Eat, Pray, Love

October 22nd- 23rd
New Delhi and Agra

Although Eat, Pray, Love turned out not being well-liked in most of the countries it was based upon, I still had a connection to the book since I had recently read it and deeply enjoyed it. However, I found all three aspects, eat, pray and love, in India. The food is so fresh and delicious, religion and spirituality surrounds you and you catch yourself pray and meditating on everything around you, and i have never been so in love with a place or had so much love for myself and others while in this country. My favorite novel in the world, Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts, which is also about India, was definitely in my thoughts the whole time as well.  I related it to my whole experience in India and it allowed me an inside feeling on the people and prepared me for the next few days. I was ready for the India head wobble, for the mass amounts of people, for the near death experiences in tuk tuks, and for the true honesty and humanity in each human being their. Professor Aguilar told us that if you want to know what a human being really is, go to India, and I now understand that. They are truly unlike any people I have ever met, and I have never felt more real because of that while I was there.

I decided instead of writing every detail about my excursion in New Delhi and Agra, I would bullet point the trip.  If I can write 3 pages on one day in Pondicherry, I know I could write a lot about this experience and it might be better just to attempt to be brief ☺

- Meet up at 9 with the SAS group for the flight to New Delhi.  There was delicious curried rice on the plane
- Arrive in New Delhi, met Kajil our tour guide, went to Humayun Tomb.  Cameron and I took a bunch of pictures and enjoyed the beautiful architecture even though we weren’t really sure what the Humayun Tomb was other than a tomb.
- Went to the Rajghat Gandhi Samadhi during sunset, which is the place where Gandhi’s body was cremated before being spread throughout India. I said a few prayers and meditated with Jill in the grass near the cremation site. I don’t pray as much as home but in India it felt right and I always felt comfortable to do so.
- Killed by a man who didn’t agree with you ways/ you changed the dinition of peace/ ashes scattered throughout the land/ yet this eternal flame is your soul for us to keep
- Took bus to the hotel- stayed at Le Meridian.  The hotel was ridiculously nice which would anger me at times because we were in the middle of India and it felt wrong to stay there but c’est la vie.
- Dinner was American so some of us went to explore New Delhi and got dinner at a local Indian restaurant where Cam ordered the two of us amazing dal, nan, roti, and spinach like veggies. Had a few beers and we were so happy enjoying the whole experience.
- Got back late, so we went to bed since we had to be up early for our train ride to Agra the next day
- Two of my guy friends, Peter and Rob missed the bus, met us at the train station while one of the guys, Ryan, missed both completely and took a cab to Agra because he was not going to miss the Taj
- The train station was crowed with people everywhere, standing, sitting, and laying down (some actually sleeping), it was like they didn’t have homes and made the train station a place for them to sleep at night
- A bunch of children kept coming up to us and asking for food every so often, which was heartbreaking especially since there were so many of them
- The older people looked exhausted, truly exhausted and would sit there on the floor some with happiness in their eyes but almost all with despair
- The train station brought out so many emotions, because there were so many different types of people that you cannot generalize the entire crowd because everyone was truly so different
- Slept most of the way on the train, but when I would look out the window I saw the real India.  Strangest site was that there were houses 5 feet away from the railroad tracks (India’s fastest running train) and children playing on the tracks.  All with the greatest smiles, but it didn’t feel right at the same time. 
- Houses built 2 feet away from the fastest train in India/ outside the window children are playing/ the garbage is everywhere/ yet the smiles never seem to leave their faces
- Got off the train and there were disabled persons trying to get food or money from you. Man with elephantiasis on both feet. Are these people born this way, with these disabilities, or is it done to them when they are children, like in Slumdog Millionaire, in order to make more money…
- Went to Fatehpur Sikri took lots of pictures, kids everywhere trying to sell stuff, both kids and adults would throw things on you so you felt compelled to by it and when you tried to give it back they wouldn’t take it. There were snake charmers, people with orange hair, and women covered in the most colorful sari’s imaginable
- Went to the Agra Fort (the most important fort in all of India), took a lot of photos again, first site of the Taj Mahal
- Finally went to the Taj- it was breath taking.  Way bigger than I assumed but couldn’t get over the beauty.  People looked like ants standing next to it. We were there before sunset so the scenery was amazing.  The detail on the building was so intricate and the amazing-ness of it was more than people could ever explain. Too long of a line to go inside- I guess I have to come back, but it was really as amazing as people say, way more beautiful than I expected
- After Kajil took the buses to a marble market for some shopping but Cam, Leigh and I didn’t want marble so we walked around and found another shop. Met an amazing shopkeeper who helped us around
- Went back to the train station to head back to New Delhi.  We were given boxed dinner on the bus, each thing individually wrapped.  At train station children begging for food. A lot of us gave dinner parts of our boxed dinner to the children, trying to separate it out as much as possible. Just felt like the right thing to do.
- On the train I was sitting next to Professor Adams, but during her nap went up and hung out with Spencer, Jay and some random girls and just talked for the next hour.
- Got back to the hotel, called mom, dad and riley- so great to talk to them, it’s been so long!
- Next was our adventure to Varanasi!

