking lot the size of Price Gym with absolutely no traffic rules. They were all honking their horns and playing an unfriendly game of bumper cars. Mastering the art of honking at every person, or vehicle, which comes within 15 feet of you is a must for driving in India. The people here probably need to replace their horns before they need to get oil changes. I didn't really get to see much else of Delhi because I used this day to catch up on sleep and journaling.

From Delhi we went by train to Mussoorie, which is located at the foothills of the Himalayas. Here, we traveled an hour up a mountain to the Woodstock School. The School was founded my Christian missionaries so their children would have a place to go to school. It is a boarding school and now only 5% of its students are Christian. At Woodstock we got to meet many students, including the journalism class who actually wrote an article about us in their school paper. At Woodstock there are no heaters so the students were hats, gloves, and coats in class. And the worst part about all of this is that they don't have heat in their dorms either! It was freezing up there, plus this is India's coldest winter in 45 years. Also while there, we did a presentation to a fifth grade class who was studying biomes. My group chose Coral Reefs as our topic. We even did a game (go figure my group doing something competitive) to illustrate the effects of global warming on the reef. We also had many underwater pictures from our previous dives and snorkels in Hawaii and Thailand. The kids really enjoyed our presentations, especially our game. To me, this was the most rewarding thing we've gotten to do all trip.

After Mussoorie we went by train to Jaipur, also known as the Pink City. It is called the Pink City because when King Henry VI (Maybe?) was visiting India, the people of the city wanted to show their welcoming nature and decided to paint all the city buildings and walls pink to symbolize hospitality. We were able to do many things in Japiur including going to an observatory and the City Palace.

After Jaipur we went to Bharatpur. Bharatpur is home to India's largest bird sanctuary, in Keolado National Park. At this bird sanctuary there are around 300 different species of birds. However, because this area hasn't had sufficient seasonal rain in the form of monsoons for 10 years many of these species have gone elsewhere when they migrate from the north. We saw mammals here as well including jackals, jungle cats, bluebulls, wild boar, and sour deer. We had a guide who took us through the whole park on bicycle (a very old and rickety bicycle) but we had a great time.

From Bharatpur we traveled by bus to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal! We got to the Taj just before sunrise. We all snapped a million pictures from all different angles and reflecting pools while the sun began to shed its light on the marble masterpiece. The Taj was an amazing site and something I can't really put into words-but it was definitely one of those powerful spiritual experiences. The entire thing is made of white marble. You have to wear these bootie things over your shoes when you walked up to the Taj. Also, around the Taj Complex, only electric vehicles are allowed because the smog is beginning to turn the marble yellow.

After Agra we went to Ranthambhore National Park. Here we went on a Tiger Safari but no luck on seeing any tigers. Many monkeys, jackals, antelopes, etc though. We got to ride on top of this open air safari bus that seats like 20 people. It was about 40 degrees though so we bundled up and they even gave us blankets.

We left Rhanthambhore and headed via overnight sleeper train down to Mumbai, previously known as Bombay. Here in Mumbai we stayed at a Hiram alum's sea side bungalow. Mahendra "Max" Chinai, class of 1949. He is a very caring man putting all 18 of us up in his house known as Daria Mahal. It is very well known here around Mumbai area, as is Max. While in Mumbai we visited a fish market and even went out on a traditional fishing vessel, no fishing though which was a bummer. We also did a lot of shopping while in Mumbai and Max arranged for us to be driven around in taxis (we were pretty much living the high life here) :) One of the days we got to go to a traditional Indian wedding. Max rents out the use of his house and gardens for weddings all the time. We got to witness all the unique traditions of an Indian wedding; they are so different from American weddings; a lot more dancing and games than at an American wedding. It was such an interesting and cultural experience. The women's sarees were all vibrant and colorful and beautifully decorated with gold thread and beads. There is no such thing as a dull saree. The traditions of Indian weddings are much different; however, the amount of good food is the same. The wedding guests were very friendly and welcoming to us.

Tomorrow we leave for the Maldives, tiny islands off the west coast of India. More to come from here!

Take Care,

Megan

Tok Toks in Thailand

Hello from Thailand!

The long plane ride was rough! 22 hours in a plane. We had two layovers, one in Japan and one in Taiwan. I was only able to sleep a few hours out of the whole flight! We landed in Bangkok where we spent only two days. Bangkok was very dirty; my lungs would fill with smog every time I walked outside. There are so many people in Bangkok 5.2 to be exact. There are so many street vendors selling anything you could want: food, drinks, fruit, appliances, etc. We have eaten off the street vendors and the food was awesome. Pad Thai is the best, with fresh pineapple being a close second.

One funny story from Bangkok:

Only being out in the city for about an hour I already got scammed... WE were turning the corner at a busy intersection and all these vendors start bombarding us. This one lady comes up to me and puts a bag of corm in my hand. I try to get away but she insists that I feed the birds. And so after a few moments of trying to get around her, I take the bird seed and go over and throw it down for the pigeons. Well, then she comes up with a second bag puts it in my hand and then shoves me to feed them again, I finally start catching on to her scheme, but it way too late. The lady wants me to pay her a dollar for feeding the birds. I try to walk away, and Troy was trying to help me, but she tracked us both down screaming "MONEY" at us. WE finally break away and don't pay the lady anything. But we honestly didn't have any money to give this lady. But it was a lessoned learned, I won't even take flyers now from people on the streets.

We spent the first couple days just sight seeing around the city. We visited many Buddhist temples which included seeing many famous Buddha depictions: The Emerald Buddha and the Golden Buddha. We also took a canal trip down the river in Bangkok. The water was a thick brown-no wonder they don't let you drink the water here. :) We took rides on tok toks, which are like knockoff golf carts that go on the streets. This was fun, but the drivers were all a little crazy.

Next we took an overnight bus (again didn’t sleep) down to a port city about 7 hours south of Bangkok. Here we boarded up onto a ferry which took us to Kho Tao, where we are currently. Kho Tao is beautiful, a huge step up from Bangkok. We are staying in bungalows that in the U.S. would probably cost 200 bucks a night. Everyone in Thailand is very friendly and the language barrier here isn't so bad. Most of the locals who work in restaurants, hotels, etc speak a little English.

We just got in from snorkeling, well I went snorkeling, and the rest of the group went Scuba diving. We saw tons of cool fish, and the reefs here are in great shape, not a lot of coral bleaching at all. The sun is extremely hot, but I have been wearing my sunscreen Grandma.

Tomorrow we leave to go camping in the rainforest and also to visit some caves. Should get to see a ton of wildlife!

Hope all is well in good old Ohio, and that you are all braving the winter :)

Peace,

Megan