That is my short synopsis of New Delhi and Agra.  Of course India had a huge impact on me and I loved every moment, but it gets difficult to write everything that I felt while explaining everything that I did.  If you are ever interested in knowing more than what is written I will be happy to talk about it :) Next is Varanasi and that’s where the brilliance of India is exemplified and the harsh reality of this amazing and spiritual place is displayed.

Namaste

INDIA INDIA INDIA (day 1)

October 21st- Pondicherry

We are finally here.  My most anticipated port has arrived.  I stood off the back deck of the ship, watching us pull in and I couldn’t wait to get off.  I felt some sort of energy truly pulling me towards the land.  I was ready to explore and wanted to go at that particular moment.  After making it through the madness of getting our passports and customs forms from the pursers desk, I met up with Jill and Jess to discover the temples and ashrams in southern India.  We ran into three of our guy friends who were interested in going with us and made our way off the ship, out of line, and onto the bus out of the port.  The bus drop off was congested with people coming at you in every direction, hoping you would take their particular rickshaw to your desired destination.  The six of us were pulled a part by different drivers until we decided to split up, three and three and have them take us to a bank.  Our first drive in an auto-rickshaw was crazy.  There is absolutely no organization when it comes to driving in India, at least none that I could see, however, the drivers all know what they are doing and instead have created organized chaos that works for them.  After the bank, we finally make our way to the train station where we abruptly decide we are going to go to the temple and ashram that is three hours away instead of the one that was an hour away, so we could get away from everyone and fully immerse ourselves in southern India.  Our bus fare was 150 rupees (so a little over $3) and we were off.  We drove through a part of India that I have never really imagined with palm trees, oceans, grasslands, and a lot of space, with very little people and other cars around.  It was a good transition into what we would be experiencing in the next few days, but at the same time you could still feel that you were in India.  There were even times on that bus ride that I felt like we were going to crash or hit a cow which were feelings I became very familiar with during my time there.
 
I came back to my envisioned India when we arrived at the train station in Pondicherry.  People were everywhere, of course, just going about their daily routines, while the six of us are trying to figure out exactly what to do.  We got a rickshaw to take us to the temple, cramming each of us in the little tuk-tuk as he insisted. Sam sat up front talking to our new friend and the other 5 of us were pilled on top of each other, sitting on laps, watching our lives flash by our lives because of this mans driving, yet we never stopped laughing.  Laksmi the Hindu elephant was standing outside the temple blessing those who were waiting to go in the temple.  The idea was great- a painted Asian elephant that would place its trunk on your head after putting your donation to the temple into her trunk.  However, after seeing the African elephants in South Africa it was a tough site to see because Laksmi was in captivity.  Those types of thoughts kept crossing my mind, but it was time for me to experience and enjoy the temple for what it is.  The boys and girls decided to separate having the boys go in the temple first while we held their stuff and shopped.  The number of shops outside of the temple surprised me. Most of the stuff was geared towards tourists but we were definitely the only white people around so it seemed strange.  We later learned that there are a lot of Indian tourists in India or particular temples others in India want to see because the country is so big.  It was finally our turn to go into the temple and left our shoes and purses with the guys.  Jess, Jill and I walked in the temple not really knowing what to expect or do.  The inside was covered in Hindu art all around the walls and ceiling which was gorgeous.  They told so many ancient stories that are important to all of Hindus and did a great job depicting the stories with only paintings. People were standing in a line to go through this small room in the center of the temple so we diced to join in line.  In that line we relieved the white ash to spread across our forehead and said a prayer to the God at the end of the line.  Although our skin color definitely made us stand out, we were welcomed and embraced.  After stepping outside of that room we wanted to look around the temple some more so we started wondering admiring the beautiful architecture and paintings.  A man came up to us telling us we were walking in the wrong direction so we quickly turned around.  He walked with us for a bit inside the temple explaining what we were supposed to do inside the temple.  In essence, you walk around clockwise three times and pray to the various deities that are set up.  When you are finished you can receive the red dot on your forehead and then join on the floor for your own personal meditation.  We did exactly that.  Realizing the boys might hate us if we took any longer, we cut the meditation short to meet up with them outside.  After our time at the temple we decided to walk around and find other things to do in Pondicherry.  Jill and Jess stepped inside a herbal shop and asked what else was recommended to see or do in the town.  She mentioned for us to go to the ashram, the place we thought we just left since our rickshaw driver told us just that.  However, we were wrong and the site we actually came to Pondicherry for was just a few blocks away.  We only had 45 minutes before the ashram closed to the public, but that actually ended up being the perfect amount of time.  Once we arrived, we all separated and made it each of our own experience, which is always nice to do. I said a prayed at the bed of flowers, bought books on meditation in the bookstore, and then meditated for the reminding time.  I was calm and feeling at peace.  The drive to Pondicherry really opened my eyes to a different India than I was expecting but at the same time it was a good thing for me to see.  It allowed my first day in the country I had been most excited for to be calm and relaxing, getting me settled in.  I was finally there and of course my anxiety was high, ready for me to explore everything, but the time in Pondicherry was calm.  Meditating allowed me to soak it all in and prepare for the next few days. 

We left the ashram refreshed and ready to see what the rest of the town had to offer, specifically in food and shopping.  The main street felt like the Vegas strip with all of the lights, colors, and people except this strip was crowded with rickshaws, bikes, people, unfamiliar smells, dirt roads, and shrines.  We were all so happy. We walked around for about 3 hours until we decided to grab some food.  There was a small sign for a restaurant that looked pretty authentic so we decided to climb the five flights of stairs in this narrow building to make it to the restaurant on top.  Again we were the only white people, making us comfortable that this would be some good Indian food.  We weren’t really sure what we ordered but it was delicious.  You really get to know people when you are in a foreign country, eating local food, enjoying local beers, and talking about life.  Connections are instantly made and you catch yourself talking about the most random subjects, but they always have some sort of meaning to you.  Although I had learned a lot about myself over these past months, I have learned a lot about the types of people I enjoy hanging out with.  They all have taught me a lot and when you can get deep into a great conversation with people you don’t know that well, you know there is something more and fun times only continue you build.

A little after ten o’clock we decided to wrap it up and head back to the bus station and then to Chennai.  We found out that the bus ride all night, not hurrying us, but instead of taking the 150 rupee bus, we decided to take the “more local looking” bus that was around a dollar for a $3 hour bus ride.  There were bright neon lights flashing and a Bollywood movie playing in the front, so we were excited to take the “party bus.”  There was absolutely no space, the seats were super close to each other, the ride was extremely bumpy, and the doors were left open a lot of the time so people could hop off, but I thought it was great.  We didn’t arrive into Chennai until about 3 o’clock in the morning and after arguing on prices for 30 minutes, we finally got a ride back to the ship.  The entrance to the port, however, was blocked off and after spending a good amount of time trying to figure out how to get in, the driver dropped us off near this ditch thing for water run-off.  He gave us crazy directions to get to the port from there, telling us to go down in this ditch thing, and go up and around and across railroad tracks and we just did it.  It’s funny because you are always taught not to talk to strangers and take advice that tells you to go into a water sewage sketchy area, but in India at that moment, I completely felt safe and that he was telling us the truth.  We finally saw the lights illuminated on the MV Explorer and took a big deep breath at four in the morning, so excited to finally lie down in bed.  That first day was so much fun and such a great way to be introduced into India.  Although it was great to be back on the ship, I couldn’t wait to get up in the morning because we were heading to New Delhi for our Taj Mahal and Varanasi trip.

Pre-India Reflection

thoughts keep running back and forth in my mind
I dont know how to explain this feeling
about to port in my beloved india
why am i on the verge of tears when i think about it?
colors, poverty, smiles, spirituality, and head wobbles blur my sight
for all i perceive to be the truth is from pictures, books, and movies
but some feelings are coming out from my past
why do i have the feeling as if there is a pit in my stomach?
is this the true feeling of excitement and anxiety?
we haven't even arrived and I already want to go back
I've been inspired and touched by something divine
getting nervous no one will understand me
i know i've changed and i'm ready to arrive

My Darling Medwa

A Little Bit of Information on Medwa- my elephant from Elephant Whispers

I got this information at the elephant sanctuary and thought it was pretty cool so I wanted to share it with you if you were interested ☺

Medwa
Medwa, whose name means ‘thorn’ in Shona, is a 13-year-old male elephant who weighs approximately 2 tons.  He is an exceedingly intelligent elephant: one week after he was rescued from a culling operation, he had already learnt to follow five verbal instructions.  From the start, he has always been comfortable interacting with humans, often seeking out human company.  He responds positively to challenges, he enjoys learning new commands and can become quite a show off when he has mastered a new skill!

His constant, happy, calm demeanor can be thrown off by Lindiwe; his jealous streak comes out when he sees Lindiwe getting attention, or treats.  Separating them at the interaction site and in the stables easily solved this, and of course by giving Medwa the never-ending attention he so enjoys.

The wise saying that elephant never forget is proven by Medwa’s demonstration of his impressive long term memory.  Medwa recognized a guest he had been introduced to by name, eighteen months later when she again visited.  We asked Medwa to take a basket to her, she was standing with a group of guests, and without any hesitation he signled her out and gave her the basket.  He knows all the Elephant Whispers staff members by name and by listening to us calling our pet dogs, even knows their names.

In March 2008, we were all most anxious when a lump in Medwa’s mouth had to be removed in a fairly lengthy procedure.  Following this, Medwa’s mouth was a little painful and the stitches uncomfortable when eating, the softer food and tasty treats he was given during his recovery helped sustain him.  The Elephant Whispers team was most relieved when the test results on the lump were benign and delighted when Medwa quickly recovered from his ordeal; once again demanding attention and trying to steal the limelight from Lindiwe.

A day with Elephants

October 7, 2010

Elephant Whispers-
On our last day in Kruger, we were given the opportunity to go to an elephant sanctuary to play with and ride elephants.  The second this option was presented I was totally into it and could not believe it was possible.  Elephant Whispers is the elephant sanctuary I mentioned in my previous blog that is home to 6 elephants from Kruger protecting them and learning from them.  These particular 6 were at once threatened with death (all individually) and this organization asked to take them in and protect them.  One elephant, Tembo, is 25 years old and weighs 6 tons! We got to stand under Tembo’s face and grab on to his leg and such to really get an idea how big he is in comparison to the rest of us.  The rest of the elephants were around 12 to 15 years old and not as big as Tembo, but were so adorable and funny to “play” with.  Each elephant there knows at least 80 commands and acts accordingly when they are told to do something.  If they do it correctly they are rewarded with elephant treat type things, but if not nothing happens.  They told us that they don’t want to make the elephants like circus animals so the commands are all really basic, like turn left/right, lift your truck, stay still, open your mouth, etc.  In addition, we learned that these elephants are extremely smart and loyal.  Right now they are testing elephants ability to find cancer in people and how they can help find it before people can, and also their amazing sense of smell and using that with checking for drugs.  They are trying a variety of things with the elephants but are hoping that there can be some crazy change with more research of these incredible animals ☺ Obviously I’m excited and loved every moment of it.  Riding the elephants was so much fun and really different to riding camels in Morocco, but I enjoyed it.  There really isn’t much more to say, pictures are better for this experience.  I had such a blast though and definitely bonded with my elephant Medwa ☺ 

Lions, Cheetahs, and Elephants, Oh My!

October 5, 2010

Kruger- we woke up this morning after another great night at Mitchells (the bar in port) and after about 4 hours of sleep to pack our bags and head to the best safari in all of Africa.  The plane ride was about 2 hours, just enough to get a big nap in.  Landing at Kruger National Park was pretty surreal.  I had a window seat and could not help myself from searching for animals.  I kept thinking if I looked hard enough I could see giraffes just wondering around minding their own business, but to my dismay, I was wrong.  It was strange to land at this particular airport because for the most part the area around it was undeveloped, making it seem like there was just a runway and a building plopped in the middle of the park to serve as an airport.  We then had a 45-minute drive to our hotel where we were greeted with orange juice, mixed nuts, and a buffet style lunch.  There weren’t many vegetarian options but I was able to managed by eating the quiche and veggie pizza.  After our quick lunch it was time to go on our first safari.  We saw giraffes, hyenas and a lot of antelope in the beginning and before we knew it there were elephants, buffalo, rhinos, and hippos too! It was so cool to see these animals in their natural habitats and not in the zoo.  They were completely different looking then at the zoo too.  We weren’t allowed to get out of the car because they aren’t official park people, instead they work for a private company, but we still got pretty close.  Ranger Chris was telling us stories about the different animals when we got close to them, which was really interesting.  He told us that there is a really bad problem with poaching in the park especially with rhinos.  Supposedly there were 13 incidents with rhinos being killed in the past few weeks in order to take their horn.  People come in and kill the rhino just to take the horn because they are so valuable and can be sold for $100,000 sometimes.  I thought it was pretty sad, especially since sometimes it’s the park rangers because they are allowed to have guns on them and aren’t usually suspicious. 

After getting back from our safari, we came back to the hotel and rested for a bit before dinner.  Dinner seemed to be a bit traditional, with at lot of different barbequed meats, porridge, potatoes, vegetables, salad and bread.  It’s not as hard as I thought it would be to be a vegetarian because all of the countries have vegetarian options or accommodate for vegetarians, which is really nice.  We decided to stay up for a bit at the bar where I met three South African girls from Durban who are about 22 years old.  I have really enjoyed the locals here because they are so open and willing to talk about anything.  These girls and I hung out for hours playing South African Trivial Pursuit, talking about apartheid, racism, education, sustainability and everything in between.  They were so great and I loved learning from them and they enjoyed getting to know Americans since they don’t always meet a lot.  One of the girls, Kerry, told me that meeting me made her change her outlook on Americans because I wasn’t fat and stupid and actually was open to learn about the cultures and lifestyles of the places and people I am going to be visiting over the next few months.  They taught me a lot of South African phrases and words and that I wasn’t in Kruger for a safari but instead a game drive.  They thought I was crazy when I kept using the word safari so for the rest of the time I referred to my trip the proper way as a game drive.  We talked a lot about the lifestyle of South Africa and how prevalent racism is still to this day.  Roxanne told me that when she was younger she wasn’t allowed to be friends with kids who were black because it was seen as taboo.  It has gotten better she said and now has many black friends but the racism is still bad.  I actually had noticed this a few days before at this restaurant I was at.  A white man in about his fifties came to talk to us about the football game that was on TV while a black waiter tried to get by him.  I have never seen somebody look at someone else with such disrespect and degrading eyes.  I was in shock.  When I told the girls this they told us it was normal and how although the apartheid was over many of the effects are still here.  With this, the girls informed me to make sure I treat everyone I meet with the utmost respect so they know I actually care about them as a person.  I thought this was something quite obvious but they told me as if it was normal for people to be disrespectful.  They started asking me questions about the United States, most specifically questions about our education system and stereotypes about Americans.  I had a lot of fun talking to them and answering their questions and learning so much from them.  Learning from the locals is such a different experience than learning in class.  Not that my professors are wrong when they teach me something, but there is always something a little different or more when you here if from somebody who has been through it or lives it. 

The next day we went on a game drive for the whole day, meaning we woke up at 4am and got back at 3, rested for an hour and a half and went out again from 4:30 until 8.  Literally the whole day! We saw everything but I had two favorites.  First we saw a leopard that had just killed an antelope thing and brought it in a tree where he was nibbling at it.  You could see the blood and the dead animal drooping over the branches.  I could not believe we saw that.  It definitely was something you would not see in the zoo, which made it so much cooler.  Obviously the park is so much better than the zoo and the animals are free and wild, but at times you have the feeling that its all staged because its just so perfect.  However, when I saw this it was absolutely crazy because that was definitely something I would have never seen if it was not for Kruger.  The second coolest thing we saw was a cheetah.  Our ranger told us that it was so rare to see cheetahs in Kruger nowadays and we were so lucky to see one.  I got some amazing pictures since it was about ten feet away from us.  We watched it for so long but it never got boring.  It was so beautiful and so strange to see in real life.  All the animals were like that though.  For example- my favorite wild animal is an elephant.  I’ve seen them in the zoo and on TV and I know how cool they are.  But in real life- Oh My Goodness! Its crazy! They are huge and so adorable! Elephants are one of the smartest animals and are very similar to humans.  It’s sad though because Kruger is starting to have a problem with overpopulation of elephants.  The carrying capacity (the number of something a certain area can sustain) for elephants in Kruger is supposedly 8,000.  However, right now in Kruger there are 16,000 elephants (according to the people from the elephant sanctuary which I will talk about later).  Therefore, there are people who come in planes and in 60 seconds with 60 bullets they kill 60 elephants.  Elephants almost always travel with their entire family, unless it’s a lone male trying to find a mate, so its harder to only kill one, making it easier to kill multiple at a time.  It’s so sad that this is happening because with the climate change occurring in our world today, it is estimated that by 2050 most of the megafauna in Kruger won’t be able to survive any longer.  Luckily there are some organizations near Kruger trying to combat these issues and protect the animals within the national park, but it’s not always as easy as it may seem. 

Great Whites Anyone?

October 4, 2010

Today I swam with the largest sharks in the ocean- Great Whites.  The company we went through, Great White Shark Diving, arranged to have drivers pick us up from our port and take us to Gansbaai for our dive.  The drive was 2 hours away but allowed us to see a different part of South Africa than Cape Town.  I really enjoy Cape Town but it is so modernized and city-like that I don’t really feel as if I am actually in Africa.  Imagine you are in San Francisco or Seattle, or even Long Beach by the aquarium and that is what Cape Town is like.  Absolutely beautiful, but it is its own world.  Our drive showed us the actual reality- townships.  I did not really understand what exactly townships were before coming to South Africa, but the best way to envision them are tin huts that are crammed together.  They looked identical to the district for the aliens in District 9 (and no I am not exaggerating at all).  Ghana is a very poor country and I did see a lot of poverty, but the poverty in these townships was incomparable.  The disparity between rich and poor in South Africa is the highest in the entire world with a gini coefficient of .65 (again a 1 means the country is totally unequal).  Although there are many wealthy people in this particular country, the poverty is unfathomable.  When passing by the townships I could not and still cannot comprehend the fact that it was actually real and people actually have a life in there.  You would hope that these townships would be small and just a few people live in them… but that is definitely not the case.  When looking at them you could not even see how far back they went because it was and is so big.  In just one hour we passed by 4 of these huge, poverty stricken, townships and those are just ones that are off the main highway.  Driving through this area, on our way to Gansbaai, was only a small part of South Africa and the poverty that lies within.  For the majority of South Africa, poverty is everywhere and hearing different students stories is so crazy to know that it really is spread throughout the country.  It’s shocking and I really don’t know how to explain it that well.  As we got closer to our destination, the houses began to get a lot nicer, probably similar to an average home in the United States (not a huge mansion but a nice sized home).  However, something seemed to be different.  There were bars on the windows and the houses seemed to be in lock down.  We later learned from some friends we met in Kruger in the next few days that people in nicer areas have to have bars on their windows and actually have a lockdown area instead the house that separates the sleeping quarters from the rest of the house.  Because robberies are so common there (like 3 times a month for some), people are always prepared.   
        After such a bizarre drive, we finally arrived to the shark diving site.  It was pretty chilly outside and kind of rainy, but we were still allowed to go out.  The ride was very rocky and we were all bundled up as much as possible.  When we stopped the engines our captain began making his special chum and through a huge half of a tuna on a hook into the water to attract the sharks.  It didn’t take long until we say our first great white. It was huge! He had some of us put wetsuits on, getting ready for us to go in the cage and some of my friends decided we would be part of the first 6 to go in.  But our luck didn’t last for long and sharks were nowhere to be seen for some time.  He decided to move the boat and find a better spot so all of us in our wetsuits sat around for a bit (I actually fell asleep…) I woke with a jolt when I heard our captain yelling for us to get it.  We literally grabbed the weight belts and jumped right into the cage where you could see different great whites ripping a part the tuna less than a foot away from your face! It was so crazy and surreal! Animals that I have only seen on TV were inches from my face.  Although it was hard to ignore the combination of the water temperature, the wind chill and the swell, the sharks were quite a sight. We stayed out there for a few hours, watching these enormous creatures swim around the boat until we finally called it quits and went back to shore.  Shark diving was such a wild experience and actually not scary at all.  I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it to anyone who has the chance to do it. I thought I would be really nervous but I have actually realized on this trip that you can’t hold your self back and when you know an amazing opportunity lies ahead you have to seize the moment and go for it. I mean you probably wont find me bungee jumping in China (since I didn’t do it in South Africa), but there are other things that I have just stepped a little out of my normal comfort zone and did it, which I so far haven’t regretted.  I’m learning a lot about myself on this journey around the world and although shark diving isn’t a life changing experience, it still has enabled me to figure myself out a little more.